| The Historia Apollonii Regis Tyri enjoyed enormous popularity throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: over sixty Latin texts survive, and it was translated into almost every European vernacular. Yet it has attracted little scholarly attention; the standard edition and critical study were both published at the end of the nineteenth century, and subsequent criticism has tended to concentrate on a single text, or a group of texts selected by language.;The dissertation ends with a discussion of the genre of the story as perceived by medieval readers and modern scholars, and the reasons for its remarkable stability and popularity. It is shown to contain elements characteristic of romance, history and hagiography, but it is not classifiable under one of these headings: rather it is an exemplary story of "The Man Tried by Fate.".;This dissertation offers a literary history of the Apollonius tradition to 1609, when Pericles Prince of Tyre was published. The Latin and vernacular versions of the story are described in chronological order for the first time. This survey is followed by a discussion of the problems in the plot structure of the Historia, and the various solutions and alterations adopted in later versions. Current theories about the literary origins of the story are evaluated, and possible historical sources are suggested. The significance of the incest theme in the Apollonius and in other medieval literature is also explored. |
