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Robert de Boron: Joseph d'Arimathie': A Critical Edition of the Verse and Prose Versions, ed. Richard O'Gorman, Studies and Texts 120o (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1995). xiv + 575 pp.; I plate. ISBN 88844-Izo-7. $98.50.
There has long been a need for a new scholarly edition of the Joseph of Robert de Boron, an influential work which played a key role in the development of the Grail theme and of the great cyclic Arthurian romances of the thirteenth century, and which was the Arthurian verse romance to be turned at the earliest date into prose. This gap has at last been filled by Richard O'Gorman in this edition of both the verse and the prose versions. He is no believer in reproducing the base-manuscript with a minimum of emendation and almost without comment or variants, if there is a rich textual tradition, but declares very sensibly that `no one approach is suited to the resolution of the myriad problems posed by all texts - the method must be tailored to each particular case'. In the case of the verse Joseph,...