MEUNG, JEAN de. - In the spelling of the period, J. de Meun. French poet, b. in the small town of Meung-sur-Loire (Orléans) ca. 1260, d. in Paris between 1299 and 1305. In the Roman de la Rose, left unfinished by Guillaume de Lorris (v.) and continued by him (vv. 4059-21780), he calls himself Jean Chopinel or Clopinel.
It is not known whether this is an epithet (an allusion to a physical defect of J.) or simply a patronymic. Jean Bouchet in the Annales d'Aquitaine speaks of his theological studies and of his burial in the cloister of the Dominicans in Paris. It has also been thought to identify J. with a « Magister Johannes de Magduno, archidiaconus Belsie in ecclesia Aurelianensi » cited in documents dated between 1270 and 1303; but this is mere conjecture.
One can, on the other hand, refer with sufficient approximation the continuation of the Roman de la Rose to the years between ca. 1275 and 1280, on account of the allusions to the king of Sicily Charles of Anjou and to the events of his reign. J. also translated the letters of Abelard and Heloise, the De re militari of Vegetius, the De consolatione philosophiae of Boethius (dedicated to Philip the Fair); two of his short poems, the Testament maistre J. de Meun and the Codici maistre J. de Meun, generally appear in the editions of the Roman de la Rose.
J.'s continuation narrates the siege of the well-fortified fortress of the Rose, which in the end falls; it is conducted with learning and taste no less than those of Guillaume, whose metaphorical veil is developed with an unblushing freedom worthy of the Fabliaux. For this reason J. was generally considered, from his own time onward, a forerunner of misogynistic literature; in his verses the satirical intent indeed appears predominant over the sentimental inspiration characteristic of his predecessor.
Bibliography5 works
Enzo Bonasso