La tradizione gnomica nelle letterature germaniche medievali

The book is a collection of essays on the gnomic tradition in medieval Germanic literatures. The first essay discusses the most recent research on phraseology and paremiology, while the following texts analyse didascalic elements focusing on linguistic, literary, and socio-cultural issues. The genres considered include riddles, laws, maxims and proverbs, as well as poems, elegies and mystical treatises. The linguistic areas span over Old and Middle English, Middle German, Middle Dutch, and Old Frisian, with references to contacts with the Nordic region. The various gnomic microtexts prove capable of spreading into different cultural milieus, either individually or as part of larger works. Stylistic devices and contents are common to all European areas, thus demonstrating the close bonds of the Germanic world with the classical and biblical-Christian traditions.