Foucon de Candie

Illustration from a manuscript of 1295

Foucon de Candie (also spelled Fouque, Foulque or Folque) ^[1] is an Old French epic poem of the late 12th or early 13th century. ^[2] It is a chanson de geste belonging to the cycle of Guillaume d'Orange. ^[3] It tells the fictional story of how Charlemagne's nephew Foucon acquired by marriage the Saracen city of Candie. ^[4] Its author was a certain Herbert le Duc de Dammartin. ^[5] His nickname, duc (duke), "probably designates [him as] a prince among poets", similarly to the nickname of Adenet le Roi. ^[6]

Nineteen manuscript copies of Foucon have been identified. ^[1] A Franco-Italian translation also exists. ^[4]

Notes

1. Herbert le Duc de Dammartin at ARLIMA, retrieved 12 June 2025.
2. Gambino 2018 , p. 820: "databile all'ultimo ventennio del XII secolo [the last two decades of the twelfth century]". Ailes, Atkin & Bennett 2022 , p. 166: "probably from the very end of the twelfth century or possibly from the very first years of the thirteenth".
3. Ailes, Atkin & Bennett 2022, p. 159.
4. Gambino 2018, p. 820.
5. Hoggan 1957, p. 74.
6. Duggan 2012, p. 139.

Bibliography

• Ailes, Marianne; Atkin, Tamara; Bennett, Philip E. (2022). "A Fragment of a Lost Chanson de geste". Florilegium. 35: 158–179.
• Duggan, Joseph J. (2012). "Turoldus, Scribe or Author? Evidence from the Corpus of Chansons de Geste". In Monica L. Wright; Norris J. Lacy; Rupert T. Pickens (eds.). "Moult a sans et vallour": Studies in Medieval French Literature in Honor of William W. Kibler. Brill. pp. 135–143.
• Gambino, Francesca (2018). "La nave di Folco: Due lasse inedite del Foucon de Candie franco-italiano". Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie. 134 (3): 820–844.
• Hoggan, D. G. (1957). "The Version of Aliscans Known to the Author of Foucon de Candie". Medium Aevum. 26 (2): 74–89.
• Tarbé, Prosper, ed. (1860). Le roman de Foulque de Candie par Herbert Leduc, de Dammartin. Reims.