While 50 Shades of Grey is probably the most widely-known erotic novel of today, saucy books have been around for hundreds of years.
Now, researchers from the University of Bristol have discovered fragments of Le Roman de la Rose - an erotic poem written in the 1200s.
The poem describes a courtier’s attempt to woo his lover, and was famously translated and adapt by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 1300s.
The rare fragments were discovered by chance in the archives of the Diocese of Worcester by Professor Nicholas Vincent, who asked Professor Marianne Ailes to identify them.
Professor Ailes said: “As soon as I saw the pages, I instantly recognised the allegorical name of ‘bel accueil’ – fair welcome - from Le Roman de la Rose and realised that we had something very special and unique on our hands. I also could hardly believe how early the handwriting looked.”
Like 50 Shades of Grey, the poem was an absolute hit when it was released in 1280.
Professor Ailes added: “Le Roman de la Rose really was the blockbuster of its day. We know how popular it was from the number of surviving manuscripts and fragments, a picture our fragment adds to, and from the number of allusions to the text in other medieval writings.”
The specific pages found describe a sexual encounter between the two main characters - the lover and the rose.
It includes some rather suggestive lines, including a ‘stiff and strong’ staff, and ‘sticking it into those ditches’. We’ll let you make of that what you will!
Professor Ailes said: “The Roman de la Rose was at the centre of a late medieval row between intellectuals about the status of women, so we have the possibility that these specific pages were taken out of their original bindings and recycled by someone who was offended by these scenes.”
The researchers hope the finding will help to shed light on the interpretation of books in the Middle Ages.
Professor Ailes added: “No two copies of a text in manuscript are ever identical so each new find adds another piece to a jigsaw which helps us understand how these texts were read and re-interpreted in the Middle Ages.”
