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The ''Prophetiæ Merlini'' is a Latin work of Geoffrey of Monmouth circulated, perhaps as a ''libellus'' or short work,〔 from about 1130, and by 1135. Another name is ''Libellus Merlini''. The work contains a number of prophecies attributed to Merlin, the wizard of legend, whose mythical life was largely generated by Geoffrey himself. The ''Prophetiae'' preceded Geoffrey's larger ''Historia Regum Britanniæ'' of c. 1136, and was mostly incorporated in it, in Book VII; the prophecies, however, were influential and widely circulated in their own right. According to Geoffrey, he was prompted by Alexander of Lincoln to produce this section of his larger work separately. ==Background== The ''Prophetiæ'' is in some ways dependent on the ''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniæ'' of Gildas. From Gildas and Nennius Geoffrey took the figure of Ambrosius Aurelianus, who figures in the preface to the prophecies (under a variant name): there is then a confusion made between Ambrosius and Merlin, deliberately done.〔''Libellus Merlini'' in Lewis Spence, ''A Dictionary of Medieval Romance and Romance Writers'' (1913), pp. 222–3; (archive.org ).〕 When Geoffrey's ''Historia'' was largely translated as the ''Roman de Brut'', the material on Merlin's prophecies was omitted. It was still read in Latin, but was displaced for readers in French, and then English, by other political prophecy. This work not only launched Merlin as a character of Arthurian legend: it also created a genre of prophecy. A distinctively English style of political prophecy, which has been called ''Galfridian'', was created, in which animals stand for particular political figures.〔Rupert Taylor, ''The Political Prophecy in England'' (1911), pp. 4–5;(archive.org ).〕 Political prophecy in this style remained popular for at least 400 years. It was subversive, and the figure of the prophetic Merlin was strongly identified with it. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Prophetiae Merlini」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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