BOVE-BUKH

BOVE-BUKH, a chivalric romance adapted in 1507 by Elye Bokher (Elijah Baḥur Levita ) into 650 ottava rima stanzas in Yiddish from a Tuscan version (Buovo d'Antona) of the early 14th-century Anglo-Norman original, Boeuve de Haumton. This tale of the heroic adventures of the noble Bovo, exiled from his homeland by the machinations of his murderous mother, his wanderings through the world (as far as Babylon), and the love story of Bovo and Druzyana, their separation, his triumphant return home, and the final reunion with Druzyana and their two sons, proved to be one of the most beloved tales in the Yiddish literary tradition over the course of more than two centuries. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Weinreich, Bilder fun der Yidisher Literatur Geshikhte (1929), 149–71; G.E. Weil, Élie Lévita, humaniste et massorète (1963). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: J.A. Joffe (ed.), Elye Bokher: Poetishe Shafungen in Yidish (1949), facsimile of Isny 1541 ed.; C. Shmeruk, Prokim fun der Yidisher Literatur-Geshikhte (1988), 97–120, 141–56; J.C. Frakes (ed.), Early Yiddish Texts, 1100–1750 (2004), 120–39; J. Baumgarten, Introduction to Old Yiddish Literature (2005), 163–206. (Sol Liptzin / Jerold C. Frakes (2nd ed.)