Abstract: The story of La Reine Sebile was amply circulated in Europe. It was printed in Spain and in Dutch but not in French. This article engages with the reasons of this failure by contending that, while the Carolingian heroic feats featured prominently in other printed texts, the traits typifying the legend of La Reine Sebile in the French tradition, in which the story of Charlemagne’s wife is overshadowed by other novelistic elements, can account for the earliest printers’ neglect of the work.
