Versus de unibove
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The Versus de unibove, also known as Unibos, Einochs or One-Ox, is a Latin poem in 864 lines that recounts the comic story of a poor farmer known as Unibos, or 'One-Ox', who stumbles across a buried treasure.[1]
The poem survives only in one eleventh-century manuscript, now held in the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels, with the shelfmark MS 10078-95. This manuscript, which also contains astronomical and other educational texts, was written in the monastery of Gembloux.[2]
The Latin poem is generally thought to be the written version of an older oral story.[3] Later versions of the same story were collected by the Brothers Grimm, and folklorists have categorised it as an example of 'The Little Peasant' tale.[2]
The poem has been analysed in different ways: as a peasant folktale,[4] as an early example of a fabliau,[1] and as evidence for commercialisation.[5]