The fame of the Roman de la Rose spread beyond the borders of the kingdom of France and reached the great European poets. In the Middle Ages, the poem became an unprecedented success and was considered one of the most popular secular books after the Divine Comedy. Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of the famous Canterbury Tales, translated the Roman de la Rose into English. One of the Roman's allegories, "la Vieille", probably inspired one of the characters in The Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, who was known for her joie de vivre.
The Roman de la Rose was also very famous in Italy, especially thanks to Dante, who may have been the author of one of the first translations into Italian.
