The role of Partonopeu de Blois in the formation and dissemination of the romance genre in medieval Europe has often been overlooked. This much-translated romance clearly appealed to a wide range of readers over several centuries. It exists in Old French, Middle English, High German, Low German, Dutch, Old Norse, Old Danish, Spanish, Catalan and Italian. The French poem, an anonymous twelfth-century romance that draws on the Cupid and Psyche myth as well as Celtic folklore, is extant in seven complete (or near complete) manuscripts as well as two fragments and an excerpt.

The romance has been preserved in two different versions. To version I belongs the French verse romance along with translations into Middle English, High German, Low German, Dutch and a loose adaptation in Italian. It begins in France and relates the royal descent of Partonopeu going back to Troy. It then tells how, during a hunt with his uncle, the king of France, Partonopeu finds himself lost in a forest. He arrives at a seashore, where a magical ship guided by unseen hands carries him to an equally magical city. Partonopeu is served dinner in a great and splendid hall by invisible servants and later retires to bed. He is then joined by a mysterious lady, who implores him to leave. He begs for her mercy and is in the end allowed to remain. This is followed by a seduction scene, after which she reveals her identity as Melior, the queen of Constantinople, and announces that she has brought about his arrival in her city as her future husband.