Literary studies: ancient, classical Books

Book SynopsisGeoffrey Chaucer is widely acknowledged as the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. His texts are studied extensively but, in order to be fully appreciated, they demand a nuanced understanding of the medieval period. This volume provides freshly illuminated access to Chaucer''s writing through an unrivalled repertoire of contextual information and perspectives designed to enhance the independence and critical capacities of his modern readers. The featured essays are written not only by distinguished literary scholars but also by leading international historians. Geoffrey Chaucer in Context is an essential reference tool for anyone studying Chaucer and will help readers to identify his different voices and engage with the complexity and colour of his times with new awareness.Trade Review'This is a breathtaking collection of essays in terms of scope and content, and one not easy to review in so few words … For anyone teaching Chaucer for the first time, at any level, this collection will be an indispensable resource. Even those who have taught Chaucer before have much to gain from it.' A. L. Kaufman, Choice'… many chapters are insightful and, especially, potentially quite useful for classroom teaching … Each piece contains a wealth of riches, and every Chaucerian will surely find something new to enjoy here, with the volume's myriad offerings allowing, as it were, diverse folk diversely to read.' Leah Schwebel, Studies in the Age of ChaucerTable of ContentsIntroduction: contextualising contexts of Chaucer Ian Johnson; Part I. Chaucer as Context: 1. What was Chaucer like? J. A. Burrow; 2. Chaucer's life and literary 'profession' Andrew Galloway; Part II. Books, Discourse and Traditions: 3. Chaucer's linguistic invention Jeremy J. Smith; 4. Chaucer and London English Jeremy J. Smith; 5. Manuscripts and manuscript culture Rhiannon Purdie; 6. Chaucer's books Wendy Scase; 7. Authority Mishtooni Bose; 8. Literary theory and literary roles Ian Johnson; 9. Metre and versification Ad Putter; 10. Dialogue Sarah James; 11. Romance Stephen H. A. Shepherd; 12. Love Corinne Saunders; 13. Chaucer and the classics Vincent Gillespie; 14. The French context Stephanie Kamath; 15. The Italian tradition K. P. Clarke; 16. The English context Marion Turner; 17. Chaucer's competitors Wendy Scase; 18. Boethius Tim William Machan; Part III. Humans, the World and Beyond: 19. Chaucer's God Ryan Perry; 20. Holiness Marlene Villalobos Hennessy; 21. Secularity Alastair Minnis; 22. The self Valerie Allen; 23. Women Rosalynn Voaden; 24. Sex and lust Bruce Holsinger; 25. Animals in Chaucer Gillian Rudd; Part IV. Culture, Learning and Disciplines: 26. Childhood and education Nicholas Orme; 27. Philosophy Stephen Penn; 28. The medieval universe Seb Falk; 29. Medicine and the mortal body Samantha Katz Seal; 30. The law Richard W. Ireland; 31. Art Julian Luxford; 32. Architecture Richard Fawcett; 33. Heraldry, heralds and Chaucer Katie Stevenson; Part V. Political and Social Contexts: 34. Dissent and orthodoxy John H. Arnold; 35. The Church, religion and culture Rob Lutton; 36. England at home and abroad Anne Curry; 37. Chaucer's borders Anthony Bale; 38. Rank and social orders Chris Given-Wilson; 39. Chivalry Craig Taylor; 40. Chaucer and the polity Gwylim Dodd; 41. The economy Christopher Dyer; 42. Towns, villages and the land Mark Bailey; 43. London's Chaucer: A psychogeography John J. Thompson; 44. Everyday life Wendy Childs; 45. Household and home Peter Fleming; 46. Marriage Sally Dixon-Smith; 47. Dress Laura F. Hodges; Part VI. Chaucer Traditions: 48. The first Chaucerians: reception in the 1400s Robert J. Meyer-Lee; 49. The reception of Chaucer in the Renaissance Alex Davis; 50. The Reception of Chaucer from Dryden to Wordsworth Bruce E. Graver; 51. The reception of Chaucer from the Victorians to the twenty-first century David Matthews; 52. Cyber-Chaucer Stephen Kelly.

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Book SynopsisThis book employs the ancient Greek concept of 'nonsense' to explore an observation that has vexed comic scholarship: although comedy can be meaningful (i.e. contain political opinions, moral sentiments and aesthetic tastes), some part is just 'foolery' or 'fun'. It is important for all scholars and students of Greek comedy.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Greek notions of nonsense; 2. Nonsense as 'no-reference': riddles, allegories, metaphors; 3. Nonsense as 'no-serious-sense': the case of Cinesias; 4. Nonsense as 'no-sense': jokes, puns, and language play; 5. Playing it straight: comedy's 'nonsense!' accusations; Conclusions.

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Book SynopsisThe Athenians themselves invented the notion of 'classical' tragedy just a few generations after the city's defeat in the Peloponnesian War. This study marks the first account of how Athens constructed its theatrical past and sheds new light upon the interaction between the city's literary and political history.Trade Review'Hanink writes in a lucid and engaging style, bringing together the disparate evidential strands, archaeological, epigraphical and literary, into a persuasive synthesis, and handling deftly the balance and interplay between the political and literary aspects of her topic … the book makes a very valuable, well-rounded, contribution to our understanding of the literary, political and monumental aspects of post-fifth-century tragedy in general and its role in the Lycurgan policy agenda in particular; and the lively, well-crafted and accessible style in which it is written will make it attractive to teachers and students as well as useful to researchers.' Stephen Lambert, Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction: through the Lycurgan looking glass; Part I. Classical Tragedy and the Lycurgan Programme: 1. Civic poetry in Lycurgus' Against Leocrates; 2. Scripts and statues, or a law of Lycurgus' own; 3. Site of change, site of memory: the 'Lycurgan' Theatre of Dionysus; Part II. Reading the Theatrical Heritage: 4. Courtroom drama: Aeschines and Demosthenes; 5. Classical tragedy and its comic lovers; 6. Aristotle and the theatre of Athens; Epilogue: classical tragedy in the age of Macedon.

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Book SynopsisChallenging the common perception of Livy as an apolitical moralist, this book explores the political implications of the first pentad of his history of Rome. Ann Vasaly argues that Livy intended to convey crucial lessons about how the Roman republic flourished in the past and how it could be revived.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Livy and domestic politics; 1. The historiographical 'archaeology'; 2. Livy's preface: on reading the first pentad; 3. Monarchy and the education of the Roman people; 4. Tyranny and the tyrannical temperament; 5. On leadership and oratory; 6. The Roman people and the necessity of discord; Conclusion: Livy's 'republic'.

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Book SynopsisOscan was spoken in Southern Italy in the second half of the first millennium BC. Here, for the first time, all the evidence for the spelling of Oscan in the Greek alphabet is collected and examined. Understanding the orthography of these inscriptions has far-reaching implications for the historical phonology and morphology of Oscan and the Italic languages (for example providing unique evidence for the reconstruction of the genitive plural). A striking discovery is the lack of a standardised orthography for Oscan in the Greek alphabet, which seriously problematises attempts to date inscriptions by assuming the consistent chronological development of spelling features. There are also intriguing insights into the linguistic situation in South Italy. Rather than a separate community of Oscan-speakers who had adopted and subsequently adapted the Greek alphabet in isolation, we should posit groups who were in touch with contemporary developments in Greek orthography due to widespread Greek-Oscan bilingualism--Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Vowels; 3. Consonants; 4. Influence from the Oscan alphabet; 5. Conclusions; 6. Oscan words discussed in this book.

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Book SynopsisUsing Euripides' play Helen as the main point of reference, C. W. Marshall expands our understanding of Athenian tragedy and Classical performance. The book focuses on structure to reveal how directorial decisions and the assumptions held by the ancient audience shape meaning in performance.Table of Contents1. Helen and the evidence for performance; 2. Structure; 3. Protean Helen; 4. Chorus and music; 5. Andromeda; 6. Stage directions; 7. Directorial decisions; 8. The mask of beauty.

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Book SynopsisEkphrasis is familiar as a rhetorical tool for inducing enargeia, the vivid sense that a reader or listener is actually in the presence of the objects described. This book focuses on the ekphrastic techniques used in ancient Greek and Roman literature to describe technological artifacts. Since the literary discourse on technology extended beyond technical texts, this book explores ''technical ekphrasis'' in a wide range of genres, including history, poetry, and philosophy as well as mechanical, scientific, and mathematical works. Technical authors like Philo of Byzantium, Vitruvius, Hero of Alexandria, and Claudius Ptolemy are put into dialogue with close contemporaries in other genres, like Diodorus Siculus, Cicero, Ovid, and Aelius Theon. The treatment of ''technical ekphrasis'' here covers the techniques of description, the interaction of verbal and visual elements, the role of instructions, and the balance between describing the artifact''s material qualities and the other bodies of knowledge it evokes.Table of ContentsIntroduction: the written machine; 1. Genres: texts and artifacts; 2. Cultural contexts; 3. The ekphrastic complex; 4. Diagram and artifact; 5. Description and instruction; 6. Knowledge and artifact; 7. Conclusion: the limits of description.

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Book SynopsisWhile the central ideal of Roman philosophy exemplified by Lucretius, Cicero and Seneca appears to be the masculine values of self-sufficiency and domination, this book argues, through close attention to metaphor and figures, that the Romans also recognized, as constitutive parts of human experience, what for them were feminine concepts such as embodiment, vulnerability and dependency. Expressed especially in the personification of grammatically feminine nouns such as Nature and Philosophy ''herself'', the Roman''s recognition of this private ''feminine'' part of himself presents a contrast with his acknowledged, public self and challenges the common philosophical narrative of the emergence of subjectivity and individuality with modernity. To meet this challenge, Alex Dressler offers both theoretical exposition and case studies, developing robust typologies of personification and personhood that will be useable for a variety of subjects beyond classics, including rhetoric, comparative Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Love, literature, and philosophy; 2. The subjects of personification and personhood; 3. Mothers, sons, and metaphysics: others' agency and self-identity in the Roman stoic notion of a person; 4. Girl behind the woman: Cicero and Tullia, Lucretius and the life of the body-mind; 5. Embodied persons and bodies personified: the phenomenology of perspectives in Seneca, Ep. 121; 6. Nature's property in On Duties 1: the feminine communism of Cicero's radical aesthetics; Conclusion: repairing the text; Editions and commentaries consulted; Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisHow do Aristotle's ethical concepts offer a basis for his political philosophy, and how is that philosophy relevant to politics today? In this book, Kazutaka Inamura examines Aristotle's notions of justice, friendship, democracy, citizenship and the mixed constitution, and explores the receptions of his political thought in present-day democratic theories.Table of Contents1. Aristotelian political theories in a liberal democracy; 2. The good life and a good polis; 3. Democracy, polity and the mixed constitution; 4. Civic virtue; 5. Civic friendship; 6. Reciprocity in the political economy; Conclusions.

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Book SynopsisAscanius is the most prominent child hero in Virgil''s Aeneid. He accompanies his father from Troy to Italy and is present from the first book of the epic to the last; he is destined to found the city of Alba Longa and the Julian family to which Caesar and Augustus both belonged; and he hunts, fights, makes speeches, and even makes a joke. In this first book-length study of Virgil''s Ascanius, Anne Rogerson demonstrates the importance of this character not just to the Augustan family tree but to the texture and the meaning of the Aeneid. As a figure of prophecy and a symbol both of hopes for the future and of present uncertainties, Ascanius is a fusion of epic and dynastic desires. Compelling close readings of the representation and reception of this understudied character throughout the Aeneid expose the unexpectedly childish qualities of Virgil''s heroic epic.Trade Review'This fine and stimulating book discusses multivalent and slippery prophecies, significant names and their etymologies, and especially the importance of variant and inconsistent versions of myth.' James J. O'Hara, Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of Contents1. Introduction; 2. The heir and the spare; 3. Old names and new; 4. Andromache and Dido; 5. Trojan games; 6. Trojan fire; 7. Protecting Ascanius; 8. Growing up; 9. Relegating Ascanius; 10. Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThe oration presented in this volume is critical to our knowledge of Constantine''s early career and covers Maximian''s rebellion, Constantine''s claim of descent from Claudius II and his vision of Apollo. Written in AD 310, two years before Constantine''s capture of Rome and his acceptance of Christianity, the speech gives a unique insight into the evolution of an imperial persona. This commentary examines the literary context of the panegyric and the role of the classical literary and rhetorical tradition in the recreation of Constantine''s image. From the outset, the orator praises Constantine as separate from the imperial college: a deus praesens, god manifest, to the people of Gaul. He uses Lucan and Caesar to link Maximian''s bid for power with the civil war between Caesar and Pompey while Vergilian allusion associates Constantine with Augustus.Trade Review'For those interested in introducing students to the considerable joys of Late Roman Latin, or in understanding for themselves the considerable richness and texture of the 'vapid and turgid' panegyrics of the fourth century, this work can only be recommended.' Adrastos Omissi, Plekos'… a splendid contribution … The work is a milestone in the literary study of late Latin prose.' Geoffrey Harrison, Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction; Text and Translation; Part I: The Panegyrici Latini; Part II: PL VI(7).

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Book SynopsisThis book provides an innovative approach to the Hispano-Roman Christian poet Prudentius and his poetry. It is a breakthrough in Prudentian scholarship which unifies the differing disciplines of history, archaeology, literature and art history in arguing that Prudentius and his envisaged Spanish audience cannot be fully understood in isolation from their environment in late fourth- and early fifth-century Spain. Paula Hershkowitz focuses on Prudentius'' Peristephanon, his collection of verses celebrating the deaths of martyrs, and places these poems within the context of Prudentius'' world, uniquely employing material, visual and textual remains as evidence for its religious, social and cultural affiliations. It also draws on this material evidence to contextualise Prudentius'' awareness of the significance of the visual as a means of promoting beliefs against the background of this crucial formative period in religious history when many of his Spanish audience were not yet fully commiTrade Review'Hershkowitz's book is a solid contribution to knowledge on Prudentius and his historical context. Understanding how the poet related to his contemporary audience and material culture in fourth-century Hispania sheds new light on his Peristephanon and refutes a number of tautological assertions found in previous scholarship. This book will definitely be very useful for those interested in Late Antiquity and late Latin poetry, as well as early Christian art, history and society.' Rosario Moreno Soldevila, Bryn Mawr Classical Review'… welcome scholarly monography by Paula Hershkowitz … has a firm grasp of the archaeological literature in Spanish and English and introduces English-speaking readers to a range of materials that they would otherwise be unlikely to know. The Spanish bibliography is extraordinarily rich and extensive, and Hershkowitz elegantly negotiates the two different scholarly worlds. Her work merits a place next to the useful volumes of Michael Kulikowski and Kim Bowes that will be well known to readers.' PlekosTable of Contents1. An introduction to Prudentius: a Spanish poet for the martyrs; 2. Prudentius' audience: society and religious belief in late antique Hispania; 3. The Peristephanon and the martyr cults in Roman Spain; 4. Visual culture and martyrs: Prudentius, painter of pictures in words; 5. Prudentius' poetry in the context of the late antique culture of Hispania; 6. An epilogue for a Christian poet.

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Book SynopsisRichard Seaford is one of the most original and provocative classicists of his age. This volume brings together a wide range of papers written with a single focus. Several are pioneering explorations of the tragic evocation and representation of rites of passage: mystic initiation, the wedding, and death ritual. Two papers focus on the shaping power of mystic initiation in two famous passages in the New Testament. The other key factor in the historical context of tragedy is the recent monetisation of Athens. One paper explores the presence of money in Greek tragedy, another the shaping influence of money on Wagner''s Ring and on his Aeschylean model. Other papers reveal the influence of ritual and money on representations of the inner self, and on Greek and Indian philosophy. A final piece finds in Greek tragedy horror at the destructive unlimitedness of money that is still central to our postmodern world.Table of ContentsForeword; Part I. Tragedy: General: 1. Homeric and tragic sacrifice; 2. Dionsysos as destroyer of the household: Homer, tragedy and the Polis; 3. Dionysos, money and drama; 4. Tragic money; 5. Tragic tyranny; 6. Aeschylus and the Unity of Opposites; Part II. Performance and the Mysteries: 7. The 'Hyporchema' of Pratinas; 8. The politics of the mystic; 9. Immortality, salvation and the elements; 10. Sophocles and the mysteries; Part III. Tragedy and Death Ritual: 11. The last bath of Agamemnon; 12. The destruction of limits in Sophocles' Electra; Part IV. Tragedy and Marriage: 13. The tragic wedding; 14. The structural problems of marriage in Euripides; Part V. New Testament: 15. 1 Corinthians 13.12: 'Through A Glass Darkly'; 16. Thunder, lightning and earthquake in the Bacchae and The Acts of The Apostles; Part VI. The Inner Self: 17. Monetisation and the genesis of the Western subject; 18. The fluttering soul; Part VII. Inida and Greece: 19. Why did the Greeks not have Karma?; Part VIII. Money and Modernity: 20. Form and money in Wagner's Ring and Aeschylean tragedy; 21. World without limits.

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Book SynopsisAchilles inflicts countless agonies on the Achaeans, although he is supposed to be fighting on their side. Odysseus'' return causes civil strife on Ithaca. The Iliad and the Odyssey depict conflict where consensus should reign, as do the other major poems of the early Greek hexameter tradition: Hesiod''s Theogony and the Homeric Hymns describe divine clashes that unbalance the cosmos; Hesiod''s Works and Days stems from a quarrel between brothers. These early Greek poems generated consensus among audiences: the reason why they reached us is that people agreed on their value. This volume, accordingly, explores conflict and consensus from a dual perspective: as thematic concerns in the poems, and as forces shaping their early reception. It sheds new light on poetics and metapoetics, internal and external audiences, competition inside the narrative and competing narratives, local and Panhellenic traditions, narrative closure and the making of canonical literature.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Gods: 1. Conflict, consensus and closure in Hesiod's Theogony and Enūma eliš Johannes Haubold; 2. Divine conflict and the problem of Aphrodite Barbara Graziosi; 3. Sparring partners: fraternal relations in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes Oliver Thomas; Part II. Heroes: 4. Achilles in control? Managing oneself and others in the funeral games Adrian Kelly; 5. Uncertainty and the possibilities of violence: the quarrel in Odyssey 8 Jon Hesk; 6. ΙΡΟΣ ΙΑΜΒΙΚΟΣ: archilochean Iambos and the Homeric poetics of conflict Donald Lavigne; 7. Conflict and consensus in the epic cycle Jim Marks; Part III. Men: 8. Fraternal conflict in Hesiod's Works and Days Lilah Grace Canevaro; 9. On constructive conflict and disruptive peace: the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi Paola Bassino.

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Book SynopsisThe corpus of Palaiologan romances consists of about a dozen works of imaginative fiction from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries which narrate the trials and tribulations of aristocratic young lovers. This volume brings together leading scholars of Byzantine literature to examine the corpus afresh and aims to be the definitive work on the subject, suitable for scholars and students of all levels. It offers interdisciplinary and transnational approaches which demonstrate the aesthetic and cultural value of these works in their own right and their centrality to the medieval and early modern Greek, European and Mediterranean literary traditions. From a historical perspective, the volume also emphasizes how the romances represent a turning point in the history of Greek letters: they are a repository of both ancient and medieval oral poetic and novelistic traditions and yet are often considered the earliest works of Modern Greek literature.Trade Review'The volume offers a remarkable plurality of learned and sharp views and opinions on the Byzantine romances that should be taken into consideration by anyone working on medieval fiction, storytelling, and translation (in any language).' Foteini Spingou, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval StudiesTable of Contents1. An introduction to the Palaiologan romance: narrating the vernacular Adam J. Goldwin and Ingela Nilsson; 2. The categories of 'originals' and 'adaptations' in late Byzantine romance: a reassessment Kostas Yiavis; 3. Intercultural encounters in the late Byzantine vernacular romance Carolina Cupane; 4. Dreams and female initiation in Livistros and Rhodamne and Hypnerotomachia Poliphili Efthymia Priki; 5. The acculturation of the French romance Pierre De Provence et La Belle Maguelonne in the Byzantine Imperios and Margarona Romina Luzi; 6. Chronotopes between East and West in Apollonios of Tyre Francesca Rizzo Nervo; 7. Linguistic contacts in the late Byzantine romances: where cultural influence meets language interference Theodore Markopoulos; 8. From Herakles to Erkoulios, or the place of the war of Troy in the late Byzantine romance movement Elizabeth Jeffreys; 9. Troy in Byzantine romances: Homeric reception in Digenis Akritis, the Tale of Achilles and the Tale of Troy Adam J. Goldwyn and Ingela Nilsson; 10. Herodotean material in a late version of the Alexander romance Corinne Jouanno; 11. The Palaiologan hagiographies: saints without romance Charis Messis; 12. Homosocial desire in the War of Troy: between (wo)men Stavroula Constantinou; 13. Literary landscapes in the Palaiologan romances: an ecocritical approach Kirsty Stewart; 14. The affective community of romance: love, privilege and the erotics of death in the Mediterranean Megan Moore; 15. The bookseller's parrot: a fictional afterword Panagiotis A. Agapitos.

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Book SynopsisFrom archaic Sparta to classical Athens the chorus was a pervasive feature of Greek social and cultural life. Until now, however, its reception in Roman literature and culture has been little appreciated. This book examines how the chorus is reimagined in a brief but crucial period in the history of Latin literature, the early Augustan period from 30 to 10 BCE. It argues that in the work of Horace, Virgil, and Propertius, the language and imagery of the chorus articulate some of their most pressing concerns surrounding social and literary belonging in a rapidly changing Roman world. By re-examining seminal Roman texts such as Horace''s Odes and Virgil''s Aeneid from this fresh perspective, the book connects the history of musical culture with Augustan poetry''s interrogation of fundamental questions surrounding the relationship between individual and community, poet and audience, performance and writing, Greek and Roman, and tradition and innovation.Table of ContentsIntroduction: the chorus in the Augustan imagination; 1. Imagined choruses from Alexandria to Rome; 2. Dance and desire in Propertius' Elegies; 3. Horace and the erotics of the lyric chorus; 4. Canon, community, and chorus; 5. Virgil's Aeneid and the relocation of ritual; 6. Foundational choreography in the Aeneid; Epilogue.

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Book SynopsisPropertius re-invents Latin love-elegy in his third collection. Nearly a decade into the Augustan principate, the early counter-cultural impulse of Propertius'' first collections was losing its relevance. Challenged by the publication of Horace''s Odes, and by the imminent arrival of Virgil''s Aeneid, in 23 BCE Propertius produced a radical collection of elegy which critically interrogates elegy''s own origins as a genre, and which directly faces off Horatian lyric and Virgilian epic, as part of an ambitious claim to Augustan pre-eminence. But this is no moment of cultural submission. In Book 3, elegy''s key themes of love, fidelity, and political independence are rebuilt from the beginning as part of a subtle critique of emerging Augustan mores. This book presents a series of readings of fourteen individual elegies from Propertius Book 3, including nostalgic love poems, an elegiac hymn to Bacchus, and a lament for Marcellus, the recently-dead nephew of Augustus.Trade Review"Wallis writes in a lively manner and ends with a succinct and polyglottal bibliography....The reader will in no way be hindered by any errors in the text." -- Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of Contents1. Turning elegy upside down: Propertius 3.1-3; 2. Seeking Fides in poets and poetry: Propertius 3.6; 3. Thematic experimentation: Propertius 3.9-11; 4. Marriage and the elegiac woman: Propertius 3.12; 5. Delays and destinations: Propertius 3.16; 6. A Hymn to Bacchus: Propertius 3.17; 7. In lament for Marcellus: Propertius 3.18; 8. Renewing an elegiac contract: Propertius 3.20; 9. Breaking up (with) Cynthia: Propertius 3.24.

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Book SynopsisBook 4 of Tacitus'' Annals, described by Sir Ronald Syme as ''the best that Tacitus ever wrote'', covers the years AD 2328, the pivotal period in the principate of the emperor Tiberius. Under the malign influence of Sejanus, the henchman who duped him and was loaded with honours, Tiberius withdrew to the island of Capri and was never again seen in Rome, where the treason trials engendered an atmosphere of terror. The volume presents a new text of Book 4, as well as a full commentary on the text, covering textual, literary, linguistic and historical matters. The introduction discusses the relationship between Tacitus and Sallust. The volume completes the sequence which began with commentary on Books 1 and 2 of the Annals by F. R. D. Goodyear (1972, 1981) and was continued by commentary on Book 3 by A. J. Woodman and R. H. Martin (1996) and on Books 5-6 by A. J. Woodman (2016).Trade Review"A.J. Woodman's magnificent commentary on Book 4 is the capstone to his outstanding career as a scholar of Roman historiography, and especially of Tacitus, and it brings the scholarly coverage of these books on the reign of Tiberius to a triumphant conclusion." --Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsPreface; References and abbreviations; Introduction; Text; Commentary; Indexes.

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Book SynopsisJewish and Christian apocalypses have captivated theologians, writers, artists, and the general public for centuries, and have had a profound influence on world history from their initial production by persecuted Jews during the second century BCE, to the birth of Christianity - through the demise of the Western Roman Empire and the medieval period, and continuing into modernity. Far from being an outlier concern, or an academic one that may be relegated to the dustbin of history, apocalyptic thinking is ubiquitous and continues to inform nearly all aspects of modern-day life. It addresses universal human concerns: the search for identity and belonging, speculation about the future, and (for some) a blueprint that provides meaning and structure to a seemingly chaotic world. The Cambridge Companion to Apocalyptic Literature brings together a field of leading experts to provide a comprehensive overview of the subject.Trade Review'This is a rich, wide-ranging and sometimes provocative collection which brings together serious scholarship adapted to a wider readership … consistently thought-provoking, informative, and full of leads for further exploration.' Roger Pooley, The Glass'… the volume usefully addresses multiple dimensions of apocalyptic studies - definition, characteristics, purpose, and adaptation to changing circumstances.' W. L. Pitts Jr, Choice'This is a very well written and researched collection of essays presented in a balanced and structured way, and it is strongly recommended for both students and scholars of apocalypticism, biblical literature, reception history, and worldviews.' Gerbern S. Oegema, Society of Biblical Literature'… a valuable publication which offers a diachronic perspective on the complex history of the apocalyptical literature …' Octavian-Adrian Negoita, NumenTable of Contents1. Through a glass darkly: time, the end, and the essence of apocalyptica Colin McAllister; 2. Apocalpyticism as a worldview in ancient Judaism and Christianity John J. Collins; 3. Introduction to the Book of Revelation Ian Paul; 4. The gnostic apocalypses Dylan M. Burns; 5. Exegetic the apocalypse with the Donatist communion Jesse A. Hoover; 6. Tests of faith, rebirth out of corruption or endless cycles of regeneration: experiments in the restoration of the late Roman Empire Brian Duvick; 7. Latin reception of the apocalypse in the early Middle Ages E. Ann Matter; 8. Exegesis of the Apocalypse in the tenth century Francis X. Gumerlock; 9. The end of the world at the ends of the Earth: apocalyptic thought in medieval Ireland John Carey; 10. Byzantine apocalyptic literature András Kraft; 11. Joachim of Fiore and the apocalyptic revival of the twelfth century Brett Edward Whalen; 12. Apocalpytic sensibility in renaissance Europe Ian Boxall; 13. 'Pride and vanity of the imagination, that disdains to follow this world's fashion': apocalypticism in the age of reason Christopher Rowland; 14. The formation of antichrist in medieval western Christian thought Kevin L. Hughes; 15. From Dabiq to Jerusalem: trajectories of contemporary Salafi-Jihadi apocalypticism David Cook; 16. American evangelicals and the apocalypse Daniel G. Hummel; 17. Apocalypticism in the contemporary world Lorenzo DiTommaso.

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Book SynopsisFrom the stories of wives and their lovers to those of kings and their conquests, to the overarching story of Shahrazad and Shahryar, the tales of the Arabian Nights have offered countless audiences entertainment and enjoyment as well as serving as cautionary stories. An outstanding piece of world literature, the Arabian Nights provide a lively and interesting way of exploring aspects of sexuality, romance, gender, culture, wealth, and politics. Looking at a wide range of the tales, David Ghanim offers a rigorous exploration of their profound sexuality: looking at both the context in which they were written and organised, as well as their legacy. By including accounts of heterosexuality, homosexuality, cuckoldry, insatiable lust, promiscuity, rape, incest, bestiality, demonic sexuality, and erotica, Ghanim highlights the complexity and dynamism of medieval sexuality, the active role of women in sexual activities, and the prevailing positive outlook on sexual liaison and gender mixing.Trade Review'In this daring and insightful work, David Ghanim offers an intensive and perceptive analytical exploration and expounding of the sexual facets in the Nights, adding to his repertoire of serious and reflective studies of various aspects of gender in Middle Eastern cultures. He highlights and elucidates the still considered tabued issues of sexuality and erotica in a variety of contexts.' Hasan el-Shamy, Indiana University'An interesting and comprehensive picture of the rich, lively, and in some ways astonishingly permissive variety of sexual relations in the medieval Middle East. By providing an illuminating portrayal of the vibrant intellectual life of the urban elites, and medieval classical Arabic literature and anecdotes, the book offers a historical context that would challenge many prevalent perceptions about life in the region.' Haideh Moghissi, York University, Toronto'David Ghanim's book is an excellent exploration of perhaps the most central theme linking the various tales in One Thousand and One Nights, the varieties and vicissitudes of human sexuality, particularly how women assert their power.' Daniel Beaumont, University of Rochester, New York'In its information so painstakingly gathered, this book is by any standards both revealing and gripping. The author clearly knows his subject.' Abdul Sattar Jawad, Duke University, North CarolinaTable of Contents1. Alluring sexuality; 2. Inexorable sexuality; 3. Insatiable lust; 4. Demonic sexuality; 5. Rape and incest; 6. Promiscuous life; 7. Transgressive adultery; 8. Sexual perfidy; 9. Tales of cuckoldry; 10. Lesbian encounter; 11. Tempting pederasty; 12. Hedonistic narrative.

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Book SynopsisThis volume provides a new critical text of the Prologue and the first two books of Venantius Fortunatus'' Vita Sancti Martini, a work, written in the latter half of the sixth century, which paraphrases in epic verse the famous prose hagiography of St Martin by Sulpicius Severus. This edition offers the first English translation of and the first full commentary on that part of Venantius'' poem. Venantius was one of the last writers in a recognisably classical Latin tradition and his Vita affords a fascinating insight into the language and literary culture of his time. It is, however, a deceptively allusive and difficult poem, and the introduction and commentary of this book deal extensively with matters of exegesis, textual criticism, language, metre and much else. It will be valuable for students of the literature and culture of late Latin antiquity, and for those interested in early Christianity and hagiography.Trade Review'Nigel M. Kay's edition, with its elegant but faithful translation and helpful … opens this enjoyable text to a wider readership and will be a useful tool for generations of scholars to come … Kay's text, translation and commentary is a masterpiece of philological craftmanship.' Enno Friedrich, Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction; Sigla; Text and translation; Commentary; Appendices.

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Book SynopsisThe mouth, responsible for both physical and spiritual functions - eating, drinking, breathing, praying and confessing - was of immediate importance to medieval thinking about the nature of the human being. Where scholars have traditionally focused on the mouth''s grotesque excesses, Katie L. Walter argues for the recuperation of its material ''everyday'' aspect. Walter''s original study draws on two rich archives: one comprising Middle English theology (Langland, Julian of Norwich, Lydgate, Chaucer) and pastoral writings; the other broadly medical and surgical, including learned encyclopaedias and vernacular translations and treatises. Challenging several critical orthodoxies about the centrality of sight, the hierarchy of the senses and the separation of religious from medical discourses, the book reveals the centrality of the mouth, taste and touch to human modes of knowing and to Christian identity.Trade Review'A genuinely interdisciplinary achievement, Middle English Mouths will be of great value equally to literary scholars interested especially in Langland's Piers Plowman, scholars of medieval medicine and science (including multisenoriality), Christianity and soteriology, speech and song, vernacular theology and intellectual history.' Sarah Star, Medium ÆvumTable of Contents1. Natural knowledge; 2. The reading lesson; 3. Tasting, eating and knowing; 4. The epistemology of kissing; 5. Surgical habits.

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Book SynopsisFrom the stories of wives and their lovers to those of kings and their conquests, to the overarching story of Shahrazad and Shahryar, the tales of the Arabian Nights have offered countless audiences entertainment and enjoyment as well as serving as cautionary stories. An outstanding piece of world literature, the Arabian Nights provide a lively and interesting way of exploring aspects of sexuality, romance, gender, culture, wealth, and politics. Looking at a wide range of the tales, David Ghanim offers a rigorous exploration of their profound sexuality: looking at both the context in which they were written and organised, as well as their legacy. By including accounts of heterosexuality, homosexuality, cuckoldry, insatiable lust, promiscuity, rape, incest, bestiality, demonic sexuality, and erotica, Ghanim highlights the complexity and dynamism of medieval sexuality, the active role of women in sexual activities, and the prevailing positive outlook on sexual liaison and gender mixing.Trade Review'In this daring and insightful work, David Ghanim offers an intensive and perceptive analytical exploration and expounding of the sexual facets in the Nights, adding to his repertoire of serious and reflective studies of various aspects of gender in Middle Eastern cultures. He highlights and elucidates the still considered tabued issues of sexuality and erotica in a variety of contexts.' Hasan el-Shamy, Indiana University'An interesting and comprehensive picture of the rich, lively, and in some ways astonishingly permissive variety of sexual relations in the medieval Middle East. By providing an illuminating portrayal of the vibrant intellectual life of the urban elites, and medieval classical Arabic literature and anecdotes, the book offers a historical context that would challenge many prevalent perceptions about life in the region.' Haideh Moghissi, York University, Toronto'David Ghanim's book is an excellent exploration of perhaps the most central theme linking the various tales in One Thousand and One Nights, the varieties and vicissitudes of human sexuality, particularly how women assert their power.' Daniel Beaumont, University of Rochester, New York'In its information so painstakingly gathered, this book is by any standards both revealing and gripping. The author clearly knows his subject.' Abdul Sattar Jawad, Duke University, North CarolinaTable of Contents1. Alluring sexuality; 2. Inexorable sexuality; 3. Insatiable lust; 4. Demonic sexuality; 5. Rape and incest; 6. Promiscuous life; 7. Transgressive adultery; 8. Sexual perfidy; 9. Tales of cuckoldry; 10. Lesbian encounter; 11. Tempting pederasty; 12. Hedonistic narrative.

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Book SynopsisThis landmark study of Latin prose intertextuality radically reinterprets Pliny's Epistles as a brilliant transformation of Quintilian's Institutio oratoria and a unique reply to Tacitus' Dialogus. Indispensable to readers of imperial Latin prose, the book is also essential reading for all students of imitation in Roman literature and culture.Trade Review'This original and learned book, written in sparkling and stylish prose, makes a fundamental contribution to our appreciation of Pliny the Younger's artistry. Christopher Whitton shows that there is much more Quintilian in Pliny's Epistles than anyone had realised - and that recognising Quintilian's presence is of vital importance for understanding Pliny's literary project. With complete control of the sources, Whitton takes the reader on an unexpectedly fascinating tour of Quintilian's earliest reception, and along the way sheds new light on Latin prose intertextuality and the quintessentially Roman practice of imitatio.' Tom Keeline, Washington University, St Louis'The Arts of Imitation in Latin Prose is a very useful addition to Plinian scholarship and, more generally, a milestone for all those concerned with intertextuality.' Lorenzo Vespoli, Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of Contents1. Two scenes from the life of an artist; 2. Setting the stage; 3. Brief encounters; 4. Dancing with dialectic; 5. Through the looking-glass; 6. On length, in brief (Ep. 1.20); 7. Letters to Lupercus; 8. Studiorum secessus (Ep. 7.9); 9. Docendo discitur; 10. Reflections of an author; 11. Quintilian, Pliny, Tacitus; 12. Beginnings.

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Book SynopsisRoman letters demonstrate that language has imperium: the power to resolve problems, to negotiate relationships and to construct identities. This book combines sociolinguistic and historical approaches to explore how that power is deployed by the bilingual elite of the Roman Republic and Empire, offering the first systematic analysis of Greek code-switches in the letters of Cicero, Pliny, Marcus Aurelius and Fronto and in the Lives of Suetonius. Greek was a subtle tool within Latin epistolary communication, and an analysis of letter writers'' bilingual practices reveals their manipulation of language to manage relationships between peers and across hierarchical or political divides, uncovering the workings of politics and society. Comparative analysis of Roman and modern code-switching contributes to the debate on how bilingual strategies in letters evolve and how they relate to oral and literary language. The language of letters illuminates the Roman world and its entanglements with GTable of Contents1. Language and life in letters; 2. A Roman conversation? Code-switching in diachronic context; 3. Republic of letters: the politics of Cicero's Epistolary Code-Switching; 4. Imperial relations: Greek and the lingua Romana of Fronto and friends; 5. The language of letters and beyond: Greek in Suetonius' biographies; 6. Weaving together the threads: epistolary connections.

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Book SynopsisThis book offers translations of ten rhetorical declamations of the fourth-century AD sophist Libanius of Antioch and some related texts, almost all appearing for the first time in a modern language. In these works the declaimer impersonates such mythological or historical figures as Poseidon, Paris, Achilles, and Orestes, either in court (as prosecutor or defendant) or by trying to persuade his audience to take a course of action. The texts illustrate the sophist''s eloquence and had an educational purpose in the schools, but were also delivered before adult audiences. They also put the Hellenic past on display for audiences of the Greek East in the Roman Empire. The annotated translations are accompanied by analyses of their themes, structure, and argumentation.Table of Contents1. General introduction; 2. Introduction to the mythological declamations; 3. The mythological declamations; 4. Introduction to the historical declamations; 5. The historical declamations.

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Book SynopsisGreek culture matters because its unique pluralistic debate shaped modern discourses. This ground-breaking book explains this feature by retelling the history of ancient literary culture through the lenses of canon, space and scale. It proceeds from the invention of the performative ''author'' in the archaic symposium through the ''polis of letters'' enabled by Athenian democracy and into the Hellenistic era, where one''s space mattered and culture became bifurcated between Athens and Alexandria. This duality was reconfigured into an eclectic variety consumed by Roman patrons and predicated on scale, with about a thousand authors active at any given moment. As patronage dried up in the third century CE, scale collapsed and literary culture was reduced to the teaching of a narrower field of authors, paving the way for the Middle Ages. The result is a new history of ancient culture which is sociological, quantitative, and all-encompassing, cutting through eras and genres.Trade Review'… this work opens a new path for future scholarship. This engaging … volume deserves a wide audience among classicists.' P. E. Ojennus, Choice'This volume is an amazing achievement, a commanding synthesis, a vast compendium of pages, an argument that demands to be contested. Every Classicist should read it.' Jaś Elsner, Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments; General introduction; Part I. Canon: 1. Canon: the evidence; 2. Canon in practice: the polis of letters; Part II. Space: 3. Space, the setting: the making of an Athens-against-Alexandria Mediterranean; 4. Space in action: when worlds diverge; Part III. Scale: 5. A quantitative model of ancient literary culture; 6. Scale in action: stability and its end; Coda to the book; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the ways in which Aristotle''s legacy was appropriated and reshaped by vernacular readers in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. It considers translation in a broad sense, looking at commentaries, compendia, rewritings, and abridgments alongside vernacular versions of Aristotle''s works. Translation is thus taken as quintessential to the very notion of reception, with a focus on the dynamics - cultural, social, material - that informed the appropriation and reshaping of the ''master of those who know'' on the part of vernacular readers between 1250 and 1500. By looking at the proactive and transformative nature of reception, this book challenges traditional narratives about the period and identifies the theory and practice of translation as a liminal space that facilitated the interaction between lay readers and the academic context while fostering the legitimation of the vernacular as a language suitable for philosophical discourse.Trade Review'This book provides an excellent case-study both for the dividends reaped from paying close attention to how the classics were read in the later medieval period and how failure to pay attention to this material risks distorting our understanding of the Renaissance.' Justin Stover, Bryn Mawr Classical Review'Scholars of the Renaissance and medieval period, of the history of philosophy, and of the history of the book and of literacy will prize Refini's immensely learned volume. It is equally valuable to literary scholars focused on the practice of reception and on translation, both of which are essential to scholarly interrogation of cultural continuity and discontinuity from the ancient to the modern periods.' Brenda Deen Schildgen, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction: translation as reception; 1. Taming the philosopher; 2. The master of those who know (and those who don't); 3. Family business: readying the ethics for the layman; 4. The philosopher, the humanist, the translator and the reader; 5. Abridging the philosopher(s); Conclusion: the spirit in the crystal bottle.

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Book SynopsisGreco-Roman martial epic poetry, from Homer and Virgil to Neronian and Flavian epic, is obsessed with the treatment of dead bodies. This book provides an extensive survey and analysis of corpse mistreatment and funeral violation in Latin epic poetry, thereby enabling a fundamental re-evaluation of violence and warfare.Trade Review'… M.'s thoroughly researched and authoritative study is undoubtedly a very valuable contribution to the field and will be of interest mainly to readers already familiar with the epics of Lucan, Statius, Valerius Flaccus and Silius Italicus.' Giles Gilbert, Classics for All'… energetic and creative … an excellent review of the poets' historical circumstances, which may account for some of the differences in their approach to corpse abuse.' Neil Bernstein, Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of ContentsPreface; Notes on texts and abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Setting the stage: corpse abuse in Homer and Virgil; 2. Decapitation in Lucan, Statius, and Silius Italicus; 3. Unburied past: Lucan's Bellum ciuile; 4. Argonautic abuses: Valerius Flaccus' (and Apollonius') Argonautica; 5. Funeral 'rights': Statius' Thebaid; 6. Grave encounters: Silius Italicus' Punica; Epilogue: a post mortem; Bibliography; Index locorum; General index.

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Book SynopsisDrawing extensively on unpublished manuscript sources, this study uncovers the culture of experimentation that surrounded biblical exegesis in fourteenth-century England. In an area ripe for revision, Andrew Kraebel challenges the accepted theory (inherited from Reformation writers) that medieval English Bible translations represent a proto-Protestant rejection of scholastic modes of interpretation. Instead, he argues that early translators were themselves part of a larger scholastic interpretive tradition, and that they tried to make that tradition available to a broader audience. Translation was thus one among many ways that English exegetes experimented with the possibilities of commentary. With a wide scope, the book focuses on works by writers from the heretic John Wyclif to the hermit Richard Rolle, alongside a host of lesser-known authors, including Henry Cossey and Nicholas Trevet, and many anonymous texts. The study provides new insight into the ingenuity of medieval interpretTrade Review'… these works adapted scholastic exegesis to meet the devotional needs of English readers … Recommended.' D. A. Brown, Choice'This is a highly rewarding book. Kraebel deals with a complex subject with the utmost clarity and competence. He has added important insights and conclusions of his own which enrich our understanding of a field far broader and more interesting than the reformers would admit.' Alastair Hamilton, Journal of Ecclesiastical History'… Kraebel excavates the wider field of scholastic biblical exegesis in fourteenth-century England … Kraebel is to be commended for having reclaimed so much of later medieval England's biblical commentary from obscurity as well as for having analyzed these texts and their manuscripts so closely and carefully.' Audrey Southgate, Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures'Kraebel's admirable study does much to help, and to show how those implications might be not reductive, but rather stimulating and fruitful. Potential readers should take the plunge: the rewards justify the effort.' Daniel Sawyer, Studies in the Age of Chaucer'Kraebel's compelling study is intensely learned, succinct, and marked by careful attention to the manuscript evidence and textual details. At the same time, Kraebel draws convincing conclusions as to the implications of this evidence for our broader understanding of scholastic hermeneutics in fourteenth-century England. This excellent study also reveals the need for further work on many aspects of works such as the Glossed Gospels and Wyclif's Postilla, and, it is to be hoped, will inspire future research in this crucial field.' Cosima Clara Gillhammer, Anglia'Relatively few scholars … achieve their scholarly reputations not only by dint of hard work and insights but also by doing something few medievalists have the time and opportunity to do: read manuscripts in quantity. On the trajectory of his scholarship to date, to that cohort we can add Andrew Kraebel, who shows that scholarly opinion concerning fourteenth-century English commentary on and translation of the Bible is superficial and often wrong. … [Kraebel] supplies examples of nuanced sophistication on almost every page.' James H. Morey, Journal of English and Germanic Philology'This is a book that specialists will find worth revisiting.' Patrick Hornbeck, Renaissance QuarterlyTable of Contents1. Interpretive theories and traditions; 2. Eclectic hermeneutics: biblical commentary in Wyclif's Oxford; 3. Richard Rolle's scholarly devotion; 4. Moral experiments: Middle English Matthew commentaries.

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Book SynopsisIt has traditionally been assumed that biblical writers considered Nero to be the Antichrist.. This book refutes that view. Beginning by challenging the assumption that literary representations of Nero as tyrant would have been easily recognisable to those in the eastern Roman empire, where most Christian populations were located, Shushma Malik then deconstructs the associations often identified by scholars between Nero and the Antichrist in the New Testament. Instead, she demonstrates that the Nero-Antichrist paradigm was a product of late antiquity. Using now firmly established traits and themes from classical historiography, late-antique Christians used Nero as a means with which to explore and communicate the nature of the Antichrist. This proved successful, and the paradigm was revived in the nineteenth century in the works of philosophers, theologians, and novelists to inform debates about the era''s fin-de-siècle anxieties and religious controversies.Table of Contents1. Introduction: Neronian Myths; 2. Nero and the Bible; 3. The Invention of the Nero-Antichrist; 4. Reviving the Nero-Antichrist; 5. Epilogue: The Legacy of Revival; Appendix A. List of Early-Christian References to the Nero-Antichrist; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes through one aspect of its relationship with other texts. The particular intertextual relationship examined is that with the Histories of Herodotus, focusing on the presence of the latter text in the former in terms of the poem''s employment of characteristics and features of historiographical discourse, narrative structures, presentation and description of characters, aetiology and patterns of explanation, portrayal of ethnic groups, depiction of kingship and tyranny; the relationship between particular passages in both texts is also explored. The consequences for the interpretation of the poem are profound: the Argonautica employs Herodotean historiography as a key intertext in order to manipulate and frustrate the reader''s generic expectations for an epic poem and to complicate the relationship between the contemporary Hellenistic Mediterranean (and its kingdoms) and the distant mythological Argonautic past.Trade Review'An excellent resource for those engaged in advanced study of classics.' S. M. Burstein, Choice'… this is a valuable contribution to the study of Herodotus and Apollonius and the ways that historiography in general and Herodotus in particular can influence epic.' Laura Marshall, Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Receiving Herodotus; 3. Creating authorities; 4. Explaining the past; 5. Telling stories; 6. Greeks and non-Greeks; 7. Kings and leaders; 8. Conclusions and consequences.

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Book SynopsisA dedicated study of how classical Latin erotic elegy was read in the Renaissance and helped shape the emergence of English love poetry. This book will be of interest to scholars of early modern literature and classical literature, in particular love, gender, sex and the body.Trade Review'… the most enjoyable thing about this volume is the author's delight in the poetry she presents to the reader, which is described within the space of a couple of pages as 'exuberant', 'un-anxious', 'creative' and 'confident, even blasé', with an 'untroubled “pick-and-mix” approach' to reception that is 'programmatically promiscuous'. For G.,[Linda Grant] Renaissance classical reception is a playful and imaginative adventure-and her enthusiasm carries the reader along.' Cora Beth Knowles, Classics for AllTable of ContentsIntroduction: 'All that rout of lascivious poets that wrote epistles and ditties of love'; 1. 'Ovid was there and with him were Catullus, Propertius and Tibullus': transmission, teaching and receptions of Roman love elegy in the Renaissance; 2. 'For truth and faith in her is laid apart': women's words and the construction of masculinity in Catullus' Lesbia poems and Thomas Wyatt; 3. ''Fool', said my muse to me': reading metapoetics in Propertius 2.1 and 4.7, and Astrophil and Stella 1; 4. 'In six numbers let my work rise, and subside in five': authority and impotence in Amores 1.5 and 3.7, Donne's 'To his mistress going to bed', and Nashe's Choice of Valentines; 5. 'My heart … with love did inly burn': female authorship and desire in Sulpicia, Mary Sidney's Antonie and Mary Wroth's Pamphilia to Amphilanthus 1.

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Book SynopsisThis book is for scholars and students of the ideas, literatures, and cultures of early Christianity and late antiquity, ancient philosophers, and historians of theology. It offers new perspectives on early Christian modes of knowing and ordering knowledge in relation to changing discourses, institutions, and material culture of late antiquity.Table of Contents1. Modes of knowing and the ordering of knowledge in early Christianity Lewis Ayres, Michael Champion, Matthew R. Crawford; 2. The beginnings of a Christian doctrine of the spiritual senses before Origen Jane Heath; 3. Health, medicine, and philosophy in the school of Justin Martyr Jared Secord; 4. The structure of the ascetic self in Irenaeus of Lyons Paul Saieg; 5. The order of education and knowledge in clement of Alexandria Matyáš Havrda; 6. Origen's institutions and the shape of biblical scholarship Peter Martens; 7. Dialogue and catalogue: Fate, free-will, and epistemology in the Book of the Laws of the Countries Scott Johnson; 8. Iamblichus on divination and prophecy Peter Struck; 9. Cyprian, scripture and socialisation: forming faith in the catechumenate and beyond Edwina Murphy; 10. Sacrificial knowing: Cyprian and early Christian ritual knowledge Andrew McGowan; 11. Learning the language of God: tables in early Christian texts Andrew Riggsby; 12. The Aëtian Placita and the church fathers: creative use of a distinctive mode of ordering knowledge David Runia; 13. Nicaea's frame: the organisation of creedal knowledge in late antiquity and modernity Andrew Radde-Gallwitz; 14. The Arian controversy and the problem of image(s) Rebecca Lyman; 15. Imaging Ephrem the author Jeffrey Wickes; 16. Homilies as 'Modes of Knowing': an exploration on the basis of Greek patristic sermons (ca. 350-ca. 450 CE) Johan Leemans; 17. Dissemination of biblical narratives, motifs, and figures through early Christian inscriptions and homilies Cilliers Breytenbach; 18. How to make use of pagan knowledge without separating oneself from the church's milk: the function of otherness in Gregory of Nyssa's theory of self-perfection Jan Stenger; 19. Female characters as modes of knowing in late imperial dialogues: the body, desire, and the intellectual life Dawn LaValle Norman; 20. The Christianity of Latin Christian poetry Mark Edwards; 21. Ambrose's hymns as modes of knowing the 'Real' Brian Dunkle; 22. Confused voices: sound and sense in the later Augustine Carol Harrison; 23. Precision and the limits of human autopsy in Augustine's critique of pagan divination Michael Hanaghan; 24. Duplex via: authority and reason at Cassiciacum Gerald Boersma; 25. The object of our gaze: visual perception as a mode of knowing Robin Jensen; 26. Reconsidering the tholos image in the Eusebian canon tables: symbols, space, and books in the late antique Christian imagination Matthew Crawford; 27. Condemning the glutton of the monastery: rhetorical strategies and the epistemology of Philoxenus of Mabbug Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent; 28. Evagrius of Ponticus on lupē: Distress and cognition between philosophy, medicine, and monasticism Jonathan Zecher; 29. Liturgical modes of knowing: coming to know God (and oneself) in sixth-century hymns and homilies Sarah Gador-Whyte; 30. Prolegomena to philosophy and the ascetic ordering of knowledge Michael Champion; 31. Bureaucratic modes of knowing in the late roman empire Sara Ahbel-Rappe; 32. The dissemination and appropriation of legal knowledge in the age of Justinian Peter Sarris; 33. The ordering of knowledge in four late patristic Christological handbooks Dirk Krausmüller; 34. World and empire: contrasting the cosmopolitan visions of Maximus the Confessor and George of Pisidia in seventh century Byzantium Paul Blowers; 35. Boethius on the ordering of knowledge John Magee; 36. Ordering emotional communities: modes of knowing in Gregory the Great Bronwen Neil; 37. Creating knowledge and knowing creation in late antique theological and scientific writing Helen Foxhall Forbes; 38. Hierarchies of knowledge in the works of Bede Zachary Guiliano; 39. Epilogue Teresa Morgan.

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Book SynopsisThe German mystic Gertrude the Great of Helfta (c.12561301) is a globally venerated saint who is still central to the Sacred Heart Devotion. Her visions were first recorded in Latin, and they inspired generations of readers in processes of creative rewriting. The vernacular copies of these redactions challenge the long-standing idea that translations do not bear the same literary or historical weight as the originals upon which they are based. In this study, Racha Kirakosian argues that manuscript transmission reveals how redactors serve as cultural agents. Examining the late medieval vernacular copies of Gertrude''s visions, she demonstrates how redactors recast textual materials, reflected changes in piety, and generated new forms of devotional practices. She also shows how these texts served as a bridge between material culture, in the form of textiles and book illumination, and mysticism. Kirakosian''s multi-faceted study is an important contribution to current debates on medieval Trade Review'In exploring the Latin and vernacular production and reception of Gertrud von Helfta's Legatus divinae pietatis, Racha Kirakosian is redefining late medieval authorship and the value of each redaction within the landscape of late medieval piety. Her book offers innovative and always exciting discoveries as she unpacks the vital transmission of Gertrud's Legatus combining the scribal nature of late medieval piety with the textile culture of religious communities. Groundbreaking research, brilliantly written, a scholarly masterpiece!' Hans-Jocher Schiewer, University of Freiburg'Like the textiles Gertrude's writings and their translations so beautifully evoke, Racha Kirakosian's book weaves together philological investigations, interpretive analyses, and unwavering attention to human communities to create a colorful, richly textured view of later medieval monastic life. Though rigorously centered on texts - their complex process of creation, reception, and transmission - this book has much to offer historians of art and material culture, female monasticism and reform, and the medieval religious imagination more broadly.' Jacqueline E. Jung, Professor of History of Art, Yale University'This book draws on newly discovered evidence for the collaborative production of the Latin visions of Gertrude of Helfta (d. 1301) and proposes a new approach to reading the late fourteenth-century German translation, der botte der götlichen miltekeit. A complete analysis of the manuscripts of the botte, understood as examples of dynamic textuality, is combined with studies of text production, redaction, reading and copying, and an innovative discussion of the interplay between material culture and the presentation of textiles in the two versions of Gertrude's visions.' Nigel F. Palmer, Emeritus Professor of German Medieval and Linguistic Studies, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford'… highly recommended for medieval scholars in the fields of history, German, and theology, including advanced graduate students of medieval studies.' Sarah Glenn DeMaris, The German QuarterlyTable of Contents1. The Helfta scriptorium; 2. Redactions within a dynamic textuality; 3. Manuscript transmission history; 4. The book's self-reflectivity; 5. The scriptorial heart; 6. Imaginary textiles; Final remarks; Bibliography; Appendix; Index.

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Book SynopsisHow to Use This BookIntroduction1. Background2. Medieval Literature3. Thematic and Technical Parallels4. The Editions5. The TextsBibliographyIndexTrade ReviewPraise for the previous edition: "[The Keys of Middle-earth] provides a wide range of texts with insightful introductions and commentary on each of the texts that have been chosen for elucidation." Professor Shaun F.D. Hughes, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of English, Purdue University, USA "The Keys of Middle-earth is a much-needed book... The texts, in Old English, Old Norse, and Middle English, are faithfully presented... textual notes are remarkably thorough." John R. Holmes, Notes and Queries Summary "Either as a student's text or as an instructor's resource, The Keys of Middle-earth provides an excellent introduction to a number of important medieval texts complete with a judicious, but not overwhelming, awareness of recent scholarship within a compelling context of a modern literary phenomenon - the imaginative world of J. R. R. Tolkien." Miranda Wilcox, The Medieval Review "'As an anthology of medieval texts it is first rate. The texts, in Old English, Old Norse, and Middle English, are faithfully presented and despite the authors' modest disclaimer that their book cannot accommodate a "full discussion of textual issues" (55), textual notes are remarkably thorough. With equal modesty they call their textual notes "highly selective," but their selection is impeccable. Commentary is just as painstaking: major critical controversies are fully represented. And as an encouragement to further study in three medieval languages, which the authors identify as its main purpose (19), the book is eminently successful." John R Holmes, Tolkien StudiesTable of ContentsHow to Use This BookIntroduction1. Background2. Medieval Literature3. Thematic and Technical Parallels4. The Editions5. The TextsBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThe Girl’s Own Paper, founded in 1880, both shaped and reflected tensions between traditional domestic ideologies of the period and New Woman values in the context of the figure of the New Girl. These selections from the journal demonstrate the efforts of its publisher (the Religious Tract Society) to combat the negative moral influence of sensational popular literature while at the same time addressing the desires of its audience for exciting reading material and information about topics mothers could not or would not discuss.Selected fiction gives a rich sense of the conventions and the domestic ideology of the time; the nonfiction prose ranges from essays on conduct and household management to articles on new opportunities in education and work.Trade Review“Overall, Selections from The Girl’s Own Paper constitutes a significant contribution to periodical research and will benefit scholars engaged in research concerning the New Woman or those examining issues of gender in the late Victorian era. In addition, the use of facsimile pages will be helpful to those interested in the graphic visual culture of the period.” — Amy C. Murphy, San Antonio College, in Victorian Periodicals ReviewTable of ContentsIntroductionAcknowledgementsHousehold ManagementAlice King, “Higher Thoughts on Housekeeping” (1884)H., “How to Live on £100 a Year” (1886)Phillis Browne, “The Brides First Dinner Party” (1887)Emma Brewer, “Our Friends the Servants” (1893)G. H. P., “The Queen at Home” (1894)Mrs. Orman Cooper, “Queen Baby and Her Wants” (1896)Anon., “London’s Future Housewives and Their Teachers” (1899)G. C., “Good Mistresses” (1905)ConductArdern Holt, “Etiquette for Ladies and Girls” (1880)S. F. A. Caulfeild, “Etiquette for All Classes” (1881)A Middle Aged Woman, “Unpopular Girls” (1886)Countess de Boerio, “Some Marriage Thorns, and How to Avoid Them” (1893)Margaret Bateson, “Paying Visits” (1902)Gordon Stables, “To Girls in Their ‘Teens’” (1904)Self-CultureJames Mason, “How to Form a Small Library” (1880)J. P. Mears, “How to Improve One’s Education” (1881)Author of How to Be Happy Though Married, “Between School and Marriage” (1886)Mrs. Molesworth, “On the Use and Abuse of Fiction” (1892)Dora de Blaquiere, “Magazine and Book Clubs, and How to Manage Them” (1892)Lily Watson, “Self-Culture for Girls” (1899)Lady Dunboyne, “Study” (1905)EducationJ. A. Owen, “Girton College” (1880)E. A. L. K., “The North London Collegiate School for Girls” (1882)Emma Brewer, “The Girls of the World: Facts and Figures” (1885)A Lady Graduate, “Presentation Day at London University” (1898)Lily Watson, “The Battersea Polytechnic” (1904)Anon., “Pitman’s Metropolitan School” (1904)Lena Shepstone, “Gardening as a Profession for Girls” (1905)Work Anon., “Female Clerks and Book-Keepers” (1880)A Nursing Sister, “The Unvarnished Side of Hospital Nursing” (1888)Anon., “The Struggles of a Lady Journalist” (1888)“My Daily Round: A Competition for All Girls Who Work With Their Hands” (1896)First Prize: Locomotive-TracerSecond Prize: Pottery-PainterThird Prize: Shirt-MakerFourth Prize: Lace-MakerFifth Prize: General Servant “Competition for Professional Girls: The Five Prize Essays” (1897) First Prize: Hospital NurseSecond Prize: Folklore CollectorThird Prize: MusicianFourth Prize: Writer/EditorFifth Prize: Post-Mistress R. Kathleen Spencer, “Pharmacy as an Employment for Girls” (1899)Florence Sophie Davson, “Women’s Work in Sanitation and Hygiene” (1899)Alix Joson, “Domestic Service as a Profession for Gentlewomen” (1902)Margaret Bateson, “Girls and Their Employers” (1902)Anon., “House-Decoration: A New and Remunerative Employment for Girls” (1903) Independent LivingA Young Gentlewoman, “Sixty Pounds per Annum, and How I Live Upon It” (1888)S. F. A. Caulfeild, “Women’s Clubs in London” (1890)V., “A Home-Made Shower-Bath” (1893)Josepha Crane, “Living in Lodgings” (1895)Anon., “How I Furnished My Bed-Sitting-Room for Twelve Pounds” (1902)Flora Klickmann, “A New Hostel for Women” (1903)Health and SportsMrs. Wallace Arnold, “The Physical Education of Girls” (1884)The Lady Dressmaker, “Reform in Underclothing” (1887)Anon., “Ladies’ Golf” (1890)Medicus, “Nervous Girls” (1893)Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, “On Recreations for Girls” (1894)Dora de Blaquiere, “The Dress for Bicycling” (1895)H. M. Pillans, “Lawn-Tennis” (1900)Lily Watson, “Athleticism for Girls” (1902)

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Book SynopsisWalter of Châtillon’s Latin epic on the life of Alexander the Great was a twelfth- and thirteenth-century “best-seller:” scribes produced over two hundred manuscripts. The poem follows Alexander from his first successes in Asia Minor, through his conquest of Persia and India, to his progressive moral degeneration and his poisoning by a disaffected lieutenant. The Alexandreis exemplifies twelfth-century discourses of world domination and the exoticism of the East. But at the same time it calls such dreams of mastery into question, repeatedly undercutting as it does Alexander’s claims to heroism and virtue and by extension, similar claims by the great men of Walter’s own generation. This extraordinarily layered and subtle poem stands as a high-water mark of the medieval tradition of Latin narrative literature.Along with David Townsend’s revised translation, this edition provides a rich selection of historical documents, including other writings by Walter of Châtillon, excerpts from other medieval Latin epics, and contemporary accounts of the foreign and “exotic.”Trade Review“In 1996, David Townsend published a very free but also very good verse translation of the Alexandreis by Walter of Châtillon, one of the most influential poems of the ‘Twelfth-Century Renaissance.’ This new volume improves upon the earlier translation; it also provides additional materials to shed light on Walter’s other writings, the twelfth-century Latin epic tradition in general, and the medieval Alexander tradition. Townsends elegant and readable English could be used with other translations in a course on medieval epic and romance. It could provide a focal point for students and general readers in understanding the image of Alexander the Great across time. The possibilities are legion.” — Jan. M. Ziolkowski, Harvard University“While the Alexandreis did much to shape the medieval attitude to history, this translation helps to define it.” — The Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionA Note on the TextThe AlexandreisAppendix A: Other Works by Walter of Châtillon Satirical and Moral Poems A Treatise Against the Jews (Tractatus contra Judaeos) The Rhythmical Life of Thomas Becket Appendix B: Latin Epic of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries Bernard Silvestris, Cosmographia Alan of Lille, The Plaint of Nature (De planctu Naturae) John of Hauville, The Arch-Lamenter (Architrenius) Joseph of Exeter, The Ylias of Dares Phrygius Henry of Avranches, The Metrical Life of St. Francis (Vita sancti Francisci) Appendix C: The Medieval Alexander Tradition Quintus Curtius Rufus, The History of Alexander the Great (Historiae Alexandri Magni) The History of Alexander’s Battles (Historia de preliis) The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle Anecdotes of Alexander from John of Salisbury’s Policraticus Appendix D: Twelfth-Century Images of the Foreign, Strange, and Exotic William of Tyre, A History of Things Done in the Territories across the Sea (Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum) Gerald of Wales, The Description of Wales (Descriptio Cambriae) From Wonders of the East (De rebus in Oriente mirabilibus) Select BibliographyIndex of Proper Names

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Book SynopsisSir Gawain and the Green Knight is a masterpiece of medieval English literature and one of the finest Arthurian tales in any language. Though its ingenious plotting and verbal artistry continue to dazzle readers, it is written in a challenging regional dialect and uses many words that were already archaic when the poem was written in the late fourteenth century. This edition is designed to make the poem, in its original Middle English, accessible to students and general readers. Following standards adopted for editing other Middle English poets, the edition lightly normalises spellings to make words more recognisable for a modern audience. Extensive marginal glossing of difficult words, thorough on-page explanatory notes, and a comprehensive glossary offer further support for readers. The historical appendices include other examples of medieval romance from France and Britain.Trade Review“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is arguably the greatest poem surviving in English from any period, and Paul Battles’ edition is the ideal introduction to it. The text has been reconsidered at every level, and the notes and glossary take in the latest scholarship, but the scholarship never threatens to overwhelm the beauty and power of the poem. The new appendices on sources and analogs are especially valuable.” — Tom Shippey, Professor Emeritus, Saint Louis University“Among the increasing number of translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, it is good to be able to welcome a new edition of the poem itself. The very richness of the poem’s verbal detail and the subtlety of its philosophical argument require a mastery of the original text, and in this edition the beginning student is fortunate to have not only a learned guide but also a sensible one who writes with engaging clarity and is tolerant of the diversity of critical opinion. The text itself is supplied not only with marginal glosses and succinct, informative notes but also a full glossary. The four well-chosen appendices are worthy of special mention, providing valuable source material that places the poem in its authentic context of Arthurian romance and aristocratic culture.” — Gerald Morgan, Trinity College DublinTable of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction A Note on the Text Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Appendix A: From Caradoc Appendix B: The Story of the False Guenevere and Bertelay Appendix C: From The Knight with the Sword Appendix D: From Edward of Norwich, Second Duke of York, The Master of Game Glossary Select Bibliography and Works Cited

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Book SynopsisThe Siege of Jerusalem (c. 1370-90 CE) is a difficult text. By twenty-first-century standards, it is gruesomely violent and offensive. It tells the story of the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, an event viewed by its author (as by many in the Middle Ages) as divine retribution against Jews for the killing of Christ. It anachronistically turns first-century Roman emperors Titus and Vespasian into Christian converts who battle like medieval crusaders to avenge their savior and cleanse the Holy Land of enemies of the faith. It makes little sense without frank understanding of medieval Christian anti-Semitism. There is, nevertheless, some consensus that Siege is a finely crafted piece of poetry, and that its combination of horror, beauty, and learnedness makes it an effective work of art. As literary scholar A.C. Spearing has put it, “We may not like what the poet does, but it is done with skillful craftsmanship and sometimes with brilliant virtuosity.” The tale that the anonymous Siege poet tells, moreover, is an important and still reverberating part of the history of Western thinking about the East. It is, in Yehuda Amichai’s phrase, a “currency of the past” that continues to be negotiated. The first-century destruction of Jerusalem has been understood in both Christian and Jewish traditions as the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora; for medieval Christians it was also a model of successful Christian leadership and justified warfare, an allegory of political and personal spiritual battle. As part of the story of the historical rift between Christianity and Judaism—and of the inevitable victory of Christianity—the destroyed Second Temple was taken as symbolic of the fall of Judaism and the rise of the new Christian era in which anyone who rejected Christ would suffer.Written in alliterative verse in the late fourteenth century, The Siege of Jerusalem seems to have been popular in its day; at least nine fourteenth- and fifteen-century manuscripts containing the poem have come down to us. Yet this is the first volume to offer a full Modern English translation. In addition, appendices provide extensive samples of the alliterative original, a wide-ranging compendium of materials documenting anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages, comparative biblical passages, and much else.Trade Review“This translation of the alliterative Siege of Jerusalem—and the volume to which it belongs—will provide a much-needed pedagogical resource.” — Timothy Stinson, North Carolina State University“The appearance of Williams Boyarin’s translation of The Siege of Jerusalem will be a welcome step in the recent reconsideration of that fourteenth-century poem, which was famously characterized by Ralph Hanna as “the chocolate-covered tarantula” of alliterative poetry. After decades of relative neglect, in the past ten years The Siege of Jerusalem has come to seem quite timely in its frank parading of East-West violence, religious war, and cultural bigotry. This translation will allow the poem to move into undergraduate classrooms, where it will sit uneasily but productively alongside such texts as Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale.” — Heather Blurton, University of California Santa Barbara“It can be a daunting task to grapple with a text that enjoys the memorable critical reputation of being a ‘chocolate-covered tarantula.’ Yet, Adrienne Williams Boyarin’s translation and contextualization of The Siege of Jerusalem has accomplished precisely that—she has pinned down that candied arachnid on a velvet block and, in so doing, has reframed the discussions around this poem’s wider participation in ‘intellectual and literary histories.’ The main translation distinguishes itself as both sensitive to the alliterative cadences of fourteenth-century Middle English poetry and also to the sense of the sweep of this complex, historically-based alliterative poem, paying close attention to what the editor and translator identifies as the specific ‘vocabulary, ambiguities, and repetitions.’ For general readers and students, it will be an invaluable entrance into this fascinating and quite popular text. … Adrienne Williams Boyarin’s framework—the introduction and selection of contextual documents—will reopen critical discussions; it will shape future scholarship on the Siege of Jerusalem.” — Dorothy Kim, Vassar College“Boyarin’s modernization evokes all the alliterative spit of the original. Her book fills itself out, too, with selections from the Middle English text and from others that bear on the poem’s setting, its possible sources and analogues, and its shared cultural contexts. More than merely updating an old poem, Boyarin presents a veritable anthology of medieval anti-Judaism.” — Seth Lerer, Times Literary Supplement“Boyarin’s Modern English translation of The Siege of Jerusalem is the first of its kind, and a valuable undergraduate classroom resource. … In addition to a skillfully produced translation, Boyarin offers an introduction, brief summary, and a final section to her edition; this latter section, entitled, ‘In Context,’ features primary source excerpts useful to audiences [and] … contextualizes the poem’s anti-Semitisms through the lenses of crusade violence and ritual murder … , opening and supporting intelligent conversation about the poem’s attitudes toward non-Christians, and its place in premodern culture.” — Suzanne M. Yeager, ArthuriannaTable of Contents Acknowledgements Preface Introduction The Siege of Jerusalem Appendix A: The Middle English Siege of Jerusalem Prologue, lines 1-35 Passus 3, lines 573-608 Passus 5, lines 1069-1100 Appendix B: The Siege of Jerusalem and the Bible: Key Passages 1 Maccabees 6 The Gospel According to Matthew 10.1-15 The Gospel According to Matthew 24.14-15 and 27.1-9 The Gospel According to Luke 19.37-48 and 21.5-28 The Gospel According to Luke 22.63-23.38 The Gospel According to John 11.47-56 and 18.3-19.21 Revelation 21 Appendix C: The Siege of Jerusalem and Medieval Christian Legend From The Golden Legend, c. 1260 a. From "The Passion of the Lord" (Pontius Pilate, St. Veronica) b. From "Saint James, Apostle" (St. James, the destruction of Jerusalem) c. From "Saint Peter, Apostle" (St. Peter, St. Paul, Nero) Appendix D: Other Medieval Anti-Semitisms and the Crusader Conquest of Jerusalem Crusade Violence in Historical Writings 1. From Albert of Aachen, History of the Journey to Jerusalem (c. 1125-50) 2. From Eliezar bar Nathan, Gezerot Tatnu [Persecutions of 1096] (c. 1150) 3. From Raymond d'Aguilers, History of the Frankish Conquerors of Jerusalem (c. 1100) 4. From William of Newburgh, The History of English Affairs (c. 1198) 5. Ephraim of Bonn, "Tatkan-tatkana b'Angleterre" ["In England, 1189"] (c. 1196) Ritual Murder Libel: The Case of William of Norwich (c. 1173) Ecclesiastical and Secular Legal Documents 1. Pope Innocent III, Canons and Decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) 2. A Bull of Pope Gregory X (1272) 3. Statute of the Jewry, England (1275) Popular Literature: Miracles of the Virgin and Mandeville's Travels 1. From The South English Legendary, "The Jewish Boy" and "The Jews of Toledo" (c. 1280) 2. From the Vernon Manuscript, "The Child Slain by Jews" (c. 1390) 3. From John Mirk’s Festial, "How a Monk Painted a Miraculous Image" (c. 1390) 4. From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (c. 1360) Christian Dates in relation to the Destruction of the Second Temple: A Jewish Response, from Abraham Zacuto, Sefer Yuhasin [Book of Lineage] (c. 1500) Works Cited and Recommended Reading

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Book SynopsisDuring the Middle Ages, Mary was the most powerful of saints, and the combination of her humanity and her proximity to the divine captured the medieval imagination. Her importance is nowhere more clearly reflected than in the genre of “Miracles of the Virgin,” short narrative accounts of Mary’s miraculous intercessory powers. These stories tend to fit a basic narrative pattern in which Mary saves a devoted believer from spiritual or physical danger—but beneath this surface simplicity, the Miracles frequently evoke fine or revealing theological, social, and cultural distinctions. They are remarkably various in tone, ranging from the darkly serious to the comically scandalous, and many display anti-Semitism to a greater degree or with greater punch than do other medieval genres. Mary herself takes on a variety of characteristics, appearing as dominant and persuasive more often than she appears as gentle and maternal.This volume offers a small but representative sampling of what survives of this literature in the English language. The Middle English has been helpfully glossed and annotated, and is lightly modernized for ease of reading; one particularly challenging story is translated in facing-page format. The “In Context” sections provide relevant biblical passages and medieval versions of the Christian prayers frequently evoked in the miracles; additional samples of Marian poetry and medieval illustrations of Marian miracles are also included.Trade Review“The texts are well-chosen, sensitively modernized, and either translated or appropriately glossed, making the volume useful both for research and teaching. Boyarin’s strategic inclusion of Biblical passages, extra poems, prayers, and illustrations very helpfully put the miracle stories ‘In Context.’ A reliable resource [offering] fascinating material!” — Laura Saetveit Miles, University of Bergen“Reading through the selections Williams Boyarin has chosen from the vast array of Middle English Marian literature is like going on a tour with a very experienced guide—one who knows what will surprise and delight the most, and what information must be provided to help the visitor make the most of what they are seeing. As a reader familiar with Marian devotion and its literature, I found the texts included to be engaging and telling examples of the rich tradition and range of roles Mary fills … For students or other newcomers to the field, this book can serve as an enticing and efficient introduction to study of the English Marian cult over time and across genres … I can easily imagine using this collection as a textbook in an undergraduate or graduate course on medieval spirituality or Middle English literature … [T]here is no doubt that this collection will spark new interest in a very rich area of medieval religious literature and experience.” — Wendy Larson, The Medieval ReviewTable of ContentsIntroductionMiracles of the Virgin in Middle English from The South English Legendary, “St Theophilus” (c. 1280) from the Vernon Manuscript, “Miracles of Ure Lady” (c. 1390) from John Mirk’s Festial, Sermon for Candlemas (c. 1390) from British Library MS 37049, Marian Praise and Miracles (c. 1460–70) from a Late-Medieval Sermon Book, A Marian Incest Tale (c.1460–1500) In Context Mary in the Bible The Gospel According to Matthew 1.18–25 and 2.7–21 The Gospel According to Luke 1.26–56 and 2.1–51 Prayers Evoked in the Miracles Two Versions of the Ave Maria (Hail Mary) Paternoster (Our Father) Credo (I Believe, or the Creed) Alma redemptoris mater (Kind Mother of the Redeemer) Salve sancta parens (Hail Holy Parent) Confiteor (I Confess) Marian Prayer-Poems in Related Manuscripts Three Poems from the Vernon Manuscript Two Poems from British Library MS Additional 37049 Illustrations of Marian Miracles from Medieval English Books

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Book SynopsisThis edition presents 33 of the 100 tales, with at least two from each of the ten days of storytelling. Boccaccio’s general introduction and conclusion to the work are also included, as are the introduction and conclusion to the first day; the reader is thus provided with a real sense of the Decameron’s framing narrative. Extensive explanatory notes are provided, and the volume is prefaced by a concise but wide-ranging introduction to Boccaccio’s life and times, as well as to the Decameron itself. A unique selection of contextual materials concludes the volume.Trade Review“Furnished with an engaging selection of tales, a formidable apparatus of primary texts and reproductions [from the] visual arts, this is an ideal text for a course in English on Boccaccio’s Decameron. The translators have struck an enviable balance between the colloquial valences of the dialogue and the more formal moments of its register, all while untangling the complex syntax that can be daunting to the non-specialist….This is a Decameron that is accessible and comprehensible, inviting the general reader into its rich narrative world.” —Kristina M. Olson, George Mason University “Boccaccio… is unsurpassed in the illuminating perspective from which he explores the variety of dramas of his characters in their day to day interactions,… [and this] rendition of the Decameron is extraordinary: it breathes fresh life into this classic of world literature.” —Giuseppe Mazzotta, Sterling Professor in the Humanities for Italian, Yale University “The translators have provided a smart and engaging selection of the best tales of the Decameron. Their lively prose translation successfully captures the oral scene of storytelling that is central to the book while still attending to important specifics of Boccaccio’s language. A carefully conceived collection of secondary readings completes this volume, which will allow readers to enjoy Boccaccio’s masterpiece from a variety of perspectives.” —Michael Sherberg, Washington University Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction from The Decameron The Author’s Preface Introduction to the First Day The First Day I. Story 1: Cepparello’s False Confession I. Story 2: The Jew who Sees Rome and Converts I. Story 3: Melchisedech and the Tale of the Three Rings I. Story 5: The King of France and the Banquet of Hens I. Story 10: Master Alberto Shames the Woman who Refuses his Love Conclusion to the First Day The Second Day II. Story 5: Andreuccio’s Three Misadventures in Naples II. Story 7: The Sultan’s Daughter Sleeps with Nine Men and Returns a Virgin The Third Day III. Story 1: Masetto becomes Gardener to a Convent III. Story 6: Ricciardo sends a Jealous Wife to the Baths to catch her Husband III. Story 8: Ferondo visits Purgatory III. Story 9: Giletta of Narbonne III. Story 10: Alibech and Rustico put the Devil back into Hell The Fourth Day Introduction IV. Story 1: Tancredi, Ghismunda, and her Lover’s Heart IV. Story 2: Frate Alberto as the Angel Gabriel IV. Story 5: Lisabetta and the Pot of Basil IV. Story 8: The Broken Hearts of Girolamo and Salvestra The Fifth Day V. Story 1: Cimone and Lisimaco Abduct their Brides V. Story 4: The Lovers, the Balcony, and the Nightingale The Sixth Day VI. Story 1: Madonna Oretta and the Story Ride VI. Story 4: Chichibio and the One-legged Bird VI. Story 7: Donna Filippa Confronts the Adultery Laws VI. Story 9: Guido Cavalcanti’s Witty Escape The Seventh Day VII. Story 2: Peronella’s Lover and the Barrel VII. Story 6: A Quick-Thinking Adulteress The Eighth Day VIII. Story 3: Calendrino and the Heliotrope Stone VIII. Story 7: The Scholar Frozen and the Lady Burned The Ninth Day IX. Story 5: Calandrino in Love IX. Story 6: Three Beds and a Cradle IX. Story 10: The Spell that Turns Women to Mares The Tenth Day X. Story 3: Nathan Offers his Life X. Story 5: A Lady’s Honour for a Garden in Winter X. Story 8: The Perfect Friendship of Tito and Gisippus X. Story 10: Griselda’s Remarkable Patience The Author’s Epilogue In Context The Black Death from Marchione di Coppo Stefani, from The Florentine Chronicle (ca. 1389), “Concerning the Black Death in the City of Florence, Mortal to Many People,” The Black Death: fourteenth century images Accounts of Boccaccio’s Life Giannozzo Manetti, “The Life of Giovanni Boccaccio” Ludovico Dolce, “A Description of the Life of Messer Giovanni Boccaccio” (1552) Sources and Antecedents from Apuleius, The Golden Ass: from Book Nine, “The Lover in the Barrel” (c. 160 CE) from Petrus Alphonsus, Disciplina Clericalis, “The Two Perfect Friends,” (12th century) from Andreas Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love (c. 1180) Anonymous, “Concerning a Priest and a Lady” (13th century) from Anonymous, Il novellino (1281-1300) How a king raised his son in darkness, then revealed to him all there was in the world, and how the boy found women above all things the most pleasing.” “How the Sultan in search of money tried to snare a Jew through litigation.” “The never-ending story.” from Giovanni Boccaccio, The Questions of Love: “The Fourth Question, as proposed by Menedon” (1335-36) The Tale of Patient Griselda from Francesco Petrarch, Letter to Boccaccio on “The Tale of Patient Griselda” (1373) Anonymous, “A Most Pleasant Ballad of Patient Grissell” (ca. 1600) Patterns of Influence from Sir Thomas Elyot, The Book Named the Governour: from Bk. II, Chap. 12, “The Wonderful History of Titus and Gisippus, whereby is fully declared the figure of perfect amity.” (1531) from Giovan Francesco Straparola, The Pleasant Nights (Piacevoli notti) (1550, 1553) from the Proem Rodolino and Violante, or The Broken Hearts Illustrations to the Decameron

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