Literary studies: ancient, classical Books

Book SynopsisPaul Alvarus wrote the Indiculus luminosus in 854 in response to the executions of a number of Córdoban Christians, beginning with the monk Isaac in 851, who had denounced Muhammad in public.

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Book SynopsisIphigenia in Tauris tells the story of the princess Iphigenia who was sacrificed by her father Agamemnon to expedite his campaign against Troy but was rescued by the goddess Artemis and transported to the land of the Taurians. There she herself must perform human sacrifices as a priestess of Artemis in the local cult. Troy has now been sacked, and Agamemnon murdered by his wife and avenged by his son Orestes. With his mother's blood on his hands, Orestes is guided by Apollo to seek purification through bringing the image of the Tauric Artemis to Greece, and so is reunited with his sister. The drama centers on Orestes' near-sacrifice at Iphigenia’s hands, their recognition in the nick of time, and their ingenious and thrilling escape to bring the cult of Artemis to Halae and Brauron near Athens. Martin Cropp’s first edition was originally published in 2000 and provided the first commentary on the play since those of Maurice Platnauer (Oxford, 1938) and Hans Strohm (Munich, 1949). It contributed significantly to a revival of interest in what had been a rather neglected and underrated play. This new edition incorporates substantial revisions to the introduction and commentary and some corrections to the Greek text and translation in light of reviews of the first edition and other recent work.

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Book SynopsisIphigenia in Tauris tells the story of the princess Iphigenia who was sacrificed by her father Agamemnon to expedite his campaign against Troy but was rescued by the goddess Artemis and transported to the land of the Taurians. There she herself must perform human sacrifices as a priestess of Artemis in the local cult. Troy has now been sacked, and Agamemnon murdered by his wife and avenged by his son Orestes. With his mother's blood on his hands, Orestes is guided by Apollo to seek purification through bringing the image of the Tauric Artemis to Greece, and so is reunited with his sister. The drama centers on Orestes' near-sacrifice at Iphigenia’s hands, their recognition in the nick of time, and their ingenious and thrilling escape to bring the cult of Artemis to Halae and Brauron near Athens. Martin Cropp’s first edition was originally published in 2000 and provided the first commentary on the play since those of Maurice Platnauer (Oxford, 1938) and Hans Strohm (Munich, 1949). It contributed significantly to a revival of interest in what had been a rather neglected and underrated play. This new edition incorporates substantial revisions to the introduction and commentary and some corrections to the Greek text and translation in light of reviews of the first edition and other recent work.

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Book SynopsisThe Findern Manuscript (Cambridge University Library, Ff.1.6): A New Edition of the Unique Poems is the first critical edition of the thirty-four unique and unattributed Middle English poems contained in Cambridge, University Library MS Ff.1.6. This collection of unique poems is significant for its size and thematic coherence, and for the insight it provides into regional literary culture, that of south Derbyshire, in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The poems, mainly short lyric texts, but also the narrative poem, The Parliament of Love, two topical complaints, and a romance known as the ‘Alexander-Cassamus Fragment’, are significant for the evidence they provide for creative responses to the metropolitan literature of previous generations, especially to the works of Chaucer, Gower, Hoccleve and Lydgate. The poems explore a range of amatory, religious and philosophical themes in a variety of lyric forms and genres. Their anonymity and experimentation with lyric voice and style make them an important site for exploring the contribution of women, as well as men, to late medieval regional literary culture.

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Book SynopsisUsing pedagogy as a lens through which to explore issues of gender, social class, power and hegemony, Cohen's study makes a major new contribution to the study of education in eighteenth-century England. Through a detailed examination of contemporary methodologies, curricula, and practices this book brings together topics often treated separately: the education of boys and girls of the middling and the upper classes. Further, this study widens the scope of our definition of education to include the often-under-valued field of "accomplishments". Indeed, Cohen shows that accomplishments were a formal part of male and female education, with carefully theorised pedagogies, challenging the enduring perception that these subjects were superficial. Subject specific chapters on Latin and geography pedagogies examine the relations between these subjects and the competitions which shaped and produced them. While Latin pedagogy dominated eighteenth-century education, geography, as a modern subject, had to develop a new normative pedagogy. Cohen shows that girls were not excluded from learning a science like geography, and that the contemporary perception of the inferiority of their education as opposed to that of boys was constructed as part of the classic vs. modern debate. Further, chapters on debates surrounding public and private education, the Grand Tour, and conversation show that pedagogy is the thread linking education, gender, social class and politics. This book will be essential reading for historians of education, childhood and gender.Trade ReviewIn this incisive, original and elegantly written study of eighteenth-century pedagogy, Michele Cohen makes us rethink almost every aspect of education during the Enlightenment. Astutely sensitive to the class and especially gendered assumptions that shaped teaching, learning and knowing, she re-fashions our views on public and private education, the grand tour, Latin pedagogy, the role of modern subjects such as geography, the paradoxical nature of accomplishment (about which she is especially brilliant), and the values attached to conversation. Her insights resonate into the present and show how fundamental the education of boys and girls was to the construction of eighteenth-century society and culture. -- John Brewer, Eli and Edythe Broad Professor of History and Literature, Emeritus, Harvard UniversityThis study provides fascinating insights into the struggles over pedagogy in the long eighteenth century and the competing discourses used to justify different approaches. Central to the argument are the gendering of Latin as a subject for boys, embedded in a pedagogy of difficulty, discipline and punishments; versus geography and the modern sciences as subjects for girls, built round a pedagogy of interest and engagement. Michele Cohen shows how these different approaches played out in pedagogic texts written at the time, long before the state became involved in education and fixed the sequence in which knowledge should be taught. The book is a timely reminder of how much we take for granted in what and how we teach now, and how little we should trust what we think we know. -- Gemma Moss, Professor of Literacy, UCLTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Boys, Men and Education: The Public/Private Debate, and the Grand Tour 2. Girls, Women and Education: The Public/Private Debate, and 'Achievement'. 3. Latin 4. Geography 5. The Accomplishments 6. Conversation as a Pedagogy Conclusion

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Book SynopsisAt the end of the Middle Ages, a group of hatmakers from the Low Countries migrated across the North Sea to London. These men brought with them new skills and technologies, unknown to English artisans, becoming the first to manufacture brimmed felts hats in England. However, though their wares were immediately popular with English consumers, from courtiers to ordinary people, they faced an economic environment in London that restricted and sometimes completely disallowed the production and retail of their goods. In the early years of the sixteenth century, the hatmakers' desire to remain independent from regulation and governance by London civic guilds led to their formation of a craft association of their own. The Hatmakers' fraternity of St James operated for about a decade, until in 1511 the royal council mandated their amalgamation with and subordination to the powerful London Haberdashers' Company. In their short period of independence, the Hatmakers' guild wrote bilingual ordinances, in English and Dutch, regulating the craft of hatmaking in London. The small parchment booklet in which they wrote the ordinances, now housed in the London Guildhall Library, contains more than a simple list of craft rules: it reveals how these Dutch craftsmen negotiated their immigrant lives in both the specifics of their artisanal practice and the broader social and linguistic realities of their daily interactions. This book, uniting historical and philological approaches, uncovers the remarkable lives and writings of these tradesmen, showing how they adapted to their new environment and reacted to the challenges they faced. It also presents a modern edition of the texts of the Hatmakers' guild book. Open Access to this volume will be available under the Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC-NDTable of ContentsPreface Part I: Study 1. Citizen Guilds, Stranger Artisans, and the Hat Trade in London, circa 1500 2. The Formation of the Hatmaker's Fraternity 3. The Hatmakers and the 1511 Agreement 4. The Manuscript 5. The Linguistic Interest of the Bilingual Ordinances Conclusion Part II: Texts Editorial Conventions The Bilingual Ordinances of the Hatmakers The Agreement with the Haberdashers The Oath of the Wardens of the Haberdashers Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisExamines the role of the pig in medieval society in material and textual sources.

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Book SynopsisSheds new light on how masculinity was understood, lived, performed and viewed during a period of huge change. Premodern masculinity was multivalent and dynamic, a series of intersecting, conflicting, and mutating identities that nevertheless were distinct and recognizable to people and their societies. The articles collected here examine a variety of means by which masculinity was constructed, deconstructed, and transformed across time, geographies, and cultures. Articles range across the twelfth to seventeenth century, from western Europe to the Volga-Ural region, from the Christian west to the Muslim east, from Ottomans to Mongols and Persians, from Baudri of Bourgueil to Blaise de Monluc; while topics include the chivalric hero, the effeminate man, beards, and spurs, represented variously in literature, historical documents, and art. Finally, in that period of great transformation that is the sixteenth century, they show how masculinity moved away from the traditional and recogniza

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Book SynopsisTales from the dawn of Christianity to the age of the Plantagenets reveal a mythology in its time as potent as that of the classical world. The British Isles have a long tradition of tales of gods, heroes and marvels, hinting at a mythology once as relevant to the races which settled the islands as the Greek and Roman gods were to the classical world. The tales drawntogether in this book, from a wide range of medieval sources, span the centuries from the dawn of Christianity to the age of the Plantagenets. The Norse gods which peopled the Anglo-Saxon past survive in Beowulf; Cuchulainn, Taliesin and the magician Merlin take shape from Celtic mythology; and saints include Helena who brought a piece of the True Cross to Britain, and Joseph of Arimathea whose staff grew into the Glastonbury thorn. Tales of the British Arthur are followed by legends of later heroes, including Harold, Hereward and Godiva. These figures and many others were part of a familiar national mythology on which Shakespeare drew for Lear, Macbeth and Hamlet, creating the famous versions that are known today. Here the original stories are presented. RICHARD BARBER's other books include and The Knight and Chivalry.Trade ReviewOutstanding value, with its authoritative translations of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and medieval key texts. * PENDRAGON *

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Book SynopsisAn examination of the intricate cartography of Matthew Paris, and the meanings of the maps themselves. The illustrations of the Benedictine monk, artist, and chronicler Matthew Paris offer a gateway into the thirteenth-century world. This new study of his cartography emphasises the striking innovations he brought to it, and shows how the maps became an investment and repository of certain medieval spatial practices: travel through the world, the occurrence of history in that world, and the religious practices and devotional attitudes that were assiduously cultivated within the larger visual culture of St. Albans abbey (in great measure produced by Matthew's own images). Travel (i.e. space), history (time), and devotion (liturgy), then, are the primary issues and meanings deposited in and registered by Matthew Paris's cartographic landscape. In searching out these contexts, the book explores the paradigm of imagined pilgrimage as an organizing principle that pushes into greater relief medieval understandingsof their arrangements of places and of histories. Thus traveling through geography could enact its meanings in a dynamic, religious, even devotional performance of the maps' materials. Richly illustrated with black and white and colour plates.Trade ReviewConnollys kulturgeschichtliche Annäherungen an die Karten Matthew Paris' sind anregend, da sie Karten auf verschiedenen Ebenen in den Kontext zeitgenössischer Tradition und religiöser Praktiken einbetten und auf dieser Grundlage neue Lesarten erproben. * SEHEPUNKTE *[The author] has approached the work of Matthew Paris in an original and stimulating way and has made a meaningful contribution to our knowledge of the ways manuscripts, texts, images, rituals and prayers provided the fertile ground for the pictorial and cartographic imagination of Matthew Paris. [...] His book will surely invite much discussion among scholars and serve as a springboard for much future work. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *This book has a scintillating subject. The sumptuous illustrations of course whet the appetite. * JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY *Table of ContentsIntroduction Taken in the Spirit: Imagined Pilgrimage in Medieval Spirituality and Art Journeys through Space: the codex as conveyance Journeys through Time: the format of history Journeys through Time: geography as prophecy Journeys through Liturgy Monarchical Journeys: the King's Gaze, the "Royal" Itinerary and Matthew's Maps of Britain Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisEdition and facing English translation of important Latin text, offering advice for rulers. Sedulius Scottus [fl. ca 850] is an important figure in the early history of European political thought, one of a group of ninth-century authors who produced short treatises in which they attempted to clarify the proper relation between spiritual and secular power. The Latin text of his De rectoribus Christianis [On Christian Rulers] is here presented in a critical edition more complete and accurate than anything hitherto available, with a facing-page English translation. The edition is supported by an Introduction setting it in the context of the general development of political theory in the Christian West. Dr R.W. Dyson was educated at the University of Durham, where he taught the History of Political Thought in the School of Government and International Affairs until his retirement in 2007.Trade ReviewWell designed and well worth reading. * THE EXPOSITORY TIMES *Table of ContentsPreface Sigla and Abbreviations Introduction Text

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Book SynopsisA pioneering approach to contemporary historical writing on the First Crusade, looking at the texts as cultural artefacts rather than simply for the evidence they contain. The First Crusade (1095-1101) was the stimulus for a substantial boom in Western historical writing in the first decades of the twelfth century, beginning with the so-called "eyewitness" accounts of the crusade and extending to numerous second-hand treatments in prose and verse. From the time when many of these accounts were first assembled in printed form by Jacques Bongars in the early seventeenth century, and even more so since their collective appearance in the great nineteenth-century compendium of crusade texts, the Recueil des historiens des croisades, narrative histories have come to be regarded as the single most important resource for the academic study of the early crusade movement. But our understanding of these texts is still far from satisfactory. This ground-breaking volume draws together the work of an international team of scholars. It tackles the disjuncture between the study of the crusades and the study of medieval history-writing, setting the agenda for future research into historical narratives about or inspired by crusading. The basic premise that informs all the papers is that narrative accounts of crusades and analogous texts should not be primarily understood as repositories of data that contribute to a reconstruction of events, but as cultural artefacts that can be interrogated from a wide range of theoretical, methodological and thematic perspectives. MARCUS BULL is Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; DAMIEN KEMPF is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Liverpool. Contributors: Laura Ashe, Steven Biddlecombe, Marcus Bull, Peter Frankopan, Damian Kempf, James Naus, Léan Ní Chléirigh, Nicholas Paul, William J. Purkis, Luigi Russo, Jay Rubenstein, Carol Sweetenham,Trade ReviewAn impressive volume that maintains a rare coherence across the twelve contributions to bring out the individuality and significance of these varied narratives. * THE HISTORIAN *This volume provides a fine introduction to the historiography of the First Crusade, both for those who consider themselves historians of that movement and for those who do not. * SPECULUM *The individual pieces are all excellent in their scholarly quality and acumen. * MEDIAEVISTIK 27 *[A]n essential work for crusade historians that will also edify and challenge the medieval scholarly community to reexamine their approaches to historical writing. * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW *The volume is an important milestone in a journey that, in many ways, has only just started. It should be of great use both to historians of crusades and to historians of medieval historiography for many years to come. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction - Marcus Bull and Damien Kempf Baldric of Bourgueil and the Familia Christi - Steven J. Biddlecombe Gilbert of Nogent, Albert of Aachen and Fulcher of Chartres: Three Crusade Chronicles Intersect - Jay C. Rubenstein Understanding the Greek Sources for the First Crusade - Peter Frankopan The Monte Cassino Tradition of the First Crusade: From the Chronica Monasterii Casinensis to the Hystoria de via et recuperatione Antiochiae atque Ierusolymarum - Luigi Russo Nova Peregrinatio: The First Crusade as a Pilgrimage in Contemporary Latin Narratives - Léan Ní Chléirigh What Really Happened to Eurvin de Créel's Donkey? Anecdotes in Sources for the First Crusade - Carol Sweetenham Porta Clausa: Trial and Triumph at the Gates of Jerusalem - Nicholas L. Paul The Historia Iherosolimitana of Robert the Monk and the Coronation of Louis VI - James Naus Towards a Textual Archaeology of the First Crusade - Damien Kempf Robert the Monk and his Sources[s] - Marcus Bull Rewriting the History Books: The First Crusade and the Past - William J. Purkis The Ideal of Knighthood in English and French Writing, 1100-1230: Crusade, Piety, Chivalry and Patriotism - Laura Ashe

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Book SynopsisStudies of texts from the late middle ages to the contemporary moment, together they indicate, broadly, directions both in postmodern studies and studies in medievalism. Bringing together significant statements on postmodern qualities of the invocation of the medieval, Postmodern Medievalisms is a cross-disciplinary and international collection. The volume also effects a critically celebratory appreciation of the intellectual and political possibilities of the many inchoate modes implicit in various acts of "postmodern" scholarship. The essays treat texts from the late middle ages to the contemporary moment, and together they indicate, broadly, what is happening both in postmodern studies and studies in medievalism. The fourteen essays of the collection are organized into four sections, Music (including Pavel Chinizul, Negru Voda, Arvo Part), Art and Architecture (contemporary architecture, Robert Rauschenberg and more), Cinema (Tolkien, Bresson, Braveheart among the matters discussed), and Literature (including Sir John Mandeville, Marco Polo, Marvel, Naomi Mitchison). Contributors: FLORIN CURTA, PAUL MURPHY, LEOPOLD BRAUNEISS, JOHN M. GANIM, KARL FUGELSO, VERLYN FLIEGER, WILLIAM D. PADEN, BRIAN LEVY, LESLEY COOTE, A.E. CHRISTA CANITZ, JENNIFER COOLEY, PAUL SMETHURST, ELENALEVY-NAVAFRO, ANITA OBERMEIER, SYLVIA MITTLER.Trade ReviewAn especially rich collection of essays. * ARTHURIANA *Table of ContentsPavel Chinezul, Negru Voda, and `Imagined Communities': Medievalism in Romanian Rock Music - Florin Curta Disparate Medievalisms in Early Modern Spanish Music Theory - Paul Murphy Arvo Pärt's Tintinnabuli Style: Contemporary Music Towards a New Middle Ages? - Leopold Brauneiss Medievalism, Modernism and Postmodernism in Contemporary Architecture - John M Ganim Robert Rauschenberg's Inferno Illuminations - A Distant Mirror: Tolkien and Jackson in the Looking-glass - Verlyn Flieger I Learned It at the Movies: Teaching Medieval Film - William Paden Jr The Subversion of Medievalism in Lancelot du lac and Monty Python and the Holy Grail [with Lesley Coote] - Brian Levy The Subversion of Medievalism in Lancelot du lac and Monty Python and the Holy Grail [with Brian Levy] - Lesley A Coote `Historians...Will Say I Am a Liar': The Ideology of False Truth Claims in Mel Gibson's Braveheart and Luc Besson's The MessengerMessenger - Christa A. E. Canitz Games for the Nation: A Postmodern Reading of Alfonso X's Libro de ajedrez, dados y tablas - Jenneifer Cooley The Journey from Modern to Postmodern in the Travels of Sir John Mandeville and Marco Polo's Divisament dou Monde - Paul Smethurst History Straight and Narrow: Marvell, Mary Fairfax, and the Critique of Sexual and Historical Sequence - Elena Levy-Navarro Postmodernism and the Press in Naomi Mitchison's To the Chapel Perilous - Anita Obermeier The Crusades and Frankish Medieval Greece as (Re)appropriation: Carnivalesque Histiographic and Modern Greek Humorist Nikos TsiforosTsiforos - Sylvia Mittler

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Book SynopsisThe Paston letters viewed in the context of medieval women's writing and medieval letter writing. The Paston letters form one of only two surviving collections of fifteenth-century correspondence, in their case especially rich in letters from the women of the family. Clandestine love affairs, secret marriages, violent family rows, bickering with neighbours, battles and sieges, threats of murder and kidnapping, fears of plague: these are just some of the topics discussed in the letters of the Paston women. Diane Watt's introduction seeks to place these letters in the context of medieval women's writing and and medieval letter writing. Her interpretive essay reconstructs the lives of these women by examining what the letters reveal about women's literacy and education, lifein the medieval household, religion and piety, health and medicine, and love, marriage, family relationships, and female friendships in the middle ages. Professor Diane Watt is Head of the School of English and Languages, University of Surrey.Trade ReviewWatt's translations balance both readability and literalness. [...]an accessible edition devoted to one of the most interesting set of extant documents written by late medieval English women. * MEDIEVAL REVIEW *

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Book SynopsisAn investigation of the public image of women as presented in contemporary drama. The focus of this study is upon the Corpus Christi plays, supplemented by other performance practices such as festive and social entertainments, civic parades, funeral processions and public punishments. The main argument relatesto the traditional approaches to women's non-performance in the Corpus Christi dramas, but other factors are considered and analysed, including the semiotics of the cross-dressed actor and the significance of the visual and spatial language of the processional stage to gender debates. In conclusion, there is a series of readings which reassess the dramatic portrayal of a selection of holy and vulgar women - the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, Mrs Noah and Dame Procula. The emphasis throughout the book is upon a performance-based analysis. Evidence from Records of Early English Drama, social, literary and cultural sources are drawn together in order to investigate how performances within the late Middle Ages were both shaped by, and shaped, the public image of women. KATIE NORMINGTON is Lecturer in Drama, Royal Holloway, London.Trade ReviewExpertly arranged and solidly researched [this is] an excellent introduction to and qualification of the study of gender in the mystery cycles. * MEDIUM AEVUM *Presenting an extremely complex and controversial subject in a very readable fashion, this book will be welcome, whether or not one agrees with [the author]. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *A worthy addition to university libraries, and it will be a must read for those medievalists exploring drama and the representation of gender. * MEDIEVAL REVIEW *

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Book SynopsisA special number devoted to Celtic material. This special number of the well-established series Arthurian Literature is devoted to Celtic material. Contributions, from leading experts in Celtic Studies, cover Welsh, Irish and Breton material, from medieval texts to oral traditions surviving into modern times. The volume reflects current trends and new approaches in this field whilst also making available in English material hitherto inaccessible to those with no reading knowledge of the Celticlanguages. CERIDWEN LLOYD-MORGAN has published widely in the field of Arthurian studies. She is currently Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Welsh, Cardiff University.Table of ContentsArthur of the Irish: a viable concept? - Ann Dooley Performing Culhwch ac Olwen - Sioned Davies Court and Cyuoeth: Chretien de Troyes' Eric et Enide and the Middle Welsh Gereint - Helen Angharad Roberts Owein, Ystorya Bown, and the problem of `relative distance' Some methodological considerations and speculations - Erich Poppe Neither flesh nor fowl: Merlin as bird-man in Breton folk tradition - Mary-Ann Constantine Narratives and non-narratives: aspects of Welsh Arthurian tradition - Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan

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Book SynopsisA generous, energetic, engaging work... will be important to Beowulf study for years to come. THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW Beowulf is the best known and most closely studied literary work surviving from Anglo-Saxon England, and the modern reader is faced with a bewildering number and variety of interpretations about such basic matters as the date, provenance, and significance of the poem. A Critical Companion to Beowulf addresses these and other issues, reviewing and synthesising previous scholarship, as well as offering fresh perspectives. After an initial introduction to the poem, attention is focused on such matters as the manuscript context and approaches to dating the poem; the particular style, diction, and structure of this most idiosyncratic of Old English texts; the background tothe poem (considered not simply with respect to historical and legendary material, but also in the context of myth and fable); the specific roles of selected individual characters, both major and minor; and the original intendedaudience and perceived purpose of the poem. A final chapter describes the range of critical approaches which have been applied to the poem in the past, and points towards directions for future study. ANDY ORCHARD is Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, University of OxfordTrade ReviewThis long-awaited book helps the reader to gain a clear grasp of the state of Beowulf scholarship. The breadth of learning and insight...will make this book an indispensable tool for beginner and advanced scholar alike. * MEDIUM AEVUM *It is hard to imagine a more thorough introduction. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Earns a place among the indispensable works of Beowulf scholarship. Sensibly organised, elegantly written, and thoroughly referenced, it is both learned and accessible, inviting for students...but insightful enough to engage experienced readers.... Any reader of Beowulf will find much pleasure in this book, and it is a worthy companion indeed. * MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW *Clearly the product of deep and thoughtful scholarship, it applies its critical approach with confidence and flair. This authoritative book is full of ideas and insights. * ENGLISH STUDIES *Could have been twice as long without losing its interest. It outlines, usually in terms that will be accessible to students, a wide range of critical issues. [...] A landmark study.and likely to be the reference one turns to for succinct and intelligent treatment of many issues in the poem. * TOEBI NEWSLETTER *

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Book SynopsisThe essays in this collection present a range of new ideas and approaches in Malory studies, looking again [as the title suggests] at several of the most debated critical points. A number of articles focus closely on the implications of the production of the text, ranging from the repercussions of the working habits of the Winchester scribes, as well as of Malory's printers and editors, to a reassessment of Caxton's Preface. There are also nuanced readingsof geography and politics in the Morte Darthur and its fifteenth-century contexts, and analyses of text and context in relation to the role of women, character and theme in the Morte, including the important questions of worshyp and mesure, as well as the issues of coherence and genre.Trade ReviewIntriguing scholarly discussions, well-informed by earlier criticism but willing to move beyond the implications of previous secondary literature. * MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Attests to the sophistication with which scholars are returning to the familiar and fundamental questions of Malory studies. * ARTHURIANA *Table of ContentsIntroduction - Peter J.C. Field Corrected Mistakes in the Winchester Manuscript - Takako Kato Textual Harassment: Caxton, de Worde, and Malory's Morte Darthur - D Thomas Hanks Jr `thynges forsayd aledged': Historia and argumentum in Caxton's Preface to the Morte Darthur - Thomas Howard Crofts From `Saracens' to `Infydeles': The Recontextualization of the East in Caxton's Edition of Le Morte Darthur - Meg Roland Malory's `Tale of King Arthur' and the Political Geography of Fifteenth-Century England - Robert L Kelly Symbolic Uses of Space in Malory's Morte Darthur - Dhira B Mahoney Women's Worship: Female Versions of Chivalric Honour - Lisa Robeson `Oute of mesure': Violence and Knighthood in Malory's Morte Darthur - Raluca Radulescu Why Every Knight Needs His Lady: Re-viewing Questions of Genre and `Cohesion' in Malory's Le Morte Darthur - Fiona Tolhurst On Misunderstanding Malory's Balyn - Kevin S Whetter

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Book SynopsisBroad and wide-ranging survey of and investigation into the important question of whether medieval narrative was designed for performance. This book provides the first comprehensive study of the performance of medieval narrative, using examples from England and the Continent and a variety of genres to examine the crucial question of whether - and how - medieval narratives were indeed intended for performance. Moving beyond the familiar dichotomy between oral and written literature, the various contributions emphasize the range and power of medieval performance traditions, and demonstrate thatknowledge of the modes and means of performance is crucial for appreciating medieval narratives. The book is divided into four main parts, with each essay engaging with a specific issue or work, relating it to larger questions about performance. It first focuses on representations of the art of medieval performers of narrative. It then examines relationships between narrative performances and the material books that inspired, recorded, or representedthem. The next section studies performance features inscribed in texts and the significance of considering performability. The volume concludes with contributions by present-day professional performers who bring medieval narratives to life for contemporary audiences. Topics covered include orality, performance, storytelling, music, drama, the material book, public reading, and court life.Trade ReviewThis excellent collection proves that on the stage, oral and gestural performance are just as important as texts. [It] is warmly recommended for purchase by university libraries and schools of acting. * FIFTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES *This excellent collection proves that on the stage, oral and gestural performance are just as important as texts. * FIFTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES *Will be of interest to historians of performance as well as to literary historians. * ARTHURIANA *Brings together a rich variety of insights regarding the performance of many different types of medieval narrative. * ECONOMIA *Table of ContentsIntroduction [with Nancy Freeman Regalado and Marilyn Lawrence] - Evelyn Birge Vitz Introduction [with Evelyn Birge Vitz and Marilyn Lawrence] - Nancy Freeman Regalado Introduction [with Evelyn Birge Vitz and Nancy Freeman Regalado] - Marilyn Lawrence `He was the best teller of tales in the world': Performing Medieval Welsh Narrative - Sioned Davies The Complaint of the Makers: Wynnere and Wastoure and the `Misperformance Topos' in Medieval England - Joyce Coleman Dioneo's Repertory: Performance and Writing in Boccaccio's Decameron - John Ahern Mise en Texte as Indicator of Oral Performance in Old French Verse Narrative - Keith Busby Erotic Reading in the Middle Ages: Performance and Re-performance of Romance - Evelyn Birge Vitz Oral Performance of Written Narrative in the Medieval French Romance Ysaÿe le Triste - Marilyn Lawrence Performing Romance: Arthurian Interludes in Sarrasin's Le roman du Hem [1278] - Nancy Freeman Regalado Performing Fabliaux - Brian Levy Preaching, Storytelling, and the Performance of Short Pious Narratives - Adrian P. Tudor Reading, Reciting, and Performing the Renart - Kenneth Varty Turkic Bard and Medieval Entertainer: What a Living Epic Tradition Can Tell Us about Oral Performance of Narrative in the Middle Ages - Karl Reichl Beowulf, the Edda, and the Performance of Medieval Epic: Notes from the Workshop of a Reconstructed `Singer of Tales' - Benjamin Bagby The Weddynge of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell: Performance and Intertextuality in Middle English Popular Romance - Linda Marie Zaerr `Une aventure vous dirai': Performing Medieval Narrative - Anne Azéma Sequels [with Nancy Freeman Regalado and Marilyn Lawrence] - Evelyn Birge Vitz Sequels [with Evelyn Birge Vitz and Marilyn Lawrence] - Nancy Freeman Regalado Sequels [with Evelyn Birge Vitz and Nancy Freeman Regalado] - Marilyn Lawrence

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Book SynopsisOne of the most important medieval authors studied in historical and literary context. Chrétien de Troyes is arguably the creator of Arthurian romance, and it is on his work that later writers have based their interpretations. This book offers both crucial information on, and a comprehensive coverage of, all aspectsof the work of Chrétien de Troyes - the literary and historical background, patronage, his influence on other writers, manuscripts and editions of his work and, at the heart of the volume, major essays on his themes, techniques and artistic achievements in each of his compositions; the contributions, all from leading experts in Chrétien and related studies, have been commissioned especially for this volume and are designed to remain accessible to studentswhile also addressing specialists in Arthurian studies and Chrétien de Troyes. They reflect the most current critical and scholarly views on one of the greatest of medieval authors. CONTRIBUTORS: JOHN W. BALDWIN, JUNE HALL MCCASH, LAURENCE HARF-LANCNER, NORRIS J. LACY, DOUGLAS KELLY, KEITH BUSBY, PETER F. DEMBOWSKI, ROBERTA L. KRUEGER, DONALD MADDOX, SARA STURM-MADDOX, JOAN TASKER GRIMBERT, MATILDA TOMARYN BRUCKNER, TONY HUNT, RUPERT T. PICKENS, ANNIE COMBES, MICHELLE SZKILNIK, EMMANUELE BAUMGARTNERTrade ReviewStudents will find this volume comprehensive and informative. * FRENCH STUDIES *Sixteen authoritative yet witty essays grace this impressive volume. A useful, well-edited and friendly 'companion'. * ECONOMIA *A wonderful collection of essays. * ARTHURIANA *Offers worthwhile insights for students of medieval literature. * MLR *A fine collection...an excellent introduction to Chrétien world and work. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *A useful book for the classroom and independent studies. * MEDIUM AEVUM *Table of ContentsChrétien in History - John Baldwin Chrétien's Patrons - June Hall McCash Chrétien's Literary Background - Laurence Harf-Lancner The Arthurian Legend before Chrétien - Norris J. Lacy Narrative Poetics: Rhetoric, Orality and Performance - Douglas Kelly The Manuscripts of Chrétien's Romances - Keith Busby Editing Chrétien - Peter F Dembowski Philomena: Brutal Transitions and Courtly Transformations in Chrétien's Old French Translation - Roberta L Krueger Erec et Enide: The First Arthurian Romance [with Sara Sturm Maddox] - Donald L Maddox Eric et Enide: The First Arthurian Romance [with Donald Maddox] - Sara Sturm-Maddox Cligés and the Chansons: A Slave to Love - Joan Tasker Grimbert Le Chevalier de la Charrette: That Obscure Object of Desire, Lancelot - Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner Le Chevalier au Lion: Yvain Lionheart - Tony Hunt Le Conte du Graal: Chrétien's Unfinished Last Romance - Rupert Pickens The Continuations of the Conte du Graal - Annie Combes Medieval Translations and Adaptations of Chrétien's Works - Michelle Szkilnik Chrétien's Medieval Influence: From the Grail Quest to the Joy of the Court - Emmanuèle Baumgartner

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Book Synopsis`The Index of Middle English Prose when completed will be a monumental achievement' REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES Cambridge University Library is one of Britain's major repositories of medieval manuscripts. Its two-letter collection (Dd-Oo) includes just over 1,000 medieval western manuscripts, and amongst these may be found examples of everytype of Middle English prose composition. Religious works predominate: there are several copies of the Wycliffite Bible, various sermon cycles, and works by Love, Hilton and Rolle; there is also a vast number of unattributed religious works. Secular texts are represented by the works of Chaucer, Mandeville's Travels, and no fewer than eight copies of the Brut. The collection is also extremely rich in Middle English prose writing in the fields of science and information, preserving medical, gynaecological, veterinary, culinary, alchemical, mathematical, heraldic and linguistic texts. Altogether the current handlist covers 207 manuscripts, and indexes more than 1250 separate items. MARGARET CONNOLLY teaches in the School of English at the University of St Andrews.Trade ReviewA major achievement and she is to be congratulated for accuracy, consistency, and (certainly) perseverance. [...] Connolly is to be congratulated on a work of major scholarship-and the largest IMEP published to date. * JOURNAL OF THE EARLY BOOK SOCIETY *The sheer number and variety of items indexed in this Handlist guarantee its indispensability to researchers for many years to come. * MEDIUM AEVUM *(Reviewed together with Index of Middle English Prose, XX) Both volumes are very welcome additions to the series. * BULLETIN CODICOLOGIQUE *

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Book SynopsisSelection of the latest research in Arthurian studies. The essays in this volume present the most recent fruits of Arthurian scholarship, on texts from Perlesvaus to Albrecht's Jüngerer Titurel and the Prose BrutChronicle, together with a detailed examination of the role of Micheau Gonnot's Arthuriad in the evolution of Arthurian romance. The volume also includes an investigation of Arthurian prophecy and the deposition of Richard II. It is completed with an encyclopaedic treatment of Arthurian literature, art and film produced between 1999 and 2004, acting as a continuing update to The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. Contributors: BEN RAMM, FANNI BOGDANOW, ANNETTE VOLFING, HELEN FULTON, JULIA MARVIN, RAYMOND H. THOMPSON, NORRIS J. LACYTrade ReviewThe volume as a whole contributes to a wide spectrum of Arthurian studies, including things old and things very new. * NOTES & QUERIES *Table of ContentsLocating Narrative Authority in Perlesvaus: Le Haut Livre du Graal - Ben Ramm Micheau Gonnot's Arthuriad Preserved in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS f. fr. 112 and its Place in the Evolution of Arthurian RomanceArthurian Romance - Fanni Bogdanow Albrecht's Juengerer Titurel: Translating the Grail - Annette Voelfing Arthurian Prophecy and the Deposition of Richard II - H E Fulton Arthur Authorized: The Prophecies of the Prose Brut Chronicle - Julia Marvin The Arthurian Legend in Literature, Popular Culture and the Performing Arts, 1999-2004 - Raymond H Thompson The Arthurian Legend in Literature, Popular Culture and the Performing Arts, 1999-2004 - Norris J. Lacy

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Book SynopsisArticles centred on the use made by European nations of medieval texts and other artefacts to define their history and origins. The 19th century was a time of fierce national competition for the "ownership" of medieval documents and the legitimation of national histories. This volume contains papers dealing with the attempts of French scholars to claim English documents (and vice versa), as also of disputes between Scandinavian and British scholars, and Dutch, German and Italian scholars. Regionalism is also a repeated topic, with claims made for the autonomy of Frisia within the Netherlands, and Languedoc within France. Other papers deal with the rediscovery of medieval music, with early American attempts to redirect the course of 20th century poetry by appeal to medieval precedent, and with the continuing vitality of Dante's Divina Commedia (especially the Inferno) in the light of 20th century experience. The volume as a whole sheds new light on the whole process of appropriating history, which remains a vital and contentioustopic, both inside and outside the academic world. CONTRIBUTORS: MARK BURDE, MAGNUS FJALLDAL, ALPITA DE JONG, ANNETTE KREUZIGER-HERR, NILS HOLGER PETERSEN, RACHEL DRESSLER, KARL FUGELS, WILLIAM QUINN, PETER CHRISTENSENTable of ContentsLong-lost Letters: Francisque Michel's Contribution to the Invention of French Medieval Literary Studies - Mark Burde A Lot of Learning is a Dang'rous Thing: The Ruthwell Cross Runes and their Icelandic Interpreters - Magnus Fjalldal Joast Halbertsma, Jacob Grimm, and Count Carlo Ottavio Castiglioni : Nineteenth-Century Sensitivities concerning a Gothic Bible TranslationTranslation - Alpita de Jong Imagining Medieval Music: a Short History - Annette Kreutziger-Herr The Medievalism of Carl Maria von Weber's Euryanthe - Nils Holger Petersen "Those effigies which belonged to the English Nation": Antiquarianism, Nationalism, and Charles Alfred Stothard's Monumental Effigies of Great BritainMonumental Effigies of Great Britain - Rachel Dressler Commedia Images in the Neo-Gothic Age[s] - Harriet Monroe as Queen-Critic of Chaucer and Langland [viz. Ezra Pound] - William A. Quinn Zoë Oldenbourg, the Albigensian Crusade, and Terrorist Repression - Peter Christensen

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Book SynopsisComprehensive survey of the Middle English lyric, one of the most important forms of medieval literature. Winner of a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award The Middle English lyric occupies a place of considerable importance in the history of English literature. Here, for the first time in English, are found many features of formal and thematic importance: they include rhyme scheme, stanzaic form, the carol genre, love poetry in the manner of the troubadour poets, and devotional poems focusing on the love, suffering and compassion of Christ and theVirgin Mary. The essays in this volume aim to provide both background information on and new assessments of the lyric. By treating Middle English lyrics chapter by chapter according to their kinds - poems dealing with love, with religious devotion, with moral, political and popular themes, and those associated with preaching - it provides the awareness of their characteristic cultural contexts and literary modalities necessary for an informed critical reading. Full account is taken of the scholarship upon which our knowledge of these lyrics rests, especially the outstanding contributions of the last few decades and such recent insights as those of gender criticism. Also included are detailed discussions of the valuable information afforded by the widely varying manuscript contexts in which Middle English lyrics survive and of the diverse issues involved in editing these texts. Separate chapters are devotedto the carol, which came to prominence in the fifteenth century, and to Middle Scots lyrics which, at the end of the Middle English lyric tradition, present some sophisticated productions of an entirely new order. Contributors: Julia Boffey, Thomas G. Duncan, John Scattergood, Vincent Gillespie, Christiania Whitehead, Douglas Gray, Karl Reichl, Thorlac Turville-Petre, Alan J. Fletcher, Bernard O'Donoghue, Sarah Stanbury and Alasdair A. MacDonald. THOMAS G. DUNCAN is Honorary Senior Lecturer, School of English, University of St AndrewsTrade ReviewA very successful collection of articles on the shorter poems of medieval England and Scotland. * ARCHIV *An important collection. [...] The essays in this collection are of great significance, covering everything from manuscript context to political approaches to Middle Scots lyrics. * THE YEAR'S WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES *This comprehensive companion is a welcome resource, providing a variety of approaches and a wealth of examples. * ECONOMIA *An expertly assembled and immaculately produced volume which will not be easily surpassed as an introduction to this important field. * ANGLIA *A most welcome addition to studies of the medieval lyric. Admirably combines informative and precisely detailed contextual material with critically acute and original readings. * MEDIUM AEVUM *Proves a most useful guide to the Middle English lyric and its modern scholarship. * ENGLISH STUDIES *Table of ContentsIntroduction - Thomas G. Duncan Middle English Lyrics: Metre and Editorial Practice - Thomas G. Duncan The love lyric before Chaucer - John Scattergood Moral and Penitential Lyrics - Vincent Gillespie Middle English Religious Lyrics - Christiania Whitehead Middle English Courtly Lyrics: Chaucer to Henry VIII - D Gray The Middle English Carol - Karl Reichl Political Lyrics - Thorlac Turville-Petre The Lyric in the Sermon - Alan J Fletcher 'Cuius Contrarium': Middle English Popular Lyrics - Bernard O'Donoghue Gender and Voice in Middle English Religious Lyrics - Sarah Stanbury Lyrics in Middle Scots -

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Book SynopsisText with facing translation of the earliest Italian Tristan romance, providing new evidence for the development of the Tristan strand of the Arthurian legend. This is the first English translation of the earliest Italian Tristan romance, the Tristano Riccardiano, preserved in MS 2543 of the Biblioteca Riccardiana in Florence. In Italy, Tristan was more popular than any other Arthurian hero; the French prose Tristan gained great currency, soon yielding Italian prose translations / adaptations. The Riccardiano, dating from the late 13th century, is notable for representing an early branch of the French prose Tristan, now lost. The translation offers new evidence for the development of the Tristan story in Europe, particularly in the changes it rings on the themes of love, chivalry, honor, betrayal, and adultery.In theme and narrative style the Riccardiano reflects a new audience and a new social context, that of an urban Tuscan middle class, and an important stage in the emergence of Italian prose narrative. The text and translation are presented here with an introduction, a select bibliography, and index. F. REGINA PSAKI is the Giustina Family Professor of Italian Language and Literature at the University of Oregon.Trade Review[Features] an excellent English rendering. * ENCOMIA *The translation is a wonderful read. [...] An eminently readable, usable, and careful volume. An exemplary work. * SPECULUM *[The author] is to be congratulated on bringing this mammoth task of translation to such a welcome conclusion. * MEDIUM AEVUM *

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Book SynopsisEssays exploring Chaucer's identity as a London poet and the urban context for his writings. Literature of the city and the city in literature are topics of major contemporary interest. This volume enhances our understanding of Chaucer's iconic role as a London poet, defining the modern sense of London as a city in history, steeped in its medieval past. Building on recent work by historians on medieval London, as well as modern urban theory, the essays address the centrality of the city in Chaucer's work, and of Chaucer to a literature and a language of the city. Contributors explore the spatial extent of the city, imaginatively and geographically; the diverse and sometimes violent relationships between communities, and the use of language to identify and speak for communities; the worlds of commerce, the aristocracy, law, and public order. A final section considers the longer history and memory of the medieval city beyond the devastations of the Great Fire and into the Victorian period. Dr ARDIS BUTTERFIELD is Reader in English at University College London. Contributors: ARDIS BUTTERFIELD, MARION TURNER, RUTH EVANS, BARBARA NOLAN, CHRISTOPHER CANNON, DEREK PEARSALL, HELEN COOPER, C. DAVID BENSON, ELLIOTKENDALL, JOHN SCATTERGOOD, PAUL DAVIS, HELEN PHILLIPSTrade ReviewThe dozen essays of this attractive collection offer scholarship of critical substance and originality that deserves to be considered and responded to by students of Chaucer and his times. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMAN PHILOLOGY *A significant contribution to the present and future state of Chaucerian scholarship. * STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE TEACHING *Offers twelve richly informative essays. [...] Required reading for anyone interested in London history, Chaucer's social context, or medieval urban culture. * SPECULUM *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Chaucer and the Detritus of the City - Ardis Butterfield Greater London - Marion Turner The Production of Space in Chaucer's London - Ruth Evans Chaucer's Poetics of Dwelling in Troilus and Criseyde - Barbara Nolan Chaucer and the Language of London - Christopher Cannon The Canterbury Tales and London Club Culture - Derek Pearsall London and Southwark Poetic Companies: `Si tost c'amis' and the Canterbury Tales - Helen Cooper Literary Contests and London Records in the Canterbury Tales - C. David Benson The Great Household in the City: The Shipman's Tale - Elliot Kendall London and Money: Chaucer's Complaint to His Purse - John Scattergood After the Fire: Chaucer and Urban Poetics, 1666-1743 - Paul Davis Chaucer and the Nineteenth-Century City - Helen Phillips

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Book SynopsisA wide overview of court culture in the middle ages. The court exercised an enormous amount of influence on the culture of the middle ages, as the essays collected here demonstrate. They examine a wide variety of different areas of medieval courtly culture, from the history of the book through courtly music to the theory of courtesy and courtly love. While some authors deal with the central texts of courtly literature, such as Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, Marie de France's Lais, the romances of Chrétien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Strassburg, and the corpus of courtly lyric in various languages, others consider less-studied works like Galeran de Bretagne, or the French version of the Disciplina Clericalis. Several contributions take a comparative approach to courtly texts outside the Western tradition, while others point to the courtly nature of chronicle literature and to courtly influences on religious-didactic works. The volume as a whole thus presents an overview of medieval court culture. Contributors: GLORIA ALLAIRE, LAURA D. BAREFIELD, ANNE BERTHELOT, BERT BEYNEN, JEAN BLACKER, WALTER BLUE, MAUREEN BOULTON, FRANKBRANDSMA, EMMA CAYLEY, MARCO CEROCCHI, CHRISTOPHER R. CLASON, ALAIN CORBELLARI, IVY A. CORFIS, PAUL CREAMER, EVELYN DATTA, JUDITH M. DAVIS, FIDEL FAJARDO-ACOSTA, YASMINA FOEHR-JANSSENS, STACY L. HAHN, CAROL HARVEY, C. STEPHEN JAEGER, KATHY M. KRAUSE, JUNE HALL MCCASH, MATTHIAS MEYER, EDWARD J. MILOWICKI, JEANNE A. NIGHTINGALE, CHRISTOPHER PAGE, ANA PAIRET, WENDY PFEFFER, RUPERT T. PICKENS, MARIA PREDELLI, SILVIA RANAWAKE, PAUL ROCKWELL, SAMUEL, N. ROSENBERG, JUDITH RICE ROTHSCHILD, MARY ROUSE, RICHARD ROUSE, MARIANNE SANDELS, SUSAN STAKEL, ALEXANDRA STERLING-HELLENBRAND, JOSEPH M. SULLIVAN, YUKO TAGAYA, RICHARD TRACHSLER, ADRIAN TUDOR, MARION UHLIG, LORI J. WALTERS, LOGAN E. WHALEN, VALERIE M. WILHITE, MONICA L. WRIGHT.Trade ReviewThis substantial volume reflects the richness and variety of courtly literature as well as the diversity of critical lenses through which contemporary scholars view medieval texts. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH & GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *Anyone interested in courtly literature is likely to find something valuable in this multifaceted wide-ranging volume. * ENCOMIA *An astonishingly rich volume.critically sophisticated and thought-provoking. * MEDIUM AEVUM *The study of courtly literature is well served with this large tome * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsForeword Book-Burning at Don Quixote's: Thoughts on the Educating Force of Courtly Romance - C. Stephen Jaeger Music and the Origins of Courtliness - The Crusade as Context: The Manuscripts of Athis et Prophilias - Richard Rouse and Mary Rouse Context and Reception: A Crusading Collection for Charles IV of France - Mary Rouse and Richard Rouse The Anti-Romances of Andrea da Baberino - Gloria Allaire From Trojan to Briton: Brutus's Masculinity and Lineage in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae - Laura D. Barefield Le Roman de fils du roi Costant: vertigier en "fin' amant" - Anne Berthelot Adultery and Death in Shot Rustaveli's The Man in the Panther Skin - G. Koolemans Beynen Courtly Revision of Wace's Roman de Brut in British Library Egerton MS 3028 - Jean Blacker Burgundian Devotional Manuscripts: Philip the Good - Maureen Boulton Mirror Characters - Frank Brandsma MS Sion Supersaxo 97bis: A Profeminine Reading of Alan Chartier's Verse - Baldesar Castiglione and The Book of the Courtier: Being a Musician, the Courtier May Achieve His Highest Goal: The Balance and Harmony of SpiritSpirit - Marco Cerocchi A Good Tale, and Reading It Well: Truth, Fiction and a Future Critical Perspective on Gottfried's Tristan - Christopher R. Clason Dire l'amour: étude comparée des modes du discours dans le De Amore d'André le Chapelain, le Collier de la Colombe et le Kama SutraSutra - Alain Corbellari The Representations of Illness in the Hispani Chivalric Romance - Ivy A. Corfis The Scope and Importance of the Color Palettes Used by the Conte du Graal Miniaturists - Paul Creamer Le Lai du Laüstic: espace poétic où forme et fond fusionnent - Evelyne Datta Giving the Devil His Due: Justice and Equity in L'Advocacie Nostre Dame - Judith Davis Desire, Subjectivity, and Subjection in Bernart de Ventadorn's "Can vei la lauzeta mover" - Fidel Fajardo-Acosta Quelle fin pour un eseignement d'un père à son fils? La clôture du texte dans les manuscrits des Fables Pierre Aufors (Chastoiement d'un père à son fils, version A)son fils, version A) - Yasmina Foehr-Janssens "Tel cuide vengier sa honte qui l'accroist": Wrath in Jean d'Arras's Roman de Mélusine - Stacey L. Hahn Challenging the Court: Kings and Queens in Les miracles de Nostre Dame par personages - Carol J Harvey Love is a Monologue: The Lack of Courtship in Old French Courtly Narrative - Kathy M. Krause The Mulier mediatrix in the Deus Amanz of Marie de France - June Hall McCash The End of the "Courtly Book" in Wolfram's Titurel - Matthias M A Meyer Chaucer, Astronomy, and Astrology: A Courtly Connection - Edward J. Milowicki Inscribing the Breath of a Speaking Voice: Vox Sponsae in St. Bernard's Sermons on the Canticles and in Chrétien's Erec et Enide - Jeanne A. Nightingale From Court to Empire: The Peninsular Trajectory of Oliveier de Castille - Ana Pairet Christmas Gifts in Medieval Occitania: Matfre Ermengaud's Letter to His Sister - Pat Ayers Reading Harley 978: Marie de France in Context - Rupert Pickens Monstrous Children of Lanval: The Cantare of Ponzela Gaia - Maria Bendinelli Predelli Compilers and Users of Medieval German Song Collections (1250-1500) - Silvia Ranawake The Promise of Laughter: Irony and Allegory in Le conte dou graal and Li chevaliers as deus espees - Paul Vincent Rockwell Incipit Citation in French Lyric Poetry of the Twelfth through Fourteenth Centuries - Samuel N. Rosenberg Minor Characters in Marie de France's Lais: Messengers and Their Messages - Judith Rice Rothschild Talking about the Poem in the Poem - Perhaps for Special Reasons? The Author (Male Author?) versus the Female "I" of the Poem? - Marianne Sandels Skeptical Takes on Courtly Culture in Les Miracles de Nostre Dame par personnages - Susan L. Stakel "daz hât diu harpfe getân": Music and Performance of Courtly Culture in Middle High German Courtly Literature - Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand The Merchant's Residence and Garden as locus amoenus in the Yiddish Dukus Horant - Joseph M. Sullivan Romantic Love to the Death: The Fair Maiden of Astolat in Malory's Morte D'Arthur and Lady Ariko in The Tale of Heike - Yuko Tagaya Uncourtly Texts in Courtly Books: Observations on MS Chantilly, Musée Condé 475 - Richard Trachsler Authority and Auctoritas in the Works of Jean Bodel - Adrian P. Tudor "Pour ce que cuers ne puet mentir": le personnage matenel dans Galeran de Bretagne de Renaut - Marion Uhlig Re-Examining Wace's Round Table - Lori J. Walters Ex libris Mariae: Courtly Book Iconography in the Illuminated Manuscripts of Marie de France - Logan E. Whalen Instructing the Court: Raimon Vidal's Pedagogy for the Courtly Joglar - Valerie M. Wilhite Chemise and Ceinture: Marie de France's Guigemar and the Use of Textiles - Monica L. Wright Equinec. A Recently Discovered Fourteenth Lai Composed by Marie de France - Walter A Blue

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Book SynopsisAn examination of the erotic in medieval literature which includes articles on the role of clothing and nudity, the tension between eroticism and transgression and religion and the erotic. This volume examines the erotic in the literature of medieval Britain, primarily in Middle English, but also in Latin, Welsh and Old French. Seeking to discover the nature of the erotic and how it differs from modern erotics, thecontributors address topics such as the Wife of Bath's opinions on marital eroticism, the role of clothing and nudity, the tension between eroticism and transgression, the interplay between religion and the erotic, and the hedonistic horrors of the cannibalistic Giant of Mont St Michel. Contributors: ALEX DAVIS, SIMON MEECHAM-JONES, JANE BLISS, SUE NIEBRZYDOWSKI, KRISTINA HILDEBRAND, ANTHONY BALE, CORY JAMES RUSHTON, CORINNE SAUNDERS, AMANDA HOPKINS, ROBERT ROUSE, MARGARET ROBSON, THOMAS H. CROFTS III, MICHAEL CICHON. AMANDA HOPKINS teaches in the department of English and Comparative Literary Studies and the department of French at the University of Warwick; CORY RUSHTON is in the Department of English at St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada.Trade Review[A]n impressive survey that invites us to rethink the role of sex in medieval English literature and thought. * ARTHURIANA *A multiplicity of perspectives on a discrete (yet vast) number of texts, many of which are romances, that lends a sense of completeness to the book as a whole. * COMITATUS *Table of ContentsForeword - Tony Grand Introduction `So wel koude he me glose': The Wife of Bath and the Eroticism of Touch - Sue Niebrzydowski The Lady's Man: Gawain as a Lover in Middle English Literature - Cory Rushton Erotic Magic: The Enchantress in Middle English Romance - Corinne Saunders `wordy vnthur wede': Clothing, Nakedness and the Erotic in some Romances of Medieval Britain - Amanda Hopkins `Some Like it Hot': The Medieval Eroticism of Heat - Robert Rouse How's Your Father? Sex and the Adolescent Girl in Sir Degarré - Margaret Robson The Female `Jewish' Libido in Medieval Culture - Anthony Bale Eros and Error: Gross Sexual Transgression in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi - Michael Cichon Perverse and Contrary Deeds: The Giant of Mont Saint Michel and the Alliterative Morte Arthure - Thomas Howard Crofts Her Desire and His: Letters between Fifteenth-century Lovers - Kristina Hildebrand Sex in the Sight of God: Theology and the Erotic in Peter of Blois' `Grates Ago Veneri' - Simon Meecham-Jones A Fine and Private Place - Jane Bliss Erotic Historiography: Writing the Self and History in Twelfth-century Romance and the Renaissance - Alexander Davis

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Book SynopsisThe latest volume of Rossetti's correspondence, scrupulously edited by a team of experts. On November 11, 1878, Rossetti wrote to Watts-Dunton: `Friday night exactly made a year since my return to London in 1877 & you know how well I have been the whole of that time.' Indeed, in 1878-79, Rossetti lived what might appear to be a more tranquil version of his first years at Cheyne Walk. The long breach with Ford Madox Brown finally ended, and he began to see his brother regularly again; and he managed to complete a number of commissions, and other paintings. However, as the correspondence collected here show, his depression was seldom far away; he was often unable to work. His repeated letters to Watts-Dunton and Shields, asking them to come over, reveal his need for companionship, preferably in his own home, that was a constant of his character. There are also a number of letters to Jane Morris.

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Book SynopsisA fresh and invigorating survey of the sea as it appears in medieval English literature, from romance to chronicle, hagiography to autobiography. As the first cultural history of the sea in medieval English literature, this book traces premodern myths of insularity from their Old English beginnings to Shakespeare's Tempest. Beginning with a discussion of biblical, classical and pre-Conquest treatments of the sea, it investigates how such works as the Anglo-Norman Voyage of St Brendan, the Tristan romances, the chronicles of Matthew Paris, King Horn, Patience, The Book of Margery Kempe and The Libelle of Englyshe Polycye shape insular ideologies of Englishness. Whether it is Britain's privileged place in the geography of salvation or the political fiction of the idyllic island fortress, medieval English writers' myths of the sea betray their anxieties about their own insular identity; their texts call on maritime motifs to define England geographically and culturally against the presence of the sea. New insights from a range of fields, including jurisprudence, theology, the history of cartography and anthropology, are used to provide fresh readings of a wide range of both insular and continental writings.Trade Review[U]n ouvrage agréable à lire et à regarder, une synthèse intelligente qui mérite attention! * CAHIERS DE CIVILISATION MÉDIÉVALE *Engaging and groundbreaking. [...] Ultimately this work traverses languages, genres, and historical periods, and - much like the sea itself - it opens up many trajectories for future exploration. * SPECULUM *Sobecki's impressive range of languages is worthy of mention, as is his clear and eminently readable prose. [...] this book offers a valuable range of impressions in its readings of the sea in medieval English literature, as well as an excellent survey of the theme as a whole. * MEDIUM ÆVUM *The author is original both in his approach to early English, Latin, and French texts and in his intellectual adventurousness. [...] This book hence reveals uncommon intellectual curiosity. One looks forward to Sobecki's future work. * MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction Traditions Deserts and Forests in the Ocean Almost beyond the World Realms in Abeyance Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea A Thousand Furlongs of Sea Epilogue: The Tempest's Many Beginnings Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis'The Index of Middle English Prose' is an international collaborative project which will ultimately locate, identify and record all extant Middle English prose texts composed between c.1200 and c.1500, in both manuscript and printed form in medieval and post-medieval versions. The first step towards this goal has been this series of 'Handlists', each recording the holdings of a major library or group of libraries. Compiled by scholars, 'Handlists' include detailed descriptions of each prose item with identifications, categorisations and full bibliographical data. Every 'Handlist' will also contain a series of indexes including listings of opening and closing lines, authors, titles, subject matter and rubrics. For students of the middle ages 'Handlists' provide essential bibliographical tools and shed light on a wide range of subjects.

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Book SynopsisThe great scholar and palaeographer Sir Frederic Madden (1801-73) was Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum (as it then was) when most of the items in this 'Handlist' were acquired. The manuscripts here represented, from the still expanding Additional collection, provide examples of almost every kind of Middle English prose composition. Many of the items in this 'Handlist' are well known, but some have been previously overlooked and a surprising number remain unedited.

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Book SynopsisThe Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, contains the largest collection of medieval manuscripts of any college in Great Britain, and one of the most important collections in the world. The subjects contained therein cover the whole range of topics usual to medieval manuscripts, with the single bias being that the majority were produced in Britain. Particularly noteworthy are Wycliffite translations of the Bible, sermons, and Wycliffite tracts; three manuscripts containing Nicholas Love's 'Mirror of the Blessed Lif of Ihesu Crist'; and major collections of devotional texts. Trinity is also rich in medieval scientific manuscripts, many of which came through Roger Gale's interest in this field; they include a number of large medical manuscripts whose compilers were apparently trying to bring together much of the current knowledge of the day, from tracts by such men as John of Arderne and Gilbertus Angelicus, with recipes for treatments, under a single cover. The collection also contains major compilations of alchemical tracts; historical and legal material; and unique Middle English translations of classical and early medieval texts. Finally, a number of known Middle English texts not previously thought to be in the Trinity Collection are identified, opening new areas for study of Trinity's manuscripts, especially the medical and scientific texts which have much to tell of scientific learning in England in the later middle ages. LINNE R. MOONEY is Associate Professor of English at the University of Maine (and a former graduate of the Center for Medieval Studies at Toronto).

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Book SynopsisThis volume contains indexes to a university library, a monastic library, two cathedral libraries, a diocesan library and three record offices. Outstanding among the manuscripts are two Wycliffite New Testaments and John Mirk's popular sermon collection 'The Festial'.

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Book SynopsisThe John Rylands and Chetham's Libraries, Manchester, were both founded by charitable local magnates and in the course of time have become well known in many parts of the world. Housed in their striking original premises, they both contain major collections of manuscripts which in each case include important texts in Middle English prose. In particular, the Rylands collection, which is the larger, has fifteen copies of the Wycliffite Bible, six of the prose 'Brut', three of Nicholas Love's 'Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesu Christ<', two of 'Pore Caitif', as well as single copies of numerous other works. Chetham's has a Wycliffite Bible, a 'Mandeville's Travels', a 'Polychronicon' translation by Trevisa, lives of Christ and of the saints, and an important series of scientific and medical texts. The 'Handlist' of these manuscripts describes each text and gives concise bibliographical information on each, in the same style as the previously published 'Handlist I' covering the Huntington Library.

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Book SynopsisThe Parisian manuscript collections checked for the compilation of this handlist are the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Bibliotheque Mazarine and the Bibliotheque Sainte Genevieve. They contain a miscellaneous but interesting set of Middle English prose texts: there is the Middle English version of Guy de Chauliac's 'Cyrurgie'; a 'Brut'; four miscellanies of religious matter, including a 'Pore Caitif' and a 'Lay Folks' Catechism', as well as texts by Rolle and Hilton. There is also Julian of Norwich's Showings, and the polemical Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards.

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Book SynopsisOxford college libraries house more than 2,500 Western medieval manuscripts, of which 155 contain prose writings in the vernacular; this Handlist indexes some 750 items. Major religious works include Hilton's 'Scale of Perfection', Love's 'Mirror', Rolle's 'Form of Living', the anonymous 'Cloud of Unknowing', 'Abbey of the Holy Ghost', 'Book of the Craft of Dying', 'Disce Mori', 'Lay Folks' Catechism, 'Sacerdos Parochialis', and other manuals of pastoral instruction. Chaucer, Mandeville, and Trevisa are prominent among secular authors. Historical prose includes four copies of 'The Brut', the 'Chronicles of London', and a translation of the 'Modus tenendi parliamentum'. Medical writing is well represented,and there are numerous utilitarian and scientific texts, including gardening and travel, and works on alchemy and astrology. S.J. OGILVIE-THOMPSON's published work includes editions of Walter Hilton's 'Mixed Life', and 'Richard Rolle: Prose and Verse' for the Early English Text Society.

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Book SynopsisAmong the finest manuscripts are a 'Roman de la Rose' with 125 miniatures, a 'Piers Plowman', the 'Ormsby Psalter' and the famous 'Douce Apocalypse'.

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Book SynopsisA fine collection...an excellent introduction to Chrétien's world and work. Highly recommended. CHOICE Chrétien de Troyes is arguably the creator of Arthurian romance, and it is on his work that later writers have based their interpretations. This book offers both crucial information on, and a comprehensive coverage of, all aspectsof the work of Chrétien de Troyes - the literary and historical background, patronage, his influence on other writers, manuscripts and editions of his work and, at the heart of the volume, major essays on the themes, techniques and artistic achievements in each of his compositions; the contributions, all from leading experts in Chrétien and related studies, have been commissioned especially for this volume and are designed to remain accessible to studentswhile also addressing specialists in Arthurian studies and Chrétien de Troyes. They reflect the most current critical and scholarly views on one of the greatest of medieval authors. CONTRIBUTORS: JOHN W. BALDWIN, JUNEHALL MCCASH, LAURENCE HARF-LANCNER, NORRIS J. LACY, DOUGLAS KELLY, KEITH BUSBY, PETER F. DEMBOWSKI, ROBERTA L. KRUEGER, DONALD MADDOX, SARA STURM-MADDOX, JOAN TASKER GRIMBERT, MATILDA TOMARYN BRUCKNER, TONY HUNT, RUPERT T. PICKENS, ANNIE COMBES, MICHELLE SZKILNIK, EMMANUELE BAUMGARTNERTrade ReviewFor specialists and non-specialists alike this must be the ultimate Chrétien vademecum. * PENDRAGON *The works of Chrétien de Troyes have generated a dauntingly large body of scholarship. For anyone unsure of where to begin. A Companion to Chrétien de Troyes offers an ideal starting point. [It] captures beautifully the richness and variety of Chrétien research. Reading through A Companion to Chrétien de Troyes is like taking a dream course on Chrétien. The contributors' expertise ensures an abundance of thought-provoking material, leading to a collection that deserves a place in every academic library. * THE FRENCH REVIEW *Students will find this volume comprehensive and informative. * FRENCH STUDIES *Table of ContentsChrétien in History - John Baldwin Chrétien's Patrons - June Hall McCash Chrétien's Literary Background - Laurence Harf-Lancner The Arthurian Legend before Chrétien - Norris J. Lacy Narrative Poetics: Rhetoric, Orality and Performance - Douglas Kelly The Manuscripts of Chrétien's Romances - Keith Busby Editing Chrétien - Peter F Dembowski Philomena: Brutal Transitions and Courtly Transformations in Chrétien's Old French Translation - Roberta L Krueger Eric et Endie: The First Arthurian Romance - Sara Sturm-Maddox Eric et Enide: The First Arthurian Romance - Donald L Maddox Cligés and the Chansons: A Slave to Love - Joan Tasker Grimbert Le Chevalier de la Charrette That Obscure Object of Desire, Lancelot - Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner Le Chevalier au Lion: Yvain Lionheart - Tony Hunt Le Conte du Graal: Chrétien's Unfinished Last Romance - Rupert Pickens The Continuations of the Conte du Graal - Annie Combes Medieval Translations and Adaptations of Chrétien's Works - Michelle Szkilnik Chrétien's Medieval Influence From the Grail Quest to the Joy of the Court - Emmanuèle Baumgartner

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Book SynopsisThe idea of the quest, crucial to Arthurian literature, investigated in texts, manuscripts, and film. The theme of the quest in Arthurian literature - mainly but not exclusively the Grail quest - is explored in the essays presented here, covering French, Dutch, Norse, German, and English texts. A number of the essays trace the relationship, often negative, between Arthurian chivalry and the Grail ethos. Whereas most of the contributors reflect on the popularity of the Grail quest, several examine the comparative rarity of the Grail in certain literatures and define the elaboration of quest motifs severed from the Grail material. An appendix to the volume offers a filmography that includes all the cinematic treatments of the Grail, either as central theme or minor motif. This book will appeal to students, scholars, and general readers fascinated by the Arthurian and Grail legends. CONTRIBUTORS: NORRIS J. LACY, ANTONIO FURTADO, WILL HASTY, RICHARD TRACHSLER, MARIANNE E. KALINKE, MARTINE MEUWESE, DAVID F. JOHNSON, PHILLIP BOARDMAN, CAROLINE D. ECKHARDT, P.J.C. FIELD, JAMES P. CARLEY, RICHARD BARBER, KEVIN J. HARTYTrade ReviewThis collection has much to commend it [and is] beautifully and extensively illustrated. [It] is a welcome contribution to Arthurian studies. * ENGLISH *This is an elegant, gracious and necessary compendium of contemporary Grail scholarship. * ARTHURIANA *This volume is essential for Arthurian scholars, but will also be of interest to anyone who teaches Arthurian material on any level. * CAHIERS DE RECHERCHES MEDIEVALES *Readers will find in this collection a good number of compelling, original perspectives on a broad range of topic areas. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *12 exciting and well-written essays. [...] Written by highly respected Arthurian scholars, all the essays offer new contributions to the representations of the Grail, the Grail quest, and questing in general. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *While The Grail, the Quest, and the World of Arthur will have unquestioned value for scholars working in Arthurian studies, it has much to say to the non-specialist, particularly as it traces some of the contemporary contours of a busy and broadly fascinating field. * STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE TEACHING *Table of ContentsForeword - Norris J. Lacy Introduction: Arthur and/or the Grail - Norris J. Lacy The Shape of the Grail in Medieval Art - Martine Meuwese The Crusaders' Grail - Antonio L. Furtado Bounds of Imagination: Grail Questing and Chivalric Colonizing in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival - Will Hasty The Land Without the Grail: A Note on Occitania, Rigaut de Barbezieux and Literary History - Richard Trachsler Female Desire and the Quest in the Icelandic Legend of Tristram and Ísodd - Marianne Kalinke Questing in the Middle Dutch Lancelot Compilation - David F. Johnson Keeping Company: Manuscript Contexts for Reading Arthurian Quest Narratives - Caroline Eckhardt Grail and Quest in the Medieval English World of Arthur - Phillip C Boardman Malory and the Grail: The Importance of Detail - Peter J.C. Field Glastonbury, the Grail-Bearer and the Sixteenth-Century Antiquaries - James Carley The Grail Quest: Where Next? - Richard Barber Appendix: The Grail on Film - Kevin J Harty

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Book SynopsisMedieval humour revealed in an anthology of 80 tales from England, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. During the middle ages, a common fund of comic tales circulated throughout Europe. Writers such as Boccaccio, Chaucer, Rabelais and Cervantes drew on this material, and used it for their own purposes, but the brilliant medieval versions also deserve to be known in their own right. They are of great cultural interest and considerable entertainment value, varying from humour to farce, from sophisticated literary parody to blunt crudeness. Piety jostles blasphemy, and sex and death are everywhere good for a joke. The tales presented here, translated into clear modern English by experts in their fields, are from French, Spanish, Dutch, German, medieval Latin, Italian and English. .Scholars and students and the general reader alike will find the book accessible, useful and enjoyable. The late DEREK BREWER was Professor Emeritus of English Literature, University of Cambridge.Trade Review(reviewed together with Medieval Ghost Stories) Both make a delightful contribution to our understanding and mapping of those mental landscapes. They also allowed me to see the physical medieval landscape differently, reminding me that in the medieval period it had supernatural and metaphorical dimensions. In these tales a wide range of medieval people come to life. * FINDS RESEARCH GROUP NEWSLETTER *

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Book SynopsisThe B-version of 'Piers Plowman', perhaps the only version authorised by Langland, is the one most frequently read today, and the most influential form of the poem. This catalogue of the extant medieval manuscripts, now locaed in Cambridge, London, Oxford, Tokyo, and San Marino, California, offers both individual manuscript descriptions and a record of the annotations. The new and detailed codicological descriptions include information on provenance and ownership, a full list of the contents, and a description of the physical make-up and the presentation of each manuscript. The first published accounts of the various textual annotations on each manuscript (whether produced by the original scribes or later readers) provides the best record available of how 'piers plowman' was understoon by its earliest audience. Professor C. DAVID BENSON teaches in the English Department at the University of Connecticut; Dr LYNNE BLANCHFIELD is an Associate Lecturer at the Open University.

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Book SynopsisLong-awaited companion to the highly acclaimed first volume. The publication of this volume completes the new edition of the sources and major analogues of all the Canterbury Tales prepared by members of the New Chaucer Society. This collection, the first to appear in over half a century, features such additions as a fresh interpretation of Chaucer's sources for the frame of the work, chapters on the sources of the General Prologue and Retractions, and modern English translations of all foreignlanguage texts, with glosses for the Middle English. Chapters on the individual tales contain an updated survey of the present state of scholarship on their source materials. Several sources and analogues discovered during the past fifty years are found here together for the first time, and some other familiar sources are re-edited from manuscripts closer to Chaucer's copies. Besides the General Prologue and the Retractions, this volume includes chapters on the Miller, Summoner, Merchant, Physician, Shipman, Prioress, Sir Thopas, Canon's Yeoman, Manciple, the Knight and the prologues and tales of the Man of Law and Wife of Bath. Contributors: PETER BEIDLER, KENNETH A. BLEETH, LAUREL BROUGHTON, JOANNE CHARBONNEAU, WILLIAM E. COLEMAN, CAROLYN P. COLLETTE, ROBERT M. CORREALE, VINCENT DI MARCO, PETER FIELD, TRAUGOTT LAWLER, ANITA OBERMEIER, ROBERT RAYMO, CHRISTINE RICHARDSON-HEY, JOHN SCATTERGOOD, NIGEL S. THOMPSON, EDWARD WHEATLEY, JOHN WITHRINGTON.Trade ReviewThis wonderful set will be a required purchase for most academic libraries. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Represents an immense achievement. [...]The translations will prove eminently useful to students, teachers, and researchers alike. Students and professional scholars will find the now complete Sources. to be accessible, stimulating and highly informative. * ENGLISH STUDIES *Is a most welcome and valuable contribution to everyone working in the field of Chaucer studies. [...]The new Sources and Analogues simply cannot be ignored by anyone working on Chaucer. * NOTES AND QUERIES *

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Book SynopsisA new and comprehensive edition and translation of a key Anglo-Saxon text De temporibus anni, a concise handbook of calendar and computus, astronomy and natural science, dates from the late tenth century. It seems to have circulated anonymously, but analysis of its language and content shows it to be by Ælfric, one of the most prolific and widely-studied authors of Anglo-Saxon England. Unlike the earlier works of Bede and Isidore, it is written in the vernacular (despite its Latin title), possibly the earliest such work in a vernacular language in western Europe. This new edition incorporates the fruits of modern research into the scientific and religious background to the work, as well as the findings of recent studies on palaeography and textual criticism. It is also the most comprehensive edition yet produced, including notes, glossary and bibliography, and the first modern English translation (presented en face) for some 140 years. By means of these, and the inclusion of a detailed introduction and commentary, it renders the work more accessible both to those interested in the history of science and to students of Anglo-Saxon language and literature. Dr MARTIN BLAKE works with medieval manuscripts in the Department of Manuscripts and University Archives at Cambridge University Library.Trade ReviewWill make this interesting text accessible to a wider audience that has hitherto been able to read or understand it. * SPECULUM *This new edition of Ælfric's De temporibus anni repays close study. [...] The discerning will discover that the commentary treats not only problems and matters of interest within the text itself but aspects of the translation as well. [...] What shines through is the clarity with which Ælfric presents his materials in easy straightforward English. * JOURNAL OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES *An excellent volume which will be useful to all scholars of Anglo-Saxon England, the early Middle Ages, the calendar and the history of science. [An] excellent book which would itself serve as an introduction to Aelfrican studies. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Text of De temporibus anni, with modern English translation Apparatus criticus Commentary Astronomical and calendrical terms Appendices Glossary Bibliography

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Book SynopsisTranslations from the Latin of the ingenious works of Aldelm, first English man of letters. Introduction, bibliography and notes to the texts included. Aldhelm was the first Latin poet of Europe who was not a native speaker of Latin. The ingenuity and originality which he brought to the task of composing Latin poetry ensured that his poems would be widely read everywhere, but they were studied especially in England during the early medieval period. Aldhelm's poetic corpus includes the Carmina Ecclesiastica, a series of dedicatory poems which contain a wealth of detail about early Anglo-Saxon churches; the Carmen de Virginitate, a verse counterpart to his earlier prose De Virginitate, but which includes an extensive passage describing an allegorical battle of the vices and virtues; a collection of 100 riddles or Enigmata, which are an imaginative investigation of the structure of the natural world; and a brief rhythmical poem describing the effects of a mighty storm in southwest England. In each of the poetic genres he essayed, Aldhelm found a host of later imitators, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he was the most influential Latin poet whose works were studied in Anglo-Saxon England; indeed, many surviving Old English poems are simple translations or adaptations of Latin poems by Aldhelm. The translations are presented here with an introduction outlining what is known of Aldhelm's life and writings, and an appendix by NEIL WRIGHT contains a translation of Aldhelm's De Metris, a technical treatise on the composition of Latin verse.

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Book SynopsisTranslation with notes of Aldhelm's famous treatise on virginity, and his less well-known letters. Aldhelm, born c.640 in Wessex, and becoming abbot of Malmesbury and later bishop of Sherborne, was the first English man of letters; up to 1100, his prose writings were the most widely read of any Latin literature produced in Anglo-Saxon England. His surviving prose works include a long treatise De virginitate, and a number of letters; these in particular are an important source of knowledge concerning Anglo-Saxon England. The treatise, a lengthy exhortation on virtue addressed to nuns at Barking Abbey, is a fascinating series of exempla drawn from the prodigious range of Aldhelm's knowledge of patristic literature, and tailored to the expectations of a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon female audience. Because of the extreme difficulty of his Latin, however, Aldhelm's prose works have rarely been read, and have never been adequately appreciated - which this translation seeks to remedy. It is accompanied with an introduction outlining Aldhelm's central importance to Anglo-Saxon literary culture; a critical biography which throws new light on what has previously been assumed about him; and an essay establishing an accurate canon and chronology of his writings.

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