Literary studies: ancient, classical Books

Book SynopsisA groundbreaking assessment of the use medieval English history-writers made of saints' lives. The past was ever present in later medieval England, as secular and religious institutions worked to recover (or create) originary narratives that could guarantee, they hoped, their political and spiritual legitimacy. Anglo-SaxonEngland, in particular, was imagined as a spiritual "golden age" and a rich source of precedent, for kings and for the monasteries that housed early English saints' remains. This book examines the vernacular hagiography produced in a monastic context, demonstrating how writers, illuminators, and policy-makers used English saints (including St Edmund) to re-envision the bonds between ancient spiritual purity and contemporary conditions. Treating history and ethical practice as inseparable, poets such as Osbern Bokenham, Henry Bradshaw, and John Lydgate reconfigured England's history through its saints, engaging with contemporary concerns about institutional identity, authority, and ethics. Cynthia Turner Camp is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Georgia.Trade Review[A] very engaging and useful book that will be helpful to scholars in many areas of medieval studies, especially those working in Middle English hagiography or historiography. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *Highly detailed and carefully argued, Camp's study succeeds in showing how the creators of these lives manipulated not only historical narrative and perceptions of time, but also poetic form and hagiographic discourses to construct institutional identities and address audiences both within and without the monastery walls. * SPECULUM *[O]ffers interesting new ways of looking at the nature of late medieval English hagiographic literature and innovative paths of inquiry for hagiographic and memory studies. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction Edith of Wilton and the Writing of Women's History Audrey Abroad: Spiritual and Genealogical Filiation in the Middle English Lives of Etheldreda Henry Bradshaw's Life of Werburge and the Limits of Holy Incorruption The Limits of Narrative History in the Written and Pictorial Lives of Edward the Confessor The Limits of Poetic History in Lydgate's Edmund and Fremund and the Harley 2278 Pictorial Cycle Bibliography

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Book SynopsisA consideration of the ways in which the past was framed and remembered in the pre-modern world. The training and use of memory was crucial in medieval culture, given the limited literacy at the time, but to date, very little thought has been given to the complex and disparate ways in which the theory and practices of memoryinteracted with the inherently unstable concepts of time and gender at the time. The essays in this volume, drawing on approaches from applied poststructural and queer theory among others, reassess those ideologies, meanings and responses generated by the workings of memory within and over "time". Ultimately, they argue for the inherent instability of the traditional gender-time-memory matrix (within which men are configured as the recorders of "history"and women as the repositories of a more inchoate familial and communal knowledge), showing the Middle Ages as a locus for a far more fluid conceptualization of time and memory than has previously been considered. Elizabeth Cox is Lecturer in Old English at Swansea University; Roberta Magnani is Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Swansea University; Liz Herbert McAvoy is Professor of Medieval Literature at Swansea University. Contributors: Anne E. Bailey, Daisy Black, Elizabeth Cox, Fiona Harris-Stoertz, Ayoush Lazikani, Liz Herbert McAvoy, Pamela E. Morgan, William Rogers, Patricia Skinner, Victoria Turner.Trade ReviewA valuable, carefully curated, and thought-provoking volume, that reconsiders gender, time, and memory in medieval culture in innovative ways. * PARERGON *The articles in this volume often refer to each other, and this creates a sense of lively conversation between the contributors. The resulting collection is a stimulating dialogue that engages a number of theoretical approaches in exploring the fluidity of gender, time, and memory. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction: In principio: The Queer Matrix of Gender, Time and Memory in the Middle Ages - Liz Herbert McAvoy The Pitfalls of Linear Time: Using the Medieval Female Life-Cycle as an Organizing Strategy - Patricia Skinner Medieval Expiration Dating? Queer Time and Spatial Dislocation in Aucassin et Nicolette - Victoria Turner Remembering Birth in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century England - Fiona Harris-Stoertz 'Ides gnornode/geomrode giddum': Remembering the Role of a friðusibb in the Retelling of the Fight at Finnsburg in Beowulf - Elizabeth Cox Remembrance and Time in the Wooing Group - Ayoush Lazikani Gendered Strategies of Time and Memory in the Writing of Julian of Norwich and the Recluse of Winchester - Liz Herbert McAvoy Gendered Discourses of Time and Memory in the Cult and Hagiography of William of Norwich - Anne E. Bailey Re-membering Saintly Relocations: The Rewriting of St Congar's Life within the Gendered Context of Romance Narratives - Pamela E. Morgan A Man out of Time: Joseph, Time and Space in the N-Town Marian Plays - Daisy Black Dismembering Gender and Age: Replication, Rebirth, and Remembering in The Phoenix - William Rogers

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Book SynopsisEssays on the post-modern reception and interpretation of the middle ages. This volume not only defines medievalism's margins, as well as its role in marginalizing other fields, ideas, people, places, and events, but also provides tools and models for exploring those issues and indicates new subjects towhich they might apply. The eight opening essays address the physical marginalizing of medievalism in annotated texts on medieval studies; the marginalism of oneself via medievalism; medievalism's dearth of ecotheory and religious studies; academia's paucity of pop medievalism; and the marginalization of races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and literary characters in contemporary medievalism. The seven subsequent articles build on this foundation while discussing: the distancing of oneself (and others) during imaginary visits to the Middle Ages; lessons from the margins of Brazilian medievalism; mutual marginalization among factions of Spanish medieval studies; and medievalism in the marginalization of lower socio-economic classes in late-eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Spain, of modern gamers, of contemporary laborers, and of Alfred Austin, a late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century poet also known as Alfred the Little. In thus investigating the margins of and marginalization via medievalism, the volume affirms their centrality to the field. Karl Fugelso is Professor of Art History at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland. Contributors: Nadia R. Altschul, Megan Arnott, Jaume Aurell, Juan Gomis Coloma, Elizabeth Emery, Vincent Ferré, Valerie B. Johnson, Alexander L. Kaufman, Erin Felicia Labbie, VickieLarsen, Kevin Moberly, Brent Moberly, Alicia C. Montoya, Serina Patterson, Jeff Rider, Lindsey Simon-Jones, Richard Utz, Helen Young.Table of ContentsEditorial Note - Medievalism in the Margins: Paratexts and the Packaging of Medieval French Literature - Elizabeth Emery Medievalism Studies and the Subject of Religion - Richard Utz Pop Medievalism - Erin Felicia Labbie Ecomedievalism: Applying Ecotheory to Medievalism and Neomedievalism - Valerie B. Johnson Whiteness and Time: The Once, Present, and Future Race - Helen Young A Desire for Origins: The Marginal Robin Hood of the Later Ballads - Alexander L. Kaufman Women, Queerness, and Massive Chalice: Medievalism in Participatory Culture - Serina Patterson "Constant inward looking," Medieval Devotional Literature, and the Concordium-Fruitlands Library - Vickie J. Larsen Speaking of the Middle Ages Today: European and Transatlantic Perspectives - Vincent Ferré and Alicia C. Montoya Echoes from the Middle Ages: Tales of Chivalry, Romances, and Nation-building in Spain (1750-1850) - Juan Gomis Coloma Antiquarianism over Presentism: Reflections on Spanish Medieval Studies - Jaume Aurell Medievalism and the Contemporaneity of the Medieval in Postcolonial Brazil - Nadia Altschul The Middle Ages are within your grasp: Motor Neurons, Mirror Neurons, Simulacra, and Imagining the Past - Jeff Rider Alfred the Little: Medievalism, Politics, and the Poet Laureate - Megan Arnott Swords, Sorcery, and Steam: The Industrial Dark Ages in Contemporary Medievalism - Brent Moberly and Kevin Moberly Modern-day Ring-givers: MMORPG Guild Cultures and the Influence of the Anglo-Saxon World - Lindsey Simon-Jones

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Book SynopsisThe questions of fame and reputation are central to Chaucer's writings; the essays here discuss their various treatments and manifestations. Fama, or fame, is a central concern of late medieval literature: where fame came from, who deserved it, whether it was desirable and how it was acquired and kept. An interest in fame was not new but was renewed and rethought within the vernacular revolutions of the later Middle Ages. The work of Geoffrey Chaucer collates received ideas on the subject of fama, both from the classical world and from the work of his contemporaries. Chaucer's place in these intertextual negotiations was readily recognized in his aftermath, as later writers adopted and reworked postures which Chaucer had struck, in their own bids for literary authority. This volume tracks debates onfama which were past, present and future to Chaucer, using his work as a centre point to investigate canon formation in European literature from the late Middle Ages and into the Early Modern period. Isabel Davis is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Birkbeck, University of London; Catherine Nall is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. Contributors: Joanna Bellis, Alcuin Blamires, Julia Boffey, Isabel Davis, Stephanie Downes, A.S.G. Edwards, Jamie C. Fumo, Andrew Galloway, Nick Havely, Thomas A. Prendergast, Mike Rodman Jones, William T. Rossiter, Elizaveta Strakhov.Trade ReviewWill be valuable not only to medievalists and Chaucerians, but also to those working in classical reception and the Renaissance. * CAMBRIDGE QUARTERLY *[T]his volume ultimately testifies to the fact that Geoffrey, in the House of Fame, won the favor of the supposedly indiscriminate Lady Fama, as Chaucer's name does not fragment into the mere contours of letters in the historical records, even if it is appropriated for diverse purposes and roles throughout history. * COMITATUS *This collection, and the series as a whole, is a required resource for students and scholars of Chaucer. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction - Isabel Davis Chaucer Joins the Schiera: The House of Fame, Italy and the Determination of Posterity - William T. Rossiter "I wolde [...] han hadde a fame": Dante, Fame and Infamy in Chaucer's House of Fame - Nick R Havely "And kis the steppes where as thow seest pace": Reconstructing the Spectral Canon in Statius and Chaucer - Elizaveta Strakhov '"I nolde sette at al that noys a grote": Repudiating Infamy in Troilus and Criseyde and House of Fame - Alcuin Blamires The Early Reception of Chaucer's The House of Fame - Julia Boffey and A S G Edwards Fame's Penitent: Deconstructive Chaucer Among the Lancastrians - Andrew Galloway After Deschamps: Chaucer's French Fame - Stephanie Downes "Fresch anamalit termes": The Contradictory Celebrity of Chaucer's Aureation - Joanna Bellis Chaucer the Puritan - Mike Rodman Jones Revenant Chaucer: Early Modern Celebrity - Thomas A Prendergast Ancient Chaucer: Temporalities of Fame - Jamie C. Fumo Bibliography

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Book SynopsisModern English translations of a wide selection of troubadour poems. The poetry of the troubadours was famous throughout the middle ages, but the difficulty and diversity of the original languages have been obstacles to its appreciation by a wider audience. This collection aims to redress the situation, presenting English verse translations in contemporary idiom and a highly readable form. It includes some 125 poems, with a strong representation of those composed by women, and goes beyond traditional limits in time to feature a sampling of the earliest texts in the Occitan language, written in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and later works from the early fourteenth. Though most poems translated in the book were written in Occitan, the vernacularof southern France, there are also a few translations of poems written in the same place and time but in other languages, including Latin, Hebrew, Norse, Catalan, and Italian. Genres include love songs, satires, invectives, pastourelles, debates, laments, and religious songs. A comprehensive introduction places the troubadours in their historical context and traces the development of their art; headnotes introduce each poet, and the book ends with a bibliography and suggestions for further reading. WILLIAM D. PADEN is a Professor of French and Italian at Northwestern University, and was recently named a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques. FRANCES FREEMAN PADEN is a Distinguished Senior Lecturer in The Writing Program and Gender Studies, also at Northwestern University.Trade ReviewThe Padens offer the general readership, but specialists as well, a work of obvious passion for the troubadours. [They] are to be commended for helping introduce the original troubadours to modern audiences in this most charming and satisfying work. * ENCOMIA *A wonderful survey of the regions and cultures comprising that section of France where the langue d'oc was the language of poetry. * H-FRANCE REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction Before the Troubadours [950-1100 A.D.] Spring [1100-1150] Summer [1150-1200] Fall [1200-1250] Winter [1250-1300] Aftermath [1300-1350] Sources for the Texts and Lives of the Troubadours Music Works Cited Suggestions for Further Reading Index of First Lines Index of Authors Index of Terms

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Book SynopsisFirst modern text and English translation of an important Anglo-Saxon poem dealing with the liturgical year. WINNER of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists 2017 Publication Prize: Best Edition The late tenth-century Old English Metrical Calendar (traditionally known as Menologium) summarises, in the characteristicheroic diction and traditional metre of Old English poetry, the major course of the Anglo-Saxon liturgical year. It sets out, in a methodical structure based on the basic temporal framework of the solar/natural year, the locations of the major feasts widely observed in late Anglo-Saxon England. Such a work could have been a practical timepiece for reading the dates of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, for which it serves as a kind of prologue in the manuscript.The clearly domestic perspective of the poem, which fits in the manuscript context, is also noteworthy, while the poem also reveals various interesting characteristics in its grammar, vocabulary and prosody. This is the firstfull modern edition of the poem, and is accompanied by a facing translation. The introduction provides an extensive discussion of matter, content, style, and context, while the commentary offers further information. The volume also includes the texts and translations of a number of analogous works. Kazutomo Karasawa is Professor of English philology at Komazawa University, Tokyo.Trade Review[Karasawa's] work reveals the Menologium to be a much richer, stranger poem than it had previously appeared, and this edition, equipped with a wealth of other supporting texts as well as detailed notes and introduction, will be essential reading for anyone interested in early medieval thought about time. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *This very welcome new edition, with full scholarly apparatus, facing-page translation, and a wealth of supporting material will do much to stimulate research into one of the most neglected pieces of Old English literature. It also significantly enhances our appreciation of the richness of late Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical learning and early medieval science. * SPECULUM *Table of ContentsIntroduction The Old English Metrical Calendar [Menologium]: Text and Translation Appendix 1: The Prose Menologium Appendix 2: Metrical Calendar of York Appendix 3: Félire Adamnáin Appendix 4: Enlaith betha Appendix 5: List of Anglo-Saxon Calendars Appendix 6: Immovable Feasts Marked in Anglo-Saxon Calendars Appendix 7: Vigils in Anglo-Saxon Calendars Appendix 8: Dates of the Solar Turning Points in Anglo-Saxon Calendars Appendix 9: Latin and Old English Month-names in the Old English Written Tradition and in the Verse Menologium Glossary Bibliography

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Book SynopsisNew edition and modern English translation of the Anglo-Norman version of the story of Haveloc - one of the most popular of the Middle Ages. The story of Haveloc first appears in the oldest chronicle of the kings of England Britain, Geffrei Gaimar's Estoire des Engleis, and it is found in a substantial number of later accounts of English history. It is unusual in that it seemingly deals with "real" persons and events; but although names for the prototypes of Haveloc and other personages have been put forward, any search for historical evidence has been largely fruitless. The Haveloc story remains a legend, indeed one of the most compelling legends of the Middle Ages. The Anglo-Norman lay of Haveloc survives in only two manuscripts, one (H) unedited since the nineteenth century and the other (P) since1925. This volume provides new editions of both versions and an English facing-page translation of the version in H. Also included is a translation of the Haveloc episode in Gaimar's chronicle and an edition and translation of thevarious shorter chronicle accounts, in French, English and Latin, which continued into the seventeenth century and survive in a modern English folk-tale. Glyn S. Burgess is Emeritus Professor and Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Liverpool; Leslie C. Brook is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham.Trade ReviewThoroughgoing and reliable.. Here is the essential Haveloc in a single volume. * SCRIPTORIUM *There is no doubt that this fine edition and translation.will establish itself as the standard edition. * FABULA *A useful tool for whoever is interested in the story of Haveloc. * MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW *A welcome publication. Not only does it provide a new edition and translation of MS H of the Anglo-Norman lay (a text last edited in 1888), as well as a close comparison with MS P, but it also brings together the various shorter versions of the legend in French, Middle English, and Latin. On the whole, the translations are accurate and natural, and the commentary provides a good starting point for further criticism. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction The Lay of Haveloc (MS H) Notes Appendix I: Edition of MS P Appendix II: Gaimar's Haveloc Episode (English translation) The Shorter Versions of the Legend (I): Versions in French The Shorter Versions of the Legend (II): Versions in English The Shorter Versions of the Legend (III): Versions in Latin Bibliography Indexes of Proper Names

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Book SynopsisEssays on the writing and textual culture of Europe in the middle ages. Medieval Europe was characterized by a sophisticated market for the production, exchange and sale of written texts. This volume brings together papers on a range of topics, centred on manuscript studies and textual criticism, which explore these issues from a pan-European perspective. They examine the prolonged and varied processes through which Europe's different parts entered into modern reading, writing and communicative practices, drawing on a range ofapproaches and perspectives; they consider material culture, multilingualism in texts and books, book history, readers, audience and scribes across the Middle Ages. Dr Aidan Conti teaches in the Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen; Dr Orietta Da Rold teaches in the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge; Dr Philip Shaw teaches at the School of English, University of Leicester. Contributors: Rolf H. Bremmer Jr, Stewart Brookes, Aidan Conti, Orietta Da Rold, Helen Fulton, Marilena Maniaci, Debora Matos, Annina Seiler, Peter A. Stokes, Nadia Togni, Svetlana Tsonkova, Matilda Watson, George Younge.Trade Review[T]he essays provide a broad collection of works that convincingly argue for the interconnectedness of European manuscripts, language, writing, and the like. * H-NET *Table of ContentsPreface - Orietta Da Rold and Aidan Conti and Philip A. Shaw Medieval Manuscript Studies: A European Perspective - Orietta Da Rold and Marilena Maniaci The Digipal Project for European Scripts and Decorations - Stewart Brookes and Peter A. Stokes and Matilda Watson and Debora Matos Italian Giant Bibles: The Circulation and Use of the Book at the Time of the Ecclesiastical Reform in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries - Nadia Togni Isolation or Network: Arengas and Colophon Verse in Frisian Manuscripts around 1300 - Rolf H. Bremmer Writing the Germanic Languages: The Early History of the Digraphs th, ch and uu - Annina Seiler The New Heathens: Anti-Jewish Hostility in Early English Literature - George Younge Latin Composition in Medieval Norway - Aidan Conti Translating Europe in Medieval Wales - Helen Fulton Charms among the Chants: Verbal Magic in Medieval Bulgarian Manuscripts - Svetlana Tsonkova

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Book SynopsisAn examination of the depiction and function of memory in a variety of romances, including Troilus and Criseyde and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In Middle English romances many memories are created, stored, forgotten, and rediscovered by both the characters and audience; such memory work is not, however, either simple or obvious. This study examines the ways in which recollection is achieved and sustained through physical, cognitive, and interpretative challenges. It uses examples such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Orfeo, and Emaré, alongside romances by Chaucer and Malory,to investigate the genre's reliance on individual and collective memorial processes. The author argues that a tale's objects, places, dreams, discoveries, disguises, prophecies, and dramatic ironies influence that romance's essential memory work, which relies as much on creativity as it does accuracy. He also explores the imaginative crafts of memory that are employed by romances themselves. Dr Jamie McKinstry teaches in the Department of English Studies at Durham University, where he is a member of the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies.Trade Review[E]xhaustively researched, highly original . . . [D]eserves praise for breaking new ground and for incorporating-generously, skillfully, and without any apparent bias against older or less 'theoretical' scholarship-a vast array of secondary literature about the many texts that it studies. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *Will appeal as much to those seeking a thematic survey of late-medieval romance themes as to those seeking a wide-ranging analysis of medieval understandings of memory. * REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES *McKinstry tackles the ambitious scope of this book elegantly. His argument is extremely convincing, and his conclusion leaves the reader with an awareness of the possibilities available in romance studies through the lens of memory. * COMITATUS *McKinstry explores connective, interpretive, structural, and symbolic functions of memory in medieval Romance. . . . [H]is research is excellent and he offers many fresh, innovative readings of canonical medieval Romances. Recommended. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Memories of Romance Medieval Memories: Sight, Thought, and Journey Topography, Redaction, and Inheritance:The Initial Steps of Memory Past Rituals and Present 'Forests': The Craft of Memory Trusting Memory in Romance Failed Memories: Forgetting, Lying, Obstructing The Memory of Change: 'he that had hadde' Unforgettable or (Un)fortunate Romance Conclusions: Lessons in Romance Remembering Bibliography

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Book SynopsisFirst ever English translation of an important medieval German Arthurian romance, with facing original text. Wigamur is an anonymously-authored, thirteenth-century Middle High German romance about a king's son who is lost to his parents in infancy. The eponymous hero, after being carried off in childhood by a mermaid, rescues an eagle which becomes his constant companion; in subsequent adventures he also rescues a maiden, becomes a Knight of the Round Table, and finally confronts a knight who of course proves to be his father, from whom he inherits a kingdom. The romance is perhaps the most most fully realized example of the Fair Unknown, or Bel Inconnu, motif in both the German and larger European Arthurian traditions. Owng in part to the lack of an English translation, unlike other contemporary German romances, Wigamur has been comparatively little studied. This volume aims to fill this need. It presents an edition of the text ( based on the only complete manuscript, Wolffenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 51.2. Aug. 4° (W), dating from the last half of the fifteenth century), accompanied by facing translation, notes, and introduction. Joseph M. Sullivan is an Associate Professor of German at the University of Oklahoma.Trade Review[A]n excellent line-by-line English translation. . . . A welcome addition to Middle High German scholarship, this first English-language rendition of Wigamur will be a boon to those interested in German language and literature, medieval studies, and European literature and history in general. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Sullivan, a talented comparativist, invites us to participate in freshly appreciating and assessing this important medieval German romance. * SGMS NEWS & REVIEWS *Table of ContentsIntroduction Wigamur Notes Bibliography Index of Proper Names

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Book SynopsisA fresh examination of the four poems of the Cotton manuscript, arguing that they share a profound theological vision. Pearl, Cleanness, Patience and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are accomplished examples of four different literary genres and represent some of the finest poetry in Middle English. They are, by turns, fast and funny, powerfully dramatic, gentle and ironic, telling of painful bereavement and the terror of victims of disaster and violence, as well as the comic bewilderment of people entangled in alarmingly mysterious situations. The anonymous poet's evident delight in the pleasures and artistry of courtly life has led some readers to suggest that he was a gifted but complacent frequenter of courts, his attention dedicated to the wealthy and his sympathies to thepowerful, and moreover, that his poems pay the merest lipservice to religious observance. God and the Gawain-poet argues that, on the contrary, the poet's wide-ranging engagement with all human life explicitly acknowledgesall material creation as God's gift, revelling in its physicality, in bodily senses and movement and the ways a community celebrates itself. Dr Hatt shows how, in exhorting readers to recognize and respond to the narrative of divine gift, he appears as an energetic Christian poet and a humane and compassionate observer. Cecilia A. Hatt gained her D.Phil from Oxford University.

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Book SynopsisAnalysis of how emotion is pictured in Arthurian legend. Literary texts complicate our understanding of medieval emotions; they not only represent characters experiencing emotion and reaction emotionally to the behaviour of others within the text, but also evoke and play upon emotion inthe audiences which heard these texts performed or read. The presentation and depiction of emotion in the single most prominent and influential story matter of the Middle Ages, the Arthurian legend, is the subject of this volume.Covering texts written in English, French, Dutch, German, Latin and Norwegian, the essays presented here explore notions of embodiment, the affective quality of the construction of mind, and the intermediary role of the voice asboth an embodied and consciously articulating emotion. Frank Brandsma teaches Comparative Literature (Middle Ages) at Utrecht University; Carolyne Larrington is a Fellow in medieval English at St John's College, Oxford;Corinne Saunders is Professor of Medieval Literature in the Department of English Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities at the University of Durham. Contributors: Anne Baden-Daintree, Frank Brandsma, Helen Cooper, Anatole Pierre Fuksas, Jane Gilbert, Carolyne Larrington, Andrew Lynch, Raluca Radulescu, Sif Rikhardsdottir, Corinne Saunders,Trade Review[Works] admirably to replace reflexive responses to romance literature and the culture that produced it with informed understanding, illuminating both the past and the present. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *The essays . . . offer groundbreaking interpretations of medieval representations of emotion. * BRITISH JOURNAL FOR THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE *[T]his collection serves as a perfect springboard for more research on emotion in Arthurian literature, medieval and especially post-medieval. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction - Frank Brandsma and Carolyne Larrington and Corinne Saunders Being-in-the-Arthurian-World: Emotion, Affect and Magic in the Prose Lancelot, Sartre and Jay - Jane Gilbert Mind, Body and Affect in Medieval English Arthurian Romance - Corinne Saunders 'What cheer?' Emotion and Action in the Arthurian World - Andrew Lynch Ire, Peor and their Somatic Correlates in Chrétien's Chevalier de la Charrette - Anatole Pierre Fuksas Kingship and the Intimacy of Grief in the Alliterative Morte Arthure - Anne Baden-Daintree Tears and Lies: Emotions and the Ideals of Malory's Arthurian World - Raluca Radulescu Mourning Gawein: Cognition and Affect in Diu Crône and some French Gauvain-Texts - Carolyne Larrington Emotion and Voice: 'Ay' in Middle Dutch Arthurian Romances - Frank Brandsma Translating Emotion: Vocalisation and Embodiment in Yvain and Ívens saga - Sif Rikhardsdottir Afterword: Malory's Enigmatic Smiles - Helen Cooper

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Book SynopsisLatest volume in a series which is "a monumental achievement" (Review of English Studies) This volume provides detailed descriptions of Middle English prose materials found in the important manuscript collections of seven Cambridge Colleges: Christ's, Emmanuel, Jesus, Selwyn and Sidney Sussex Colleges, Peterhouse and Trinity Hall. The texts fall roughly into two categories: religious and devotional, or scientific. The former include Wycliffite New Testaments; Emmanuel College's complete Wycliffite Bible; Richard Rolle's Commentary on the Psalms in Sidney Sussex College, and, in Trinity Hall, the Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards in a splendid manuscript designed for presentation to Richard II. In the second category, there are several of outstanding interest: Jesus College Q.G.23 is a beautifully decorated English translation of the Chirurgie of Guy de Chauliac, while Peterhouse MS 75 is the sole manuscript of The Equatorie of the Planetis. As with all previousvolumes in the series, this Handlist concludes with an alphabetical index of Incipits and Explicits intended to form part of an eventual Index of Middle English Prose. Angela M. Lucas is a Senior Member of Wolfson College, Cambridge.Trade ReviewLike its predecessors, Handlist XXII is superbly designed and offers insights about versions of some significant Middle English medical and Wycliffite prose texts. * SCRIPTORIUM *

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Book SynopsisA fresh examination of how the seasons are depicted in medieval literature. To the cultures of medieval northwestern Europe, the changing of the seasons was a material and economic reality that strongly informed the labour, travel and ritual calendars. However, while there has been much research into theinterplay between society and its physical surroundings as reflected in medieval literature, the seasonal aspect of this dynamic has hitherto been neglected. This book analyses the narrative and psychological functionsof seasonal settings in the literatures of medieval England and Iceland from the eighth to the fourteenth century, from Beowulf to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Dealing with both the material realities and the figurative functions of the seasonal cycle, it interprets seasonal spaces in myth and literature as conventionalised environments, where society deals with outside threats and powers which manifest themselves in marginal landscapes.Informing its literary investigations with relevant concerns from economic history, patristic doctrine and decision theory, the volume offers a comprehensive new look at the psychology of landscape and season in medieval literature; it also brings out beliefs concerning the seasons and their connections with the supernatural. Paul S. Langeslag is a lecturer of Medieval English Studies at the University of Göttingen, Germany.Trade ReviewA rich and stimulating work, the fruit of wide reading and ambitious scholarship. * MEDIUM AEVUM *A well-written and well-researched book. * ARCHIV FUR DAS STUDIUM DER NEUREN SPRACHEN UND LITERATUREN *A well-written, insightful, and resourceful book, which has much to offer scholars and students working on landscape, environment, and the 'natural' world in various disciplines within medieval studies. * REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES *[Makes] one pause for thought and consideration of how seasonality transports across centuries, nationalities, communities, individuals, and literary genres. * COMITATUS *Drawing together an impressive number of disciplines, including those associated with timekeeping, psychology, climate history, agricultural history, and military history, Langeslag sketches out the physical and mental contexts that surround medieval literatures' presentation of the seasons. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction Myth and Ritual Winter Mindscapes Winter Institutions Summer Adventure

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Book SynopsisEssays using feminist approaches to offer fresh insights into aspects of the texts and the material culture of the middle ages. Feminist discourses have called into question axiomatic world views and shown how gender and sexuality inevitably shape our perceptions, both historically and in the present moment. Founding Feminisms in Medieval Studies advances that critical endeavour with new questions and insights relating to gender and queer studies, sexualities, the subaltern, margins, and blurred boundaries. The volume's contributions, from French literary studies as well as German, English, history and art history, evince a variety of modes of feminist analysis, primarily in medieval studies but with extensions into early modernism. Several interrogate the ethics of feminist hermeneutics, the function of women characters in various literary genres, and so-called "natural" binaries - sex/gender, male/female, East/West, etc. - that undergird our vision of the world. Others investigate learned women and notions of female readership, authorship, and patronage in the production and reception of texts and manuscripts. Still others look at bodies - male male, female, neither, and both - and how clothes cover and socially encode them. Founding Feminisms in Medieval Studies is a tribute to E. Jane Burns, whose important work has proven foundational to late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century Old French feminist studies. Through her scholarship, teaching, and leadership in co-founding the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship, Burns has inspired a new generation of feminist scholars. Laine E. Doggett is Associate Professor of French at St. Mary's College of Maryland, St. Mary's City; Daniel E. O'Sullivan is Professor of French at the University of Mississippi. Contributors: Cynthia J. Brown, Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner, Kristin L. Burr, Madeline H. Caviness, Laine E. Doggett, Sarah-Grace Heller,Ruth Mazo Karras, Roberta L. Krueger, Sharon Kinoshita, Tom Linkinen, Daniel E. O'Sullivan, Lisa Perfetti, Ann Marie Rasmussen, Nancy Freeman Regalado, Elizabeth Robertson, Helen SoltererTrade ReviewBy every measure, E. Jane Burns is a founding mother of medieval feminist scholarship. ... She richly deserves a high-quality Festschrift, and I am happy to say that she has received one. * MEDIEVAL FEMINIST FORUM *As testimony to the powerful influence brought to the profession by Burns, examples of inspiration and influence appear throughout, including several by notable French medievalist feminists. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Work of E. Jane Burns and the Feminisms of Medieval Studies - Laine E Doggett and Daniel E. O'Sullivan Natural and Unnatural Woman: Melusine Inside and Out - Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner Nurturing Debate in Le Roman de Silence - Kristin Burr The Man Backing Down from the Lady in Trobairitz Tensos - Daniel E. O'Sullivan Having Fun with Women: Why a Feminist Teaches Fabliaux - Lisa Perfetti Hats and Veils: There's No Such Thing as Freedom of Choice, and It's a Good Thing Too - Madeline H. Caviness When the Knight Undresses, his Clothing Speaks: Vestimentary Allegories in the works of Baudouin de Condé (c. 1240-1280) - Sarah-Grace Heller John/Eleanor Rykener Revisited - Ruth Karras and Tom Linkinen Women's Healing: from Binaries to a Nexus - Laine E Doggett Silk in the Age of Marco Polo - Sharon Kinoshita Another Land's End of Literature: Honorat Bovet and the Timbuktu Effect - Helen Solterer Anne de Bretagne and Anne de France: French Female Networks at the Dawn of the Renaissance - Cynthia J. Brown Staging Female Authority in Chantilly MS 522: Marguerite de Navarre's La Coche - Roberta L Krueger Babies and Books:The Holy Kinship as a Way of Thinking About Women's Power in Late Medieval Northern Europe - Ann Marie Rasmussen Page Layout and Reading Practices in Christine de Pisan's Epistre Othea: Reading with the Ladies in London, BL, MS Harley 4431 - Nancy Freeman Regalado Afterword - Elizabeth Robertson

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Book SynopsisAn analysis of texts narrating the Hundred Years War, from contemporary accounts to the sixteenth century. The Hundred Years War was central and paradoxical for the writing of English history, simultaneously galvanising pugnacious articulations of nationalism and exposing their bankruptcy. However, the conflict remains a sticking pointin scholarship of medieval multilingualism and its complex relationship to nationalism, often overlooked in calls for a "post-national" vocabulary. This book charts the narration of the war in English literature, from contemporary chroniclers and poets, such as Chaucer, documenting the conflict that dominated the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, to later polemicists and playwrights looking back on their medieval past, including Shakespeare. It explores how its propagandists navigated its cultural minefields, and then how their mythologisations became ciphers for Tudor expressions of nationalism. Challenging the periodisation that habitually divides the medieval from the early modern, it shows how an event of the magnitude and longevity of the Hundred Years War shaped ways of thinking about English history and language from Chaucer and Lydgate to Spenser and Shakespeare. It also brings to light a rich and neglected corpus of Hundred Years War literature, from anonymous chroniclers and balladeers to agonising eyewitness accounts. Joanna Bellis is the Fitzjames Research Fellow in Old and Middle English at Merton College, Oxford.Trade ReviewJoanna Bellis has produced a fascinating, clever, deeply suggestive, and elegantly written monograph on an important and unjustly neglected topic. . . . [D]eserves to be recognized as a major, lasting contribution. * SPECULUM *Fascinating.... Sophisticated in approach and language, and exceptionally wide-ranging. * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *A nuanced and significant contribution to disentangling the seemingly Gordian knot of literature and war. * REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES *Bellis should . be commended for bridging the divides between the medieval and early modern periods and between historical and literary studies . [Her book's] kaleidoscopic organization and elegant style render its complex analysis of the longue durée of the Hundred Years War in England clear and persuasive. * JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES *Offers valuable insight into a long-standing puzzle besetting scholars of Middle English: that England was deeply, strangely, obsessively also French. Bellis not only carefully peels back the layers of overlapping ideologies here, but she also elegantly works with all the paradoxes of England's relationship with France rather than simply attempting to cut through them or elide them. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction 'When the world woxe old, it woxe warre olde': history, etymology and national identity, 1066-1337 'To destroy and ruin the whole English nation and language': the chronicles of the Hundred Years War 'God gyue you quadenramp!': mimetic language in the war poetry of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 'The brightnesse of braue and glorious words': language and war in the sixteenth century 'Talk not of France, sith thou hast lost it all': the Hundred Years War on the stage in the 1590s Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisExcerpts from texts (with translation) from the French of medieval England offer a guide to medieval literary theory. From the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, French was one of England's main languages of literature, record, diplomacy and commerce and also its only supra-national vernacular. As is now recognised, the large corpus of England'sFrench texts and records is indispensable to understanding England's literary and cultural history, the multilingualism of early England, and European medieval French-language culture in general. This volume presents a full, representative collection of texts and facing translations from England's medieval French. Through its selection of prologues and other excerpts from works composed or circulating in England, the volume presents a body of vernacular literary theory, in which some fifty-five highly various texts, from a range of genres, discuss their own origins, circumstances, strategies, source materials, purposes and audiences. Each entry, newly edited from a single manuscript, is accompanied by a headnote, annotation, and narrative bibliography, while a general introduction and section introductions provide further context and information. Also included are essays on French in England and onthe prosody and prose of insular French; Middle English versions of some of the edited French texts; and a glossary of literary terms. By giving access to a literate culture hitherto available primarily only to Anglo-Norman specialists, this book opens up new possibilities for taking English francophony into account in research and teaching. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne is Thomas F.X. and Theresa Mullarkey Chair in Literature, Fordham University, New York, and formerly Professor of Medieval Literature, University of York; Thelma Fenster is Professor Emerita of French and Medieval Studies, Fordham University; Delbert Russell is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of French, University of Waterloo.Trade Review[C]ondenses and synthesizes a vast collection of past and current scholarship, uncovers a rich corpus of medieval vernacular literary theory, and opens new frontiers of inquiry. . . . A truly collaborative production combining the expertise and energy of established and emerging scholars. * H-FRANCE *Demonstrates the wealth and vibrancy of the French of England [and] situates the French of medieval England as a vernacular that can no longer be dismissed or simply mentioned in passing if one wishes to understand the complex cultural landscape of medieval England.[I]ts impact will be long lasting in the field of medieval studies in England. * SCRIPTORIUM *A landmark achievement in the on-going reassessment of the place of French in medieval English culture...For researchers interested in understanding medieval English literary culture in its multilingual totality, Vernacular Literary Theory from the French of Medieval England will be an indispensable resource. * ANGLIA *A notable, even monumental, achievement.The editors should be congratulated on having produced an enormously valuable work of scholarship. * MEDIUM AEVUM *Table of ContentsGeneral Introduction Establishment of texts and translations, and conventions used Part I Faus Franceis and Dreit Engleis: on Language De Britain ki ore est apelé Engletere / About Britain which is now called England A Nun of Barking Abbey, Le romanz de saint Edward, rei et confessur / The Vernacular Life of St Edward, King and Confessor, 1163-70, and its prose remaniement Wace, Le Roman de Rou / The Romance of Rollo and the Dukes of Normandy Hue de Rotelande, Ipomedon / The Romance of Ipomadon Robert Grosseteste, Le Chasteau d'amour / The Castle of Love Waldef / The Romance of Waldef Walter of Bibbesworth, Tretiz de Langage / How to Speak French Manières de langage: Spoken French for Business 'Quant vus frez a seignours...': Dictaminal Training attributed to Thomas Sampson 'Pur ceo que j'estoie requis...' : Treatise on conveyancing John Barton, Donait françois / The French Donatus Andrew Horn, Qui veut bone electioun faire and La feste royale du Pui, from Liber custumarum / The Book of the Customs of London John Gower, Mirour de l'omme / The Mirror of Humanity Part II Si sa dame ne li aidast: authorship and the patron Benedeit, Le Voyage de saint Brendan / The Voyage of St Brendan Gaimar, L'Estoire des Engleis / The History of the English Adgar/William, Le Gracial / The Book of Grace Guernes de Pont-Ste-Maxence, La Vie de Saint Thomas / The Life of St Thomas Becket Simon of Walsingham, La Vie de sainte Fey virgine et martire / The Life of St Faith, virgin and martyr Matthew Paris, La Vie de saint Edmund, arcevesque de Cantorbire / The Life of St Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury Robert of Greatham, Miroir ou Evangile des Domnees / Mirror or The Sunday Gospels Herman de Valenciennes, Li Romanz de Dieu et de sa mere / The Romance of God and his Mother Sir Thomas Gray of Heaton, Scalacronica / The Ladder Chronicle Part III Primes dirrum la dreyte fey: the conduct of reading, hearing and seeing Guillaume le Clerc de Normandie, Le Bestiaire divin / The Holy Bestiary La Destructioun de Rome / The Destruction of Rome Pierre d'Abernon de Fetcham, Lumere as lais / Light for Laypeople Apocalypse du manuscrit Lambeth: La Pénitence illustrée / The Lambeth Apocalypse: Penitence Diagram Les Enfaunces de Jesu Crist / The Childhood of Jesus Christ 'Par ceste figure l'en poet savoer...' / 'Using this diagram, one can find out...' John of Hoveden, Rossignos / The Nightingale St Edmund of Canterbury [ascribed], Mirour de seinte eglyse / Mirror of Holy Church Sermons on Joshua Angier of St Frideswide, Dialogues de saint Gregoire / Dialogues of St Gregory the Great William Waddington [ascribed], Le Manuel des pechiez / The Manual of Sins Part IV Ki veult oïr: forming audiences and creating textual communities Wace, La Vie de seint Nicolas / The Life of St Nicholas La Vie de seint Clement / The Life of St Clement the Pope Commentary on the Chant des chanz / Commentary on the Song of Songs Denis Piramus, La Vie Saint Edmund le Rey / The Life of St Edmund the King Thomas of Kent, Le Roman de toute chevalerie /Romance of the Best Chivalry (Alexander the Great) La Seinte Resurreccion / The Holy Resurrection Chardri, La Vie de seint Josaphaz / The Life of St Josaphat Fouke le Fitz Waryn / The Romance of Fouke le Fitz Waryn 'Sicom Aristotele nous dit' / Treatise on Menstruation 'Quant Deus out la femme fete' / Ornatus mulierum Jofroi de Waterford and Servais Copale, Secré de Secrez / The Secret of Secrets Le Miracle de Sardenai / The Miracle at Sardenaia Jean de Mandeville [?], Le Livre des merveilles du monde / The Book of the Wonders of the World 'Coment la Mesun de Crabhus...comencerunt' / 'How they founded the nunnery of Crabhouse' Part V Si come en latyn trovay escrit: the lineage of the text Everart, Distichs of Cato Simund de Freine, Roman de Philosophie / The Romance of Philosophy Sanson de Nantuil, Les Proverbes de Salemon / Commentary on Solomon's Proverbs Rauf de Linham, Kalender/Calender [Robert de Boron, Walter Map, ascribed], L'Estoire del saint Graal / The History of the Holy Grail Walter de la Hove [?], Chronique / The Mohun Chronicle Poème sur l'ancien testament /Poem on the Old Testament Le Débat des hérauts d'armes de France et d'Angleterre / The Debate between the Heralds of France and England Part VI Essays and resources England and French Poetry and Prose in the French of England Middle English Versions of French Entries Lists of Alternative Arrangements of the Entries Glossary of literary terms Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis collection of seventeen original essays by leading authorities offers, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the significant authors and important aspects of fifteenth-century English poetry. This collection of seventeen original essays by leading authorities offers, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the significant authors and important aspects of fifteenth-century English poetry. The major poets of thecentury, John Lydgate and Thomas Hoccleve, receive detailed analysis, alongside perhaps lesser-known authors: John Capgrave, Osbern Bokenham, Peter Idley, George Ashby and John Audelay. In addition, several essays examine genres and topics, including romance, popular, historical and scientific poetry, and translations from the classics. Other chapters investigate the crucial contexts for approaching poetry of this period: manuscript circulation, patronageand the influence of Chaucer. Julia Boffey is Professor of Medieval Studies at Queen Mary, University of London; A.S.G. Edwards is Professor of Medieval Manuscripts at the University of Kent. Contributors: Anthony Bale, Julia Boffey, A.S.G. Edwards, Susanna Fein, Alfred Hiatt, Simon Horobin, Sarah James, Andrew King, Sheila Lindenbaum, Joanna Martin, Carol Meale, Robert Meyer-Lee, Ad Putter, John Scattergood, Anke Timmermann, DanielWakelin, David Watt.Trade ReviewThe fine scholarship and the deft writing ensure that this collection will stimulate and facilitate further expansions of the field and will remain an essential Companion. * SHARP NEWS *An impressive display of careful attention and mature scholarly interest. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *[T]he Companion will certainly prove useful to fifteenth-century specialists and nonspecialists alike. . . . In short, this is a worthy volume, which manages at once to establish an authoritative perspective on the current state of fifteenth-century studies and to point the field in some new directions. * SPECULUM *Table of ContentsIntroduction - A S G Edwards The Patronage of Poetry - Carol Meale Forms of Circulation - Simon Horobin Thomas Hoccleve - Sheila Lindenbaum Thomas Hoccleve's Regiment of Princes - David Watt John Lydgate's Major Poems - Robert J Meyer-Lee John Lydgate's Religious Poetry - Anthony Bale John Lydgate's Shorter Secular Poems - Joanna Martin John Capgrave and Osbern Bokenham: Verse Saints' Lives - Sarah James Peter Idley and George Ashby - John Scattergood John Audelay and James Ryman - Susanna Fein Fifteenth-Century Chaucerian Visions - Ad Putter Historical and Political Verse - Alfred Hiatt Classical and Humanist Translations - Daniel Wakelin Romance - Andrew King Scientific and Encyclopaedic Verse - Anke Timmermann Popular Verse Tales - Julia Boffey Beyond the Fifteenth Century - A S G Edwards

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Book SynopsisEssays on topics of literary interest crossing the boundaries between the medieval and early modern period. The borderline between the periods commonly termed "medieval" and "Renaissance", or "medieval" and "early modern", is one of the most hotly, energetically and productively contested faultlines in literary history studies. The essays presented in this volume both build upon and respond to the work of Professor Helen Cooper, a scholar who has long been committed to exploring the complex connections and interactions between medieval and Renaissance literature. The contributors re-examine a range of ideas, authors and genres addressed in her work, including pastoral, chivalric romance, early English drama, and the writings of Chaucer, Langland, Spenser and Shakespeare. As a whole, thevolume aims to stimulate active debates on the ways in which Renaissance writers used, adapted, and remembered aspects of the medieval. Andrew King is Lecturer in Medieval and Renaissance Literature at University College, Cork; Matthew Woodcock is Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Renaissance Literature at the University of East Anglia. Contributors: Joyce Boro, Aisling Byrne, Nandini Das, Mary C. Flannery, Alexandra Gillespie, AndrewKing, Megan G. Leitch, R.W. Maslen, Jason Powell, Helen Vincent, James Wade, Matthew WoodcockTrade ReviewEach of these essays, in and of itself, well worth reading: the collection confirms the importance and influence of Helen Cooper's lifetime of scholarship and the intellectual legacy that is her students. * SIXTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL *Every chapter builds on or imitates-in the Renaissance sense of that word-some aspect of Cooper's research. And happily, this volume achieves a satisfying conceptual unity: this edited volume succeeds in becoming a book . In each chapter, smart, sophisticated readings and interpretations are very much on display . this volume demonstrates that at least in certain cases a collection of essays can actually make an argument more effectively than a single-authored book. * RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY *All essays are of exceptional quality, making this collection a fine and hugely deserved tribute to an outstanding scholar. * ARCHIV *[A] lovely thank-you note to Professor Helen Cooper from her former research students ... this collection encourages the reader to defy the cliché of period labels and generic assumptions by using the irresistible weight of textual evidence. * MEDIEVALLY SPEAKING *This handsome volume honors a preeminent scholar on romance as well as one who has done much in her scholarship to explore the continuities and connections between the medieval and Renaissance periods in a variety of genres, including drama and pastoral . Beyond her evident influence on the contributors, at the end of the book Professor Cooper's impact is reflected in a noteworthy tabula gratulatoria. Medieval into Renaissance is a welcome tribute for her as well as a valuable contribution to the study of medieval and early modern literature, particularly as regards questions of periodization. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction - Andrew King and Matthew Woodcock Unknowe, unkow, Vncovthe, uncouth: From Chaucer and Gower to Spenser and Milton - Alexandra Gillespie Armour that doesn't work: An Anti-meme in Medieval and Renaissance Romance - Robert Maslen 'Of his ffader spak he no thing': Family Resemblance and Anxiety of Influence in Fifteenth-Century Prose Romance - Megan G. Leitch Writing Westwards: Medieval English Romances and their Early Modern Irish Audiences - Aisling Byrne Penitential Romance after the Reformation - James Wade The English Laureate in Time: John Skelton's Garland of Laurel - Mary C. Flannery Thomas Churchyard and the Medieval Complaint Tradition - Matthew Woodcock Placing Arcadia - Nandini Das Fathers, Sons and Surrogates: Fatherly Advice in Hamlet - Jason Powell 'To visit the sick court': Misogyny as Disease in Swetnam the Woman-Hater' - Joyce Boro The Monument of Uncertainty: Sovereign and Literary Authority in Samuel Sheppard's The Faerie King - Andrew King Mopsa's Arcadia: Choice Flowers Gathered out of Sir Philip Sidney's Rare Garden into Eighteenth-Century Chapbooks - Helen Vincent Bibliography Index A Bibliography of Helen Cooper's Published Works

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Book SynopsisAn invigorating annual for those who are interested in medieval textual cultures and open to ways in which diverse post-modern methodologies may be applied to them. Alcuin Blamires, Review of English Studies New Medieval Literatures - now published by Boydell and Brewer - is an annual of work on medieval textual cultures, aiming to engage with intellectual and cultural pluralism in the Middle Ages and now. Its scope is inclusive of work across the theoretical, archival, philological, and historicist methodologies associated with medieval literary studies, and embraces both the British Isles and Europe. Topics in this volume include the political ecology of Havelok the Dane: Thomas Hoccleve and the making of "Chaucer"; and Britain and the Welsh Marches in Fouke le Fitz Waryn. Contributors: Alexis Kellner Becker, Emily Dolmans, Marcel Elias, PhilipKnox, Sebastian Langdell, Jonathan Morton, Marco Nievergelt, George Younge.Table of ContentsThe Book of the World at an Anglo-Norman Court: The Bestiaire de Philippe de Thaon as a Theological Performance - Jonathan Morton Monks, Money, and the End of Old English - George Younge Sustainability Romance: Havelok the Dane's Political Ecology - Alexis Kellner Becker Locating the Border: Britain and the Welsh Marches in Fouke le Fitz Waryn - Emily Dolmans From disputatio to predicatio and back again: Dialectic, Authority and Epistemology between the Roman de la Rose and the Pèlerinage de Vie Humaine - Marco Nievergelt Mixed Feelings in the Middle English Charlemagne Romances: Emotional Reconfiguration and the Failures of Crusading Practices in the Otuel Texts - Marcel Elias Circularity and Linearity: The Idea of the Lyric and the Idea of the Book in the Cent Ballades of Jean le Seneschal - Philip Knox 'What Shal I Calle Thee? What Is Thy Name?': Thomas Hoccleve and the making of 'Chaucer' - Sebastian Langdell

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Book SynopsisA new examination of the little-studied phenomena of Direct Speech in Old English poetry. Some of the most celebrated passages of Old English poetry are speeches: Beowulf and Unferth's verbal contest, Hrothgar's words of advice, Satan's laments, Juliana's words of defiance, etc. Yet Direct Speech, as a stylistic device, has remained largely under-examined and under-theorized in studies of the corpus. As a consequence, many analyses are unduly influenced by anachronistic conceptions of Direct Speech, leading to problematic interpretations, not least concerning irony and implicit characterisation. This book uses linguistic theories to reassess the role of Direct Speech in Old English narrative poetry. Beowulf is given a great deal of attention, because it is amajor poem and because it is the focus of much of the existing scholarship on this subject, but it is examined in a broader poetic context: the poem belongs to a wider tradition and thus needs to be understood in that context. The texts examined include several major Old English narrative poems, in particular the two Genesis, Christ and Satan, Andreas, Elene, Juliana and Guthlac A. Elise Louviot is a Lecturer at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (France) and a specialist of Old English poetry. Her research interests include orality, tradition, formulas and the linguistic expression of subjectivity.Trade ReviewA handsome and useful volume. This is a book that.scholars of Old English narrative will find it necessary to work with. * MEDIUM AEVUM *[T]horoughly convincing and well argued. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *Table of ContentsIntroduction The Form of Direct Speech The Content and Context of Direct Speech A Lack of Subjectivity? Archetypal Subjectivity A Problem with Voices A Problem with Point of View Impossible Irony Conclusion Works Cited

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Book SynopsisAn examination of how The Book of Psalms shaped medieval thought and helped develop the medieval English literary canon. The Book of Psalms had a profound impact on English literature from the Anglo-Saxon to the late medieval period. This collection examines the various ways in which they shaped medieval English thought and contributed to the emergence of an English literary canon. It brings into dialogue experts on both Old and Middle English literature, thus breaking down the traditional disciplinary binaries of both pre- and post-Conquest English and late medieval and Early Modern, as well as emphasizing the complex and fascinating relationship between Latin and the vernacular languages of England. Its three main themes, translation, adaptation and voice, enable a rich variety of perspectives on the Psalms and medieval English literature to emerge. TAMARA ATKIN is Senior Lecturer in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Literature at Queen Mary University of London; FRANCIS LENEGHAN is Associate Professor of OldEnglish at The University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford Contributors: Daniel Anlezark, Mark Faulkner, Vincent Gillespie, Michael P. Kuczynski, David Lawton, Francis Leneghan, Jane Roberts, Mike Rodman Jones, Elizabeth Solopova, Lynn Staley, Annie Sutherland, Jane Toswell, Katherine Zieman.Trade ReviewAltogether this is a highly successful collection, balancing tightly focused read-ings with widely applicable concepts. . . . The editors and contributors are to be congratulated. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *Deserves a place on the shelf of every academic library devoted to the study of the Middle Ages. * REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES *A handsomely produced book.with essays that are always interesting and often exhilarating to read. * JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY *[A] go-to resource for anyone working on medieval psalms. Any medievalist or biblical scholar interested in the Psalms can confidently say to the editors and contributors of this volume, 'Thy word is a lantern unto my feet and a light unto my paths. * MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES *[An] important contribution to the study of the Bible in the Middle Ages. * YEAR'S WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES *This collection offers an interesting and nuanced discussion of responses to the Psalms in the medieval period and is a valuable reminder for both students and more seasoned researchers of their pervasive influence. * PARERGON *This is an excellent collection of essays that should be of interest to scholars and students of both medieval English literature and medieval English religion. -- Nancy Bradley Warren * Journal of British Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction: a Case Study of Psalm 50.1-3 in Old and Middle English - Francis Leneghan Some Anglo-Saxon Psalters and their Glosses - Jane Roberts The Eadwine Psalter and Twelfth-Century English Vernacular Literary Culture - Mark Faulkner 'In eching for the beste': the Fourteenth-Century English Prose Psalter and the Art of Psalm Translation - Annie Sutherland The Wycliffite Psalms - Elizabeth Solopova Rolle's English Psalter and the Possibilities of Vernacular Scriptural Commentary - Katherine Zieman Making the Psalter Sing: the Old English Metrical Psalms, Rhythm and Ruminatio - Francis Leneghan The Psalms in the Old English Office of Prime - Daniel Anlezark Psalm Genres in Old English Poetry - M J Toswell Articulating the Psalms in Middle English Alliterative Poetry:Some Passages of Piers Plowman, St Erkenwald and Pearl - Mike Rodman Jones Maidstone's Psalms and the King's Speech - Lynn Staley The Songs of the Threshold: Enargeia and the Psalter - Vincent Gillespie Psalms as Public Interiorities: Eleanor Hull's Voices - David Lawton Vox ecclesiae, vox Christi: the Psalms and Medieval English Ecclesiology - Michael Kuczynski

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Book SynopsisAn examination of how the dead were memorialised in late medieval French literature. Awarded a commendation in the Society for French Studies R. Gapper Book Prize for the best book published in 2016 by a scholar working in French studies in Britain or Ireland. Who am I when I am dead? Several late-medieval French writers used literary representation of the dead as a springboard for exploring the nature of human being. Death is a critical moment for identity definition: one is remembered, forgotten or, worse, misremembered. Works in prose and verse by authors from Alain Chartier to Jean Bouchet record characters' deaths, but what distinguishes them as epitaph fictions is not their commemoration of the deceased, so much as their interrogation of how, by whom, and to what purpose posthumous identity is constituted. Far from rigidly memorialising the dead, they exhibit a productive messiness in the processes by which identity is composed in the moment of its decomposition as a complex interplay between body, voice and text. The cemeteries, hospitals, temples and testaments of fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century literature, from the "Belle Dame sans mercy" querelle to Le Jugement poetic de l'honneur femenin, present a wealth of ambulant corpses, disembodied voices, animated effigies, martyrs for love and material echoes of the past which invite readers to approach epitaphic identity as a challenging question: here lies who, exactly? In its broadest context, this study casts fresh light on ideas of selfhood in medieval culture as well as on contemporary conceptions of the capacities and purposes of literary representation itself. Helen Swift is Associate Professor of Medieval French at St Hilda's College, Oxford.Trade Review[The author's] findings, which take into account recent scholarship and critical theory, are of great use for all scholars interested in the relationship between identity (name, renown, reputation) and death. PARERGONOffers...fertile ground for readers of medieval French literature, who will be challenged by this book to rethink the question of what fiction is being performed when the epitaph speaks. * SPECULUM *The concept of 'epitaph fictions' announced in this study's subtitle thus introduces not simply a subgenre of metafiction, it also proposes a fresh and productive way of approaching the medieval literary treatment of death. * RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY *A lively and dazzling book, full to bursting with clever analyses, probing questions, vivid illustrations.and suggestive connections. * MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Representing the Dead Framing Identity: 'je suis' and 'cy gist' Identity and/as Echo: the 'Belle Dame' querelle and Le Jardin de plaisance Dying to be told: storytelling and exemplarity 'selon le stile Jehan Bocace' Placing the Dead: Cemeteries, Hospitals and Temples Afterword: Illustrating the dead Coda: re-member me Appendix: Early Editions of the Jardin de plaisance et fleur de rethorique Bibliography

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Book SynopsisEssays examining the complex intertwining and effect of medievalism on modernity - and vice versa. The question of how modernity has influenced medievalism and how medievalism has influenced modernity is the theme of this volume. The opening essays examine the 2001 film Just Visiting's comments on modern anxieties via medievalism; conflations of modernity with both medievalism and the Middle Ages in rewriting sources; the emergence of modernity amid the post-World War I movement The Most Noble Order of Crusaders; António Sardinha's promotion of medievalism as an antidote to modernity; and Mercedes Rubio's medievalism in her feminist commentary on modernity. The eight subsequent articles build on this foundation while discussing remnants of medieval London amid its moderndescendant; Michel Houellebecq's critique of medievalism through his 2011 novel La Carte et le territoire; historical authenticity in Michael Morrow's approach to performing medieval music; contemporary concerns in Ford Madox Brown and David Gentleman's murals; medieval Chester in Catherine A.M. Clarke and Nayan Kulkarni's Hryre (2012); medieval influences on the formation of and debate about modern moral panics; medievalist considerations inmodern repurposings of medieval anchorholds; and medieval sources for Paddy Molloy's Here Be Dragons (2013). The articles thus test the essays' methods and conclusions, even as the essays offer fresh perspectives on the articles. Karl Fugelso is Professor of Art History at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland. Contributors: Edward Breen, Katherine A. Brown, Catherine A.M. Clarke, Louise D'Arcens, Joshua Davies, John LanceGriffith, Mike Horswell, Pedro Martins, Paddy Molloy, Lisa Nalbone, Sarah Salih, Michelle M. Sauer, James L. SmithTrade ReviewIt does stimulate excitingly wide boundaries for future thought, discussion, and exploration. * PARERGON *Table of ContentsEditorial Note Medievalism at the End of History: Pessimism and Renewal in Just Visiting - John Lance Griffith Medieval Restoration and Modern Creativity - Katherine A. Brown Crusader Medievalism and Modernity in Britain: The Most Noble Order of Crusaders and the Rupture of the First World War, 1921-49 - Michael John Horswell From the Republica Christiana to the "Great Revolution": Middle Ages and Modernity in António Sardinha's Writings [1914-25] - Pedro Alexandre G. Martins Moving through Time and Space in Mercedes Rubio's Las siete muchachas del Liceo [1957] via Wagner's Parsifal in Barcelona, Spain [1914] - Lisa Nalbone Introduction to Part II In/visible Medieval/isms - Sarah Salih Art, Heritage Industries, and the Legacy of William Morris in Michel Houellebecq's The Map and the Territory - Louise D'Arcens Travel in Space, Travel in Time: Michael Morrow's Approach to Performing Medieval Music in the 1960s - Edward George Breen Imagining Medieval Chester: Practice-based Medievalism, Scholarship, and Creativity - Catherine A M Clarke The Anachronic Middle Ages: Public Art, Cultural Memory, and the Medievalist Imagination - Joshua Davies Medievalisms of Moral Panic: Borrowing the Past to Frame Fear in the Present - James L. Smith Extra-Temporal Place Attachment and Adaptive Reuse: The Afterlives of Medieval English Anchorholds - Michelle M. Sauer Here be Dragons: Mapping Space and Time, Medieval and Modern - Paddy Molloy Contributors

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Book SynopsisEssays bringing out the crucial importance of philology for understanding Old English texts. Robert D. Fulk is arguably the greatest Old English philologist to emerge during the twentieth century; his corpus of scholarship has fundamentally shaped contemporary understanding of many aspects of Anglo-Saxon literary historyand English historical linguistics. This volume, in his honour, brings together essays which engage with his work and advance his research interests. Scholarship on historical metrics and the dating, editing, and interpretation of Old English poetry thus forms the core of this book; other topics addressed include syntax, phonology, etymology, lexicology, and paleography. An introductory overview of Professor Fulk's achievements puts these studies in context, alongside essays which assess his contributions to metrical theory and his profound impact on the study of Beowulf. By consolidating and augmenting Fulk's research, this collection takes readers to the cutting edgeof Old English philology. LEONARD NEIDORF is Professor of English at Nanjing University; RAFAEL J. PASCUAL is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University; TOM SHIPPEY is Professor Emeritus at St Louis University. Contributors: Thomas Cable, Christopher M. Cain, George Clark, Dennis Cronan, Daniel Donoghue, Aaron Ecay, Mark Griffith, Megan E. Hartman, Stefan Jurasinski, Anatoly Liberman, Donka Minkova, Haruko Momma, Rory Naismith, Leonard Neidorf, Andy Orchard, Rafael J. Pascual, Susan Pintzuk, Geoffrey Russom, Tom Shippey, Jun Terasawa, Charles D. Wright.Trade ReviewEvery [essay] has something intriguing, stimulating, thought-provoking or erudite to say....It is essential read¬ing for students of Old English poetry and a coherent demonstration of the value of philol¬ogy, in a wide range of forms, in the scholarly enterprise. * TOEBI NEWSLETTER *[T]his is a high quality collection of essays, including a number of really exceptional contributions. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *Table of ContentsIntroduction: R.D. Fulk and the Progress of Philology - Leonard Neidorf Sievers, Bliss, Fulk, and Old English Metrical Theory - Rafael J. Pascual Ictus as Stress or Length: The Effect of - Thomas Cable Metrical Criteria for the Emendation of Old English Poetic Texts - Leonard Neidorf The Suppression of the Subjunctive in Beowulf: A Metrical Explanation - Jun Terasawa Metrical Complexity and Verse Placement in Beowulf - Geoffrey Russom Alliterating Finite Verbs and the Origin of Rank in Old English Poetry - Mark Griffith Prosody-Meter Correspondences in Late Old English and Poema Morale - Donka Minkova The Syntax of Old English Poetry and the Dating of Beowulf - Aaron Ecay and Susan Pintzuk The Anglo-Saxons and Superbia: Finding a Word for it - George Clark Old English gelome, geloma, Modern English loom, lame, and Their Kin - Anatoly Liberman Worm: A Lexical Approach to the Beowulf Manuscript - Wulfstan, Episcopal Authority, and the Handbook for the Use of a Confessor - Stefan Jursinski Some Observations on e-caudata in Old English Texts (355-386) - Christopher M. Cain The Poetics of Poetic Words in Old English - Dennis Cronan Dream of the Rood 9b: A Cross as an Angel? - The Fate of Lot's Wife: A 'Canterbury School' Gloss in Genesis A - Charles D Wright Metrical Alternation in The Fortunes of Men - Megan E. Hartman The Originality of Andreas - Andy Orchard The Economy of Beowulf - Rory Naismith Beowulf Studies from Tolkien to Fulk - Tom Shippey The Writings of R.D. Fulk

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Book SynopsisAn examination of French to English translation in medieval England, through the genre of the prologue. The prologue to Layamon's Brut recounts its author's extensive travels "wide yond thas leode" (far and wide across the land) to gather the French, Latin and English books he used as source material. The first Middle English writer to discuss his methods of translating French into English, Layamon voices ideas about the creation of a new English tradition by translation that proved very durable. This book considers the practice of translation from French into English in medieval England, and how the translators themselves viewed their task. At its core is a corpus of French to English translations containing translator's prologues written between c.1189 and c.1450; this remarkable body of Middle English literary theory provides a useful map by which to chart the movement from a literary culture rooted in Anglo-Norman at the end of the thirteenth century to what, in the fifteenth, is regarded as an established "English" tradition. Considering earlier Romance and Germanic models of translation, wider historical evidence about translation practice, the acquisition of French, the possible role of women translators, and the manuscript tradition of prologues, in addition to offering a broader, pan-European perspective through an examination of Middle Dutch prologues, the book uses translators' prologues as a lens through which to view a period of critical growth and development for English as a literary language. Elizabeth Dearnley gained her PhD from the University of Cambridge.Trade ReviewA very well-written and rich study of the multilingual space in England after the Norman Conquest to the mid-fifteenth century. * ANGLIA *[P]rovides a welcome initial foray into the application of translation theory to an understudied Middle English textual corpus by foregrounding the development of a sophisticated translation theory among Midde English translators. * COMITATUS *Table of ContentsIntroduction The Translator's Prologue: Latin and French Antecedents The Translator's Prologue: The Germanic and Anglo-Saxon Background The Development of the French > English Translator's Prologue The Figure of the Translator The Acquisition of French The Case for Women Translators The Presentation of Audience and the Later Life of the Prologue Middle Dutch Translator's Prologues as a Sidelight on English Practice Conclusion Appendix 1: Breakdown of Corpus Motifs Appendix 2: Table of Verbs Used To Represent Translation in the Corpus Bibliography

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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. Amanda Hopkins teaches in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies and the department of French at the University of Warwick. Cory James Rushton is in the Department of English at St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada. Contributors: Anthony Bale, Jane Bliss, Michael Cichon, Thomas H. Crofts III, Alex Davis, Kristina Hildebrand, Amanda Hopkins,Simon Meecham-Jones, Sue Niebrzydowski, Margaret Robson, Robert Rouse, Cory James Rushton, Corinne Saunders.Trade ReviewA 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 ContentsIntroduction `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 SynopsisAn examination into aspects of the sexual as depicted in a variety of medieval texts, from Chaucer and Malory to romance and alchemical treatises. It is often said that the past is a foreign country where they do things differently, and perhaps no type of "doing" is more fascinating than sexual desires and behaviours. Our modern view of medieval sexuality is characterised bya polarising dichotomy between the swooning love-struck knights and ladies of romance on one hand, and the darkly imagined and misogyny of an unenlightened "medieval" sexuality on the other. British medieval sexual culture also exhibits such dualities through the influential paradigms of sinner or saint, virgin or whore, and protector or defiler of women. However, such sexual identities are rarely coherent or stable, and it is in the grey areas, the interstices between normative modes of sexuality, that we find the most compelling instances of erotic frisson and sexual expression. This collection of essays brings together a wide-ranging discussion of the sexual possibilitiesand fantasies of medieval Britain as they manifest themselves in the literature of the period. Taking as their matter texts and authors as diverse as Chaucer, Gower, Dunbar, Malory, alchemical treatises, and romances, the contributions reveal a surprising variety of attitudes, strategies and sexual subject positions. Amanda Hopkins teaches in English and French at the University of Warwick; Robert Allen Rouse is Associate Professor of English atthe University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Cory James Rushton is Associate Professor of English at St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada. Contributors: Aisling Byrne, Anna Caughey, Kristina Hildebrand, Amy S. Kaufman, Yvette Kisor, Megan G. Leitch, Cynthea Masson, Hannah Priest, Samantha J. Rayner, Robert Allen Rouse, Cory James Rushton, Amy N. VinesTrade ReviewThis collection successfully demonstrates the complexity of medieval sexual culture and would be useful for any with an interest in gender, sexuality, and Middle English romance. * CERAE *Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Sexual Culture in the Literature of Medieval Britain, with its nuanced and carefully researched and contextualized literary analyses, offers a crucial counterbalance to what is still at times the prevailing, Foucauldian, view of the Middle Ages. * SPECULUM *Table of ContentsIntroduction: A Light Thrown upon Darkness: Writing about Medieval British Sexuality - Robert Rouse Introduction: A Light Thrown upon Darkness: Writing about Medieval British Sexuality - Cory Rushton Open Manslaughter and Bold Bawdry: Male Sexuality as a Cause of Disruption in Malory's Morte Darthur - Kristina Hildebrand Erotic (Subject) Positions in Chaucer's Merchant's Tale - Amy S. Kaufman Enter the Bedroom: Managing Space for the Erotic in Middle English Romance - Megan G. Leitch 'Naked as a nedyll': The Eroticism of Malory's Elaine - Yvette Kisor 'How love and I togedre met': Gower, Amans and the Lessons of Venus in the Confessio Amantis - Samantha J. Rayner 'Bogeysliche as a boye': Performing Sexuality in William of Palerne - Hannah Priest Fairy Lovers: Sexuality, Order and Narrative in Medieval Romance - Aisling Byrne Text as Stone: Desire, Sex and the Figurative Hermaphrodite in the Ordinal and Compound of Alchemy - Cynthea Masson Animality, Sexuality and the Abject in Three of Dunbar's Satirical Poems - Anna Caughey The Awful Passion of Pandarus - Cory Rushton Invisible Woman: Rape as a Chivalric Necessity in Medieval Romance - Amy N. Vines

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Book SynopsisA study of the prophetic tradition in medieval England brings out its influence on contemporary politics and the contemporary elite. The period from the twelfth century to the Wars of the Roses witnessed a dominant tradition of secular prophecy engaged with high political affairs, which this book charts, discussing the production of prophetic texts forecastingthe rule of the whole of Britain by the kings of England. It draws on the prophetic works of familiar authors and names, such as Geoffrey of Monmouth and Thomas of Erceldoune, alongside previously unpublished manuscript material,to study identity formation among medieval political elites. Alongside English prophetic texts, the author explores competing visions of the British future produced in Wales and Scotland, with which English prophetic authors entered into an overt dialogue; this was a cross-border exchange which in many ways shaped the development of this deeply influential discourse. Prophecy is revealed to be a dynamic arena for literary exchange, where alternative imaginings of the future sovereignty of Britain vied for acceptance, and compelled decision making at the highest political levels. Dr Victoria Flood is Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature at the University of Birmingham.Trade ReviewA really interesting, valuable book, not only for prophecy scholars and those with an interest in that topic, but also for historians with local, national or international interests, and for literary scholars. * HISTORY *A well-researched book on an important topic. * MEDIUM AEVUM *Will appeal to a wide range of readers, including those interested in prophecy, border writing, Geoffrey of Monmouth and the translation and transmission of medieval texts. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction: An Island of the Ocean 'Cadualadrus Conanum uocabit': Political Prophecy in England, the Welsh March, and Ireland, ca. 1130s-1260s 'E si finerount les heirs d'engleterre hors de heritage': Galfridian Prophecy and the Anglo-Scottish Border, ca. 1301-1330s 'Whan shal this be?' The English Erceldoune Tradition, ca. 1310s-90s 'A dede man shall make bytwene hem acorde': Cock in the North and Geiliawc y North, ca. 1405-85 Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisExaminations of the date of Beowulf have tremendous significance for Anglo-Saxon culture in general. This book will be a milestone, and deserves to be widely read. The early Beowulf that overwhelmingly emerges here asks hard questions, and the same strictly defined measures of metre, spelling, onomastics, semantics, genealogy, and historicity all cry out to be tested further and applied more broadly to the whole corpus of Old English verse. Andy Orchard, Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, University of Oxford. The datingof Beowulf has been a central question in Anglo-Saxon studies for the past two centuries, since it affects not only the interpretation of Beowulf, but also the trajectory of early English literary history. By exploring evidence for the poem's date of composition, these essays contribute to a wide range of pertinent fields, including historical linguistics, Old English metrics, onomastics, and textual criticism. Many aspects of Anglo-Saxon literary culture are likewise examined, as contributors gauge the chronological significance of the monsters, heroes, history, and theology brought together in Beowulf. Discussions of methodology and the history of the discipline also figure prominently in this collection. Overall, the dating of Beowulf here provides a productive framework for evaluating evidence and drawing informed conclusions about its chronological significance. These conclusions enhance our appreciation of Beowulf and improve our understanding of the poem's place in literary history. Leonard Neidorf is a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Contributors: Frederick M. Biggs, Thomas A. Bredehoft, George Clark, Dennis Cronan, Michael D.C. Drout, Allen J. Frantzen, R.D. Fulk, Megan E. Hartman, Joseph Harris, Thomas D. Hill, Leonard Neidorf, Rafael J. Pascual, Tom ShippeyTrade Review2015 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title * . *This is a magnum opus, which liberates the text for all the 'others' - the cultural historians, the archaeologists, the art-historians etc. It suddenly becomes unquestionable to quarry this wonderful mine once more, when trying to understand the world, the poet lived in. * MEDIEVAL HISTORIES *[The] contributors.present their ideas clearly and concretely [and] the volume should help scholars arrive at an informed opinion about the poem's date. * ANGLIA *The Dating of Beowulf: A Reassessment is bound to become one of the most influential books in Anglo-Saxon studies. The first-rate essays in this volume will steer the course of Beowulf scholarship in many productive directions, supplying the field with a secure foundation for future literaryhistorical research. * MODERN PHILOLOGY *The contributors' various methodologies are more technical and more objective than those of pre-1981 early-dating arguments, and collectively offer a cohesive and compelling case for Beowulf's early composition. Not only is this volume a necessary companion for the 1981 collection, it stands on its own as an introduction to key issues in the dating of Old English poetry. Essential. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction Beowulf and Language History - R D Fulk Germanic Legend, Scribal Errors, and Cultural Change - Leonard Neidorf Names in Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon England - Tom Shippey The Limits of Conservative Composition in Old English Poetry - Megan E. Hartman The Date of Composition of Beowulf and the Evidence of Metrical Evolution - Thomas A. Bredehoft Beowulf and the Containment of Scyld in the West Saxon Royal Genealogy - Dennis Cronan History and Fiction in the Frisian Raid - Frederick M. Biggs 'Give the People What They Want': Historiography and Rhetorical History of the Dating of Beowulf Controversy - Michael D. C Drout 'Give the People What They Want': Historiography and Rhetorical History of the Dating of Beowulf Controversy - Emily Bowman 'Give the People What They Want': Historiography and Rhetorical History of the Dating of Beowulf Controversy - Phoebe Boyd A Note on the Other Heorot - Joseph Harris Beowulf and Conversion History - Thomas D Hill Material Monsters and Semantic Shifts - Rafael J. Pascual Scandals in Toronto: Kaluza's Law and Transliteration Errors - George Clark Afterword: Beowulf and Everything Else - Allen J. Frantzen

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Book SynopsisArthurian Literature has established its position as the home for a great diversity of new research into Arthurian matters. It delivers fascinating material across genres, periods, and theoretical issues. TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT A wide range of Arthurian material is discussed here, reflecting its diversity, and enduring vitality. Geoffrey of Monmouth's best-selling Historia regum Britannie is discussed in the context of Geoffrey's reception in Wales and the relationship between Latin and Welsh literary culture. Two essays deal with the Middle English Ywain and Gawain: the first offers a comparative study of the Middle English poem alongside Chrétien's Yvainand the Welsh Owein, while the second considers Ywain and Gawain with the Alliterative Morte Arthure in their northern English cultural and political context, the world of the Percys and the Nevilles. It isfollowed by a discussion of Edward III's recuperation of his abandoned Order of the Round Table, which offers an intriguing explanation for this reversal in the context of Edward's victory over the French at Poitiers. The final essay is a comparison of fifteenth- and twentieth-century portrayals of Camelot in Malory and T.H. White, as both idea and locale, and a centre of hearsay and gossip. The volume is completed with a unique and little-known medievalGreek Arthurian poem, presented in facing-page edition and modern English translation. Elizabeth Archibald is Professor of English Studies at Durham University, and Principal of St Cuthbert's Society; David F. Johnson is Professor of English at Florida State University, Tallahassee. Contributors: Christopher Berard, Louis J. Boyle, Thomas H. Crofts, Ralph Hanna, Georgia Lynn Henley, Erich PoppeTable of ContentsFrom 'The Matter of Britain' to 'The Matter of Rome': Latin Literary Culture and the Reception of Geoffrey of Monmouth in Wales - Georgia Lynn Henley Chrétien's British Yvain in England and Wales - Erich Poppe Edward III's Abandoned Order of the Round Table Revisited: Political Arthurianism after Poitiers - Christopher Berard 'Thanked be God there hath been but a few of myne auncytours that hathe dyed in their beddes': Border Stories and Northern Arthurian Romances - Ralph Hanna T. H. White's Representation of Malory's Camelot - Louise J. Boyle Hippotes ho Presbutes: The Old Knight. An edition of the Greek Arthurian poem of Vat. gr. 1822 - Thomas Howard Crofts

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Book SynopsisDefinitions of key words and terms for the study of medievalism. The discipline of medievalism has produced a great deal of scholarship acknowledging the "makers" of the Middle Ages: those who re-discovered the period from 500 to 1500 by engaging with its cultural works, seeking inspiration from them, or fantasizing about them. Yet such approaches - organized by time period, geography, or theme - often lack an overarching critical framework. This volume aims to provide such a framework, by calling into question the problematic yet commonly accepted vocabulary used in Medievalism Studies. The contributions, by leading scholars in the field, define and exemplify in a lively and accessible style the essential terms used when speaking of the later reception of medieval culture. The terms: Archive, Authenticity, Authority, Christianity, Co-disciplinarity, Continuity, Feast, Genealogy, Gesture, Gothic, Heresy, Humor, Lingua, Love, Memory, Middle, Modernity, Monument, Myth, Play, Presentism, Primitive, Purity, Reenactment, Resonance, Simulacrum, Spectacle, Transfer, Trauma, Troubadour Elizabeth Emery is Professor of French and Graduate Coordinator at Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ, USA); Richard Utz is Chair and Professor of Medievalism Studies in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech (Atlanta, GA, USA). Contributors: Nadia Altschul, Martin Arnold, Kathleen Biddick, William C. Calin, Martha Carlin, Pam Clements, Michael Cramer, Louise D'Arcens, Elizabeth Emery, Elizabeth Fay, Vincent Ferré, Matthew Fisher, Karl Fugelso, Jonathan Hsy, Amy S. Kaufman, Nadia Margolis, David Matthews,Lauryn S. Mayer, Brent Moberly, Kevin Moberly, Gwendolyn Morgan, Laura Morowitz, Kevin D. Murphy, Nils Holger Petersen, Lisa Reilly, Edward Risden, Carol L. Robinson, Juanita Feros Ruys, Tom Shippey, Clare A. Simmons, Zrinka Stahuljak, M. Jane Toswell, Richard Utz, Angela Jane Weisl.Trade ReviewI firmly believe this book will prove quite useful to students, professors, and the general reader. The variety of ideas, approaches, and subjects touched upon is stunning and will reward careful reading. * MEDIEVALLY SPEAKING *[I]nvites the readers to confront themselves with an 'open structure' that is not only the mark of a heuristic approach but also a real epistemological method. . . . In the years to come, this list of key terms will certainly lay the foundations for the renewal of medievalist disciplines, by broadening their outlook and improving their hermeneutical tools. * COMITATUS *Emery and Utz provide an encyclopedia of essential vocabulary (e.g., authenticity, gothic, primitive) written by leading scholars, often accompanied by brief but engaging case studies. . . . . The reader is left with a firm grounding in the depth and scope of the scholarly field and various recreational pursuits of both amateurs and specialists. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Table of ContentsMaking Medievalism: A Critical Overview - Elizabeth Emery and Richard Utz Archive - Matthew Fisher Authenticity - Pamela Clements Authority - Gwendolyn Morgan Christianity - William Calin Co-Disciplinarity - Jonathan Hsy Continuity - Feast - Martha Carlin Genealogy - Zrinka Stahuljak Gesture - Carol L. Robinson Gothic - Kevin Murphy and Lisa Reilly Heresy - Nadia Margolis Humor - Clare A Simmons Lingua - M J Toswell Love - Juanita Feros Ruys Memory - Vincent Ferre Middle - David Matthews Modernity - Tom Shippey Monument - E L Risden Myth - Martin Arnold Play - Brent Moberly and Kevin Moberly Presentism - Louise D'Arcens M80534 - Laura Morowitz Purity - Amy S. Kaufman Reenactment - Michael A Cramer Resonance - Nils Holger Petersen Simulacrum - Lauryn S. Mayer Spectacle - Angela Jane Weisl Transfer - Nadia Altschul Trauma - Kathleen Biddick Troubadour - Elizabeth Fay

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Book SynopsisA consideration of Petrarch's influence on, and appearance in, French texts - and in particular, his appropriation by the Avignonese. Was Petrarch French? This book explores the various answers to that bold question offered by French readers and translators of Petrarch working in a period of less well-known but equally rich Petrarchism: the nineteenth century. It considers both translations and rewritings: the former comprise not only Petrarch's celebrated Italian poetry but also his often neglected Latin works; the latter explore Petrarch's influence on and presence in French novels aswell as poetry of the period, both in and out of the canon. Nineteenth-century French Petrarchism has its roots in the later part of the previous century, with formative contributions from Voltaire, Rousseau, and, in particular, the abbé de Sade. To these literary catalysts must be added the unification of Avignon with France at the Revolution, as well as anniversary commemorations of Petrarch's birth and death celebrated in Avignon and Fontaine-de-Vaucluse across the period (1804-1874-1904). Situated at the crossroads of reception history, medievalism, and translation studies, this investigation uncovers tensions between the competing construction of a national, French Petrarch and a local, Avignonese or Provençal poet. Taking Petrarch as its litmus test, this book also asks probing questions about the bases of nationality, identity, and belonging. Jennifer Rushworth is a Junior Research Fellowat St John's College, Oxford.Trade ReviewExtensively researched and well constructed. * FRENCH STUDIES *This learned essay allows us to appreciate the performativity of the myth of a French-Italian Petrarch, and it may well be a first step towards a more comprehensive subject and a more complex challenge for Cultural Studies-uncovering the myth of a European Petrarch. * COMITATUS *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Local History, Local Stories Complete Translations of Petrarch's Canzoniere Partial Translations of Petrarch's Canzoniere Finding Laura in the Triumphi and Petrarch's Latin Works Petrarch and Avignon: The Fate of the Sine nomine and RVF 136-8 Petrarch in Poetry The Novelization of Petrarch Conclusion: Petrarch and Patriotism Appendix 1: A Chronological Survey of Translations of Petrarch's Italian Poetry [the Canzoniere and Triumphi] between 1764 and 1903 in France Appendix 2: Translations of the Opening Stanza of RVF 126 from Voltaire [1756] to Brisset [1903] Bibliography

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Book SynopsisAn invigorating annual for those who are interested in medieval textual cultures and open to ways in which diverse post-modern methodologies may be applied to them. Alcuin Blamires, Review of English Studies New Medieval Literatures is an annual of work on medieval textual cultures, aiming to engage with intellectual and cultural pluralism in the Middle Ages and now. Its scope is inclusive of work across the theoretical, archival, philological, and historicist methodologies associated with medieval literary studies, and embraces both the British Isles and Europe. Essays in this volume engage with the relations between humans and nonhumans; the power of inanimate objects to animate humans and texts; literary deployments of medical, aesthetic, and economic discourses; the language of friendship; and the surprising value of early readers' casual annotations. Texts discussed include Beowulf, works by Rolle, Chaucer, Langland, Gower, and Lydgate; lyrics of the Occitan troubadour Marcabru and the French poet Richard de Fournival; and the Anglo-Saxon versions of Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae and Augustine's Soliloquia. Wendy Scase is Geoffrey Shepherd Professor of Medieval English Literature at the University of Birmingham; David Lawton is Professor of English at Washington University, StLouis; Laura Ashe is Associate Professor of English at Worcester College, Oxford.Trade ReviewEliza Zingesser's essay `Pidgin Poetics: Bird Talk in Medieval France and Occitania' won the Society for French Studies Malcolm Bowie Prize 2017 * . *This is a fine collection of essays, with tantalizing points of comparison across them. For those interested in teasing out ideas around materiality, and how we engage with the medieval world from a twenty-first-century perspective, it is of particular value. * PARERGON *Table of ContentsThe Lives of Nytenu: Imagining the Animal in the Old English Boethius and Soliloquies - Michael Raby Disruptive Things in Beowulf - Aaron Hostetter Pidgin Poetics: Bird Talk in Medieval France and Occitania - Eliza Zingesser Performing Friendship in Richard Rolle's Incendium Amoris - Robert Jacob McDonie Damaged Goods: Merchandise, Stories, and Gender in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale - Diane Cady Gower's Bedside Manner - Joseph Stadolnik Vitreous Visions: Stained Glass and Affective Engagement in John Lydgate's The Temple of Glass - Boyda Johnstone The Idle Readers of Piers Plowman in Print - Spencer Strub

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Book SynopsisAn interdisciplinary approach to sources for our knowledge of the crusades. The interrelation of so-called "literary" and "historical" sources of the crusades, and the fluidity of these categorisations, are the central concerns of the essays collected here. They demonstrate what the study of literary texts can do for our historical understanding of the crusading movement, challenging earlier historiographical assumptions about well-known poems and songs, and introducing hitherto understudied manuscript sources which elucidate a rich contemporary compositional culture regarding the matter of crusade. The volume discusses a wide array of European textual responses to the medieval crusading movement, from the Plantagenet and Catalan courts to the Italy of Charles of Anjou, Cyprus, and the Holy Land. Meanwhile, the topics considered include the connexions between poetry and history in the Latin First Crusade texts; the historical, codicological and literary background to Richard the Lionheart's famous song of captivity; crusade references in the troubadour Cerverí of Girona; literary culture surrounding Charles of Anjou's expeditions; the use of the Mélusine legend to strengthen the Lusignans' claim to Cyprus; and the influence of aristocratic selection criteria in manuscript traditions of Old French crusade songs. These diverse approaches are unified in their examination of crusading texts as cultural artefacts ripe for comparisonacross linguistic and thematic divides. SIMON THOMAS PARSONS teaches Medieval History at Royal Holloway, University of London and King's College London; LINDA PATERSON is Professor Emerita at Warwick University. Contributors: Luca Barbieri, Miriam Cabré, Jean Dunbabin, Ruth Harvey, Simon John, Charmaine Lee, Helen J. Nicholson, Simon Parsons, Anna Radaelli, Stephen Spencer, Carol Sweetenham.Trade ReviewThis fine collection of essays is but one product of a truly international consortium of scholars * SEHEPUNKTE *It is to be hoped that the appearance of this collection, alongside Paterson's monograph [Singing the Crusades: French and Occitan Lyric Responses to the Crusading Movements, 1137-1336 (Boydell Press, 2018)], will stimulate renewed engagement by crusade historians with the evidence from lyric songs and other literary sources. * Tenso *Table of ContentsIntroduction - Ruth Harvey and Simon Thomas Parsons 'Claruit Ibi Multum Dux Lotharingiae': The Development of the Epic Tradition of Godfrey of Bouillon and the Bisected Muslim - Simon John Reflecting and Refracting Reality: The Use of Poetic Sources in Latin Accounts of the First Crusade - Carol Sweetenham Emotions and the 'Other': Emotional Characterisations of Muslim Protagonists in Narratives of the Crusades (1095-1192) - Stephen J. Spencer A Unique Song of the First Crusade? New Observations on the Hatton 77 Manuscript of the Siège d'Antioche - Simon Thomas Parsons Crusade Songs and the Old French Literary Canon - Luca Barbieri Wielding the Cross: Crusade References in Cerverí de Girona and Thirteenth-Century Catalan Historiography - Miriam Cabre 'voil ma chançun a la gent fere oïr': An Anglo-Norman Crusade Appeal (London, BL Harley 1717, fol. 251v) - Anna Radaelli Richard the Lionheart: The Background to 'Ja nus homs pris' - Charmaine Lee Charles of Anjou: Crusaders and Poets - Jean Dunbabin Remembering the Crusaders in Cyprus: the Lusignans, the Hospitallers and the 1191 Conquest of Cyprus in Jean d'Arras's Mélusine - Helen J. Nicholson Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisEssays on the complexity of multilingualism in medieval England. Professor Jocelyn Wogan-Browne's scholarship on the French of England - a term she indeed coined for the mix of linguistic, cultural, and political elements unique to the pluri-lingual situation of medieval England - is of immenseimportance to the field. The essays in this volume extend, honour and complement her path-breaking work. They consider exchanges between England and other parts of Britain, analysing how communication was effected where languagesdiffered, and probe cross-Channel relations from a new perspective. They also examine the play of features within single manuscripts, and with manuscripts in conversation with each other. And they discuss the continuing reach ofthe French of England beyond the Middle Ages: in particular, how it became newly relevant to discussions of language and nationalism in later centuries. Whether looking at primary sources such as letters and official documents, orat creative literature, both religious and secular, the contributions here offer fruitful and exciting approaches to understanding what the French of England can tell us about medieval Britain and the European world beyond. Thelma Fenster is Professor Emerita of French and Medieval Studies, Fordham University; Carolyn Collette is Professor of English Language and Literature at Mount Holyoke College. Contributors: Christopher Baswell,Emma Campbell, Paul Cohen, Carolyn Collette, Thelma Fenster, Robert Hanning, Richard Ingham, Maryanne Kowaleski, Serge Lusignan, Thomas O'Donnell, W. Mark Ormrod, Monika Otter, Felicity Riddy, Delbert Russell, Fiona Somerset, +Robert M. Stein, Andrew Taylor, Nicholas Watson, R.F. YeagerTrade Review[A] rich collection...[An] excellent volume. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *It is in countless ways an impressive volume. -- W. Chester Jordan * HISTORY *[A]n indispensable resource for the study of both the 'French of England' and the culture of medieval Britain more broadly. * FRENCH STUDIES *As the editors write in their introduction (and Felicity Riddy in her foreword), Jocelyn's work has been trailblazing, and this collection shows the richness of the vistas that she has opened up. * STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER *A rich and well-conceived collection that will reward readers from disciplines including literature, history, linguistics, and musicology. * PARERGON *This excellent Festschrift offers an opportunity to reflect, not just on [Jocelyn Wogan-Browne's] career but also on the parallel field of study that has seen so much further work on French as an international medieval vernacular. * SPECULUM *Table of ContentsForeword: "The Light I Never Left Behind": Jocelyn Wogan-Browne - Felicity Riddy Introduction: Recognizing the French of Medieval England The Gloss to Philippe de Thaon's Comput and the French of England's Beginnings - Thomas O'Donnell The Scandals of Medieval Translation: Thinking Difference in Francophone Texts and Manuscripts - Emma Campbell Contrafacture and Translation: The Prisoner's Lament - Monika C Otter Complaining about the King in French in Thomas Wright's Political Songs of England - Fiona Somerset The Chanson d'Aspremont in Bodmer 11 and Plantagenet Propaganda - Andrew Taylor The Use of Anglo-Norman in Day to Day Communication during the Anglo-Scottish Wars [1295-1314] - Serge Lusignan Middle English Borrowing from French: Nouns and Verbs of Interpersonal Cognition in the Early South English Legendary - Richard Ingham William Langland Reads Robert Grosseteste - Nicholas Watson Disability Networks in the Campsey Manuscript - Christopher Baswell English Women and Their French Books: Teaching about the Jews in Medieval England - Thelma Fenster French Residents in England at the Start of the Hundred Years War: Learning English, Speaking English and Becoming English in 1346 - W. Mark Ormrod French Immigrants and the French Language in Late Medieval England - Maryanne Kowaleski Fashioning a Useable Linguistic Past: The French of Medieval England and the Invention of a National Vernacular in Early Modern France - Paul Cohen Admiring Ambivalence: On Paul Meyer's Anglo-Norman Scholarship - Delbert W. Russell Twenty-First Century Gower: The Theology of Marriage in John Gower's Traitié and the Turn toward French - Robert F. Yeager Royaumes sans frontières: the Place of England in the Long Twelfth Century - Robert Stein Afterword - Robert W Hanning Bibliography - Felicity Riddy Index Bibliography of the Writings of Jocelyn Wogan-Browne

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Book SynopsisAn investigation of the depiction of the story of Theophilus in both its original texts, and images. The legend of Theophilus stages an iconic medieval story, its widespread popularity attesting to its grip on the imagination. A pious clerk refuses a promotion, is demoted, becomes furious and makes a contract with the Devil. Later repentant, he seeks out a church and a statue of the Virgin; she appears to him, and he is transformed from apostate to saint. It is illustrated in a variety of media: texts, stained glass, sculpture, and manuscript illuminations. Through a wide range of manuscript illuminations and a selection of French texts, the book explores visual and textual representations of the legend, setting it in its social, cultural and material contexts, and showing how it explores medieval anxieties concerning salvation and identity. The author argues that the legend is a sustained meditation on the power of images, its popularity corresponding with the rise of their role in portraying medieval identity and salvation, and in acting as portals between the limits of the material and the possibilities of the spiritual world Jerry Root is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature, University of Utah.Trade ReviewA valuable contribution towards understanding the power of the image in late medieval rituals of religious devotion. * PARERGON *Jerry Root's well-researched study includes a table of illustrations of the legend, a bibliography, a list of illustrations, a general index, and an index of figures. It is scholarly, perceptive, and critically and theoretically grounded, and will attract readers with a variety of interests: folklore, cultural history, literature, art history, medieval theology, hagiography, and also particularly the history of ideas about identity and interiority. * Folklore *Table of ContentsIntroduction Homage to the Devil: ritual, writing, seal The Self as dissemblance Intervention of the Virgin Sacramental action and Neoplatonic exemplarism Conclusion Works Cited Appendix: Image Charts

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Book SynopsisAn investigation of the non-human world in the Exeter Book riddles, drawing on the exciting new approaches of eco-criticism and eco-theology. Humanity is a dominant presence in the Exeter Book riddle collection. It is frequently shown using, shaping and binding the physical world in which it lives. The riddles depict master and craftsman and use the familiar human worldas a point of orientation within a vast, overwhelming cosmos. But the riddles also offer an eco-centric perspective, one that considers the natural origins of man-made products and the personal plight of useful human resources. This study offers fresh insights into the collection, investigating humanity's interaction with, and attitudes towards, the rest of the created world. Drawing on the principles of eco-criticism and eco-theology, the study considers the cultural and biblical influences on the depiction of nature in the collection, arguing that the texts engage with post-lapsarian issues of exploitation, suffering and mastery. Depictions of marginalised perspectives ofsentient and non-sentient beings, such as trees, ore and oxen, are not just characteristic of the riddle genre, but are actively used to explore the point of view of the natural world and the impact humanity has on its non-human inhabitants. The author not only explores the riddles' resistance to anthropocentrism, but challenges our own tendency to read these enigmas from a human-centred perspective. Corinne Dale gained her PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London.Trade ReviewIn these analyses combining eco-criticism and eco-theology, Dale makes an original and exciting new contribution to the field. * PARERGON *Refreshing and original. * MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW *A pioneering contribution that is worth taking into account. . . . [It] deserves a prominent place in the library of any scholar intending to do research on these texts. * MODERN PHILOLOGY *Dale's ecocentric readings provide much food for thought and reveal the critic's discerning attentiveness to the rich and paradoxical qualities of the Old English poems themselves. * SPECULUM *Makes a strong case for the place of 'green studies' in Old English literature. * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *Table of ContentsIntroduction 'be sonde, sæwealle neah': Locating Non-Human Subjects in an Anthropocentric World 'earfoða dæl': The Groan of Travail in the Ox-Riddles 'wrætlic weorc smiþa': Inverting the Colophon in Riddle 26 'deope gedolgod': Wounding and Shaping in Riddles 53 and 73 'fruman agette / eall of earde': The Principle of Accountability in Riddle 83 'mægene binumen': The Failure of Human Mastery in the Wine and Mead Riddles 'swa ne wenaþ men': The Limits of Wisdom in Riddle 84 and the Storm Riddles Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisEssays on the post-modern reception and interpretation of the Middle Ages, with a particular concentration on environmental matters. Ecoconcerns and ecocriticism are a rising trend in medievalism studies, and form a major focus of this collection. Topics under discussion in the first part of the volume include figurations in nineteenth- and twentieth-century medievalism; environmental medievalism in Sidney Lanier's Southern chivalry; nostalgia and loss in T.H. White's "forest sauvage"; and green medievalism in J.R.R. Tolkien's elven realms. The eleven subsequent articles continue to take in such themes more tangentially, testing and buillding on the methods and conclusions of the first part. Their subjects include John Aubrey's Middle Ages; medieval charter-horns in early modern England; nineteenth-centuryreimaginings of Chaucer's Griselda; Dante's influence on Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream"; multi-layered medievalisms in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire; (coopted) feminism via medievalism inDisney's Maleficent; (neo)medievalism in Babylon 5 and Crusade; cosmopolitan anxieties and national identity in Netflix's Marco Polo; mapping Everealm in The Quest; undergraduate perceptions ofthe "medieval" and the "Middle Ages"; and medievalism in the prosopopeia and corpsepaint of Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Karl Fugelso is Professor of Art History at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland. Contributors: Dustin M. Frazier Wood, Daniel Helbert, Ann F. Howey, Carol Jamison, Ann M. Martinez, Kara L. McShane, Lisa Myers, Elan Justice Pavlinich, Katie Peebles, Scott Riley, Paul B. Sturtevant, Dean Swinford, Renée Ward, Angela Jane Weisl, Jeremy Withers.Table of ContentsEditorial Note - "A Sense of Life in Things Inert": The Animistic Figurations in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Medievalist Texts - Scott Riley Future Nostalgias: Environmental Medievalism and Lanier's Southern Chivalry - Daniel Glynn Helbert T. H. White's "Forest Sauvage": Nostalgia and Loss - Lisa Myers Elvencentrism: The Green Medievalism of Tolkien's Elven Realms - Ann M. Martinez Fragmentary Dreams: John Aubrey's Medieval Heritage Construction - Katie Peebles Charter Horns and the Antiquarian Imagination in Early Modern England - Dustin Frazier Wood Giving Voice to Griselda: Radical Reimaginings of a Medieval Tale - Renée Ward Medieval and Futuristic Hells: The Influence of Dante on Ellison's "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" - Jeremy Withers Reading Westeros: George R. R. Martin's Multi-Layered Medievalisms - Carol Jamison Modernity in the Middle: The Medieval Fantasy of (Coopted) Feminism in Disney's Maleficent - Elan Justice (E J) Pavlinich Future Medieval: (Neo)Medievalism in Babylon 5 and Crusade - Ann F. Howey Cosmopolitan Anxieties and National Identity in the Netflix Marco Polo - Kara L. McShane Mapping Everealm: Space, Time, and Medieval Fictions in The Quest - Angela Jane Weisl Medievalisms of the Mind: Undergraduate Perceptions of the "Medieval" and the "Middle Ages" - Paul Sturtevant Mask of the Medieval Corpse: Prosopopeia and Corpsepaint in Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas - Dean Swinford

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Book Synopsis2022 ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography - First Prize Winner This catalogue of the substantial collection of the incunabula at the University of Glasgow Library, concentrates, in addition to the usual data, on the copy-specific aspects of the book such as provenance, use, binding and decoration. The University of Glasgow Library has one of the richest rare book collections in the UK outside London, Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester. There are 1042 incunabula (including many unique items). As witnesses of the first print revolution, these books are fascinating on many levels - as innovative survivors of the technological shift from manuscript to print, as late medieval texts available in duplicate to a commercial mass market for the first time, andas cultural artefacts containing over 500 years of ownership history. A well-presented catalogue is the key to accessing this rich resource for a wide range of historians and researchers. A further 64 itncunabula in other Glasgowmuseums and libraries are also included. Bibliographically, incunabula have been well documented. The aim of the Glasgow catalogue is to concentrate on the unique aspects of the books. A short-title catalogue approachis taken in providing enough information to identify each edition (with reference to standard bibliographical works such as ISTC) presented in author order. The main focus of each record is on the copy specific features of the book, including full details of provenance (ownership), evidence of use from annotation and other marks, binding, decoration and any other idiosyncratic features (such as hand-colouring of woodcuts or manuscript waste used in endpapers.Trade ReviewThis two-volume folio catalogue of the nearly 2,000 incunables held in different Glasgow Museums and Libraries is not just very beautiful but also a handy reference book. [...] The printed catalogue [...] can serve generations of incunable scholars in its present form for centuries to come. * Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society *The scholarship is meticulous, and the methodology is exemplary. * Library & Information History *

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Book SynopsisAn investigation of the motif of the unspeakable as manifested in a wide range of medieval texts, from the Exeter Book to Chaucer. Amid saints and sinners, open secrets and queer codes, the mechanisms of confession and the infliction of torture, what is unspeakable in the Middle Ages - and who decides? Aspiring to the ineffable glories of heaven or plunging down to the murky depths of "unmentionable sin", this very functional concept becomes attached to the very good and the very bad in medieval literature and culture. This book investigates the concept and use of the trope of unspeakability from pre-Conquest to late medieval literature in England, and the relationship between that which cannot be said and cultural and social understandings of gender and sexuality. The question of how the unspeakable returns to the realm of discourse drives the exploration of texts, including the Exeter Book, Old English hagiography, Ancrene Wisse, Old French romance, Gower's Confessio Amantis and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Legend of Good Women. Theorising the work this concept performs, asking who the unspeakable works for and who it works on, this study takes in the compulsive confessions of penitent whores and anchorites, the tales of could-be sodomites and crypto-lesbians, the howls of wolf-men (and wolf-women), and the rebellion and rhetoric of the tongueless. These texts show how in representations of gender and sexuality in medieval literature, the unspeakablechallenges the voiceless to overcome silence, showing the limits of language, the workings of power and the desire to be heard. Victoria Blud gained her PhD from King's College London and is currently a Research Associate at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York.Trade Review[R]ich and provocative, weaving together texts across period boundaries in unexpected ways. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *It opens up a range of possibilities, connections, and methods for seeking elusive traces in medieval texts. It will be of use to scholars of gender and sexuality, and is likely generative for many others as well. * PARERGON *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Words and Other Fragments Speaking Up and Shutting Up: Expression and Suppression in the Old English Mary of Egypt and Ancrene Wisse What Comes Unnaturally: Unspeakable Acts Crying Wolf: Gender and Exile in Bisclavret and Wulf and Eadwacer Taking the Words Out of Her Mouth: Glossing Glossectomy in Tales of Philomela Conclusion: After Words Bibliography

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Book SynopsisFirst English translation of an important twelfth-century romance, giving an account of the Trojan war and its consequences. Winner of the 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie, dating to around 1165, is, along with the Roman de Thèbes and the Roman d'Eneas, one of the three"romances of antiquity" (romans d'antiquité). These romances launched the plots, themes and structures of the genre, then blossoming in the hands of authors such as Chrétien de Troyes. As an account of the Trojan War, Benoît's work is of necessity a poem about war and its causes, how it was fought and what its consequences were for the combatants. But the author's choice of the octosyllabic rhyming couplet, his fondness for description, his abilityto recount the intensity of personal struggles, and above all his fascination with the trials and tribulations of Love, which affect some of the work's most prominent warriors (among them Paris and his love for Helen, and Troilusand his love for Briseida), all combine to fashion this romance - in which events from long ago are presented as a reflection of the poet's own feudal and courtly worlds. This translation, the first into English, aims to bring the poem and the author to a wider audience. It is accompanied by an introduction and notes. Glyn S. Burgess is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Liverpool; Douglas Kelly is Emeritus Professor of French and Medieval Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award * . *[A] clear and accessible translation of Benoît's twelfth-century Roman de Troie that will serve as the standard English-language version of the medieval French text for the foreseeable future. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *The translators, eminent medievalists both, have crafted a compelling narrative that is scrupulously faithful to the original and perhaps even more vivid and powerful . . . The translators' expertise is evident in every component of the book-not only their translation, but also the dense introduction. Essential. * CHOICE *The work of G. S. Burgess and D. Kelly deserves to be praised, as much for its remarkable quality as for the immense work required to translate a novel about thirty thousand words long! * CAHIERS DE CIVILISATION MÉDIÉVALE *In this first-ever English translation, Glyn Burgess and Douglas Kelly expertly summarize what Benoît did with his originals [...] and offer a helpful overview and outline of the narrative [...] along with an appendix discussing key narrative terms, and indexes to names and places. * PARERGON *Table of ContentsIntroduction A Note on the Translation Outline of the Roman de Troie Prologue Part One: Causes and Effects Part Two: The Trojan War Part Three: Settling Scores and Surviving Appendix I: Notes on Some Commons Words in the Roman de Troie Appendix II: Manuscripts of the Roman de Troie Bibliography

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Book SynopsisTranslation and facing text of an important female-authored work from the late middle ages. A Revelation of Purgatory was written by an unnamed woman, almost certainly an anchoress, in Winchester in 1422. It details from a first-person perspective a series of terrifying visions experienced by the author in which she witnesses the purgatorial sufferings of a former friend named Margaret who makes her way through the blazing fires of purgatory tormented by devils, the "worm of conscience", and - uniquely - her two former pets, a fierce little cat and dog. Through her prayer and the prayers she elicits from her own circle of influential priests, the anchoress is eventually able to deliver Margaret to the doors of the heavenly Jerusalem. Made available here in accessible parallel-text format with extended introduction and annotation, the Revelation is an important text: not only does it testify to popular and religious concerns with the afterlife in the late Middle Ages but also underscores the significant role played by women in mitigating the suffering of souls in purgatory by means of their personal interventions. The text also bears witness to female friendship, effective intergender dialogue, and the central role played by an anchoress in those communities with which she interacted, be they spiritual, institutional or personal. Liz Herbert McAvoy is Professor of Medieval Literature at Swansea University.Trade ReviewThere is no doubt that A Revelation of Purgatory invites much more study, from the complex emotional relationship it presents in its network of religious women extending beyond the grave to its lurid depictions of sexualized punishment. * TULSA STUDIES IN WOMEN'S LITERATURE *Table of ContentsIntroduction Notes on the Edition and Translation Text Translation Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe first full-length examination of the medieval Charlemagne tradition in the literature and culture of medieval England, from the Chanson de Roland to Caxton. The Matter of France, the legendary history of Charlemagne, had a central but now largely unrecognised place in the multilingual culture of medieval England. From the early claim in the Chanson de Roland that Charlemagne held England as his personal domain, to the later proliferation of Middle English romances of Charlemagne, the materials are woven into the insular political and cultural imagination. However, unlike the wide range of continental French romances, the insular tradition concentrates on stories of a few heroic characters: Roland, Fierabras, Otinel. Why did writers and audiences in England turn again and again to these narratives, rewriting and reinterpreting them for more than two hundred years? This book offers the first full-length, in-depth study of the tradition as manifested in literature and culture. It investigates the currency and impact of the Matter of France with equal attention to English and French-language texts, setting each individual manuscript or early printed text in its contemporary cultural and political context. The narratives are revealed to be extraordinarily adaptable, using the iconic opposition between Carolingian and Saracen heroes to reflect concerns with national politics, religious identity, the future of Christendom, chivalry and ethics, and monarchy and treason. PHILLIPA HARDMAN is Readerin Medieval English Literature (retired) at the University of Reading; MARIANNE AILES is Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Bristol.Trade ReviewThis excellent study, long overdue, serves as a thorough introduction to the English Charlemagne texts and as a corrective to the common assumption that these works lack merit. . . . Highly recommended. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *An essential study for those interested in the Charlemagne legend. * FRANCIA *Carefully researched, ambitious in scope, and lucidly written, [the book] conclusively debunks long-held perceptions of the insular Charlemagne narratives as inferior `hack-work' and will become an indispensable resource for anyone working within this tradition. * REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES *Hardman and Ailes have made an important contribution to this initiative by giving scholars a much-needed survey and study of insular Charlemagne literature. * SPECULUM *this book offers many new insights into the political and cultural uses of translation and adaptation, as well as a fresh perspective on the development of Middle English literature through dialogue with literature in French. * FRENCH STUDIES *[A] rich and deeply researched study that is carefully organized and refreshingly readable, especially given the depth and detail that it provides. * H-FRANCE REVIEW *Over recent years an increasing awareness of multilingualism in medieval England has been informing linguistic, literary, and cultural scholarship. This book, exploring the intersection of Anglo-Norman and Middle English literary production across religious, geographic, and socio-political contexts, is a solid piece of work sharing in this discourse. * PARERGON *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Charlemagne in England: Owning the Legend Acculturating Charlemagne: The Insular Literary Context Charlemagne 'Translated' [i]: The Anglo-Norman Tradition Charlemagne 'Appropriated' [ii]: The Middle English Tradition Re-Imagining the Hero: The Insular Roland and the Battle of Roncevaux Re-Presenting Otherness: The Insular Fierabras Tradition Re-Purposing the Narrative: The Insular Otinel Tradition Conclusion: The Insular Afterlife of the Matter of France Appendix: The Corpus: Texts and Manuscripts Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe essays here, united by their appreciation of the centrality of translation to the interpretation of the medieval past, add to our understanding of how the old is continually made anew The first decades of the twenty-first century have seen an unprecedented level of creative engagement with early medieval literature, ranging from the long-awaited publication of Tolkien's version of Beowulf and the reworking of medieval lyrics by Ireland's foremost poets to the adaptation of Eddic and Skaldic poetry for the screen. This collection brings together scholars and accomplished translators working with Old English, Old Norse and MedievalIrish poetry, to take stock of this extraordinary proliferation of translation activity and to suggest new ways in which to approach these three dynamic literary traditions. The essays in this collection include critical surveysof texts and traditions to the present day, assessments of the practice and impact of individual translators from Jorge Luis Borges to Seamus Heaney, and reflections on the particular challenges of translating poetic forms and vocabulary into different languages and media. Together they present a series of informed and at times provocative perspectives on what it means to "carry across" early medieval poetry in our contemporary cultural climate. Dr Tom Birkett is lecturer in Old English at University College Cork; Dr Kirsty March-Lyons is a scholar of Old English and Latin poetry and co-organiser of the Irish Research Council funded conference and translation project "Eald to New". Contributors: Tom Birkett, Elizabeth Boyle, Hannah Burrows, Gareth Lloyd Evans, Chris Jones, Carolyne Larrington, Hugh Magennis, Kirsty March-Lyons, Lahney Preston-Matto, Inna Matyushina, Rory McTurk, Bernard O'Donoghue, Heather O'Donoghue, Tadhg Ó Síocháin, Bertha Rogers, M.J. Toswell.Trade ReviewThe essays are without exception well written, sometimes indeed entertaining as well as scholarly, and any reader interested in early Western European poetry and its translation will find much of interest. * PARERGON *By juxtaposing the three linguistic traditions [Old English, Old Norse, and Celtic], the editors create a crucible that reveals both defaults and the desiderata for each literature, pointing to where scholars might productively enrich and contextualize their particular area of study. * SPECULUM *[A] view of translation as process, as complex aesthetic, cultural, and intellectual activity with different aims and interests depending upon context. . . . [A]n impressive blend of art and scholarship. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *High quality scholarship that has such a wide potential audience, far beyond the borders of academia, is rare, and definitely very welcome. * TOEBI *Table of ContentsIntroduction: From Eald to New From Eald Old to New Old: Translating Old English Poetry in(to) the Twenty-first Century Edwin Morgan's Translations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry: Turning Eald into New in English and Scots Gains and Losses in Translating Old English Poetry into Modern English and Russian Borges, Old English Poetry, and Translation Studies "Let Beowulf now be a book from Ireland": What Would Henryson or Tolkien Say? The Forms and Functions of Medieval Irish Poetry and the Limitations of Modern Aesthetics Aislinge Meic Conglinne: Challenges for Translator and Audience Translating Find and the Phantoms into Modern Irish Reawakening Angantýr: English Translations of an Old Norse Poem from the Eighteenth Century to the Twenty-First Translating and Retranslating the Poetic Edda From Heroic Lay to Victorian Novel: Old Norse Poetry about Brynhildr and Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native Michael Hirst's Vikings and Old Norse Poetry Afterword Bibliography A Translation of Riddle 15 from the Exeter Book

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Book SynopsisNew essays on aspects of Gower's poetry, viewed through the lens of the self and beyond. The topics of "selfhood" and "otherness" lie at the heart of these new assessments of John Gower's poetry. The first part of the book, on knowing the self and others, focuses on cognition, brain functions, imagination, and the internal and external factors that affect one's sense of being, from sensation and inner emotive effects within body parts to cosmic perspectives, morality, and theology as voiced by language and storytelling. The second, on the essence of strangers, explores the interconnections of sensation and aesthetics; it also considers kinds of social dysfunction, whether through racial or gender conflict, or religious and political warfare.The final part of the booklooks at social ethics and ethical poets, reassessing two of Gower's perpetual concerns: honest government and honest craft. It considers Gower as a constitutional thinker, whether in terms of law, judicial corruption, or a society of businessmen who would rewrite ethics in terms of business models. It concludes with an examination of the Confessio in the culture of Portugal and Spain. Russell Peck is the John Hall Deane Professor of English at the University of Rochester: R. F. Yeager is Professor of English at the University of West Florida. Contributors: Stephanie L. Batkie, Helen Cooper, Brian W. Gastle, Matthew Giancarlo, Matthew W. Irvin, Yoshiko Kobayashi, Robert J. Meindl, Peter Nicholson, Maura Nolan, Gabrielle Parkin, Russell A. Peck, Ana Sáez-Hidalgo, Larry Scanlon, Karla Taylor, Kim Zarins, R.F. Yeager,Trade ReviewEach essay does one or more of the following: break new ground, deepen our awareness of the sophistication and originality of Gower's poetry, and expand our understanding of Gower's historical, cultural, and literary contexts and his place in them. * SPECULUM *This substantial, well-edited, and approachable collection of essays covers a number of the topics in which Gower studies is proliferating. . . . The collection will be a boon to medieval literary criticism generally. * CHOICE *The volume presents a broad range of interpretations pertaining to diverse aspects of Gower's trilingual oeuvre and demonstrates the sheer variety of approaches that Gower scholars are now pursuing. * YEAR'S WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES *This collection, arising from the Society's third triennial congress in 2014, richly demonstrates the interest of his oeuvre and the intellectual liveliness of Gower studies. * PARERGON *Table of ContentsIntroduction - Robert F. Yeager and Russell Peck The Materiality of Cognition in Reading, Staging, and Regulation of Brain and Heart Activities in Gower's Confessio Amantis - Russell Peck The Sound of My Voice: Aurality and Credible Faith in the Vox Clamantis - Stephanie L. Batkie "Noght withoute peine": Chastity, Complaint, and Lucrece's Vox Clamantis - Matthew W. Irvin Reading Faces in Gower and Chaucer - Karla Taylor Gower and Mortality: The Ends of Storytelling - Helen Cooper Sensation and the Plain Style in John Gower's Confessio Amantis - Maura Nolan Violence without Warning: Sympathetic Villains and Gower's Crafting of Ovidian Narrative - Kim Zarins Gower, Lydgate, and Incest - Larry Scanlon Gower's Jews - Robert F. Yeager Letters of Old Age: The Advocacy of Peace in the Works of John Gower and Philippe de Mézières - Yoshiko Kobayashi Gower's Governmentality: Revisiting John Gower as a Constitutional Thinker and Regiminal Writer - Matthew Giancarlo Gower's Speculum Iudicis: Judicial Corruption in Book VI of the Vox Clamantis - Robert J. Meindl "The lucre of marchandie": Poet, Patron, and Payment in Gower's Confessio Amantis - Brian Gastle Hidden Matter in John Gower's Confessio Amantis - Gabrielle Parkin Writing the Cinkante Balades - Peter Nicholson Gower in Early Modern Spanish Libraries: The Missing Link - Ana Saez-Hidalgo Bibliography

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Book SynopsisA major and original contribution to the debate as to Chaucer's use and knowledge of Boccaccio, finding a new source for the "Shipman's Tale". A possible direct link between the two greatest literary collections of the fourteenth century, Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, has long tantalized readers because these works share many stories, which are, moreover, placed in similar frames. And yet, although he identified many of his sources, Chaucer never mentioned Boccaccio; indeed when he retold the Decameron's final novella, his pilgrim, the Clerk, states that it was written by Petrarch. For these reasons, most scholars now believe that while Chaucer might have heard parts of the earlier collection when he was in Italy, he did not have it at hand as he wrote. This volumeaims to change our understanding of this question. It analyses the relationship between the "Shipman's Tale", originally written for the Wife of Bath, and Decameron 8.10, not seen before as a possible source. The book alsoargues that more important than the narratives that Chaucer borrowed is the literary technique that he learned from Boccaccio - to make tales from ideas. This technique, moreover, links the "Shipman's Tale" to the "Miller's Tale"and the new "Wife of Bath's Tale". Although at its core a hermeneutic argument, this book also delves into such important areas as alchemy, domestic space, economic history, folklore, Irish/English politics, manuscripts, and misogyny. FREDERICK M. BIGGS is Professor of English at the University of Connecticut.Trade ReviewBiggs has written a learned book that enlists a wide range of scholarship (manu-script and textual studies, medieval economics, architecture, and urban history) to support his account of Boccaccio's impact on Chaucer. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *An immensely learned study, an omnium gatherum full of rewarding nuggets. * REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES *Biggs offer a broad reading of Boccaccio and Chaucer as anti-authoritarian advocates of freedom, particularly women's freedom, as explorers of class competition, and as proponents of secularism. These provocative big-picture issues will give readers something to think about as they reconsider the relationship between the Italian and English poets studied in this assertive book, where Biggs displays a tremendous mastery of potential sources and stories behind some of the greatest works of medieval literature. * ARTHURIANA *Biggs has opened an early window on the genesis of Chaucer's idea of a narrative frame with multiple and incomplete structures of play and evaluation. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *What did the Decameron teach Chaucer? A new way of understanding literature, of considering the relationship between stories, themes and motifs in order to write fascinating, intriguing tales. Chaucer learned how to elaborate his own ideas in a new narrative style and in doing so - according to Biggs - went far beyond what Boccaccio had written. Let's face it, Chaucer knew the Decameron, and in reworking it showed that he fully possessed the characteristic English ability to take an existing literary work and perfect it - an extraordinary example of what Dryden termed 'the Genius of our Countrymen [...] to improve an Invention'. * L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO *[T]his wide-ranging study demonstrates that there is still a great deal more room for debate and development of understanding of Chaucer's debt to Boccaccio. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Chaucer's Decameron presents an exceptional breadth of scholarship, supporting its bold argument by compiling evidence from an extensive range of historical sources. * ANGLIA *This book deserves to be read and recognized for its deep learning and astute critical analysis of Chaucer's tales, the historical and cultural contextualization of them, and beyond that, the nature of source study itself. * PARERGON *Table of ContentsIntroduction Boccaccio as the Source for Chaucer's Use of Sources The Shipman's Trade in Three Novelle from the Decameron Licisca's Outburst: The Origin of the Canterbury Tales Friar Puccio's Penance: Upending the Knight's Order The Wife of Bath's Tale and the Tale of Florent Conclusion Appendix Bibliography

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