Literary studies: ancient, classical Books
Classical Press of Wales Emperor and Author: The Writings of Julian the
Book SynopsisThis volume offers the first comprehensive analysis in English of all the writings of Julian (r. AD 361-363), the last pagan emperor of Rome, noted for his frontal and self-conscious challenge to Christianity. This book also contains treatments of Julian's laws, inscriptions, coinage, as well as his artistic programme. Across nineteen papers, international specialists in the field of Late Antique Studies offer original interpretations of an extraordinary figure: emperor and philosopher, soldier and accomplished writer. Julian, his life and writings, are here considered as parts of the tumult in politics, culture and religion during the Fourth Century AD. New light is shed on Julian's distinctive literary style and imperial agenda. This volume also includes an up-to-date, consolidated bibliography.Trade ReviewThis is a volume that ought to be read by any student of Julian and, indeed, by any student of late antiquity. -- Hagith Sivan, University of Kansas Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.04.24 "I heartily recommend this work to all who are interested in fourth-century ecclesiastical history, and particularly to scholars studying the religious conflict of the era." -- David Neal Greenwood, University of Edinburgh Anglican Theological Review (ATR) 95:3
£67.50
Classical Press of Wales Tragedy and Archaic Greek Thought
Book SynopsisEight leading contemporary interpreters of Classical Greek tragedy here explore its relation - convergence and divergence - with ideas of the Archaic Period. Prominent are the nature and possibility of divine justice, the influence of the gods on humans, fate and human responsibility, the instability of fortune, the principle of alternation, hybris and ate , the inheritance of guilt and suffering. Other themes are tragedy's relation with Presocratic philosophy, and the interplay between 'Archaic' features of the genre and fifth-century ethical and political thought. Here is a powerful case for the importance of Archaic thought not only in the evolution of the tragic genre but also for developed features of the Classical tragedians' art. Along with three papers on Aeschylus, four on Sophocles, and one on Euripides, there is an extensive introduction by the editor.Trade Review"...of these papers are useful and interesting...[...]The volume is attractive and cleanly produced..." -- Jennifer Starkey, University of Colorado Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.08.37
£58.50
Liverpool University Press The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript in Modern
Book SynopsisFor students of Middle English, Andrew and Waldron’s The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript has been the key edition of the four Pearl poems for over thirty years. With the changing needs of today's students in mind, the editors produced a complete prose translation of the four poems - the best known of which is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The near-literal translations are intended to facilitate understanding of the four poems - to lead readers to, rather than away from, the original texts. The translations are based faithfully on Andrew and Waldron’s fifth edition of The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript.Table of Contents Preface Introduction Translations: Pearl Cleanness Patience Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
£999.99
Liverpool University Press Apuleius: Metamorphoses Book I
Book SynopsisApuleius' Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass, our only complete Latin novel, tells the story of Lucius, a young man turned into a donkey by magic because of his unfettered curiosity. After many adventures he is finally saved by the goddess Isis, whose follower he becomes. The famous first book of the novel introduces the protagonist's character, his interest in magic and his gullibility, but also important themes of the novel such as metamorphosis from man into beast. Lucius listens to stories about magic and witchcraft told to him on his journey to ancient Thessaly and narrates them to the reader. A substantial part of the first book accordingly concentrates on the self-contained tale about a certain Socrates and his unhappy experiences with murderous Thessalian witches. Apuleius himself had been put on trial for allegedly using erotic magic to make his future wife fall in love with him, a theme which also appears in Metamorphoses 1. Throughout the novel, Apuleius portrays Lucius as an unreliable first person narrator and thus implicates the reader of the novel in the same character fault that drives its protagonist: curiosity. This edition of Book I presents the Latin text with a modern translation, substantial introduction and accompanying commentary. The author Apuleius is discussed in the literary environment of the second century AD together with key themes of the first book and the novel as a whole. Special attention is given to ancient magic, the roles of philosophy and the goddess Isis in the novel as well as the extensive reception of the first book in literature up to modern times. The commentary illustrates Apuleius' text as a densely constructed literary work and explains literary allusions as well as philosophical, historical and religious contexts.Trade ReviewReviews'This is a useful volume for students and readers who wish to know more about the Metamorphoses, without having to face the breathtaking flood of modern scholarship on Apuleius and the Roman novel.'Bryn Mawr, Classical Review'An impressive and learned book that makes original contributions to Apuleian scholarship and presents complex issues in a clear manner.'Bryn Mawr, Classical Review'On the whole, the amount of detail provided is appropriate both for scholarly consultation and for graduate level instruction.'Luca Graverini, Journal of Roman Studies Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionBibliographyMetamorphoses or The Golden Ass Book 1 (Text and Translation)CommentaryIndex
£109.50
Liverpool University Press Apuleius: Metamorphoses Book I
Book SynopsisApuleius' Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass, our only complete Latin novel, tells the story of Lucius, a young man turned into a donkey by magic because of his unfettered curiosity. After many adventures he is finally saved by the goddess Isis, whose follower he becomes. The famous first book of the novel introduces the protagonist's character, his interest in magic and his gullibility, but also important themes of the novel such as metamorphosis from man into beast. Lucius listens to stories about magic and witchcraft told to him on his journey to ancient Thessaly and narrates them to the reader. A substantial part of the first book accordingly concentrates on the self-contained tale about a certain Socrates and his unhappy experiences with murderous Thessalian witches. Apuleius himself had been put on trial for allegedly using erotic magic to make his future wife fall in love with him, a theme which also appears in Metamorphoses 1. Throughout the novel, Apuleius portrays Lucius as an unreliable first person narrator and thus implicates the reader of the novel in the same character fault that drives its protagonist: curiosity. This edition of Book I presents the Latin text with a modern translation, substantial introduction and accompanying commentary. The author Apuleius is discussed in the literary environment of the second century AD together with key themes of the first book and the novel as a whole. Special attention is given to ancient magic, the roles of philosophy and the goddess Isis in the novel as well as the extensive reception of the first book in literature up to modern times. The commentary illustrates Apuleius' text as a densely constructed literary work and explains literary allusions as well as philosophical, historical and religious contexts.Trade ReviewReviews'This is a useful volume for students and readers who wish to know more about the Metamorphoses, without having to face the breathtaking flood of modern scholarship on Apuleius and the Roman novel.'Bryn Mawr, Classical Review'An impressive and learned book that makes original contributions to Apuleian scholarship and presents complex issues in a clear manner.'Bryn Mawr, Classical Review'On the whole, the amount of detail provided is appropriate both for scholarly consultation and for graduate level instruction.'Luca Graverini, Journal of Roman Studies Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionBibliographyMetamorphoses or The Golden Ass Book 1 (Text and Translation)CommentaryIndex
£29.95
Liverpool University Press Thucydides: History Book I
Book SynopsisWith this edition of Book I, P. J. Rhodes provides the ‘prequel’ to his editions of Thucydides’ books on the Archidamian War (II, III and IV.1–V.24). As before, he provides an Introduction on Thucydides’ history and on the Peloponnesian War, a Greek text with selective critical apparatus and facing translation, and a commentary which will be useful both to specialists and to readers with little or no Greek, and which assumes no previous acquaintance with Thucydides. Matters of text and language are discussed where necessary, but the emphasis is on Thucydides’ subject-matter — the Peloponnesian War presented as the greatest war in Greek history, and accounts of the events directly leading to the war and of the growth of Athenian power since the Persian Wars which explain why this war between the two great powers of fifth-century Greece was fought — and on the way in which he has treated it.Table of ContentsPreface References Map of Greece and the Aegean Introduction 1. Thucydides and his History 2. The Pentecontaetia and the Peloponnesian War 3. Summary of Book I 4. Abbreviations used in Critical Apparatus Bibliography Θουκυδίδου Ξυγγραφῆς Α / Thucydides: History I Commentary Index
£109.50
Liverpool University Press Thucydides: History Book I
Book SynopsisWith this edition of Book I, P. J. Rhodes provides the ‘prequel’ to his editions of Thucydides’ books on the Archidamian War (II, III and IV.1–V.24). As before, he provides an Introduction on Thucydides’ history and on the Peloponnesian War, a Greek text with selective critical apparatus and facing translation, and a commentary which will be useful both to specialists and to readers with little or no Greek, and which assumes no previous acquaintance with Thucydides. Matters of text and language are discussed where necessary, but the emphasis is on Thucydides’ subject-matter — the Peloponnesian War presented as the greatest war in Greek history, and accounts of the events directly leading to the war and of the growth of Athenian power since the Persian Wars which explain why this war between the two great powers of fifth-century Greece was fought — and on the way in which he has treated it.Table of ContentsPreface References Map of Greece and the Aegean Introduction 1. Thucydides and his History 2. The Pentecontaetia and the Peloponnesian War 3. Summary of Book I 4. Abbreviations used in Critical Apparatus Bibliography Θουκυδίδου Ξυγγραφῆς Α / Thucydides: History I Commentary Index
£27.99
Classical Press of Wales Poetry Underpinning Power: Vergil's Aeneid: The
Book SynopsisIn recent decades, international research on Virgil has been marked, if not dominated, by the ideas of the 'Harvard school' and similar trends, according to which the poet was engaged in an elaborate work of subtle subversion, directed against the new ruler of the Roman world, Octavian-Augustus. Much of Virgil's oeuvre consists prima facie of eulogy of the ruler, and of emphatic prediction of his enduring success: this is explained by numerous modern critics as generic convention, or as studied ambiguity, or as irony.This paradoxical position, which runs against ancient - as well as much modern - interpretation of the poet, continues to create widespread unease. Stahl's new monograph is the most thorough study so far to question modern Virgilian criticism on philological grounds. He bases himself on the internal logic and rhetoric of the Aeneid, and considers also political, historical, archaeological and philosophical subjects addressed by the poem. He finds that the poet has so presented the morality of his central figure, Augustus' supposed ancestor Aeneas, and of those who (eventually) clash with him, Turnus and Dido, as to make it certain that Roman readers and hearers of the poem were meant to conclude in Aeneas' favour. Virgil's intention emerges from Stahl's thorough, ingenious and original argumentation as decisively pro-Augustan. Stahl's work, in short, will not only enliven debate on current critical hypotheses but for many will enduringly affect their credibility.
£72.00
Classical Press of Wales The Ancient Lives of Virgil: Literary and
Book SynopsisThe Ancient Lives of the poet Virgil, written in prose (and sometimes in verse), have long enjoyed great, though controversial, influence. Modern critics have often been scornful of these Lives, for trying to construct biography of the poet from allegorical reading of his verse. Yet some elements of the Lives are trusted, and quietly adopted as canonical, most notably the dating of Virgil's death. Some vignettes in the Lives have been cherished for their image of an emotive poet, as when Virgil, by evoking in verse the premature death of Augustus' nephew Marcellus, caused the young man's bereaved mother to faint. Less romantic detail from the Lives, as of Virgil's privileged material circumstances at the heart of the Augustan regime, has been less regarded. The present volume, from a distinguished international team, aims to revalue the Ancient Lives of Virgil from a variety of angles and in a variety of scholarly genres. The allegory within the Lives is here studied for its own sake, and shown to be part of a developed Graeco-Roman school of interpretation. The literary character of the verse Life attributed to Phocas is respectfully analysed. Certain political references within the best-known prose Life, the Suetonian-Donatan', are shown to be apparently independent of allegory, and to be worth prospecting for new information on the poet's personal history. And ideas of Virgil received and developed with brio in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are here traced back to the Ancient Lives of the poet composed in Antiquity.Trade ReviewA splendid volume ... The essays are uniformly thought-provoking and constitute a successful revaluation of the Lives. The volume is meticulously edited and will be of interest to all Vergilians. * Classics for All *Table of ContentsIrene Peirano Garrison (Yale) `Between biography and commentary: the ancient horizon of expectation of the Suetonian-Donatan Life of Virgil’ Stephen Harrison (Oxford) `The Vita Phocae: literary context and texture’ Andrew Laird (Brown) `Fashioning the poet: biography, pseudepigraphy and textual criticism' Scott McGill (Rice) `The elevation of Virgil in Phocas’ Vita Vergiliana’ Anton Powell (Swansea) `Sinning against philology? Historical method and the Suetonian-Donatan Life of Virgil’ Hans Smolenaars (Amsterdam) ` The historical truth of Virgil’s recitation of the Georgics in Atella (VSD ch. 27)’ Ahuvia Kahane (Royal Holloway) `Biography and Virgil’s Epitaph’ Nora Goldschmidt (Durham) `Cameo roles: Virgil in Ovidian biography’ Fabio Stok (Rome) `The Vita Donati in the Middle Ages’
£63.00
Classical Press of Wales Xenophon and the Graces of Power: A Greek Guide
Book SynopsisOne of classical Greece's most worldly and lucid writers, Xenophon across his many works gave a restless criticism of power: democratic, oligarchic and autocratic. From military campaigns (in which he took part), through the great powers of his day (Sparta, Persia, Athens) to modes of control within the household, he observed intimately and often with partisan passion. In this work a leading French Hellenist, Vincent Azoulay, analyses across Xenophon's diverse texts the techniques by which the Greek writer recommends that leaders should manipulate. Through gifts and personal allure, though mystique, dazzling appearance, exemplary behaviour, strategic absences – and occasional terror, Xenophon analyses ways in which a powerful few might triumphantly replace the erratic democracies and selfindulgent oligarchies of his day.Table of ContentsFOREWORD INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 – CHARIS AND ITS CHALLENGES I. The Law of Charis III. Charis in Democracy CHAPTER 2 – LEGITIMATE FAVORS I. Xenophon’s Three Graces II. Supreme Benefits: Feeding Bodies and Minds III. Contextualizing Favors: The Differential Effectiveness of Gifts CHAPTER 3 – FROM GOOD DEEDS TO MISDEEDS: THE CORRUPTING POWER OF CHARIS I. The Ambiguities of Xenia II. Agesilaus and Xenophon: The Incorruptibles? III. From Material Corruption to Spiritual Corruption CHAPTER 4 – BETWEEN CHARIS ANDMISTHOS : XENOPHON AGAINST THE MERCHANTS? I. ‘The Hostile World’ of Goods II. The Ambiguous Virtues of Commercial Exchange CHAPTER 5 – CHARIS AND ENVY I. The Omnipresence of Phthonos: The Social Genesis of a Feeling II. Leveling From the Bottom or Redistributing from the Top? III. Phthonos and Charis: Dangerous Liaisons CHAPTER 6 – CHARIS AND PHILIA: THE POLITICS OF FRIENDSHIP I. The Debate over Philia II. Philia and Patronage III. From Philia to Philanthropia CHAPTER 7 – CHARIS AND PATERNITY I. From Fraternal Union to Paternal Love II. Paternal Power: An Unattainable Dream? III. Cyrus, or the Universal Father CHAPTER 8 – THE GRACES OF LOVE I. Erotic Reciprocity and Its Dangers II. The Political Power of the Eromenos III. From Socrates to Cyrus: The Rivalry of Two Graces IV. Epilogue: On the Love of Men and the Veneration of the Gods CONCLUSION PHILOLOGICAL ANNEX: CHARIS IN XENOPHON’S CORPUS Contents NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY GENERAL INDEX INDEX LOCORUM
£63.00
Classical Press of Wales Didactic Poetry from Homer and Hesiod Onwards:
Book SynopsisHere a team of young, established scholars offers new perspectives on poetic texts of wisdom, learning and teaching related to the great line of Greek and Latin poems descended from Hesiod. In previous scholarship, a drive to classify Greek and Latin didactic poetry has engaged with the near-total absence in ancient literary criticism of explicit discussion of didactic as a discrete genre. The present volume approaches didactic poetry from different perspectives: the diachronic, mapping the development of didactic through changing social and political landscapes (from Homer and Hesiod to Neo-Latin didactic); and the comparative, setting the Graeco-Roman tradition against a wider backdrop (including ancient near-eastern and contemporary African traditions). The issues raised include knowledge in its relation to power; the cognitive strategies of the didactic text; ethics and poetics; the interplay of obscurity and clarity, playfulness and solemnity; the authority of the teacher.Trade ReviewThis valuable volume offers new avenues to an ancient genre that is notoriously hard to define. * Latomus *
£58.50
York Medieval Press Lost Artefacts from Medieval England and France:
Book SynopsisContemporary descriptions of objects no longer extant examined to reconstruct these lost treasures. Surviving accounts of the material culture of medieval Europe - including buildings, boats, reliquaries, wall paintings, textiles, ivory mirror cases, book bindings and much more - present a tantalising glimpse of medieval life, hinting at the material richness of that era. However, students and scholars of the period will be all too familiar with the frustration of trying to piece together a picture of the past from a handful of fragments. The "material turn" has put art, architecture, and other artefacts at the forefront of historical and cultural studies, and the resulting spotlight on the material culture of the past has been illuminating for researchers in many fields. Nevertheless, the loss of so much of the physical remnants of the Middle Ages continues to thwart our understanding of the period, and much of the knowledge we often take for granted is based on a series of arbitrary survivals. The twelve essays in this book draw on a wide array of sources and disciplines to explore how textual records, from the chronicles of John of Worcester and Matthew Paris and inventories of monastic treasuries and noble women to Beowulf and early English riddles, when combined with archaeological and art-historical evidence, can expand our awareness of artistic and cultural environments. Touching on a broad range of issues around how we imaginatively reconstruct the medieval past and a variety of objects, both precious and ephemeral, this volume will be of fundamental interest to medieval scholars, whatever their disciplinary field. Contributors: Katherine Baker, Marian Bleeke, Deirdre Carter, Laura Cleaver, Judith Collard, Joshua Davies, Kathryn Gerry, Karl Kinsella, Katherine A. Rush, Katherine Weikert, Beth Whalley, Victoria YuskaitisTable of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Introduction Kathryn Gerry and Laura Cleaver 1 Hoard Fever: Objects Lost and Found, Beowulf and Questions of Belonging Joshua Davies 2 Lost Craft: Tracing Ships in the Early Medieval Riddling Tradition Beth Whalley 3 Typological Exegesis and Medieval Architecture in Honorius Augustodunensis's Gemma animae Karl Kinsella 4 Lost Objects and Historical Consciousness: The Post-Conquest Inventories at Ely Katherine Weikert 5 Fire! Accounts of Destruction and Survival at Canterbury and Bury St Edmunds in the Late Twelfth Century Laura Cleaver 6 Reweaving the Material Past: Textual Restoration of Two Lost Textiles from St Albans Kathryn Gerry 7 Matthew Paris, Metalwork and the Jewels of St Albans Judith Collard 8 Illustrating the Material Past: A Pictorial Treasury in the Late-Medieval Manuscripts from St Albans Abbey Deirdre Carter 9 Lost and Found: Gothic Ivories in Late Medieval French Household Records Katherine A. Rush 10 Ivories in French Royal Inventories, 1325-1422: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age? Marian Bleeke 11 Parisian Painters and their Missing Oeuvres: Evidence from the Archives Katherine Baker 12 The Mythical Outcast Medieval Leper: Perceptions of Leper and Anchorite Squints Victoria Yuskaitis Bibliography Index of Manuscripts General Index
£80.75
York Medieval Press Re-using Manuscripts in Late Medieval England:
Book SynopsisA fresh appraisal of late medieval manuscript culture in England, examining the ways in which people sustained older books, exploring the practices and processes by which manuscripts were crafted, mended, protected, marked, gifted and shared. During the "long fifteenth century" (here, 1375-1530), the demand for books in England flourished. The fast-developing book trade produced them in great quantity. Fragments of manuscripts were often repurposed, as flyleaves and other components such as palimpsests; and alongside the creation of new books, medieval manuscripts were also repaired, recycled and re-used. This monograph examines the ways in which people sustained older books, exploring the practices and processes by which manuscripts were crafted, mended, protected, marked, gifted and shared. Drawing on the codicological evidence gathered from an extensive survey of extant manuscript collections, in conjunction with historical accounts, recipes and literary texts, it presents detailed case studies exploring parchment production and recycling, the re-use of margins, and second-hand exchanges of books. Its engagement with the evidence in - and inscribed on - surviving books enables a fresh appraisal of late medieval manuscript culture in England, looking at how people went about re-using books, and arguing that over the course of this period, books were made, used and re-used in a myriad of sustainable ways.Trade ReviewOne is not likely to see parchment at the various stages of its life cycle in quite the same way after reading it... should be standard reading for students who wish to acquaint themselves with manuscript production and use. * STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER *Re-using Manuscripts is an invitation to set aside the familiar restrictions of the reading room and to ask new questions...Fascinating study. * TLS *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Transcription Conventions Introduction 1. Making Parchment for Books 2. Re-using Parchment in Books 3. Making Marks on Books 4. Second-hand Books Conclusions Bibliography Index
£76.00
York Medieval Press Literary Variety and the Writing of History in
Book SynopsisA survey of the different literary forms adopted by history writers after the Conquest, exploring why and for what effects they were used. Histories of Britain composed during the "twelfth-century renaissance" display a remarkable amount of literary variety (Latin varietas). Furthermore, British historians writing after the Norman Conquest often draw attention to the differing forms of their texts. But why would historians of this period associate literary variety with the work of history-writing? Drawing on theories of literary variety found in classical and medieval rhetoric, this book traces how British writers came to believe that varietas could help them construct comprehensive, continuous accounts of Britain's past. It shows how Latin prose historians, such as William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, and Geoffrey of Monmouth, filled their texts with a diverse array of literary forms, which they carefully selected and ordered in accordance with their broader historiographical aims. The pronounced literary variety of these influential histories inspired some Middle English verse chroniclers, including Laȝamon and Robert Mannyng, to adopt similar principles in their vernacular poetry. By uncovering the rhetorical and historiographical theories beneath their literary variety, this book provides a new framework for interpreting the stylistic and organizational choices of medieval historians.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Discontinuous History in the Long Twelfth Century Part I: Varietas in Latin 1: Varietas: From Roman Rhetoric to British History 2: 'I take it that no one will object to some variety': William of Malmesbury's Gesta regum Anglorum 3: 'Since nothing endures here, pay attention': Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum 4: 'Continuously and in order': Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae Part II: Variety in Middle English 5: 'Three texts into one': Laʒamon's Brut 6: 'Of diuers kynd': Robert Mannyng's Story of Inglande Conclusions: The Rhetoric of Discontinuity? Bibliography Index
£80.75
York Medieval Press MS Junius 11 and its Poetry
Book SynopsisA fresh close reading of the texts of one of the four surviving major manuscripts of Old English poetry, reappraising Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Junius 11 to discover some of the preoccupations of its compliers. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Junius 11 is one of the four major manuscripts of Old English poetry to survive and the only one of these to have had a planned sequence of illuminations. Junius 11 is made up of different poems - Genesis A, Genesis B, Exodus, Daniel and Christ and Satan - compiled to resemble a long narrative that represents salvation history from its violent origins to its Last Days. While the poems draw inspiration from biblical, apocryphal and commentary traditions, they combine in the manuscript to create powerful effects that can also be understood through an appreciation of the distinctive craft and complexity of early medieval vernacular verse. But can the language of the poetry within the manuscript tell us anything about the aims of the Junius 11 project, or the preoccupations of its compilers? This book approaches Junius 11 as an ambitious poetic endeavour that was designed to offer counsel through the medium of Old English verbal art. Tracing thematic language across and between the poems, and offering close readings of them in their manuscript context, MS Junius 11 and its Poetry argues that it is early medieval political ideas represented by the Old English words ræd (good counsel) and unræd (ill counsel) that emerge as the key components underlying the central conflicts of the history of humankind the makers of this manuscript sought to create. The poems themselves, by giving us many examples of rulers and leaders falling to ruin, have the potential to offer their own ræd to those who may have found themselves in relatable positions. But Junius 11 demands work for such gifts. Its poems generate impressions cumulatively and collectively, offering instruction to those who might build connections across pages, demanding audiences become attentive and active readers so that they might find solace and advice in a world that moves towards destruction.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter One: Foundation and Refoundation in Genesis A Chapter Two: Satan's Vengeance and Genesis B Chapter Three: Reading, Misreading and the Red Sea: the Journey to Ræd in Exodus Chapter Four: Rise and Fall Again in the Old English Daniel Chapter Five: Christ and Satan: the End of the Cycle Afterword Bibliography
£71.25
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Medieval French Interlocutions
Book SynopsisSpecialists in other languages offer perspectives on the widespread use of French in a range of contexts, from German courtly narratives to biblical exegesis in Hebrew.French came into contact with many other languages in the Middle Ages: not just English, Italian and Latin, but also Arabic, Dutch, German, Greek, Hebrew, Irish, Occitan, Sicilian, Spanish and Welsh. Its movement was impelled by trade, pilgrimage, crusade, migration, colonisation and conquest, and its contact zones included Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities, among others. Writers in these contact zones often expressed themselves and their worlds in French; but other languages and cultural settings could also challenge, reframe or even ignore French-users' prestige and self-understanding. The essays collected here offer cross-disciplinary perspectives on the use of French in the medieval world, moving away from canonical texts, well-known controversies and conventional framings. Whether considering theories of the vernacular in Outremer, Marco Polo and the global Middle Ages, or the literary patronage of aristocrats and urban patricians, their interlocutions throw new light on connected and contested literary cultures in Europe and beyond.
£90.25
York Medieval Press The Reception of Latin Medicine in Early Medieval
Book Synopsis
£76.50
York Medieval Press Onomantic Divination in Late Medieval Britain
Book SynopsisDemonstrates the wide prevalence of supposedly impermissible divination techniques found in a wide range of manuscripts from medieval Britain.
£76.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Beds and Chambers in Late Medieval England
Book SynopsisFirst full-length interdisciplinary study of the effect of these everyday surroundings on literature, culture and the collective consciousness of the late middle ages.The bed, and the chamber which contained it, was something of a cultural and social phenomenon in late-medieval England. Their introduction into some aristocratic and bourgeois households captured the imagination of late-medievalEnglish society. The bed and chamber stood for much more than simply a place to rest one's head: they were symbols of authority, unparalleled spaces of intimacy, sanctuaries both for the powerless and the powerful. This change inphysical domestic space shaped the ways in which people thought about less tangible concepts such as gender politics, communication, God, sex and emotions. Furthermore, the practical uses of beds and chambers shaped and were shaped by artistic and literary production. This volume offers the first interdisciplinary study of the cultural meanings of beds and chambers in late
£37.99
York Medieval Press Medieval Manuscripts Readers and Texts
Book SynopsisExamines manuscripts of Langland, Chaucer, Gower, Nicholas Love and Arthurian tales, alongside other devotional works and archival evidence.Professor Kathryn Kerby-Fulton's scholarship has transformed the study of medieval manuscripts and readers, particularly in the areas of devotional literature, professional scribal production and clerical writing. The essays collected here celebrate and reflect her influence and practice of giving careful attention to material contexts and archival sources when reading literature produced in late medieval England. They offer new interpretations of scribal practices, professional readers' activities, documentary evidence and challenging material and cultural contexts. They also reconsider scholarly practices and assumptions, while demonstrating how manuscript and archival studies can energize scholarship on such varied topics as authority, reader reception, modern editorial perspectives, gender and religious activities.
£85.50
Classical Press of Wales Seneca in Performance
Book SynopsisThe plays of Seneca the Younger, minister and philosopher under Nero, are today increasingly studied, appreciated - and performed. Here, in a collection of papers from an international cast, scholars explore both established questions, such as the playwright's subtleties of characterisation, his relation to contemporary Roman spectacle and art - and the problems arising in translating him to modern text or stage.Table of ContentsIntroduction Seneca on the Ancient Stage 1. Playing Seneca? - John G. Fitch 2. Production of Seneca's Trojan Women, Ancient and Modern - Elaine Fantham 3. Location! Location! Location! Choral Absence and Theatrical Space in the Troades - C.W. Marshall 4. Nothing Within Which Passeth Show: Character and Color in Senecan Tragedy - Brian S. Hook Contemporary Roman Social Influences on Seneca 5. A New Look at Seneca's Phaedra - Hanna M. Roisman 6. The Spectacle of Death in Seneca's Troades - Jo-Ann Shelton 7. Grotesque Vision: Seneca's Tragedies and Neronian Art - Eric R. Varner 8. Semper Ego Auditor Tantum?: Performance and Physical Setting of Seneca's Plays - George W.M. Harrison Modern Translation and Staging 9. Seneca and Chaucer: Translating Both Poetry and Sense - Frederick Ahl 10. Seneca's Trojan Women: Identity and Survival in the Aftermath of War - Gyllian Raby 11. Putting Andromacha on Stage: A Performer's Perspective - Katharina Volk 12. Going for Baroque: Seneca and the English - Sander M. Goldberg Bibliography Index
£25.00
Harvard University Press Sermons and Rhetoric of Kievan Rus’
Book SynopsisThe authors included in this volume—Ilarion, Klim Smoljatic, and Kirill of Turov—are remarkable for both their personal and literary achievements. Appointed in 1051 by Prince Jaroslav the Wise, Ilarion was the first of only two recorded “native” metropolitans of Kiev. His “Sermon on Law and Grace” constitutes the finest piece of eleventh-century Rus’ rhetorical literature. Klim Smoljatic, the second “native” metropolitan of Rus’ (from 1147), is the author of the controversial “Epistle to Foma,” which addresses the debate over the proper nature and limits of Christian learning. Finally, the twelfth-century monk Kirill of Turov is best known for his collection of allegorical lessons and some of the most accomplished sermons of Kievan Rus’. The volume contains the first complete translations of the “Epistle to Foma” and the lessons and sermons of Kirill, as well as an entirely new rendering of the “Sermon on Law and Grace.”Simon Franklin prefaces the texts with a substantial introduction that places each of the three authors in their historical context and examines the literary qualities as well as textual complexities of these outstanding works of Rus’ literature.Table of ContentsAbbreviations Introduction 1. Ilarion 2. Klim Smoljatic 3. Kirill of Turov 4. On Tradition and Individuality in Kievan Rhetoric A Note on the Translations Texts Ration, Sermon on Law and Grace Klim Smoljatie, Epistle to Fount The Collected Prose of Kirill of Turov 1: On the Lame and the Blind 2: On the Tale of a Layman 3: On the Monastic Order 4A: Sermon for Palm Sunday 4B: Sermon for Easter Sunday 4C: Sermon for Low Sunday 4D: Sermon for the Third Sunday after Easter 4E: Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Easter 4F: Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Easter 4G: Sermon for Ascension 4H: Sermon for the Sunday before Pentecost Appendices 1. Textual Problems in the Epistle of Klim Smoljatic 2. Biblical and Apocryphal Genealogies in the Epistle of Klim Smoljatic 3. The Synaxarion Life of Kirill of Turov 4. Rjurikid Genealogies Bibliography Index of Biblical References Index
£22.91
West Virginia University Press Postmodern Beowulf: A Critical Casebook
Book SynopsisThis work includes twenty-four essays including a preface, introduction, afterword, and sections containing seminal methodological pieces by such giants as Edward Said and Michel Foucault, as well as contemporary applications to Beowulf and other Old English and Germanic texts focusing on historicism, psychoanalysis, gender, textuality, and post-colonialism.
£35.96
West Virginia University Press Caedmon's Hymn and Material Culture in the World
Book SynopsisThe essays in this book use the nine-line poem known as ""Cædmon's Hymn"" as a lens on the world of Bede's Ecclesiastical History. A cowherd who is given a divine gift, Cædmon retells the great narratives of Christian history in the traditional form of Anglo-Saxon verse. An immense amount has been written about this episode, much of it concentrating on the hymn's significance in the history of English literature. Relatively little attention has been paid to what the story of Cædmon and his hymn might tell us about the material as well as the textual culture of Bede's world. The essays in this collection seek to connect ""Cædmon's Hymn"" to Bede s material world in various ways. Each chapter begins with the hymn and moves from the text to the worlds of scientific thought, settlements and social hierarchy, monastic reform, ordinary things, and others. The connections explored here are a sampling of the material concerns this one text, ""Cædmon's Hymn,"" raises.
£999.99
West Virginia University Press Perspectives on the Old Saxon Heliand: Introductory and Critical Essays, with an Edition of the Leipzig Fragment
Book SynopsisHeliand, the Old Saxon poem based on the life of Christ in the Gospels, has become more available to students of Anglo-Saxon culture as its influence has reached into a wider range of fields from history to linguistics, literature, and religion. In Perspectives on the Old Saxon Heliand, Valentine Pakis brings together recent scholarship that both addresses new turns in the field and engages with the relevant arguments of the past three decades. Furthering the ongoing critical discussion of both text and culture, this volume also reflects on the current state of the field and demonstrates how it has evolved since the 1970s.
£35.96
West Virginia University Press Cross and Cruciform in the Anglo-Saxon World:
Book SynopsisCross and Cruciform in the Anglo-Saxon World: Studies to Honor the Memory of Timothy Reuter is edited by Sarah Larratt Keefer, Karen Louise Jolly, and Catherine E. Karkov and is the third and final volume of an ambitious research initiative begun in 1999 concerned with the image of the cross, showing how its very material form cuts across both the culture of a society and the boundaries of academic disciplines - history, archaeology, art history, literature, philosophy, and religion - providing vital insights into how symbols function within society. The flexibility, portability, and adaptability of the Anglo-Saxon understanding of the cross suggest that, in pre-Conquest England, at least, the linking of word, image, and performance joined the physical and spiritual, the temporal and eternal, and the earthly and heavenly in the Anglo-Saxon imaginative landscape.This volume is divided into three sections. The first section of the collection focuses on representations of ""The Cross: Image and Emblem,"" with contributions by Michelle P. Brown, David A. E. Pelteret, and Catherine E. Karkov. The second section, ""The Cross: Meaning and Word,"" deals in semantics and semeology with essays by Helen Damico, Rolf Bremmer, and Ursula Lenker. The third section of the book, ""The Cross: Gesture and Structure,"" employs methodologies drawn from archaeology, new media, and theories of rulership to develop new insights into subjects as varied as cereal production, the little-known Nunburnholme Cross, and early medieval concepts of political power.Cross and Cruciform in the Anglo-Saxon World: Studies to Honor the Memory of Timothy Reuter is a major collection of new research, completing the publication series of the Sancta Crux/Halig Rod project. Cross and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies in Honor of George Hardin Brown.
£33.71
West Virginia University Press Beowulf and the Grendel-Kin: Politics and Poetry
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£33.71
The Catholic University of America Press Patience and Salvation in Third Century North
Book SynopsisPatience and Salvation in Third Century North Africa: A Christian Latin Reader features the entirety of Tertullian's To Martyrs and The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, with selections from Cyprian's On the Good of Patience and a short appendix on Augustine's Commentary on Psalm 121.6. The Latin text has facing vocabulary and theological, historical, philosophical, and grammatical notes.In the first three centuries, Roman Carthage produced some of the earliest literature composed originally in Latin by Christians. Tertullian's Ad Martyras (197); Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis (203), and Cyprian's De Bono Patientiae (256) all embody the force of this new genre of Latin literature. With this literature, we see a variant of Latin often denoted "Christian Latin." Christian Latin featured linguistic elements marked by characteristics of biblical Latin, later Latin, as well as vulgarisms.In addition to converging philologically, Tertullian, the author of the Passio, and Cyprian align themselves in topos: they all ask the question of how one can endure torment and anxiety in this world. Patience (patientia), derived from the verb for "to suffer" (patior), is a virtue that allows one to endure troubles, anxieties, and physical pains with the hope of eternal happiness and salvation in heaven. In this Reader, the student will find three different literary perspectives on this theme. The book also draws parallels to the works of Seneca and Cicero on patience and suffering.
£27.96
Springer Nature Switzerland AG Blake and Lucretius: The Atomistic Materialism of
Book SynopsisThis book demonstrates the way in which William Blake aligned his idiosyncratic concept of the Selfhood – the lens through which the despiritualised subject beholds the material world – with the atomistic materialism of the Epicurean school as it was transmitted through the first-century BC Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura. By addressing this philosophical debt, this study sets out a threefold re-evaluation of Blake’s work: to clarify the classical stream of Blake’s philosophical heritage through Lucretius; to return Blake to his historical moment, a thirty-year period from 1790 to 1820 which has been described as the second Lucretian moment in England; and to employ a new exegetical model for understanding the phenomenological parameters and epistemological frameworks of Blake’s mythopoeia. Accordingly, it is revealed that Blake was not only aware of classical atomistic cosmogony and sense-based epistemology but that he systematically mapped postlapsarian existence onto an Epicurean framework.Table of Contents1 Introduction 2 The Epicurean and Lucretian Slur: Francis Bacon 3 The Epicurean and Lucretian Slur: Isaac Newton 4 Simulacra and the Selfhood 5 Urizenic Phantasiae 6 The Cosmic Chains of the Machina Mundi
£85.49
De Gruyter Chronographiae quae Theophanis Continuati nomine fertur Liber quo Vita Basilii Imperatoris amplectitur: Recensuit Anglice vertit indicibus instruxit Ihor Ševcenko
Book SynopsisThe life of Emperor Basil I (867–886), the founder of the Macedonian Dynasty, is the only extant secular biography in Byzantine literature; in its importance and as an instance of the genre it is comparable to Einhard’s Vita Caroli Magni. Composed in the circle of scholars around Basil’s grandson Constantine VII Prophyrogennitos and at his instigation as early as 957 and 959, the Vita Basilii is one of the main sources for the cultural and political history of Byzantium and its neighbours in the 9th and 10th centuries. Previous editions (whether from the 17th or 19th centuries) were based on secondary manuscripts; they are not reliable, because of their arbitrary conjectures and a large number of unjustified additions from a parallel source. The present edition is based on Vaticanus gr. 167, the source of all extant manuscripts, and the insertions made by the earlier editors are removed. In producing the new text, the editor also had access to the draft edition he rediscovered which the famous Byzantinist Karl de Boor prepared around 1903.
£206.15
De Gruyter Bucolica Et Georgica
£68.88
De Gruyter Oaths and Swearing in Ancient Greece
Book SynopsisThe oath was an institution of fundamental importance across a wide range of social interactions throughout the ancient Greek world, making a crucial contribution to social stability and harmony; yet there has been no comprehensive, dedicated scholarly study of the subject for over a century. This volume of a two-volume study explores the nature of oaths as Greeks perceived it, the ways in which they were used (and sometimes abused) in Greek life and literature, and their inherent binding power.
£93.10
De Gruyter The Unity of Plutarch's Work: 'Moralia' Themes in
Book SynopsisThis volume of collected essays explores the premise that Plutarch’s work, notwithstanding its amazing thematic multifariousness, constantly pivots on certain ideological pillars which secure its unity and coherence. So, unlike other similar books which, more or less, concentrate on either the Lives or the Moralia or on some particular aspect(s) of Plutarch’s œuvre, the articles of the present volume observe Plutarch at work in both Lives and Moralia, thus bringing forward and illustrating the inner unity of his varied literary production. The subject-matter of the volume is uncommonly wide-ranging and the studies collected here inquire into many important issues of Plutarchean scholarship: the conditions under which Plutarch’s writings were separated into two distinct corpora, his methods of work and the various authorial techniques employed, the interplay between Lives and Moralia, Plutarch and politics, Plutarch and philosophy, literary aspects of Plutarch’s œuvre, Plutarch on women, Plutarch in his epistemological and socio-historical context. In sum, this book brings Plutarchean scholarship to date by revisiting and discussing older and recent problematization concerning Plutarch, in an attempt to further illuminate his personality and work.Trade Review"Der nutzliche Sammelband ist dabei hilfreich, die ausserordentlich vielen Facetten des Werkes Plutarchs aufzuzeigen."Johannes Engels in: Sehepunkte 9/2009
£236.08
De Gruyter Sexuality in the Middle Ages and Early Modern
Book SynopsisSexuality is one of the most influential factors in human life. The responses to and reflections upon the manifestations of sexuality provide fascinating insights into fundamental aspects of medieval and early-modern culture. This interdisciplinary volume with articles written by social historians, literary historians, musicologists, art historians, and historians of religion and mental-ity demonstrates how fruitful collaborative efforts can be in the exploration of essential features of human society. Practically every aspect of culture both in the Middle Ages and the early modern age was influenced and determined by sexuality, which hardly ever surfaces simply characterized by prurient interests. The treatment of sexuality in literature, chronicles, music, art, legal documents, and in scientific texts illuminates central concerns, anxieties, tensions, needs, fears, and problems in human society throughout times.Trade Review"Dem Herausgeber ist es gelungen, eine internationale Autorenschar mit unterschiedlichem fachlichen Hintergrund zu versammeln. Das Ergebnis ist ein stattlicher 900-Seiten-Band, der ein ebenso facettenreiches wie profundes Bild von unterschiedlichen (uberwiegend diskursiven) Aspekten mittelalterlicher und fruhneuzeitlicher Sexualitat liefert."Ortrun Riha in: Das Mittelalter 15/2010 "Sexualitiy in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times delivers a number of perspectives on medieval sexuality in a lot of space. [...] It could very likely, for its breadth and insight, become a centerpiece for anumber of dissertations."Patrick Brugh in: Focus on German Studies 16/2009
£134.42
De Gruyter Vernacular Theology: Dominican Sermons and Audience in Late Medieval Italy
Book SynopsisThis book examines the audiences and languages of Dominican sermons in late medieval Italy. It is a thorough analysis of how Latinate theological culture interacted with popular religious devotion. In particular it assesses the role of vernacular theology. Eliana Corbari defines vernacular theology as a form of theology that is based neither on a Latin scholastic model nor a monastic one. It is a “third dimension” of theology which was accessible to the laity, and in particular women, through their attendance at sermons and the reading of vernacular devotional works (in this case, medieval Italian treatises and sermons). Through painstaking manuscript work, Corbari makes an excellent contribution to sermon studies, gender studies, medieval theology, and codicology. She demonstrates that Dominican friars preached to an active contingent of laywomen, usually members of confraternities, who not only attended these sermons but re-read them and also disseminated them through book production to the wider Florentine community.
£103.55
De Gruyter Orpheus in der Spätantike: Studien und Kommentar zu den Argonautika des Orpheus: Ein literarisches, religiöses und philosophisches Zeugnis
Book SynopsisFür die „Argonautika des Orpheus“ besteht seit der Renaissance ein kontinuierliches Interesse, das sich in zahlreichen Editionen und Übersetzungen manifestiert. Im 19. und 20. Jh. dominieren dagegen negative Urteile über dieses eigenwillige spätantike Kurzepos. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird dieses einer umfassenden Neubetrachtung unterzogen. Zutage tritt ein Werk, das in seiner dichterischen Gestalt wesentlich komplexer gestaltet ist als bislang vermutet. Es wird deutlich, wie die Figur des Orpheus in der Spätantike literarisch so verarbeitet werden konnte, dass sich dem Rezipienten zahlreiche Anknüpfungspunkte für philosophisch-religiöse, v.a. neuplatonische Lesarten bieten. Neben einem einleitenden Studienteil, griechischem Text und der ersten deutschen Prosa-Übersetzung bietet der Verfasser einen detaillierten Kommentar, in dem eine neue Interpretation des Werkes angeboten wird. Zur leichteren Orientierung ist der gesamte Text in elf Abschnitte unterteilt, die ihn der interpretativen Erschließung leichter zugänglich machen.
£164.82
de Gruyter Die Valerius MaximusEpitome Des Ianuarius
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£90.39
De Gruyter Triphiodorus, "The Sack of Troy": A General Study and a Commentary
The last full commentary on The Sack of Troy was published by Wernicke in 1819 and even the most recent analyses of the poem tend to see it as a quick halt in the evolution of epic poetry on its way towards Nonnus of Panopolis. This book offers a complete treatment of The Sack of Troy for its own sake. The introduction gathers all the information we have about Triphiodorus and his work, focusing on the reasons behind the election of topic, the outline of the poem, different forms of allusion, the use of the characterisation of individuals and groups to sustain plot development, the nature of the narrator and the value of speeches. This part is followed by a detailed analysis of Triphiodorus’ literary universe: his different forms of engagement not only with Homer and other distant poets, but also with Imperial literature and the contemporary cultural production. The line-by-line commentary of the poem attends to the position of each episode in the poem and in the tradition of the Trojan War and offers a linguistic, formal and stylistic analysis. Each section or episode is preceded by a comprehensive introduction, always bringing in all the related bibliography but providing a fresh and reliable view on Triphiodorus.
£134.42
De Gruyter Aliscans
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£31.50
De Gruyter Writing Science: Medical and Mathematical Authorship in Ancient Greece
Book SynopsisScientific and technological texts have not played a significant role in modern literary criticism. This applies to Classics, too, despite the fact that a large part of the field’s extant texts deal with questions of medicine, mathematics, and natural philosophy. Focusing mostly on medical and mathematical texts, this collection aims at approaching ancient Greek science and its texts from the cross-disciplinary perspective of authorship. Among the questions addressed are: What is a scientific author? In what respect does scientific writing differ from ‘literary’ writing? How does the author present himself as an authoritative figure through his text? What strategies of trust do these authors employ? These and related questions cannot be discussed within the typical boundaries of modern academic disciplines, thus most of the sixteen authors, many of them leading experts in the fields of ancient science, bring a comparative perspective to their subjects. As a result, the collection not only offers a new approach to this vast area of ancient literature, thus effectively discovering new possibilities for literary criticism, it also reflects on our current forms of scientific and scholarly written communication.
£103.55
De Gruyter Textum Genuinum Usque Ad Vespasiani Imperium
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£116.38
£51.78
de Gruyter History of Ancient Greek Literature
£47.02
De Gruyter Performing Manuscript Culture: Poetry,
Book SynopsisThis study conceives of Thomas Hoccleve’s Regement of Princes (1410-1413) as an essentially performative text, one that expresses its awareness of the manuscript culture in which it is so firmly rooted. The openness of manuscripts is a recurring subject in the Regement and is not only expressed through mere descriptions of, but through complex references to this manuscript context. Performances of manuscript culture manifest themselves in several aspects of the text. The first is the narrator persona, and especially the question of how persona and text are intertwined. The second is the constantly recurring interpretation of quotes from authoritative sources that pervades the Regement. This urge to interpret is expressed both in the tradition of adding marginal glosses and in the process of subjecting the text to an exegetical reading. The third aspect is the relation between text and images in the Regement’s manuscripts, which shows how mediality is performed and how the manuscript context is made the focus of this performance. In this monograph, all of these aspects are studied in a mindset that combines the concept of performativity with the postulations of Material Philology.
£82.65
De Gruyter Ambiguität Und Die Ordnungen Des Sozialen Im
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£103.55
De Gruyter Transformierte Intimitäten
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£86.45
De Gruyter Homer’s Iliad
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£95.00
De Gruyter The Continuity of Classical Literature Through Fragmentary Traditions
Book SynopsisFragmentary texts play a central role in Classics. Their study poses a stimulating challenge to scholars and readers, while its methods and principles, far from being rigidly immutable, invite constant reflection on its methods, approaches, and goals. By focusing on some of the most relevant issues that fragmentologists have to face, this book contributes to the ongoing and lively debate on the study of fragmentary texts.This volume contains an extensive theoretical introduction on the study of textual fragments, followed by eight essays on a wide variety of topics relevant to the study of fragmentary texts across literary genres. The chapters range from archaic Greek epics (the Hesiodic corpus) to late-antique grammarian Nonius Marcellus as a source of fragments of Republican literature. All contributions share a nuanced, critical attention to the main methodological implications of the study of fragmentary texts and mutually contribute to highlighting the field’s common specificities and limitations, both in theory and in editorial practice.The book offers a representative spectrum of fragmentological issues, providing all readers with an interest in Classics with an up-to-date, methodologically aware approach to the field.
£88.35
