Medium Aevum articles from March 1999

Medium Aevum archives from March 1999

SERLO OF WILTON AND THE SCHOOLS OF OXFORD.(Critical Essay)
March 22, 1999... Over the last twenty years received opinion on the earliest development of Oxford University has altered. Of course the old myth of Anglo-Saxon origins was already long gone; but until Sir Richard Southern's 1975 article on Master Vacarius,...

REINVENTING THE GOSPEL: AELFRIC AND THE LITURGY.(Critical Essay)
March 22, 1999... Tenth-century Anglo-Saxon England boasts what for many is regarded as the cornerstone of medieval dramatic ritual, the Regularis concordia's Visitatio sepulchri, often dubbed by critics of liturgical drama the first `quasi-play'. Because of the...

PAGE LAYOUT AND TEXTUAL AUTONOMY IN HARLEY MS 2253 `LENTEN YS COME WIP LOVE TO TOUNE'.(Critical Essay)
March 22, 1999... The poem `Lenten ys come wip loue to toune' (Brown-Robbins, Index, no. 1861) is one of the most often-reprinted poems of Harley MS 2253. As generally printed, it is a three-stanza poem, each stanza of twelve lines. In the Harley manuscript...

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT: A POEM FOR HENRY OF GROSMONT?(Critical Essay)
March 22, 1999... A decade ago, one of us reviewed the evidence for dating the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (GGK) and concluded that the older dating towards the middle of the fourteenth century was to be preferred.(1) This paper refines...

GOWER'S VOX CLAMANTIS AND USK'S TESTAMENT OF LOVE.(John Gower, Thomas Usk)(Critical Essay)
March 22, 1999... If any connection between John Gower and Thomas Usk is conceded by literary critics it is usually the view that Gower knew the Testament of Love, but that his amusement or disdain on reading it led to his playful urging of Chaucer to get on...

THE IDENTITY OF MARGARET IN THOMAS USK'S TESTAMENT OF LOVE.(Critical Essay)
March 22, 1999... Thomas Usk was long ago identified as the author of The Testament of Love on the grounds of an acrostic that he worked into his text.(1) A further integral element of this verbal play has not previously been noted, however, and that is a means...

INVENTING A TRADITION: THE CRONICA D'ESPAYNA DE GARCIA DE EUGUI AND THE BEGINNINGS OF NAVARRESE HISTORIOGRAPHY.(Critical Essay)
March 22, 1999... The field of Navarrese historiography is rarely entered by those outside Navarre. For most scholars, Suzanne Honore-Duverge's assessment that it `passe a juste titre pour la plus pauvre de la peninsulee iberique' is sufficient justification to...

HISTORY AND ROMANCE IN THE CHRONIQUE DES DUCS DE NORMANDIE.(Critical Essay)
March 22, 1999... It is probably fair to say that Benoit's Chronique des ducs de Normandie(1) only belongs to the category of courtly literature in that it was written at the command of a man who presided over one of the most influential courts of...

TWO CHAUCERS.(Critical Essay)
March 22, 1999... Recent works offer the reminder that Chaucer studies constitute themselves in a unique hermeneutical environment of seeming polarizations and issues competing for priority and an elusive status as the issue requiring initial or a priori...

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts of All Souls College Oxford.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Andrew G. Watson, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts of All Souls College Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). xxiii + 298 pp. ISBN 0-19-952269-3. 80.00 [pounds sterling]. After a long hibernation following the...

The Case for Women in Medieval Culture.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Alcuin Blamires, The Case for Women in Medieval Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). vii + 279 pp. ISBN 0-19-818256-2. 40.00 [pounds sterling]. According to Alcuin Blamires, medieval writers on sex and gender were much...

Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Valerie R. Hotchkiss, Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe, The New Middle Ages 1, Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1991 (New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1996). xii + 201 pp. ISBN...

Becoming Male in the Middle Ages.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Becoming Male in the Middle Ages, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Bonnie Wheeler, The New Middle Ages 4, Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 2066 (New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1997). vi + 387 pp. ISBN 0-8153-2836-2....

Medieval Marriage: Literary Approaches, 1100-1300.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Neil Cartlidge, Medieval Marriage: Literary Approaches, 1100-1300 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1997). xii + 250 pp. ISBN 0-85991-512-3. 39.50 [pounds sterling]. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a crucial period in the formation of...

A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Richard Sharpe, A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540, Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin 1 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997). xxxvii + 913 pp. ISBN 2-503-50575-9. B. Fr. 3,500.00. `Sharpe's Latin...

Old Concepts and New Poetics: `Historia', `Argumentum', and Fabula' in Twelfth- and Early Thirteenth-Century Latin Poetics of Fiction.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Paivi Mehtonen, Old Concepts and New Poetics: `Historia', `Argumentum', and Fabula' in Twelfth- and Early Thirteenth-Century Latin Poetics of Fiction, Commentationes humanarum litterarum 108 (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1996). 173...

Guillelmi de Conchis: Dragmaticon philosophiae.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Guillelmi de Conchis: Dragmaticon philosophiae, cura et studio I. Ronca; Summa de philosophia in vulgari, cura et studio L. Badia and J. Pujol, Corpus Christianorum continuatio mediaevalis 152 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997). lxxxviii + 531 pp. ISBN...

Summa de commendatione virtutum et extirpatione vitiorum.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Thomas de Chobham, Summa de commendatione virtutum et extirpatione vitiorum, ed. F. Morenzoni, Corpus Chrisfianorum continuatio mediaevalis LXXXII B (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997), xx + 400 pp. ISBN 2-503-03825-5, B. fr. 5,500.00 (hard covers); ISBN...

Omne bonum: A Fourteenth-Century Encyclopedia of Universal Knowledge.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Lucy Freeman Sandler, Omne bonum: A Fourteenth-Century Encyclopedia of Universal Knowledge (London: Harvey Miller, 1996). 2 vols. 208 pp. + 118 plates; 272 pp. + 760 plates. ISBN 1-872501-75-3. 120.00 [pounds sterling]. Lucy Freeman...

Texts of the Passion: Latin Devotional Literature and Medieval Society.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Thomas H. Bestul, Texts of the Passion: Latin Devotional Literature and Medieval Society (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996). viii + 264 pp. ISBN 0-8122-3376-X. $39.95. Thomas Bestul's study of the late...

Conversing with Angels and Ancients: Literary Myths of Medieval Ireland.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Joseph Falaky Nagy, Conversing with Angels and Ancients: Literary Myths of Medieval Ireland (Ithaca, New York, and London: Cornell University Press; Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997). xi + 356 pp. ISBN 0-8014-3300-2, $49.95 (CUP hard covers);...

Latin Manuscripts with Anglo-Saxon Glosses.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Latin Manuscripts with Anglo-Saxon Glosses, ed. P. J. Lucas, A. N. Doane, and I. C. Cunningham, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile 5 (Tempe, Arizona: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1997). 51 pp. + 35 fiches (804...

Reading Old English.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Reading Old English, ed. Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). 231 pp. ISBN 0-521-46970-8. 13.95 [pounds sterling] (p/b). What kinds of theoretical approaches have been taken in the past, and what may be...

Revising Oral Theory: Formulaic Composition in Old English and Old Icelandic Verse.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Paul Acker, Revising Oral Theory: Formulaic Composition in Old English and Old Icelandic Verse, Garland Studies in Medieval Literature 16 (New York and London: Garland, 1997). xvii + 133 pp. ISBN 0-8153-3102-9- $40.00. What kinds of...

AElfric's Catholic Homilies: The First Series: Text.(Review)
March 22, 1999... AElfric's Catholic Homilies: The First Series: Text, ed. Peter Clemoes, Early English Text Society, ss 17 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). xxii + 562 pp. ISBN 0-19-7224180. 45.00 [pounds sterling]. Peter Clemoes's long-awaited...

Judith.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Judith, ed. Mark Griffith, Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1997). xiv + 223 pp. ISBN o-85989-568-8. 9.99 [pounds sterling]. The editor remarks in his preface: `My regard for the poem has increased in...

The AB Dialect: A Computer Concordance.(Review)
March 22, 1999... The AB Dialect: A Computer Concordance, ed. George Hastings (Albany, New York: The University at Albany, 1997). Three PC diskettes plus explanatory booklet, ii + 25 pp. The contents of this package represent materials also downloadable to...

Lies, Slander and Obscenity in Medieval English Literature: Pastoral Rhetoric and the Deviant Speaker.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Edwin D. Craun, Lies, Slander and Obscenity in Medieval English Literature: Pastoral Rhetoric and the Deviant Speaker, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 31 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). xiv + 258 pp. ISBN 0-521-49690-X....

`Songes of Rechelesnesse': Langland and the Franciscans.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Lawrence M. Clopper, `Songes of Rechelesnesse': Langland and the Franciscans (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1997), xviii + 368 pp. ISBN 0-472-10744-5. 39.50 [pounds sterling]. Professor Clopper's book is the outcome of...

Robert Mannyng of Brunne: The Chronicle.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Robert Mannyng of Brunne: The Chronicle, ed. Idelle Sullens, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies (Binghamton, New York: Centre for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1996). x + 912 pp. ISBN 0-86698-137-3. $60.00. The first part...

Chaucer's Dream Poetry.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Chaucer's Dream Poetry, ed. Helen Phillips and Nick Havely, Longman Annotated Texts (London: Longman, 1997), xiv + 438 pp. ISBN 0-582-04012-4; 48.00 [pounds sterling] (hard covers). ISBN 0-582-04011-6; 17.99 [pounds sterling] (p/b). The...

Chaucer's Gardens and the Language of Convention.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Laura L. Howes, Chaucer's Gardens and the Language of Convention (Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 1997), xii + 142 pp.; 6 black-and-white photographs. ISBN 0-8130-1506-5. $39.95. The advertisement for this study rather...

Nicholas Love at Waseda.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Shoichi Oguro, Richard Beadle, and Michael G. Sargent, Nicholas Love at Waseda (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1997). xxiv + 280 pp; colour frontispiece + 10 plates. ISBN 0-85991-500-X. 39.50 [pounds sterling]. This volume records the proceedings...

Courtly Letters in the Age of Henry VIII: Literary Culture and the Arts of Deceit.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Seth Lerer, Courtly Letters in the Age of Henry VIII: Literary Culture and the Arts of Deceit, Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture 18 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). xiv + 252 pp.; 7 plates. ISBN...

Love for Sale: Materialist Readings of the Troubadour Razo Corpus.(Review)
March 22, 1999... William E. Burgwinkle, Love for Sale: Materialist Readings of the Troubadour Razo Corpus, The New Middle Ages 5 (New York and London: Garland, 1997). x + 336 pp.; 1 map. ISBN 0-8153-2842-7. $64.00. This lively and exciting study takes as a...

L'CEuvre lyrique de Blondel de Nesle: melodies.(Review)
March 22, 1999... L'CEuvre lyrique de Blondel de Nesle: melodies, edition des melodies et etude des variantes par Avner Bahat and Gerard Le Vot, Nouvelle Bibliotheque du moyen age 24 (Paris: Honore Champion, 1996). 272 pp. ISBN 2-85203-409-3; F. Fr. 500.00 (hard...

Les Enfances Vivien.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Les Enfances Vivien, ed. Magali Rouquier, Textes litteraires francais 478 (Geneva: Libraire Droz, 1997), xliii + 223 pp. ISBN 2-600-00204-9. F. Fr. 240.00. Les Enfances Vivien is a text with an extremely complex manuscript tradition. There...

Liebe und Herrschaft: Studien zum altfranzosischen und mittelhochdeutschen Prosa-Lancelot.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Cornelia Reil, Liebe und Herrschaft: Studien zum altfranzosischen und mittelhochdeutschen Prosa-Lancelot, Hermaea NS 78 (Tubingen: Niemeyer, 1996). 268 pp. ISBN 3-484-15078-5. DM 128.00 Cornelia Reil's study of the Old French and Middle...

Pseudo-autobiography in the Fourteenth Century: Juan Ruiz Guillaume de Machaut, Jean Froissart and Geoffrey Chaucer.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Laurence de Looze, Pseudo-autobiography in the Fourteenth Century: Juan Ruiz Guillaume de Machaut, Jean Froissart and Geoffrey Chaucer (Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 1997), xii + 212 pp. ISBN 0-8130-1507-3. $49.00. ...

Imaging Aristotle: Verbal and Visual Representation in Fourteenth-Century France.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Claire Richter Sherman, Imaging Aristotle: Verbal and Visual Representation in Fourteenth-Century France (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1995), xxiv + 419 pp.; 11 colour plates, 86 black-and-white figures....

Le Roman de Ponthus et Sidoine.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Le Roman de Ponthus et Sidoine, ed. Marie-Claude de Crecy, Textes litteraires francais 475 (Geneva: Droz, 1997), clvii + 460 pp. ISBN 2-600-00195-7. F. Fr. 383.00. Ponthus et Sidoine is yet another of those sprawling, hugely popular, late...

Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France: Text and Context of Laurens Pignon's `Contre les devineurs'.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Jan R. Veenstra, Magic and Divination at the Courts of Burgundy and France: Text and Context of Laurens Pignon's `Contre les devineurs' (1411), Brill Studies in Intellectual History 83 (Leiden, New York, and Cologne: Brill, 1998). xiv + 433 PP....

`The Vivendier': A Fifteenth Century French Cookery Manuscript: A Critical Edition with English Translation.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Terence Scully, `The Vivendier': A Fifteenth Century French Cookery Manuscript: A Critical Edition with English Translation (Totnes: Prospect Books, 1997). vi + 129 pp. ISBN 0907-325-815. 12.50 [pounds sterling]. Terence Scully, who has...

Le Mystere de la Sainte Resurrection (Angers 1456).(Review)
March 22, 1999... Le Mystere de la Sainte Resurrection (Angers 1456), edition critique par Pierre Servet, Textes litteraires 435 (Geneva: Droz, 1993). 2 vols. 686 + 319 pp. No ISBN given. F. Fr. 585.00. This particular Resurrection play was commissioned by...

Dante and Governance.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Dante and Governance, ed. John Woodhouse (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). xii + 179 pp. ISBN 0-19-815911-0. 30.00 [pounds sterling]. If this title suggests a focus on ideas rather than on poetic form, three of the nine essays which follow...

The Germanic Hero: Politics and Pragmatism in Early Medieval Poetry.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Brian Murdoch, The Germanic Hero: Politics and Pragmatism in Early Medieval Poetry (London and Rio Grande, Ohio: Hambledon Press, 1996). x + 188 pp. ISBN 1-85285-143-0. 25.00 [pounds sterling]. Brian Murdoch is aware in this book,...

Illuminating the Epic: The Kassel `Willehalm' Codex and the Landgraves of Hesse in the Early Fourteenth Century.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Joan A. Holladay, Illuminating the Epic: The Kassel `Willehalm' Codex and the Landgraves of Hesse in the Early Fourteenth Century, College Art Association Monograph on the Fine Arts 54 (Seattle; London: College Art Association; University of...

Hystoria ducis Bauarie Ernesti: kritische Edition des `Herzog Ernst' C und Untersuchungen zu Struktur und Darstellung des Stoffes in den volkssprachlichen und lateinischen Fassungen.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Thomas Ehlen, Hystoria ducis Bauarie Ernesti: kritische Edition des `Herzog Ernst' C und Untersuchungen zu Struktur und Darstellung des Stoffes in den volkssprachlichen und lateinischen Fassungen, ScriptOralia 96. A. 23 (Tubingen: Gunter Narr,...

`Tum'-Studien: zur dichterischen Gestaltung im Marienpreis Heinrichs von Mugeln.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Michael Stolz, `Tum'-Studien: zur dichterischen Gestaltung im Marienpreis Heinrichs von Mugeln, Bibliotheca Germanica 36 (Tubingen and Basel: Francke, 1996). xii + 522 pp. ISBN 3-7720-2027-5. DM 120.00. Heinrich yon Mugeln, a German poet...

Heinrich von Mugeln; `Der meide kranz': A Commentary.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Annette Volfing, Heinrich von Mugeln; `Der meide kranz': A Commentary, Munchener Texte und Untersuchungen zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters 111 (Tubingen: M. Niemeyer, 1997). viii + 422 pp. ISBN 3-484-89111-4. DM 118.00. Heinrich...

The Poetic Edda, II: Mythological Poems.(Review)
March 22, 1999... The Poetic Edda, II: Mythological Poems, ed., trans., introd., and commentary by Ursula Dronke (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). 464 pp. ISBN 0-19-811181-9. 70.00 [pounds sterling]. The long-awaited second volume of Ursula Dronke's edition...

The Past as Text: The Theory and Practice of Medieval Historiography.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Gabrielle M. Spiegel, The Past as Text: The Theory and Practice of Medieval Historiography (Baltimore, Maryland, and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), xxii + 298 pp. ISBN 0-8018-5555-1. 33.00 [pounds sterling]. Gabrielle...

Culture and Religion in Merovingian Gaul.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Yitzak Hen, Culture and Religion in Merovingian Gaul, A.D. 481-751, Cultures, Beliefs and Traditions: Medieval and Early Modern Peoples 1 (Leiden, New York, and Cologne: E. J. Brill, 1995), xiv + 308 pp. ISBN 90-041-0347-3. $100.50. This...

The Regal Image of Richard II and the Wilton Diptych.(Review)
March 22, 1999... The Regal Image of Richard II and the Wilton Diptych, ed. Dillian Gordon, Lisa Monnas, and Caroline Elam, introd. Caroline M. Barron (London: Harvey Miller, 1998). 379 pp.; 23 plates; 171 illustrations. ISBN 1-872501-72-9. $65.00. Richard...

George Chastellain and the Shaping of Valois Burgundy: Political and Historical Culture at Court in the Fifteenth Century.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Graeme Small, George Chastellain and the Shaping of Valois Burgundy: Political and Historical Culture at Court in the Fifteenth Century (Woodbridge: Boydell Press; Royal Historical Society Publications, 1997). 302 pp. ISBN 0-86193-237-4. 39.50...

SHORTER NOTICES.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Medieval Liturgy: A Book of Essays, ed. Lizette Larson-Miller, Garland Medieval Casebooks 18 (New York and London: Garland, 1997). 336 pp. ISBN 0-8153-1919-3. $63.00. This volume consists of three sections of essays following a brief...

Correction.(Review)
March 22, 1999... Correction: Two notices in MAE, 67.2 (1998), 370-1, ascribed to N. Jacobs, were in fact by Stephen Knight.