Medium Aevum articles from March 2000

Medium Aevum archives from March 2000

MYTH AS THERAPY: THE USEFULNESS OF BRYMSKVIDA.
March 22, 2000... One of the major embarrassments of discussing the mythological poems of the Poetic Edda has always been the lack of a clear consensus on the date of many poems. Not only can we not agree about whether some poems date from the tenth century or...

FOLLOWING THE PATH OF THE LIONHEART: THE DE ORTU WALWANII AND THE ITINERARIUM PEREGRINORUM ET GESTA REGIS RICARDI.
March 22, 2000... The De ortu Walwanii is a Latin prose romance, surviving in a single early fourteenth-century manuscript, BL MS Cotton Faustina B VI. Scholars agree that it is by the same author as the Historia Meriadoci which is preserved in the same...

PEARL -- OR `THE JEWELLER'S TALE'.(Excerpt)
March 22, 2000... For most of its critical history, Pearl has been discussed transhistorically; seen as a beautiful artefact; a gem, within whose carefully wrought form flawed human understanding about loss and death is challenged by theological instruction and...

`CHOSEN TO BE BI DERLYNG': THE ANTICIPATION OF HEAVEN IN A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY MIDDLE ENGLISH MEDITATION.
March 22, 2000... In his account of the fourteenth-century English Church, W. A. Pantin refers to `one of the most important phenomena of the later Middle Ages, namely the rise of the devout layman'.(1) The comment occurs in a summary discussion of English...

THE ITALIAN FRAGMENT OF THE QUESTE DEL SAINT GRAAL PRESERVED IN THE BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE CENTRALE, FLORENCE, AND ITS FRENCH SOURCE.(Excerpt)(Poem)
March 22, 2000... In her important book I romanzi italiani di Tristano e la Tavola Ritonda, Daniela Branca published a previously unknown fragment of an Italian translation of a version of the Queste del Saint Graal preserved in Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale...

`SHOT WYNDOWE' (MILLER'S TALE, I.3358 AND 3695): AN OPEN AND SHUT CASE?
March 22, 2000... What kind of a window is the `shot wyndowe' that is such a crucial feature of the Miller's Tale? The term itself is rare: it occurs nowhere else in Chaucer's works, and is not recorded again before Gavin Douglas's translation of the Aeneid...

THE STUDY OF MEDIEVAL ENGLISH PREACHING: WHAT NEXT?
March 22, 2000... Preaching and Politics, or Preaching, Politics and Poetry?(*) The discrepancy -- not of the author's making -- between the title of A. J. Fletcher's collection of essays given on the cover and that on the title-page may serve as my theme, a...

Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium: Image as Exegesis in the `Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus'.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Leslie Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium: Image as Exegesis in the `Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). 568 pp.; 177 black and white illustrations, 59 figures. ISBN...

Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic, ed. Claire Fanger, Magic in History Series (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998). xviii + 284 pp.; 23 illustrations. ISBN 0-271-01862-3, $60.00 (hard...

Adelard of Bath; Conversations with his Nephew: `On the Same and the Different', `Questions on Natural Science', and `On Birds'.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Adelard of Bath; Conversations with his Nephew: `On the Same and the Different', `Questions on Natural Science', and `On Birds', ed. and trans. Charles Burnett, with the collaboration of Italo Ronca, Pedro Mantas Espana, and Baudouin van den...

Courting Power: Persuasion and Politics in the Early Thirteenth Century.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Laurie Shepard, Courting Power: Persuasion and Politics in the Early Thirteenth Century, Garland Studies in Medieval Literature 17 (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1999), xi + 240 pp. ISBN 0-8153-3122-3. $55.00. Laurie Shepard's study...

The World Grown Old in Later Medieval Literature.(Review)
March 22, 2000... James M. Dean, The World Grown Old in Later Medieval Literature (Cambridge, Mass.: The Medieval Academy of America, 1997), xi + 379 pp. ISBN 0-915651-04-1. $50.00. While building on the work of earlier scholars, James Dean endeavours to...

The Buildwas Books: Book Production, Acquisition and Use at an English Cistercian Monastery, 1165-c.1400.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Jennifer M. Sheppard, The Buildwas Books: Book Production, Acquisition and Use at an English Cistercian Monastery, 1165-c.1400, Oxford Bibliographical Society Third Series 2 (Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1998). lx + 274 pp. ISBN...

English Medieval Books: The Reading Abbey Collections from the Foundation to Dispersal.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Alan Coates, English Medieval Books: The Reading Abbey Collections from the Foundation to Dispersal, Oxford Historical Monographs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), xxi + 211 pp.; 9 plates. ISBN 0-19-820756-5. 40.00 [pounds sterling]. Alan...

The Long Arm of Coincidence: The Frustrated Connection between `Beowulf' and `Grettis saga'.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Magnus Fjalldal, The Long Arm of Coincidence: The Frustrated Connection between `Beowulf' and `Grettis saga' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998). vii + 176 pp. ISBN 0-8020-4301-1. 32.50 [pounds sterling]. Magnus Fjalldal...

Beowulf: An Edition with Relevant Shorter Texts.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Beowulf: An Edition with Relevant Shorter Texts, ed. Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1998). xii + 318 pp.; 12 pp. of plates. ISBN 0-631-17225-4. 14.99 [pounds sterling]. It is rare for a new edition of...

The Old English Illustrated Pharmacopoeia: British Library Cotton Vitellius C III.(Review)
March 22, 2000... The Old English Illustrated Pharmacopoeia: British Library Cotton Vitellius C III, ed. M. A. D'Aronco and M. L. Cameron, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile 27 (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger, 1998). 64 pp.; 8 colour plates, 16 + 150...

Representations of the Natural World in Old English Poetry.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Jennifer Neville, Representations of the Natural World in Old English Poetry, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 27 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). x + 224 pp. ISBN 0-521-64036-9. 40.00 [pounds sterling] Cotton...

AElfric's Letter to the Monks of Eynsham.(Review)
March 22, 2000... AElfric's Letter to the Monks of Eynsham, ed. Christopher A. Jones, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 24 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). x + 255 pp. ISBN 0-521-63011-8. 45.00 [pounds sterling]. The document known as...

A Guide to Editing Middle English.(Review)
March 22, 2000... A Guide to Editing Middle English, ed. Vincent P. McCarren and Douglas Moffatt (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998). vii + 338 pp. ISBN 0-472-10604-X. $47.50. Vincent McCarren and Douglas Moffatt have provided a volume which...

New Approaches to Editing Old English Verse.(Review)
March 22, 2000... New Approaches to Editing Old English Verse, ed. Sarah Larratt Keefer and Katherine O'Brian O'Keeffe (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1998). vii + 126 pp. ISBN 0-85991-469-0. 30.00 [pounds sterling]. Vincent McCarren and Douglas Moffatt have...

The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature.(Review)
March 22, 2000... The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature, ed. David Wallace (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). xxiii + 1043 pp. ISBN 0-521-444209. 65.00 [pounds sterling]. With the publication of this book the literary history of...

Of Shrifte and Penance: The ME Prose Translation of the `Manuel des peches'.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Klaus Bitterling, Of Shrifte and Penance: The ME Prose Translation of the `Manuel des peches', Middle English Texts 29 (Heidelberg: Winter, 1998). 232 pp. ISBN 3-8253-0586-4. DM 108.00. Of Shrifte and Penance, a Middle English prose...

Iconography and the Professional Reader: The Politics of Book Production in the Douce `Piers Plowman'.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Kathryn Kerby-Fulton and Denise L. Despres, Iconography and the Professional Reader. The Politics of Book Production in the Douce `Piers Plowman' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), xviii + 268 pp.; frontispiece + 70 plates....

Essays on Ricardian Literature: In Honour of John Burrow.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Essays on Ricardian Literature: In Honour of John Burrow, ed. A. J. Minnis, Charlotte C. Morse, and Thorlac Turville-Petre (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). xv + 358 pp. ISBN 0-19-8182821. 45.00 [pounds sterling]. This important collection...

Chaucer and the Trivium: The Mindsong of the Canterbury Tales.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Stephen Russell, Chaucer and the Trivium: The Mindsong of the Canterbury Tales (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998). x + 265 pp. ISBN 0-8130-1637-1. $49.95. J. Stephen Russell's study of the significance of the trivium for the...

England's Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of Legitimation 1399-1422.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Paul Strohm, England's Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of Legitimation 1399-1422 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998). xiv + 274 pp. ISBN 0-500-07544-8. 25.00 [pounds sterling]. Paul Strohm takes the tide of his new...

Sir Thomas Malory; Le Morte Darthur: The Winchester Manuscript.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Sir Thomas Malory; Le Morte Darthur: The Winchester Manuscript, edited and abridged with an introduction and notes by Helen Cooper, Oxford World's Classics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). xxxiii + 576 pp. ISBN 0-19-282420-1. 7.99...

John Shirley: Book Production and the Noble Household in Fifteenth-Century England.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Margaret Connolly, John Shirley: Book Production and the Noble Household in Fifteenth-Century England (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998). xi + 247 pp.; 8 plates. ISBN 1-85928-462-0. 47.50 [pounds sterling]. This is the first book-length study of...

Enter the King: Theatre, Liturgy, and Ritual in the Medieval Civic Triumph.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Gordon Kipling, Enter the King: Theatre, Liturgy, and Ritual in the Medieval Civic Triumph (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998). xv + 393 pp. ISBN 0-19-811760-2. 45.00 [pounds sterling]. Gordon Kipling's book is an outstanding contribution to...

The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Greg Walker, The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). xi + 245 pp. ISBN 0-521-56331-3. 35.00 [pounds sterling]. Gordon Kipling's book is an outstanding contribution to the...

Chaucer to Spenser: An Anthology of Writings in English.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Chaucer to Spenser: An Anthology of Writings in English, 1375-1575, ed. Derek Pearsall, Blackwell Anthologies (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998). xxvi + 686 pp. ISBN 0-631-19838-5; 60.00 [pounds sterling] (hard covers). ISBN 0-631-19839-3; 15.99 [pounds...

Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Stephen Knight, Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994). xi + 308 pp. ISBN 0-631-19486-X. 13.99 [pounds sterling]. To judge from these three volumes (together with other signs such as the establishment...

Robin Hood: die vielen Gesichter des edlen Raubers/Robin Hood: The Many Faces of that Celebrated English Outlaw.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Robin Hood: die vielen Gesichter des edlen Raubers/Robin Hood: The Many Faces of that Celebrated English Outlaw, ed. Kevin Carpenter (Oldefiburg: Bibliotheksund Informationssystem der Carl von Ossietzky Universitat, 1995). 303 pp.; numerous...

Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript (British Library Additional Manuscript 71158).(Review)
March 22, 2000... Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript (British Library Additional Manuscript 71158), ed. Stephen Knight (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1998), xxix + 173 pp. ISBN 0-85991-436-4. 30.00 [pounds sterling]. To judge from these three volumes (together...

Songs of the Women Troubadours.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Songs of the Women Troubadours, ed. and trans. Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner, Laurie Shepard, and Sarah White (New York: Garland Publishing, 1995). 1xxvii + 194 pp. ISBN 08-05308-175. $60.00. Stimulated by the publication of Angelica Rieger's...

Chants d'amour des femmes-troubadours.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Chants d'amour des femmes-troubadours, textes etablis, traduits, et presentes par Pierre Bec (Paris: Stock, 1995). 259 pp. ISBN 2234044766. F. Fr. 120.00. Stimulated by the publication of Angelica Rieger's German edition of the Occitan...

Arnaut Vidal de Castelnaudary; Le Livre des aventures de Monseigneur Guilhem de la Barra.(Jean-Charles Huchet)(Review)
March 22, 2000... Arnaut Vidal de Castelnaudary; Le Livre des aventures de Monseigneur Guilhem de la Barra, edite et traduit en francais moderne par Gerard Gouiran, preface par Jean-Charles Huchet, revise par Jean-Pierre Chambon, Textes et traductions des...

La Voix du cor: la relique de Roncevaux et l'origine d'un motif dans la litterature du moyen age (XIIe-XIVe siecles).(Review)
March 22, 2000... Asdis R. Magnusdottir, La Voix du cor: la relique de Roncevaux et l'origine d'un motif dans la litterature du moyen age (XIIe-XIVe siecles), IFAVL 31 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998). 432 pp.; 9 plates. ISBN 90-420-0602-1. $73.50; F. Fr. 420.00. ...

Orality and Performance in Early French Romance.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Evelyn Birge Vitz, Orality and Performance in Early French Romance (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer; Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 1999), xiii + 314 pp. ISBN 1-85991-538-7. 50.00 [pounds sterling]. This is a polemical book; and while those...

Narrateur et points de vue dans la litterature francaise medievale: une approche linguistique.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Sophie Marnette, Narrateur et points de rue dans la litterature francaise medievale: une approche linguistique (Bern: Peter Lang, 1998). 262 pp. ISBN 3-906760-92-8. 23.00 [pounds sterling]. This volume adopts the very interesting strategy...

The Evolution of Arthurian Romance: The Verse Tradition from Chretien to Froissart.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Beate Schmolke-Hasselmann, The Evolution of Arthurian Romance: The Verse Tradition from Chretien to Froissart, trans. Margaret and Roger Middleton, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 35 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). xix +...

Le Conte du Graal ou l'art de faire signe.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Francis Dubost, Le Conte du Graal ou l'art de faire signe, Unichamp 71 (Paris: Champion, 1998). 208 pp. ISBN 2-85203-924-9. No price given. The author's introduction emphasizes the volume of publications dealing with Chretien's Grail...

The Romance of Adultery: Queenship and Sexual Transgression in Old French Literature.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Peggy McCracken, The Romance of Adultery: Queenship and Sexual Transgression in Old French Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998). xiv + 226 pp.; 6 figures. ISBN 0-8122-3432-4. 37.95 [pounds sterling]. This study...

Fauvel Studies: Allegory, Chronicle, Music, and Image in Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, MS Francais 146.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Fauvel Studies: Allegory, Chronicle, Music, and Image in Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, MS Francais 146, ed. Margaret Bent and Andrew Wathey (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998). 666 pp.; 8 plates, 89 figures. ISBN 0-19-816579-X. 80.00...

L'Imaginaire dans l'oeuvre de Guillaume de Machaut.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Isabelle Betemps, L'Imaginaire dans l'oeuvre de Guillaume de Machaut, Bibliotheque du XVe siecle 59 (Paris: Honore Champion, 1998). 472 pp. ISBN 2-85203-816-1. F. Fr. 385.00. We have, of course, graduated from the old view of Guillaume de...

Dynamic Dichotomy: The Poetic `I' in Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century French Lyric Poetry.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Catherine Attwood, Dynamic Dichotomy: The Poetic `I' in Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century French Lyric Poetry, Faux Titre 149 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998). 228 pp. ISBN 90-420-0365-0. Nl. G. 70.00. This study of the poetic `I' in late medieval...

Le Huon de Bordeaux en prose du XVeme siecle.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Le Huon de Bordeaux en prose du XVeme siecle, ed. Michel J. Raby (New York: Peter Lang, 1998). clx + 300 pp. ISBN 0-8204-3301-2. 39.00 [pounds sterling]. Recent years have seen a new and significant re-evaluation of the late medieval genre...

Etudes sur les mysteres: un recueil de 22 etudes sur les mysteres francais, suivi d'un repertoire du theatre religieux francais du moyen age et d'une bibliographie.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Graham A. Runnalls, Etudes sur les mysteres: un recueil de 22 etudes sur les mysteres francais, suivi d'un repertoire du theatre religieux francais du moyen age et d'une bibliographie, Champion-Varia 14 (Paris: Honore Champion, 1998). 512 pp....

Le Theatre francais du moyen age.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Charles Mazouer, Le Theatre francais du moyen age (Paris: Editions SEDES, 1998). 432 pp.; 24 illustrations. ISBN 2-7181-9174-0. No price given. This is the first single-authored history of the full range of medieval French theatre since...

The Ethics of Nature in the Middle Ages: On Boccaccio's Poetaphysics.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Gregory Stone, The Ethics of Nature in the Middle Ages: On Boccaccio's Poetaphysics (New York: St Martin's Press, 1998). 250 pp. ISBN 0-312-21353-0. $45.00. The intriguingly coined `poetaphysics' of Gregory Stone's title refers to...

Problemas de autoria, de estructura y de fuentes en el `Poema de mio Cid'.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Irene Zaderenko, Problemas de autoria, de estructura y de fuentes en el `Poema de mio Cid', Poetria nova 5 (Alcala de Henares: Universidad de Alcala de Henares, 1998). xiv + 206 pp. ISBN 84-8138-295-7. No price given. The structure, date,...

Konrad von Megenberg, `Das Buch der Natur: Untersuchungen zu seiner Text- und Uberlieferungsgeschichte.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Gerold Hayer, Konrad von Megenberg, `Das Buch der Natur: Untersuchungen zu seiner Text-und Uberlieferungsgeschichte, Munchener Texte und Untersuchungen zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters 110 (Tubingen: Niemeyer, 1998). viii + 533 pp.; 16...

Katalog der deutschsprachigen illustrierten Handschriften des Mittelalters.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Norbert H. Ott and Ulrike Bodemann, Katalog der deutschsprachigen illustrierten Handschriften des Mittelalters, vol. III, fascicule 1 (Munich: Beck, 1998). 80 pp.; 24 plates. ISBN 3-7696-0919-0. DM 96.00. No less than four medieval German...

Zisterzienser und ihre Bucher: die mittelalterliche Bibliotheksgeschichte von Kloster Eberbach im Rheingau unter besonderer Berucksichtigung der in Oxford und London aufbewahrten Handschriften.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Nigel Palmer, Zisterzienser und ihre Bucher: die mittelalterliche Bibliotheksgeschichte von Kloster Eberbach im Rheingau unter besonderer Berucksichtigung der in Oxford und London aufbewahrten Handschriften (Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner,...

New Cambridge Medieval History.(Review)
March 22, 2000... New Cambridge Medieval History, VII: c.1415 - c.1500, ed. Christopher Allmand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). xxii + 1,048 pp.; 24 plates, 21 maps. ISBN 0-521-38296-3. 65.00 [pounds sterling]. Fifteenth-century Europe may...

Suicide in the Middle Ages, vol. I: The Violent against Themselves.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Alexander Murray, Suicide in the Middle Ages, vol. I: The Violent against Themselves (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). xxiv + 485 pp.; 6 plates. ISBN 0-19-820539-2. 30.00 [pounds sterling]. This is the first of a three-volume study...

Symeon of Durham, Historian of Durham and the North.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Symeon of Durham, Historian of Durham and the North, ed. David Rollason, Studies in North-Eastern History 1 (Stamford: Shaun Tyas, 1998). xix + 362 pp.; 64 plates. ISBN 1-871615-96-8. 65.00 [pounds sterling]. This publication of sixteen...

The Cartulary of St.-Marcel-les-Chalon, 779-1126.(Review)
March 22, 2000... The Cartulary of St.-Marcel-les-Chalon, 779-1126, ed. Constance Brittain Bouchard (Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1998). x + 179 pp. ISBN 0-915651-07-6. $24.00. The Cluniac priory of Saint-Marcel-les-Chalon, situated outside...

Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Ruth Mazo Karras, Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England, Studies in the History of Sexuality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). x + 221 pp. ISBN 0-19-512498-7. 15.99 [pounds sterling]. This is a useful and...

SHORTER NOTICES.(Review)
March 22, 2000... Bart D. Ehrman, After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). xii + 436 pp. ISBN 0-19-511445-0. $57.00. This nicely produced book is a reader containing seventy-six extensive extracts from...

ANGLO-FRENCH AND MIDDLE ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN FEMINA NOVA.
March 22, 2000... Although Anglicists have been aware for generations that French made an enormous contribution to the lexis of English in the later Middle Ages, not all the first-hand evidence of this contribution now available from non-literary sources has yet...