The Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library is proud to join the virtual exhibitors for the canceled 55th annual International Congress on Medieval Studies, hosted by Western Michigan University’s Medieval Institute. The year 2020 is a particularly exciting one for DOML, as it marks our ten-year anniversary. Although we cannot attend the conference in person, we are offering a 20% discount on all titles through the end of May 2020 when you order through this special discount website. Also discounted are selected titles from Dumbarton Oaks Publications. See our online flyer for more information, and we look forward to attending the conference in person next year!
Review: Medieval Latin Lives of Muhammad
Los textos reunidos en este volumen, que abarcan un periodo de cinco siglos y una variedad espacial que lleva al lector desde la Península Ibérica a Bizancio, pasando por Alemania y Francia, representan una valiosa fuente de información acerca de las preocupaciones e ideas surgidas en los medios intelectuales occidentales sobre el islam y su profeta Muḥammad.
La reproducción de los textos latinos ha sido realizada de forma cuidadosa, como rigurosas son las traducciones llevadas a cabo por los autores, labor que estos complementan de modo acertado con una detallada anotación. Se trata, por lo tanto, de una obra interesante, tanto por los textos que reúne como por el tratamiento analítico que le dedican los autores.
Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala
Collectanea Christiana Orientalia
Review: Medieval Latin Lives of Muhammad
The volume is a prudent selection because it combines prose, verse, and epistolary sources. The verse texts directly reflect how the nontheological and nonhistorical literature deals with the life of Muhammad. It is particularly commendable that the editors included the Book of Nicholas and the Qualiter in the volume because these texts have received very little scholarly attention. In general, Yolles and Weiss have published a consistent range of texts that give a holistic impression of the medieval literature about Muhammad.
I hope that further volumes containing similar selections of texts about the Prophet’s life will be published.
Daniel Pachurka
Medievalia et Humanistica
Digging into the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library: Spotlight on Ælfric’s “Old English Lives of Saints”
Ælfric, the tenth-century monk and author, wrote in the Old English preface to his Lives of Saints, “we say nothing new in this work, because it was written down long ago in Latin books, although lay people did not know that.” Created for the benefit of two powerful aristocratic patrons related to the English royal family, his project provided versions of the stories of saints’ lives, along with some sermons, that could be read, listened to, and meditated on even by those who were not priests, monks, or nuns. Those people who didn’t know the Latin language of the educated elite were being left out, with no way to learn from and enjoy reading the exemplary lives of Christianity’s heroes. In three volumes just published in the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series, Mary Clayton and Juliet Mullins (both of University College Dublin) have gone back to the surviving manuscripts to present a brand-new edition and translation of Ælfric’s Lives of Saints and once again bring these stories to a whole new audience.
Review: On Plato’s Timaeus
Interest in “alterity” is ubiquitous in medieval studies. It undergirds Paul Binski’s and Mary Carruthers’ important research into medieval varietas; it has stimulated an interest in the “grotesque” and the “monstrous”; and it has even invited re-readings of iconic authors, such as Thomas Aquinas. In a way, it has also given rise to the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, which, in addition to containing the Vulgate and Beowulf, includes school texts (The Well-Laden Ship), Byzantine texts, Medieval Latin Lives of Muhammed, the poetry of Bernard Silvestris and Alan of Lille, and, now, Calcidius’s commentary on Plato’s Timaeus.
The particular value of works like these is that, as they were never incorporated into an enduring canon, they remain foreign to us and resist attempts at modernization; that is, unlike some artifacts from the medival world—like Dante’s Comedy, Aquinas’s Summa, or Notre-Dame de Paris—they ostensibly retain their alterity. For this reason, the DOML‘s new edition of Calcidius is welcome. The translation is wonderfully readable, although it does not obliterate the sense for Calcidius’s complicated lexicon and hypotactic syntax. The text includes Calcidius’s bizarre diagrams and illustrations, and most importantly, it does not excerpt just the bits that modern readers would have a proclivity to find relevant, thereby obscuring the difference. The volume itself, typical of the DOML series, is beautifully made and inexpensive. It would make a great addition to texts selected for a medieval survey course, because, in the light of Calcidius, the alterity of better-known texts could be put in relief.
Jason Baxter
Journal of Medieval Latin
Review: Poems, by Venantius Fortunatus
Venantius Fortunatus, a sixth-century poet writing in Merovingian Gaul, has received increasing attention as more scholars have realised the inventiveness of late antique poetry. In his new edition and translation for the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, Michael Roberts provides for the first time an English translation of the entire corpus of Fortunatus’ poetry (minus the Vita Sancti Martini, already available elsewhere).
In sum, Roberts’ edition and translation is an impressive achievement, and a very welcome volume for specialists and general readers alike. Students will benefit from its price and readability, with Roberts’ notes guiding them through multiple layers of meaning. Specialists will appreciate having what will undoubtedly become the standard edition of Fortunatus’ poetry in an accessible format on their own bookshelves. And greater accessibility means we can expect even greater scholarly exploration to come. With Roberts’ volume, Fortunatus returns to us here and now.
Erica Buchberger
Journal of Roman Studies