This is a most welcome addition to the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library (DOML), whose offerings in medieval Latin, Byzantine Greek, and Old English are now slowly being enriched by the multilingual cultures of medieval Iberia. The volume includes two versions of the peripatetic Apollonius legend: the thirteenth-century clerical poem Libro de Apolonio and the late fifteenth-century prose Vida e historia del rey Apolonio, which is a literal rendering of the Latin tale found in chapter 153 of the Gesta Romanorum.
Overall, Emily Francomano and Clara Pascual-Argente provide a lucid and insightful comparative survey of the two versions and their respective treatment of inherited themes and hagiographic and folkloric elements. They fully appreciate the clerical poet’s creativity, verbal playfulness, skillful command of structure, and affective and tonal range, showing the Libro to be a beautiful and moving poem that deserves to be more widely read. The work is a fine example of translation as research. It should encourage DOML to continue its Iberian venture and assist more anglophone readers to travel south of the Pyrenees.
Julian Weiss
Speculum
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