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
Review: Poems, by Venantius Fortunatus
The new edition by Roberts of the poems of the 6th century Latin poet Venantius Fortunatus is doubly welcome: firstly, as representing the first complete translation into English of the latter’s occasional poetry; secondly, as forming an invaluable companion-piece to Roberts’ earlier The Humblest Sparrow. While it has become a commonplace to view Fortunatus as the link between late antique and medieval poetics, the recognition of his importance continues to grow in tandem with the critical re-evaluation of late antique aesthetics and the blurring of boundaries between late antique and early medieval. The appearance, therefore, of a comprehensive edition readily accessible to English-speaking readers is particularly timely.
The readability and clarity of Roberts’ translation provides an excellent jumping-off point for academics and general readers alike, with this edition both comprising an invaluable resource for the present and representing a milestone for future scholarship.
Gillian Knight
Exemplaria Classica
Review: The Poems of Christopher of Mytilene and John Mauropous
Wit, irony, drama, lament, devotion, and hope are all to be found in this sleek and elegant volume with poetry from a Byzantium ready for one more social and cultural change. In the decades to follow the composition of the texts translated in this book, appreciation for rhetoric—and especially poetry—became an essential characteristic of a close-knit group, manning church and state administration. The playful rhythm of poetry carried truth and criticism, but also Christian piety and personal emotions. John Mauropous and Christopher Mitylenaios were among the first to represent that trend, which became most relevant from the twelfth century on.
Floris Bernard and Christopher Livanos are right in choosing to discuss their works in parallel, for these verses are sole surviving examples of similar intellectual choices, presumably widespread at their time. Such a wealth of primary sources has been made available to a wide audience thanks to this publication of their first complete English translation and commentary. The expert will benefit from the translators’ textual emendations and suggestions that improve on current editions. The translation of the heavily damaged poems by Mitylenaios, which are admittedly hardly comprehensible, particularly deserves praise.
Foteini Spingou
Speculum
Review: The Life of Saint Neilos of Rossano
The present volume, published for the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, provides an essential edition of the Life of Saint Neilos of Rossano, perhaps the most complex and interesting of the bioi of Italo-Greek saints. The translation—the first into English, as mentioned in the preface—is on the whole quite correct and even. The mere fact of providing an English version will guarantee the success of the work and will bring it to the attention of a wider audience of readers interested in the Byzantine world, and specifically in medieval Hellenism in southern (and central) Italy.
Saint Neilos moved between the West and the East—between the Greek and the Latin worlds—and, while remaining faithful to Eastern religious and behavioral paradigms, he was in dialogue with the Latin church, in particular with the Benedictine monks of the abbey of Montecassino, proving that the motivations of the doctrinal contrasts were in fact easily overcome in a spirit of mutual respect.
Gioacchino Strano
Speculum
