Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus (mid-fifth century to 518 CE), the bishop of Vienne, left us with a large letter collection, a biblical epic of five books, De spiritalis historiae gestis, and a poem addressed to his sister on the virtues of chastity, De consolatoria castitatis laude. With his translation, Michael Roberts aims for readability and accuracy while leaving room to make choices for the sake of fluency. He achieves his goal and offers a clear and uniformly excellent prose translation.
As expected from Dumbarton Oaks, this volume is of high quality. The layout is handsome and typos are very few. While scholars have shown much more interest in Avitus in recent years, Roberts also notes that more work remains to be done, especially on the De consolatoria. Roberts’s translation and notes will surely bring Avitus to an even wider audience.
Amy Oh
The Journal of Medieval Latin
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