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
