‎Language‎

‎D. Maddox, S. Sturm-Maddox (eds.);‎

‎Parisian Confraternity Drama of the Fourteenth Century The 'Miracles de Nostre Dame par personnages',‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2008 Hardback, X+258 p., 14 b/w ill., 3 b/w tables, 8 b/w line art, 160 x 240 mm. ISBN 9782503528526.‎

‎Parisian Confraternity Drama of the Fourteenth Century is the first volume of studies devoted solely to the Miracles de Nostre Dame par personnages. These anonymous plays, found in a single luxury manuscript, comprise the only major corpus of dramatic works in French that have survived from the fourteenth century. They derive from a rich diversity of sources: narrative miracle accounts, saints' lives, epic chansons de geste, vernacular romances, and history. Each play is preceded by a richly detailed miniature, some two dozen include a sermon in prose, and each includes at least one rondel to be sung by the cortege accompanying the Virgin. They constitute both a collective demonstration of the fervent late-medieval devotion to the Virgin, and a substantial archive of contemporary insights into the issues of power, authority, and influence that struggled for dominance in fourteenth-century Paris. As this extraordinary collection has, in its entirety, attracted little critical attention to date, this volume will be of significant interest to scholars wishing to explore the plays in their literary context, as well as those interested in medieval drama, the Marian tradition, and the role of confraternities in fourteenth-century French culture. Languages : English, Old English, Old French.‎

Bookseller reference : 39915

‎E. Jamroziak;‎

‎Survival and Success on Medieval Borders Cistercian Houses in Medieval Scotland and Pomerania from the Twelfth to the Late Fourteenth Century,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2011 Hardback, XVI+215 p., 2 b/w tables, 5 b/w line art, 156 x 234 mm. ISBN 9782503533070.‎

‎This comparative study analyses Cistercian strategies on the northern and north-eastern frontiers of medieval Europe. Through case studies of six houses in Pomerania and Neumark (Ko?bacz, Marienwalde, and Himmelstadt) and on the Scottish-English border (Melrose, Dundrennan, and Holm Cultram), the author traces the development of social networks around these monasteries within their own regions and across borders, and explores the importance of the international Cistercian networks for communities located in these politically sensitive areas. Very different socio-economic conditions in the regions under discussion resulted in quite different strategies of land accumulation by Cistercian monasteries in Scotland and Pomerania, which in turn had a lasting impact on their relationships with their neighbours. The author also examines the role of these abbeys in wider ecclesiastical politics and in relation to the key issues of the time: church reform and the expectations of the order?s lay patrons and benefactors. In the fourteenth century, all of the abbeys experienced war, violence, and long-term instability. Their responses to these threats and difficulties are significant for our understanding of monastic strategies in hostile environments. Above all, this study shows how a Cistercian model was adapted to fit the complex political, cultural, and ethnic contexts of the southern Baltic, Northern England, and Scotland. Languages : English.‎

Bookseller reference : 39917

‎N/A;‎

‎Medieval Translator. Traduire au Moyen Age Proceedings of the International Conference of Gottingen (22-25 July 1996). Actes du Colloque international de Gottingen (22-25 juillet 1996).,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 1998 Paperback, 432 p., 1 fig. + 7 pl., 150 x 230 mm. ISBN 9782503506944.‎

‎Most of the papers in this volume consider translation in medieval England (in both Old and Middle English and Anglo-Norman), though translations into other medieval vernaculars are also represented (Icelandic, Dutch, German), as is translation of classical Greek into Latin. Most of the translations are anonymous, though major translators are also included: Cicero, King Alfred, Robert Grosseteste, Jean de Meun, Chaucer. Several papers consider the troubled times during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries in England, when a number of major translation projects were undertaken; others explore the place of translation in daily life (pro forma letters, gynaecological treatises, forged documents in support of a local shrine, texts rewritten so as to update legal references in them); another considers the importance of paper for the rapid dissemination of translated texts. Also featured prominently is the translation of different sorts of religious texts, originally variously in monastic, eremitical and mendicant milieux, and including the 'translations' for their readers of divine messages received by female visionaries. The more generous understanding of the term indicated by the use of quotation marks for these latter is also reflected in a paper considering representations of heaven and hell in visual arts. All the contributions share an awareness of translation as culturally specific - as originating in and addressing specific contexts: of; for example; nationality, politics, class and gender. Above all, translation as a new thing; with a life of its own, may provide a fuller, as well as a different, realisation of what was only partly present in its original. Languages : French.‎

Bookseller reference : 39922

‎R. Voaden, R. Tixier, T. Sanchez Roura, J.R. Rytting (eds.);‎

‎Theory and Practice of Translation in the Middle Ages,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2004 Paperback, XXVI+350 p., 150 x 230 mm. ISBN 9782503510163.‎

‎The interest of the writers of these essays in the intricacies and implications of translation in the Middle Ages,or of the translation of medieval texts in the modern period, has resulted in a diverse and intellectually stimulating volume. The papers in this volume, written in either English, French, or Spanish, approach translation from a wide variety of perspectives and offer a range of interpretations of the concept of translation. The volume contains essays ranging in time from the Anglo Saxon period to the present,and in topic from medieval recipe books to arguments in favour of women administering the sacrament. Languages studied include non-European languages as well as Latin and numerous European vernaculars as both source and target languages. As any translator or student of translation quickly becomes aware, it is impossible to divorce language from culture. All the contributors to this volume struggle with the complexities of translation as a cultural act, even when the focus would seem to be specifically linguistic. It is these complexities which lend the study of the theory and practice of translation in the Middle Ages its enduring fascination. Languages : English.‎

Bookseller reference : 39924

‎J. Jenkins, O. Bertrand (eds.);‎

‎Medieval Translator. Traduire au Moyen Age,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2007 Paperback, XXV+466 p., 2 b/w ill., 150 x 230 mm. ISBN 9782503525358.‎

‎Fundamental to all translation work, the concept of 'displacement' allows one to take into account the multiple successive states inhering in a single text, and to interpret these variations. Translation is, in effect, a form of transfer; more specifically, it involves a movement from one context to another, be it national, social, political, historical, linguistic or religious. The texts examined here illustrate, each in their unique way, the relationship between contextual change and audience. They are also the product of subtle interactions between a variety of elements, the result of which is a 'reinvention' of their respective roles and uses over time. For example, a text intending to entertain may also have educational outcomes; a book of local miracles may attract pilgrims and contribute to the economic life of a monastery; a text and its translations may at some point be appropriated for polemical purposes, while a library of translated texts founded on humanist principals may also serve political ends. Furthermore, each successive adaptation and its accompanying annotations impacts upon the tonality of a text. While this diversity of meanings may inspire some (such as the medieval poet Marie de France), it moreover raises a number of important and difficult questions for the modern translator. How, for example, does one translate the 'harmonics' underlying a series of mystical puns? The 'solution' usually involves a compromise that both enhances and undermines the translated text. This volume presents a selection of twenty-eight papers delivered at the Seventh International Conference dedicated to The Theory and Practice of Translation in the Middle Ages, which took place at the University of Paris III - Nouvelle Sorbonne in July 2004. The period covered by the texts and their translations extends from antiquity to the present day. The literary and critical breadth of these papers, as well as the rigorous interrogation of the modern translation theory, illustrates the remarkable vitality and diversity of current scholarship in this field. Au coeur de toute activite de traduction, le concept de deplacement permet de rendre compte des multiples etats successifs d'un meme texte et d'en interpreter les variations. Toute traduction est en effet une translation, c'est-a-dire un changement d'environnement, que ce dernier soit national, social, politique, historique, linguistique ou ecclesial. Les textes examines ici temoignent chacun a sa maniere des transformations qu'ils ont subies lorsque, changeant de langue, de style ou d'epoque, ils ont change de destinataires. La dynamique qui les traverse se nourrit de subtils cotoiements : un desir legitime de divertir peut fort bien s'accommoder d'une intention didactique ; un recueil de miracles locaux peut attirer des pelerins, contribuant ainsi a la vie economique d'un monastere ; un texte et ses traductions peuvent devenir l'objet d'utilisations polemiques ; se constituer en humaniste une bibliotheque de traductions peut aussi servir un dessein politique. Par ailleurs les transpositions successives et leurs gloses, comme en musique, entrainent des changements de tonalite. Ce 'surplus' de sens qu'encourage Marie de France pourra cependant se heurter a des resistances : comment par exemple preserver d'une langue a l'autre toutes les harmoniques que libere un enchainement de jeux de mots mystiques ... Ainsi l'inevitable compromis qui s'imposera au traducteur sera souvent le choix d'un enrichissement double d'une deperdition. Ce volume presente une selection des communications entendues lors du septieme colloque international consacre a la theorie et la pratique de la traduction des textes au Moyen Age qui s'est tenu a l'Universite de Paris III- Sorbonne Nouvelle en juillet 2004. La periode couverte par ces textes et leurs traductions s'etend de l'Antiquite jusqu'a nos jours. Ce sont au total vingt-huit etudes qui sont ici proposees. La richesse des domaines abordes, la haute technicite des analyses, de meme que la place faite aux questionnements de la traductologie moderne illustrent la remarquable vitalite des etudes actuelles relatives aux multiples aspects de la traduction des textes medievaux. Languages : English, French.‎

Bookseller reference : 39927

‎D. Renevey, C. Whitehead (eds.);‎

‎Medieval Translator. Traduire au Moyen Age Lost in Translation?,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2010 Paperback, XX+382 p., 38 b/w ill., 150 x 230 mm. ISBN 9782503531397.‎

‎The contributions to this volume are organised in a way that bear out the vitality of translation activity in the medieval period and the resourcefulness of modern scholarship in addressing the phenomenon of translation at large. No other period relies so heavily on this literary process to construct its cultural identity. Translations from Latin into the vernacular, or from one vernacular into another, or even from a vernacular into the Latin language, are just a few of the many forms medieval translation can take. The codification of the translation process as appropriation, transformation, or accommodation does not sufficiently emphasize the overarching curiosity and interest that motivates any translation activity. Rather, preceding the stages of appropriation and re-interpretation, it is positive inquisitiveness and openness towards linguistic and cultural difference that generate the production of a new text and the transference of culture from one sphere to another. Translation practice creates a dialogic exchange between cultures, it recognises difference and diversity, both linguistic and cultural, yet it also shapes its new product for the use of an audience or readership that is concurrently aware of the reciprocal need to participate in that exchange, in order to improve its own culture. It is that positive inquisitiveness which this volume emphasizes. The volume initially addresses the way in which translators dealt with texts from the early medieval period. It then considers the phenomenon of bilingualism and the privileged relationship that England held with the continent, especially the Italian and French literary traditions. The third part of this volume tackles the problem of fifteenth-century religious translation in England and, to a lesser extent, France, and complicates it by showing its inevitable political implications. Understood more particularly as an act of cultural transfer, translation activity can also be considered beyond the linguistic process. The fourth part of the volume deals with several instances of translations from one genre into another, and from one media into another. The contributions to this volume provide some answers to conundrums in the theory and practice of translation encountered during the medieval period. They also point to new ways of considering this literary process, and by praising diversity and difference, they suggest a less traumatic way of reading Babel than is usually implied. Languages : French, English.‎

Bookseller reference : 39929

‎J. Dor, L. Johnson, J. Wogan-Browne (eds.);‎

‎New Trends in Feminine Spirituality The Holy Women of Liege and their Impact.,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 1999 Hardback, XIV+350 p., 160 x 245 mm. ISBN 9782503507682.‎

‎The essays in this volume examine not only the beguinage religious life in the southern Low Countries, but also the impact of this movement on later medieval Sweden, England and France, the new modes of influence by women in their religious lives, and the revivals of feminine spirituality. Was there a women's movement in the thirteenth century and is such a question meaningful in its medieval context? Far from being resolved, the issue of whether women had a thirteenth-century renaissance has still decisively to unsettle the periodization of Western European history in twelfth and sixteenth-century humanist renaissances. Herbert Grundmann long ago demonstrated the participation of women in the eremitically-inspired reforming movements of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and in the production of vernacular literature. Yet it is upon his work that this volume builds, for the diocese of Liege is the key area in this development. It was from Liege that Jacques de Vitry approached the papacy to secure permission for the women of this bishopric of Liege, France and Germany to live together and to promote holiness in each other by mutual example. The seventeen contributors to this volume examine not only the beguine religious life in the southern Low Countries, but also the impact of this movement on later medieval Sweden, England and France, the new modes of influence exerted by women in their religious lives, and the revivals of feminine spirituality in the late medieval West through to contemporary North America. Research does not yet allow for a whole new synthesis, but this volume directs scholars to detailed work on specific localities and persons, with an awareness of the problems and possibilities of wider European comparisons. The contributors are: Jocelyn Wogan-Browne and Marie-Elisabeth Henneau, Anne Blonstein, Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen, Alexandra Barratt, Penny Galloway, Brenda Bolton, Bridget Morris, Marjorie Curry Woods, Carolyne Larrington, Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker, Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Katie Normington, Jane Chance, Ulrike Wiethaus, Luce Irigaray and Antonia Lacey. Languages : English.‎

Bookseller reference : 39931

‎A. Silvas;‎

‎Jutta and Hildegard: the Biographical Sources,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 1999 Hardback, XXVIII+300 p., incl. 2 maps, 2 site-plans and 3 genealogical tables, 160 x 245 mm. ISBN 9782503507798.‎

‎This book is a comprehensive collection of biographical sources, all translated from the latest critical editions, relating to Jutta of Disibodenberg (1092-1136) and Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). This book is a comprehensive collection of biographical sources, all translated from the latest critical editions, relating to Jutta of Disibodenberg (1092-1136) and Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Except for the Life of Hildegard they have never been translated before. The Life of Jutta in particular is a major source recently discovered, throwing new light on the early life of Hildegard. The contents include translations with scholarly introductions of the following documents: The Chronicles of Disibodenberg (selections); Charters of Disibodenberg; Documents of Sponheim; The Life of Jutta; Guibert's Letter 38 to Bovo (including his incomplete Life of Hildegard); the Life of Hildegard; Eight Readings to be read on the Feast of St Hildegard; Guilbert's Revision of the Life of Hildegard; Charters of Rupertsberg; Canonisation Proceedings. Languages : English.‎

Bookseller reference : 39933

‎J. Wogan-Browne, R. Voaden, A. Diamond, A. Hutchison, C. Meale, L. Johnson (eds.);‎

‎Medieval Women - Texts and Contexts in Late Medieval Britain Essays in Honour of Felicity Riddy,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2000 Hardback, XVI+436 p., 160 x 245 mm. ISBN 9782503509792.‎

‎Profiting from the development of newly flexible models of gender, literacy, the political, the social, and the domestic, this volume on medieval women considers the broadest implications for the study of medieval culture without simply re-absorbing medieval women into invisibility. In this themed collection of 24 articles by literary, historical and archaeological scholars, the study of medieval women is confidently and freshly mainstream. Profiting from the development of newly flexible models of gender, literacy, the political, the social, and the domestic, the volume is non-separatist, exploratory both of new source materials and new readings of established sources, and able to consider the broadest implications for the study of medieval culture without simply re-absorbing medieval women into invisibility. Grouped under the headings of matters of reading, of conduct and place, the essays move from legal cases to actual buildings and conceptions of the household to conduct books and chronicles to romances and saints' lives to the medieval unconscious and back again, exemplifying the mature interdisciplinarity of current work on medieval women. Languages : English.‎

Bookseller reference : 39935

‎N. Watson, J. Jenkins (eds.);‎

‎Writings of Julian of Norwich 'A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman' and 'A Revelation of Love',‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2006 Hardback, XII+474 p., 6 b/w ill., 175 x 255 mm. ISBN 9782503522968.‎

‎This edition contains two texts by Julian of Norwich (c. 1343-c. 1416): A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and A Revelation of Love. Julian of Norwich (c. 1343-c. 1416) is the earliest woman writer of English we know about. Although she described herself as 'a simple creature unlettered', Julian is now widely recognized as one of the great speculative theologians of the Middle Ages, whose thinking about God as love has made a permanent contribution to the tradition of Christian belief. This book presents a much needed new edition of Julian's writings in Middle English, one that makes possible the serious reading and study of her thought not just for specialists but for all medievalists. This edition includes separate texts of both Julian's works, A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and A Revelation of Love, with modern punctuation and partly regularized spelling; a second, analytic edition of A Vision printed underneath the text of A Revelation to facilitate study of the relationship between the works; facing-page explanatory notes, with translations of difficult words and phrases, cross-references to other parts of the text, and citations of biblical and other sources; an appendix of life-records and early responses to Julian's thought; and an analytic bibliography. The volume also provides an accessible introduction to Julian's life and writings. Languages : English, Middle English.‎

Bookseller reference : 40027

‎A. B. Mulder-Bakker (ed.);‎

‎Mary of Oignies Mother of Salvation,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2007 Hardback, XII+260 pages., 1 b/w ill., 160 x 240 mm. ISBN 9782503517032.‎

‎This volume contains translatiuons of all of the relevant medieval sources on Mary of Oignies (1177-1213), was one of the first holy women to transform religious life in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Mary of Oignies (1177-1213) was one of the first holy women to transform religious life in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Living as a beguine and a free anchoress she guided those who came to speak with her, both high clerics and common people alike. In the oral world of medieval Christianity one disregarded her word at considerable risk. This volume contains all of the relevant medieval sources on Mary of Oignies, translated by Margot King and Hugh Feiss OSB. They include: the Life written by her confessor, James of Vitry, and the Supplement thereof by Thomas of Cantimpre; the liturgical office of her feast-day; and the 'History of the Priory of Oignies'. Also included are an introductory essay about her life and significance, written by Anneke Mulder-Bakker; a study about Mary as a 'friend to the saints' by Brenda Bolton; and the manuscript transmission of her Life, by Suzan Folkerts. The volume therefore provides a comprehensive 'companion' to Mary of Oignies and her wider significance in medieval and modern scholarship. Languages : English.‎

Bookseller reference : 40029

‎S. Hollis (ed.);‎

‎Writing the Wilton Women Goscelin's Legend of Edith and Liber confortatorius,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2004 Hardback, XII+454 p., 160 x 240 mm. ISBN 9782503514369.‎

‎This volume contains translations of Goscelin of Saint-Bertin's Liber confortatorius and life of St Edith, with new essays about his life and work. This collection of essays and translations brings together two closely related works by an important but little studied late eleventh-century author, Goscelin of Saint-Bertin. His Liber confortatorius (the earliest work of spiritual instruction for a female recluse known to have been written in England) is addressed to Eve. Goscelin, who may have been a chaplain at Wilton, had been Eve?s spiritual mentor since her childhood. Eve, however, left Wilton in her early twenties to become a recluse in Angers without even informing him of her plans, and in the Liber confortatorius, written in the form of an extended letter (c. 1082), Goscelin attempts to reassert and reconfigure their former close relationship. His account of the life and translation of St Edith, who was a member of the Wilton community until her death (in c. 986) at the age of twenty-three, was commissioned by the Wilton nuns and based on their oral report. Completed in c. 1080, the Legend gives a portrait of Edith and her mother Abbess Wulfthryth, and an account of the community?s posthumous relationship with its saint up until the time that Goscelin began work on it. It is (with the exception of Goscelin?s Life of Wulfhild of Barking) our only near contemporary narrative account of a late Anglo-Saxon women?s community. The essays in this collection present a closely integrated account of some of the most central and striking aspects of the two texts. The essays and accompanying translations are the result of a collaborative research project undertaken at The University of Auckland. Languages : English.‎

Bookseller reference : 40031

‎A. B. Mulder-Bakker (ed.);‎

‎Seeing and Knowing Women and Learning in Medieval Europe, 1200-1550,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2004 Hardback, X+205 p., 1 b/w ill., 160 x 240 mm. ISBN 9782503514482.‎

‎The studies within this volume apply insights gained from gender studies to re-consider the way knowledge and learning was transmitted in medieval Europe 1200-1550. Traditional scholarship has largely concentrated on the clerical and academic context of conventional learning. It tended to focus on the contents and methods of formal education, as well as on a small group of educational institutions from which women were excluded. In this volume, authors consider how learning was transmitted outside the schools, in particular within women's communities. They raise a range of questions: how was knowledge transmitted in an oral context, what varieties of knowledge were available to communities of women? What kinds of learning are characteristic of such communities? What techniques did women develop to preserve and transmit their knowledge and how was it valorized both within their communities, and by 'authoritative' outsiders? Under what circumstances could women themselves gain authority in passing on knowledge to a wider audience? Languages : English.‎

Bookseller reference : 40033

‎J. Hamburger, G. Signori (eds.);‎

‎Catherine of Siena The Creation of a Cult,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2013 Hardback, approx. X+353 p., 30 b/w ill., 2 b/w line art, 156 x 234 mm. ISBN 9782503544151.‎

‎Focusing on the critical case of Catherine of Siena (d. 1380), the essays in this volume consider the role of texts, translations and images in various media in constructing and disseminating the cult of a saint in the late Middle Ages. How does one construct a saint and promote a cult beyond the immediate community in which he or she lived? Italian mendicants had accumulated a good deal of experience in dealing with this politically explosive question. The posthumous description of the life of Francis of Assisi (d. 1226) written by the Master General of the order, Bonaventure (d. 1274), could be regarded as paradigmatic in this regard. A similarly massive intervention in the production and diffusion of a cult can be observed in the case of the Dominican tertiary, Catherine of Siena (d. 1380), who in many respects (e.g. the imitation of Christ and her stigmatization) ?competed? with Francis of Assisi. Raymund of Capua (d. 1399), the Master General of the order, established the foundation for the dissemination of the cult by writing the authoritative life, but it was only the following generation that succeeded in establishing and disseminating the cult on a broad basis by means of copies, adaptations, and translations. The question of how to make a cult, which stands at the center of this volume, thus presents itself in terms of the challenge of rewriting a legend for different audiences. The various contributions consider the role, not only of texts in many different vernaculars (Czech, English, French, German, and Italian), but also of images, whether separately or in connection with one another. Languages : English.‎

Bookseller reference : 40035

‎C. P. Collette;‎

‎Performing Polity Women and Agency in the Anglo-French Tradition, 1385-1620,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2006 Hardback, VI+218 p., 160 x 240 mm. ISBN 9782503518008.‎

‎This volume draws on political and gender theories to provide fresh readings of a variety of texts centred in the power and agency of women during the period 1385 to 1620. Reading a variety of texts centred in the power and agency of women during the period 1385 to 1620, this book examines changing ideals of gender within the context of changing ideologies of governance and polity. Together the essays that comprise this book lay out three lines of thinking about women and polity: that the ideology of late medieval gender roles articulated in Anglo-French texts of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries outlined important roles for women?s voice and agency in supporting the larger polity as well as the smaller household; that the acceptance and the value of those roles diminished as models of polity in both Church and State in England changed in the early modern period; that to see this change merely in terms of change in expectations of gender roles is to miss the vital link between the status of women and the political construction of individual relationship to authority. Woman is the site on which society delineates the degree of freedom and independence it will tolerate in the political subject. The attention directed to women?s roles in the plethora of woman-centred stories, courtesy books, prayer books, sermons and tracts in the period 1385-1620 is an index to shifting alignments of power that replaced medieval models of partnership and co-operation with models of obedience. Languages : English, French.‎

Bookseller reference : 40037

‎S. Kocher;‎

‎Allegories of Love in Marguerite Porete's 'Mirror of Simple Souls',‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2009 Hardback, X+218 p., 160 x 240 mm. ISBN 9782503519029.‎

‎This volume analyses the role of allegory in Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls, the oldest known mystical work written in French, and the only surviving medieval text by a woman writer executed as a heretic. Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls, dating probably to the 1290s, is the oldest known mystical work written in French, and the only surviving medieval text by a woman writer executed as a heretic. This volume analyses its use of interconnected allegories that describe the soul's approach toward God in terms of human social relationships. These include romantic love between lovers in same-sex and mixed-sex pairs, relations among people of differing social rank such as servants and nobles, and rich and poor engaged in economic transactions such as taxation and gift-giving. Gender, rank, and exchange serve as remarkably versatile allegories for spiritual states. Porete uses comparison as an organizing principle that underlies her supple and creative use of allegory, personification, parables, metaphors, similes, proverbs, and glosses. The theologian invites her audience to cross boundaries among literal and figurative registers of meaning, in ways that are emblematic of the soul's ultimate leap toward the divine. Porete's social allegories, the author contends, can provide us with valuable evidence of a medieval thinker's conceptions of God, gender, language, and human capacity for change. Languages : English, Middle French.‎

Bookseller reference : 40039

‎A. B. Mulder-Bakker (ed.);‎

‎Living Saints of the Thirteenth Century The Lives of Yvette, Anchoress of Huy; Juliana of Cornillon, Author of the Corpus Christi Feast; and Margaret the Lame, Anchoress of Magdeburg,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2012 Hardback, IX+416 p., 156 x 234 mm. ISBN 9782503520773.‎

‎This volume presents translations, with accompanying introductions, of the Lives of three thirteenth-century figures: Yvette of Huy, Margaret the Lame of Magdeburg, and the anchoress Juliana of Cornillon. This volume presents the Lives of three women of the thirteenth century, all written by contemporaries. In the late Middle Ages, almost every town in Northern Europe had its own anchoress, who would keep in touch with the citizens through a window looking onto the churchyard or through a door and window looking into the church (as shown in the cover illustration). Such women, along with the beguines, Cistercian nuns and monks, reform-minded clergy, and devout laywomen, formed what Barbara Newman has termed 'close-knit networks of spiritual friendship that easily crossed the boundaries of gender, religious status, and even language'. This volume presents the lives of two recluses, Yvette of Huy, whose life was recorded by her spiritual friend, the Premonstratensian Hugh of Floreffe, and Margaret the Lame of Magdeburg, whose lessons were recorded by her confessor, the Dominican John of Magdeburg (introduced and translated by Jo Ann McNamara, and Gertrud Jaron Lewis and Tilman Lewis respectively). The anchoress Eve of Saint-Martin was an author herself. Her memoir in French on her friend Juliana's and her own labour for the new Feast of Corpus Christi forms the basis of the Latin Life of Juliana of Cornillon (introduced and translated by Barbara Newman). Languages : English, Latin.‎

Bookseller reference : 40041

‎J. Brown;‎

‎Three Women of Liege A Critical Edition of and Commentary on the Middle English Lives of Elizabeth of Spalbeek, Christina Mirabilis, and Marie d'Oignies,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2009 Hardback, VIII+350 pages ., 160 x 240 mm. ISBN 9782503524719.‎

‎Elizabeth of Spalbeek, Christina Mirabilis, and Marie d'Oignies were three of the famous late twelfth-/early thirteenth-century 'holy women' from the region of Brabant and Liege: their life stories (written in Latin by Philip of Clairvaux, Thomas of Cantimpre, and Jacques of Vitry) were read throughout later medieval Europe, and Margery Kempe modelled her Book, and her life, upon Marie?s. The Latin lives of these beguine saints were not well known in England, but they were translated into English in the fifteenth century, and survive together in a single manuscript: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 114. Three Women of Liege is the first critical edition of these Lives, which represent some of the only evidence of English interest in continental female mysticism. This edition includes an introduction that discusses the role of the manuscript in England and three essays that analyze the roles of these beguines in their Low Countries home of Liege along with the English reception of their lives. The edition itself is also extensively annotated and glossed, making it accessible to any scholar of English medieval literature. Languages : English, Middle English.‎

Bookseller reference : 40043

‎E. Vanneufville;‎

‎Heliand. L'evangile de la Mer du Nord,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2008 Paperback, 488 p., 140 x 210 mm. ISBN 9782503528663.‎

‎Ce poeme germanique de pres de 6000 vers a ete compose entre 822 et 840, vraisemblablement vers 825, dans les premieres annees du regne de Louis le Pieux, par un erudit chretien, sans doute compagnon du Frison Liudger. Ce dernier etait le continuateur de l'oeuvre, en pays frison et saxon, des evangelisateurs anglo-saxons du VIIIeme siecle, dont Willehad, lequel avait succede a Boniface, tue en 754 a Dokkum alors qu'il poursuivait l'evangelisation entreprise par Willibrord. La langue utilisee, qualifiee de Vieux-Saxon par les specialistes, etait donc tout a fait familiere a son auteur. Celui-ci, soucieux d'assurer le succes de l'Evangile dans les coeurs a la suite de la dure conquete par Charlemagne de la Frise Occidentale et du pays saxon, usa d'une langue connue des peuples riverains de la Mer du Nord au debut du IXeme siecle. Surtout, il apporta au texte de l'Evangile, base sur des manuscrits et travaux provenant de Fulda, abbaye fondee par Boniface, des adaptations d'ordre sociologique propres a susciter l'adhesion des peuples rudes et fiers de ces contrees nordiques. En ce sens, le Heliand n'est pas seulement une reprise de l'Evangile : il est aussi le document particulier par lequel les evangelisateurs des pays riverains de la Mer du Nord font entrer le lecteur dans la societe des nouveaux convertis d'entre Weser, Ems et Lauwers, fraichement vaincus et soumis par les Francs. La presente traduction, en prose, est accompagnee du texte germanique tel qu'edite a Halle en 1878 par Eduard Sievers, et de commentaires et annotations. Elle est precedee d'une introduction historique et d'un lexique de termes empruntes au Heliand et compares a quatre langues germaniques proches, avec traduction en francais. Languages : French.‎

Bookseller reference : 40066

‎B. Bakhouche, F. Fauquier, B. Perez-Jean;‎

‎Picatrix Un traite de magie medieval,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2003 Paperback, 388 p., 145 x 210 mm. ISBN 9782503510682.‎

‎Le Picatrix est l'ouvrage emblematique d'une epoque ou convergent dans l'Espagne d'Alphonse le Sage les cultures arabes, juives et chretiennes. Temoignage exceptionnel des ? traductions a quatre mains ? dans cette aire culturelle, l'ouvrage se pose explicitement comme une traduction d'un original arabe ' le Ghayat Al-Hakim ', mais ne saurait cependant se reduire a cette seule dimension : le traducteur - voire les traducteurs, tant le mystere demeure autour de la figure des auteurs - retranche ou ajoute a son modele. Par ailleurs, la magie constitue un des domaines privilegies des traducteurs de l'epoque. Elle presente ici un caractere a la fois scientifique, philosophique et religieux : generalites sur les connaissances prealables indispensables a qui veut agir sur le monde et les hommes, fabrication des talismans, exploitation de tous les regnes - mineral, animal et vegetal -, prieres aux planetes, donnees astrologiques, physiques et philosophiques. L'importance de la philosophie est posee d'emblee des le debut du traite, de meme que les prolegomenes de nature astronomique, et la pratique magique s'inscrit dans un cadre philosophico-religieux tres particulier : hermetisme et neoplatonisme cherchent a s'octroyer une certaine legitimite qui ne mette pas en danger l'orthodoxie religieuse. Enfin, les echos du Picatrix au Moyen Age et a la Renaissance temoignent de l'interet des intellectuels de l'epoque pour l'ouvrage. Si la presente edition offre quelque attrait pour un lecteur moderne, c'est qu'elle permet de verifier l'idee de Claude Levi-Strauss selon laquelle la magie n'est pas seulement un reflet de la science, mais se presente aussi comme un systeme complet, une methode de pensee, de croyance et de connaissances. Languages : French.‎

Bookseller reference : 40069

‎Guibert de Nogent;‎

‎Geste de Dieu par les Francs Histoire de la premiere croisade,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 1998 Paperback, 328 p., 130 x 210 mm. ISBN 9782503507330.‎

‎La premiere croisade jeta sur les routes de l'Orient, a la suite du concile de Clermont, des milliers d'hommes, de femmes et d'enfants de toutes conditions. Elle aboutit a la prise de Jerusalem le 15 juillet 1099, et a la creation d'Etats latins en Terre sainte. Cette prodigieuse aventure suscita de nombreuses chroniques. Celle de l'abbe Guibert de Nogent, ecrite vers 1108-1109, tranche par la personnalite de son auteur. Ce n'est pas un temoignage, mais le point de vue d'un partisan passionne de la croisade, qui chercha a faire oeuvre d'historien en prenant ses distances pour mieux comprendre les evenements, tout en comparant ses sources afin d'en degager la verite, et en recueillant les souvenirs de participants. A ses yeux, l'inspirateur et le chef de l'expedition fut Dieu lui-meme, dirigeant jusqu'au bout les serviteurs qu'il s'etait choisis. D'ou le titre, difficilement traduisible: Les hauts faits de Dieu par l'intermediaire des Francs. Sa prose melee de vers, impregnee de reminiscences bibliques, prend souvent le ton de l'epopee. Il trace des portraits parfois elogieux, souvent cruels, des principaux acteurs. Doue d'un grand talent de conteur, il s'identifie aux croises dans leurs moments de joie et d'angoisse, dans les famines comme dans les triomphes. Proclamant la gloire de ses compatriotes avec la partialite d'un historien de son temps, il apparait dans ce texte comme l'un des meilleurs narrateurs du Moyen Age latin. Languages : French.‎

Bookseller reference : 40077

‎B. Leroy;‎

‎Don Juan Manuel de Castille Le "Livre des Etats" de don Juan Manuel de Castille Un essai de philosophie politique vers 1330,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2005 Paperback, 281 p., 140 x 210 mm. ISBN 9782503517810.‎

‎Vers 1300, le prince castillan Don Juan Manuel adresse ce Livre des Etats a un prelat, mais surtout a toute la Castille. Sur le mode d'un enseignement donne a un jeune prince, ce livre est une longue reflexion sur la souverainete, sur les offices et sur les devoirs des sujets; c'est aussi un temoignage de la vie spirituelle de ce temps, marquee par la predication dominicaine. L'ouvrage revele la culture, la vie religieuse, comme toute l'ambition politique d'un grand noble du debut du XIVe siecle. Languages : French.‎

Bookseller reference : 40080

‎J. Richard;‎

‎Au-dela de la Perse et de l'Armenie. L'Orient latin et la decouverte de l'Asie interieure Quelques textes inegalement connus aux origines de l'alliance entre Francs et Mongols (1145-1262),‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2005 Paperback, 206 p., 140 x 210 mm. ISBN 9782503517124.‎

‎L'apparition des Mongols, surgissant dans les premieres decennies du XIIIe siecle des profondeurs de l'Asie, a change le destin de l'Europe orientale. Elle a en meme temps ouvert aux Europeens de l'Ouest les routes de l'Asie. Depuis la fin de l'epoque romaine, des peuples venus des steppes s'etaient succedes, penetrant a plusieurs reprises, plus ou moins profondement dans l'espace europeen ou plusieurs d'entre eux s'etaient implantes. Les Occidentaux ne s'etaient guere preoccupes de s'informer das causes de ces migrations et de leur llieu d'origine. La premiere campagne mongole en 1222 n'avait pas inquiete l'Occident. Il en fut autrement de la seconde, pendant laquelle les "Tartares" arriverent en Hongrie en 1237 et poursuivirent leur avance en direction de l'Ouest; mais cette menace s'estompa vers 1260. Il fallut pour que les choses changent, que le danger se rapproche des terres franques du royaume latin d'Orient. C'est lorsque les Mongols menacent Antioche, en 1243, que l'on commence a s'emouvoir. Et c'est alors qu'apparaissent les ambassades, qui seront en meme temps des voyages de decouverte. Ce sont ces relations de voyage, les unes developpees, les autres tres breves, qui sont presentees dans ce recueil. On y lira les temoignages suivants: l'emergence de l'image du Pretre Jean chez Otton de Freising, la Relation de David (en deux versions), les renseignements donnes a Mathieu Paris par Andre de Longjumeau, l'Histoire des Tartares de Simon de Saint-Quentin, des lettres du gouverneur de Perse Eljigidei ou celle de Hulegu a Saint Louis, ou celle du connetable d'Armenie a des cousins francs. Tous ces documents anterieurs aux voyages de Marco Polo nous offrent un apercu inedit en traduction francaise de la facon dont les occidentaux ont essaye de s'informer sur la civilisation et le monde mongols dans la deuxieme moitie du XIIIe siecle. Languages : French.‎

Bookseller reference : 40088

‎Jean de Haute-Seille;‎

‎Dolopathos, ou le roi et les sept sages,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2000 Paperback, 238 p., 13 x 21 cm. ISBN 9782503509501.‎

‎L'histoire du roi et des sept sages occupe dans le panorama de la litterature medievale une place similaire a celle que l'on peut attribuer aujourd'hui au celebre recueil des Mille et une nuits. Elle tire son origine d'un recueil de contes largement repandu dans les litteratures arabe, grecque, syriaque et perse, le Livre de Sindibad. Selon la mode orientale, elle propose, sous le titre generique de Roman des Sept Sages de Rome, une intrigue romanesque dont le principal interet reside dans la presence de recits enchasses (procede utilise plus tard par Boccace dans son Decameron et par Chaucer dans ses Canterbury Tales). Le recit transmis par Jean, moine de l'abbaye cistercienne de Haute-Seille vers 1200, se deroule sous l'empire, a Rome, a Constantinople ou en Sicile, dans un decor domine par les merveilles du monde antique. C'est dans ce cadre que se deroulent les aventures du roi Dolopathos, de la reine et du prince heritier, meles dans une intrigue ou le courage et la vertu finissent, apres bien des peripeties, a triompher de la ruse et la seduction. Les auteurs sont Maitres de conference a l'Universite de Geneve, specialistes de la litterature d'exempla et des contes populaires medievaux. Languages : French.‎

Bookseller reference : 40105

‎C. Munier;‎

‎Hildebert de Lavardin Vie de sainte Marie l'Egyptienne,‎

‎Turnhout, Brepols, 2007 Paperback, 286 p., 14 x 21 cm. ISBN 9782503526447.‎

‎Hildebert de Lavardin, eveque du Mans (1096-1125), puis archeveque de Tours (1125-1133), l'auteur de la Vita beate Marie Egyptiace, dont nous donnons ici la premiere traduction francaise, fut l'une des figures litteraires les plus importantes du Moyen Age: pendant plusieurs generations ses vers furent lus avec plaisir dans toute l'Europe occidentale; ses lettres servirent de modeles dans les ecoles cathedrales et monastiques, pour leur elegance et leur noble distinction, et ses traites de philosophie morale et de droit canonique devinrent des manuels universellement apprecies. La legende de Marie l'Egyptienne, compte parmi les figures du Moyen Age les plus connues et les plus venerees de celles qui illustrent l'influence salutaire de Notre-Dame sur les plus grands pecheurs; elle a contribue pour une part nullement negligeable au developpement du culte marial qui prend son essor definitif en Occident partir de l'epoque carolingienne. Marie l'Egyptienne n'est pas seulement l'heroine d'une parabole ? evangelique ? , mais le personnage-cle d'un drame de la plus brulante actualite : non seulement elle incarne en sa personne l'aspiration du monde feminin a rejoindre le mouvement des nouveaux ermites de l'epoque d'Hildebert, mais elle intervient, en sa qualite d'ermite, pour donner des conseils au monde monastique. Le texte prend place dans la grande discussion de l'epoque d'Hildebert sur la hierarchie des vocations monastiques et leurs merites respectifs, et sur les origines eremitiques du monachisme chretien. Languages : French.‎

Bookseller reference : 40107