Oxford Handbook of Medieval Latin Literature

The twenty-eight essays in this handbook represent the best current thinking in the study of Latin language and literature in the Middle Ages. Contributing authors--both senior scholars and gifted younger thinkers among them--not only illuminate the field as traditionally defined but also offer fresh insights into broader questions of literary history, cultural interaction, world literature, and language in history and society. Their studies vividly illustrate the field's complexities on a wide range of topics, including canonicity, literary styles and genres, and the materiality of manuscript culture. At the same time, they suggest future possibilities for the necessarily provisional and open-ended work essential to the pursuit of medieval Latin studies. The overall approach of The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Latin Literature makes this volume an essential resource for students of the ancient world interested in the prolonged after-life of the classical period's cultural complexes, for medieval historians, for scholars of other medieval literary traditions, and for all those interested in delving more deeply into the fascinating more-than-millennium-long passage between the ancient Mediterranean world and what we consider modernity.

Ralph J. Hexter is Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor at the University of California, Davis. He is also Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature. David Townsend is Professor of Medieval Studies and English at the University of Toronto.

- Contributors - Preface, Ralph Hexter and David Townsend - I. Framing the Field: Problematics and Provocations - 1. The Current Questions and Future Prospects of Medieval Latin Studies, David Townsend - 2. Canonicity, Ralph Hexter - II. Latinity as Cultural Capital - 3. Latin as an Acquired Language, Carin Ruff - 4. Latin as a Language of Authoritative Tradition, Ryan Szpiech - 5. The Cultures and Dynamics of Translation into Medieval Latin, Thomas E. Burman - 6. Regional Variation: The Case of Scandinavian Latin, Karsten Frijs-Jensen - 7. The Idea of Latinity, Nicholas Watson - III. Manuscript Culture and the Materiality of Latin Texts - 8. Readers and Manuscripts, Andrew Taylor - 9. Gloss and Commentary, Rita Copeland - 10. Location, Location, Location: Geography, Knowledge, and the Creation of Medieval Latin Textual Communities, Ralph Hexter - IV. Styles and Genre - 11. Prose Style, Gregory Hays - 12. Verse Style, Jean-Yves Tilliette [translated from French] - 13. Crossing Generic Boundaries, A. G. Rigg - 14. Textual Fluidity and the Interaction of Latin and the Vernacular Languages, Brian Murdoch - V. Systems of Knowledge - 15. Martianus Capella and the Liberal Arts, Andrew Hicks - 16. Mythography, Winthrop Wetherbee - 17. Biblical Thematics: The Story of Samson in Medieval Literary Discourse, Greti Dinkova-Bruun - 18. The Language, Form and Performance of Monophonic Liturgical Chants, Susan Boynton and Margot Fassler - VI. Medieval Latin and the Fashioning of the Self - 19. Regimens of Schooling, Mia Münster-Swendsen - 20. Gender, Sylvia Parsons and David Townsend - 21. Sex and Sexuality, Larry Scanlon - 22. Medieval Latin Spirituality: Seeking Divine Presence, Anne Clark - 23. Modes of Self-Writing From Antiquity to the Later Middle Ages, Gur Zak - VII. Periodizations - 24. Late Antiquity, New Departures, Marco Formisano - 25. Renaissances and Revivals, Monika Otter - 26. Humanism and Continuities in the Transition to the Early Modern, Ronald Witt - 27. Medieval Latin Texts in the Age of Printing, Paolo Chiesa [translated from Italian] - 28. Medieval Latin in Modern English: Translations from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day, Jan Ziolkowski - Chronology of Medieval Latin Authors - Index