Text & Manuscript in Medieval Spain: Papers from the King's College Colloquium by David Hook (review)

Abstract

MLRy 99.4, 2004 1073 [. . .] and in the long shadow cast by Augusta's presence' (p. 182). These women's silence is rarely broken, the one exception being Ada in La coscienza di Zeno, and Minghelli is excellent in her analysis of Ada's speech, which dominates the ending of the chapter 'Storia di un'associazione commerciale'. The author is equally admirable in her witty perceptions of the seducer-pedagogue-philanthropist stance adopted by many of Svevo's male characters, not excluding Ettore Schmitz himself. The male relationships replicate that between the 'uomo di abbozzo' and the mammoth : the 'Finished and Unfinished Men' (p. 165). Thus Alfonso lives in the shadow ofthe cynical Macario, Emilio in Balli's shadow, and Zeno has to contend not only with the shadows cast by Guido, virtuoso violinist, womanizer, and entrepreneur, but with those of his father,numerous father figures,and the many doctors whom he consults, not least of all Dr S. Each of these attachments is examined by Minghelli with unfailing insight drawing on a wide range of critical material, from Freudian to feminist. This volume offersa rich and rewarding reading which will be welcomed by Svevo scholars. University of Kent Elizabeth Schachter Text & Manuscript in Medieval Spain: Papers from the King's College Colloquium. Ed. by David Hook. (King's College London Hispanic Series, 5) London: King's College, Department of Spanish & Spanish-American Studies. 2000. viii + 2o8pp. ?15. ISBN 0-9527552-6-2. The seven essays in this volume are versions of papers delivered at various colloquia on medieval Spain held in King's College London over the period 1992-2000. Each is a serious and scholarly contribution, and collectively the seven represent the product of the impetus to research into medieval Spanish texts and manuscripts provided by David Hook. Furthermore, together they constitute a recognition that the scrutiny of texts and manuscripts is as valid an intellectual discipline as the traditional one of literary criticism, and is complementary to it. There is no sterility in the collection under discussion, but rather the undercurrent of a vital and pervasive enthusiasm. Hook's study of a Phillipps manuscript of the Leges antiquae regumwisigothorumis bibliographical scholarship ofthe highest standard. The history ofthe recension ofthe manuscript in question (Phillipps 2322), an eighteenth-century copy executed in the Castilian monastery of San Millan de la Cogolla, is discussed in detail, with appendices devoted to a description of the manuscript and a list of headings not present in the tenth-century codex of the Real Academia de la Historia in Madrid. This chapter demonstrates what an extraordinarily abundant source for Hispanism the Phillipps collection must have been. Scholars owe Hook a debt of gratitude for realizing the potential of this particular manuscript, and for bringing it to the attention of others. One can only hope that more of the Phillipps 'iceberg' may be revealed in due course. The two studies on the recensions of Berceo's manuscripts call for a reconsideration of our understanding of the textual traditions. Anthony Lappin concludes that the Loores de la Virgen were 'conceived as being part of the Milagros de Nuestra Senora' (p. 42), although Juan Carlos Bayo rejects this hypothesis, which was not known to him as he was preparing his revision of the stemma for the Milagros. Both scholars evaluate the importance of the eighteenth-century copyists; Bayo goes into greater detail, and explores palaeographical evidence, whereas Lappin addresses the consequences for editors of his findings. While being robust and forthright in the views he expresses, Lappin corrects other scholars' works without belittling their scholarship. He provides diagrams 'in a rather cubist style' (pp. 38-40). These are at firstsight cryptic. Further elucidation would help, particularly as one recognizes that 1074 Reviews reconstruction of the lost folios has important repercussions forhis argument. Bayo's study posits the existence of a lost autograph original, and proposes what is rather a complex recension for the Milagros. The debate, as Bayo recognizes, is ongoing. These two extensively researched and carefully considered studies plough a similar furrow. Taken together, their contribution to Berceo scholarship is indisputable. The hypothesis fluently expounded by Andrew Beresford in 'The Vida de Santa Maria Egipciaca and...