Anglo-Saxon Scholars Research Articles

Understanding the Church’s Past: Usuard’s Martyrology in Tenth-and Eleventh-century England

The ninth century witnessed the compilation of martyrologies in both the Latin Frankish world of the Carolingians and the vernacular world of Anglo-Saxon Wessex. Yet this phenomenon has been treated very differently by modern scholars of these two cultures. For Carolingianists these martyrologies represent a public, shared text, one which was read aloud in chapter as part of the daily life of religious communities across the Frankish kingdoms, and which, as Rosamond McKitterick has suggested, should be viewed as contributing to those communities’ understanding of their Christian past. For recent Anglo-Saxon scholars, the vernacular text known as the Old English Martyrology is rather a work compiled to support private, devotional reading, and better understood as an encyclopaedia of arcane information. This article investigates the reception of one Frankish compilation in tenth- and eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon England, that of Usuard, and compares it to that of the Old English Martyrology. It asks how far both texts should in fact be viewed as historical texts. It concludes with a case study of how they were both read in one late eleventh-century community, Exeter, and suggests that this community, at least, was able to maintain two overlapping but different views of its past and its place in wider Church history.

James M. Buchanan and the Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice: extending the Italian tradition of public finance

The Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice began publication in 1983 under the title Economia delle scelte pubbliche/Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice, changing to Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice/Economia delle scelte pubbliche in 1997. Under either name, the Journal reflected the founding editor’s (Domenico da Empoli) desire to amplify and extend the Italian orientation toward public finance that Antonio de Viti de Marco (1888) set in motion. It’s fitting that James Buchanan’s (1983) ‘The public choice perspective’ opened the Journal, for Buchanan (1960) was instrumental in promoting awareness among Anglo-Saxon scholars of the Italian tradition that da Empoli sought to carry forward in establishing the JPFPC. With da Empoli’s death in December 2016, the Journal is now proceeding with a new editorial team (Emma Galli and Giampaolo Garzarelli) and a new publisher (Bristol University Press). The Journal’s orientation, however, remains unchanged, in that it continues to welcome contributions within public finance and public choice within the broad tradition outlined here. In this essay, I mark this change in editorial regime by reviewing how Buchanan’s orientation toward public finance continues and extends the tradition that de Viti (1888) began.

Mapping the Impact of ISIS Propaganda Narratives : Evidences from a Qualitative Analysis in Italy and France

The increasingly worsening threat posed by terrorism in Europe has led the media to focus their attention on the issue of violent radicalisation. Although this phenomenon includes different forms of violent extremism – from extreme right-wing movements to catholic movements, eco-terrorists, etc. – today the question of violent radicalisation is mainly related to Jihadism, and ISIS is the most recent and, from the perspective of its media use, intriguing expression. However, radicalisation is a debatable topic whose dramatic consequences invite a deeper analysis of both driving and enabling factors. Within theoretical debate, there is the well-known querelle between Oliver Roy (2016) and Gilles Kepel (2016), two French authors who underlined several factors. These include ISIS’ ability to persuade its martyrs, thanks to a skilful use of aesthetic codes of modernity to spread the underlying principles of an obscurantist interpretation, or the role of Salafism in enlarging the gap between the second and third generation immigrants and western societies, those considered the manifestation of moral and spiritual decadence. Furthermore, social relations established on Internet, group dynamics and the inclination to crime have been interpreted by Anglo-Saxon scholars as enabling factors (Neumman, 2013, 2015, Berger & Stern 2015; Klausen 2015). The essay presents the key findings of qualitative research carried out within the EU SAFFRON Project. The empirical research included seven focus groups in Italy and France which involved 47 individuals: 17 experts or qualified testimonials and 30 young people (age between 16 and 32) selected among second and third generation immigrants, political refugees, university students from Iraq, Pakistan, Senegal and Iran, secondary school students, and Italian youths converted to the Muslim faith. The theme of motivations or driving factors has been analysed using a participatory approach aimed at studying in depth the main rhetoric and narratives of online propaganda spread by the ISIS organisation for the purpose of recruitment. Research findings identified some specific factors as crucial: for example, the role of social media considered by young people as reliable sources of information versus mainstream media, which described as responsible for the dissemination of false stereotypes related to Islam; the theme of pseudo-heroism as promoted by skilful storytelling techniques; the patriotism which drives young immigrants and refugees to “take a position” in relation to conflicts in their countries of origin; and even existential and identity problems – almost always intertwined with the religious dimension – that apparently find an easy and immediate solution in the choice to radicalise.

James M. Buchanan and the Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice: Extending the Italian Tradition of Public Finance

The Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice began publication in 1983 under the title Economia delle scelte pubbliche, changing to its present title in 1998. Under either name, the Journal reflected the founding editor’s (Domenico da Empoli) desire to amplify and extend the Italian orientation toward public finance that Antonio de Viti de Marco (1888) set in motion. It’s fitting that James Buchanan’s (1983) “The Public Choice Perspective” opened the Journal, for Buchanan (1960) was instrumental in promoting awareness among Anglo-Saxon scholars of the Italian tradition that da Empoli sought to carry forward in establishing the JPFPC. With da Empoli’s death in December 2016, the Journal is now proceeding with a new editorial team (Emma Galli and Giampaolo Garzarelli) and a new publisher (Bristol University Press). The Journal’s orientation, however, remains unchanged, in that it continues to welcome contributions within public finance and public choice within the broad tradition outlined here. In this essay, I mark this change in editorial regime by reviewing how Buchanan’s orientation toward public finance continues and extends the tradition that de Viti (1888) began.

“No es sólo una cuestión de lenguaje”: lo inaudible de los estudios feministas latino-americanos en el mundo académico anglosajón

The central thesis of this paper is that feminist studies produced in Latin America are inaudible to Anglo Saxon feminists. In dialogue with the voices of academics from Argentina, Mexico and Colombia, this thesis is elaborated from three perspectives. First, a geopolitics of knowledge that builds singular forms of systematic ignorance versus what happens in Latin America by Anglo-Saxon scholars. Second, the mechanisms by which this systematic ignorance is co-confi gured, on the one hand, by the monetization of the academy in Latin America, particularly through the generation of integrated informational systems to measure knowledge production, and, on the other hand, by the views adopted by some feminist scholars in the region who seek to resist this power relationship to which they are subjected. Third, a diff erent resistance to not listen to the Anglo-Saxon feminist scholars, expressed in the will of weaving cross dialogues, to negotiate, and thus to reconfi gure the exclusion from the canon; a search that is not free of diffi culties and frustrations

El presente y el futuro del Derecho Natural: una conversación con Robert P. George

This article presents an unpublished interview with Professor Robert P. George (Princeton University, USA) with the aim of reaching out to scholars from non-Anglo-Saxon countries in order to offer a comprehensive view of the main issues currently being debated by legal and political scholars from a non-continental viewpoint. The text shows how a significant number of Anglo-Saxon scholars have recovered the discredited notion of natural law, through the so-called “New School of Natural Law”. With this new approach to natural law, George presents a clear defense of rights and institutions currently confronted by the tyranny of “the politically correct”. One powerful aspect of this new School includes the elaboration of arguments and counter-arguments to one’s own position. In this way, George invites his participant –whether in the classroom or through his dialectical works– to think for him or herself without fear of questioning even one’s deepest ideas and convictions. As a consequence of this thought process, one is able to receive new lights and, thus, rectify and reach a more complete truth. If, on the contrary, one has unsupported explanations or reasonings with logical fallacies, the method will strengthen one’s personal ideas, which must always be presented with the openness of those who do not consider themselves infallible. The main topic of this article is a detailed analysis of the natural law, as understood by the “New School of Natural Law”, in which George is inscribed as one of its main protagonists. It also presents the criticisms of which this New School is frequently the object. It should be therefore an enlightening text for jurists and philosophers interested in knowing first¬hand the principles of this School, still not widespread in the continental tradition. Another aspect of interest is the exposition of the methodology that, according to George, should guide Constitutional Interpretation. For jurists not fully internalized in the tradition of Anglo-Saxon Common Law, his explanation of how judges should proceed when resolving different cases is insightful. The judges must be limited, says George, to the role that the Constitution has assigned to them: to apply the law as is. Thus, Given the frequent tendency for judges to indirectly become legislators, he warns that this mode of proceeding presupposes frequent violations of the Constitution that they have sworn to defend. Another topic extensively argued is the role of religion in public life. Although George prefers to make use of rational arguments in his defense of values (among them the protection of human life in all its instances, marriage as the union of a man and a woman open to life, or the defense of freedom, etc.), he makes it clear that religion has the right to participate in public life by contributing its knowledge and values in favor of the socio-political common good as many important figures have done in the history of United States. Hence, George does not advocate neutrality in the public sphere, nor does he support the opposite extreme: a “sacred public square”. He supports a society that is not only “civil” but also “civilized”, that is to say, a society in which every citizen can manifest his words and/or his ideas and beliefs in an ambiance of mutual respect. Such a society believes that every citizen not only has the right to think, to believe and to live according to his views, but also is able to give reasons for them, whether from a secular or religious perspective.

Words, Meanings, and Readings: Reconstructing the Use of Gildas's De excidio Britanniae at the Canterbury School

This article investigates the manner in which Gildas’s De excidio Britanniae was being read at the Canterbury school of Theodore and Hadrian in the seventh century. Beginning with a discussion of the historical milieu of the Canterbury school, the textual history of the De excidio, and the evidence of the text’s presence at this center, this article examines the glossae collectae preserved in the Leiden Glossary that have been identified as Gildasian in an effort to gain insight into the intellectual and cultural concerns of the Anglo-Saxon scholars working there. This study argues that Gildas’s text was likely used within a pedagogical context in support of the reform agenda undertaken by Theodore and that the glossae collectae in Leiden appear to be the result of multiple independent systematic readings of the text.

A szegénység és depriváció a magyar településállományban az ezredfordulót követően – avagy kísérlet a települési deprivációs index létrehozására

A szegénységgel kapcsolatos kérdésekkel hagyományosan a szociológia foglalkozik, de a területfejlesztés, illetve tágabban a fejlesztéspolitika is érintett a kérdésben. A szegénység területi dimenziójának megragadása bár mindkét megközelítésben megjelenik, mégsem alkot koherens kutatási fókuszt. Jelen írás célja, hogy e hiányosság pótlására tegyen kísérletet és egyszerre érvényesítse ezt a két megközelítésmódot. A szegénység területi dimenziójának feltárásakor a szegénységet Townsend nyomán több dimenzióban megnyilvánuló erőforrás-, illetve lehetőséghiányként (depriváció) értelmezem, amely meggátolja a társadalomban elfogadott, megszokott életkörülmények elérését. A lakhatás, a képzettségi színvonal, a munkaerő-piaci részvétel, a jövedelmi viszonyok és a demográfiai jellemzők megragadására sztenderdizált mutatókat készítettem, amelyből főkomponens-analízis révén egyetlen deprivációs indexet képeztem. Ez a települési deprivációs index világosan kirajzolja az ország klasszikus fejlettségi térrendjét: a nagyvárosok és azok szűkebb-tágabb agglomerációi jelentik az ország kedvező helyzetű pólusait, amelyektől távolodva a több dimenzióban megtapasztalható hátrányos helyzet – szegénység – egyre meghatározóbbá válik. Összességében ez a települési deprivációs index nyilvánvaló hiányosságai ellenére a szakmai felhasználók számára alkalmas vonatkoztatási pontot jelenthet, amikor deprivációval, szegénységgel kapcsolatban kell forráselosztási döntéseket hozni, vagy éppen valamilyen társadalmi jelenség vizsgálatához keresnek alkalmas társadalmi háttérváltozót.

A Golden Decade

Abstract The five countries of the Nordic region have a common cultural and historical background. In the field of communication, they share institutions, conferences, publications and networks. In order to reveal how this shared tradition is manifested in scientific communication, the present text analyses the evolution of publication patterns of Nordic communication scholars by applying bibliometric techniques to over five hundred articles published in international scientific journals from 2001 to 2010. Different parameters were analysed: institution and country of origin, number of authors, typology of collaborations, topics studied and the level of specialization. During the decade under study, the presence of Nordic scholars in international journals doubled, manifesting the growing internationalization of Nordic communication research. Co-authorship patterns predominantly involve collaboration with Anglo-Saxon scholars, particularly North American. A high level of specialization was found in areas such as technologies and new media, which was reflected in the journals chosen as vehicles for publication

Applicability of Cardoso and Faletto Model to Analyze the Current Latin American Reality

In 1966, sociologists Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Enzo Faletto wrote, on the request of Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), the classic Dependence and Development in Latin America, in which they sought to underline social and economic fundamentals of what they called “national underdevelopment.” Almost half-century later, the Latin American reality is not the same, but the method adopted by Cardoso and Faletto can still be used to analyze it. A proof of its actuality is its resemblance with some methodological approaches that operate in the intersection between economics and social sciences by Anglo-Saxon scholars.

Admissibility and appraisal of scientific evidence in continental European criminal justice systems: past, present and future

The legal literature on the use of forensic evidence mainly originates from Anglo-Saxon scholars, which can lead the reader to think that bias by partisan experts is the most problematic issue when decision makers must assess the reliability and probative value of a given clue. Simultaneously, the same scholars view inquisitorial court-appointed experts as the miracle solution to many issues encountered in their own criminal justice systems. The present contribution aims at presenting and discussing the main characteristics of inquisitorial criminal justice systems on the matter of scientific evidence. It will be shown that, in such systems, issues associated with the use of scientific evidence are often poorly addressed because the judicial community has great trust in its court-appointed scientific experts and lacks awareness as to the questions raised by such evidence. It will also be shown that this system is particularly ill-suited for future scientific innovations and their use in the criminal trial.

Translating the Five Senses in Alfredian Prose

This paper tackles the question of whether an Old English noun exists to express the concept of the five physical senses. After elucidating the debate around potential linguistic gaps in Old English and the modern interpretations of the methods employed by ninth-century Anglo-Saxon scholars to carry out their translations from Latin, I will identify specific vernacular techniques applied whenever the Latin noun sensus was encountered in the sources. Through a comparative analysis of the Latin texts translated as part of the Alfredian cultural programme, and their Old English versions, this paper will firstly assess whether a linguistic gap exists; and secondly, explore possible reasons behind the different translating approaches employed to render the concept of the five bodily senses.

As Interpretações do Sistema Delsarte no Teatro Russo e Soviético dos Anos 1910-1920

RESUMO Para um grande número de estudiosos anglo-saxões, os ensinamentos de François Delsarte encontram ecos na Rússia, no trabalho de Stanislavski, Vakhtangov e Mikhaïl Tchekhov. A procura por correspondências entre a emoção e o gesto implica uma concepção orgânica do ato criador. Visto, entretanto, a partir da União Soviética-Rússia, Delsarte é, ao contrário, o pai de uma nova antropologia do ator-máquina. O objetivo deste artigo é atualizar os mal-entendidos que distorceram os dados e mostrar que, na Rússia, a transmissão seguiu caminhos que desviaram a orientação na recepção do sistema de Delsarte.

La incidencia de la RSC en la marca: del ensayismo español al cientificismo anglosajón

Este artículo describe, por un lado las investigaciones que demuestran científicamente la correlación entre la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa (RSC) y la marca, desde la perspectiva de la imagen y la reputación, y por el otro, el ensayismo sobre la RSC, poco asociado a las investigaciones cualitativas o cuantitativas. Los hallazgos muestran que los académicos anglosajones han desarrollado investigaciones experimentales, mientras que los españoles han dedicado mayoritariamente sus esfuerzos al ensayismo.

Quid Tacitus . . . ? The Germania and the Study of Anglo-Saxon England

The construction of the Germanic comitatus by Cornelius Tacitus in one of his early works, the Germania, offers scholars of Anglo-Saxon England an easy shorthand way to discuss the heroic code as it appears in an assortment of late Old English texts, notably including Beowulf and the Battle of Maldon. This convenient shorthand has been much used, beginning in the nineteenth century with such scholars of history as John Richard Green and John Mitchell Kemble, and largely continuing in a straight line — although with some changes in emphasis and occasional concerns about relevance - to the present day. This dependence, or at the very least this call to a Roman history to provide a sense of longitude and certainty to the construction of Anglo-Saxon heroic behaviour, offers scholars a kind of chronological certainty in their consideration of the Germanic tribes and their behaviours when they first migrated to England. Tacitus could demonstrate the fixed and longstanding construction of heroism and of the cultural mores of Germanic society. The Germania could function as a touchstone text, a way to indicate the longevity of the notion of a fiercely individual, frequently violent, and fiercely loyal tribesman serving a chosen lord. To some extent, this use of Tacitus derives from the clarity and elegance with which the late Roman historian expressed himself, making it easy for scholars to comprehend and to quote his historiography of the Germanic tribes. However, it might also be argued that the call to Tacitus reflects a more profound desire to establish Anglo-Saxon social behaviour as part of a longstanding and rich tradition, as reflecting a personal integrity which reaches back to the Germanic tribes ranged against the Roman legions, and defeating them. Here, I will argue, first, that Tacitus wrote the Germania for very specific reasons which should not be ignored when this ethnographic treatise is considered and should occasion some pause when scholars wish to consider it as a ‘true’ representation of Germanic behaviour. Second, I will suggest that some of the ways in which Tacitus is bandied about in modern Anglo-Saxon scholarship require some modification — both because they derive from a historiographic and ethnographic approach which scholars in other fields no longer use and because they offer too simplistic an interpretation of both Tacitus and Germanic social behaviour as it came to function in Anglo-Saxon England. The argument that Tacitus still provides the best short introduction to the presentation of lof ‘fame’ and to the role of the heorðgeneatas‘hearth-companions’ in Old English texts may have its shortcomings. I want, therefore, to look again at the late Roman context of the Germania, the evidence for its transmission and possible influence on Anglo-Saxon texts, and its modern history as the basic historiographic reference in the nineteenth century for how Anglo-Saxon society functioned. Moreover, there has developed in the last twenty years a bifurcation in approach, in which historians no longer seem to consider Tacitus’s Germania as central to their conception of Anglo-Saxon governance structures, but some literary analysts continue to produce a Tacitean master narrative for Old English heroic behaviour. Teasing out the details of this approach to Tacitus may offer some new insight as to how— and how carefully— Anglo-Saxon scholars should use references to the Germania when thinking about Anglo-Saxon culture. Finally, I want to consider whether general introductions to the field should continue to use this shorthand as a way of explicating heroic behaviour. Tacitus may offer a convenient option for comparative purposes, and anchors Old English behaviour in its Germanic origins — or does he?

Understanding numbers in London, British Library, Harley 3271

AbstractLondon, British Library, Harley 3271 is a composite manuscript designed for use in teaching Latin, and contains Ælfric's Grammar beside other pedagogical works. The book also contains a large number of miscellaneous items, and fourteen scribal hands. Many of the texts point to the usual interests of the Anglo-Saxon scholar in computus and prognostics, while others suggest an interest in the tradition of numerical notes. The items written by Scribe C, the only one whose stints are spread throughout the blank space of the composite volume, point to a combined interest in education, numbers and the Jewish people.

Editorial: A general overview of perspectives and reflections on accounting’s past in Europe

This editorial aims to portray the background to and motivations for this special issue on the theme “Perspectives and reflections on accounting’s past in Europe”. While the articles in this issue will focus on different specific country topics, this editorial offers a general outline of the international dimension of European research on accounting history, by analysing the publication patterns in specialist international (English language-based) journals. Whereas the analysis confirms the dominant role of contributions from Anglo-Saxon scholars, the number of articles from other European countries is growing. This trend is partly related to the stimuli provided by special issues on country themes as well as by the vivid debates, proliferating in the last decade, on the publication outlets of European accounting historians. The European setting is characterized by a complex mix of cultures, languages and research traditions. Whereas national research in accounting history is proliferating rapidly in various local contexts and in different languages, this variety has not received sufficient attention within the international debate. In this respect, various articles and commentaries have emphasized the need to encourage European scholars in accounting history, whose first language is other than English, to contribute to the specialist English language-based international journals, as

Old English Scholarship and Bibliography: Essays in Honor of Carl T. Berkhout (review)

Reviewed by: Old English Scholarship and Bibliography: Essays in Honor of Carl T. Berkhout Melanie Heyworth Wilcox, Jonathan , ed., Old English Scholarship and Bibliography: Essays in Honor of Carl T. Berkhout ( Old English Newsletter Subsidia, 32), Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, 2004; paperback; pp. 119; RRP US $10; ISSN 0739-8549. Over the past 25 years, Carl T. Berkhout's profound contribution to Anglo-Saxon scholarship in the field of bibliographical studies cannot be overstated. As the Old English Newsletter's bibliographical editor (1976-2000) and as a primary provider of bibliographies published in Anglo-Saxon England, Berkhout's industry in the field deserves recognition. This volume of the Old English Newsletter Subsidia is dedicated to him and to celebrating his scholarly achievements. Jonathon Wilcox's Introduction captures Berkhout's importance to the field. He states that 'if bibliography makes up the backbone of a discipline, Carl T. [End Page 238] Berkhout has been painstakingly constructing the spine of Anglo-Saxon studies for the last quarter century' (p. 1). Wilcox produces impressive statistics to support his claim: in his career to date, Berkhout has documented over 15,000 studies and written book reviews for another 5,000. Wilcox is concerned, however, to give equal weight to Berkhout's other scholarly contributions, particularly his endeavours to 'reclaim' early Anglo-Saxonists (see especially Anglo-Saxon Scholarship: The First Three Centuries, edited by Berkhout with Milton McC. Gatch in 1982). J. R. Hall's essay, 'Carl T. Berkhout: An Appreciation', is a biographical accolade to the honorand. Hall successfully personalizes the man, Carl, behind the scholar, Berkhout. The chapter is fondly nostalgic, and Hall ensures that Berkhout's personality is not sacrificed at the altar of his learned erudition. Hall details Berkhout's publication history within a narrative describing his interests (social and academic) and career development; his scholarly pursuits and publications (listed in an appendicized bibliography, pp. 17-21) are skilfully woven into a colourful portrait of 'Carl'. Berkhout's selflessness, vigour, and enthusiasm, are well-depicted by Hall's energetic prose. Both Wilcox and Hall emphasize Berkhout's twin areas of research – early Anglo-Saxon scholars and bibliographical studies – and this emphasis is reflected in the structure of the volume. Following Hall's chapter, there are six original contributions. The first two essays (by Helen Damico and Andrew Prescott) form a section, entitled 'Anglo-Saxon Scholars', dedicated to Berkhout's interest in early Anglo-Saxon scholars. The last four essays (by Robert J. Hasenfratz, Eric G. Stanley, Thomas N. Hall, and Berkhout himself) are devoted to 'Old English Bibliography' and reflect Berkhout's bibliographical drive. In 'Reclaiming Anglo-Saxon Scholars', Damico provides a bibliographical essay on the history of Anglo-Saxon scholarship, surveying selected publications since Berkhout's seminal Anglo-Saxon Scholarship (1982). Damico's essay maps the development of scholarly enquiry into early Anglo-Saxon scholars. For any scholar or advanced student interested in such antiquarians, Damico's chapter is a vital initial reference. Its significance, however, stems also from Damico's proficient synthesis of both early and recent Anglo-Saxon scholarship in terms of 'the relationship between Anglo-Saxon studies and the culture that produced them' (p. 36). Her politicization of the 'determining factors' behind an impetus to Anglo-Saxon scholarship makes 'reclaiming Anglo-Saxon scholars' an immediately relevant scholarly pursuit. Prescott's 'Robin Flower and Laurence Nowell' is an appropriate inclusion in the volume, given Berkhout's scholarly similarity to Flower. Prescott, like Hall [End Page 239] before him, is concerned to present Flower the man, as well as Flower the scholar, and this engaging essay marries entertaining reading and academic rigour. If there is a criticism to be made of Prescott's contribution, it is that his attempt to homogenize Flower's and Nowell's natures and purposes is unnecessary; the symmetry which Prescott emphasizes between the two main characters of his narrative seems forced. Robert J. Hasenfratz's essay, '"On sidne sæ": Beowulf and the Bibliographers' is an invaluable contribution to the volume, in part because its potential readership is arguably the widest of those of any of the essays. Hasenfratz's remit is both engaging and thought-provoking: he proposes to survey 'the field...

Karl der Große, Alkuin und die Zeitrechnung

AbstractIn connection with the Carolingian renewal of education Charlemagne also cared for a homogeneous reckoning of time. He organized the Carolingian reform of the calender with the help of Alkuin of York, an Anglo‐Saxon scholar. Having heard of Alkuin's learning and teaching abilities, the Frankish King invited him to lead his Palace school at Aachen. Moving to Francia 782, Alkuin became the key counselour of Charlemagne for science, education and church matters.Among other subjects Alkuin taught the King especially calendrical reckoning (computus) and astronomy, in which he took a special personal interest. Charlemagne discussed these subjects often with Alkuin, sometimes even in letters, still preserved today. For this correspondence on astronomy and calendrical reckoning it was assumed that Alkuin was the author of four short anonymous writings on computus. Moreover, Charlemagne comissioned Alkuin to write a standard work on computus, which is lost today. But three Carolingian manuals on computus survived.Which of the four anonymous writings really stem from Alkuin himself? What influence he had upon the manuals? These two questions are investigated here on the basis of the most important matter of computus: the calculation of the age of the moon in the 19‐year lunar cycle, necessary for dating the movable feast of Easter (on the first Sunday after the first full moon in spring). These facts were discussed in detail, even vehemently, in the correspondence between Alkuin and Charlemagne.

A Sociophilological Study of Late Latin (review)

254 Reviews Parergon 20.2 (2003) Wright, Roger, A Sociophilological Study of Late Latin (Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy 10), Turnhout, Brepols, 2002; cloth; pp. viii, 389; RRP EUR65.00; ISBN 2503513387. In 1982, Roger Wright published an important volume on the complex transition from spoken Latin to the Romance languages of southern Europe (Late Latin and Early Romance in Spain and Carolingian France). In it, he argued that the former western provinces of the Roman empire continued to be a monolingual speech community long after the collapse of political unity. More-or-less standardised written Latin remained widely used and comprehensible, with much the same relationship to local variations of spoken Latin as modern written English has to its myriad of spoken accents, dialects, and creoles today. To Wright, the crucial period of transition from monolingualism (with variants) to a Latin/Romance dichotomy was the Carolingian ‘Renaissance’, and the prime agents of change were the Anglo-Saxon scholars at Charlemagne’s court. Alcuin and his ilk introduced a hyper-corrected form of spoken Latin which was quite at odds with Latin as it was still actually spoken on the Continent, not least in its practitioners’ insistence on full pronunciation of all written letters. Spread via the Carolingian educational reforms, this hyper-correction drove a wedge between the written and the spoken language. The latter, by the thirteenth century at the latest, had become a variety of vernaculars alienated from the written language; while written Latin had assumed that position we all know, of a ‘dead’ foreign language, universally available but possessed by none. The present volume further develops major aspects of Wright’s thesis. The book is a collection of articles (a fact unannounced on the cover blurb or advertising), most originally published within a few years either side of the millennium. The papers are mildly reworked (including translation of several from three Romance languages) in order to provide coherence, but the author’s clearly demarcated research interests provide a high degree of unity. The book is the third release in a potentially very interesting series on medieval literacy. The chapters are divided into six main themes: longitudinal overviews of relations between late and medieval Latin and the Romance languages; four sections on periods and regions which were either key points of linguistic development (Late Antiquity; the Carolingian period; and twelfth/thirteenth century Spain) or instructive isolates (tenth/eleventh century Italy and Spain); and methodological studies in ‘sociophilology.’ The latter term is the author’s coinage. It refers to a marriage between sociolinguistics (examining the social Reviews 255 Parergon 20.2 (2003) agenda of linguistic variation), historical linguistics (concerned with spoken language development in pre-literate groups), and the traditional, technical philology needed to be able to deal with such remote data. Wright is a vigorous and precise speaker, and his papers reflect the same forceful orderliness. The titles of his compact chapters declare a problem-solving directness: ‘How Latin Came to Be a Foreign Language for All’, ‘Why the Romance Languages Are Not All the Same’, ‘Why Judeo-Spanish Was Called “Ladino”’, ‘What Actually Changes During a “Sound Change”?’As subsidiaries to his main theme, Wright introduces a range of fascinating insights into cultural change and continuity in the early Middle Ages. One example which recurs several times throughout the book is Ladino, the language of the Mozarabic Christian community under Islamic rule in Córdoba, a fossil of what might be called Wright’s ‘prelapsarian ’common Latin, unaffected by Carolingian self-consciousness of ‘correct’ Latin and ‘non-Latinate’ Romance. But while the spoken form of Ladino continued to be used, by the tenth century its written counterpart had fallen into disuse. The Ladino-speaking community bowed to convenience, abandoned classicising Latin as a written mode, and adopted as their written language what was by now its second spoken tongue, Arabic (itself a highly standardised language). The papers on Spain in the central Middle Ages (section E) provide the most detailed arguments for the wave of conscious change in the introduction of Carolingian-style standardisation of Latin, relating changes in particular areas to the episcopates of individual bishops. There is significant overlap with manuscript studies in this section...