Hagiographical Works Research Articles

Valentinian I, christianissimus imperator? Notes on a passage of the Passio Pollionis (BHL 6869)

Abstract The present article aims to draw attention to a neglected source attesting the epithet christianissimus imperator as a late antique imperial title. The source in question, the Passio Pollionis (BHL 6869), is one of the earliest testimonies, alongside Ambrose’s and Jerome’s works. It is also peculiar in that, as a hagiographic work, it addresses the emperor Valentinian I with this title. A brief comparison with the use of christianissimus in Ambrose, as well as the analysis of its literary—propagandistic function in the Passio Pollionis is meant to shed light on the documentary potential of the Passio.

The Hagiographical Works: The ‘Conception Nostre Dame and the Lives of St Margaret and St Nicholas

The Hagiographical Works: The ‘Conception Nostre Dame and the Lives of St Margaret and St Nicholas

Konstrukcja wizerunku Makryny w pismach Grzegorza z Nyssy na tle literackiej tradcyji przedstawiania heroicznej kobiety

In the following article I try to investigate how the literary means used by Gregory of Nyssa in his works, especially the Life of St. Macrina, the Dialogue about Soul and Resurrection and the Letter 19. are related to the tradition of depic­ting heroic woman. In the first part of this paper I consider biblical and martyro­logical literature, ancient novels, dramas and moralistic works of Plutarch. In the second part I gain a closer look into relations between the creation of Macrina and other hagiographical works of the same time. My purposes are complex. Firstly, I would like to determine the main differences of male and female hero’s narrations. Secondly, I try to examine how Gregory uses conventions and if he is innovative.

More Sahidic Fragments from the Life of Shenoute Attributed to Besa

AbstractThis article identifies a parchment leaf kept in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow as a fragment from the Sahidic version of the Life of Shenoute (Bibliotheca Hagiographia Orientalis 1074-1078; clavis coptica 0461), a hagiographical work about the archimandrite of the White Monastery attributed to his successor, Besa. The fragment offers a portion of the text which has survived only in the Arabic and Ethiopic versions. The paleographical inspection indicates that the dismembered leaf belonged to the White Monastery codex MONB.WV. Besides the Moscow fragment, this article adds two other paleographically related fragments to the White Monastery codex MONB.WV.

The Conversion of Scandinavia

The Conversion of Scandinavia

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF CHRIST: TEXT AND CONTEXT IN THE "VITA MILDRETHAE"

The Vita Deo dilectae uirginis Mildrethae (BHL 5960) was written by Goscelin of Saint-Bertin during his residency at St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, in the final decade of the eleventh century.1 Goscelin was the most celebrated hagiographer of his generation, whose prolificacy in writing the ‘lives of countless saints’ would later render him, in William of Malmesbury’s estimation, as ‘second to none since Bede’.2 Very little is known about Goscelin’s life and what is known has been pieced together from tantalizing snippets found in his hagiographical works.3 He was a Flemish emigre who left the monastery at Saint-Bertin and moved to England while still a young man in the early 1060s. His move may well have been at the encouragement of Bishop Herman of Ramsbury and Sherborne, since Goscelin appears to have joined the Benedictine community at Sherborne. While in the south-west, he may have served as chaplain to the nuns at Wilton and it is possible that he may also have served Bishop Herman as a secretary-cum-companion. Certainly his service in the bishop’s household would explain his sudden departure from the locality following Herman’s death in 1078. Goscelin appears to have quarrelled with Herman’s successor, Osmund, who, by ‘serpent envy and a step-father’s barbarity … compelled [Goscelin] to wander a long way away’.4 Nursing feelings of exile, Goscelin appears to have led an itinerant existence before settling at St Augustine’s in the early 1090s. This peripatetic period, however, proved his most productive, and a great many of the works attributed to him, some thirty in total, were written during these years.5 Judging from his hagiographical commissions, Goscelin appears to have spent time at Peterborough, Barking, Ely, and Ramsey before being recruited to Canterbury to commemorate the grand translation of the abbey’s entire relic collection in 1091, a colossal project which occupied him for the rest of the decade.6

Historical Narratives and Christian Identity on a European Periphery: Early History Writing in Northern, East-Central, and Eastern Europe (c. 1070–1200) by Ildar H. Garipzanov, ed. (review)

Reviewed by: Historical Narratives and Christian Identity on a European Periphery: Early History Writing in Northern, East-Central, and Eastern Europe (c. 1070–1200) by Ildar H. Garipzanov, ed. Robert Curry Garipzanov, Ildar H., ed., Historical Narratives and Christian Identity on a European Periphery: Early History Writing in Northern, East-Central, and Eastern Europe (c. 1070–1200) (Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe, 26), Turnhout, Brepols, 2011; hardback; pp. 305; R.R.P. €90.00; ISBN 9782503533674. Ildar Garipzanov’s fascinating volume represents a bold attempt to bridge what he refers to as the ‘historiographic split’ between Scandinavian and Slavic studies and to offer a more comprehensive overview of historical narratives from across the north-European periphery than hitherto has been attempted. The chapters originated as papers presented at a joint workshop, funded by the Norwegian Research Council, which was held in Kiev in 2008. They deal with the earliest layer of historical accounts of Christianity in Northern, East-Central, and Eastern Europe covering the period c. 1070–1200. Noteworthy [End Page 305] is the inclusion of works in Old Church Slavonic from Kievan Rus¢: two studies of the Primary Chronicle and a third on early history writing in Novgorod, the urban centre connecting Kievan Rus¢ with Scandinavia. The methodology employed focuses primarily on the literary means by which classical and biblical models, historical narratives, and hagiographic works shaped the sense of Christian identity in various milieux. Contributions take the form of case studies of histories, chronicles, and annals, their common ground being that they all treat Christian literature from their region during the initial period after official conversion. As Garipzanov remarks, irrespective of the languages used (Latin, Old Norse, Old Church Slavonic) ‘clerical authors were writing local pasts into the established Christian master-narrative and presenting their regions, “nations”, and ruling dynasties as immanent elements of the City of God’ (p. 2). Noting that most of the historical accounts were penned at least a century after the events recounted (more than two centuries later, in the case of Cosmas of Prague’s) Garipzanov posits two stages in the development of historical narratives. The first is a dynamic process in which reconfiguration of the past – the preceding ‘pagan’ period – is either ignored or relegated to insignificance. In contrast, the second stage (post-1170) adopts a more conciliatory, accommodating approach to the pre-Christian past. While the majority of the papers fall into the first stage, a number of them – the Hungarian Anonymous Notary, for example – reveal evidence of the beginnings of this literary shift into stage two. In a volume of very variegated historical material a thorough index is essential if one is to explore Garipzanov’s contention that at a conceptual level there exist many areas of commonality in these early narratives. Brepols have provided just such an index. It incorporates personalia, places, and texts, and provides detailed references to such important abstractions and concepts as ‘identity/ies’, ‘Christian’, ‘past’, and ‘power’. Robert Curry Medieval and Early Modern Centre The University of Sydney Copyright © 2013 by the Robert Curry

Stefan Nemanja and the national Serbian awakening

During the creation of the first Serbian kingdom, the role of Stefan Nemanja as a great prefect was reflected in the balance between the two great powers, i.e. the East and the West, where Serbia was trying to develop and maintain a national identity. Preserved hagiographic works, although schematized and written to celebrate Nemanja and his descendants, however, express a historical and cultural context of the early Serbia, especially that preceding the time of the kingdom. In the earliest surviving works related to the life and the cult of Stefan Nemanja, we can most clearly see the role of preserving Serbian identity and tradition. The main features of the Serbian culture, among others, related to the concepts of language and image.

Tres textos hagiográficos medievales sobre la ciudad de Zaragoza y sus santos Valerio, Vicente y Braulio. Edición y estudio

This paper offers the editio princeps of two Latin hagiographical works of mediaeval Spain: the Legenda Cesaraugustana (BHL 4774) and the tale Quando fuit liberata Cesaraugusta a Sarracenis (Díaz 1079) as well as a new edition of the De reuelacione b. Braulii ep. Cesaraugustani (BHL 1448m). All these works came from Zaragoza and were written in honour of the bishops of the city and of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar. The Legenda Cesaraugustana and the De reuelacione b. Braulii ep. Cesaraugustani are of the 13th cent. The first one recounts the history of the bishops of Zaragoza from the third century until the reconquest of the city in 1118, and the second describes the invention of the relics of St. Braulio at the time of Bishop Pedro de Librana (1118-1128). Quando fuit liberata Cesaraugusta a Sarracenis is a work of the 15th cent. about the reconquest of Zaragoza and its most important source is the Legenda Cesaraugustana.

The bishop and the monk: Desiderius of Vienne and the Columbanian movement

This paper analyses the uses made by hagiographers and chroniclers of the character of Desiderius of Vienne. Desiderius, a bishop in Merovingian Burgundy, was the protagonist of two seventh‐century Lives, and appears in numerous other hagiographical works and chronicles. Desiderius also figures prominently in works composed within the context of Columbanian monasticism, most notably Jonas of Bobbio's Vita Columbani. His appearance in these works paints a multifaceted picture not only of his own political activities, but also of the agendas of the hagiographers themselves, who exploited his literary image to further their ends. It is the contention of this paper that despite the frequent mentions of Desiderius in Columbanian compositions, he did not, in fact, play a part in the Columbanians' success.

La “historia de Pelagia” en la vida de Juan el Limosnero de Leoncio de Neápolis

In one of his hagiographic works, Leontius of Neapolis narratesseveral episodes in the life of John the Almsgiver, patriarch of Alexandria from 610 to617 approximately, who was contemporary of him. Usually, John is the protagonist ofthe narrations, which involve either moralizing anecdotes or the working of miracles.However, in chapter 50, the saint becomes the narrator of a story he has read. In this story,a woman known as Porphyria, who will later change her name to Pelagia, abandons herwork as a prostitute and takes the habit thanks to the intervention of a monk. Our aimis, on the one hand, to examine the affinity of this episode with a passage of the Homily67 of St. John Chrysostom and the narration of Pelagia's conversion. On the other hand,we seek to consider its functionality in this work of Leontius.

The Dаgеstаni Sufi Biographic Treatise in Аrаbiс Tabaqat al-Khwajakan al-Naqshbandiyya wa sadat masha'ikh al-Khalidiyya al-Mahmudiyya bу Shu'ayb al-Bagini about Saint Miracle-Workers

The article surveys miracles ascribed to the sаints аnd described as such in the Dаgеstаni hagiographic works in Аrаbiс. It focuses оn the textual аnаlуsis of а manuscript of this gеnrе composed bу а Dagestani Muslim scholar Shu'ayb аl-Ваgini in the vеrу bеginning of the twеntiеth сеnturу. This important yet poorly studied first-hаnd source is preserved in а singlе autograph сору. The article provides a general survey of the intеrрrеtаtiоn of miracles introduced bу different schools of Islamic thought, especially the Sufis.

Florence Nightingale at First Hand (review)

Reviewed by: Florence Nightingale at First Hand Sue Hawkins Lynn McDonald . Florence Nightingale at First Hand. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2010. xv + 197 pp. Ill. $24.95 (paperbound, 978-1-55458-191-7). "Why another book on Florence Nightingale . . . ?" are the opening words to the preface of this new addition to the Florence Nightingale library, and it is a good question (p. xi). "The Lady with the Lamp" has consumed reams of paper: what can this book have to say that has not already been said? The Contents Page suggests an answer: each chapter is dedicated to different aspect of Nightingale's working life, promising insight into areas of her work rarely discussed. As Vicinus and Nergaard have argued, "The nursing reforms for which Nightingale has been remembered have been labelled 'female' and appropriate for a Victorian woman, while her major contribution as a sanitarian and unofficial government advisor, work in the 'male' sphere, has been denigrated or forgotten."1 In this book, McDonald promises to avoid the pitfalls of past hagiographic work by presenting Nightingale in her own words. Unfortunately, the author's tone belies this objective. She describes her book as differing "sharply from the large number of adulatory books portraying a self-sacrificing and brave woman," but adds immediately, "(both of which are true)"; and throughout she makes attacks on critical analyses of Nightingale's life and work (p. xi).2 If McDonald had used Nightingale's own words to refute such critics, a more balanced impression may have been made. As it is, the reader moves into the book with the author's attachment to her subject well established, her objectivity in question. However, the book is a very useful guide into the world of Florence Nightingale. Each aspect of her work occupies a different chapter, making it easy to dip in and out according to the reader's interest. There are chapters on Nightingale and social reform, war work, nursing and midwifery, workhouse infirmaries, and India. This latter topic, rarely discussed in the literature, is of particular interest, [End Page 144] as is Nightingale's statistical work in public health. The discussion of her contribution to the Royal Commission into the Crimean War is well presented, while the section on nursing and midwifery avoids the usual heroic portrayal of Nightingale as sole reformer. It would have been more illuminating if her views of other reformers, such as Ethel Fenwick, had been illustrated by extracts. As a whole the book conveys the breadth of Nightingale's interests, her energy, and the influence she held over powerful men in several government departments. There are some problems though. The book could have been enhanced by hearing more from Nightingale herself. McDonald wrote of Nightingale that "she . . . had more normal human qualities: a temper, a wicked sense of humour and considerable style" (p. 13), but little of this comes through in the selected extracts. In the letter to Ellen Eckblom, Nightingale opens, "I learn more from you than you can learn from me," betraying a surprisingly humble side to the woman; but such examples are rare (p. 105). It is still hard to see beneath the public façade Nightingale built around herself. Dates are a problem: they are often not included in either the text or the reference, making the sequencing of events or contextualization of statements problematic. The book is almost devoid of references (apart from Nightingale's writings), so when claims are made, as in the example that Nightingale acted as Gandhi's mentor (p. 97), there is no evidence to back them up. An extended recommended reading list, providing context to Nightingale's life, is also missing. At the end of the preface, McDonald writes, "If you want to read another book of sarcastic, sexist inference . . . this book is not for you. If you want to discover Nightingale as she was to her collaborators . . . this is" (p. xv). As an introduction to Nightingale and her writings, the book works quite well; as an exploration of the woman behind the image, it does not quite deliver. Sue Hawkins Kingston University London Footnotes 1. Martha Vicinus and Bea Nergaard, eds., Ever Yours, Florence Nightingale: Selected...

L.A.H. Hogenhuis, Cognition and Recognition: On the Origin of Movement: Rademacher (1887–1957), A Biography, History of Science and Medicine Library, Vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2009), pp. xviii + 353, €99.00, $148.00, hardback, ISBN: 978-90-04-16836-7.

In this hagiographic work, Professor L.A.H. Hogenhuis offers a detailed biography of the Dutch surgeon-turned-physiologist-turned-neurologist Gysbertus Godefredius Johannes Rademaker. A little-known protagonist of the ‘golden age’ of Dutch physiology, Rademaker was a pupil of Rudolf Magnus who continued his experimental study of posture and movement. The volume is divided into nine ‘books’ plus four short chapters and half a page of conclusions. It follows the life and career of Rademaker, providing some glimpses of the history of concepts and techniques (e.g. reflex action, stereotaxis) and of the contemporary developments of physiology and neurology of posture and movement. The first book provides an account of Rademaker’s family background and his early career as a general practitioner and horse-betting wizard in Java. Books II and III reconstruct his academic career first in Magnus’s department of pharmacology at Utrecht, then as a professor of physiology at Leiden, his studies on the control of standing and movement in animals and his concern for the ‘translation’ of the results into clinical terms. Books IV to IX are concerned with such diverse issues as the resistance movement in the Dutch academia during the Nazi occupation (IV); ‘Rademaker the man’ (V); a short recapitulation of the history of postural research with a (rather superficial) attempt at contextualising its sudden end in the 1930s (VI); Rademaker’s complete bibliography and list of academic honours (VII) and an appraisal of his views on standing and movement (VIII–IX). Despite the numerous interesting facets of Rademaker’s scientific biography (his move from clinical practice to physiological experimentation, and back again to clinical neurology; his view of standing as ‘frozen energy’; the cybernetic and mathematical development of his physiology, not to mention the opportune call for attention to the history of postural research, very little considered by historians), this work is not a particularly valuable contribution to the literature. After three hundred-odd pages, one is left with a sense of dissatisfaction, which increases when the author’s promises are considered. At the beginning, in fact, we learn that this biography ‘is defined as a model of the dynamics of cognition leading to a dual account of the life and scientific endeavours’ of Rademaker (hence the reference to ‘cognition’ in the title). According to the author’s intentions, a careful reconstruction of all stages of Rademaker’s career through ‘the intuitive and experimental evidence’ of his work should lead to an understanding of his experience not only as a historical singularity, but also as a model of scientific reasoning and life. In this endeavour, the author has drawn inspiration from the Plutarchian model of the Vitae Parallelae, in that he resorts to various parallels in order to highlight the main features of Rademaker’s intellectual and moral development. None of these claims are actually met by the book. The dynamics of cognition are often referred to (not least in the very concise conclusion), but in an obscure way, without any real commitment to the theoretical issue. As for the reference to Plutarch, its validity is very doubtful. This said, one can easily see how Hogenhuis’s work could have been a good (at times very informative) traditional biography if only it had undergone some real editing. The quantity of avoidable repetitions (a few times even entire paragraphs), misprints and sketchy digressions of dubious utility is far above the average. The interesting historical hints are diluted in a narrative overflow oscillating between extreme detail (for example, the summaries of all the PhD dissertations prepared in Rademaker’s institute, book IV) and excessive generality (for instance, the history of research on muscle tone in book VIII). Finally, the very outline of the chapters, with the partial exception of books II and III, is sketchy and the lines of argument often hard to follow. It is difficult to understand how such a sloppy editorial product can be sold for €99.

Philip of Harvengt's Life of the Blessed Virgin Oda

For every famous author of the twelfth-century renaissance, there are numerous lesser-known writers. Despite being overshadowed by more brilliant scholars or those closer to the centre of important events, their voices add depth to the study of the intellectual and religious history of this period. A founding member of one of the earliest Premonstratensian houses, a highly-educated and prolific author, much in demand as a hagiographer, and a vigorous defender of the clerical order, Philip of Harvengt is one such writer, and a worthy subject for study. This article examines one of his hagiographical works, the Life of the Blessed Virgin Oda, a nun attached to his own house, whom he portrays as a martyr. It analyses the predominant and recurrent concerns and ideals expressed in the Life, particularly the claim to martyrdom, and the means by which this is expressed.

Saintly models: Isabel la Católica and the commissioning of a flos sanctorum

One of the Castilian collections of saints’ lives, or santorales, derived in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries from Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda aurea was commissioned c. 1488 by Queen Isabel I of Castile. The process out of which Esc MS h‐II‐18 was born and its particularities, which often render it distinct from the other extant santorales, impel us to question the extent to which Isabel may have had input into the structural unity of the santoral, remodelling it according to her own designs. This study suggests that Esc MS h‐II‐18 mirrors the ideological imperatives that marked its patron’s rule and that the representation of female saints in the collection is closely bound up with the gender ideology of which Isabel was at once agent and subject – fashioning herself and being depicted by those around her as an exemplary figure who would satisfy the needs of Spain, a model for women in contemporary society but, like the female saints in the hagiographic work, a safe exception, set apart from the general rule for others of her sex.

The Visigoths in the Time of Ulfila by E.A. THOMPSON

BOOK REVIEWS 117 Still, quot homines, tot sententiae: I am not one of the less-than-avid readers of Roman comedy that S. hopes for, so this book was not written for me. The above remarks should be taken accordingly. MICHAEL FONTAINE Cornell University * * * The Visigoths in the Time of Ulfila.2 By E.A. THOMPSON. Introduction by Michael Kulikowski. London: Duckworth, 2008. Pp. xxiii + 186. Paper, $24.00. ISBN 978–0–7156–3700–5. Thompson’s (T.) Visigoths first appeared in 1966. It was a pioneering study of Gothic society during the important but obscure time from the reign of Constantine I (306–337) to that of Theodosius I (379–395), for most of which the Goths were close associates of the Roman Empire but still outsiders. During this period Ulfila, a Goth of Roman provincial descent, was recruited by the Arian church establishment of Constantinople to support fellow Arian Christians in his homeland, to which end he devised a Gothic alphabet and translated the Bible into Gothic. The 2008 volume, though presented as a second edition, is a reprint of that of 1966, with the addition of an Introduction by Michael Kulikowski (K.) and a translation of the Passion of St. Saba the Goth by John Matthews, first published in Peter Heather and John Matthews, The Goths in the Fourth Century (Liverpool, 1991). The reprint’s hybrid nature is evident in, for example, the lack of pagination of the Introduction (the “K” numbers below are mine), and in the re-useof the original Index,which ignoresnew material. T.’s Visigoths was highly influential. As K. says (p. K2), its originality lay in taking Germani seriously, not as elemental forces but as ordinary people reacting to shifts in their circumstances. T., like many other distinguished historians of his day (e.g., de Ste. Croix, Finley, Hill and Hobsbawm), drew this fruitful approach from Marxist historical materialism. Key elements were T.’s consideration of emerging archaeological evidence, relating to what is now called the “Sîntana de Mureş-Černjachov culture,” and his identification of neglected hagiographical works, such as the Passion of St. Saba, as potential sources of historical information . There has been much work, however, done on the Goths since 1966, one result of which is, ironically, as K. notes (pp. K6–7), a recognition that there were 118 BOOK REVIEWS no “Visigoths” before the 5th century,and thusonly“Goths”“in the time ofUlfila.” The new work was reflected in Heather and Matthews’ Goths, which follows T.’s Visigoths so closely that it may be regarded as its proper second edition. Perhaps too closely: Heather and Matthews also make much of the “Sîntana de Mureş- Černjachov culture” and of Saba. Contra K. (p. K7) I have expressed my doubts as to both the validity of the Passion as evidence for Gothic life, and the “Gothicness” of the Sîntana de Mureş-Černjachov material (in CR 43 (1993)); on the archaeology, see now also Andrew Poulter, in John Drinkwater and Benet Salway, eds., Wolf Liebeschuetz Reflected (London, 2007). But Goths contains much valuable material and, supplemented by Heather’s Goths and Romans 332– 489 (Oxford, 1991), may be said to have replaced Visigoths as the standard work in English. So why the reprint? In his Introduction K. expresses grave dissatisfaction with the current state ofearly-Germanic and, in particular, Gothic studies.At fault are two new “interpretative trends” (p. K4). The first, stimulated by the work of Richard Wenskus, is “ethnogenesis”: the contention that there were no permanent Germanic “tribes” or “peoples” engaged in great “migrations,” but only constant “cores of tradition” maintained by small elites, around which various political associations, made up of various ethnic groups, perennially formed, dissolved and re-formed. The second, which K. has elsewhere (JRS 98 (2008) 269) associated with “recentOxonian writers,” is areversion to the model that ethnogenesis was devised to supplant: a vigorous re-statement of the existence and importance of tribal and national identity, and of “migration” and “invasion .” In T.’s Visigoths K. sees a pure spring of historical reconstruction, rising upstream ofwaters now contaminated by such notions. K. also sees T. as an early, albeit unconscious champion of a...

Reading the Texture of History and Memory in Early-Nineteenth-Century Punjab

This article examines two early-nineteenth-century Punjabi histories to demonstrate how these texts reflect ruptures in the recording and reordering of Sikh historical memories in the decades prior to colonization. An awareness of the East India Company's interest in the records of the recent Sikh past is reflected in the works of Ratan Singh Bhangu, the author of the hagiographic work Gur Panth Prakash, and Ram Sukh Rao, the court historian of the Sikh kingdom of Kapurthala. The works on these Punjabi authors reveal anxieties about how the recent past would be recorded and understood not only by the colonial state but also by the larger Punjabi-speaking Sikh community. A close contextual reading of both texts reveals the complex impact of colonial rule on local modes of historical narration. Each author crafted competing discourses about the nature of Sikh sovereignty for the new audiences of Sikh courts and the Khalsa warrior community. Reading these two texts together destabilizes our understanding of these two important and widely used sources of Sikh history and raises methodological concerns about how such precolonial sources should be read. In particular, analyzing the expressive and literary forms of such narratives to understand the ways in which they simultaneously created and engaged new audiences in vernacular languages such as Punjabi, mobilizing such groups through the forging of new political and cultural identities, is extremely important.

The Long Morning of Medieval Europe: New Directions in Early Medieval Studies (review)

Reviewed by: The Long Morning of Medieval Europe: New Directions in Early Medieval Studies Gregory Halfond The Long Morning of Medieval Europe: New Directions in Early Medieval Studies. Edited by Jennifer R. Davis and Michael McCormick. (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company. 2008. Pp. xx, 345. $99.95. ISBN 978-0-754-66254-9.) In 2007, the History Channel, perhaps the most influential outlet for popular history in the United States, aired The Dark Ages, a documentary on early-medieval Europe. The program's title served as a depressing reminder to professional medievalists of the wide gulf between popular and scholarly impressions of this period. Jennifer R. Davis and Michael McCormick have now published the proceedings of a 2004 conference held at Harvard University in 2004 as The Long Morning of Medieval Europein an attempt to demonstrate the sophistication of both early-medieval society and the diverse methodologies employed by scholars of the period. As Davis and McCormick declare in their introduction and as the individual contributions attest, the early Middle Ages was no Dark Age, even in the less objectionable sense of a period poorly represented in the historical record. Moreover, its glories were not simply the moldy remnants of a superior Roman past but also were true innovations. This thesis is ably and convincingly demonstrated by the individual essays, which are grouped under five topical rubrics: economy, religion, literature, politics, and art. Synergy between the contributions is provided by McCormick's introductory essays to each section, which lucidly place the individual essays within a common historiographical framework and provide linkage between the sections. Concluding essays for each section authored by other conference participants offer critical perspective on the papers. The quality of the individual essays is uniformly strong. Those that focus on historical methodology, for example, reveal medievalists' impressive new avenues of research. McCormick's essay surveys the information provided by biomolecular archaeology, including previously inaccessible data about human diet, the migration of peoples, and the spread of infectious diseases. Of particular interest to historians of religion, Guy Philappart and Michel Trigalet's contribution is a fascinating description of their ongoing database project that eventually will consist of 10,000 hagiographical works and 3320 saints, which aims to provide quantitative evidence about Christian sanctity between the third and fifteenth centuries. Other essays challenge conventional wisdom on a variety of disciplinary fronts. Joachim Henning, for example, argues that that a dynamic farmstead model of peasant society emerged in Western Europe following the disappearance of Roman authority, but was brought to a premature end by the emergent estate system of the Carolingian Empire, a change, he argues, that instigated economic stagnation. Similarly controversial, Riccardo Francovich challenges the traditional narrative of incastellamentoin Italy, employing archaeological evidence to argue that seventh- and eighth-century Tuscan peasant settlements were already nucleated and focused on hilltops, and that the appearance of aristocrats in [End Page 789]these communities occurred later. Still other contributors investigate previously neglected corners of early-medieval culture, such as Paul Dutton's examination of blood rain as a "cultural and historical experience," Joaquín Martínez Pizarro's reading of the Historia Wambaas an exercise in political damage control, and Mayke de Jong's search for political symbolism in Charlemagne's solarium. Although the majority of contributions ably promote the editors' stated goal of demonstrating the dynamism of early-medievalist scholarship, as well as the blatant unsuitability of the epithet "Dark Age," it is doubtful that they will hold much appeal or meaning to a nonspecialist audience, despite the inclusion of McCormick's introductions. This is a shame, not only because of the impressive quality of this anthology and its individual components but also because of the desperate need for a scholarly work of popular appeal that can change public perceptions of this deeply misunderstood period. For such a work we must continue to wait. Gregory Halfond Framingham State College Copyright © 2009 The Catholic University of America Press

The Tiruttoṇṭar Tiruvantāti of Nampi Āṇṭār Nampi

This paper presents an English translation from the original Tamil of the canonical Saivite hagiographical work, the Tiruttoṇṭar Tiruvantāti of Nampi Āṇṭār Nampi. The date of this work is disputed, but it was probably composed at some point between 870 and 1118 CE. This classical Tamil poem gives in summary form the lives of the sixty three Saivite saints of the sixth to ninth centuries known as the Nāyaṉmār, or Tiruttoṇṭar (“holy servants”, sc. of the Lord Siva). The paper also includes an Introduction, setting out the context of the poem and its place in the Saivite literary tradition from which the Saiva Siddhanta philosophy subsequently developed, and Notes which explain the mythological and other references which the poem contains.