Book review of Coker, Matthew D. 2023. Supernatural Speakers in Old English Verse. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press. Pp. 154. ISBN 9781641894128.

Performing Disability in Medieval and Early Modern Britain By Mark C. Chambers. Early Social Performance. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2024; pp. ix + 200, 5 illustrations. $136 cloth; $136 e-book.

Voices from the front lines: The pandemic and the humanities By Katherine RatzanPeeler and Richard M.Ratzan (Eds.), San Francisco, CA: University of California Health Humanities Press. 2024. 336 pp.

<i>Waldef: A French Romance from Medieval England</i> . Translated by Ivana Djordjević, Nicole Clifton, and Judith Weiss <i>Waldef: A French Romance from Medieval England</i> . Translated by DjordjevićIvana, CliftonNicole, and WeissJudith. (Foundations; French of England Translation Series, 12.) York: Arc Humanities Press, 2020. 250 pp.

ABSTRACT This article considers the related concepts of ‘rehearsal’ [Harney, Stefano, and Fred Moten. 2013. The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study. Brooklyn: Minor Compositions] and ‘catastrophe’ [Stengers, Isabelle. 2015. In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism. Translated by Andrew Goffey. London: Open Humanities Press] as activism, focussing upon eco-somatic drama processes engaged through In Your Arms (IYA). This participatory arts project for babies and their primary caregivers was co-created in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia, by a four-person artist ensemble, ten pre-crawling babies, and their mothers. Multi-modalities were used, including improvisatory movement scores, natural props, sound-making and listening practices. The article suggests new ways to consider drama activity at a micro-sensorial scale, offering practices that cultivate environmental attunement and care from the very first months of life.

Lukas G. Grzybowski, The Christianization of Scandinavia in the Viking Era. Religious Change in Adam of Bremen’s Historical Work. York , ARC Humanities Press 2021

This review article offers an introductory overview of a distinctive broadly ‘deconstructive’ body of work which deserves to be more widely known. Two books in particular, by Claire Colebrook, Tom Cohen and J. Hillis Miller, are an especial focus, with their uncompromising readings of many of the assumptions and evasions in the environmental humanities. These are Theory and the Disappearing Future: On de Man, On Benjamin (London, Routledge, 2012), and Twilight of the Anthropocene Idols (Open Humanities Press, 2016).

Review of Elite Women as Diplomatic Agents in Italy and Hungary, 1470–1510 Kinship and the Aragonese Dynastic Network. By Jessica O’Leary. Leeds: ARC Humanities Press, 2022. ISBN 9781641892421. xvi + 106 pp. £59.

Reviewed by: Digital Medieval Studies: Practice and Preservation ed. by Laura K. Morreale and Sean Gilsdorf Paul Evans Digital Medieval Studies: Practice and Preservation. By Laura K. Morreale and Sean Gilsdorf, eds. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2022. Digital Medieval Studies is a short, 121-page, edited collection that makes an argument for using a specific methodology, known as the digital documentation process (DDP), to document digital scholarly projects in medieval studies. Although it is now common for medievalists to preserve public GitHub repositories associated with their digital projects, DDP is a more structured approach aimed at documenting projects narratively in a form accessible to scholars who are not versed in digital methodologies, including those who are involved in hiring and tenure decisions. Medievalists who have done at least some digital work are the book's intended audience, and its primary agenda is to encourage them to preserve their projects in what, the contributors hope, will become a comprehensive, persistent, corpus of digital medieval scholarship. Except for an introduction by editors Laura K. Morreale and Sean Gilsdorf and a concluding retrospective by Lisa Fagin Davis, the contributed chapters focus on projects that have been archived according to DDP. Although the chapter authors do not go out of their way to foreground the process, their individual articles form an expanded commentary on each project's archiving dossier narrative (ADN), the historical component of DDP. Readers interested in archiving their own projects according to DDP will benefit from consulting the project information in the appendix to connect the content of the essays with the corresponding digital artifacts. In the book's five contributed chapters, the editors offer a commendable range of perspectives, spanning public humanities, research, teaching, and technical approaches. In chapter 1, Deborah Everhart and Martin Irvine narrate the history of the Labyrinth, a 1990s-era portal that collected and presented a curated set of links to resources for medieval studies. The authors take justifiable pride in this early project, which established medieval studies as a first mover in using the web as a vehicle for scholarly communication and for what today is called public humanities. They note, however, that the demise of the Labyrinth project offers a cautionary lesson on the vulnerability of still-valuable [End Page 147] project information to the vagaries of platform evolution. Today there are only two existing archives of the Labyrinth contents: the original hand-edited HTML from 2007 and an Adobe ColdFusion format from 2014. ColdFusion was a web platform that enjoyed some vogue among university IT departments until about 2010 but is rarely used now. This means that the 2014 archive is effectively unrecoverable for most users. In chapter 2, John McEwan describes the digital sigillography project (DIGISIG), which makes the standard print references, upon which the subdiscipline of sigillography has long depended, available in an online form. In doing so, DIGISIG shows these references to be more than the sum of their parts because it invites both extensive cross-referencing and sophisticated hierarchical classification schemes. McEwan also indirectly highlights a more general problem: that of recording, organizing, and searching for information not easily represented in standard character formats such as Unicode text. In this respect sigillography has much in common with the only partially solved problem of digital paleography. In chapter 3, Rowan Doran presents a clear narrative of the life-cycle of the Corpus Synodalium project and highlights the importance of a good set of explicit fundamental decisions in guiding digital humanities projects—noting, in this case, that the project should be "designed for permanence" and "driven by research questions'' (55) and should not "replicate the existing unevenness in availability of sources" (56). In the case of the Corpus Synodalium project, design for permanence entailed a clear separation between format and platform commitments: plain-text data and comma-separated metadata, on the one hand; the ARTFL Project's PhilLogic4 on the other. (Doran's contention that capturing information in the simplest formats possible, such as .txt and .csv, is a key to long-term project data survivability is also a theme of Davis's closing chapter.) Doran is forthright in acknowledging that his project enjoyed an unusual level of institutional support, so...

Premises and Problems: Essays on World Literature and Cinema

The majority of the chapters in this edited book have their origins in the 'Who Cares? Interventions in "Unloved" Museum Collections' conference held in 2015 at the Dana Research Centre, Science Museum (London). The conference marked the culmination of a UK Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project of the same name. Like the project and conference, this new book shines a light on 'unloved' museum collections. A term, the editors explain, which refers to stored collections, and more broadly objects with limited public appeal and for which 'significance may be harder to recognize' (p 1). Yet to speak of 'unloved' collections is not to suggest that they are disregarded. On the contrary, this book takes the reader beyond public displays into the hidden space of museum storerooms to look at who cares for such collections, and in doing so reveals a range of individuals, groups and institutions who care intensely. Driven by the applied aim of considering what happens 'when people who care about stored collections are brought into the research, engagement, and curatorial process' (p 7), the book addresses a broader challenge for the museum sector: how to find new ways to understand, interpret and use 'unloved' collections in ways that will enable the public 'to value them as much as, if not more than, objects which are "easy to love"' (p 201).

Francis Young (ed. and trans.). Pagans in the Early Modern Baltic: Sixteenth-Century Ethnographic Accounts of Baltic Paganism. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2022

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New Books across the Disciplines

O objetivo desta pesquisa é descrever O APARÊNCIA DA IMAGEM SENSORIAL DE SÃO JOÃO BATISTA: UMA FESTA MÁGICO-RELIGIOSA VISTA DE SEUS ATORES. Na festa de San Juan, ocorre uma representação carregada de emoção, em conjunto com a dança e a música, que constitui uma forma de expressão tradicional que integra parte da cultura popular com a religião católica. Essas celebrações acontecem no mês de junho em várias partes do mundo. Em Pueblo Arriba, na paróquia Naiguatá do estado de La Guaira, na Venezuela, é homenageada a imagem de San Juan Niño. Ali fica a sede onde seus fiéis - fiéis que a consideram um patrimônio vivo - preparam as cerimônias. Como metodologia, trata-se de uma pesquisa mista (descritiva e de campo) orientada sob a abordagem qualitativa. As entrevistas são realizadas na freguesia mencionada, a que pertencem os informantes-chave que fornecerão os dados significativos. Como técnica de coleta de informações, utiliza-se a entrevista em profundidade e a observação do participante. Também a ritualidade e o simbolismo descritos por Victor Turner que ajudarão na compreensão final deste ensaio. Abstract:The purpose of this research is to describe THE APPEARANCE OF THE SENSORY IMAGE OF SAN JUAN BAUTISTA: A MAGICAL-RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL SEEN FROM ITS ACTORS. In the festival of San Juan, a performance charged with emotion takes place, together with dance and music, which constitutes a form of traditional expression that integrates part of popular culture with the Catholic religion. These celebrations take place in June in various parts of the world. In Pueblo Arriba, in the Naiguatá parish of La Guaira state in Venezuela, homage is paid to the image of San Juan Niño. The main house is located there where its followers —faithful who consider it a living heritage— prepare the ceremonies. As a methodology, it is a mixed research (descriptive and field) oriented under the qualitative approach. Interviews are carried out in the aforementioned parish to which the key informants who will provide the significant data belong. As a technique for collecting information, in-depth interviews and participant observation are used. Also the rituality and symbolism described by Víctor Turner that will help the final understanding of this essay. ACOSTA SAIGNES, M. 1967. Vida de los esclavos negros en Venezuela. [1ª. Publicación, 1967]. Vadell Hnos. Editores. Valencia, VenezuelaACUÑA DELGADO, Á. (2001) El cuerpo en la interpretación de las culturas, pp. 31-52 Boletín Antropológico. Boletín Antropológico Año 20, Vol 1, Nº 51, Enero-Abril 2001, ISSN: 1325-2610. Universidad de Los Andes. Mérida. ACUÑA DELGADO Á. y ALTEZ Y. (2013)Los tambores de San Juan en la Sabana, historia, cuerpo y lenguaje. Revista venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales. vol.19, no 1 (enero-abril), pp. 63-80ASCENCIO, Michaelle (2001): Entre Santa Bárbara y Changó (La herencia de la plantación), Fondo Editorial Tropykos, Caracas. Igualmente debe consultar textos clásicos como: Liscano, Juan (1973) La fiesta de San Juan El Bautista, Monte Ávila Editores,BARRETO GUÉDEZ E., (2014) Turismo y fiestas populares de Naiguatá, Estado Vargas-Venezuela. Kalpana No. 12 (pag.22-pag.31) ISNN: 1390-5775BRICEÑO PEROZO, M. (1975) Informe sobre la fundación de Naiguatá. En: Boletín de la Academia Nacional de Historia. Nº 229, tomo LVIII, enero — marzo, p 181—183. Caracas, Venezuela.Código de ética para la vida (2010). Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Ciencia, Tecnología e Industrias Intermedias. Caracas.GARCÍA, S. (2007). Diablos danzantes de Naiguatá. Caracas: Miguel Ángel García e Hijo.MÁRQUEZ, E. (2008). Reflexiones sobre cómo construir el proyecto de tesis doctoral desde la perspectiva cualitativa. Caracas: Fondo Editorial de la Universidad pedagógica Libertador.MELGAR BAO, R. (2001) EL UNIVERSO SIMBÓLICO DEL RITUAL EN EL PENSAMIENTO DE VÍCTOR TURNER. Revista Estudios Antropología. INVESTIGACIONES SOCIALES Año V número7 2001.Memorias de Vargas (2005). Caracas: Fundación de Estudios Financieros.PADÍN, CLEMENTE (2004) Poemas para (h)ojear. Mérida, Venezuela: Ediciones Mucuglilfo, Dirección Sectorial de Literatura CONAC, pp. 33POLLAK-ELTZ, A. (1991). La negritud en Venezuela. Madrid: Akal.SANDÍN, E. M. P. (2003) Investigación cualitativa en educación. Fundamentos y tradiciones. México: McGraw-Hill.UGAS F., G. (2005) Epistemología de la educación pedagógica. Táchira, Venezuela: Lito-Formas. TAYLOR, D. (2014) Actos de Transferencia. Archivo y Repertorio. La memoria Cultural performática en las Américas. Extraído el 15 de enero de 2017. deTURNER, VÍCTOR (1957) Schism and Continuity in an Afriean Society, Manchester University Press (Edición simultánea en New York a cargo de The Humanities Press, Inc.). TURNER, Víctor (1957) Ndembu Divination: It’ s Symbolism and Tercniques, Manchester, Manchester University Press. TURNER, Víctor (1967) The Forest 01 Symbo/s, Ithaca, Cornell University Press. TURNER, Víctor (1968) The Drums of Affliction, Oxford, Clarendon Press. TURNER, Víctor (1974) Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors. Symbolic Action in Human Soeiety, Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press. TURNER, Víctor (1981) Celebration, Washington DC: Smithsonian Institute Press. TURNER, Víctor (1986) The Antropology 01 Performance, I\ew York: PAJ Publications.TURNER, Víctor (1992) Blazing The Traif, Tucson &amp; London: University of Arizona Press.Entrevista cualitativas realizadas a profundidad a Eladia Casares, Yelitza Romero y Kelvis Romero. (2017) en Naiguatá Estado La Guaira.

Tommaso Astarita: The Italian Baroque Table, cooking and entertaining from the Golden Age of Napels: ACMRS Tempe, Arizona, 2014: 308 pp., hardback, originally priced at £55, but currently available from Book Depository for £12.06. Tommaso Asterita, ed. and trans.: Antonio Latini's 'The Modern Steward, or the Art of preparing banquets well'. A complete English translation: ARC Humanities Press, Leeds, 2019: 444 pp., hardback, was £104, but currently available at £14.99 from Postscript. Antonio Latini: Lo Scalco alla Moderna: 2 volumes, Naples, 1692-1694: facsimile edition, from the copy in Harlan and Delia Walker's library, Bibliotheca Culinaria, Lodi, 1993: 606 and 256 pp., currently only available second hand.

In the opening of their book Hyposubjects: On becoming human, Morton and Boyer (2021) prepare their reader that “what follows is an exercise in flimsy and chaotic thinking” (13). As introductions go, it is certainly unusual, irreverent and an astute assessment of how the book unfolds.

I am Mayya Revzina, originally from Kirov and Moscow, Russia, currently living in Bethesda, Maryland. I am a publishing professional with experience in communications and international publishing in Russia, the U.K., and the U.S. I began my career in publishing in 2006 working for a small Russian publisher, OGI Press (United Humanities Press), famous for its publications of poetry, non-fiction, and contemporary novels. When interviewed by a panel of officers from World Bank Publications at the London Book Fair 2007, where I was competing with fellow graduate students from U.K. universities for the World Bank Publishing Internship Prize, I confessed that my dream job would be to become a rights manager and facilitate translations into different languages. For the past 15 years, I have been working as a copyright and publishing rights manager at the World Bank. At the moment I am focused on safeguarding the success of the Bank’s Open Access Policy and Open Knowledge Repository, as well as educating my colleagues, including researchers, communication professionals, and knowledge managers, about copyright, open access and public licensing. In 2017 I launched the Copyright Coffee educational series at the World Bank Group library, which have generated great demand.

Reviewed by: The Congregation of Tiron: Monastic Contributions to Trade and Communication in Twelfth-Century France and Britain by Ruth Harwood Cline Yvonne Seale The Congregation of Tiron: Monastic Contributions to Trade and Communication in Twelfth-Century France and Britain. By Ruth Harwood Cline. [Spirituality and Monasticism, East and West.] (Leeds: Arc Humanities Press. 2019. Pp. xiii, 210. €89.00. ISBN 978-1-641-89358-9.) Ruth Harwood Cline’s study of the Tironensian Order’s expansion and economic activities during the first century or so of its existence is one clearly grounded in a deep familiarity both with the relevant primary sources and with the geography of the wide swathe of western France, Britain, and Ireland in which the order’s houses were located. The Tironensians offer a rich and promising source base for any scholar of medieval monasticism. The abbey of Tiron was founded ca. 1109 about thirty miles to the west of Chartres, in a “swampy, forested, brigand-infested valley unsuited for vines or wheat” (38). Despite this, Tiron rapidly became the mother abbey of an order with dozens of affiliated houses such as Le Tronchet and Bois-Aubry, France; Kelso, Scotland; and St. Dogmaels, Wales. Over the course of The Congregation of Tiron’s seven chapters, Cline sketches a portrait of both the abbey and of its associated congregation. First, she analyzes the role which Tiron played in the reform movement of the twelfth century, before moving on to assess the nature of the “Tironensian identity,” the presence of women in the early order, and the contributions of key figures to the congregation’s development, such as founding abbot Bernard of Abbeville and his successor William of Poitiers. The two longest chapters consider the Tironensians’ expansion and economic activities in France and Britain—from grain production to horse breeding to providing supplies and care both spiritual and medical for weary sailors—and how patronage, particularly royal patronage, could shape those activities. A brief concluding chapter considers the Tironensians’ post-medieval history until the dissolution of the mother abbey during the French Revolution. Two appendices discuss papal confirmations and disputes respectively. Readers will doubtlessly find the many tables and maps in chapters 5 and 6, which document the Tironensians’ expansion, to be very useful reference points. Anyone who has spent time poring over a set of charters in conjunction with a modern map or a topographic dictionary to pinpoint the location of a now-vanished monastic grange will appreciate how much time and effort went into producing them. Cline’s concluding wish, that this book will “break ground for future research” (179), will undoubtedly be fulfilled based on these resources. Yet equally the reader may find themselves wishing that the author had spent a little more time in explicitly exploring the source base, particularly the many charters which are often referenced but rarely thoroughly analyzed. The suspicion must remain that the charters—and other documentary sources, such as Tiron’s “cartulary”, actually a work assembled from a variety of medieval sources by a scholar in the nineteenth century (p. 3)—have a richer story to tell than what is conveyed by the tables, maps, and listings of landholdings alone. The enumeration of the order’s holdings would have been stronger if tied back more often to Cline’s underlying [End Page 801] arguments. Moreover, the reader might have wished for more interrogation of several terms used by Cline, such as “Celtic abbeys,” “Normanization,” and indeed “Tironensian identity.” Despite these caveats, The Congregation of Tiron is successful in its reconstruction of the many and varied economic activities in which the Tironensian Order engaged during the High Middle Ages, and Cline makes a convincing case for the importance of the order to the history of the economic development of the twelfth century. Yvonne Seale SUNY Geneseo Copyright © 2022 The Catholic University of America Press