Major Manuscripts Research Articles

Once again about the translation principles of Epiphanius Slavinetsky and Euphemia Chudovsky (based on the material "Epitomy")

The subject of the study is the linguistic features of the Slavic translation of the Epitomies by Konstantin Armenopoul, performed by Epiphanius Slavinetsky. The object of study was the translation itself, presented in several major manuscripts. The work on the Epitomies belongs to one of the early works of Epiphanius in Moscow, since the Kiev scribe began it in 1652-1653. In the course of the analysis, we considered both the earliest discovered lists of "Epitomies" and the latest (up to the end of the XIX – beginning XX centuries), however, the most important textual and linguistic material is presented in the following lists: Usp. 91, GIM – a draft of the hand of Epiphany Slavinetsky; Und. 40, RGB – records of active editorial editing; Sin. 129, GIM – the final version, rewritten by Euphemia Monstrosky. The work uses the linguotextological method, as well as methods of continuous sampling, analytical observation and comparison of the Slavic text with the original in Greek. The novelty of the study consists in the introduction into scientific circulation of lists that have not been studied by researchers in the linguistic aspect before. The analysis of the Epitomium material not only makes it possible to reconstruct the history of the text, but also has fundamental linguistic significance. It makes it possible to summarize the general and highlight the differences in the linguistic features of Epiphanius Slavinetsky and his pupil Euphemia Chudovsky. Thus, the author of the translation, Epiphany Slavinetsky, and the editor, Euphemia Chudovsky, have different linguistic orientations – the first relies more on Slavic grammars, and for the second it is important to convey the Greek original as accurately as possible, which also leads to the elimination of regionalisms characteristic of the Ukrainian-Belarusian translation of Church Slavonic, and the Grecization of the text.

Journal Status Report 2023

Manuscript submissions to the Philippine Journal of Science (PJS; philjournalsci.dost.gov.ph) in 2023 were at 42.50 ± 13.29 per month, which is 47% higher than that (28.92 ± 8.49) in 2022. The acceptance rates in 2022 and 2023 were 66.18 and 42.68%, respectively. Presented below are figures of manuscript submissions (blue) and acceptance rate (green) from 2010–2023. The number of submissions in 2023 was 8.5 times higher than that in 2015, whereas the acceptance rate decreased by more than 24% compared to the average rate of 67 ± 4% in the last eight years ending 2022. Without exception, the Editorial Office subjects every submission to a single-blind peer-review process involving at least two independent expert-evaluators, and an editorial decision is rendered immediately after the first round when major manuscript revision is unanimously recommended. In most cases, the final decision is made on publication suitability after two rounds of evaluation.

The Principles of Selection and Arrangement of the Letters of Basil the Great in the Aldine Edition of the Ancient Greek Epistolographers

This article examines the principles of selection and arrangement of the letters of Basil the Great in the Aldine edition and in the major manuscript families. It argues that the ordering of Basil’s letters in them was mainly based on the content of the letters, whether thematical or by addressee. The article concludes that the ancient and medieval thematical orderings of the letters are helpful for our understanding of the contents of a large collection such as that of Basil, compared to the modern reconstructed chronological order presented in the editions.

I ricettari federiciani: appunti di lavoro

Abstract This paper presents recent research findings on the so-called «Frederician cookbooks» – better known as the Liber de coquina –, with specific reference to some new etymological hypotheses about medieval Italian food names. Moreover, through a palaeographic and linguistic analysis, this article discusses the geographical localization and dating of the major manuscripts within this textual tradition, in a new attempt to cast light on a very complex documentation. Specifically, by interacting with Anna Martellotti’s work (I ricettari di Federico II. Dal «Meridionale» al «Liber de coquina», Firenze, Olschki, 2005), the results presented here hope to bring a new perspective to the lively debate on the southern origin of this medieval tradition, which is probably the oldest Italian recipe collection.

Authoring and Publishing in the Age of Manuscripts: the Columbia University Copy of an Ottoman Compendium of Sciences with Marginal Glossing

Abstract This study examines an early-seventeenth century copy of a popular book in Ottoman Turkish originally composed by Nevʿī Efendi (d. 1599) in the early 1570s. With around 150 extant copies available in almost every major Islamic manuscript collection across the world, Nevʿī Efendi’s compendium, or the “fruits,” of sciences (Netāyicü’l-fünūn) deserves to be called an early modern bestseller among the Ottoman reading public. The particular copy of the work located at Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Or. 360) is a notable one with numerous minhu records (i.e., marginal glosses one could trace back to the author) written in Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, and Persian. In this article, besides situating Nevʿī Efendi’s work in the broader genre of taṣnīf al-ʿulūm (classification of sciences) in the Ottoman as well as the broader Islamicate realm of learning, I will pay closer attention to discussing the minhu notes that present intriguing insights into the questions of what a published work meant in the age of manuscripts, and how the continuous interventions on the text made by the author, and possibly by the copyists and readers, enrich as well as shuffle the “authentic” contents of the “published” version.

Madeline H. Caviness and Charles G. Nelson†, Women and Jews in the Sachsenspiegel Picture-Books. Turnhout: Brepols/Harvey Miller Publishers, 2018, 472 pp., a vast number of colored and b/w ill.

One of the most important medieval law books, the Sachsenspiegel (The Saxon Mirror), composed by Eike von Repgow around 1220/1230, represents a stunning bibliophile masterpiece in its various <?page nr="463"?>manuscript versions. Much discussed already by German, but also American and other scholars, it has now received once again extensive attention and careful analysis by the art historian Madeline H. Caveness and her Germanist colleague, Charles G. Nelson, who passed away in 2008. This was certainly a great team, though it might have been very useful if also a legal historian had joined them. The major manuscripts were all beautifully illuminated in order to explain the various criminal acts and the necessary punishments. Thus, scholars have a fantastic instrument available to study a wide range of topics relevant for thirteenth-century German society, but also other neighboring people because the Sachsenspiegel became highly influential as a role model for other law books throughout the later Middle Ages.

In the Ḥakīm’s Own Hand

AbstractThe history of Greco-Arabic medicine in India can be studied through the Arabic and Persian manuscripts used by its students, practitioners, and collectors. The aim of this paper is to follow the reception of a major medical manuscript tradition in India: the medical encyclopedia of Najīb al-Dīn al-Samarqandī (d. 619/1222), al-Asbāb wa-l-ʿalāmāt, and the many commentaries written on the work in the region. By studying the colophons and ownership notes of these manuscripts, dating from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, we learn about the transmission and reception of ṭibb in the Mughal and Colonial Indian environment.

A Genizah Fragment of Bavli Eruvin 53b–54a, 64b

Abstract This article presents a Genizah fragment related to B Eruv. 53b–54a, 64b, identified as Cambridge UL T-S F1 (2) 114. The article begins with a description of the fragment, including paleographic and calligraphic description. The fragment then is compared to the printed version of the text and major manuscripts of Eruvin, including graphic comments of the commentators in the margins of the page in the printed text.

A Genizah Fragment of Bavli Eruvin 61b–63a

The article presents a Genizah fragment related to Babli Eruvin 61b–63a, identified as Cambridge ul T-S F2 (2) 27. The article begins with a description of the fragment including paleographic and calligraphic description. The fragment is then compared to the printed version of the text and major manuscripts of Eruvin and graphic comments of the commentators in the margins of the page in the printed text.

Fragments and Assemblages: Forming Compilations of Medieval London. Arthur Bahr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. Pp. vii+285.

<i>Fragments and Assemblages: Forming Compilations of Medieval London</i>. Arthur Bahr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. Pp. vii+285.

Prophecy as criticism: MS Peniarth 50, tradition and translation

ABSTRACTThe Welsh Middle Ages witnessed the circulation of an enormous number of pieces of “darogan”, highly mobile and adaptable political prophecy. These are, characteristically, messianic texts promising the return – often from overseas – of a redeeming national hero (Owain Glyn Dŵr and Henry Tudor were only two of the actors identified as this “son of prophecy”). Many of these texts were translations, belonging to a wider British and European tradition, and the major Welsh medieval manuscript collections are also among the most important multilingual manuscripts of the period. Focussing on one of these, a fifteenth-century trilingual miscellany, the article considers how an enlarged concept of translatability, considered along with specific discussions of historicity and temporality, may help read the vein of “popular” prophecy contained in the multilingual manuscripts as criticism of the wider tradition.

Selected Poems by John Wilmot, and: The Beggar’s Opera and Polly by John Gay

Reviewed by: Selected Poems by John Wilmot, and: The Beggar’s Opera and Polly by John Gay Nicholas Fisher John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. Selected Poems, ed. Paul Davis. Oxford, 2013. Pp. lv + 136. $13.95; £7.99. John Gay. The Beggar’s Opera and Polly, ed. Hal Gladfelder. Oxford, 2013. Pp. xlvii + 207. $11.95; £7.99. The publication of these new, accessible editions in the World’s Classics series is welcome and will bring to a new audience two writers with rising literary reputations. While the common format—introduction, note on the text, select bibliography and author chronology—is useful, it especially contributes to an appreciation of Rochester’s verse, where the editor faces the unique challenges caused by the survival in holograph of just nine poems and the anonymous circulation of most of the remainder in scribal separates or manuscript assemblies that generally defy dating even to a year. Mr. Davis derives his selection of two-thirds of the Rochester canon from Harold Love’s 1999 edition for Oxford English Texts. The full range of the verse is represented, although, regrettably, space has not been found for the quatrain “God bless our good and gracious king”—the verses most widely associated with Rochester—and the song beginning “My dear Mistress,” which has been Rochester’s most frequently set lyric from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. The poems are reproduced using modern spelling, which although understandable in terms of general accessibility, reduces the nuanced linguistic information the words are still capable of conveying. Less than ideal, too, is the arrangement of the texts, which Mr. Davis declares is intentionally “debatable, if not frankly provocative.” Editors have adopted different ordering principles ever since the first “authorized” edition of Rochester’s work appeared in 1691, and Mr. Davis, following the recent example of his distinguished predecessors, Love and Keith Walker (1984), organizes the poems by genre. But by halving their number of groupings to “Songs and Love Lyrics,” “Stage Orations and Dramatic Monologues,” “Translations and Imitations,” and “Satires and Epistles,” he forces poems with huge differences in form and scope into an unhelpful association that emphasizes disparity rather than similarity: less sophisticated verses such as “Of Marriage,” “On Mrs Willis,” and “To the Post Boy,” for example, sit uncomfortably with the major satires “A Letter from Artemiza [End Page 101] in the Town to Chloe in the Country” and “A Satire against Reason and Mankind.” Mr. Davis’s admission that “all my categorizations are to some degree provisional, and I hope readers will contemplate alternatives” sounds like a cop-out. Despite the stated intention not to add “a further layer of eclecticism to Love’s reconstructed texts,” several of his readings have been silently revised: in The Disabled Debauchee, some “hopeful youths,” rather than the “cold-complexioned sot” indicated in the major manuscripts, are made to “long some ancient church to fire”; in The Imperfect Enjoyment, the subject of “dyed” is altered from a “dart of love” to “ten thousand maids.” The quality of Rochester’s poetic ear and rhythmic sense, evidenced by his autograph variants of “To a Lady, in a Letter,” is obscured by the replacement of Love’s text, without explanation, with arrhythmic readings, such as “Th’rough-paced ill actors perhaps may be cured” for “Through pac’d ill Actors, may perhaps be cured” in the epilogue to Fane’s Love in the Dark (1675); and “Did I ever refuse to bear” for “Did ever I refuse to bear” in A Ramble in St. James’s Park. And for the text of A Satire on Charles II, which begins “I’th’isle of Britain long since famous grown,” Mr. Davis not only selects a version in which the pentameter of the opening line has been spoiled by the addition of “Great” before “Britain,” but chooses not to reproduce the couplet “With a damn’d crue to whores he joggs / Of Bastards, Pimps, Buffoones, and Dogs.” Although, therefore, the texts need to be treated with caution—Love’s edition remains indispensable for the scholar—Mr. Davis’s introduction deftly covers the necessary ground, enthusiastically conveying the impact of Rochester...

The Inspector of Music Meets the French

AbstractWhen the French military forces arrived in Newport in 1781, they brought with them not only music of a social nature, such as country-dances, but also music used in military ceremonies. Americans quickly adopted many French customs, melodies and traditions. A fife major's manuscript of 1781 is only one of many that evinces the importance of John Hiwell, the Continental Army Inspector of Music, in promoting this French influence on American military ceremonial music. This article also examines some aspects of fifes and drums in the Revolutionary War era.

A celebration of manuscripts in the Kerry Stokes Collection

The Kerry Stokes Collection, developed over more than 30 years, reflects his diverse interests, intellectual curiosity and personal passions and has resulted in acquisitions which include maps, rare books, manuscripts, documents, photographs, paintings and historic relics. The Collection also focuses on Australian works of art from the colonial period to contemporary art, and includes works by international artists. A major collecting focus is the theme of exploration, including the discovery of Australia and in particular Western Australia. Photographs and manuscripts associated with the celebrated British expeditions to Antarctica are also collected. Described are the manuscripts acquired by the Collection, and how they are stored, accessed and made available to scholars and academics for research. Examples of individual manuscripts and major manuscript collections are noted.

Materials Science Research to Open Doors for Economically Disadvantaged High School Students: The ACS Project SEED Program at Clark Atlanta University

ABSTRACTThe Center for Functional Nanoscale Materials (CFNM), an NSF Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology, at Clark Atlanta University has partnered with ACS (American Chemical Society) Project SEED. The ACS project SEED program is recognized nationally as providing hands-on research opportunities to disadvantaged high school students who historically lack exposures to scientific careers. The University is a minority serving institution (MSI) and has an excellent relationship with Atlanta area school systems, which serve the African American community. Students entering their junior and senior years in high school were selected based on their academic performance, an essay and letters of recommendation for participation the Center’s eight week summer nanoscholar Program. Professors served as advisors and/or mentors and graduate students and doctoral fellows served as mentors. The Program included a variety of enrichment activities. All summer nanoscholars had personal research projects that were integral to the research programs of their advisors, and they presented their work in the form of a symposium at the end of the Program. We have completed three summers as an ACS Project SEED site. So far we have had one SEED scholar submit a major manuscript, two were invited to present at ACS National Meetings and one was awarded an eight year Gates-Millennium fellowship. Evaluation of the project strongly suggests that our approach is effective for opening doors for the economically disadvantaged students and tapping the best and the brightest for careers in the sciences and engineering. In the words of one of our young scholars “I realized that research is a continuous learning process. You can never know everything. Even a professor has credentials but they’re still continuing to learn.”

Our Ongoing Digital Evolution

Over the past 2 years, reflecting themany changes inmedical journalism and the digital world, JAMA Internal Medicine began an evolution. In January 2012we announced the creation of the JAMANetwork; inMay 2012,wemoved to a newonline platform; and in January 2013 Archives of Internal Medicine became JAMA Internal Medicine. Earlier this year we introduced The JAMA Network Reader, via which readers can access and read JAMA Internal Medicine and other JAMA Network journalseasilyonanydevice—mobile, tablet,orcomputer. In July 2013, the print version of JAMA Internal Medicinewas completely redesigned, creating a contemporary look for the journal. Fonts were modernized, tables and figures were reformatted, and a dedicated abstract page was created. Although this change was primarily a “print redesign,” the designchangeshavealso improved thedigital reader experience. JAMA Internal Medicine is now widely read online. This year it is estimated that therewill be 3.6million visits, 6.3million page views, and 5.3 million HTML and PDF downloads. Our digital offerings now include author podcasts and videos. Our presence on Twitter and Facebook is growing. Indeed,over thepast fewyearswehave transformed fromaprint to a digital product. Consistent with many of these changes, in April 2012, JAMAInternalMedicine increased its publication frequency to weekly,publishingallmajorarticlesonlineaheadofprint.With that change,wewerepleased tobeable to ensure that the time from submission to publicationwasmuch quicker, averaging about 4 months for major manuscripts, and even faster for Online First articles. These changes ensure our content more quickly reaches our readers. In the continued digital evolutionof the journal, starting the January issue,wewill print the journal once per month but will continue to publish articles online every Monday. The content and overall number and length of articleswill remain the same, aswill theOnlineFirst material. This change reconfirms our commitment to maintaining amodernand technologically savvypublishinggroup. Wehope you continue to enjoy to read the journalmonthly in print and weekly online.

Book Review: The Oxford Handbook of John Donne

The Oxford Handbook of John Donne. Edited by Jeanne Shami, Dennis Flynn, and M. Thomas Hester. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. ISBN 9780199218608. Pp. xxxv+ 845. $150.00. The OED defines handbook as small book or treatise, such as may conveniently be held in hand; manual; also as a compendious book or treatise for guidance in any art, occupation, or study. With 845 pages and weighing about three pounds, this book just squeaks in to such definition. On whole, this is fine, reliable guide to Donne scholarship, dealing with entire range of author's writings. It consists of more than fifty essays by scholars at forefront of Donne studies. Because of varied nature of Donne's writings, editors have given half book (365 pages) to approaches by genre; another 296 pages are for historical and biographical backgrounds. But before those major parts, there is one on research resources, dealing first of all with production, dissemination, and early readership of Donne's writings. As more than 4,000 or parts survive in manuscript, Gary Stringer raises questions about just what Donne published and what he did not, and why. He also points to evidence that Donne significantly revised (22-23). Ernest Sullivan interestingly lists great diversity of known readers of Donne in his own century and next (33). Lara Crowley provides practical chapter on archival resources, giving fascinating example of Jeanne Shami's discovery of Donne Sermon manuscript (36, 38). There follow chapters on editing and editions of Donne, including chapter by Richard Todd that explains what Donne is accomplishing. Its aim is to recover and present exactly what Donne wrote (57) as far as possible. Todd also reports that complementary tools, including first-line indexes of seventeenth-century editions and major manuscripts, are available on project's website (59). With more than half of Donne's corpus still to go, Todd claims has reinvented editing of Donne's poetry; but Dayton Haskin cautions that the textual work of Variorum should be viewed less as an iconic monument than as critical (63). his chapter on modern editions of Donne's prose, Ernest Sullivan explains attempt to identify every manuscript and print version of text that could have been influenced by author (65). He evaluates modern editions, and points out that new Oxford editions are in works for prose letters (79) and sermons (70). latter, sermons will be arranged by place of preaching instead of chronological grouping, which I suggest could bring losses as well as gains. Donald Dickson calls attention to research tools and their pitfalls, reminding that no tool can replace careful study of Donne's writings (81). Dickson lists Donne Variorum, Digital Donne, number of bibliographies and concordances, electronic archive of sermons based on Potter and Simpson, and some (other) handbooks. Hugh Adlington commends work of scholarly community, noting that there have been since 1978 hundred or more scholarly publications on Donne annually, including work in John Donne Journal (sponsored by John Donne Society) and many others. Part 2 of book, on genres, begins with noting ways generic approach raises good questions about writings. Thomas Hester suggests that epigrams, Donne's earliest poems are instructive examples of his poetic achievement (104). Gregory Kneidel's chapter on formal verse satire deals well with classical and Renaissance patterns, beyond which Donne went in Satire 3, Of Religion. On elegies, R. V. Young finds that Donne exemplifies essence of humanist imitation, which is always an aspiration to emulate and even surpass, rather than merely to copy (142). He also insightfully suggests that, In addition to his sheer poetic talent, Donne also possessed perspective uniquely suited for undertaking because he was both an insider and an outsider with respect to society and cultural milieu that his represent (145). …

Eusebius of Caesarea, Gospel Problems and Solutions Quaestiones ad Stephanum et Marinum (review)

Reviewed by: Eusebius of Caesarea, Gospel Problems and Solutions Quaestiones ad Stephanum et Marinum Claudio Zamagni Eusebius of Caesarea, Gospel Problems and Solutions Quaestiones ad Stephanum et MarinumTranslated by David J. D. Miller, Adam C. McCollum, Carol Downer, et al.Ancient Texts in Translation, 1 Ipswich: Chieftain Publishing, 2010. This work edited by Roger Pearse fills a true gap. It makes readily available the subsisting traditions of the Questions and Answers on the Gospelsby Eusebius, publishing their original text together with their first English translation. This is a relatively unknown work by the famous bishop of Caesarea: it concerns the exegesis of the gospels and is probably the very first Christian book written in a questions-and-answers form. Eusebius briefly asks questions on problematic sections of the gospels and then gives ample and documented answers to solve such problems. The first part of this book deals mainly with the two genealogies of Jesus, which greatly differ between Matthew and Luke. The second part of the work discusses the contradictions among the four gospels in the narratives of Jesus' resurrection. Although the original form of Questions and Answers as written by Eusebius is lost, we still have many textual remains of it. There is, first of all, a Greek "abridged selection" of this book. We have further some very important Greek fragments preserved in the catenaon Luke by Nicetas of Herakleia, containing many sections of the text otherwise lost. Finally, we have some other minor textual traditions, either in Greek or in other ancient languages. Before the publication of this book (which in fact appeared in June 2011), all these fragmentary traditions were published in several books or journals and were not easily available. Roger Pearse has collected all the testimonies that exist in printed form, reprinting their original texts together with an English translation. For some of the testimonies here edited, this is even the first translation ever made in any modern language. This book tries also to do something more than merely collect and translate the known sources: it proposes dozens of corrections to the Greek texts (by David Miller) and identifies a possible new Greek fragment (Pearse actually proposes thirteen additional fragments, but they were already known [except p. 168 n. 23]). The corrections proposed to the Greek are always interesting, although they may represent a step back in the textual criticism of this text, as they sometimes adopt a lectio facilior(an example, p. 77 n. 56) or even mix different textual traditions (this goes in both senses between the "selection" and Nicetas, cf. p. 21 n. 6 or 147 n. 8). Concerning the fragments in other languages, this volume translates the well-known Latin allusions from Jerome and Ambrose (not a true textual tradition for me). It translates then three oriental versions of this text: Syriac, Coptic, and Arabic. The Syriac tradition is well known and has been reprinted here only in its major manuscript, an appendix to the Syriac catenaon the gospels by Severus of Antioch, which has also been vocalized by Adam McCollum. Furthermore, two new Syriac fragments have been published (n. 13-14, p. 344-48). The Coptic and Arabic fragments represent one of the more interesting contributions of this volume, as both of these textual traditions have [End Page 649]not been taken into account up to now in studies devoted Eusebius's Questions(although Caubet Iturbe, the editor of the Arabic version, correctly indicated this source already in 1970). The Arabic is a thirteenth-century translation of the Coptic text, which is itself a translation from a Greek catenaor, perhaps more correctly, from a Monophysite dogmatic florilegium (on this point one can refer to the article by G. Dorival in Studia Patristica15 [1984]). All twenty-two new fragments attributed to Eusebius from these two versions are edited and translated here (Carol Downer and others for the Coptic, and Adam McCollum for the Arabic, here unvocalized), but only five of them are actually from the Questions: Coptic 1 (= Arabic 1), 4, and 6 (= Arabic 5). This book is unfortunately not informative about all these different textual traditions, their status, and their historical development. It even...

Mummings and Entertainments (review)

Reviewed by: Mummings and Entertainments Roger A. Ladd John Lydgate . Mummings and Entertainments. Ed. Claire Sponsler. Middle English Texts Series. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2010. Pp. vi + 186. $15.00. The desire to read or teach John Lydgate can be challenging because there are no current critical or student editions of much of his work. The Middle English Texts Series (METS) sponsored by the Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages (TEAMS) has improved this situation with recent editions of Troy Book selections, The Temple of Glas, The Siege of Thebes, and now from Claire Sponsler [End Page 355] the Mummings and Entertainments. This edition is not purely a critical edition, as the Middle English Texts Series remains accessible to a student reader, but it has a reasonably complete textual apparatus, excellent and well-researched notes, and a thorough bibliography. Mummings and Entertainments effectively shows the growth of this series to an interesting compromise between student accessibility and scholarly thoroughness, while avoiding the incomprehensibility of many critical editions. Sponsler presents as readable a text as is possible, and there is no question that this particular group of documents might fit nicely into a number of possible courses—certainly this book would supplement an anthology in a medieval drama class, or could be more central in a course looking at the discourse of the Lancastrian affinity. If METS/TEAMS publish much more Lydgate, a dedicated seminar on the poet will also become possible. This edition will support further scholarship on these verses: the notes and bibliography provide an effective orientation to critical work on Lydgate's occasional poetry. Putting together this particular selection of mummings and entertainments represents interesting critical work on Sponsler's part, and it is clear from the quality of her supporting materials that she was a good choice to edit this volume. As she explains in her introduction, modern generic terms for performance do not align well with the "literate orality" (1) of the fifteenth century, and none of these selections are exactly plays in the sense the N-Town plays, Mankind, or the Digby Mary Magdalene (5), would be. In order to explain how this volume holds together, Sponsler creates her own definition: these verses all "seem to have involved some degree of mimetic activity and show signs of the use of impersonation, action or gesture, costuming, props, oral recitation, or visual display" (1). This volume includes recitations or inscriptions to go with decorative hangings ("Bycorne and Chychevache," "Legend of St. George," possibly "Mesure Is Tresure"), royal entertainments ("Disguising at Hertford," "Mumming at Eltham," "Mumming at Windsor"), entertainments for civic or other groups ("Disguising at London," "Mumming at Bishopswood," "Mumming for the Goldsmiths of London," "Mumming for the Mercers of London"), a poetic description of a royal entry or a procession ("Henry VI's Triumphal Entry into London," "A Procession of Corpus Christi"), and even verses to go with a course at a royal banquet ("Soteltes at the Coronation Banquet of Henry VI"). Some texts, like "Of the Sodein Fal of Princes in Oure Dayes" or the "Pageant of Knowledge," defy clear categorization. This selection replicates no existing anthology, and gives the reader a clear vision of the variety of occasional verse that could be commissioned from a well-known public poet in the fifteenth century. Sponsler gives us a selection of Lydgate's occasional work worth reading, and she should be praised for making this material available for scholarly and classroom use. [End Page 356] While perhaps some Lydgate specialists might have chosen a slightly different selection, the only aspect of this volume that invites critique is the inherent contradiction of a combined student and critical edition. Because it includes so many works that lack current critical editions, the Middle English Texts Series has increasingly embraced this contradiction, and Sponsler effectively seeks a manageable middle ground. The textual apparatus is thorough: the textual notes (135-56) methodically record every major manuscript variant of each text and articulate editorial choices. The textual notes also act as a strong corrective to the previous edition of most of this material, Henry Noble MacCracken's 1934 two-volume Minor Poems for the Early English Text Society (EETS). Sponsler...

Tobit: The Book of Tobit in Codex Sinaiticus. By ROBERT J. LITTMAN.

This volume offers a very useful commentary, mostly solid but not ground-breaking, on a once neglected Septuagintal book. After a list of more than 30 major manuscripts (Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac), plus a map of the Assyrian empire in the eight century bce, the volume begins with a 30-page introduction, covering topics such as textual witnesses, canonicity, original language (probably Aramaic), date of origin (third or second century bce), place of composition (uncertain), plot, historical setting, themes (e.g. kinship), Ancient Near Eastern parallels (the Assyrian story of Ahiqar and the Egyptian tale of Khons), Greek dialect, and modern commentaries. Thereafter the volume provides the Greek text of Tobit from Codex Sinaiticus with an English translation on each facing page. The main part of the volume (the next 120 pages) consists of commentary on the Sinaiticus text, dealing with both linguistic and theological matters. Near the end of the volume Littman presents the shorter Greek text of Tobit from Codex Vaticanus, again with an English translation on each facing page, but without a separate commentary. The volume ends with a bibliography, plus indexes of topics and biblical references.