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Medieval & Renaissance Studies
A Female Apostle in Medieval Italy
The Life of Clare of Rimini
This book centers on a fascinating woman, Clare of Rimini (c. 1260 to c. 1324–29), whose story is preserved in a fascinating text. Composed by an anonymous Franciscan, the Life of the Blessed Clare of Rimini is the earliest known saint’s life originally written in Italian, and one of the few such lives to be written while its subject was still living. It tells the story of a controversial woman, set against the background of her roiling city, her star-crossed family, and the tumultuous political and religious landscape of her age.
A Female Apostle in Medieval Italy presents the text of the Life in English translation for the first time, bringing modern readers into Clare’s world. Through the expert guidance of Jacques Dalarun, Sean L. Field, and Valerio Cappozzo, Clare’s life and context become a springboard for readers to discover what life was like in a medieval Italian city.
Jacques Dalarun is a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and the former director of the Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes (CNRS).
Sean L. Field is Professor of History at the University of Vermont.
Valerio Cappozzo is Associate Professor of Modern Languages at the University of Mississippi.
The Middle Ages Series December
Medieval History, Religion 192 pages | 6 x 9 9781512823035 | Hardcover $99.95s 9781512823042 | Paperback $29.95s 9781512823059 | Ebook $29.95 World Rights
What Kind of a Thing Is a Middle English Lyric?
Edited by Cristina Maria Cervone and Nicholas Watson
What Kind of a Thing Is a Middle English Lyric? considers issues pertaining to a corpus of several hundred short poems written in Middle English between the twelfth and early fifteenth centuries. Since the early 1900s, the poems have been categorized as “lyrics,” the term now used for most kinds of short poetry. This volume asks fundamental questions about what these poems are, how they function formally and culturally, how they are related to other bodies of short poetry, and how they might illuminate and be illuminated by contemporary lyric scholarship. Eleven chapters by medievalists and two responses by modernists reflect on these questions and suggest very different answers. The editors’ introduction synthesizes these answers by suggesting that these poems can most usefully be read as a kind of “play,” in several senses of that word. The book ends with eight “new Middle English lyrics” by seven contemporary poets.
Contributors (scholars): Andrew Albin, Stephanie Burt, Ardis Butterfield, Christopher Cannon, Cristina Maria Cervone, Ian Cornelius, Margot Fassler, Andrew Galloway, Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr., Virginia Jackson, Aden Kumler, Ingrid Nelson, Nicholas Watson, Barbara Zimbalist Contributors (poets): Kate Caoimhe Arthur, Hunter Keough, Bill Manhire, Pattie McCarthy, Miller Wolf Oberman, Carter Revard
Cristina Maria Cervone is Associate Professor of English at the University of Memphis.
Nicholas Watson is the Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Professor of English at Harvard University.
The Middle Ages Series
“This outstanding collection of essays boldly reconceptualizes Middle English lyric, brilliantly illuminating its formal intricacies, historical contexts, and power. Destined to hold a distinguished place in studies of poetry and poetics, this book deserves to be widely read and relished by anyone interested in new angles of approach to poetry.”—Jahan Ramazani, author of Poetry in a Global Age
August
Literary Criticism, Poetry 560 pages | 6 x 9 | 29 illus. 9780812253900 | Hardcover $89.95s 9780812298512 | Ebook $89.95 World Rights
