The talents of Jacopo da Varagine

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Gertrud the Great of Helfta

Gertrude entered the monastery of Helfta as a young child and received her education within the cloister. There she developed her love of God's 'pietas' -- a word connoting divine compassion, gracious love, protection and mercy, and translated here as 'loving-kindness'. "The Herald of God's loving-kindness" records her experiences in a strong, traditionally monastic Latin. The sincerity and simplicity of the work reveal much about the saintly author and about the monastic community which formed and educated her, supported her and encouraged her to share her life of prayer through the written word. [Book jacket].

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cEsperanza Ramirez-Christensen

Shinkei (1406-75), one of the most brilliant poets of medieval Japan, is a pivotal figure in the development of renga (linked poetry) as a serious art. In an age when anyone who wished to signal his denial of mundane concerns or make his way in the world with relative freedom donned the robes of a monk, Shinkei stood out by being a practicing cleric with a temple in Kyoto, the Japanese capital. His priestly duties and his devotion to Buddhist ideals are directly reflected in the intensely pure, lyrical longing for transcendence that is the most notable quality of his sensibility. Shinkei's life and work also provide a vivid portrayal of a tumultuous period of Japanese history that was one of the defining moments of its culture, when Zen Buddhism began to directly influence the arts . The book is in two parts. The first part is a literary biography based primarily on Shinkei's own writings - his critical essays, waka sequences, hokku collections, and commentaries - supplemented by various external sources. What emerges is the compelling portrait of a man who bore witness to the tragic anarchy of his times while clinging to the ideal of poetic practice as a mode of being and access to Buddhist enlightenment. Shinkei became embroiled in the factional struggles preceding the Onin War (1467-77) and died a refugee in what is now Kanagawa. The second part consists of annotated translations of Shinkei's most representative poetry: (1) selected hokku (opening verse of a sequence) and tsukeku (linked pairs of verses), along with Muromachi-period commentaries on them; (2) two 100-verse renga sequences - the first a solo composition from 1467, and the second a collaboration with Sogi and other poet-priests and samurai from 1468; and (3) a selection of one hundred waka poems highlighting Shinkei's most characteristic mode of ineffable remoteness. Throughout, the author's annotations seek to define and clarify the unique genre called "linked poetry."

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R.J. Bartlett

"R. W. Southern (1912-2001) is widely regarded as one of the greatest medieval historians. His first book, The Making of the Middle Ages (1953), translated into many languages and never out of print, is recognized as a classic. This volume contains the series of reflections on medieval historical writing that Southern produced during his tenure as President of the Royal Historical Society, supplemented by his occasional pieces on two related subjects: the nature of academic history and appreciations of other medievalists, both his teachers and his contemporaries. Their publication here in book format makes these writings by a master medievalist accessible to the wider audience they deserve."--Jacket.

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Nick Aitchison

"Macbeth: Man and Myth is the first book to study Macbeth in all his manifestations: historical, mythological and dramatic. Bringing together much widely scattered material, it begins by placing Macbeth in the context of the turbulent politics of eleventh-century Scotland, before examining the evidence for the historical Macbeth and his reign. The book then traces the origins and development of the myths surrounding the king through a range of medieval source material to the culmination of this process in Shakespeare's Macbeth, as well as later adaptations and interpretations of the play. The author skilfully disentangles the real from the mythical Macbeth and puts into focus a blurring of fact and fiction that is as old as Macbeth himself. The concluding chapter goes in search of Macbeth, travelling from the 'blasted heath', where Shakespeare's Macbeth met the witches, to Dunsinane where he met his death at the hands of Macduff. The archaeology, architecture, topography and folklore of Macbeth's Scotland are here brought together for the first time. Book jacket."--Jacket.