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Erotic Tales of Medieval Germany
Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona) ed. and trans.

Whereas late-medieval Italian literature has its Boccaccio (Decameron), and late-medieval England has its Chaucer (Canterbury Tales), heretofore little attention has been spent on late-medieval German literature. Many writers, mostly unknown by non-Germanists, actually turned to the genre of mæren (short verse narratives) in which they treated the wide range of erotic themes, addressing problems in marriage, sexuality, violence, and adultery. One of the best author was Heinrich Kaufringer, but Dietrich von der Gletze, Jans of Vienna, Ruprecht von Würzburg, and Count Froben Christoph von Zimmern also composed little masterpieces of erotic verse novellas. The present collection offers the first selection of some of the best mæren in English translation and opens a unique window toward comparative literary analysis insofar as these late-medieval German writers demonstrated similar narrative skills as their European contemporaries.
2007 / 186 pages / 978-0-86698-374-7 / MR 328 / $25, £18

John of Salisbury
By Cary J. Nederman (Texas A&M University)
John of Salisbury (1115/20-1180) has earned a considerable and well-deserved reputation as an original philosopher as well as a prominent commentator on the vast intellectual and cultural changes experienced by twelfth-century Europe. John’s career was so varied that he proves difficult to classify. Educated in France by many of the best minds of the Twelfth-Century Renaissance, John turned to public affairs in the service of the English Church, and became an intimate of archbishops, popes, and kings. Yet amidst his political entanglements and intrigues, he still found time to compose several of the most important and influential philosophical and historical works of his time, including the Policraticus, Metalogicon, and Historia Pontificalis. In addition, he left a voluminous collection of personal correspondence. After surviving the ordeal of the conflict between Archbishop Becket and King Henry II, John spent his waning years as Bishop of Chartres. A large body of scholarship on John’s life and works, not to mention the definitive editing of several of his most important writings, have appeared during the last fifty years. We now possess a far more thorough appreciation of John’s source materials, his intended audience, his interactions with academic and political friends and foes, and his place in the medieval tradition of thought. Yet there has been no comprehensive biobibliographical examination of John since 1950. The present study attempts to distil and crystallize the latest advances in scholarship while making an original contribution to the literature on John. In particular, significant attention will be devoted to his attitude toward his teachers in Paris, the ordering and dating of his works, his relationship with Becket (including his efforts to canonize the martyr), and the interconnections between his career as an intellectual and as a political figure. Although introductory in nature, the study will also appeal to specialists in twelfth-century history. It will be useful to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as research scholars, in history, religious studies, philosophy, and political science.
2005 / 124 pages / ISBN-10: 0-86698-331-7, ISBN-13: 978-86698-331-0 / MR 288 / $15, £10

Selected Works of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
Edited by Margaret P. Hannay (Siena College), Noel J. Kinnamon (Mars Hill College), and Michael G. Brennan (University of Leeds)
This selected edition of the writings of Mary Sidney Herbert, countess of Pembroke, is intended to illustrate the impressive range and quality of her literary endeavors by means of readily accessible modern-spelling texts, with introductions and commentaries specifically aimed at the needs of the student or general reader. It includes the full text of her original poems, Antonius, The Triumph of Death, thirty-one of her metrical Psalms, and selections from her prose, as well as supplemental materials to demonstrate how she revised her own work, and how her compositions circulated among her contemporaries in both print and manuscript.

2005 / 314 pages / ISBN-10: 0-86698-333-3, ISBN-13: 978-0-86698-333-4 / MR290 / $24, £18

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