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Classica et Beneventana. Essays Presented to Virginia Brown on the Occasion of her 65th Birthday, F. T. COULSON and A. GROTANS editors, Turnhout 2008 (Brepols), XXIV + 444 pages, 20 black and white illustrations, € 54,00 (Textes et Etudes du Moyen Âge, 36).

The Festschrift volume Classica et Beneventana, presented to Virginia Brown on the occasion of her 65th birthday, brings together twenty-one insightful new essays by leading scholars devoted to the fields of classical reception and Latin palaeography. The authors investigate a wide-range of topics such as the development and application of the Beneventan script, comparative codicology, uses of early liturgical manuscripts, medieval artes and biblical texts and their readers, and the reception and dissemination of classical texts during the Italian Renaissance.

Since 1970, Virginia Brown has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.  She is recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities in classical reception and Latin palaeography. Her numerous publications on the Beneventan script have dramatically altered our knowledge of the dissemination of this southern Italian book hand from 800 to 1600. Her editorial work for the Catalogus translationum et commentariorum, as a member of the Editorial Board and since 1985 as Editor-in-Chief, has resulted in several learned volumes tracing the fortuna and study of classical authors from antiquity to the year 1600.  As editor of Mediaeval Studies from 1974 to 1988, she single-handedly produced tomes noted for their scholarly rigor and acumen. This collection of essays serves as a fitting tribute to a scholar who, via her scholarly research and editorial work, has done so much to advance the fields of palaeography, codicology, and the history of classical scholarship.

Table of contents:

Tabula gratulatoria (pp. vii-viii); Introduction by Frank T. Coulson (pp. ix-xi); Bibliography of Virginia Brown (pp. xiii-xxi).

CLASSICA: Sandro Bertelli, Sul frammento dei Getica di Giordano conservato a Losanna (pp. 1-8); Greti Dinkova-Bruun, Prouerbia Salomonis: An Anonymous Accretion to Peter Riga’s Aurora (pp. 9-44); Julia Haig Gaisser, Apuleius in Florence from Boccaccio to Lorenzo de’ Medici (pp. 45-72); Jacqueline Hamesse, La survie de quelques auteurs classiques dans les collections de textes philisophiques du moyen âge (pp. 73-86); James Hankins, Notes on the Composition and Textual Tradition of Leonardo Bruni’s Historiarum Florentini populi libri XII (pp. 87-109); Hope Mayo, New York Academy of Medicine MS 1 and the Textual Tradition of Apicius (pp. 111-135); Luisa Miglio and Marco Palma, Presenze dimenticate (III) (pp. 137-148); Marianne Pade, The Fortuna of Leontius Pilatus’s Homer. With an Edition of Pier Candido Decembrio’s «Why Homer’s Greek Verses are Rendered in Latin Prose» (pp. 149-172); Randall Rosenfeld, Early Comparative Codicology: Late-Medieval Western Perceptions of Non-Western Script and Book Materials (pp. 173-200); Marjorie Curry Woods, A Medieval Rhetorical Manual in the 17th Century: The Case of Christian Daum and the Poetria nova (pp. 201-209).

BENEVENTANA: Gabriella Braga, I codici donati dal vescovo Guglielmo II alla cattedrale di Troia. L’elenco del ms. VI B 12 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli (pp. 213-233); Mariano Dell’Omo, Nel raggio di Montecassino. Il libellus precum di S. Domenico di Sora (Vat. Reg. lat. 334) (pp. 235-291); Richard F. Gyug, From Beneventan to Gothic: Continuity and Change in Southern Italian Liturgical Ceremonies (pp. 293-310); Charles Hilken, The Scribal Record of Prayer and Work in the Chapter Room (pp. 311-331); Mario Iadanza, L’inventario Rotondo (= ms. Benev. 455B) della Biblioteca capitolare di Benevento (pp. 333-362); Thomas Forrest Kelly, A Beneventan Notated Breviary in Naples (Archivio storico diocesano, fondo Ebdomadari, Cod. Misc. 1, fasc. VII) (pp. 363-389); Luisa Nardini, The Mass for the Octave of the Epiphany in Some Beneventan Manuscripts (pp. 391-405); Roger E. Reynolds, Montecassino Cod. 125 and Henry (pp. 407-422).

INDICES: Index of Manuscripts (pp. 425-433); Pre-Modern Persons (pp. 435-442); Modern Persons (pp. 443-444).

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NICOLANGELO SCIANNA, Solving Cases: Book and Paper Artefact Restoration, (Bibliologia, 28), Turnhout 2010 (Brepols), IV+272 pages, 217 b/w illustrations + 40 colour illustration, 1 CD, € 65,00.

Solving Cases: Books and Paper Artefact Restoration is a collection of Italian restoration experiences documented by the author during his thirty years in this field. The author’s intention was to take the reader by the hand and accompany him/her step by step as he confronts the complexities of each situation and resolves the case.

Anyone interested in or already studying conservation techniques for cultural heritage artefacts will find this book helpful as it is not a standard textbook but a series of cases where the author explains his reasoning and describes how he approached the investigation process that is necessary in any direct conservation procedure. The discussions in this book highlight how even the smallest folds in an artefact can be read to increase our historical and technical knowledge.

This book is divided into three sections, each offering a detailed investigation into different types of artefacts: manuscripts on parchment and on paper; books needing minimal treatment on their bindings to books requiring completely new bindings; drawings, prints, miniatures, oil paintings, and finally a globe covered with printed maps. The final part examines a unique case of virtual restoration on one of the oldest surviving images on paper. The book comes complete with a CD full of colour photos so you can visually follow the step by step description of the investigation process.

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Les manuscrits carolingiens, “Actes du colloque de Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, le 4 mai 2007″, edited by M. P. LAFFITTE and J. P. CAILLET, Turnhout 2009 (Brepols, Bibliologia 27), VI + 265 pages, 26 colour illustrations,  € 80,00.

À l’occasion de l’exposition Trésors carolingiens présentée dans ses salles du 20 mars au 24 juin 2007, la Bibliothèque Nationale de France a organisé une journée internationale d’étude autour du livre manuscrit à l’époque en question. L’exceptionnelle richesse du fonds parisien (auquel avaient été adjoints d’incontournables spécimens de certaines bibliothèques régionales françaises) donnait lieu, en effet, à évoquer pratiquement tous les principaux aspects de la production et du contenu même de ces œuvres, ainsi que de leur devenir.

Après une introduction visant à situer le livre carolingien au regard de ses antécédents antiques profanes et païens, paléochrétiens et haut-médiévaux (Jean-Pierre Caillet), ce sont les étapes – et les raisons – de l’émergence de l’intérêt pour ces manuscrits et de la constitution de leurs collections qui ont été abordés (Marie-Pierre Laffitte). Il importait d’autre part également  de dresser le panorama des grands travaux consacrés à ce domaine de la fin du XIXe siècle à nos jours (Jean Vezin). Le statut privilégié du livre religieux en tant que composante majeure du trésor, et tout particulièrement l’assimilation de son contenu à de véritables reliques, devaient ensuite être clairement précisés (Marianne Besseyre). Naturellement, la nature du message iconographique, tant à l’égard du texte, dont il offre un contrepoint visuel portant ses propres accents, que des modèles – anciens ou récents – dont il s’avère tributaire à divers degrés, a fourni matière pour de substantielles mises au point (Herbert Kessler, Charlotte Denoël, Fabrizio Crivello, Anne-Orange Poilpré).

Les rapports, thématiques aussi bien que stylistiques, des ivoires de la reliure avec l’imagerie interne du livre, ainsi que l’éventuelle diachronie de leur association, n’ont pas non plus manqué de susciter un réexamen serré (Lawrence Nees). Par ailleurs, les derniers développements d’une investigation de laboratoire sur les pigments utilisés dans l’élaboration des miniatures de certains manuscrits, et dont les résultats sont évidemment lourds de conséquences quant aux origines de ceux-ci, ont témoigné d’une notable ouverture des perspectives de recherche (Patricia Roger). La conclusion de l’ensemble (Jean-Pierre Caillet) s’attache à souligner l’opportune complémentarité de ces approches ; et, au-delà des nouveaux acquis ainsi opérés, à dégager les orientations encore propres à parfaire la connaissance de ce qui correspond bien à un temps fort de l’évolution culturelle et artistique de l’Occident médiéval.

Sommaire: Jean-Pierre Caillet, Caractères et statut du livre d’apparat carolingien : origines et affirmation (pp. 1-43); Fabrizio Crivello, Les Evangiles de Saint-Denis et l’influence de l’École de la cour de Charlemagne sur les scriptoria de Francie occidentale (pp. 45-88); Charlotte Denoël, Entre imitation et invention : un livre d’Évangiles de style tourangeau (Paris, BnF, ms. latin 269) (pp. 89-120); Herbert L. Kessler, Jerome and Vergil in Carolingian Frontispieces and the Uses of Translation (pp. 121-140); Marie-Pierre Laffitte, La redécouverte des manuscrits carolingiens par les érudits et les collectionneurs français (XVIe-XVIIIe siècles) (pp. 141-158); Lawrence Nees, Early Carolingian Manuscripts and Ivories (pp. 159-184); Anne-Orange Poilpré, La visibilité de Dieu dans les Bibles carolingiennes (pp. 185-202); Patricia Roger, Étude technique sur les décors de manuscrits carolingiens (pp. 203-216); Jean Vezin, Le renouvellement des études scientifiques autour des manuscrits carolingiens : de Léopold Delisle à Bernhard Bischoff (pp. 217-227); Jean-Pierre Caillet, Conclusions (pp. 229-235); Index des manuscrits (pp. 237-241); Planches (pp. 243-265).

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Strategies of Writing: Studies on Text and Trust in the Middle Ages, Papers from “Trust in Writing in the Middle Ages” (Utrecht, 28-29 November 2002), edited by PETRA SCHULTE, MARCO MOSTERT and IRENE VAN RENSWOUNDE, Turnhout 2008 (Brepols), XIV + 414 pages, 36 black and white illustrations, € 80,00.

Trust is the basis of all social relations. A society in which trust is not assured, will not, in the end, endure. Trust presupposes the concordance of word and deed. Rather than an emotion, trust is an attitude based on experience. It is not created spontaneously, but requires a process of observation and socialization. This implies that the preconditions for trust are culturally determined and subject to change. Trust is expressed through communication. Writing may engender trust, and trust may be placed in written texts. The contributions to this volume address the complex relationships between ‘trust’ and ‘writing’ in the Middle Ages. They deal with charters, historiography, letters, political communication, and the possibilities of trust in writing. Some of the questions addressed are: Does writing as a medium engender trust irrespective of the contents of the written text? Was trust in writing dependent on trust in an authority? Are there suggestions that the written form of the text was meant to confer trust on its contents? Did rituals take place (before or during the writing of the text, or during its handing over to the recipient) that were meant to enhance the text’s trustworthiness? Can changes be observed in the strategies of engendering trust? Was trust considered food for reflection in written texts? What was considered to constitute a breach of trust? The volume is dedicated to Michael Clanchy, whose work inspired much of its contents.

The following  papers are of particular interest: PETER WORM, From Subscription to Seal: The Growing Importance of Seals as Signs of Authenticity in Early Medieval Royal Charters (pp. 63-83); BRIGITTE RESL, Illustration and Persuasion in Southern Italian Cartularies (c. 1100) (pp. 95-109); and JEANNETTE RAUSCHERT, Trust and Visualization: Illustrated Chronicles in the Late Middle Ages: The Swiss Illustrated Chronicle by Diebold Schilling from Luzern, 1513 (pp. 165-182).

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