A medieval book of beasts

Text, translation, and critical study of one of the most important medieval bestiaries.The bestiary - a book of animals, both real and mythical - is one of the most interesting and appealing medieval artefacts. The "Second-family" bestiary is the most important and frequently produced version (s...

After callimachus

Contemporary translations and adaptations of ancient Greek poet Callimachus by noted writer and critic Stephanie BurtCallimachus may be the best-kept secret in all of ancient poetry. Loved and admired by later Greeks and Romans, his funny, sexy, generous, thoughtful, learned, sometimes elaborate,...

Anne of france: lessons for my daughter

Anne of France (1461-1522) composed these lessons - presented as a portrait of an ideal princess - as guidance in negotiating the pitfalls facing a woman in the world of politics. First English translation.Anne of France (1461-1522), daughter of Louis XI and sister of Charles VIII, was one of the...

Bestiary

A delightful translation of one of the finest, and most beautiful, examples of a medieval Bestiary.Bestiaries are a particularly characteristic product of medieval England, and give a unique insight into the medieval mind. Richly illuminated and lavishly produced, they were luxury objects for nob...

Dante's divine comedy

The life and times of Dante’s soaring poetic allegory of the soul’s redemptive journey toward GodWritten during his exile from Florence in the early 1300s, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy describes the poet’s travels through hell, purgatory, and paradise, exploring the state of the human soul aft...

Hildegard of bingen: on natural philosophy and medicine

How to be healthy

Timeless wisdom about how to be healthy in body and mind from one of the greatest physicians of the ancient worldThe second-century Greek physician Galen—the most famous doctor in antiquity after Hippocrates—is a central figure in Western medicine. A talented doctor, surgeon, writer, philosopher,...

How to compete

An energetic new translation of the ancient Greek satirist Lucian’s humorous and enlightening dialogue on the pros—and cons—of athletics, fitness, and competitionSports and philosophy went hand in hand for the ancient Greeks and Romans, and philosophical conversation was a recognized part of gym ...

How to cope

A vivid and accessible new translation of essential selections from Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy—a moving classic about facing life’s worst events with courage and hopeWhat do you do when your life has fallen apart? Fifteen hundred years ago, a Roman nobleman named Boethius (ca. 480–524 C...

How to feel

A new translation of the Buddha’s teachings on mindfulness—and how it can help us to be less controlled by our emotionsTo feel is to suffer. But do we have to suffer as much as we do? Twenty-five hundred years ago, the Buddha discovered that practices of mindfully observing our feelings and emoti...

Medieval english lyrics and carols

A new and comprehensive anthology of medieval lyrics and carols, in new editions, with introduction and commentary.Lyrics and carols are two of the most important types of medieval literature. This anthology provides a generous and wide-ranging selection, beginning with the first lyrics in Englis...

Medieval ghost stories

Seventy-seven tales of the supernatural, intended to frighten and excite and bring to heel their medieval audience, gathered from medieval chronicles, sagas, heroic poetry and romances.Strongly recommended. M R JAMES NEWSLETTER Stories of restless spirits returning from the afterlife are as old a...

Merlin and the grail

The ancient near east

Two classic illustrated anthologies, now combined in one convenient volumeJames Pritchard's classic anthologies of the ancient Near East have introduced generations of readers to texts essential for understanding the peoples and cultures of this important region. Now these two enduring works have...

The book of greek and roman folktales, legends, and myths

The first anthology to present the entire range of ancient Greek and Roman stories—from myths and fairy tales to jokesCaptured centaurs and satyrs, incompetent seers, people who suddenly change sex, a woman who remembers too much, a man who cannot laugh—these are just some of the colorful charact...

The complete odes and satires of horace

Horace has long been revered as the supreme lyric poet of the Augustan Age. In his perceptive introduction to this translation of Horace's Odes and Satires, Sidney Alexander engagingly spells out how the poet expresses values and traditions that remain unchanged in the deepest strata of Italian c...

The cædmon manuscript

The Cædmon Manuscript is one of three extant anthologies of English Christian poetry produced in England before 1000 CE.

The medieval romance of alexander

Nigel Bryant's is the first translation of an example of the many medieval romances about Alexander, as popular in their day as those about Arthur.The figure of Alexander the Great haunted the medieval imagination - as much as Arthur, as much as Charlemagne. His story was translated more often in...

The origins of beowulf

A detailed and passionate argument suggesting that Beowulf originated in the pre-Viking kingdom of 8th-century East Anglia.Where did Beowulf, unique and thrilling example of an Old English epic poem come from? In whose hall did the poem's maker first tell the tale? The poem exists now in just one...

The return of proserpina

Sicily and the strategies of empire in the poetic imagination of classical and medieval EuropeIn the first century BC, Cicero praised Sicily as Rome’s first overseas province and confirmed it as the mythic location for the abduction of Proserpina, known to the Greeks as Persephone, by the god of ...

Vox clamantis by john gower: "the voice of one crying"

The first English translation into verse of the full Vox Clamantis, with explanatory notes.John Gower's Vox Clamantis is one of the major poetic achievements of the Middle Ages. Its subject matter ranges from his dream-vision account of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 to sharp critiques of the clerg...

Women of the gilte legende

The first modern translation of one of the most influential books to come from the middle ages.The Gilte Legende was widely read as a model for everyday life, including the education of women through examples set by early Christian martyrs. This book divides the lives of female saints into: the "...