Compitum

Martin Jacobsson (éd.), Augustinus: De Musica, Berlin-Boston, 2017.

Éditeur : De Gruyter
Collection : Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
viii, 237 pages
ISBN : 978-3-11-047146-5
99,95 €

This is the first critical edition of all six books of Augustine's De musica. Originally meant as part of a series of treatises on the liberal arts, it is especially important because of its presentation of metrics. Book six offers a theological discussion of perception based on the concept of numerus ("rhythm"). Thus, De musica is a fascinating document of Augustine's intellectual development from secular learning to Christian philosophy.

Source : De Gruyter

Robert Babcock, The 'Psychomachia' Codex from St. Lawrence (Bruxellensis 10066-77) and the Schools of Liège in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries, Turnhout, 2017.

Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : Bibliologia (BIB 42)
328 pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-56871-3
75 €

This monograph focuses on Brussels, Royal Library, MS 10066-77, a tenth-century volume comprised of illustrated copies of Prudentius' Psychomachia and the bestiary known as the Physiologus, to which tenth- and eleventh-century readers added a dozen short school texts. Largely for its illustrations, the manuscript has been considered a monument of Ottonian illumination and one of the principal treasures of the Royal Library in Brussels. The allure of its illustrated texts resulted in inadequate attention to the minor additions to the volume. This study reveals that these have a coherent origin (in Liège) and purpose (the study and teaching of allegory); and that they provide detailed evidence for teaching in the Liège schools of the period. Among the additions are philosophical, mathematical, prosodiacal, and lexical works. These can be specifically related to the studies of Liège writers of the tenth and eleventh centuries, and evidence is presented showing that some of these writers demonstrably used this very manuscript. A Latin glossary is among the most interesting additions, as it preserves a record of a local Latin vocabulary used by Liège writers of the period. The monograph concludes with a survey of tenth- and eleventh-century writers from Liège, and what ancient texts they knew. A comparison of their common reading culture, supplemented by evidence from surviving manuscripts and from medieval booklists, allows a fuller picture of the texts that were known and taught in the Liège schools at the time, and provides a new basis for assessing the teaching in these schools.

Jussi Rantala, The Ludi Saeculares of Septimius Severus: The Ideologies of a New Roman Empire, Londres, 2017.

Éditeur : Routledge
220 pages
ISBN : 9781138290143
95 £

This is the first monograph to examine in detail the Ludi Saeculares (Secular Games) of Septimius Severus and argues that the games represented a radical shift from Antonine imperial ideology. To garner popular support and to legitimise his power, Severus conducted an intensive propaganda campaign, but how did he use the ludi to strengthen his power, and what were the messages he conveyed through them? The central theme is ritual, and the idea of ritual as a process that builds collective identity. The games symbolised the new Severan political and social vision and they embodied the idea of Roman identity and the image of Roman society which the emperor wished to promote. The programme of the games was recorded in a stone inscription and this text is analysed in detail, translated into English and contextualised in the socio-political aims of Septimius Severus.

Pieter De Leemans et Michèle Goyens (éd.), Translation and Authority - Authorities in Translation, Turnhout, 2016.

Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : The Medieval Translator (TMT 16)
391 pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-56676-4
85 €

The question about the relation between medieval translation practices and authority is a complex and multifaceted one. Depending on one's decision to focus on the authority of the source-text or of the translated text itself, on the author of the original text, on the translator, or on the user of the translation, it falls apart in several topics to be tackled, such as, just to name a few: To what extent does the authority of the text to be translated affect translational choices? How do translators impose authority on their text? By lending their name to a translation, do they contribute to its authoritative status?
After two introductory essays that set the scene for the volume, addressing the above questions from the perspective of translations of authoritative texts into Dutch and French, the focus of the volume shifts to the translators themselves as authorities. A next section deals with the choices of texts to be translated, and the impact these choices have on the translation method. A third part is dedicated to papers that examine the role of the users of the translations.
The selection of papers in the present volume gives a good indication of the issues mentioned above, embedded in a field of tension between translations made from a learned language to a vernacular language, translations from one vernacular to another, or even from a vernacular to the Latin language.

Sheila Dillon et Sharon L. James (éd.), Women in the Classical World, Londres, 2017.

Éditeur : Routledge
Collection : Critical Concepts in Classical Studies
1580 pages
ISBN : 9781138890527
800 £

The study of women in Graeco-Roman antiquity has a long history but many recent developments—prominent among which are the rise of feminist theory and theoretical and interpretive work in material culture—have transformed approaches to the study of women's lived experiences in antiquity. This four-volume collection brings together the best scholarship that has both established the field and moved it forward.
The articles collected here are interdisciplinary, bringing into conversation the full range of evidence for women in the classical world: historical, literary, legal, medical, inscriptional, mythic, artistic (e.g., sculpture, frescoes, paintings, terracottas), and the material found in archaeological excavations, including evidence from burials, finds from houses, and the remains of food processing and textile production. Ideology is relevant to each volume, as both Greek and Roman societies had highly developed ideologies and cultural ideals that exercised profound and pervasive influence over women's lives. Social class is implicated in these ideologies in ways that are made evident in every genre of source material.
Women in the Classical World, edited by two of the leading scholars in the field, presents in one reference source a complete picture of women in Ancient Greece and Rome, based on a vast of array of sources. This material has not been collected together in one place before.

Mark Hebblewhite, The Emperor and the Army in the Later Roman Empire, AD 235–395, Londres, 2017.

Éditeur : Routledge
240 pages
ISBN : 9781472457592
105 £

With The Emperor and the Army in the Later Roman Empire, AD 235–395 Mark Hebblewhite offers the first study solely dedicated to examining the nature of the relationship between the emperor and his army in the politically and militarily volatile later Roman Empire. Bringing together a wide range of available literary, epigraphic and numismatic evidence he demonstrates that emperors of the period considered the army to be the key institution they had to mollify in order to retain power and consequently employed a range of strategies to keep the troops loyal to their cause. Key to these efforts were imperial attempts to project the emperor as a worthy general (imperator) and a generous provider of military pay and benefits. Also important were the honorific and symbolic gestures each emperor made to the army in order to convince them that they and the empire could only prosper under his rule.