Book review of the Kalamazoo loot
May. 20th, 2007 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjLast year I really meant do to individual reviews of my Kalamazoo book loot, including some discussion of why I buy what I buy ... and I never got around to it. Well, the first box of books arrived on my doorstep Friday, so let's see if I can get through at least a few of these (in no particular order).
Fenwick, Carolyn C. 2005. The Poll Taxes of 1377, 1379 and 1381: Part 3 Wiltshire - Yorkshire. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-726336-5
This is the last in a three-volume series of all the surviving documentation of a series of 14th century English poll taxes. Why do I buy these? Because they provide the sort of extensive (though not exhaustive) random sampling of personal names of ordinary people for which there is no substitute when doing broad comparative studies. What you have is long lists of names, accompanied by the amount of tax paid, organized by the place of residence. There is a certain amount of variation in what/who gets recorded. Some documents include the names of wives even when they paid no separate tax -- but almost invariably listed as "X his wife", making it difficult to tell what she would be called/named in isolation; others only include women who are taxed separately. In some cases, only a summary document has survived, providing amounts and the names of the jurors who administered the tax (invariably men). So the data on women's names is less rich and complete than that of men's -- but still quite extensive. What might I use this material for? What I'd love to (have the time to) do is do a statistical comparison of the names in use in various regions: what names were common to all? which were geographically limited? were there regional differences in popularity of universal names? how large and variable were the name pools? And that's only for the given names. This sort of study would be much easier if I had an electronic copy of the text, of course. And it takes second place to my similar Welsh studies. But still, if I ever find myself at loose ends, I have the source material.
Bouchard, Constance Brittain. 1991. The Cartulary of Flavigny 717-1113. The Medieval Academy of America, Cambridge. ISBN 0-915651-05-X
For those familiar with the extensive indexes of early medieval given names from French sources done by Morlet, this is the sort of source material she was working from, and while I have no interest in being exhaustive on the topic, I find it useful to have one or two of these items to see the names in their original contexts. From the point of view of SCA name research, it's particularly useful to see the full names/identifications used for people in these contexts. It's all very well to tell someone, "the given name you want can be found in a 9th c. French cartulary" but you're generally at a loss to continue with information about what the rest of a 9th c. French name might look like.
Greene, Richard Leighton. 1977. The Early English Carols. The Clarendon Press, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-812715-4
It is my guiding principle that if I have found a book sufficiently useful that I have photocopied extensive parts of it when unable to purchase a copy, then if I'm ever given the opportunity to buy a published copy I am ethically bound to do so. (To say nothing of doing so simply out of the glee of opportunity!) This book is, as described in the preface, "The Middle and Early Modern English texts here collected comprise all those lyrics extant and accessible in manuscript or printed sources of date earlier than 1550 to which, in the editor's judgement, the term 'carol' can be properly applied." While Christmas and other religious carols are included, about a quarter of the material is purely secular in topic -- the term "carol" here referring to the metrical form of verses alternating with a burden that also begins the piece. While a number of carol tunes of similar era survive (in some cases, matched with specific lyrics), this book only refers the reader elsewhere for those. Carols strike me as being extremely well-suited to composing new, historically-based songs for SCA purposes. The topics cover both light and serious topics. The repeating burden invites listener participation. (In theory, carols were also in some cases sung for dancing -- I don't know if anyone is experimenting with that aspect, as I don't know how much is knowable about the nature of the dances.) The verse structure is generally brief, somewhat flexible in meter, and uses familiar types of rhymes, making it accessible to the amateur poet. And the language of the original material -- while definitely archaic to the ear -- is still quite accessible to the modern speaker/reader. The original carol texts are not only quite singable by the non-expert with only a little effort, but by means of extremely little tweaking could be made even more so. So not only are they accessible models for new compositions, but are ripe for introduction into SCA bardic circles. Not, mind you, that I've actually gotten down to the work of actually doing so, myself. But it's still nice to have the book for when I feel inspired.
Smyth, Rosier. 1930. Theater du Mond (Gorsedd y Byd). University of Wales Press, Cardiff.
The medieval genre of "description of the world" texts is fascinating, no so much for telling us facts about the medieval world, but for telling us what the people of one part of that world believed to be true of other parts. This isn't a text that I would have included in my dissertation analysis, both for being written too late (16th century) and for being in large part a translation of a pre-existing text. But I do recall using at least one example of a particular prepositional construction taken from it. This copy has clearly been sitting neglected on somebody's library shelf -- some of the pages are still uncut. I hope to love it better.
Lewis, Henry. 1942. Brut Dingestow. University of Wales Press, Cardiff.
Ok, ok, so it turns out I already owned this book. When I checked the database on my Treo, I saw it listed with a much later publication date, but my recollection was that the contents were different. I was wrong. But hey, now I have a first edition, right? Along with the much shorter Brut y Brenhinedd this is one of the Medieval Welsh translations/adaptations of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain -- the primary dissemination point for later medieval versions of the Matter of Britain.
Mac Cana, Proinsias. 1958. Branwen Daughter of Llyr: A Study of the Irish Affinities. University of Wales Press, Cardiff.
Pretty much just what the subtitle says: a scholarly study of Irish connections in the second branch of the Mabinogi. The Irish connections are overt in the plot (Branwen marries an Irish king and much of the action takes place there), but many of the themes, minor characters, and even in some cases particular turns of phrase or description can be linked to Irish material as well. A cautionary tale for those who might think that just because a story comes to us from medieval Wales that it necessarily provides evidence about the medieval Welsh.
Plank, Dieter et al. ed. 1985. Der Keltenfürst von Hochdorf. Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart. ISBN 3-8062-0441-1
I confess, I am a slut for Iron Age Celtic archaology. This is an exhibition catalog focused on the rich grave known as "the prince of Hochdorf". The finds include a number of interesting textile fragments (although people may remember it more for the gold-plate shoe ornaments). After working through a detailed and copiously illustrated survey of the grave goods, the catalog then gives us a survey of the entire archaeological history of Baden-Württemberg, starting in the Stone Age and working up through the 17th century.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
xrian will be delighted to know that it includes a nice close-up (although b&w) photo of one of those German disk-type rosaries showing useful construction details -- although it's dated 17-18th century, alas.
There were two other books in this shipment, but I think I want to actually read through them a bit before posting on them.
Fenwick, Carolyn C. 2005. The Poll Taxes of 1377, 1379 and 1381: Part 3 Wiltshire - Yorkshire. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-726336-5
This is the last in a three-volume series of all the surviving documentation of a series of 14th century English poll taxes. Why do I buy these? Because they provide the sort of extensive (though not exhaustive) random sampling of personal names of ordinary people for which there is no substitute when doing broad comparative studies. What you have is long lists of names, accompanied by the amount of tax paid, organized by the place of residence. There is a certain amount of variation in what/who gets recorded. Some documents include the names of wives even when they paid no separate tax -- but almost invariably listed as "X his wife", making it difficult to tell what she would be called/named in isolation; others only include women who are taxed separately. In some cases, only a summary document has survived, providing amounts and the names of the jurors who administered the tax (invariably men). So the data on women's names is less rich and complete than that of men's -- but still quite extensive. What might I use this material for? What I'd love to (have the time to) do is do a statistical comparison of the names in use in various regions: what names were common to all? which were geographically limited? were there regional differences in popularity of universal names? how large and variable were the name pools? And that's only for the given names. This sort of study would be much easier if I had an electronic copy of the text, of course. And it takes second place to my similar Welsh studies. But still, if I ever find myself at loose ends, I have the source material.
Bouchard, Constance Brittain. 1991. The Cartulary of Flavigny 717-1113. The Medieval Academy of America, Cambridge. ISBN 0-915651-05-X
For those familiar with the extensive indexes of early medieval given names from French sources done by Morlet, this is the sort of source material she was working from, and while I have no interest in being exhaustive on the topic, I find it useful to have one or two of these items to see the names in their original contexts. From the point of view of SCA name research, it's particularly useful to see the full names/identifications used for people in these contexts. It's all very well to tell someone, "the given name you want can be found in a 9th c. French cartulary" but you're generally at a loss to continue with information about what the rest of a 9th c. French name might look like.
Greene, Richard Leighton. 1977. The Early English Carols. The Clarendon Press, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-812715-4
It is my guiding principle that if I have found a book sufficiently useful that I have photocopied extensive parts of it when unable to purchase a copy, then if I'm ever given the opportunity to buy a published copy I am ethically bound to do so. (To say nothing of doing so simply out of the glee of opportunity!) This book is, as described in the preface, "The Middle and Early Modern English texts here collected comprise all those lyrics extant and accessible in manuscript or printed sources of date earlier than 1550 to which, in the editor's judgement, the term 'carol' can be properly applied." While Christmas and other religious carols are included, about a quarter of the material is purely secular in topic -- the term "carol" here referring to the metrical form of verses alternating with a burden that also begins the piece. While a number of carol tunes of similar era survive (in some cases, matched with specific lyrics), this book only refers the reader elsewhere for those. Carols strike me as being extremely well-suited to composing new, historically-based songs for SCA purposes. The topics cover both light and serious topics. The repeating burden invites listener participation. (In theory, carols were also in some cases sung for dancing -- I don't know if anyone is experimenting with that aspect, as I don't know how much is knowable about the nature of the dances.) The verse structure is generally brief, somewhat flexible in meter, and uses familiar types of rhymes, making it accessible to the amateur poet. And the language of the original material -- while definitely archaic to the ear -- is still quite accessible to the modern speaker/reader. The original carol texts are not only quite singable by the non-expert with only a little effort, but by means of extremely little tweaking could be made even more so. So not only are they accessible models for new compositions, but are ripe for introduction into SCA bardic circles. Not, mind you, that I've actually gotten down to the work of actually doing so, myself. But it's still nice to have the book for when I feel inspired.
Smyth, Rosier. 1930. Theater du Mond (Gorsedd y Byd). University of Wales Press, Cardiff.
The medieval genre of "description of the world" texts is fascinating, no so much for telling us facts about the medieval world, but for telling us what the people of one part of that world believed to be true of other parts. This isn't a text that I would have included in my dissertation analysis, both for being written too late (16th century) and for being in large part a translation of a pre-existing text. But I do recall using at least one example of a particular prepositional construction taken from it. This copy has clearly been sitting neglected on somebody's library shelf -- some of the pages are still uncut. I hope to love it better.
Lewis, Henry. 1942. Brut Dingestow. University of Wales Press, Cardiff.
Ok, ok, so it turns out I already owned this book. When I checked the database on my Treo, I saw it listed with a much later publication date, but my recollection was that the contents were different. I was wrong. But hey, now I have a first edition, right? Along with the much shorter Brut y Brenhinedd this is one of the Medieval Welsh translations/adaptations of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain -- the primary dissemination point for later medieval versions of the Matter of Britain.
Mac Cana, Proinsias. 1958. Branwen Daughter of Llyr: A Study of the Irish Affinities. University of Wales Press, Cardiff.
Pretty much just what the subtitle says: a scholarly study of Irish connections in the second branch of the Mabinogi. The Irish connections are overt in the plot (Branwen marries an Irish king and much of the action takes place there), but many of the themes, minor characters, and even in some cases particular turns of phrase or description can be linked to Irish material as well. A cautionary tale for those who might think that just because a story comes to us from medieval Wales that it necessarily provides evidence about the medieval Welsh.
Plank, Dieter et al. ed. 1985. Der Keltenfürst von Hochdorf. Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart. ISBN 3-8062-0441-1
I confess, I am a slut for Iron Age Celtic archaology. This is an exhibition catalog focused on the rich grave known as "the prince of Hochdorf". The finds include a number of interesting textile fragments (although people may remember it more for the gold-plate shoe ornaments). After working through a detailed and copiously illustrated survey of the grave goods, the catalog then gives us a survey of the entire archaeological history of Baden-Württemberg, starting in the Stone Age and working up through the 17th century.
xrian will be delighted to know that it includes a nice close-up (although b&w) photo of one of those German disk-type rosaries showing useful construction details -- although it's dated 17-18th century, alas.There were two other books in this shipment, but I think I want to actually read through them a bit before posting on them.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-05-20 10:32 pm (UTC)And are the "gold shoe-ornaments" bezants, by any chance?
no subject
Date: 2007-05-21 02:19 am (UTC)Early English Carols
Date: 2007-05-20 11:00 pm (UTC)