BOOKS

Annotated guide and reference

NEW ADDITIONS

Cole, Thomas (1991)  The Origins of Rhetoric in Ancient Greece (Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins University Press) – Highly thoughtful and succinct. 

De Mille, James (1882) The Elements of Rhetoric (New York: Harper Bros.) – well worth wading through the 19^th century of it all.  Useful reference / refresher.

Garver, Eugene (1994) Aristotle’s Rhetoric: An Art of Character (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press) – Of particular interest / significance regarding ethos as a means of persuasion.

Genung, John F. (1890) The Practical Elements of Rhetoric (Boston: Ginn & Co.) – Another thorough 19^th century tome worth examining.  Treats inventio, dispositio and  elocutio comprehensively.

Genung, John F. (1890) Handbook of Rhetorical Analysis.  Studies in Style and Invention (Boston: Ginn & Co.) – volume accompanying Practical Elements.

Evans, Joan & Mary S. Serjeantson (1960) English Medieval Lapidaries (Oxford: OUP) - for Pearl, primarily, and further delictation of Middle English. A surprisingly fascinating read.

Hatt, Cecelia A (2015) God and the Gawain Poet: Theology and Genre in Pearl, Cleanness, Patience and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer)

Kaldellis, Anthony (2024) The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press) - Over 1,100 pages of Byzantine history. I have yet to finish, so can render no verdict, but I can safely say that I do not regret starting at all.

Kotter, Barnet & Alan M. Markman (1966) A Concordance to Five Middle English Poems: Cleanness, St. Erkenwald, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Patience, Pearl (Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press) - indispensible resource for reading Pearl and Gawain. Also a serious tool in the rhetorical art of inventio, for you lit-crit types, linguists and other such aficionados of the word.

Meech, Sanford Brown (1940) The Book of Margery Kempe (Oxford, New York, Toronto: OUP) - selections from this edition will soon figure in my contributions to the internet. Amazing in more and more ways every time I read it. Splendid.

Migne, J.P. (1857) Patrilogiae Graecae Tomus III, S. Dionysius Areopagita - a sufficiently well known series to warrant a slack bibliographical entry. The Mystica Theologia, which is of interest to my Cloud of Unknowing Author series begins at column 997.

Spearing, A.C. (1976) Medieval Dream-Poetry (London, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press)

APOCALYPSE

Emmerson, Richard K. & Bernard McGinn (eds.) (1992) The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, London: Cornell University Press) - rather helpful on development of exegesis regarding John’s Apocalypse. Very interesting sections (amounting to two thirds of the volume) on art and culture.

Whalen, Brett Edward (2009) Dominion of God: Christendom and the Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (Cambridge & London: Harvard University Press)

BLESSED VIRGIN MOTHER

Rubin, Miri (2009)  Mother of God A History of the Virgin Mary (New Haven & London: Yale University Press) – A great disappointment, for me in any event.  Replete with annoying politico-academic shibboleths (using “Palestine” and the modern Arab place names instead of toponyms of the period under discussion; always “fetus” instead of “child” in womb, even in translations of Church Fathers).  VERY poorly edited by Yale who allowed quite a few howlers through (Nicea is not on the “shores of the Bosphoros,” Thetford is not in Sussex, St. Francis de Sales was never a Jesuit, and more).  This may be just my own (over) sensitivity, but I found Ms. Rubin a typical academic anti-catholic (read: believes abortion to be a human right, although does not come right out and say it, hence the shibboleths; lets slip too often the view that religion, particularly Catholicism is just a bit of silliness no one truly believes).  Largely positive on the Blessed Mother’s fortunes in the “reformation” (which ought to say something - tellingly this is the book’s shortest chapter), the fact that the “reformation” essentially banished the BVM and all the other women (along with the other saints) from their faith gets little mention and much excusing. Very much, to my mind, suggestive of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” to it.  The final chapters seal the deal: the Blessed Mother can “especially” assist “American Catholic women” with “their feminism” – essentially an assertion that the Virgin Mary can assist with the fight to murder babies in the womb, but too cowardly / wanting to sell books to say it out loud.  But don’t take my word for it, there’s plenty of information and bibliography to enjoy in this tome.  A better book if edited properly and stopped before the outbreak of Protestantism.

ART

For an outstanding bibliography on Medieval Church architecture, art, Christianity and other delights, please visit the book list of A Catholic Pilgrim here Catholic Pilgrim Recommended Books - while you’re there, have a look at the series translating and commenting on the Rule of St. Benedict. The translation’s perfectly pitched for the commentary which follows and that, dear readers, is enlightening.

Cormack, Robin (2018) Byzantine Art, 2nd ed. (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press) - solid survey.

Index of Medieval Art - A treasure from Princeton University.  Many images for public consumption (i.e. can use them without worry), fine graphics with most pieces photographed in detail.

Lymbaropoloulou, Angeliki & Rembrandt Duits (2016) Byzantine Art and Renaissance Europe (London & New York: Routledge)

Rebold Benton, Janetta (1997) Holy Terrors: Gargoyles on Medieval Buildings (London & New York: Abbeville Press)

Viladesau, Richard (2006) The Beauty of the Cross.  The Passion of Christ in Theology and the Arts – from the Catacombs to the Eve of the Renassaince (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press) - this is a beautiful book which considers in each chapter a crucifix from a different period. Highly recommended.

CATHOLIC AND ANTI-CATHOLIC

Blanchard, Paul (1949) American Freedom and Catholic Power (Boston: Beacon Press) – Elenor Roosevelt, John Dewey, Albert Einstein and others endorsed this book, or the series of articles from which it grew.  Important book for Catholics, particularly in the US.  Blanchard’s “line of attack” will sound familiar in many many places to anyone following the present anti-catholic tsunami in the US and elsewhere.

Massa, Mark S. S.J. (2003) Anti-Catholicism in America: the Last Acceptable Prejudice (New York: Crossroad) – An interesting book I stumbled upon.  Very interesting theological examination of some of the more “out there” Catholic haters.  You’ll never guess what – they don’t think we’re Christians.  This book also pointed me toward Blanchard, above, which is a monumental work of anti-catholic bigotry.

Moore, Brian (1972) Catholics (London, Glasgow, Toronto, Sydney, Auckland: Triad Grafton Books,1983 printing) - Made into a film with a very young Martin Sheen.

CLOUD OF UNKNOWING AUTHOR

Burrow, J.A. (1977) “Fantasy and language in The Cloud of Unknowing,” Essays in Criticism XXVII: 4, pp. 283 - 298

Clark, John P.H. (1980) “Sources and Theology in the Cloud of Unknowing,” Downside Review 98, pp. 83 - 109

Gallacher, Patrick J., ed. (1997) The Cloud of Unknowing (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications). Also here: Cloud of Unknowing

Hodgson, Phyllis, ed. (1982) The Cloud of Unknowing and related treatises (Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg)

Hodgson, Phyllis (ed.) (1955) Deonise Hid Diuinite and other Treatises on Contemplative Prayer Related to the Cloud of Unknowing (London: Oxford University Press)

Johnson, William (2000) The Mysticism of the Cloud of Unknowing (2^nd ed) (New York: Fordham University Press)

Kocijanèiè Pokorn, Nike ( 1997) “The Language and Discourse of The Cloud of Unknowing,” Literature & Theology, Vol 11 No. 4, pp. 408 – 421 – fascinating article for anyone familiar with “deconstruction.”  Once again it is proven that the deconstructionists who have imbibed the Kool-Aid are to philosophy what atheists are to polite dinner conversation: just too dogmatic for this severely Catholic (with a capital Latin Mass) boy.

Rovang, Paul R. (1992) “Demythologizing Metaphor in the Cloud of Unknowing,” Mystics Quarterly, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 131 – 137 – Mystics Quarterly: not what it sounds like.

ENGLISH MYSTICS

Bendon Davis, Carmel (2008) Mysticism & Space: Space and Spatiality in the Works of Richard Rolle, the Cloud of Unknowing Author, and Julian of Norwich (Wash. D.C.: Catholic University of America)

College, Edmund O.S.A. & James Walsh, S.J. (1978) A Book of Showings To the Anchoress Julian of Norwich (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies) – contains both the short and the long texts

Knowles, David (1961) The English Mystical Tradition (New York: Harper & Brothers) – most, if not all, subsequent commentators / critics refer to Knowles.

Ogilve-Thomson, S. J. (1988) Richard Rolle: Prose & Verse, edited from MS Longleat 29 and related manuscripts (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, for Early English Text Society)

Riehle, Wolfgang (2014) The Secret Within: Hermits, Recluses, and Spiritual Outsiders in Medieval England (Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press), trans by Charity Scott-Stokes of 2011 original

GREEK LEXICONS

Diggle, J, et. al. (2021) The Cambridge Greek Lexicon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

Lampe, G.W.H. (1961) A Patristic Grek Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press)

Liddle, Henry George & Robert Scot (1996) A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press) - the big dictionary. Much use also made of the Intermediate version we all had to buy in college / university.

Lust, Johan, Erik Eynikel & Katerin Hauspie (2003) A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, Revised Edition (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgellschaft)

Muraoka, T. (2009) A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (London, Paris, Walpole MA: Peeters)

Sophocles, E.A. (1914) Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (From B.C. 146 to A.D. 1100) (Cambridge & Oxford: Harvard University Press & Oxford Univerty Press)

IRELAND

Cahill, Thomas (1995) How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (New York: Rosetta Books) – a fun book, the opening of which still makes me chuckle.  The story has been told elsewhere, of course, but Cahill does it with style and humor.  Apologies to those who thought St. Benedict saved western civilization, but that’s simply not the case.  Useful annotated bibliography and chronology.

LATIN

Mondon, Jean-Franscois (2015) Intensive Basic Latin: A Grammar and Workbook (London & New York: Routledge)

Mondon, Jean-Franscois (2016) Intensive Intermediate Latin: A Grammar and Workbook (London & New York: Routledge)

LATIN LEXICONS

Andrews, E. A. (1859) Copious and Critical Latin-English Lexicon founded on the Larger Latin-German Lexicon of Dr. William Freud: additions and corrections from the Lexicons of Gesner, Pacciolati, Scheller, Georges, etc. (New York: Harper & Brothers) - WINNER of the best title for a Latin dictionary.

Bryan-Brown, A.N., ed. (1968) Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press)

Lewis, Charlton & Charles Short (1891) A New Latin Dictionary (New York: Harper & Brothers)

Niermeyer, J.F. (???) Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus (Leiden: E.J. Brill)

LINGUISTICS

Akmajian, Advian, et. al. (2010) Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication 6th ed. (Cambridge, London: MIT Press) - covers all the major areas of the subject. Not necessarily there to be read cover-to-cover. The hard slog through phonetics and phonology is worth the effort.

Matthews, P.H. (2003) Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press) - very short indeed, 116 pages.

Meyer, Charles F. (2009) Introducing English Linguistics (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press)

O’Grady, et. al. (2017) Contemporary Linguistics An Introduction 7th ed. (Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s) - see comment on Matthews above.

Saussure, Ferdinand de (2011) Course in General Linguistics, trans. Wade Baskin (New York: Columbia University Press) - originally published in the 1950s, this is the linguistic book which in a way gave rise to Structuralism, Deconstruction, Post-Modernism and a whole bunch of psychoanalytical “theory.” Its value as linguistics aside, an important book.

LONDON

Anoymous (1827) A Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483, written in the 15th century (London: Longman, Rees, Brown & Green)

Holder, Nick (2017) The Friaries of Medieval London from Foundation to Dissolution (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) – A learned volume full of diagrams, tables, charts and photographs covering the Dominicans, Carmelites, Augustinians, Franciscans, Crossed Friars,  Sacked Friars and Pied Friars.  Where they were, what they built, what they did.  Water supply.  Walls.  Building materials.  Economic and spiritual activities.  Relations with London and Londoners.  Their churches.  Their ways.  All covered.  For someone who has lived, worked and wandered his entire adult life in and about the parts of London detailed in this book makes it especially dear to me as well as incredibly useful context for London, both physical and Catholic.  A gem for London history geeks.

Lethbridge Kingsford, Charles, ed. (1905) Chronicles of London (Oxford: Clarendon Press)

Stow, John (1598) The Survey of London (London & New York: Everyman) 1945 reprint of 1912 edition

Warner, Kathryn (2022) London: A Fourtheenth-Century City and Its People (Barnsley & Philadelphia: Pen & Sword Books) – This book functions as an encyclopaedia or dictionary of the city.  The first six chapter titles are as follows: Health; Foreigners; Wards; Curfew; Sanitation; Privies.  Other highlights include Drunkenness, Misadventure, Religion, Pestilence, Fun, Adultery, Children and Weather.  Browsing heaven for those so inclined.

MADNESS

“A Constant Observer” (1823) Sketches in Bedlam, or Characteristic Traits of Insanity, as Displayed in the Cases of One Hundred and Forty Patients of Both Sexes (London: Sherwood Jones and Company)

Bright, Timothie (1586) A treatise of melancholie

Burton, Robert (1989) The Anatomy of Melancholy VolI: Text, Faulkner, Kiessling & Blair eds. (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press) - truly one of the greatest volumes ever written about anything. I wanted to plagarise his explanation as to why he wrote under a pseudonym but I don’t want to wind up president of any university.

Garon, Justin (2022) Madness: a Philosophical Exploration (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press) - highly recommended. His exploration of madness as strategy vs madness as dysfunction has such wide relevance to the field of study. He does miss a few tricks by not perhaps taking some of the religious aspects of earlier conceptions of madness more seriously. Not a major flaw - in fact, likely to be my own particular intersts which are at fault.

MacDonald, Michael (1981) Mystical Bedlam: madness, anxiety, and healing in seventeenth-century England (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press) - 19th century salaciousness at its best.

Sass, Louis A. (1992) Madness and Modernity: Insanity in the Light of Modern Art, Literature and Thought (London & New Haven: Yale University Press)

Scull, Andrew (2005) Madhouse: a tragic tale of megalomania and modern medicine (London & New York: Yale University Press) - horrific story which, believe it or not, looks like it might be coming back. I read an article recently which posited improved behavior in troubled youths who had had their tonsils removed. For those who put great store in medicine, psychiatry and the like, reading this book will open your eyes.

Scull, Andrew (2020) Madness in Civilization. A Cultural History of Insanity from the Bible to Freud, from the Madhouse to Modern Medicine (London: Thames & Hudson) - disappointing from an academic point of view (lacks basic comprehensiveness - does not list all the occurances of madness in the Old Testament. He misses out three or four short references, if memory serves, which support his point). Referencing could be better. Martin Luther is not so obscure as to require a “as quoted in” reference. Lazy. That being said, this is a very good treatment of the subject and, in its way, comprehensive with an excellent bibliography.

MIDDLE AGES

Orme, Nicholas (2021) Going to Church in Medieval England (New Haven & London: Yale University Press)

Chronicles

Arnold, Thomas, ed. (1879) Henrici Archidiaconi Huntendunensis: Historia Anglorum, (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer)

Ellis, Henry, ed. (1811) The New Chronicles of England and France in two parts by Robert Fabyan (London: Rivington, Payne, et. al.)

Luard, Henry Richard, ed. (1890) Flores Historiarum (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer).

Luard, Henry Richard, ed. (1887) Matthaei Parisiensis: Chronica Majora, (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer)

Riley, Henry Thomas, ed. (1866) de Trokelowe et Henrici de Blaneforde Chronica et Annales, Regnatntibus Henrico Tertio, Edwardo Primo, Edwardo Secundo, Ricardo Secundo, et Henrico Quarto. (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer) - Chronicle in Latin covering 1259 - 1296; 1307 - 1324; 1392 - 1406. Compared to Cicero and Tacitus, chronicle Latin is easy and fun.

Riley, Henry Thomas, ed. (1865) Willelmi Rishanger, Chronica et Annales, (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer)

Robbins, Rossell Hope, ed. (1959) Historical Poems of the XIVth and XVth Centuries (New York, 1959)

Salimbene de Adam (1942 edition) Chronica (Bari: Gius. Laterza & Figli) 2 volumes - Samimbene de Adam came from a family whose profession was “Crusader.” He decided upon becoming a 13th-century Fransiscan instead. This friar got around quite a bit and met, among others, the King of France, the Pope, the Holy Roman Emperor, St. Francis Assisi’s first follower, and all the other main theologians and exegetes of his day. He lived a remarkably peripatetic life, seemingly living in one location for a few years, then moving on to another town or city for short span, and so on. I am not aware of any translations of his Chronica in any language. His Latin certainly moves into what would be considered Italian today and his narrative is filled with tales of mendicant in-fighting, monastic vs. mendicant vs. secular priest rivalries and intrigues, as well as engagingly bizarre tales from every day life in 13th century Italy.

The Great Famine

Curschman, Fritz (1900) Hungersnöte im Mittlealter.  Ein Betrag zur Deutschen Wirtschaftgesichte des 8. Bis 13. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig: Druck und Verlag von BG Teubner) - All the news about famine fit to have been transcribed in Germanic Europe up to 1317. Not a word of English to be found in here but not to worry as it’s mostly quoting Latin writings. Fabulous book.

Lucas, Henry S. (1930) “The Great European Famine of 1315, 1316, and 1317,” Speculum Vol. 5 No. 4 (October 1930), pp. 343 - 377 - still the authoritative account of the Great Famine in England and France.

Rosen, William (2014) The Third Horseman: Climate Change and the Great Famine of the 14^th Century (London & New York: Viking)

MUSIC

Christensen, Thomas (2002) The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press)

Jones, Russell & Catherine Schmidt-Jones (2005) Introduction to Music Theory (Houston: Connexions) - one of many of its kind.

Russano Hanning, Barbara (2014) Concise History of Western Music, 5th ed. (New York & London: W.W. Norton) - over 600 pages concise, but worth a full read. Excellent for dipping into composers and styles. The format and style are somewhat “textbook-ish.”

OLDER ENGLISH, ENGLISH LINGUISTICS, HISTORY OF ENGLISH

History of the English Language

Baugh, Albert c. & Thomas Cable (2002) A History of the English Language 5th edition (London & New York: Routledge)

Culpeper, Jonathan (1997) History of English (London, New York: Routledge) – 114 pages.

van Gelderen, Elly (2014) A History of the English Language, Revised Edition (Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing) – in region 330 pages.

Kohen, Thomas (2014) Introduction to the History of English (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang) – Reassuringly German.  Part 6 of the gripping series Textbooks in English Language and Linguistics (TELL) - 207 pages, reassuringly German, even in translation.

Middle English Dictionaries

Mayhew, Rev. A.L. and Rev. Walter Skeat (1888) A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from 1150 to 1580 (Oxford: Clarendon Press) - excellent dictionary, becomes more and more useful as one becomes more familiar with the forms of Middle English.

Middle English Dictionary - from the University of Michigan. highly useful. A particularly outstanding feature of this site is the little black keyboard icon to the right of the search field which allows for typing in of the odd Middle English letters. Each entry also includes many examples taken from the corpus of Middle English. Also of note, all texts are copyrite-free.

Middle English Grammar

Brumner, Karl (1963) An Outline of Middle English Grammar (translated by Grahame Johnston from the 5th German edition) (London & Aylesbury: Compton Printing)

How to Read Chaucer - Harvard’s very useful website for Chaucer & late Southern Middle English.   Especially useful for explanation of the “Great Vowel Shift” (yes, that is a thing) and its impact on the language.  The story of final -e is very important for prosody.  Particularly fascinating on why Shakespeare and his contemporaries did not know how to scan Chaucer’s metre and therefore had a poor opinion of him as a versifier.

Mossé, Fernand (1952) A Handbook of Middle English, trans. James A. Walker (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press)

Smith, Jeremy J. (2023) Essentials of Early English: An Introduction to Old, Middle and Early Modern English (London & New York: Routledge) - Most helpful.

Sweet, Henry (1896) Second Middle English Primer. Extracts from Chaucer with glossary 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press)

Middle English Primary Texts

Benson, Larry D. (ed.) (1988) The Riverside Chaucer (Oxford: Oxford University Press) – There is a new edition dating from 2008 which I have not had a look at.  All the Chaucer that’s fit to print plus an outstanding introduction.  THE standard edition of Chaucer’s works.  Of particular interest for the purposes of my screeds is the section on pronunciation.  This in conjunction with the Harvard website, and some others relating to Chaucer, ought to help set one straight on pronunciation. 

https://chaucermetapage.org/old/chtexts.htm - a very good general Chaucer website with links to all sorts.

Brown, Carleton (ed.) (1924) Religious Lyrics of the XIVthe Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press)

Brown, Carleton (ed.) (1939) Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press)

Bülbring, Karl D., ed. (1891) The Earliest Complete English Prose Psalter together with Eleven Canticles and a translation of the Athanasian Creed, Part I preface and text (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Tübner & Co. for Early English Text Society) also here The earliest complete English prose Psalter

Conlee, John (ed.) (2004) William Dunbar: The Complete Works (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University) - also here William Dunbar Complete Works

Corpus of Medieval Prose and Verse - a database of a large corpus of Old and Middle English works. The text themselves are heavily academic, concerned with textual matters. Skip everything between “[ ]” if that’s not your game. Drawback: no glossaries, but see dictionary link at bottom of home page or Middle English Dictionary above.

Day, Mabel, ed. (1921) The Wheatley Manuscript: a Collection of Middle English Verse and Prose from a MS now in the British Museum ADD MS 39574 (London: Humphrey Milford for Oxford University Press) - interesting collection. The manuscript itself dates from the early 15th century. Of particular fascination, for me in any event, are the lives - including Adam & Pilate.

Dean, James M. (1996) Medieval Political Writings (TEAMS, Middle English Texts Series)

Erbe, Theodor (ed.) (1905) Mirk’s Festial: A Collection of Homilies by Johannes Mirkus (John Mirk) (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner  & Co.)

Fein, Susanna (ed.) (2009) John the Blind Audelay Poems and Carols (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 302) (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University) also here: John "the Blind" Audelay

Furnival, Frederick J. (1846) Political, Religious, and Love Poems from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lambeth MS. No. 306 and other sources (London: Trübner  & Co.) - texts also to be found here: Political, Religious and Love Poems (texts appear to have been given an up-to-date scholarly edit in places).

Furnival, Frederick J., ed. (1867) Hymns to the Virgin & Christ, The Parliament of Devils and other Religious Poems (London: Trübner  & Co.)

Furnival, Frederick J., ed. (1901) The Minor Poems of the Vernon M.S., part II (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner  & Co.)

Horstmann, Carl, ed., (1892) The Minor Poems of the Vernon M.S., part I (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner  & Co.)

The Vernon Manuscript - one of the largest and most elaborate manuscript to survive from the middle ages. The manuscript itself has been photographed can be viewed here courtesy of the Bodeleian Library’s website. Highly recommended.

Kail, J. (ed.) (1904) Twenty-Six Political and Other Poems (Including ‘Petty Job’) from the Oxford MSS Digby 102 and DOUCE 322 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner  & Co.)

Kohanski, Tamarah and C. David Benson (eds.) (2007) The Book of John Mandeville (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications). Also here: Book of John Mandeville - This book is a wonder. It’s a late 14th century adventure / travel tale. It survives in five or six different languages, each with their own separate manuscript traditions. Everyone read some version of this book - Chaucer alludes to it, as does Shakespeare. Long believed to be of English origin, once it was discovered in the 1900s that most, if not all, the material is directly lifted from a number of other sources. Since then, opinion, particularly among British scholars, has settled on the original version of the plagarism was French. Great fun.

MaCracken, Henry, ed. (1911) The Minor Poems of John Lydgate 1 (London & New York: Oxford University Press)

MaCracken, Henry & Merriam Sherwood, eds. (1934) The Minor Poems of John Lydgate 2 (London & New York: Oxford University Press)

Middle English Text Series - a vast collection of texts, edited by serious scholars, with notes and glossaries. This particular page gives individual works in alphabetical order. To access the web version of the published book (as in the links herein to individual works), go to the top of the page of any particular test and click on the link for the volume from which the poem is taken.

Reiss, Edmund (1972) The Art of the Middle English Lyric: Essays in Criticism (Athens: University of Georgia Press) - contains full texts of poems discussed in essays.

Seymour, M.C., ed. (1963) The Bodley Version of Mandeville’s Travels from Bodleian MS. E Musaeo 116 with parallel extracts from the Latin text of British Museum MS Royal 13 E. ix (London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press for The Early English Text Society) - another version of John Mandeville, this time with a Latin version included. Any version of Mandeville is a pure delight.

Shuffelton, George, ed. (2008) Codex Ashmole 61: A Compilation of Popular Middle English Verse (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications). Also here Codex Ashmole 61

Saupe, Karen ed. (1997) Middle English Marian Lyrics (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications). Also here Middle English Marian Lyrics

Spalding, Mary Caroline, ed. (1914) The Middle English Charters of Christ (Bryn Mawr: Bryn Mawr College) - a nifty little book about a very specialised subject. The texts can all be found on the Corpus of Medieval Prose and Verse. The introduction, covering the manuscript issues, the relationship between the poems, the sources and the genre, made these poems some of my favorites. Helpful appendices with related texts and notes on the language.

Wright, Joseph (1923) An Elementary Middle English Grammar (London, Edinburgh, etc.: Oxford University Press)

Wright, Thomas (ed.) (1839) The Political Songs of England (London: Camden Society)

Wright, Thomas (1866) Songs and Carols from a Manuscript in the British Museum of the Fifteenth Century (London: T. Richards)

Middle English Literature Secondary Sources

Woolf, Rosemary (1968) The English Religious Lyric in the Middle Ages (Oxford: Clarendon Press)

THE PEARL / GAWAIN POET

Andrew, Malcolm & Ronald Waldron, eds. (1978) The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript: Pearl, Cleanness, Patience and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Berkley & Los Angeles: University of California Press) – said to be the standard text for study, the appendix containing all the passages from the Vulgate referred to in the poems is very helpful.  Outstanding glossary.

Morris, Richard, ed. (1869) Early English Alliterative Poems, in the West-Midland Dialect of the Fourteenth Century (London: Trübner & Co) – contains all the poems of the Cotton MS (the only manuscript preserving the four poems of the Pearl Poeet).  As useful and helpful as Andrew & Waldon.

Russell, J. Stephen (1988 ) The English Dream Vision: Anatomy of a Form (Columbus: University of Ohio Press) – I enjoyed this book’s argument very much.  The method, particularly the examination of the science of dreams as seen from medieval eyes, is straight-forward and compelling.  Thought provoking stuff, both substantively and methodologically. 

Spearing, A.C. (1970) The Gawain-Poet: a Critical Study (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) – widely deemed as a standard introduction to the poems of the Gawain-Poet / Pearl-Poet.

Tomasch, Sylvia (1989) “A "Pearl" Punnology,” The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 88, No. 1 (Jan., 1989), pp. 1-20

PHILOSOPHY

Barnes, Jonathan (1982) The Presocratic Philosophers: The arguments of the Philosophers, 2nd ed. (London & New York: Routledge) - wonderfully written and comprehensive, but not the final word.

Wheelwright, Philip (ed.) (1960) The Presocratics (Indianapolis: Bobbs Merrill Company) - has many fragments / quotations in English translation with some commentary.

RELIGIOUS, DEVOTIONAL, MYSTICISM, THEOLOGY

See A Catholic Pilgrim’s recommended books: Catholic Pilgrim Recommended Books

Carafa, Franscesco and Giacomo Sottani, eds. (1842) Combattimento Spirituale del Padre D. Lorenzo Scupoli, quarta edizione risiontrata, I & II (Napoli)

Ludwig Jansen, Katherine (2000) The Making of the Magdalene: Preaching and Popular Devotion in the Later Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press)

Mysticism

Astell, Ann W. (1990) The Song of Songs in the Middle Ages (Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press)

Butler, Dom Cuthbert (1922) Western Mysticism: the Teaching of Augustine, Gregory and Bernard on Contemplation and the Contemplative Life (London: Constable) 3^rd edition with 1967 preface and afterthoughts – I forget which Pope said this to which person, I think it was St. Pope Paul VI, but when someone said he studied Augustine, the Pope replied, “Where does one start to study the ocean?”  So true and  not just because of the volume of surviving texts.  Dom Cuthbert is a good place to start as far as Augustine and mysticism is concerned.

Louth, Andres (2007) The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition from Plato to Denys, 2nd ed. (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press) - helpful survey, enjoyed this book rather a lot.

Heresy

Molnar, Thomas (1967) Utopia the perennial heresy (New York: Sheed and Ward) – A book I found fascinating and highly relevant.  The essential premise of the work is that utopian thinking itself is an evil and of a certain type through the ages.  Manichaeism, Marxism, millenarian and gnostic cults all manifest the same inherent evil and distortion.  One does find writers who speak forthrightly of evil a breath of fresh air. A deeply learned and relevant book.

Speaking of relevance, have a read of the following paragraph and consider current politics:

The desire for absolute purity is perhaps the utopian’s main motivation.  The history of heresies is really a long list of demands for purity – in body, soul, social life, political and Church organization – but it is such a purity as would so de-nature man that it would have to be enforced.  The enforcement of purity would lead, in turn, both to loss of freedom for the members of the community and unlimited power and pride for the rulers – the Elect.  In fact, the demand for purity often leads to abominable vices.  . . .   The impossible demands made on ordinary people caused them to adopt hypocritical ways, obliged them to prove their virtue relentlessly and to spy on and denounce their neighbors.  Utopian insistence on “purity” puts the majority of people in the category of scoundrels and finally corrupts them completely. (pp. 22 – 23).

RENAISSANCE / EARLY MODERN

Arber, Edward, ed. (1870) Tottel’s Miscellany.  Songes and Sonettes by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyatt, the Elder, Nicholas Grimals, and Uncertain Authors. (London) – reprint edition of the 1^st edition (June 1557), collated with the second of July 1557.  Never mind the editorial practices of another era (i.e. re-writing bits of the poems prior to publication), a monument.  The beginning of the “story” of the pentameter in English verse is said by many to have begun with Tottel and subsequently ended, that is “matured,” with Sir Philip Sidney.

Dugdale, Richard (1679) A Narrative of the wicked Plots carried on by Seignior Gondamore for Advancing the Popish Religion and Spanish Faction. (London: Robert Clavel at the Peacock)

Foxe, John: Acts & Monuments - all editions - Top 16th century scourge of popery in all it’s manifestations, Master Foxe’s magnum opus was once placed outside post-reformation churches, chained to the wall along with the Bible, so that everyone might read about all the burnings and the like. Fantastic website with all the editions.

Guiney, Louise Imogen, ed. (1939) Recusant Poets I: Saint Thomas More to Ben Jonson (New York: Sheed & Ward)

Muir, Kenneth, ed. (1949) Collected Poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.)

Sarmennto, Diego (1869) Cinco cartas político-literarias de D. Diego Sarameinto de Acuña (Madrid: Sociedad de Bibliofolos de España) ed. Pascual de Gayangos

RHETORIC

Campbell, George (1854) The Philosophy of Rhetoric.  A new edition with the author’s last additions and corrections. (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers) – Originally published 1776, considered by many the height of Enlightenment Rhetoric in the English language. 

Corbett, Edward P.J. & Robert J. Connors (1999) Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, 4^th ed. (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press)

Enos, Theresa (ed.) (1996) Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition: Communication from Ancient Times to the Information Age (New York & London: Routledge) - very useful, erudite and thorough. Great bibliographies.

Joseph, Sr. Miriam (1948) The Trivium.  The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric. Understanding the Function of Language (Philadelphia: Paul Dry)

Kennedy, George A. (1999) Classical Rhetoric and its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times, 2^nd ed. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press)

Lausberg, Heinrich (1998) Handbook of Literary Rhetoric: A Foundation for Literary Study (trans. Bliss, Jansen & Orton from 1970, 2^nd edition, original) (Brill: Leiden, Boston, Köln) - fantastic work, so comprehensive (and German) that the table of contents is 13 pages long. A bottomless well of information, references and bibliography. A monumental achievement.

Lawson, John (1758) Lectures concerning oratory delivered in Trinity College, Dublin. (Claussen, Neal E. & Karl R. Wallace eds. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press 1972 reproduction)

Martineau, John (ed.) (2016) Trivium: The Classical Liberal Arts of Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric (New York & London: Bloomsbury)

Murphy, James J. (1974) Rhetoric in the Middle Ages.  A History of Rhetoric from St. Augustine to the Renaissance (Berkeley & London: University of California Press)

Wagner, David L. (ed.) (1983) The Seven Liberal Arts in the Middle Ages (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press)

Wisse, Jacob (1989) Ethos and Pathos from Aristotle to Cicero (Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert)

SCIENCE & MATH

Binder, Donald, Martin J. Erickson & Joe Hemmeter (2013) Mathematics for the Liberal Arts (Hoboken: Joe Wiley & Son) - I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Important subject.

Davis, Paul (1983) God and the New Physics (London & NY: Penguin)

Dekking, F.M., Kraaikamp, Loupuhaa & Meester (2005) A Modern Introduction to Probability and Statistics, Understanding Why and How (London: Springer-Verlag) - this tome presupposes a lot of math (up to and including calculus).

Einstein, Albert (1920) Relativity.  The Special and the General Theory (translation Robert W. Lawson, 1996 Routledge reprint) – relativity explained without any particular math by the man who came up with it. 156 pages long.

Heisenberg, Werner (1958) Physics and Philosophy (London & New York: Penguin – 1989 reprint with introduction by Paul Davies) – Quantum physics turns out to be as insanity provoking as philosophy.  Straight from the mouth of one of Quantum’s progenitors who also addresses relativity. 144 pages long.

Merzbach, Uta C  and Carl B. Boyer (2011) A History of Mathematics, 3^rd edition (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons)

Newton, Roger G. (2007) From Clockwork to Crapshoot a History of Physics (Cambridge & London: Belknap Press, Harvard University Press)

Polkinghorne, John (2002) Quantum Theory: a very short introdution (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press) - although I am not the biggest fan of this very short introduction series, this book is not bad and helpful with an exceedingly weird subject.

Stannard, Russell (2008) Relativity: a very short introduction (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press) - the Einstein above may be a bit hard-going. This helps as an appetiser.

SOUTHWELL

Pollard Brown, Nancy, ed. (1973) Robert Southwell SJ.  Two Letters and Short Rules of a Good Life (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia)

UNITED STATES HISTORY

Hogan, Margaret & C. James Taylor eds. (2014) A Traveled First Lady. Writings of Louisa Catherine Adams (Cambridge & London: Belknap, Harvard University Press) - Abigail is not the only fascinating Adams First Lady. Also, our first foreign-born First Lady.