John Somer was one of the leading English astronomers of the late fourteenth century. Geoffrey Chaucer likely consulted Somer’s Kalendarium to relate dates, times, and movements of the stars and planets to events in his tales. In her introduction to this scholarly edition, Linne Mooney discusses not only Somer’s importance but also Chaucer’s use of the Kalendarium in composing his texts from The Parliament of Fowls through The Canterbury Tales. She examines the thirty-three complete and nine fragmentary copies of the work known today and explains Somer’s innovative and influential eclipse tables, adopted by some scribes in later copies of the Kalendarium of Nicholas of Lynn, a contemporary of Somer’s. Somer’s Kalendarium itself is presented in the original Latin text with English translation on facing pages. Mooney also provides full textual apparatus for the eleven complete manuscripts closest to the base text.
Orpheus, the Thracian signer who charmed nature with the music of his lyre and traveled to the underworld to win back his wife, Ewydice, is a familiar figure in Western culture. Yet, as each age modified his deeds and altered the narrative to make the Orpheus myth conform to the values of the day, his legend acquired many new and surprising meanings. Friedman examines the various reshaping's of the myth from the Hellenistic age through the late Middle Ages. He presents primarily a literary study, but draws as well upon art and iconography, indicating how literary characterizations of Orpheus gave rise to new iconographical details for his portrayals in art, which in turn led to different portrayals in literature. He first outlines the figure of Orpheus in antiquity. He continues with an examination of the significant conceptual changes in the Orpheus myth. In the religious and philosophical writings of Hellenistic Jews and, later, Christians, Orpheus appears as a monotheist. He emerges as a Good Shepherd figure in late antique art and eventually is identified with Christ as a guide of men's souls to the afterlife. In the Middle Ages, Orpheus' relationship with Ewydice gains importance. The pair first serve a didactic and moralizing purpose, coming together as in Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, more as the abstractions of reason and passion than as tragic lovers. In the later Middle Ages, however, they appear as a secular couple who illustrate the power of the god Amor over the human heart. Orpheus becomes a courtly knight and the writer of elegant love lyrics. The blending of these two medieval traditions is seen in Robert Henryson's Orpheus and Eurydice. Friedman pays special attention to this work as well as to the romance Sir Orfeo. Thus, the propagation of religious belief—one of the primary concerns of the early Middle Ages— was reflected in the early conceptions of Orpheus. Later, with the growth of the courtly love tradition Orpheus and Eurydice became significant as lovers. This book illustrates the vitality and flexibility that a myth must possess as it adapts to different eras and embodies the interests and concerns of each.
Fully revised and updated, this classic text provides the authoritative introduction to the history of the English common law. The book traces the development of the principal features of English legal institutions and doctrines from Anglo-Saxon times to the present and, combined with Baker and Milsom's Sources of Legal History, offers invaluable insights into the development of the common law of persons, obligations, and property, and also of criminal and public law. It is an essential reference point for all lawyers, historians and students seeking to understand the evolution of English law over a millennium. The book provides an introduction to the main characteristics, institutions, and doctrines of English law over the longer term - particularly the evolution of the common law before the extensive statutory changes and regulatory regimes of the last two centuries. It explores how legal change was brought about in the common law and how judges and lawyers managed to square evolution with respect for inherited wisdom.
Lee studies the population, wealth, trade and markets of Cambridge and its region, and the changes that took place over a century of economic and social transition are detailed.
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