Cambridge University Press has brought out in paperback two excellent books from its Studies in Palaeography and Codicology series. Bischoff's very important Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of Charlemagne, helpfully translated by the excellent Michael Gorman, and with added Bischoffness put in by the man himself, is just £14.99; while the useful and heavily-illustrated The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books by Albert Derolez is a very reasonable £19.99. If you're a member of the university you get a 20% discount and if, like me, you are a C.U.P. author, it's even more. Go C.U.P.!
(OK, so I'm just the author of a chapter in a C.U.P. book which has been forthcoming for a long long time (actually since I was in primary school, though I was not at that stage a contributor) but it all seems to count for the shop staff. Go C.U.P. shop staff!)
My review of Derolez is online here: I met him many years ago when he gave the Sandars lectures in Cambridge, on the topic which eventually became this book. I was a second-year undergraduate, and our palaeography teacher, later my PhD supervisor, invited him to dinner at Girton, together with twelve of us students. (I did wonder about that number even then.) After the starter, our host cleared his throat, and said, "Professor Derolez, what my students are wondering is why you are so dismissive of Lieftinck's system when they have experience of its excellent results for Insular script?" The poor man then had to sing for his supper, and I'm really pretty sure none of us were wondering that. Either our teacher had misunderstood him or he then changed his mind on Lieftinck's system, as the book is very pro it.
(I ended my review by urging C.U.P. to bring it out in paperback. But to be honest I had heard already that paperbacks in this series were a possibility, so I can't claim clairvoyance, or any sort of influence on their publishing decisions.)
No comments:
Post a Comment