The author, who is a specialist on the problems around The Story of Apollonius, King of Tyre, makes a pioneer attempt to tackle the question of its origin (Latin or Greek?) systematically. He concludes that a longer Greek original is probable, and that it can be localised in Asia Minor, perhaps in Tarsus. An edition of the major Latin recensions rounds off his study.

The origins of the anonymous Late Latin Story of Apollonius, King of Tyre (Historia Apollonii regis Tyri), are disputed, with the narrative commonly being seen as a Christianised folktale of a sub-literary character. Scholars focus mainly on questions of editing the text, seeking its origins (Greek or Latin, pagan or Christian) and exploring its afterlife. This literary and philological commentary discusses aspects of language, style, characterisation, intertextuality, and narrative technique in the earliest existing version of the Story of Apollonius, recension A. It situates the Late Latin text in the context of both ancient prose fiction and pagan and Christian literature. The author offers new arguments in the ongoing debate about the alleged Greek background of the Latin text, and his analysis enables readers to assess the literary character of this unique narrative, which contains elements of “popular” culture (e.g. riddles) and displays thorough knowledge of the Greek and Latin classics. The Commentary views the Story of Apollonius as a crossroad in which the notions of pagan and Christian, Greek and Latin, popular and sophisticated meet and interact in a complex way, reflecting the cultural atmosphere of the era of its creation.

The Book of Apollonius was first published in 1936. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. No other English translation of this famous thirteenth-century Spanish narrative poem is available, in either poetry or prose. The present translators have put it into a form that reproduces most faithfully the quaint and naïve quality of the original Libro de Apolonio, the story of which appears in Book Eight of John Gower's Confessio Amantis and in Shakespeare's Pericles. The reader who is not a specialist in medieval or Spanish literature will find here a lush uncensored tale of mad adventure. If he will give himself up to the spell of its child-like spirit, he will find himself led on through such "faery lands forlorn" as the untrammeled imagination has immemorially loved to create. The story parades before him storms, shipwrecks, kidnappings, pirates, supposed deaths, miraculous escapes and survivals. Beginning in a theme that runs through dramatic literature from Oedipus Rex through The Cenci to The Barretts of Wimpole Street, the plot reveals the misfortunes that furiously pursue Apollonius, king of Tyre, after he tries to woo the daughter of King Antiochus away from her father. Forced to flee for his life, Apollonius plunges from adventure to adventure, until incredible reunions and transports of joy bring the tale to a conventional happy ending. The translators' Introduction gives an account of the use of the Apollonius material in Old French, Provençal, Anglo-Saxon, German, and other literatures, as well as tracing the history of the poem from its source in a lost Greek romance.

The story of Apollonius King of Tyre has rightly been called the most popular romance of the Middle Ages. From Iceland to Greece, from Spain to Russia, versions of this novel are recorded. It is the variation among the Latin versions and the numerous vernacular adaptations that make this story especially interesting. Shakespeare used and adapted it in his Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Its plot continues to fascinate us. Incest, deception, pirates, famine, sex and shipwreck form its tasty ingredients. Its links with the Greek novel, which today stands in the centre of scholarly interest, are striking. In this book the author attempts to show that the novel originated in Greece, or more precisely Asia Minor, possibly in Tarsus. A graffito from Pergamum and a coin struck in Tarsus at the time of Caracalla’s visit (215 AD) support his conviction. All these aspects make the present book attractive to scholars of many different disciplines.

A volume that introduces new sources and offers fresh perspectives on a key era of transition, this book is of value to art historians and historians alike. From the dissolution of the Carolingian empire to the onset of the so-called 12th-century Renaissance, the transformative 10th–11th centuries witnessed the production of a significant number of illuminated manuscripts from present-day France, Belgium, Spain, and Italy, alongside the better-known works from Anglo-Saxon England and the Holy Roman Empire. While the hybrid styles evident in book painting reflect the movement and re-organization of people and codices, many of the manuscripts also display a highly creative engagement with the art of the past. Likewise, their handling of subject matter—whether common or new for book illumination—attests to vibrant artistic energy and innovation. On the basis of rarely studied scientific, religious, and literary manuscripts, the contributions in this volume address a range of issues, including the engagement of 10th–11th century bookmakers with their Carolingian and Antique legacies, the interwoven geographies of book production, and matters of modern politics and historiography that have shaped the study of this complex period.

A comparative study of one of the most familiar stories in medieval romance (used by Gower, Shakespeare, etc.), from late Antiquity into the Renaissance.

In a bravura feat of storytelling, Mark Haddon calls upon narratives ancient and modern to tell the story of Angelica, a young woman trapped in an abusive relationship with her father. When a young man named Darius discovers their secret, he is forced to escape on a boat bound for the Mediterranean. To his surprise he finds himself travelling backwards over two thousand years to a world of pirates and shipwrecks, of plagues and miracles and angry gods. Moving seamlessly between the past and the present, Haddon conjures the worlds of Angelica and her would-be savior in thrilling fashion. As profound as it is entertaining, The Porpoise is a stirring and endlessly inventive novel from one of our finest storytellers.

The texts in this reader include prose, metrical prose, and poetry, and represent a variety of genres (saints’ lives and metrical charms as well as heroic verse). Frequently taught canonical texts are balanced with interesting, lesser-known works. The glossary is at the back of the book, and the companion website includes texts with clickable glossing, as well as additional texts for study.