The rise of dynamic categories of Greco-Roman personal names is presented primarily in reference to France. Part I introduces the Frankish system of Germanic names and illustrates composite derivation through the examples of Mauger and Mathilde in the Norman ducal family. Part II describes the various Greco-Roman sub-catgories that formed before the onset of dynamic categories, with particular attention to traditions in the high aristocracy. Part III is devoted to the rise of the “oblique” category of Greco-Roman names, the smaller of the two dynamic categories. The “oblique” category includes the male names Peter, Thomas and Nicholas, and a host of female names, including Agnes and Sibylle and attributives such as Yolande and Clementia.

The problem of extension in Latin relationship terminology is considered from these three directions: (I) the scope of systematic extension is illustrated with available German examples; (II) French examples provide a test case indicating the use of systematic extension in the ninth century; (III) a twelfth-century application demonstrates the value of the systematic principle. The example presented here is that of King Robert II’s filius Amaury I of Montfort as described in the Historia Francorum continuation by Aimoin. A wide array of material confirms the appropriate reading to the effect that Amaury was the king’s son-in-law. Many other inferable royal relatives are presented drawing especially on the resource of Greco-Roman onomastics.

The first volume chronologically in a new multi-volume History of Germany, Timothy Reuter's book is the first full-scale survey to appear in English for nearly fifty years of this formative period of German history -- the period in which Germany itself, and many of its internal divisions and characteristics, were created and defined. Filling an important gap, the book is itself a formidable scholarly achievement.