BRILL
The acquisition of books by Chetham's Library, 1655-1700.
Yeo (history, Charterhouse, Surrey) presents his July 2009 doctoral dissertation at the University of Manchester, parts of which have been delivered and discussed at various conferences. It describes the origins of the public library in Manchester, then examines in detail the principles and procedures by which books were acquired, and the actual books and collections that resulted over the library's first 45 years. He covers the foundation of the library; the selection of texts by Chetham's library; Robert Littlebury and the sale of books; the reception of theology; the acquisition of classics, history, and law; and natural philosophy and "useful texts." The scholarship and the volume are both of high quality. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The American road to capitalism; studies in class-structure, economic development, and political conflict, 1620-1877.
Post (sociology, Borough of Manhattan Community College — City U. of New York) conducts a Marxist historical materialist analysis of US political-economic development between 1620 and 1877. He argues that British North America was characterized by non-capitalist social-property relations in both the South (plantation slavery) and the North (independent household-production), but that class struggles during and after the American Revolution effectively subordinated northern family-farming to "market-coercion," leading to agrarian petty-commodity production that provided a growing home-market for industrial capital. These regional differences in the forces of production led to conflict over the class structure of territories conquered from Mexico and, ultimately, the Civil War, which secured the dominance of capitalist agriculture and industry in the northern and western United States and created new, non-capitalist relations in the South. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Arms and the man; military history essays in honor of Dennis Showalter.
During his long career, Showalter has been affiliated with Colorado College and various military schools. He is esteemed as a military history expert and big-hearted mentor, and this festschrift has been prepared in his honor. Editor Neiberg (military history, United States Army War College) asked Showalter for a list of people he'd like to see contribute to this volume, and the essays presented here are from friends, colleagues, and former students who enthusiastically responded. They address a variety of issues, including, as follows: America's infatuation with the German war machine; law vs. security in World War II Britain; military cultures, military histories and the current emergency; medieval military professionalism; and the forgotten campaign — Alsace-Lorraine, August 1914, among other topics. Showalter himself provides the concluding chapter in which he responds to the contributed essays. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Axioidea of the world and a reconsideration of the Callianassoidea (Decapoda, Thalassinidea, Callianassida).
The author prefaces this presentation: "With this book on the superfamily Axioidea I conclude my worldwide overview of the second major clade of the infraorder Thalassinidea, started in 2005 with a first treatise on the Callianassoidea...." The aim has been to be as exhaustive as possible. Each family and genus is presented in entries comprising diagnosis (description), remarks, and further information about type locality, distribution, and type species. Some line drawings support the text. Sakai (emeritus, Shikoku U., Tokushima, Japan) has published extensively on decapods Crustacea and here presents both an inventory of currently known species as well as his own views on their classification. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Bibliography of Islamic philosophy; 3v.
This set consists of three books. The first two (identified as Volume 1, parts 1&2) comprise an alphabetical list of publications; the third book (labeled Volume 2) contains indexing by names, terms, and topics. Daiber (Oriental Philology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Germany) provides an introductory essay on the purposes of studying the history of Islamic philosophy and explains his identification of this endeavor as a neglected discipline. He emphasizes that the study has much to offer to the histories of philosophy and science as well as to disciplines that will gain from the rich resources of the "...Islamic spiritual world...[and] its symbiosis between rationality and religion." He has assembled this reference to help rectify the neglect by affording more convenient scholarly access to materials. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Brill's companion to Apollonius Rhodius, 2d ed. (reprint, 2008)
European and US classicists discuss third-century BCE Hellenistic Egyptian poet Apollonius and his major work Argonauatica, the second edition incorporating new scholarship at least partly inspired by the appearance of the first edition, for which no date is cited. Among the topics are the textual tradition of the Argonautica, Ptolemaic epic, Apollonius on poetry, Apollonius as a Homeric scholar, Apollonius and Virgil, and echoes and imitations of Apollonius in a late Greek epic. Originally published as part of the series Brill's Companions in Classical Studies. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Brill's New Pauly encyclopaedia of the ancient world; Classical tradition; v.6: Index.
The antiquity volumes in the series (1-15) contain a great number of mostly short entries, so an index of the entry titles suffices as an entry. By contrast, the classical tradition volumes (I-V) contain fewer and longer articles, and require fuller indexing. Thus this volume, though including an entry index, also indexes by personal names, geographical names, and subjects. The index of people is by far the largest, and many of the index entries include brief characterizations to help readers select from several with identical or similar names. The geographic index lists buildings, parks, and monasteries under larger locations, for example Hagia Sophia is under Constantinople. Article titles are cited again in the subject index, along with institutions, ideas, events, and other matters. Finally an index of authors is presented. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Bubble and drop interfaces.
The studies summarize the current understanding of interfacial studies based on the properties of bubbles and drops, review routine research methods such as bubble pressure, drop profile, and drop volume tensiometry, but also describes specific processes such as rising bubbles in solutions and in flotation. The topics include calculation methods for determining surface tensions in drop profile analysis tensiometry, capillary pressure tensiometry and interfacial dilational rheology, measuring the surface tension of polymer melts in supercritical fluids, particle-bubble interaction in flotation, emulsification with micro-structured membranes and micro-engineered systems, and the interfacial mass transfer of growing drops in liquid-liquid systems. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
A catalogue of the Turkish manuscripts in the John Rylands University Library at Manchester.
Schmidt (Ottoman studies, Leiden U., the Netherlands) has performed the impressive task of cataloguing all 196 Turkish manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, their first complete catalog and a much-needed improvement over the problematic list of 1892. The manuscripts are arranged by number, with each entry including a basic description of the type of document; a precise description of the particular manuscript, including notes and folio numbers of the specific elements; first and last lines (in the language and script of the original); a precise description of the binding; and bibliography. The volume concludes with a series of b&w plates of selected manuscript pages. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
China's creation and origin myths; cross-cultural explorations in oral and written traditions.
"The prevailing and misleading idea among scholars home and abroad that there is no creation myth in ancient China has had such an impact that, in spite of their huge efforts to correct it, scholars both in China and abroad seem to have swallowed it." This statement is from the preface written by editors Mineke Schipper (intercultural literary studies, Leiden U., The Netherlands); Ye Shuxian (comparative literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences); and Yin Hubin (folklore, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences). Thirty-four contributions speak to the opposing point of view. Arrangement is according to the broad themes of comparative perspectives, rediscovering the beginning in texts, oral tradition and ethnic diversity, and an anthology of creation and origin myths. Black & white illustrations are interspersed, and the book concludes with a section of fascinating color plates showing Chinese artwork depicting the origin of the world. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
China in European encyclopaedias, 1700-1850.
"European knowledge on China was the product of a series of transmissions and transformations," states Lehner (modern history, U. of Vienna, Austria), and he explains that this in-depth study explores "...how English, French, and German encyclopaedias dealt with things Chinese, how European knowledge on China evolved throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and how it found its place in general encyclopaedias." This investigation complements previous studies of travelogues, missionary writings, collections of letters, and other types of accounts. Material is organized in chapters on the encyclopedias themselves, the formation of knowledge on China in Europe, geography, population and society, government and politics, history, language and literature, philosophy and religion, and arts, sciences, and technologies. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Chinese poetry in times of mind, mayhem and money. (reprint, 2008)
Crevel (Chinese language and literature, Leiden U., the Netherlands) considers Chinese avant garde poetry since the late 1970s in terms of the written and recited texts, the political and cultural surroundings, and the discourse on poetry. His topics include true disbelief: Han Dong, mind over matter and matter over mind: Xi Chuan, objectification and the long-short line: Yu Jian, the lower body: Yin Lichuan and Shen Haobo, and the popular-intellectual polemic. The poems are in English. Originally published as volume 86 in the series Sinica Leidensia. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
A companion to Marie de France.
Eleven essays written by Marie de France scholars address various aspects of the 12th-century writer, a woman, and a prominent literary voice in the 12th century who wrote in French and translated Aesop's fables from English, among other achievements. The essays present reviews of scholarship on the topic under consideration as well as original ideas. A sampling: prologues and epilogues, literary traditions of love in the Lais, speaking through animals in Lais and Fables, and gendered sanctity in L'Expurgatoire seint Patri and La Vie seinte Audree. Editor Logan E. Whalen (French. U. of Oklahoma) provides an introductory essay. The volume is part of "Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition," a series of handbooks and reference works on the intellectual and religious life of Europe, 500-1800. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Consular affairs and diplomacy.
Edited by Melissen (diplomatic studies, Netherlands Institute of International Relations `Clingendael') and Fernández (politics, Autonomous U. of Barcelona, Spain), this collection of 12 papers provides an overview of the role of consular affairs in international diplomacy and looks at key contemporary challenges in consular affairs. Approaching the topic primarily from the disciplinary perspectives of politics and history, the papers address the evolution of European consular institutions in an era of globalization and European integration; the development of consular services and contemporary issues for the United States, Russia , and China; and the history of the consular institution in Spain, the Netherlands, and France. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Coping with the gods; wayward readings in Greek theology.
Among the themes addressed in six chapters: complications of polytheism, divine justice or divine arbitrariness, Greek experiments in oneness, why Hermes is hungry, divine omnipotence, and the question of whether Greeks believed in the divinity of their rulers. Versnel (emeritus, ancient history, U. of Leiden, The Netherlands) enjoys the inconsistencies and paradoxes of Greek religion and has written extensively on various aspects of Greek and Roman myth, ritual, magic, and religion. The essays collected here are based on his Sather Lectures at the U. of California at Berkeley, in 1999. Their cumulative length excluded them from being published in the U. of California Press's "Sather Classical Lectures" series and instead the collection is published in Brill's "Religions in the Graeco-Roman World" series. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The Cronaca di Partenope; an introduction to and critical edition of the first vernacular history of Naples (c. 1350).
In the middle of the 14th century, a lay Neapolitan patrician named Bartolomeo Caracciolo-Carafa wrote the first history of Naples for over 400 years, and extending from earliest antiquity to his own time, it was also the first secular and comprehensive account of the city. Kelly (medieval studies, Rutgers U.) presents a critical edition in the local Neapolitan vernacular. She introduces it with substantial essays on the original text, author, and date; historical context; sources and adaptations; diffusion and influence 1350-1490; and manuscripts. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The Dead Sea scrolls and contemporary culture; proceedings.
This volume collects most of the presentations at a major international conference convened by the Israel Museum in commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Roitman (curator, Dead Sea Scrolls; head, Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem) and professors Lawrence Schiffman and Shani Tzoref (Hebrew and Judaic studies, New York U.) note that in addition to encompassing issues that part of traditional Qumran studies (the identity of the community, exegetical aspects of the scrolls' representation of Scripture), scholars also engaged in more recent avenues of study, e.g., questions of gender, Karaism and the scrolls, their influence on Reform Judaism, and broadening of access to knowledge about Qumran and the scrolls. The keynote address reviewed the now- completed "Discoveries in the Judaean Desert" publication project. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Diodorus' mythistory and the pagan mission; historiography and culture-heroes in the first pentad of the Bibliotheke.
Sulimani (history, Hebrew U. and U. of Haifa) explores elements in the first set of surviving fragments of Greek historian Diodorus Siculus' (60-30 BC) masterpiece. She begins by investigating his originality — an issue of contention down centuries of scholarship — in terms of the genre of universal history, his predecessors and his own contribution, and his emphasis on organization and orderly discussions. Turning to myth and history in the first five books, she discusses mythical history and actual geography making for legendary heroes wandering along real paths, and the relationships between his heroes and their addressees. Her translations and transcriptions are designed to make the study accessible to non specialists. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Dong Zhongshu, a 'Confucian' heritage and the Chunqiu fanlu.
Lowe (emeritus, Chinese studies, Cambridge U., UK) devotes this study to a theme that caught his attention about a half century ago when he made the observation that "...a blanket assumption `Chinese empires were Confucian' was being used imprecisely and with as little validity as a statement that `Western Europe was Christian.'" His investigations brought him to a close study of Dong Zhongshu and his assumed authorship of a work that espoused Confucianism during the Han dynasty. This study led to the more nuanced view explicated here, much of it countering prevalent assumptions. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Double agents; cultural and political brokerage in early modern Europe.
The subject announced in the title was the subject of a research project — supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and by Leiden University — that began in 2002 and concluded in 2006. The focus is on the multiple roles played by diplomats, military personnel, merchants, and artists in the exchange and transmission of political power and cultural artefacts. These professionals were multifaceted "brokers," and their networks were complex and ubiquitous phenomena. Twelve contributions discuss individuals who were such double agents (actually, triple or quadruple agents). The two editors are affiliated as follows: Marika Keblusek (art history, Leiden U., The Netherlands), and Badeloch Vera Noldus (architectural history, Utrecht U., Denmark). (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
