JOHN HARVard’s JournAL really anything that could serve the same can keep a medieval spelling,” Ziolkow­ Jan Ziolkowski functions as the Loeb for the medieval pe­ ski explains. “It’s going to throw people riod, and that was a frustration for me as I who are trained in classical Latin, to get thought about trying to communicate my some of the spellings that we’ve got, I feel field to a wider public.” The project in­ no doubt about that; however, they’ll have cubated until Ziolkowski was appointed the English alongside to help them get ac­ director of Dumbarton Oaks in the sum­ customed to it, so I hope the novelty will mer of 2007, when he began to discuss the excite people rather than deter them.” process of bringing it into existence with But Ziolkowski also hopes the series HUP. will appeal more broadly, serving both the Sharmila Sen, general editor for the hu­ lay reader and the specialist. “You have to manities at HUP, oversees DOML (www. appeal to a wide audience, but also satisfy hup.harvard.edu/collection.php?cpk=1320) the erudite people,” he explains. This ap­ as well as its predecessors and compan­ proach has also informed the selection of ions, the Loeb Classical Library and I the texts for DOML: “I’ve been trying to Tatti Renaissance Library (see “Reread­ strike a balance between something that ing the Renaissance,” March­April 2006, people will have heard of before, and then page 34). “There is a thousand­year gap some texts that are quite offbeat.” between Loeb and I Tatti, so DOML per­ Three titles will formally open the proj­ forms a much­needed function of making ect. The Pentateuch of Saint Jerome’s Lat­ those missing years come alive,” she says. in translation of the Bible—the first part “We benefit a lot from having learned how of a projected five­volume edition of the A Renaissance for to publish the Loebs and I Tatti, and we complete Vulgate—is paired with the sev­ Medieval Classics hope that we can take those lessons and enteenth­century Douay­Rheims trans­ use them to help this new series grow.” lation en face for the first time. A second For nearly 70 years, Harvard’s scholarly Yet “every period is very differ­ volume, also in medieval outpost at Dumbarton Oaks, in Washing­ ent,” she explains: “The world of ton, D.C., has housed one of the world’s Renaissance Latin requires very greatest collections of material relating to different things than the world Byzantine studies, while also providing of classical Greek and Latin, and an academic home for some of the field’s this is equally true of Dumbarton foremost scholars (see “Home of the Hu­ Oaks: the field of medieval stud­ manities,” May­June 2008, page 48). As of ies has its own contingencies, this fall, after more than a decade of plan­ its own challenges. You cannot ning, it will also give its name to a new blindly follow the Loeb model.” series of medieval texts published by Har­ For one thing, unlike the Loeb vard University Press (HUP)—making a series, which covers only classi­ bit of Dumbarton Oaks more accessible cal Greek and Latin, DOML will in Cambridge (and everywhere else) than publish texts in medieval Latin, ever before. Byzantine Greek, and Old English, and The Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library expand, potentially, to works written in Latin, presents two separate manu­ (DOML) is modeled on the 512­volume other medieval vernacular languages. Be­ scripts of secular Latin poetry from the (and growing) Loeb Classical Library, cause scholars with equal expertise in all twelfth century: a collection known whose distinctive, tidy green and red these languages are rare, the series has as the Arundel lyrics, which comprises hardcover editions of Greek and Latin separate editorial committees (headed love songs, Christmas poems, and eccle­ texts with facing­page translations have by professor of English Daniel Donoghue siastic satires, as well as the work of a become an informal emblem of classical for Old English; Danuta Shanzer, profes­ poet known as Hugh Primas—whom Zi­ studies during the past century (see “Re­ sor of classics and medieval studies at the olkowski compares to “a Beat Generation newal of a Classic,” Septem­ University of Illinois Urbana­Champaign, poet” in terms of the cultural position and ber­October 1993, page 48). for medieval Latin; and historian Alice­ effect of his work. The new venture began in Mary Talbot ’60, former director of Byz­ The third volume of the initial release, the late 1990s with Porter antine studies at Dumbarton Oaks, for and the first in Old English, presents Visit harvardmag. com/extras for professor of medieval Latin Byzantine Greek). Furthermore, the form the full Beowulf manuscript: not just the excerpts from Jan Ziolkowski’s wish for a of the languages themselves is less stan­ eponymous poem, but also the four other the Vulgate Bible similar public face for medi­ dardized, and DOML will expose a lesser­ works included in the single, centuries­ and Beowulf, and an article eval literature. Now general known part of the history of each. “On old, manuscript that preserved the An­ about the Loeb editor of DOML, Ziolkows­ the value­added principle, I’ve been try­ glo­Saxon epic into the modern era. “Dan Classical Library. ki recalls that there “wasn’t ing to have us work with texts where we Donoghue was amazingly adept at get­ 64 November ­ December 2010 Photograph by Joseph Mill/Dumbarton Oaks ting together an energetic board of people DOML will have its own signature ap­ able to do a completely new type of re­ to put together the Old English volumes; pearance. “One of the first things that search,” explaining, “I don’t think there’s they saw it as being of great benefit to anyone asks us, when we talk about the any other publisher in the world right the field…and he did a great job of enlist­ project, is ‘What color?’” Sen says. “I now who can present such an exten­ ing Robert Fulk [professor of early Eng­ Tatti has a very lovely light blue color sive and exhaustive list of classical titles lish at Indiana University] to take care scheme, and we decided to do something across these languages.” of the Beowulf manuscript, with extensive different: a kind of metallic light bronze. Ziolkowski agrees. “Every morning I commentary,” Ziolkowski says. “What’s These are going to be jewel­like books.” walk past the inscription from the be­ exciting is that, just a few years ago, the The three series’ complementary visual quest [for Dumbarton Oaks], which says, theory was advanced that maybe the Beo­ appearance is far from accidental, under­ ‘The Dumbarton Oaks Research Library wulf manuscript as a whole was a sort of lining their shared vision of producing has been assembled…that the continuity anthology that had to do with monsters, accessible, high­quality editions of im­ of scholarship in the Byzantine and medi­ and this new collection enables one to portant literature in their original lan­ eval humanities may remain unbroken,’” he appraise certain ideas like that.” DOML’s guages. Sen hopes the three collections, says. He hopes that the DOML will con­ first volume in Byzantine Greek will ap­ together with the forthcoming Hackmey tinue the spirit of that gift: “I want the se­ pear next spring: three collections of ac­ Hebrew Classical Library and Murty ries to be here forever,” he explains, laugh­ counts of miracles, a distinctive genre of Classical Library of India, will present ing. “I would love to dream that it would medieval Greek literature. an unparalleled set of tools for “a whole grow into the sort of series the Loeb has Like the Loeb and I Tatti Libraries, new generation of scholars who might be become.” vspencer lenfield UNDERGRADUATE Walking a Mile in My Own Shoes by sarah zhang ’11 lack, closed­toe, not too cles around women, aren’t we further iso­ toring program. But I never consciously shiny, enough of a heel to an­ lating ourselves from the men with whom chose to join women’s organizations, and nounce her arrival—this is the we have to compete? if equivalent ungendered organizations kind of shoe I imagine on suc­ At a pre­conference meeting in the had existed, I probably would have joined Bcessful women. Two days before the Har­ spring, we each received a packet of read­ those. vard­Radcliffe Women’s Leadership Con­ ings for discussion that included an essay As a young woman in science, I have ference (WLC) in August, I found myself by Joanne Lipman, founding editor of Port­ not personally experienced discrimina­ in dire need of such shoes. The sneakers folio magazine. “When I was in college in tion based on gender. But that is not to say that had protected my feet from lab chem­ the 1980s,” she writes, “many of us looked my experience has been gender­neutral. icals during the rest of summer certainly derisively at the women’s liberation move­ Of the dozen courses I have taken toward would not do. A hasty shopping trip en­ ment. That was something that strident, my concentration in neurobiology, exact­ sued, and I strode into the conference humorless, shrill women had done before ly two were taught by female professors, with two extra inches of height. By lunch­ us. We were sure we were beyond it. We both of whom were co­teaching with male time of day one, however, a blister was al­ were post­feminists.