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Constitutional Framework. the Third and Final Part Presents Cases constitutional framework. The third and final astical matters to mundane issues of everyday part presents cases ‘related to the High Court’ life (although the bishop and his assembly cer- under the heading Íslenskt réttarfar, ‘Icelandic tainly did not view them as ‘mundane’). The judicial culture’. As the editor explains in her editors are especially to be applauded for both preface to the volume, each volume of the se- the thorough indices of names and topics and ries will contain such an appendix for relevant the marginal headings, making thematic sear- material deemed indispensable for the reader. ching and browsing very comfortable. Each The format of the new series underscores volume contains a brief but informative intro- its close relations to its sibling Alþingisbækur. duction to the bishop in question and his sy- There is a thorough introduction, including nodal assemblies, coupled with a summary of an informative sketch of the court’s history, relevant manuscripts and bibliography. coupled with a thirty-two-page section of co- In sum, the volumes in question are a wel- lour photographs of primary documents, se- come and overdue addition to our printed cor- als, and illustrations. Detailed bibliographic pus and will be of great use to early modern information is distributed throughout and the historians and scholars of various denomina- volume closes with a glossary and indices. My tions. only real worry is that with the current publi- cation phase (a second volume is yet to ap- Viðar Pálsson pear), I will be at least ninety when the series is completed – and I just turned forty. The pace is quicker in the series Sýnisbók íslenskrar alþýðumenningar, ‘Excerpts from Ice- Arne Jönsson & Gregor Vogt-Spira (eds.), The landic Popular Culture’. Initiated in 1997, its Classical Tradition in the Baltic Region: Perceptions publications cover a wide range of early mo- and Adaptations of Greece and Rome, Spudasmata, dern and modern primary sources. Despite its Band 17 (Hildesheim/Zurich/New York: Ge- title, the series includes texts that are usually org Olms Verlag, 2017). 600 pp. not labelled ‘popular’ but nevertheless offer valuable insights into popular culture and eve- The collective volume The Classical Tradition in ryday life. Thus, the late thirteenth-century the Baltic Region: Perceptions and Adaptations of Greece royal law code Jónsbók founds its place within and Rome has its origin in the network Collo- the series in 2004. There is reason to draw quium Balticum. Initially established in 2001 as special attention to the much-neglected col- a joint German-Swedish collaboration, it has lections of episcopal orders from early modern since gone on to include peers from Estonia, synodal assemblies (prestastefnudómar) compri- Latvia, Lithuania, and Russia. With its annual sing volumes 10, 12, and 13, edited by Már conference, this international association has Jónsson, Gunnar Örn Hannesson, and Skúli S. been a stimulating venue for Classicists from Ólafsson (Guðs dýrð og sálnanna velferð in 2005, Í the above-mentioned countries to enjoy pro- nafni heilagrar guðdómsins þrenningar in 2006, and fessional exchange and inspiration. Eftir skyldu míns embættis in 2008). Together, the The volume contains 25 essays. As sug- collections cover the orders of Bishop Bryn- gested in its title, it explores various recep- jólfur Sveinsson of Skálholt 1639–74, Bishop tions and interpretations of Classical antiquity Þórður Þorláksson of Skálholt 1675–97, and in the area around the Baltic Sea. Among previ- Jón Vídalín of Skálholt 1698–1720. ous essay collections on the Classical tradition The episcopal orders address remarkably in this part of Europe, we find Mare Balticum diverse topics, ranging from routine ecclesi- – Mare Nostrum: Latin in the Countries of the Baltic 175 Sjuttonhundratal | 2018 Sea (1500–1800) (Jyväskylä, 1994) and Erudi- convincingly demonstrates that this early tion and Eloquence: The Use of Latin in the Countries modern scientist moves from self-descriptions of the Baltic Sea (1500–1800) (Saarijärvi, 2003), as a humble disciple of Urania to boldly por- both edited by Outi Merisalo and Raija Saras- traying himself as Urania’s master who has un- ti-Wilenius. The volume edited by Jönsson and derstood the mysteries of the universe. Vogt-Spira has a broader thematic scope: the Section II, The Translation and Reception contributions shed light on such wide-ranging of Classical Literature, consists of five essays. topics as neo-Latin poetry and the history of These contributions treat paratexts to an Classical philology in Latvia and Lithuania. It early modern poetry collection, translations includes both case studies of individual texts of ancient literature in early modern Swe- and explorations of larger phenomena such as den, the reception of the Daphne myth by university translations of ancient literature the Swedish scholar and poet Esaias Tegnér, and plagiarism in early modern academia. and Latvian translations of ancient language The Classical Tradition in the Baltic Region con- theorists. The material covers the eighteenth sists of four sections. In what follows, I will to the twentieth centuries. Thus, Magdalena offer a short overview of each section and dis- Öhrman offers an insightful study of the re- cuss some of the individual contributions to ception of Ovid’s Heroides in late eighteenth- conclude with some general reflections. century Sweden. Öhrman wisely argues that Section I is entitled Prominent Writers in these Swedish translations must be examined Latin of the Early Modern Period. Containing eight in a national literary context, where they essays, it is the most extensive section in the served as Swedish equivalents of the pre-Ro- volume. The contributions encompass sub- mantic novel. Anna-Maria Lenngren’s 1778 jects such as historiographical works of dif- translation of Dido’s letter to Aeneas is an ferent periods, early modern poetry, epigraphy, excellent illustration of this argument: in and academic writings in Latin. In fact, the her translation, the Swedish poet privileges section covers a period longer than indicated themes that are characteristic of the Euro- in its title, as the opening essay by Vita Pa- pean epistolary novel. parinska deals with a thirteenth-century text. Section III, The Presence of Antiquity in Early In her “Riga in Heinrici Chronicon”, Paparinska Modern Culture, contains five essays as well. It looks at the medieval chronicler’s description starts with a text on the use of ancient mo- of Riga and its role in the Christianization of tifs in a seventeenth-century Dutch pamphlet Livonia. Even though the contributor does not against Sweden. It then proceeds to a study mention this explicitly, the chronicle exhibits that examines how an early modern printer many of the features that are associated with used his printer mark to present himself as a neo-Latin literature of the early modern peri- humanist figure. The remaining contributions od such as the use of Latin in the construction look at Frederick the Great’s reception of an- of an identity. It is therefore fitting that the tiquity, the motivation behind the creation of next essays in this first section also deal with the coin cast collection at the University of the use of Latin as a tool of self-identification. Tartu, and the work of the Latvian scholar Ju- For example, Martina Björk in her “Urania and ris Aluna¯ns. Oja¯rs La¯ms’ essay about Aluna¯ns Apollo: Myth and Identity in Tycho Brahe’s shows how the twentieth-century compara- Latin Poetry” explores how the famous Dan- tive linguist viewed his own country’s past ish astronomer employs Ovidian elegiacs as a through references to the culture and language means of self-fashioning. Through her close of ancient Greece. It is interesting to compare readings of Brahe’s three Latin poems, Björk Aluna¯ns’ scholarly endeavours to Frederick 176 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7557/4.4499 the Great’s reception of antiquity. As Vogt- ten in Latin would have made a stronger case Spira explains, the Prussian ruler was also a of their own research by aligning it with the thinker and he sought the answers to many of most recent scholarship in the field of Neo- his questions in ancient literature. Vogt-Spira Latin studies. Such linkage is especially desir- makes it clear that this approach to ancient able now, when four major reference-works Greece and Rome was in line with the contem- in the field of the Neo-Latin discipline have porary traditions. appeared. These four are Brill’s Encyclopaedia of Section IV, The History of Scholarship and Edu- the Neo-Latin World edited by Jan Bloemendal, cation, consists of seven contributions. Its first Charles Fantazzi and Philip Ford (Leiden and essays engage with early modern material. The Boston, 2014), The Oxford Handbook of Neo-Latin opening text discusses the moral poetry of edited by Sarah Knight and Stefan Tilg (Ox- the German humanist Johannes Mylius. The ford, 2015), Martin Korenjak’s Geschichte der next two essays relate to the history of Tartu neulateinischen Literatur: Vom Humanismus bis zur University: Kaidi Kriisa investigates how the Gegenwart (Munich, 2016), and A Guide to Neo- vernacular languages took over the role of Latin Literature edited by Victoria Moul (Cam- Latin as the language of academia in Tartu, bridge, 2017). whereas Janika Päll inquires into the practice I will give two examples of how refer- of rhetorical exercises at the same university. ences to previous research could have helped The final contributions analyse eighteenth- some of the authors put their own studies in century dissertations on silk production in a broader scholarly context. The first exam- their socio-historical context, the work of the ple concerns the ideological applications of Latvian philologist Ka¯rlis Strausbergs, and neo-Latin literature. As recent research in the the history of Classical studies in Latvia and field has shown, nearly all the early modern Lithuania during and after the Soviet occupa- milieus where Latin functioned as a means of tion.
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