This volume tells the complete story of the Westminster Abbey chapter house, which ranks as one of the spectacular achievements of European Gothic art and architecture; and that is precisely what its builder, King Henry III, intended. Begun in the mid-1240s, and completed within a decade, its pre-eminence was recognized in its own day, when the chronicler Matthew Paris described Westminster as having 'a chapter house beyond compare'. Papers by leading scholars in the field of medieval art and architecture reveal the reasons for the construction of the chapter house and trace the possible influences upon the master mason in charge of the project. The subsequent history of the structure is revealed as it evolved from a meeting place of the king's Great Court, the predecessor of the English Parliament, and as a royal treasury into a repository for government archives after the Dissolution, home to the Public Record Office until the late 1850s, and its subsequent restoration at the hands of Sir George Gilbert Scott. Now under the care of English Heritage, the chapter house has just been cleaned and restored again, leading to the spectacular light-filled building that we see today, to which full justice is done by this richly illustrated book, filled with pictures of the architectural and sculptural details, the medieval tilework and the wall painting that justify the motto inscribed in the chapter house floor: 'as the rose is the flower of flowers, so is this the house of houses'.

“I have long believed that Lynn Emanuel is one of the most innovative and subversive poets now writing in America. Her aesthetic and artistic choices consistently invoke a complex hybrid poetics that radically reimagines the shape of our poetic discourse. The brilliant, shattering, and disturbing poems of Noose and Hook are not only wry critiques of recent poetic and cultural activity in this country but also compelling signposts to what yet might be possible in our future. This is Lynn Emanuel's most exquisite and powerful book yet.”—David St. John

"As always with a Bob Hicok book, fascinating and a book you sort of can’t help but pick up and suddenly, two hours later, find yourself having read straight through. I can think of just about no contemporary poets who publish such consistently great work."—Corduroy Books

Thomas Kuhn is viewed as one of the most influential (and controversial) philosophers of science, and this re-release of a classic examination of one of his seminal works reflects his continuing importance. In World Changes, the contributors examine the work of Kuhn from a broad philosophical perspective, comparing earlier logical empiricism and logical positivism with the new philosophy of science inspired by Kuhn in the early 1960s. The nine chapters offer interpretations of his major work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and subsequent writings. The introduction outlines the significant concepts of Kuhn's work that are examined and is followed by a brief appraisal of Kuhn by Carl Hempel. The chapters discuss topics that include: a systematic comparison of Kuhn and Carnap viewing similarities and differences; the disputation of absolute truth; rational theory evaluation and comparison; applying theory to observation and the relation of models in a new conceptualization of theory content; and interpreting Kuhn's plurality-of-worlds thesis. The volume also presents four historical papers that speak to Kuhn's views on lexical structures and concept-formation and their antecedents. The afterward, by Kuhn himself, reviews his own philosophical development, his thoughts on the dynamics of scientific growth, and his response to issues raised by the contributors and other interpreters of his work.

The authors present a number of case studies, from the Middle Age to present time, about how the past has been made meaningful and relevant to people living in later periods. It is the process of selecting, interpreting and passing on meaning that we call negotiating the past. This process is loaded with tension in part stemming from the past itself, but which is often due to the various agents involved in the process as they represent different interests, understandings and points of view. At the same time, the process is marked by a wish to come to terms with unknown conditions, to develop some consensus, again not only with the past, but also with one's contemporaries. These dynamic and dialogical processes do not only concern the past as in "history", but rather a number of pasts, which are sometimes in conflict, but at other times harmoniously complement each other. The book should be viewed as a contribution to the international and interdisciplinary field of collective memory, which has grown large over the last decades. Today, studies of commemorations and festivals, monuments, exhibitions and museums, historical films and narratives are numerous, and terms such as social memory, collective or collected memory, lieux de mémoire all demonstrate the scholarly interest in how the past - or images of it - is constructed, composed and built up, but also demolished, dismantled and rejected. To learn more about the processes when dealing with the past is an important key to understanding why and how societies and communities change and evolve. The authors are Norwegian, Danish and Swedish scholars who have collaborated in a network on the subject between 2007 and 2009. They are employed at universities and university libraries throughout Scandinavia. Contributors: Anders Berge; Brita Brenna; Bernard Eric Jensen; Helge Jordheim; Kyrre Kverndokk; Anne Birgitte Rønning; Leiv Sem; Karen Skovgaard-Petersen; Erling Sverdrup Sandmo; Anna Wallette.

In this brief work, Larsow discusses the evidence for Syriac dialects, other than the well-known eastern and western varieties, and he especially makes use of material from the lexica of Bar Ali and Bar Bahlul.

This volume is Baethgen’s dissertation from the University of Leipzig, in which he presents the Syriac text, based on the only manuscript of the work (from Berlin), along with an annotated German translation and an introduction.

The cuneiform terms for sport introduce these studies on a variety of topics dealing with Akkadian and Sumerian lexicography. Other essays include an exploration of a cuneiform description of a volcanic eruption, the Assyrian words pâtu (blowy), pâţu (brim), miţpânu (longbow), talîmu (full brother), budulxu (bdellium), zâzu (halve), marçu (sick and arduous), xamâdu (to help), napšu (lust), and kamâsu, kanâšu, and qamâçu. Semitic and Classical descriptions of naphtha and asphalt, and a study of the cuneiform name of the home of ‘Omar Khayyâm are included. Sumerian lexicography is not neglected, with explorations of nimur (salt, smoke, salt-swamp), and azalak (fuller).

In this edition of the poems of Mutalammis, a 6th-century poet from the tribe of Bakr, Vollers draws on his extensive experience in Cairo to present an informative edition of the poems in both Arabic and German translation. After a substantial introduction to the material at hand, the Arabic texts, annotated, are presented. This is followed by the fragments that have survived and a translation of texts I to XVII. With this wealth of material, the interested reader of early Arabic poetry will find this edition of poems by Mutalammis a welcome edition to their library of Arabic literature.

Turning his keen linguistic eye toward various influences on the Syriac language, Lagarde he addresses the various Persian, Armenian, and Indic words that occur in Syriac literature. Arranged alphabetically according to the Syriac spelling of the words, Lagarde ably addresses 222 loan words with frequently detailed entries tracing roots of the words back through their linguistic pedigree. For the scholar of comparative Semitic philology who is interested in the wider background and origins of these specific words, this booklet will prove to be a powerful and much-used tool.

In this collection of poetry of Umayya ibn Abi al-Salt, as well as poems published in his name, Schulthess does a great service in bringing together these legendary Arabic poems. Umayya ibn Abi al-Salt was a contemporary of Muhammad who did not accept Islam. Printed here in the original Arabic, the poems are also translated in German and annotated. Schulthess also provides a knowledgeable introduction that includes a listing of the manuscript sources utilized in the reconstruction of the texts.

Rhetorica in Motion is the first collected work to investigate feminist rhetorical research methods in both contemporary and historical contexts. The contributors analyze the decision-making processes and methodologies employed in deciphering the origins, meanings, theories, workings, and manifestations of feminist rhetoric.The volume examines familiar themes, such as archival, literary, and online research, but also looks to other areas of rhetoric, such as disability studies; gerontology/aging studies; Latina/o, queer, and transgender studies; performance studies; and transnational feminisms in both the United States and larger geopolitical spaces. Rhetorica in Motion incorporates previous views of feminist research, outlines a set of principles that guides current methods, and develops models for undertaking future inquiry, including working as individuals or balancing the dynamics of group research. The text explores how feminist research embodies what has come before and reflects what researchers, institutions, and instructors bring to it and what it brings to them. Underlying the discovery of this volume is the understanding that feminist rhetoric is in constant motion in a dynamic that resists definition.

This set of essays originate in Lagarde’s printed collection Orientalia. The first contribution to this booklet is Lagarde’s analysis of the Coptic manuscripts of the Göttingen library. In addition to describing the manuscripts, he provides data concerning the content, including the biblical passages slated for various liturgical seasons, in keeping with the character of the material. To this is attached an article on selections of the Coptic translation of the Old Testament. Here annotated extracts of the Bible are presented in their original Coptic script, along with relevant apparatus by the author.

In this study on relative pronouns and relative sentences in Assyrian, Kraetzschmar begins with the origin and demonstrative use of relative pronouns, noting the primary position of ša as a genitive and a preposition. Kraetzschmar also addresses relative sentences without ša. He also addresses the conjunctive relative sentence in Akkadian, considering subjective, objective, and sentences with time and syllogistic elements. Although a technical study, this exploration into a key form of expression in the burgeoning era of Akkadian studies will still find a place in libraries of specialists in Mesopotamian languages.

Presented in the original Persian, this volume represents the solely published first volume of the Haft Ásmán “seven heavens,” or a compendium of poetry in the seven epic meters of Persian poetry. This history of the masnawí, or Middle Persian poetic form, written in rhymed couplets, is here presented by one of the recognized teachers of Persian in India. This, his final work, was intended to be an introduction to the works of Nizami. As such it contains invaluable nuggets about the Persian poets and their poetry.

“Joanie Mackowski's hypnotizing View from a Temporary Window is filled with Kafka-like transformations and metamorphoses and haunted by a sense of the body's strangeness. She writes in a relaxed and lucid manner that pays scrupulous attention to both the imaginary and the real, and to what is uncanny in each.”—John L. Koethe