Joseph Grossi | University of Victoria (original) (raw)
Papers by Joseph Grossi
Early Middle English, 2019
Abstract:The twelfth-century Gesta Herwardi brings together stories about Hereward, the fenland r... more Abstract:The twelfth-century Gesta Herwardi brings together stories about Hereward, the fenland rebel who opposed William the Conqueror in the early 1070s. It was difficult to compose, claims its putative author Richard of Ely, because the Old English sourcemanuscripts he worked from were rotten and torn. For him, commemorating Hereward involves restoring coherence to fragments. The "found manuscript" is a commonplace, however, and Richard's use of it invites us to explore its figurative implications, its usefulness to a larger project to salvage "Englishness" itself. Though penned in Latin rather than in the vernacular, the Gesta Herwardi celebrates Hereward's victories over the Normans as cultural reclamation efforts that anticipate Richard of Ely's own labours to rescue his protagonist's reputation, and indeed England's dignity more generally, from decay.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 2021
New Medieval Literatures, 2013
Florilegium, 2013
Felix’s Vita sancti Guthlaci was commissioned by Ælfwald, King of the East Angles, c.730-740. Not... more Felix’s Vita sancti Guthlaci was commissioned by Ælfwald, King of the East Angles, c.730-740. Notwithstanding its dedication to Ælfwald, the Life paints an especially flattering portrait of the much stronger, neighbouring Mercian ruler Æthelbald. Felix may have used the hagiography of the Mercian hermit Guthlac less as a means of furthering Ælfwald’s appropriation of Mercian cultural property than as a model of pious renunciation that Ælfwald could imitate. His quotations in chapter 34 of the Vita show Felix thinking exegetically, borrowing from Vergil, Evagrius of Antioch, and the Psalms to intimate to his royal patron that powerlessness on earth can be counterbalanced by empowerment in Heaven.
Viator, 2004
Información del artículo Imaging Genoa in Late Medieval England.
Guilhembet (eds.). Le châtiment des villes dans les espaces méditerranéens (Antiquité, Moyen Âge,... more Guilhembet (eds.). Le châtiment des villes dans les espaces méditerranéens (Antiquité, Moyen Âge, Époque moderne).
The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 2012
Durham, composed between 1104 and 1109, is the last extant poem written in traditional alliterati... more Durham, composed between 1104 and 1109, is the last extant poem written in traditional alliterative Old English metrical verse. 1 Unlike most other works surviving from that tradition, this one has come down to us with its historical context intact: the Translation of St. ...
English Studies, 2011
This well-structured work by Anglo-Saxonist Dorothy Haines places a particular collection of text... more This well-structured work by Anglo-Saxonist Dorothy Haines places a particular collection of texts—the Old English versions of the Sunday Letter—in its textual and cultural context. Sunday Letters constitute a sub-type of the Heavenly Letter genre, which has been in use in Western Europe since the fourth century, and stems from a much older tradition. What distinguishes Heavenly Letters from other texts is the fact that they claim to have been written by Christ or by another heavenly figure. The different sub-types of the Heavenly Letter have different functions; however, the basic dichotomy seems to be the one between protective and non-protective letters. Protective letters—that is, texts which take the form of a charm or an amulet—are fine examples of the amalgamation of folkloric magical practices and Christian prayer. Although non-protective letters did not originally contain any such references to folklore or magic, some variants show evidence of magical elements that must have been picked up in the course of the centuries. The Sunday Letter is an example of a type that does not have a protective function, but an admonitory one. It reminds those who do not observe the Sunday rest of the divine punishment upon transgressing this age-old command. There are no fewer than six known Old English translations of the Sunday Letter—which, according to Haines, indicates how widespread its use must have been—and Haines is the first to provide an edition of all six. As Haines points out, its extreme severity,‘‘even among the rhetorical excesses of Old English sermons’’, makes one wonder why the Sunday Letter was so widely accepted and used. By using written interpretations, Haines illustrates how the rules concerning Sunday observance were not at all unambiguous in the early Middle Ages. In particular, the restrictions on what one was allowed to do on a Sunday increased more and more, which leads Haines to the fitting conclusion that ‘‘[i]t should come as no surprise that the uncertainty caused by the transition to a stricter regulation of Sunday proved fertile ground for extra-canonical support such as the Sunday Letter to spring up’’. However, in spite of the letter’s popularity during the Middle Ages in both the West and the East, Haines rightly confirms that it was not generally believed to be authentic. English Studies Vol. 92, No. 8, December 2011, 923–934
Mediaeval Studies, 2010
Información del artículo Cloistered Lydgate, Commercial Scribe:: British Library Harley 2255 Revi... more Información del artículo Cloistered Lydgate, Commercial Scribe:: British Library Harley 2255 Revisited.
Leeds studies in English, 2005
Información del artículo Wher ioye is ay lasting : John Lydgate s Contemptus Mundi in British Lib... more Información del artículo Wher ioye is ay lasting : John Lydgate s Contemptus Mundi in British Library MS Harley 2255.
Quaderni d'Italianistica, Feb 9, 2013
Similarities of purpose between the Proem of the Decameron and the opening sonnet of the Rerum vu... more Similarities of purpose between the Proem of the Decameron and the opening sonnet of the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta have been noticed by several scholars. Students of Boccaccio and Petrarch are also becoming increasingly aware that the former was willing to criticize his friend, as he did when Petrarch chose to accept Visconti patronage in Milan, the great enemy of Florence.The Proem of the Decameron, however, has not hitherto elicited comment as a text where such friendly criticism, at least of Petrarch's poetic persona in the RVF, might be found. The present essay suggests that Boccaccio's famous address in the Proem to fearful, lovesick and housebound women pertains as much to that Petrarcan persona as it does to those vaghe donne. Although it refers to and engages with the important debate on Boccaccio's attitudes towards real women, the essay explores the possibility that the Decameron's Proem slyly hints (in a way that is reinforced by the story collection's Introduction) that the Canzoniere reveals a male poet who is himself "unmanned" by his excessive lovesickness and pursuit of solitude. Parallels between Boccaccio's Proem to the Decameron and Petrarch's opening sonnet in the Canzoniere have suggested themselves to various scholars. 1 One of them, Vittore Branca, perceives a "structural and functional analogy" between the two texts, 2 evident at the beginning when each 1 On the dating of the Decameron's Proem to late 1350-early 1351 and of the Canzoniere, including its first sonnet, to 1350, see Branca, "Implicazioni strutturali ed espressive," 141; compare Branca, Profilo biografico, 80 ("il Boccaccio diede forma, probabilmente fra il 1349 e il 1351, al Decameron"). Kirkham too assigns the first sonnet in the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta to 1350 ("Chronology of Petrarch's Life and Works," xix). Branca imagines Petrarch and Boccaccio in the former's Padua garden comparing their proemial works: "Implicazioni strutturali ed espressive," 141-42. See idem, Profilo biografico, 88-91, and Houston, "Boccaccio at Play," S49 for various literary topics they may have discussed. 2 Branca, ed., Decameron, 2 vols, I, 10, n. 1: "v'è analogia strutturale e funzionale fra l'inizio di questo proemio e l'attacco del sonetto proemiale del Petrarca: e l'analogia continua lungo tutti e due i testi." See too Branca, Boccaccio medievale, 300-03. Other scholars noting parallels include Scaglione, Nature
Early Middle English, 2019
Abstract:The twelfth-century Gesta Herwardi brings together stories about Hereward, the fenland r... more Abstract:The twelfth-century Gesta Herwardi brings together stories about Hereward, the fenland rebel who opposed William the Conqueror in the early 1070s. It was difficult to compose, claims its putative author Richard of Ely, because the Old English sourcemanuscripts he worked from were rotten and torn. For him, commemorating Hereward involves restoring coherence to fragments. The "found manuscript" is a commonplace, however, and Richard's use of it invites us to explore its figurative implications, its usefulness to a larger project to salvage "Englishness" itself. Though penned in Latin rather than in the vernacular, the Gesta Herwardi celebrates Hereward's victories over the Normans as cultural reclamation efforts that anticipate Richard of Ely's own labours to rescue his protagonist's reputation, and indeed England's dignity more generally, from decay.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 2021
New Medieval Literatures, 2013
Florilegium, 2013
Felix’s Vita sancti Guthlaci was commissioned by Ælfwald, King of the East Angles, c.730-740. Not... more Felix’s Vita sancti Guthlaci was commissioned by Ælfwald, King of the East Angles, c.730-740. Notwithstanding its dedication to Ælfwald, the Life paints an especially flattering portrait of the much stronger, neighbouring Mercian ruler Æthelbald. Felix may have used the hagiography of the Mercian hermit Guthlac less as a means of furthering Ælfwald’s appropriation of Mercian cultural property than as a model of pious renunciation that Ælfwald could imitate. His quotations in chapter 34 of the Vita show Felix thinking exegetically, borrowing from Vergil, Evagrius of Antioch, and the Psalms to intimate to his royal patron that powerlessness on earth can be counterbalanced by empowerment in Heaven.
Viator, 2004
Información del artículo Imaging Genoa in Late Medieval England.
Guilhembet (eds.). Le châtiment des villes dans les espaces méditerranéens (Antiquité, Moyen Âge,... more Guilhembet (eds.). Le châtiment des villes dans les espaces méditerranéens (Antiquité, Moyen Âge, Époque moderne).
The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 2012
Durham, composed between 1104 and 1109, is the last extant poem written in traditional alliterati... more Durham, composed between 1104 and 1109, is the last extant poem written in traditional alliterative Old English metrical verse. 1 Unlike most other works surviving from that tradition, this one has come down to us with its historical context intact: the Translation of St. ...
English Studies, 2011
This well-structured work by Anglo-Saxonist Dorothy Haines places a particular collection of text... more This well-structured work by Anglo-Saxonist Dorothy Haines places a particular collection of texts—the Old English versions of the Sunday Letter—in its textual and cultural context. Sunday Letters constitute a sub-type of the Heavenly Letter genre, which has been in use in Western Europe since the fourth century, and stems from a much older tradition. What distinguishes Heavenly Letters from other texts is the fact that they claim to have been written by Christ or by another heavenly figure. The different sub-types of the Heavenly Letter have different functions; however, the basic dichotomy seems to be the one between protective and non-protective letters. Protective letters—that is, texts which take the form of a charm or an amulet—are fine examples of the amalgamation of folkloric magical practices and Christian prayer. Although non-protective letters did not originally contain any such references to folklore or magic, some variants show evidence of magical elements that must have been picked up in the course of the centuries. The Sunday Letter is an example of a type that does not have a protective function, but an admonitory one. It reminds those who do not observe the Sunday rest of the divine punishment upon transgressing this age-old command. There are no fewer than six known Old English translations of the Sunday Letter—which, according to Haines, indicates how widespread its use must have been—and Haines is the first to provide an edition of all six. As Haines points out, its extreme severity,‘‘even among the rhetorical excesses of Old English sermons’’, makes one wonder why the Sunday Letter was so widely accepted and used. By using written interpretations, Haines illustrates how the rules concerning Sunday observance were not at all unambiguous in the early Middle Ages. In particular, the restrictions on what one was allowed to do on a Sunday increased more and more, which leads Haines to the fitting conclusion that ‘‘[i]t should come as no surprise that the uncertainty caused by the transition to a stricter regulation of Sunday proved fertile ground for extra-canonical support such as the Sunday Letter to spring up’’. However, in spite of the letter’s popularity during the Middle Ages in both the West and the East, Haines rightly confirms that it was not generally believed to be authentic. English Studies Vol. 92, No. 8, December 2011, 923–934
Mediaeval Studies, 2010
Información del artículo Cloistered Lydgate, Commercial Scribe:: British Library Harley 2255 Revi... more Información del artículo Cloistered Lydgate, Commercial Scribe:: British Library Harley 2255 Revisited.
Leeds studies in English, 2005
Información del artículo Wher ioye is ay lasting : John Lydgate s Contemptus Mundi in British Lib... more Información del artículo Wher ioye is ay lasting : John Lydgate s Contemptus Mundi in British Library MS Harley 2255.
Quaderni d'Italianistica, Feb 9, 2013
Similarities of purpose between the Proem of the Decameron and the opening sonnet of the Rerum vu... more Similarities of purpose between the Proem of the Decameron and the opening sonnet of the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta have been noticed by several scholars. Students of Boccaccio and Petrarch are also becoming increasingly aware that the former was willing to criticize his friend, as he did when Petrarch chose to accept Visconti patronage in Milan, the great enemy of Florence.The Proem of the Decameron, however, has not hitherto elicited comment as a text where such friendly criticism, at least of Petrarch's poetic persona in the RVF, might be found. The present essay suggests that Boccaccio's famous address in the Proem to fearful, lovesick and housebound women pertains as much to that Petrarcan persona as it does to those vaghe donne. Although it refers to and engages with the important debate on Boccaccio's attitudes towards real women, the essay explores the possibility that the Decameron's Proem slyly hints (in a way that is reinforced by the story collection's Introduction) that the Canzoniere reveals a male poet who is himself "unmanned" by his excessive lovesickness and pursuit of solitude. Parallels between Boccaccio's Proem to the Decameron and Petrarch's opening sonnet in the Canzoniere have suggested themselves to various scholars. 1 One of them, Vittore Branca, perceives a "structural and functional analogy" between the two texts, 2 evident at the beginning when each 1 On the dating of the Decameron's Proem to late 1350-early 1351 and of the Canzoniere, including its first sonnet, to 1350, see Branca, "Implicazioni strutturali ed espressive," 141; compare Branca, Profilo biografico, 80 ("il Boccaccio diede forma, probabilmente fra il 1349 e il 1351, al Decameron"). Kirkham too assigns the first sonnet in the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta to 1350 ("Chronology of Petrarch's Life and Works," xix). Branca imagines Petrarch and Boccaccio in the former's Padua garden comparing their proemial works: "Implicazioni strutturali ed espressive," 141-42. See idem, Profilo biografico, 88-91, and Houston, "Boccaccio at Play," S49 for various literary topics they may have discussed. 2 Branca, ed., Decameron, 2 vols, I, 10, n. 1: "v'è analogia strutturale e funzionale fra l'inizio di questo proemio e l'attacco del sonetto proemiale del Petrarca: e l'analogia continua lungo tutti e due i testi." See too Branca, Boccaccio medievale, 300-03. Other scholars noting parallels include Scaglione, Nature