TEAMS

The Commentary Series is designed for classroom use. Its goal is to make available to teachers and students useful examples of the vast tradition of medieval commentary on sacred scripture. The series includes English translations of works written in a number of medieval languages and from various centuries and religious traditions. The series focuses on treatises which have relevance to many fields of Medieval Studies, including theories of allegory and literature, history of art, music and spirituality, and political thought. The translations strive for clear, straightforward English prose style. Notes are meant to provide sources and to gloss difficult passages rather than to give exhaustive scholarly commentary on the treatise. The editions include short introductions which set the context and suggest the importance of each work.

The Documents of Practice Series consists of volumes that contain translations of selected primary documents that illustrate various aspects of the life experience of medieval women and men. By making some of the matter of historical generalization available to students, it is hoped that the series will enliven efforts to understand what medieval peoples thought and felt as they moved through the major passages of their lives.

The series Medieval German Texts in Bilingual Editions is designed for classroom use in German and Medieval Studies as well as for the more advanced scholar in fields adjacent to that of German literature: the historian, latinist, theologian, or romanist who wishes to extend her reading and research across those largely artificial borders that still divide medievalists unnecessarily. To this end we want to make available, in modern English translation as well as in the original, texts from the mid-eleventh to the end of the fifteenth centuries which are not yet part of the general study and discussion of vernacular European literature and which at the same time are particularly likely to contribute new and special perspectives to that discussion once they have become more generally known and available.

The Middle English Texts Series, launched in 1990, is designed to make available texts that occupy an important place in the literary and cultural canon but have not been readily obtainable in student editions. The series does not include such authors as Chaucer, Langland, or Malory, whose English works are normally in print in good student editions. Rather, the focus is on Middle English literature adjacent to those authors, literature that teachers need to construct the syllabuses they wish to teach.The editions maintain the linguistic integrity of the original work but remain within the parameters of modern reading conventions. The texts are printed in the modern alphabet and follow the practices of modern capitalization and punctuation. Manuscript abbreviations are expanded, and u/v and j/i spellings are regularized according to modern orthography. Hard words, difficult phrases, and unusual idioms are glossed, either in the right margin or at the foot of the page. Textual notes and a glossary appear at the end of the text. The editions include short introductions on the history of the work, its merits and points of topical interest, and brief annotated bibliographies. Perhaps best of all, the volumes are priced affordably.

"The Middle English Texts series . . . has been this generation's most beneficial pedagogical tool for studying medieval English. . . . Designed for students, these texts are genuine scholarly achievements. Helpfully annotated and glossed, they are affordable, practical, and handsome."—from Speculum 77 (Apr. 2002)