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Julius Caesar has been a subject of controversy for more than two centuries: over time almost every conceivable characteristic has been attributed to him. New translations of texts written between 1170 and 1574 in French, Latin, Italian, and Middle English are accompanied by commentaries which chart the evolution of this complex, ambiguous figure.
List of contents
- I. CAESAR REVIVED
- 1: Julius Caesar from Classical Antiquity into the Early Middle Ages
- 2: The Emergence of the Medieval Caesar: Li Fet des Romains
- 3: Jean de Thuin, Li Hystore de Julius Cesar
- II. HUMANIST CAESAR
- 4: The Florentine iurgium Caesareum
- 5: Poggio Bracciolini, On the Excellence of Scipio and Caesar
- 6: Guarino da Verona, On the Excellence of Scipio and Caesar
- 7: Cyriacus of Ancona, In Praise of Caesar
- 8: Milanese Caesar: Pier Candido Decembrio, A Comparison of the Emperor
- 9: Pietro del Monte, Letter to Poggio Bracciolini
- 10: Lancastrian Caesar: John Lydgate, Serpent of Division
- 11: Regiminal Caesar: Jean du Quesne and Robert Gauguin
- III. CAESAR DRAMATIZED
- 12: Early modern Caesars: France
- 13: Early modern Caesars: England and Scotland
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Nigel Mortimer took his undergraduate degree (in English Language and Literature) and doctorate from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford; he won the Violet Vaughan Morgan prize for English Literature as an undergraduate in 1987 and was an academic scholar in English Literature as both an undergraduate and graduate student. His first book, John Lydgate's Fall of Princes, was published by OUP in 2005. He has taught Old and Middle English at undergraduate level in Oxford and is currently an assistant master at Eton College.
Summary
Julius Caesar has been a subject of controversy for more than two centuries: over time almost every conceivable characteristic has been attributed to him. New translations of texts written between 1170 and 1574 in French, Latin, Italian, and Middle English are accompanied by commentaries which chart the evolution of this complex, ambiguous figure.
Additional text
Impressive ... if the generic and chronological range of Mortimer's Caesar were not enough, the book also has a broad linguistic range ... The book will therefore be of interest not only to scholars of English literature, Mortimer's home turf, but also to scholars working in faculties of history and medieval and modern languages.
