Review

Reviewed Work(s): Apokopos: A Fifteenth Century Greek (Veneto-Cretan) Catabasis in

the Vernacular by Peter Vejleskov and Margaret Alexiou
Review by: Elizabeth M. Jeffreys
Source: Speculum , Apr., 2007, Vol. 82, No. 2 (Apr., 2007), pp. 490-491
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Medieval Academy of
America

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20464142

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 490 Reviews
archaeology. Even here, it is used to co
ceding it.
While this book is a treasure trove of
diagrams, its importance lies in the str
proach. As a model for medieval studies
various disciplines can inform our unde
inform our knowledge of its history. F
useful introduction to the multifaceted d

MICKEY ABEL, University of N

PETER VEJLESKOV, ed., Apokopos: A F

in the Vernacular. Trans. Margaret Al
sini, 2005. Paper. Pp. 401; black-and-w
Buchvertrieb, Gau1gstr. 7, D-38106 Bra

The enigmatically surreal Apokopos is o

from the creative world of the Cretan
today as it plainly caught those of its a
in 1509, reprintings-only slightly corr
Written in rhyming couplets in the fifte
Greek, this short poem (565 lines in th
the Underworld (catabasis) and his meet
heritage both learned and traditional,
twelfth-century Timarion, and with m
the hybrid culture of Crete after the F
the conventions around and defies easy
the famous early-sixteenth-century V
early-modern Greek literary texts. The
since Emile Legrand's 1870 edition base
editions (1963, 1979) used both the ma
discovery in 1990 of the 1509 edition a
of this text and prompted immediate c
in 1991).
In the edition under review Vejleskov is the first to present a detailed assessment of V in
combination with the two earliest printings (A, 1509; B, 1534). Attention is given to De
metrius, the scribe of V responsible for copying the Apokopos, his date, and likely trust
worthiness (pp. 41-55); although otherwise unknown, Demetrius's hand indicates consid
erable professional experience, but unfortunately V's date cannot be limited more closely
than 1525-62. Given that in A Nikolaos Kalliergis is named in the colophon as responsible
for setting up the text for printing, careful attention is also given to what this implies (pp.
56-68), though again it is impossible to reach clear conclusions. Nikolaos, son of the
famous printer Zacharias Kalliergis, is unlikely to have acted alone, and analogies suggest
that considerable editorial intervention is probable. For neither A nor V can conclusions
be drawn about exemplars, nor can their relationship be established. Thus Vejleskov takes
as his editorial principles that a critical edition of Apokopos must be made on the basis of
V and A and that, as it is impossible to ascertain which is closer to the original, the only
methodologically legitimate solution is to present a synoptic edition, without introducing
corrections from the one to the other. With a text of this size, as well as being a sound
decision this is also a practical proposition. The textual apparatus is not large, but it is
scrupulous, particularly in recording earlier work.

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 Reviews 491
Vejleskov's introduction provides an in
issues of dating and authorship. A, thoug
to be the hellenized form of Bragadino,
fourteenth century: attempts to identif
tion. Dating is also a matter of discus
likis, Dellaportas, and Falieros, or 146
Sklentzas, and Sklavos? Vejleskov surv
open. The rest of the introduction deals
is the most thorough discussion availab
tion to the history of Greek in this pe
mented by the equally thorough index
interpretations are given in Modern Gr
The commentary offers detailed discus
interpretations provided only insofar a
These discussions verge at times on the
brevity of the Apokopos, but they cert
logical issues facing editors of texts of
reading list of all aspiring editors of tex
The lack of literary analysis (promised
pensated for in the present volume by t
lation provided by Margaret Alexiou, w
This reviewer has mixed reactions to the
line of ten syllables, with variations p
prose might have been as stylistically su
Vejleskov is to be congratulated on a
an excellent model of editorial techniqu
text more accessible to all students of l

ELIZABETH M. JEFFREYS, Exete

NANCY BRADLEY WARREN, Women of

Conflict, 1380-1600. Philadelphia: Univ
4 black-and-white figures. $55.

In many ways a sequel to her award-w

Later Medieval England (2001), this far
Warren argues that "female religious pr
agency" (p. 10) at the dawn of the early
archs, Isabel of Castile and Elizabeth I o
of an earlier, medieval Christianity to f
thorized. Considered as a study of a relig
women, Warren's work, which draws u
marvelous. Its value as a study of spirit
sons to which I shall return. The title o
between spirituality and politics is, fo
Warren's analysis (despite occasional dis
Although Warren begins her study in
Corbie), the founding figure of the fem
Arc, whom Colette may have met in 14
"of God and arms." Warren's study mo
and Colette to a French triangle inclusi

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