The Complete Works of Rather of Verona trans. by Peter L. D. Reid (review)

BOOK REVIEWS645 of eleventh- and twelfth-century Roman architecture (including twenty-two black and white plates, among which are views of the central interior of the churches of SS. Quattro Coronati, S. Clemente, S. Crisogono, and S. Maria in Trastevere [according to an early-modern drawing]). The final section comprises studies by Rudolf Schieffer, on descriptions of Rome by German historians of the tenth to the twelfth centuries; Friedrich Wolfzettel, on Rome in Old French literature, with emphasis on the late twelfth-century writer Gautier of Arras; Paul Gerhard Schmidt, on Rome from the viewpoint of the thirteenth-century Parisian scholar Johannes de Garlandia; and a final paper by Ludwig Schmugge, useful but somewhat out of place under this heading, offering a summary of the proceedings of the conference at Augsburg and the printed papers, tided "Kirche—Kommune—Kaiser." An index to persons and places will help readers to see the variety of issues dealt with in this important collection, and no one concerned with papal and imperial history from Ottoman times through the twelfth century should neglect to do so. Robert Somerville Columbia University The Complete Works ofRather of Verona Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Peter L. D. Reid. [Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, Volume 76.] (Binghamton, New York: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, State University of New York. 1991. Pp. xi, 625. »35.00.) This excellent, readable collection and English translation of treatises, tracts, sermons, and letters by one of the most prolific authors of the tenth century provides interesting insights into the minds and concerns of the preGregorian ecclesiastical reformers. It also furnishes glimpses into the political issues of the tenth-century Church, both internal and external, especially the political relationships between high-ranking German and Italian ecclesiastics and the Ottoman court. Rather's letters, sermons, and tracts are replete in describing and denouncing examples ofconcubinage, simony, and venality among clerics, ostentatious displays ofwealth and enjoyment of secular pleasures (such as entertainments by players and mimes) by high-ranking bishops and abbots. One must remember that these may be the somewhat exaggerated complaints ofa zealous reformer. Rather was driven from his bishopric in Liège, and thrice from his bishopric of Verona, because his stiff-necked attitudes toward ecclesiastical and political reforms created such ill-will among both the influential clergy and the local nobility of those dioceses that nobles and clerics joined forces to oust him. Yet despite what might be exaggeration and a certain amount of self-serving self-pity, Rather's letters revealing these intrigues do illuminate the reasons for, and the thrust of, the reformers of the last half of the tenth 646BOOK REVIEWS century. They also reveal the symbiotic relationship that had emerged between the Ottoman dynasty and the German church, and the fact that reformers in Italy may have come to view reformers in Germany as their chief source of support. For it is to high-ranking ecclesiastical kinsmen and appointees of Emperor Otto I, as well as to Otto himself, that Rather most often appeals for aid, and whom he seems to view as most likely to support his attempts at reform. In short, Rather's writings, especially his letters, provide us with a protagonist 's view of the major political and ecclesiastical issues of his day: educational , monastic, and cathedral reform, the establishment of the Ottoman Reich, Italian and papal politics. Though scholars have recognized the importance of the tenth century as the seedbed for the dramatic, Europeanwide , ecclesiastical and political events of the next century usually subsumed under the label of the Investiture Controversy, that recognition has not spread much beyond the circles of those who are experts in that area. Therefore, Reid's translation, which makes Rather's works accessible to scholars and students of medieval and church history who are not specialists in that era, is a welcome and valuable addition to studies dealing with the tenth century. Of particular use are Reid's indices. Reflecting the tastes and pretensions of tenth-century clerical scholars, especially one who was trying to gain the notice and patronage of high-ranking fellow clerical scholars, Rather's works are full ofbiblical and classical allusions, many ofwhich probably were obscure...