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Short notices 177 Coleman, Christopher B., ed. & trans., The treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine (Renaissance society of America reprint texts, 1), Toronto/Buffalo/London, University of Toronto Press, 1993; rpt; paper; pp. 183; R.R.P. CAN$16.95. This is the first work chosen by the editorial board of the Renaissance Society of America for its new series of reprint texts. It was a good choice, but an opportunity has been missed and the board should be urged to rethink its policy. Coleman published this book in 1922 as an adjunct to his very successful work Constantine the Great and Christianity, which had appeared in 1914. It is possible that he felt that he did not have sufficient energy to include it in the earlier work, in which he had included Nicolaus Cusanus's less forceful essay on the same subject as Appendix U. Whatever the reason, we must be grateful that he completed this later enterprise. But Coleman's presentation of Valla's treatise had two defects and a reprint would have provided an opprtunity to address them. In the first place, he was not an experienced textual critic, as was pointed out by G. C. Richards in his review in the English Historical Review (38, 1928), pp. 276-78. Secondly, there is still a need for a more scholarly study of the text of Valla's work, as also for a study of the text, based on the all the available manuscripts, of the Donation which he might have used. This is a matter which will interest only a small number of readers. Of more general interest is the question of the place of this work in its historical context, which Coleman almost completely ignored. Valla wrote the treatise as a 'hired gun' for the king of Naples, and this is a topic which deserves more study. The value of a reprint would have been doubled if an introduction discussing such matters had been included. At the very least, it would have been appropriate to have given m o d e m students a page of bibliography directing them to some of the recent work in this area, for example Francesco Gaeta's general work Lorenzo Valla (Naples, 1955), or the articles by G. Antonazzi, 'Lorenzo Valla e la Donazione di Costantino nel secolo X V [Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia (4,1950), 186-223] and by J. M . Levine, 'Reginald Pecock and Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine' [Studies in the Renaissance 20 (1973), 118-43]. 178 Short notices Reprints of good books are always useful. But they can be twice as useful If they are accompanied by a few pages telling the reader what advances have been made since the date of first publication. John Melville-Jones Department of Classics and Ancient History University of Western Australia Gouzy, Nicolas, ed., Historiens et Archiologues: actes de la 3e session d histoire midiivale de Carcassonne, 28 aout—1 septembre 1990 (Heresis: collection d'birdsiologie ntedievale. Editions de textes— Recherche, No. 2), Berne, Peter Lang, 1992; paper; pp. 437; R.R.P. SF56.00. O n fhst consideration, it might seem curious that archaeology could offer much information about heresy. However, the present volume, clearly and excellently edited, with numerous fine monochrome illustrations and appropriate diagrams, will answer any doubters. The Centre P"n6 Nelli is active in researching and encouraging interest in the history of Catharism in southern France. Its journal Heresis, in association with which the present volume is published, amply reports its industry and research activity. There are twenty four papers in this collection, devoted to a wide variety of topics concerning southern French Catholic and Cathar life in the later Middle Ages. Five papers offer general reflections on the interconnections between archaeology and history. A similar number contribute to various projects seeking to establish more firmly the physical dimensions of life in the fortified residences of Languedoc in the later Middle Ages, with one essay on the urban topography, architecture, and art history of medieval Narbonne. Other papers cover the physical history and role of churches in the formation of medieval villages, funerary archaeology and anthropology, physical anthropology...

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