Medievalia et Humanistica, No. 45

Book excerpt: Since its founding in 1943, Medievalia et Humanistica has won worldwide recognition as the first scholarly publication in America to devote itself entirely to medieval and Renaissance studies. Since 1970, a new series, sponsored by the Modern Language Association of America and edited by an international board of distinguished scholars and critics, has published interdisciplinary articles. In yearly hardcover volumes, the new series publishes significant scholarship, criticism, and reviews treating all facets of medieval and Renaissance culture: history, art, literature, music, science, law, economics, and philosophy. Volume 45 showcases the interdisciplinary nature of the series with articles on the ambiguity of Charlemagne in Late Medieval German literature, a Christian epic in favor of the Muslim sultan Mehmet II, theory and practice of literary supplementation in the case of Catullus’s carmen 51, and ekphrasis as a stylistic device in medieval poetics. Volume 45 also includes one review article and seven review notices that reflect the journal’s interdisciplinary scope. This volume focuses especially on the reception of Islam in Europe during the Middle Ages and in early modern times.