Thomas Hodgkin: The Barbarian Invasions of the Roman Empire (2000-2003)
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Thomas Hodgkin (1831-1913)
The Barbarian Invasions of the Roman Empire (2000-03)
[Acquired: Bookmark, Devonport - Thursday, April 1, 2021]:
Hodgkin, Thomas. The Barbarian Invasions of the Roman Empire. ['Italy and her Invaders,' 1880-1899]. Introduced by Peter Heather. 8 vols. London: The Folio Society, 2000-03.
- The Visigothic Invasion. 1880. rev. ed. 1892 (2000)
- The Huns and the Vandals. 1880. rev. ed. 1892 (2000)
- The Ostrogoths, 476-535. 1885. rev. ed. 1896 (2001)
- The Imperial Restoration, 535-553. 1885. rev. ed. 1896 (2001)
- The Lombard Invasion, 553-600. 1895 (2002)
- The Lombard Kingdom, 600-744. 1895 (2002)
- The Frankish Invasion, 744-774. 1899 (2003)
- The Frankish Empire. 1899 (2003)
For a long time I've been noticing these splendid-looking volumes in second-hand bookshops, and walking determinedly past them. I concluded that a smattering of Gibbon along with Gregory of Tours' History of the Franks was probably enough information for me on the subject of the (so-called) 'Barbarian' invasions of the Roman Empire.
But then I started to read up on the subject a bit - discovering in the process that this was yet another massive work accomplished by an amateur scholar in his spare time, and not just a product of the Academic machine.
I also became gradually aware of some very astute marketing by the Folio Society team in renaming Hodgkins' original 8-volume Italy and her Invaders (1880-1899) by the above, far more alluring and less localised title.
Recently, however I purchased (and read) the above edition of Henri Pirenne's contrarian classic Mohammed and Charlemagne (1937), partially - I must admit - because it was such a pretty book, but also because I wanted to find out the details of his theory about the dissolution of the classical world.
To make a long story short, Pirenne believed that the classical world remained mostly intact in its essential infrastructure throughout the era of the Barbarian invasions, and that it was only the advent of militant Islam which led to a complete reordering of the Mediterranean world.
This theory is no longer widely accepted - prompted as it was, to some degree, by Pirenne's rejection of the extreme Germanic nationalist readings of this era prevalent in the 1930s and before - but it remains an interesting and provocative one.
I therefore (or so I told myself) had a good excuse for wishing to read the most extensive treatment available of the 'Germanic' theory in its purest outlines, completed before two world wars completely redefined our perspective on proclamations of racial and ideological 'purity' among the Teutonic peoples.
I suppose that another motivation might have been the fact that this purchase (which took place, you'll no doubt have noted, on April Fool's Day) constitutes the hundredth Folio Society publication to grace my collection.
Mind you, my admiration for their bookmaking skills in general has to be tempered with horror at some of their more cavalier decisions in the past. Sneaky abridgment of allegedly 'superfluous material' undermines the usefulness of such otherwise sumptuous books as the 8-volume Gibbon pictured above - which clearly operated as a model for this 8-volume edition of Hodgkin's masterpiece.
The same is true of their very handsome edition of Robert Graves's Greek Myths. It leaves out most of the sources for his mini-retellings of the stories, thus severely limiting their usefulness. In both cases I've been forced to purchase another, fuller edition of the actual text, with the Folio Society version kept mainly for its aesthetic appeal.
Is the same true of their edition of Hodgkin's masterwork? Well, to some extent, yes. The footnotes have once again been pruned back, and the titles and some of the arragement of materials altered. Does it matter? Well, probably not - or not to the same degree. Hodgkin is not a literary genius like Gibbon or Graves. His text is hardly holy writ in the sense of demanding study in its own right.
The excellent Peter Heather, author of The Fall of the Roman Empire (2007) and Empires and Barbarians, who has provided interesting introductions to each volume, is - I think - quite enough of an authority on the matter to enable us to feel confident that all that is most valuable in Hodgkin's work has been retained.
In any case, I think it will be sufficient for me. After all, if I ever do go hog-wild on the subject, what's to stop me purchasing a copy of Hodgkin's original? Though actually I might be better off buying one or two of Peter Heather's books instead.
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- category - History & Archaeology: History: Authors
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Gaetano Negri: Julian the Apostate (1905)
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Gaetano Negri (1830-1902)
Gaetano Negri: Julian the Apostate (1902 / 1905)
[Acquired: Molloy's Mega Antiques Centre 122-124 Anzac Street, Takapuna - April 31, 2021]:
Gaetano Negri. Julian the Apostate. 1902. Trans. by the Duchess Litta-Visconti-Arese. Introduction by Professor Pasquale Villari. 2 vols. London: T. Fisher Unwin. 1905.
Here's another recent purchase on a cognate subject. Despite the fact that he only reigned for 2-3 years, much of which was spent on campaign in the East, the Emperor Julian has left a large footprint in history, due mainly to his determination to reverse the Christianisation of the Roman Empire and to return it to an enlightened, Neo-Platonic Hellenism.
His efforts have inspired a number of fictional treatments, among them Henrik Ibsen's 1873 play "Emperor and Galilean":
The Oxford Ibsen. Vol IV: The League of Youth; Emperor and Galilean. Ed & Trans. James Walter McFarlane & Graham Orton. 8 vols. London: Oxford University Press, 1963.Wikipedia reminds us that he was also "the subject of the novel The Death of the Gods (Julian the Apostate) (1895) in the trilogy of historical novels entitled 'Christ and Antichrist' (1895–1904) by the Russian Symbolist poet, novelist and literary theoretician Dmitrii S. Merezhkovskii." I have the third in this series, but not the first two:
Peter and Alexis. 1904. Trans. Bernard Guilbert Guerney. The Modern Library. 1969. New York: Bennett A. Cerf / Donald S. Klopfer, 1931.Then there's Nikos Kazantzakis's 1948 play Julian the Apostate. I have a few of his plays, but not this one:
Three Plays: Melissa; Kouros: Christopher Columbus. 1965. Trans. Athena Gianakas Dallas. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969.And finally - the only other one of these works I own - there's Gore Vidal's novel Julian (1964), which is (apparently) "notable for, among other things, its scathing critique of Christianity":
Julian. 1964. Panther Books Ltd. Frogmore, St Albans, Herts: Granada Publishing Limited, 1972.As for Gaetano Negri, he sounds like an interesting character who never quite found the right field for his abundant energies: soldier, politician, geologist, essayist ...
In his introduction to the book, Professor Pasquale Villari, author of The Barbarian Invasions of Italy (1901), laments the fact that Negri died in a mountaineering accident shortly after completing this biography. A little like his subject, in fact - cut off, if not in his prime, at least shortly after he'd finally found the right fit for his particular combination of qualities.
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- category - Classical Literature: Prose
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