Michael Winterbottom

Originally written in elegant Latin, this paperback takes the translation from the original hardcover to produce an attractive edition for the student or general reader. It retains the introduction, notes and appendices while presenting the text in a modern English version as elegant and engaging as the original. Written around 1135 by the Benedictine monk, historian and scholar William of Malmesbury (d. 1143), The Miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary belongs in the first wave of collected miracles of the Virgin, produced by EnglishBenedictine monks in the 1120s and '30s. Only two copies of William's work survive in anything like its complete form, and only one of them represents the finished product. But many of the stories were also transmitted separately,in groups or individually; the systematic use of this evidence is a feature of this new text. Originally written in elegant Latin, this paperback takes the translation from the original hardcover to produce an attractive edition for the student or general reader. It retains the introduction, notes and appendices - important to understand William's quotations and echoes from ancient authors - while presenting the text in a modern English version as elegant and engaging as the original. Anyone wishing to compare the original and this translation may refer to the hardcover which remains available (9781783270163).

The Miracles of the Virgin Mary, written c. 1135 by the Benedictine monk and historian William of Malmesbury (d. 1143), is an important document in the history of Marian devotion in medieval Europe. This is the first title in the new series Boydell Medieval Texts, which will provide scholarly editions of major works with facing translation. Written c. 1135 by the Benedictine monk, historian and scholar William ofMalmesbury (d. 1143), The Miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary is of interest on several counts. It belongs in the first wave of collected miracles of the Virgin, produced by English Benedictine monks in the 1120s and '30s. These collections were to be influential across Europe and through the rest of the medieval period. Only two copies of William's work survive in anything like its complete form, and only one of them represents the finished product. But many of the stories were also transmitted separately, in groups or individually; the systematic use of this evidence is a feature of this new text. The work is written in elegant Latin and embellished with William's customary erudition, including frequent quotations and echoes from (sometimes unusual) ancient authors. His instinct as a historian is to the fore, as he tries to establish historical context and credibility for his stories. Above all, the scope of the collection is surprisingly international, including stories drawn from all around the Mediterranean. This is an important document in the history of Marian devotion in medieval Europe. In his long Prologue (which enjoyed some independent circulation), William argues strongly for the Virgin's Immaculate Conception and bodily Assumption, doctrines still not generally accepted in western Europe at the time. With the appearance of this book all of William of Malmesbury's major works are available in modern editions and translations. A paperback edition of the translation alone is also available (9781783271962).

A Sight & Sound Book of the Year"Eye-opening and addictively readable." Total FilmWho and what decides if a film gets funded? How do those who control the purse strings also determine a film's content and even its message? Writing as the director of award-winning feature films including Welcome to Sarajevo, 24 Hour Party People and The Road to Guantanamo as well as the hugely popular The Trip series, Michael Winterbottom provides an insider's view of the workings of international film funding and distribution, revealing how the studios that fund film production and control distribution networks also work against a sustainable independent film culture and limit innovation in filmmaking style and content. In addition to reflecting upon his own filmmaking career, featuring critical and commercial successes alongside a 'very long list' of films that didn't get made, Winterbottom also interviews leading contemporary filmmakers including Lynne Ramsay, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Asif Kapadia and Joanna Hogg about their filmmaking practice. The book closes with a vision of how the contemporary filmmaking landscape could be reformed for the better with fairer funding and payment practices allowing for a more innovative and sustainable 21st century industry.

Declamation - the practice of training young men to speak in public by setting them to compose and deliver speeches on fictional legal cases - was central to the Greek and Roman educational systems over many centuries and has been the subject of a recent explosion of scholarly interest. The work of Michael Winterbottom has been seminal in this regard, and the present volume brings together a broad selection of his scholarly articles and reviews published since 1964, creating an authoritative and accessible resource for this burgeoning field of study. The assembled papers focus on two related topics: the rhetorician Quintilian and ancient declamation in practice. Quintilian, who taught rhetoric at Rome in the second half of the first century AD, was the author of the Institutio Oratoria, a key text for Roman educational practice, rhetoric, and literary criticism. Subjects explored in the present collection range widely over not only the establishment and interpretation of the text and its literary and historical context, but also Quintilian's views on inspiration, morality, philosophy, and declamation, of which he was a practitioner. While the volume also offers detailed examinations of the texts and interpretations of a wide range of Latin and Greek authors of declamations, such as Seneca the Elder, Sopatros, and Ennodius, there is a particular focus on two collections wrongly attributed to Quintilian, the so-called 'Minor' and 'Major Declamations'. A major re-assessment of the manuscript tradition of the latter collection is published here for the first time.

De oratore is Cicero's most ambitious and original work. Written at the height of his oratorical powers in 55 BC, in the form of a literary dialogue, it goes far beyond "rhetoric" as it was taught in antiquity. It addresses the question of the skills and knowledge of the consummate orator, and pays particular attention to the hotly debated issue of the relationship between oratory and philosophy. This is the final volume of the "Leeman-Pinkster-Commentary" on "De oratore" recently dubbed "one of the great resources of modern Ciceronian scholarship". It covers the important second half of the third book, which contains Cicero's final statement on the relationship between oratory and philosophy; a discussion of the stylistic topics of word choice, prose rhythm, figures of speech, and appropriateness of style; and a discussion of oratorical delivery.

William of Malmesbury's Regesta Regum Anglorum (Deeds of the English Kings) is one of the great histories of England, and one of the most important historical works of the European Middle Ages. Volume II of the Oxford Medieval Texts edition provides a full historical introduction, a detailed textual commentary, and an extensive bibliography. It forms the essential complement to the text and translation which appeared in Volume I.

This book contains twenty-six articles on a wide range of topics in Latin literature by the eminent scholar and former Professor of Latin at Oxford, Robin Nisbet. Original, stimulating, and at times provocative, this collection represents some of the best in Latin scholarship in recent years.