Commentary on Nigel of Canterbury's Miracles of the Virgin

<p>Nigel of Canterbury also known as Longchamp and Whiteacre wrote toward the end of the so-called Twelfth-Century Renaissance. He was a Benedictine monk of Christ Church when Thomas Becket was martyred and a star of Anglo-Latin literature while the Angevin kings held sway over a vast empire that encompassed not only the British Isles but also western France. <p/>The Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library volume features alongside the Latin the first-ever English translation of Nigel's second-longest poem <i>Miracles of the Virgin</i>. The <i>Miracles</i> is the oldest extant collection of versified miracles of Mary in Latin and indeed in any language. The seventeen narratives telling a gamut of tales from diabolic pacts to pregnant abbesses gave scope for Nigel to display skills as a storyteller and stylist while recounting the miraculous mercy of the Virgin. This supplement offers an extensive commentary to facilitate appreciation of the <i>Miracles</i> as poetry by a medieval writer deeply imbued in the long tradition of Latin literature.</p>