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Education in Late Antiquity
Education in Late Antiquity
Challenges, Dynamism, and
Reinterpretation, 300–550 ce

JA N R . S T E N G E R
 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the
University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing
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© Jan R. Stenger 2022
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 2022
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in
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Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same
condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
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Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021940862
ISBN 978–0–19–886978–8
ebook ISBN 978–0–19–264253–0
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198869788.001.0001
Printed and bound in the UK by TJ Books Limited
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only.
Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website
referenced in this work.
 Acknowledgements

This book would not have seen the light of the day without the
generous financial support of the Leverhulme Trust. It is, therefore,
my heartfelt desire to extend my thanks to the members of the Trust
Board for awarding me a Major Research Fellowship for the period
2016–19. I doubt it would have been possible to embark on this
project without this sustained period of full-time focus. Julia Smith
(Oxford), Henriette van der Blom (Birmingham), and Matthew Fox
(Glasgow) were the first readers of my initial thoughts on this
project and helped me with their perceptive comments to turn them
into a worthwhile application. For this I owe them a great debt. I
also benefitted from the support of Susanna Elm (Berkeley), Andrew
Louth (Durham), and Mark Vessey (Vancouver).
A Senior Fellowship at the Cluster of Excellence ‘TOPOI’, Berlin, in
summer 2017 and a fellowship at the Swedish Collegium for
Advanced Study in the academic year 2017–18 allowed me to make
significant progress on the project. I would like to express my
gratitude to these institutions and especially to the former director of
the Swedish Collegium, Björn Wittrock, for creating such an inspiring
environment. I very much enjoyed the ‘freien Umgang vernünftiger
sich untereinander bildender Menschen’ (Friedrich Schleiermacher)
at the Collegium, in particular the conversations with Rebecca Earle
(Warwick) about religious education. The exchange with my co-
fellows broadened my intellectual horizon and, thus, provided a truly
formative experience.
Portions of this book were publicly presented at events in Berlin,
Göttingen, Uppsala, Leicester, and Rome. I remain grateful to the
thoughtful audiences for taking part in the discussions and providing
valuable feedback on my thoughts. The staff of the university
libraries at Glasgow, Berlin, Uppsala, and Würzburg, of the National
Library of Scotland at Edinburgh, of the Institute of Classical Studies
in London, and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich were
always helpful. In the final stage, the help of my former doctoral
student James McDonald (Glasgow) was invaluable. He carefully
read the entire draft of the manuscript and improved my English. His
work has saved me from many mistakes, for which I am immensely
grateful. At Würzburg, Johannes Kern with his diligence spotted
many inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the manuscript. Finally, I
would like to thank the anonymous readers of the Press for their
helpful suggestions and the editorial staff at Oxford University Press
for their assistance and flexibility.
 Contents

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Educational Communities
1.1 Educational Practices, the Individual, and the Community
1.2 Grappling with the Educational Baggage of Catechumens
1.3 Paideia and Religious Affiliation
1.4 The Educated Few
1.5 Education, Allegiances, and Exclusions

2. The Emergence of Religious Education

2.1 Christianity and Education
2.2 Education and Religion in Antiquity
2.3 Reading the Classics through the Christian Glass
2.4 Raising Athletes for God
2.5 ‘In the Symbol of the Cross Every Christian Act Is
Inscribed’
2.6 Education as Proof of the Genuine Christian
2.7 Religious Education from the Alpha to the Omega

3. What Men Could Learn from Women

3.1 Ancient Schooling: A Training Ground for Elite Men
3.2 Leaving the Trodden Path of Conventional Education
3.3 Stripping Paideia of Its Habit-Forming Force
3.4 Trailblazers of a New Model of Education
3.5 Thinking Education ‘with’ Women

4. The Life of Paideia

 4.1 Education and Life
4.2 Leaving the Study and Reaching Out to Others
4.3 Templates for the Life of Learning
4.4 Towards a Christian Liberal Leisure
4.5 The Educated Ethos

5. Moulding the Self and the World

5.1 The Never-Ending Process of Bildung
5.2 The Art of Reading the World
5.3 The Armchair Traveller
5.4 Kicking Away the Ladder
5.5 ‘I Shall Equip Your Mind with Wings’
5.6 Cultivating the Self

6. The Making of the Late Antique Mind

6.1 Education and History
6.2 Museumizing Antiquity
6.3 Sounding the Death Knell for the Classics
6.4 Historicizing the veteres
6.5 Through the Lens of Modernity
6.6 Towards a Postclassical Mentality

Conclusion

References
Index
 List of Abbreviations

CCSG Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca

CCSL Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina
CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
GCS Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller
GNO Gregorii Nysseni Opera
PG Migne, Patrologia Graeca
PL Migne, Patrologia Latina
PLRE The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire
SC Sources Chrétiennes

References to Greek authors follow the abbreviations of Liddell-

Scott-Jones and, for Christian authors, those of Lampe 1961.
References to Latin authors follow the practice of the Thesaurus
Linguae Latinae.
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 Introduction

Education can be a divisive issue. When the Gothic court at Ravenna

in 526 ce debated the upbringing of King Athalaric, a serious conflict
erupted. Athalaric was the grandson and successor of Theoderic the
Great but, as a minor, still under the guardianship of his mother
Amalasuintha. On one side of the divide was the boy’s mother,
herself of sharp mind and well educated. If everything had gone
according to her plans, Athalaric would have received a thorough
training by mature experts in Latin grammar and letters, so as to
adopt the lifestyle becoming for Roman nobles. On the other, a
clique of powerful Goths mounted resistance. ‘Letters’, they asserted,
‘are widely separated from manliness, and the teachings of old men
for the most part results in a cowardly and submissive mind.’
Alleging that already Theoderic had evinced dislike for literate
education in favour of training in arms, they forced Amalasuintha to
abandon the aspirations for her son and replace the three elderly
tutors with the company of boys who were to share Athalaric’s life.
From then on, the child king’s fate was sealed, as the Greek
historian Procopius informs us. These lads, only a little older than
Theoderic’s grandson, soon enticed him into drunkenness and
debauchery, until any advice of his mother fell on deaf ears. 1 But,
as Edward Gibbon dryly remarked on Athalaric’s nature, ‘the pupil
who is insensible of the benefits, must abhor the restraints, of
education’. 2
This episode from the introduction to Procopius’ Gothic War,
undergirded by stark binaries—female/male, Roman/barbarian,
effeminacy/manliness, and intellect/practical virtue—allows us a
fascinating glimpse into the debate on education and formation in
late antiquity. 3 Embellished by the historian’s imagination, the
dramatic clash at the royal court not only condenses the political and
cultural tensions arising from Ostrogothic rule over Italy but also
pushes into the limelight questions around which late antique
thinking about paideia and personal development was revolving. It
contrasts two education systems, the centuries-old tradition of
Graeco-Roman schooling in letters and rhetoric, and a barbarian
model of socialization in a peer group, with a strong preference for
the cultivation of strength and will. As the contents, methods, aims,
and outcomes of late Roman education are called into question by
barbarians, Procopius’ cultured readers are encouraged to cast a
glance from a different, external angle at their cherished pedagogic
principles and traditions, even if, in the end, the superior value of
those venerated traditions is reaffirmed by Athalaric’s steep lapse
into degeneration. Education, the account suggests, was a catalyst
for negotiating key issues of culture and society, such as gender,
ethnicity, the relationship between theory and practice, and the
foundations of leadership, particularly in a time of profound
transformation. Procopius’ eavesdropping on the argument in the
inner circles of Gothic power draws our attention to the wider
implications of training and formation: the personality produced by
different processes of upbringing; the morality underpinning
pedagogic ideals; the hidden curriculum tacitly at work in any
education; and the role of socialization in guiding human beings
from childhood to adult age. In this respect, the controversy, stylized
though it is, is emblematic of preoccupations of the late Roman
elites.
This monograph intends to, as it were, adopt Procopius’
perspective and look at how people of the late antique
Mediterranean were thinking and discussing questions of upbringing,
formal education, and self-formation. It investigates what may be
termed educational ideologies, that is, reflections on the conditions,
contents, methods, objectives, outcomes, and paradigms of
education, both formal and informal. At times, these issues were
addressed in full-fledged theories and manifestos, but more often
than not they were embedded in wider contexts, sometimes, as in
the episode just seen, couched in the language of narratives.
Existing scholarship tends to concentrate on the practicalities of
education in the late Roman Empire, on schools and individual
teachers, on the curriculum, and on the well-documented student
life of the major cities. 4 In particular the work on the school
practices and the papyri was a corrective to a field that had
previously overlooked these sources. 5 However, our investigation
aims to show that we are missing out a crucial dimension of
education if we neglect the theorization made by educational
thinkers, be it explicit or implied.
As to the scope of our analysis, we shall cover the period
spanning from c.300 to 550 ce, the Latin west as well as the Greek
east, and both pagan and Christian authors. The focus will be on the
pivotal second half of the fourth to the beginning of the fifth
centuries, as in the course of these decades the late antique
discourse on education had its heyday and generated considerable,
often polemical, debate on the right way to equip people for their
lives. It is this broad scope that allows us to discern ideas and
attitudes common to westerners and easterners, and shared by
adherents of the traditional cults and the followers of Christ, while
scholarship is predominantly compartmentalized along disciplinary
boundaries. A superficial look at the literary output of late antiquity
is sufficient evidence that these centuries saw a proliferation of
educational thinking, often driven by the eminent literati, including
Chrysostom, Jerome, and Boethius. Paideia was a central issue of
the time, whether in the secular realm or within the church; it was a
pervasive topic in literature, thought, and society, across political and
religious turbulences. The examination of the concepts of education
and formation will thus recover an important layer of the culture of
late antiquity.
Although in scholarship the critical engagement of late antique
church fathers with classical paideia has attracted great interest for a
long time, the common perception of educational philosophy is used
to focusing on classical and imperial thinkers as precursors of the
modern discipline of pedagogy. When historians of education reach
back to ancient civilization, Plato and Isocrates, Quintilian and
Plutarch usually dominate the scene, and not without reason. 6 It
was in democratic Athens that the public discussion of paideia
reached its first peak, as the new political conditions put upbringing,
training in useful skills, and the acquisition of knowledge centre
stage. 7 Athenian democracy created a framework in which as many
people could partake in political decision-making and jurisdiction as
never before. This widening of access and participation raised the
question of what competences and skills were needed to exercise
one’s political rights in a successful and responsible manner. 8 The
sophists tried to satisfy this demand by offering professional
teaching to the affluent upper class, promising their students the
expertise and techniques that seemed to be vital for gaining and
retaining power and influence in the polis society. 9 It would have
been a surprise if in a democratic city this model of education had
remained unchallenged. At the same time as the sophists, and in
competition with them, Socrates’ way of philosophizing aimed at
encouraging his disciples to seek the truth and reflect on the very
possibility of knowledge, rather than imparting factual knowledge
and skills. Following in Socrates’ footsteps, Plato, above all in the
Republic, launched a scathing critique of Athenian elite schooling
and proposed a revolutionary model that was meant to educate
children and adolescents for the higher good of a new society
governed by philosophers. 10 Simultaneously, the sophistic pedagogy
provoked another thinker, Isocrates, not only to establish his own
school but also to develop a theory of teaching and learning that
envisioned as the outcome of the education process the citizen who
possessed practical judgement and learning, and knew how to
express them in a politically effective manner. 11 The tremendous
and long-standing success of his teaching made Isocrates one of the
most influential philosophers and theorists in the history of
education. We would, however, be mistaken to think that the
discussion of education was the preserve of intellectuals and serious
philosophers alone. Far from it, Isocrates with his speeches
addressed the wider Athenian public, and the comedies of
Aristophanes and other playwrights brought Socrates’ and Plato’s
philosophical teaching to the theatre stage, where they subjected
them to ridicule and criticism before the Athenian citizen body. 12
Paideia was an eminently public topic.
Educational ideologies again gained momentum centuries later,
and under widely different political conditions, in the Roman Empire
of the imperial age. In this period, discussion of learning, teaching,
and formation was not disconnected from politics and society either.
Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria, which enjoyed an enormous afterlife
well into modern times, was far more than a practical handbook
furnishing the would-be leader with applicable skills and a reading
list to cultivate his eloquence. 13 Rather, his synthesis of rhetoric
included moral formation, with the greater aim of the full
development of humanity. While Quintilian promoted the ideal of the
well-educated Roman man putting his eloquence in service of
morality, Plutarch was more philosophically-minded, erecting his
education theory on Plato’s philosophy. Plutarch defined paideia as
the formation of the human character, the attainment of ethical
excellence, which enabled humans to live the good and happy life.
Consequently, the formation process had no limits in terms of age,
gender, or life setting. For all its philosophical aspirations, Plutarch’s
programme had obvious societal relevance, for it hoped to produce
able statesmen who would be ethical teachers of the body politic. 14
The same ideal pervaded the treatise On the Education of Children,
falsely attributed to Plutarch. 15 Its anonymous author devised a
comprehensive education scheme for children of the upper echelons
to remedy the many flaws of imperial educational practice. Drawing
on the three factors of nature, instruction, and exercise, the wide-
ranging programme not only deals with many practical aspects of
child rearing but also pursues an agenda situated in the wider
context of imperial society. All pedagogic measures, from choosing
the right nurse to physical exercise, are designed to produce a good
citizen who unites the management of civil affairs with philosophy.
The imperial education discourse continued many lines of thought
drawn by the Athenian thinkers but adapted them to the changed
conditions of the Roman Empire. Both educational ‘movements’ were
strongly oriented to, and indicative of, the contemporary state and
the preoccupations of their societies.
If we believe the majority of scholars working on late antique
schooling and pedagogy, this synchronicity or correlation broke down
in the later Empire. After classical Athens and imperial Rome had
given the two major impulses, the theorization and practice of formal
education seemed to be caught in a standstill for the centuries to
come. In the wake of Marrou’s magisterial study of ancient
education, it has often been described how, once the seeds of
rhetorical and philosophical instruction had been sown in the fifth
and fourth centuries bce, the Hellenistic era primarily contributed to
the full development of the Greek education system. 16 This was the
state that the Romans inherited when they conquered the Hellenistic
kingdoms and integrated from Greek culture what appeared to them
superior and useful for their own needs. With the adoption of
Hellenic education in Rome, the system became ever more
formalized and structured, as richly documented in rhetorical
handbooks, practical exercises, and school papyri from the imperial
period. 17 Since later centuries seem to have added or changed
nothing of significance, late antiquity is treated, if at all, in surveys
of ancient education merely as an appendix, in agreement with the
older prejudice that this period was anything but original. 18
What has enhanced this image is the increased interest of recent
decades in the performance culture of the Second Sophistic.
Scholars frequently emphasize that Libanius and his late antique
colleagues exhibit the same traits as, for example, the sophists
Aelius Aristides and Favorinus, which has led to an overemphasis on
the use and functions of paideia in late antiquity. 19 Consequently,
the prevailing picture of education from the fourth century ce
onwards is one of inertia, utter conservatism, and a failure to go
with the times. 20 It has been noted that educational papyri from the
third century bce to the beginning of the eighth century ce look very
similar. 21 Further, what students learnt in the classrooms of
Himerius, Ausonius, and Choricius was largely the same fare that
students of the Augustan or Antonine times had to memorize.
Raffaella Cribiore therefore notes ‘the substantially “frozen” quality
of education’ and the limited changes that occurred over the course
of this long span of time. 22 Robert Kaster is another important voice
that supports this image, stressing that the schools of grammar and
rhetoric were sound-proof against the outside world and in no way
affected by the changes of the period. ‘The schools of literary study’,
he claims, ‘at best did nothing to prepare their students to
understand change; at worst, they blinded them to the fact of
change.’ 23 And, with regard to the seemingly absurd scenarios
endlessly rehearsed in the school declamations of late antiquity,
Robert Browning speaks of the ‘hermetic exclusion of the world in
which such men were to pass their lives’. 24
Only occasionally are scholars ready to acknowledge that in the
late Roman schools there were, to some extent, changes, for
instance innovations in the rhetorical curriculum that responded to
earlier transformations in the theory of argument and stylistic theory.
25 However, these adaptations did little to overhaul the education

system as a whole. How likely is it, we may be wondering, that in an

age that is now seen as the period of marked transformations the
education sector remained totally immune to change and innovation,
as the rare bird of the period? While not denying the strong and
palpable continuities in schooling across the epochal watershed of
c.300 ce, this monograph aims to challenge the dominant view by
taking a different avenue to late antique paideia. If we shift the
focus from practice in the schools to the analysis of theorization, we
may re-evaluate the relationship between education and society in
this period.
Thanks to burgeoning research into various aspects of the period
from the tetrarchy to the threshold of the Middle Ages and
Byzantium, we have come to appreciate that these centuries so
decisive for the formation of European civilization were by no means
suffering under wholesale decline but were rather marked by in part
dramatic upheavals and symptoms of transition. 26 Older scholarship,
spellbound by the triumph of Christianity, the fall of the Roman
Empire, and Germanic invasions, liked to see collapse and decadence
all over the Mediterranean. Now we possess a more nuanced image
of late antiquity that takes account of geographic and temporal
variation, and is alive to local signs of prosperity, while not ignoring
clear evidence for contraction and decline. Overall, the image has
shifted from effeteness and disintegration to one of a dynamic
period, as scholars have moved on to understand late antiquity on
its own terms. It is this revised paradigm that has to be the context
for an examination of the contemporary education discourse.
Late antique studies have traced historical processes in a wide
range of fields. Major lines of the scholarly debate are the
Christianization of the Mediterranean world and the establishment of
the church; empire-wide administrative reforms; material and social
transformations in the cities of the west and the east; economic
developments, such as the changing patterns of agriculture, food
crises, and the new perception of poverty; the influx of barbarian
peoples and its repercussions; and fragmentation, including the
gradual drifting apart of east and west. 27 These phenomena not
only altered the face of the Roman Empire as a whole but also
affected, in various ways and to different degrees, the lives of
communities and individuals. It is, therefore, reasonable to assume
that the theory and practice of upbringing, formation, and education,
as a crucial element in human life, did not constitute an island far
removed from the shifting sands of society at large. Even if what
was routinely going on in the late Roman schools did not directly
respond to societal changes, the attitudes to education, the values
and functions attributed to it, and the significance of education for
individuals within late antique society are likely to have undergone
revision. The following outline seeks to make this assumption
plausible, as an introduction to our investigation.
Although, as scholars have contended, curriculum and methods of
the rhetorical schools were uniform and consistent across regions
and places, the still dominant model of male education did not go
uncontested. While the sons of the upper strata flocked to the
schools in the hopes of a public career and acquired there a
homogeneous class habitus, the discourse on education did have its
controversies. The philosopher Themistius, though himself an
outstanding example of a successful and urbane pepaideumenos,
was critical of students, and parents, who expected teachers to
primarily impart knowledge and skills that would pay in the currency
of power, possessions, and status. In Themistius’ eyes, paideia was
nothing of the sort but aimed solely at the cultivation of virtues and
self-perfection. 28 The young Augustine disparaged the traditional
schools and their social functions, advertising instead a kind of
intellectual conversion. True eruditio and doctrina promised
happiness and a fulfilled life, in deliberate withdrawal from the
treadmill of the schools. 29 Other thinkers, for example Gregory of
Nyssa, challenged the male supremacy in education by celebrating
women learners and teachers as alternative models of paideia. 30
Competition also arose when the dominant model of rhetorical
training had to fend off attractive newcomers, the budding studies in
law and shorthand. In addition, the centuries-old feud between
rhetoric and philosophy was revived. Teachers and litterateurs such
as Libanius, Themistius, Eunapius, and Synesius bear witness that
there was public controversy over the best way to shape the life of a
young person. In the face of criticism, they publicly promoted their
preferred models. Instead of inertia and universal agreement, we
find diversity and competing ideologies, as discussed in Chapters 1,
3, and 4. 31 Such disagreement opens avenues for study of the
education concepts available at the time.
The diversity of the education discourse is also reflected in the
settings and formats in which it emerged. It is significant that late
antiquity saw a number of full-blown theories of education, mainly
within the realm of the church. But Chrysostom, Augustine, and
Cassiodorus did not plough a lonely furrow. 32 Their ambitious
programmes were joined by theorization put forward in school
speeches, public addresses, letters, biographic literature, and further
genres. Even emperors and Germanic kings issued edicts concerning
the schools, taking the opportunity to make official pronouncements
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on the value of literary education to society (Chapters 1 and 4). The
settings in which the state of education was discussed varied no
less. On one end of the spectrum, private conversation often gave
rise to personal statements on the content and benefits of paideia,
such as when bishop Isidore of Pelusium expressed to a newly
ordained lay reader his belief that empire and church fared well only
if administered by men imbued with logoi. 33 On the other end,
Themistius expressed his educational ideas before the senate of
Constantinople and the illustrious circle of the imperial court.
Catechumenate and regular church services provided further
opportunities for putting ideologies and visions up for debate
(Chapters 1 and 3). On many occasions, educational theorists of late
antiquity entered the public arena to make known what they
deemed proper training and formation and where current pedagogic
practice failed. Sometimes these public appearances could descend
into fierce battles, such as the one fought at Antioch between
Libanius and local critics of his education system. 34 What is more,
the promoters of both ethical formation and intellectual studies by
no means addressed only the forum of erudite connoisseurs. This
they did, of course, but in particular churchmen had a vital interest
in reaching out to ordinary Christian parents, regardless of social
status and educational background. Education became a major
concern for many stakeholders, and the range of their interests is
reflected in the remarkable polyphony of the discourse. While
specialists in the world of letters were often the primary audience, a
much wider segment of the population had a stake in the debate on
education—a characteristic that late antiquity shares with classical
Athens. 35
In many cases, we see such statements on paideia, whether
made pro domo or from a disinterested standpoint, provoked by
specific debates and urgent issues, though they responded, of
course, to the numerous changes of the times only selectively.
Educational thinkers on the basis of their authority as literati,
political, or ecclesiastical leaders attempted to offer in these contexts
solutions and clarify their positions. In doing so, they took into
account the dramatic transformations surrounding them. In the
perception of the Gothic king Athalaric, already mentioned, or rather
his ghostwriter Cassiodorus, the crisis of cities in Italy, exacerbated
by the withdrawal of the curiales to the countryside, not only
threatened orderly political life but also shook the whole of higher
education to the core. In response, the ruler averred that the
classical city was the cradle of civilization, but that it could only
flourish as long as liberales scholares brought their learning to bear
on its cultural and political life. 36 Some years earlier, Athalaric’s
predecessor, Theoderic, expressed his belief that the world, faltering
under uncertainty, rapid change, and confusion, was in dire need of
a secure, immovable anchor. Intellectual studies, above all
arithmetic, by nature inclined to certissima ratio, ordo, and
dispositio, in sum an immobilis scientia, seemed to him the perfect
antidote. 37 The episode at the Gothic court related by Procopius
also points to the longing for orientation and stability that education
was thought to provide. In the meantime, the Gallo-Roman
aristocrats, among them Sidonius Apollinaris, reinterpreted the old
cultural ideal of Romanitas , including literary pursuits, to brace
themselves for the ever wider barbarization of their homeland under
Germanic dominance (Chapter 1). By contrast, the plans of the
church fathers Gregory of Nyssa and Jerome for redefining the ethos
and values of the aristocracy through an upbringing with strong
ascetic overtones embraced change and they sought to accelerate it
themselves (Chapter 3). These examples illustrate that the
transformations of late antiquity could prove fertile ground for
dynamism and change in the field of education. Even traditional
ideas could assume new significance and importance in a changing
environment.
It is certainly no coincidence that, corresponding to the changes
in society, late antiquity witnessed a surge in normative theories,
encapsulated in authoritative definitions of ‘correct’ education.
Emperor Julian and his former classmate Gregory of Nazianzus
fought a literary battle over what true paideia was and who owned
it, as Themistius and Synesius respectively did in reaction to their
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20–8520

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YOUNG, FRANCIS BRETT, and YOUNG, E.

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20–19050
 “The story which it tells is the story of a conflict between modern
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[2]
YOUNG, GEOFFREY WINTHROP, ed.
Mountain craft. il *$7.50 Scribner 796

“This book comprises 609 pages in all; about 394 pages are
occupied by Mr Young in person in a discussion of what he justly
calls ‘Mountain craft.’ Of the remainder, sixty-three are occupied by
Mr Arnold Lunn with a section on Mountaineering on ski, which
leaves 162 pages for eleven other contributors and the index.”—The
Times [London] Lit Sup

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affords some compensations. Mr Lunn’s article is a very valuable
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finds it possible in a small space to say all that is necessary about
equipment and outfit, writing, as he always does, with complete
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 YOUNG, GEORGE. New Germany. *$2.25 (4c)
Harcourt 943

(Eng ed 20–4808)

There is a note of optimism for Germany in this book—the

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misery—and a grave note of warning for the Entente. “The mistake
we are all making about Germany ... is that we can’t realize what
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collapsed, and now lies semi-comatose; and we, still absorbed in our
quarrel, keep pestering it with solicitors and foreclosures instead of
patching it up with doctors and food.” The author is, since the
armistice, a special correspondent of the London Daily News in
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republics; Ruin and reconstruction; Council government; The treaty
of Versailles; The constitution. The appendix contains a copy of the
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Am Pol Sci R 14:729 N ’20 180w

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journalistic in character, the work is an intelligent account of the
political transformations in Germany since the armistice, lively and
readable at all times, penetrating and brilliant in places.”

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“Mr Young, it must be added, is a companionable guide to this

unknown land. He saw Germany in the fever of revolution, when to
see it was an adventure, and we doubt whether any observer who was
there, German or foreigner, saw half so much. He came to his work,
moreover, with a background of intimate knowledge of the old
Germany. On the folly of the peace treaty he writes with knowledge
and with passion. Mr Keynes from the outside has traced its
economic effects. Mr Young from within has sketched its no less
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appendix, which contains the text of the constitution with
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[2]
YOUNG, P. N. F., and FERRERS, AGNES.
India in conflict. *$1.40 Macmillan 266

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India. But the authors—representatives of the Anglican church—
know that India is more interesting than missions, and it is of India
that they write. In a hundred and fifty pages they give the reader a
clear impression of the ignorance and poverty met in the teeming
native villages, and of the obstacles to true missionary work
springing from the fact that even if the ill-paid missionary lives in the
poorest, barest cabin, he seems a marvel of wealth to most natives.
They define the great needs of rural India as, first, medical aid, and
second, schools of a Montessori type.”—N Y Evening Post

N Y Evening Post p11 D 31 ’20 110w

“An instructive study of Indian conditions.”

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 YOUNG, W. A. Silver and Sheffield plate
collector. (Collector’s ser.) il *$2.50 Dodd 739

(Eng ed 20–26554)

“A guide to English domestic metal work in old silver and old

Sheffield plate.” (Sub-title) In view of the considerable literature
already gathered around the above subject the author avers that no
previous writer has surveyed the field solely from the standpoint of
domestic requirements and that “the present volume seeks to furnish
something about any and every class of article made of silver or
Sheffield plate that was made between the years 1697 and 1840,
provided it was of such sort as might have had a place in the homes,
or about the persons of the well-to-do and middle classes.” (Introd.)
Contents: Some history and a little law; Some sources of
information; Marks on old metal wares; The craft of the silversmith
and the plater; Six chapters on “The quest” for the various kinds of
utensils; Bibliography; A glossary of terms used in connection with
the silversmiths’ craft and the plater’s trade; Appendix; Index and
over one hundred illustrations.

“Mr Young’s introduction is valuable and interesting, as is his first

chapter. The illustrations are well chosen and excellently
reproduced.”

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 [2]
YOUNGHUSBAND, SIR GEORGE JOHN.
Jewel house. il $5 Doran 739

A work by the Keeper of the jewel house in the Tower of London.

“Some of the most interesting chapters in the book are those devoted
to the description of the chief pieces of the regalia and to the history
of the more famous gems. There is a full account of the sovereign’s
three crowns—Edward the Confessor’s crown, the Imperial state
crown, and the Imperial crown of India—of the Queen’s crowns, the
Prince of Wales’s crown as eldest son of the king, and the different
sceptres and orbs. The Koh-i-nur is, of course, one of the historic
jewels dealt with by Sir George in a special chapter. Another gem
with a story is the Black Prince’s ruby, presented to him after the
battle of Najera by his ally Don Pedro of Castille.”—The Times
[London] Lit Sup

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 Z

ZAMACOÏS, EDUARDO. Their son; The

necklace. (Penguin ser.) *$1.25 (3½c) Boni &
Liveright

19–18640

Two stories translated from the Spanish by George Allan England.

In the first, an honest, faithful, industrious locomotive engineer
marries a young girl of provocative beauty. In his zeal to get on, and
to provide properly for her in case he should suddenly die, he insists
on their taking as boarder a friend of his who is fond of “wine,
women, and song.” Not until three years pass does he learn that his
friend has been too intimate with his wife; and although he knows it
must cost him his home, his delight in his wife and his gay little son,
he kills his deceiving friend in a duel. After twenty years in prison he
returns to a wife hardened and made ugly by work, and a dissolute
son. He is happy again, prosperity comes; but another duel occurs
through no fault of his, in which he is killed by the son who is not his
son. The second is a passionate story of the power of a courtesan over
a young student from the country. The translator contributes an
appreciative estimate of the author.

“‘Their son’ is a novelette of a very high order of merit. The action

is rapid, the pathos bare and virile, the observation of circumstance
exact. ‘The necklace’ is more hectic in atmosphere and the theft of
the jewels is somewhat wildly conceived.” L. L.
 + − Nation 110:sup488 Ap 10 ’20 150w

“The themes of both of the novelettes are antique, but the style is
direct, simple and vigorous. Here is a book worth reading.” A. W.
Welch

+ − N Y Call p11 Mr 21 ’20 280w

“We predict for Señor Zamacois a high appreciation among

American readers.”

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Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

Review 2:111 Ja 31 ’20 150w

“This author has been compared to both Balzac and Maupassant;

but it seems to us that his nearest double in French fiction would be
Anatole France, with whom he has in common a fine irony which
directs the thought of the reader to fundamental ills in present-day
social relationships.”

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ZANELLA, NORA. By the waters of Fiume.

*$1.35 (*3s 6d) Longmans 940.3436
 20–4795

“This little book purports to have been written by an English girl

who married a young Italian of Fiume just before the war. The
husband had to serve as a conscript in the Austrian army, and was
shot for refusing to fire on the Italians. The wife survived him only a
few months. Whether or not the story is true it represents faithfully
enough the Italian sentiments of the majority of the people of Fiume
and their sufferings during a war in which all their sympathies were
with the Allies and against their Austrian and Croatian oppressors.”
(Spec) The facts of the author’s life are told by her sister, Madame de
Lucchi, in an introduction.

“You can tell what Fiume is like by reading the early pages of this
book.”

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Spec 123:446 O 4 ’19 100w

“It is a moving record of love, expressed with great exuberance.”

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ZILBOORG, GREGORY. Passing of the old

order in Europe. *$2.50 (4c) Seltzer 940.5

The author has lived through the war as an observer and is not
writing an academic treatise or a book based on authorities but
claims merely to be analysing his own experiences. It is his
conviction that “in the course of the struggles of the present-day
world, humanity has developed a very serious disease.... The disease
is mob psychosis. The contagion was carried by the war, by
revolution, by political lying, by diplomatic betrayal, social
disturbances and moral suppression.” (Introd.) The book concerns
itself with the diagnosis of the disease and the possibilities of
restoring health. Contents: The impasse of politics; The debauch of
European thought; The morass of war; The recovery of revolution;
Revolutionary contradictions; Additional contemplations; Light and
shadows; Consequences and possibilities.

Boston Transcript p1 N 27 ’20 420w

R of Rs 62:558 D ’20 120w

“It is an important contribution, full of apposite citation from an

unusually wide range of knowledge and personal experience of
penetrating criticism and suggestive generalization. This message
just now deserves a wide hearing.” B. L.

+ Survey 45:320 N 27 ’20 560w

ZIMMERN, HELEN, and AGRESTI,

ANTONIO. New Italy. *$2 (3c) Harcourt 914.5

(Eng ed 19–264)
 The authors say in the foreword that Italy’s glorious past stands in
the way of comprehension of her present, that she is still for the
average Englishman and American the land of the renaissance and
the Risorgimento, or the country of the picturesque brigand and
lazzarone, while in fact the modern Italian is not a romanticist but a
positivist, not an excitable, emotional individual but a reflective one.
The great change that has come over the people, especially during
the last twenty years, has surprised even the nation itself into
knowing itself for the first time. The endeavor of the book is to give a
short, synthetic view of Italy as she was at the outbreak of the war, as
she is today and as she is likely to be after the conclusion of peace,
for Italy’s entrance into the war marks the end of the book. The three
main divisions of the contents are politics, civil questions, and Italy
and the great war. There is an index.

Ind 104:67 O 9 ’20 50w

“They know and love the old Italy, and they have packed much
valuable information into their book, despite haphazard statistics
and recurrent bellicose homilies on the war. There is need of an
authoritative book on new Italy; this is not it.”

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“The book provides a certain amount of guidebook information

about Italian history, education, industry, etc. But, as an
interpretation of ‘New Italy,’ it is a total failure.” A. C. Freeman

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 “The volume as a whole is thoroughly satisfactory, and our only
regret is that its brief compass does not permit a fuller development
of the subjects with which it deals.”

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+ Outlook 125:542 Jl 21 ’20 80w

“Miss Helen Zimmern and Signor Agresti have tried to explain

modern Italy to English readers, and their survey is both compact
and intelligent. The writers have not quite got to the root of Italy’s
discontents.”

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“So far as it goes it gives a clear outline of the progress of Italy. But
her present developments are among the most interesting in all
Europe, and this book, ending the survey where it does, hardly
prepares us to understand them.”

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“She has written numerous books on Italy, and she has written
better ones, not a little better.” F. O. Beck

+ − Survey 45:73 O 9 ’20 370w

The Times [London] Lit Sup p383 Ag
15 ’18 110w
 ZOOK, GEORGE FREDERICK. Company of
royal adventurers trading into Africa. $1.10 Journal
of negro history, 1216 You st., N.W., Washington,
D.C. 382

20–4623

This monograph is reprinted from the Journal of negro history,

(April, 1919) and is a contribution to the history of the slave trade.
The time period covered is 1660–1672. Contents: Early Dutch and
English trade to West Africa; The royal adventurers in England; On
the west coast of Africa; The royal adventurers and the plantations;
Bibliography; Index. The author is professor of modern European
history in Pennsylvania state college.

“On the whole Dr Zook has presented a clear and straightforward

account of the company’s activities and relationships.”

+ − Am Hist R 25:541 Ap ’20 550w

+ − J Pol Econ 28:523 Je ’20 400w

ZWEMER, SAMUEL MARINUS. Influence of

animism on Islam; an account of popular
superstitions. il *$2 Macmillan 297

20–8879
 The object of the book is to show how animism, the superstitious
belief in spirits, witches and demons, on which all pagan religions are
founded, still controls Islam in its popular manifestations.
Mohammedanism, as an outgrowth of paganism, Judaism and
Christianity, is characterized as a religion of compromise, that has
easily yielded to the pagan survivals in the countries over which it
has spread its influence. That these superstitions are popular
expressions that have nothing to do with the monotheism of Islam,
does not make them less pernicious. The contents are: Islam and
animism; Animism in the creed and the use of the rosary; Animistic
elements in Moslem prayer; Hair, finger-nails and the hand; The
‘Aqiqa’ sacrifice; The familiar spirit or Qarina; Jinn; Pagan practices
in connection with the pilgrimage; Magic and sorcery; Amulets,
charms and knots; Tree, stone and serpent worship; The Zar:
exorcism of demons. There are illustrations and a bibliography.

+ Booklist 17:139 Ja ’21

Lit D p102 S 4 ’20 1600w
N Y Times 25:17 Jl 4 ’20 1000w

“His book is well worth reading.”

+ Spec 124:54 Jl 10 ’20 160w

The Times [London] Lit Sup p407 Je
24 ’20 120w
The Times [London] Lit Sup p723 N 4
’20 150w
2. This book is mentioned for the first time in this issue.