Kitchen, which concludes with a fine appendix on the relationship between the Biblical citations to be found in the prefaces to Gregory's Life of the Fathers with the ensuing narratives. Gregory's hagiography is the subject of two articles-a very useful survey of the texts of the Miracula by Richard Shaw, and a more general discussion of the cult of the saints by J.K. Murray is a combative writer, who usually has the virtue of sending the reader to alternative readings, but it is difficult to see why he should occupy as much space in a Companion volume as he does to combat an article by Marc Widdowson: nor is it clear why, in his account of Merovingian administration, he thinks it is still necessary to attack the position of Pfister, which has surely been out of vogue for at least a generation (though one could not guess as much from the footnotes).

Murray-one on the chronology of Gregory's writings and of the administration of Merovingian Gaul.

The second chapter of Heinzelmann's is more valuable.Īlso providing two chapters is the editor, Alexander C. For the student the account of Gregory's life will no doubt be useful, but the near-absence of citation of the colossal amount of secondary literature in English is a weakness for precisely that audience. Martin Heinzelmann has already written what is the standard book on Gregory, and he divides much of what is to be found there into two chapters, on Gregory's life and on the relation of his works to Patristic writings. However, if one wants to find a reasonably up-to-date survey of the status quaestionis of most aspects of Gregory of Tours studies one will find it here. And there is the further question as to whether history is best taught from one textbook-there is much to be said for encouraging students to turn to a multiplicity of readings.

At the right price they may provide students with a course-book, but at $297 the Companion in question is most certainly not the right price. How valuable they are for the academic community is, however, less clear. No doubt they fit in well with the marketing practices of publishers. Ian volumes to specific issues in history are becoming commonplace.

Gregory of tours the merovingians