An updated and expanded version of the original edition, published in 1998. That original edition went up through 1245. This new version extends to 1317 and adds two important prefaces. Praise for the First Edition “Both students and specialists can be grateful to the authors for this major contribution in English to the study of medieval canon law. It is a clear statement--one emphasized by the late John Gilchrist-that because of its critical importance in medieval life and culture canon law should not remain the obscure domain of specialists, but should be shared with students and non-specialists alike.” – The American Journal of Legal History “[A] learned and useful book, which for the first time assembles a body of canonistic prefaces, presents them in an accessible form, and provides students of medieval canonical thought with a valuable new resource for study and teaching.” – The Catholic Historical Review “This volume is an important and welcome addition to a field of studies where translations into English are few and far between. The breadth of the works selected, the quality of the translations, and the attention to detail that has long characterized the work of both editors make this a valuable resource for specialist and student alike.” – Church History “A welcome combination: a text that is informative for students and professionals alike. The translations succeed in rendering accessible to a general audience some otherwise highly inaccessible material. Somerville and Brasington are to be greatly commended for undertaking this very original enterprise and bringing it to successful parturition.” – Journal of Law and Religion “Somerville and Brasington have chosen to let their compilers and commentators speak for themselves. In doing so, they have had to wrestle with often obscure Latin and frequently less than satisfactory editions. That they succeed in making these texts intelligible through translation and annotation is no small feat.” – Sixteenth Century Journal “This is a significant, elegantly presented contribution to the field of theology, cultural history, and canon law.” – Theological Studies

When Tony Tanner died in 1998, the world lost a critic who was as sensitive a reader of Jane Austen as he was of Thomas Pynchon, and who wrote with a warmth and clarity that belied his fluency in literary theory.

In the final ten years of his life Tanner tackled the largest project any critic in English can take on—writing a preface to each of Shakespeare’s plays. This collection serves as a comprehensive introduction for the general reader, the greatest and perhaps the last in the line of great introductions to Shakespeare written by such luminaries as Samuel Johnson and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Tanner brings Shakespeare to life, explicating everything from big-picture issues such as the implications of shifts in Elizabethan culture to close readings of Shakespeare’s deployment of complex words in his plays.

Although these prefaces are written for a general audience, there is much value for the scholar as well. Tanner introduces some of the most significant recent and historical scholarship on Shakespeare to show the reader how certain critics frame large issues in a useful way. This scholarly generosity permits Johnson, Hazlitt, Emerson, Thoreau, Ruskin, Pater, and many others to enter into conversation. The Independent said of the project, “All of Tanner’s life and education had prepared him for this task and the results are magnificent—both accessible and erudite.”