A Glowing Review for Professor Albin

Professor Albin

Congratulations to Professor Andrew Albin on the glowing review of his latest book, Richard Rolle's "Melody of Love": A Study and Translation, with Manuscript and Musical Contexts.

This is the first full translation of a largely unstudied masterpiece of medieval England, one that “stands as the most daring literary achievement of the influential mystic Richard Rolle. Full of autobiographical glimpses and spiritual rhapsodies, this sustained etude in alliterative, rhythmic Latin prose contains Rolle's first public account of his profoundly sensory mystical experience.”

In the current Marginalia Review of Books, Natalie Jones lavishes praise on Albin’s “sharp and detailed” approach to the material, asserting that Albin’s “analysis offers much critical insight.”

She continues:

“Andrew Albin’s Richard Rolle’s Melody of Love is an impressive and thoroughly scholarly edition that offers much critical insight to both the new and informed reader. Although, as noted, the challenging nature of the Melos amoris has meant that it has traditionally fared less well with scholars over the years, Albin’s translation will certainly encourage those readers to look again at this text, as it renders the original’s difficult, highly ornate, and alliterative Latin prose into an accessible Modern English text which captures much of the style, spirit, and mood of the original. By celebrating with great freshness the complexities of the Melos and by opening up this difficult text, Albin’s edition is undoubtedly a hugely important contribution to the study of Rolle’s works and medieval mysticism more broadly.”

To read the full review, click here: https://marginalia.lareviewofbooks.org/medieval-brilliance-modern-beauty/

Congratulations again to Professor Albin on this remarkable achievement.