Acknowledgments
Of all academic tasks, acknowledging one’s many debts is among the most difficult, but it is also perhaps the most joyful. There is a sense in which this book began in 2012, when I was fortunate to read two books that introduced to me a new form of investigation and type of analysis; in parallel but distinct monographs of 2007, Ramsay MacMullen and Fergus Millar each opened doors through which my work has tried to step. The project would not have been possible without their intellectual guidance and it would not have been the same without their personal encouragement that the questions I was asking, and the answers that I sought, were worthwhile. Both Ramsay and Fergus passed before this book went to print; I wish them a peaceful rest, and thank them for their work, their mirth, and their kindness.
This project has morphed and grown considerably since my graduate school days, but it began as many first books do – advised by a team of extraordinary scholars with whom I am honored to have worked. Elaine Pagels, AnneMarie Luijendijk, Anthony Grafton, Brent Shaw, and Moulie Vidas came together to advise a rather unorthodox project, and I received valuable advice from Martha Himmelfarb and Helmut Reimitz along the way. I consider myself incalculably lucky to have been given the opportunity to sit at the feet of these inimitable scholars, and to learn from each the trade of research, the craft of writing, and the joy of teaching. Each taught me many of the skills on display in this book, but more so they showed me the virtue of academic kindness and the value of attention paid to people as friends and colleagues first and foremost, quite apart from the work that we produce. I cannot thank them enough, but I plan to spend the rest of my career trying.
The majority of this book was written in a small office on the second floor of the American Academy in Rome, between sumptuous meals and outings with an extraordinary collection of humanists, artists, and administrators that made my Rome Prize year unforgettable and unimaginably joyous. A great debt of gratitude is due to John Ochsendorf and Lynne Lancaster for overseeing operations and curating an intellectual community from whom I learned immensely and with whom laughed blissfully, including Liana Brent, Allison L. C. Emmerson, Victoria C. Moses, Karyn Olivier, Basil Twist, Austin Powell, Jim Carter, Denis J.-J. Robichaud, Kirsten Valdez Quade, Helen O’Leary, Anna Majeski, Marcel Sanchez Prieto, and Zaneta Hong. The staff of the Vatican Library made working on Chapters 6 and 7 smoother than it might have been without their congeniality, and P. Petrus Tschreppitsch OSB and Christine Ottowitz at St. Paul Stift im Lavanttal kindly provided me with high-quality facsimiles of the Ambrose manuscript that serves as a cornerstone my analysis. Thanks is due, as well, to the Provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the MIT Library’s department of Scholarly Communications for providing funds to publish this book Open Access.
Clifford Ando offered prescient advice at an early point that colored this project throughout; if it is impactful, it will have been for his insistence that I tackle the question of causation head-on. Mark Vessey and Éric Rebillard each encouraged me to take up questions that they had raised in seminal articles, and their work remains an inspiration. I thank Mary Beard for many spirituous and spirited conversations filled with erudite suggestions for further reading that have leavened the project as a whole, and Silvia Orlandi for academic and administrative support that allowed me to bring this project to completion in Rome. Two anonymous peer reviewers performed the all too often thankless task of reading and critiquing a manuscript that needed critical eyes and thorough revision. Not only did they offer their considerable expertise and wisdom, but they read the book again, finding both something ready to be published and what is perhaps best described as a small armada of typos. I cannot thank them enough. Beatrice Rehl took an early and active interest in this project, and showed me the ropes of academic publishing – I thank her for shepherding this book to completion.
The Appendix was drafted during an intense and invigorating month at the Centro Studi e Ricerche sui Diritti Antichi in Pavia and is indebted to long conversations, many through late evenings, with Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner, Bernhard Palme, Boudewijn Sirks, Dario Mantovani, Detlef Liebs, Gisella Bassanelli Sommariva, Benet Salway, Serena Ammirati, Lorena Atzeri, Elio Dovere, Marzena Wojtczak, Laurent Cases, Joanna Kulawiak-Cyrankowska, and David Pitz. I was honored to receive time, space, funding, and impetus to revise the Appendix alongside brilliant colleagues and mentors as a recipient of a Premio di merito alla ricerca from the Associazione Internazionale di Studi Tardoantichi. I want to thank Lucio De Giovanni especially for coordinating a wonderful visit to Naples, and to my fellow recipients, with whom it was a joy to celebrate and an honor to learn beside: Julia Aguilar Miquel, Guilhem Bartolotti, Marco Cristini, Miriam Cutino, Emanuela Malafronte, Giulia Marolla, and Simone Mollea.
As this project changed and grew over the years, my academic circle expanded; colleagues became interlocutors, and interlocutors became friends. I want particularly to thank Cavan Concannon, Jeremiah Coogan, J. Gregory Given, Joe Glynias, Sarit Kattan Gribetz, Henry Gruber, Amit Gvaryahu, Zachary Herz, Joseph Howley, Caroline Humfress, David Hunter, Yitz Landes, Rachel Love, Jessica Marglin, Irene Soto Marín, Charles Mathewes, Candida Moss, Travis Proctor, Sailakshmi Ramgopal, Michele Renee Salzman, and Jakub Urbanik for reading and strengthening parts of this book through their critique.
Matthew D. C. Larsen has been a constant interlocutor, performing the virtuous duty of first responder to half-formed thoughts and incipient ideas; all of my work is better for his friendship and his sage advice. All along my family did what families do best (to paraphrase David Sedaris): remind me that I might reinvent myself to colleagues, but to this day I’m still the one most likely to set the house on fire. Stephanie Nelli came into my life only late in this process, but her presence has made it immeasurably sweeter. To all these, and to those whom I’ve inevitably missed, I offer my sincerest gratitude.
Open access