Law, Rulership, and Rhetoric

"Canon law, emperors, popes, and a medieval showman or trickster who taught the ars dictandi at Bologna are examined in these collected studies. These scholarly masterpieces may be counted among the best for the relevant subjects. Few medievalists today could produce such amusing, erudite, and elegant essays as Robert Benson." —Johannes Fried, Professor of Medieval History (Emeritus), Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt

"The varied lectures, draft studies, and informal talks in this volume were written between 1955 and 1994, yet they are full of newfound treasures. Robert L. Benson was a leader in the transformative new age of medieval studies in North America that began with the diasporas of World War II. After his death, the editors carefully sifted through his files to see whether there were unpublished studies of value. They found the astonishing wealth gathered and expertly redacted here into five areas related to medieval political power and its modern analysis. Apart from Benson’s conclusions, his methods of working across disciplines—notably, art and iconography, rhetoric and philology, Roman and canon law, and scriptural exegesis—remain fresh and instructive. And a self-portrait of the man himself is there through insights both into his high sense of the historian’s vocation, and into the passions that, haunting and imperative, still inflame his work." —Karl F. Morrison, Lessing Professor of History and Poetics (Emeritus), Rutgers University

"Law, Rulership, and Rhetoric: Selected Essays of Robert L. Benson makes an original contribution by bringing forward Benson's unpublished essays, thus revealing in important new ways Benson's significance for medieval history. Scholars in several fields—art history, Church history, political history, and legal history—should find these essays of interest. This treasury of studies is full of valuable insights roaming across Benson’s scholarly interests." —Robert Somerville, Columbia University

“. . . the volume has plenty to offer political and legal historians and those interested in broader questions about medieval political culture and the semiotics of power. Finally, Benson’s witty, erudite, and sometimes poignant reflections on being a medieval historian in the modern world make this book an engaging read for any medievalist.” —Parergon

“If Benson’s relatively slim published output has long stood as an unrepresentative indication of his place among twentieth-century medieval historians, the dedicated work of Weber, Constable, and Rouse has helped to secure, and to enhance, Benson’s important legacy as both an heir to Kantorowicz and a path-breaker in his own right.” —Comitatus

“It is a testament to the strength of Robert L Benson’s scholarly personality and to his intellect that the contours of both are so clearly and consistently visible in this eclectic collection. This collection represents an effort not only to memorialize Benson but also to present his thoughts on a subject he had mastered more thoroughly than his published record would indicate.” —H-net Reviews