Sir Fortunatus Dwarris (1786 1860) was an English barrister, civil servant and abolitionist. After graduating from University College, Oxford, in 1808 he was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1811. In 1823 Dwarris was appointed a commissioner for an Imperial Commission of Inquiry on the state of legal and slave codes of the self-governing colonies of the British West Indies. This detailed volume, first published in 1827, contains three reports summarising the Commission's findings and recommendations. Focusing on the islands of Barbados, Tobago, Dominica, and Antigua, this volume provides a detailed analysis of the various criminal and civil laws peculiar to each island, together with a description of the various courts and processes in each. The commissioners perceptively discuss and illustrate the institutionalised racism of these laws, providing valuable information for the study of slavery and emancipation and the legal history of the British West Indies.

Owing to the rich storehouse of information it contains, the poetry of Venantius Fortunatus (c. 535--600) has long been mined as a historical source for Merovingian society, a focus that overshadows an appreciation of the poems' literary value. This volume, offering free-verse translations of Fortunatus' personal poetry, remains faithful to the historical sweep of the poet's lines while paying attention to the literary qualities that make these poems masterpieces of their kind. The volume includes an overview of late antique Gaul, Fortunatus' biography, interpretations of the poems, prosopographical introductions, maps, bibliography, and indices.

The eleven books of poetry by Venantius Fortunatus include well-loved hymns, figure poems, epigrams on miracles, and elegies in the voices of abandoned or exiled women. The sixth-century poet began his career in northern Italy before moving to Gaul, where he wrote for the remainder of his life-praising kings and elites of the Merovingian dynasty and describing the natural scenery and society of his adopted homeland during the transition from late antiquity to the early Middle Ages. In his lively and inventive style, Fortunatus also addressed verses to religious figures such as his patron Gregory of Tours and to holy women such as Radegund, founder of the Convent of the Holy Cross in Poitiers, and Agnes, the convent's first abbess. Fortunatus's imaginative metaphors and wry, self-mocking humor ensure his place in the canon of Christian Latin poets. This volume presents for the first time in English translation all of his poetry, apart from a single long saint's life in verse.

Owing to the rich storehouse of information it contains, the poetry of Venantius Fortunatus (c. 535--600) has long been mined as a historical source for Merovingian society, a focus that overshadows an appreciation of the poems' literary value. This volume, offering free-verse translations of Fortunatus' personal poetry, remains faithful to the historical sweep of the poet's lines while paying attention to the literary qualities that make these poems masterpieces of their kind. The volume includes an overview of late antique Gaul, Fortunatus' biography, interpretations of the poems, prosopographical introductions, maps, bibliography, and indices.