A Monk's Confession is the first completely new English translation of Guibert of Nogent's remarkable memoirs in over seventy years. Written around the year 1115, they offer an unparalleled look at the life of a monk in the Middle Ages. Guibert, who lived his entire life in northern France, called these memoirs his book of monodiae, or solitary songs. Many scholars consider them the first Latin autobiography in the West after Augustine's Confessions.

Readers will be stirred and surprised by Guibert's intense preoccupation with the sinfulness of his soul, his visions of demons and necromancy, and his frank struggle to come to terms with his sexuality. But Guibert is also a valuable witness to his age. In addition to his personal history, his memoirs give a brief chronicle of the abbey of Nogent--where he served as abbot for some twenty years--and a vivid account of the bloody uprising of the Laon Commune in 1112. His observations give precious insight into education, monastic life, and the beginnings of the great medieval towns.

Paul J. Archambault's translation successfully renders Guibert's Latin--at times stylish, at times rustic--into lively, modern English. He consulted Edmond-Rene Labande's authoritative 1981 Latin edition with French translation. He provides a complete introduction and annotation that help situate Guibert within the history and literature of the Middle Ages while permitting readers to judge for themselves how to interpret this fascinating voice from the past.

For five centuries, literary treasures had lain dormant in the archives of the Palazzo Tuttofare in Florence. Through a fortunate coincidence they have been recently discovered, and the present work is the result of this find. Contained herein, in fact, is the unedited correspondence - or presented as such - exchanged between Desiderius Erasmus, Thomas More, and Niccolo Machiavelli in 1517-1518. To these letters are added texts which serve, as it were, as annexes of the Prince and of the Utopia.Between these three illustrious writers the discussion, or the quarrel, bears chiefly on two themes: the art of governing on the one hand, and the art of writing on the other. As was to be expected, they battle over the best manner of governing: Erasmus and More on one side, Machiavelli on the other. The confrontation occurs on two terrains in particular: morality and necessity in politics, and the political forms of necessity. In the background of the quarrel is raised the problem of Christianity's political power, perhaps that of its truth.The second theme is not unrelated to the first. Erasmus, More, and Machiavelli are accomplished writers. Each has several styles at his command, each knows and practices the resources of the art of writing, each intends to read as he should. And so in the margins of their discussion about substance, they argue about the significance of their respective works; they interpret, rightly or wrongly, the others' manners of writing; they explain their own writing or dodge explanation, they deliver their secret or lead into error. What is at stake is the meaning of these enigmatic works, which are the Prince (1513), the Utopia (1516), and, to a lesser extent, the Praise of Folly (1511). Any lifting of the veil necessitates a golden rule: we cannot grasp the meaning of a work unless we grasp the manner in which it was written. In the case of Erasmus, More, and Machiavelli, cunning has a role to play. The author has taken a leaf from their book. "And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away." - Matthew 11:12

Paul Archambault explores the evolution of Camus' attitude toward Hellenism and Christianity as seen through his writing. The author considers problems as disparate as Camus' use and misuse of Aeschylus and the Presocratics, his ambivalent appraisal of Socrates, the ""Plotinian"" nature of his aesthetics, his identification of Christianity with Augustinian theology, and the Gnostic resonance of his characteristic ideas.