My current and past research has ranged widely across the medieval millennium (and beyond), but is united by a basic interest in the transformation of written texts at moments of intercultural exchange: whether that be in the context of the beginning of Christian Latin poetry in the fourth and fifth centuries; the multilingual nature of late antiquity; translation habits in the twelfth century; or the dual inheritance of classical antiquity and medieval culture in the Irish literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. My work is characterised above all by detailed philological analysis and by careful attention to the material contexts in which texts survive. My primary ongoing interests are in Latin poetry of the fourth-tenth centuries, translations of canonical texts in the twelfth century, and the transmission and reception of classical literature in the middle ages.
Late antique and early medieval poetry
The heart of my research is the study of Latin poetry written between c. 300 and 1000 CE. My methodological approach is philological, with an emphasis on close reading and detailed literary analysis to situate authors in the literary tradition. My earliest training (at Dublin) focused on matters of genre and intertextuality, and these interests continue to shape much of my approach to literary texts, though now supplemented by an increasing (characteristically Torontonian) interest in the late antique and medieval scholarly apparatus that travelled with canonical texts in the manuscript tradition: specifically, scholia, commentaries, accessus, and author biographies. In some ways my career trajectory can be seen as an effort to move beyond the strictly intertextual: I continue to be interested in how poets imitate their predecessors, but I now look at this question in a more holistic way than that offered by strict lexical parallel. These interests are shaping my current book project, a study of the Latin poetic literary tradition from Proba (fourth century) to Hrotsvit (tenth century).
Translation of canonical texts in the twelfth century
Several of my projects have looked at questions of multilingualism and intercultural exchange in the twelfth century: the Harley Trilingual Psalter, for example, or the middle Irish translation of Lucan’s De Bello Civili, the latter of which continues to preoccupy me a great deal. Some smaller projects focusing on individual manuscripts containing translations of canonical or classical texts are at varying stages of development.
Transmission and reception of classical literature in the middle ages
My existing work on the reception of classical literature in late antique poetry and on the medieval translation of Lucan are indicative of my ongoing interest in the afterlife of classical literature, and especially of Latin poetry, in the Middle Ages. Looking further ahead, I am at the planning stages for a large-scale project on the reception of Prudentius in the Middle Ages, which will include a catalogue of manuscripts as well as a literary monograph: watch this space!