A rule for Vallombrosan nuns: based on the rule of St. Benedictus, 1400.
Amherst College Archives & Special Collections [public domain].
Geographical Scope
Global
Chronological Scope
Premodern period, ca. fifth to seventeenth centuries CE
Advisory Board
Prof. Robert E. Bjork, Arizona State University Prof. Alessandra Bucossi, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia Dr. Chris Jones, University of Canterbury / Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha Prof. Sharon Kinoshita, University of California, Santa Cruz Dr. Matthew Cheung Salisbury, University of Oxford
Keywords
critical editions, classroom texts, marginalized voices, world literature, comparative literature, medieval literature
Foundations responds to the need to provide texts for students and scholars on the premodern world. Without accessible new texts in new fields of interest, widening research and teaching becomes difficult. This series fits Arc’s academic mission to work with scholars of the past in expanding our collective horizons.
The series offers authors a flexible, case-by-case approach to publishing works. They may be original language editions, facing-page (with English translation) editions, and occasionally simply a translation of the historical work. Evaluation is made after peer-review and a financial analysis of the complete manuscript, but we welcome earlier proposals so that we can help shape them.
We are not aiming to publish lavish critical editions nor popular reading versions, but accessible works, with one layer of apparatus, aimed at scholars and in some cases suitable for classroom usage.
Publications will normally be under 200 pages. Publication is not dependent on subventions but we may require financial assistance if the material is non-standard in some ways (see the guidelines below).
Guidelines for Editors
We welcome proposals for texts in the following areas:
Historical, religious, or cultural texts, alongside literary works and diplomatic records (e.g., cartularies, and editions of major resources or holdings).
Editions of a “non-Western canon” (e.g., Crusades voices, from the Middle Eastern/West Asian or Islamic world).
Mainstream as well as “marginalized voices”.
Every proposal will need to convince the series editor and acquisitions editor (and the PM) that the text is interesting, and ideally “edgy”.
Some volumes will have classroom potential and these are greatly welcomed.
If you wish to discuss a project, please contact our Acquisitions Editor or one of our academic advisors (details below).
Criteria for Evaluations
The criteria used in assessing manuscripts is fourfold:
Academic quality of the scholarship involved in the edition, whilst showing awareness of the audience and similar texts recently edited.
Scholarly significance – particularly the ability of the Introduction to show the purpose, significance, and scope of the text and some wide resonance to the material.
A well-presented manuscript that allows us to publish the work efficiently and affordably. In practical terms this can mean:
i. That the introduction and paraphernalia follow the Chicago Manual of Style in all respects, and so a light copyedit of these sections alone will be needed.
ii. The edition itself will have only one set of apparatus, the notes in the apparatus being footnotes and easily typeset (NB: not linked to line numbers for prose works), so requiring just a light copyedit.
iii. No colour images.
Sales potential – some of the editions will have classroom potential (medieval world literature, comparative literature), but we recognize that the majority of editions are aimed at researchers. Nonetheless, the readership will need to be in a field where there will be sufficient institutional and individual purchases.
