L'art de la lettre humaniste (review)
preoccupied with his publications, especially his treatise on ancient warfare, entitled De militia romana dedicated to the Spanish crown prince, the future Philip III, a work which had a very positive reception among Lipsius’s humanist peers all over Europe, and its sequel, the Poliorcetica, an analysis of ancient siegecraft largely written during 1595; Lipsius is tempted by the offer of a post at the University of Bologna, but is finally dissuaded by counteroffers from his compatriots, who want to keep him in Leuven. Many letters concern Lipsius’s contubernium, the group of students who lived with him (which was increased by two new individuals in September of 1595), and we see clearly how this group remained the source of important contacts that lasted throughout Lipsius’s life. This volume of ILE, like the previous ones, is furnished with an extensive index and an extremely detailed commentary. The Latin text of the letters is meticulously edited, clearly laid-out, and its apparatus keeps the reader apprised of all variants and problems of interpretation. In one respect ILE 8 marks an important departure from the previously published volumes in the ILE series, in which the commentaries and introductions are always in Dutch. In ILE 8, however, this material is, for the first time, written in English. The use of Dutch for the commentaries in ILE was a natural choice, given the nationality of the scholars involved in ILE, the Belgian sources of its funding, and the Flemish background of Lipsius himself. But the use of English may well, as the directors of the project hope, make the volumes of ILE more accessible to an international readership. The editor of ILE 8, Jeanine De Landtsheer, deserves the highest acclaim for her production of this superb edition. TERENCE O. TUNBERG University of Kentucky