Michael Wayne Herren (born December 15, 1940) is a Canadian classical philologist and medievalist. He taught at York University in Toronto for almost four decades and most recently held the position of Distinguished Research Professor of History and Classics there.[1] Scott G. Bruce characterizes him as a central figure in the academic debate on the classical tradition and its reception in medieval Western Europe.[2]
Life
Michael W. Herren was born on December 15, 1940, in Santa Ana, California,[3] and received his Bachelor of Arts in Humanities with a concentration in Philosophy from Claremont McKenna College in 1962. In 1967, he completed his Master of Studies in Latin and Paleography at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. In 1969, Herren received his doctorate in Classics from the University of Toronto for a commentary on the Hisperica Famina.[4] In 1974, he published an edition and translation of A-text of the Hisperica Famina (whose origin he argues is Ireland); classics scholar Charles Witke commented that "text, commentary and 'translation bear witness both to industry and to insight of a high order".[5]Michael Winterbottom said it was "the basis for any fresh progress" on the text.[6]
At York University, where he spent most of his academic career, Herren founded the Program in Classical Studies at Atkinson College. He taught courses in the humanities and in Greek and Latin literature. For the last fifteen years of his full-time teaching career, he also supervised doctoral students in the graduate program in Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto.[7]
In 1991, Herren founded the Journal of Medieval Latin, which quickly became a leading journal in the field of medieval Latin literature.[8] He also co-founded the Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin series, which has been published since 2001.[9] Another project he initiated is the Epinal-Erfurt Glossary Editing Project, which aims to produce a critical edition of a Latin–Old English dictionary from the seventh century.[10]
The Anatomy of Myth. The Art of Interpretation from the Presocratics to the Church Fathers. New York. 2017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
The Cosmography of Aethicus Ister. Edition, translation and commentary. Turnhout. 2011.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
The Hisperica Famina: A New Critical Edition with English Translation and Philological Commentary. Related poems. Volume 2. Studies and texts. Vol. 85. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. 1987. ISBN9780888440310.
The Hisperica Famina: A New Critical Edition with English Translation and Philological Commentary. Volume 1. Studies and texts. Vol. 31. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. 1974. ISBN9780888440310.
Edited collections
Herren, Michael; Brown, Shirley Ann, eds. (1988). The Sacred Nectar of the Greeks: the Study of Greek in the West in the Early Middle Ages. London: Boydell and Brewer. ISBN9780951308516.
Herren, Michael, ed. (1981). Insular Latin Studies. Papers on Latin texts and manuscripts of the British Isles: 550-1066. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. ISBN9780888448019.
^Bruce, Scott G.: Michael W. Herren. An Appreciation. In: Litterarum dulces fructus, Studies in Early Medieval Latin Culture in Honor of Michael Herren for His 80th Birthday, ed. by Scott G. Bruce, Turnhout 2021, pp. 9-13, here pp. 9, 12–13.
^John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation: Reports of the President and the Treasurer, New York 1999, p 87.
^Herren, Michael W.: A Philological Commentary on the Hisperica Famina. PhD diss., University of Toronto, 1967. Published 1969, p. 2 and Profile of Michael W. Herren on the York University website.
^Bruce, Scott G.: Michael W. Herren. An Appreciation. In: Litterarum dulces fructus, Studies in Early Medieval Latin Culture in Honor of Michael Herren for His 80th Birthday, ed. by Scott G. Bruce, Turnhout 2021, pp. 9-13, here p. 9 and Profile of Michael W. Herren on the York University website.
^Bruce, Scott G.: Michael W. Herren. An Appreciation. In: Litterarum dulces fructus, Studies in Early Medieval Latin Culture in Honor of Michael Herren for His 80th Birthday, ed. by Scott G. Bruce, Turnhout 2021, pp. 9-13, here p. 9.
^Bruce, Scott G.: Michael W. Herren. An Appreciation. In: Litterarum dulces fructus, Studies in Early Medieval Latin Culture in Honor of Michael Herren for His 80th Birthday, ed. by Scott G. Bruce, Turnhout 2021, pp. 9-13, here p. 9.
^Bruce, Scott G.: Michael W. Herren. An Appreciation. In: Litterarum dulces fructus, Studies in Early Medieval Latin Culture in Honor of Michael Herren for His 80th Birthday, ed. by Scott G. Bruce, Turnhout 2021, pp. 9–13, here p. 11. See also: Momma, Haruko: ‘Element by Element’. Glosses, Loan Translations, and Lexical Enrichment in Old English. In: ibid., pp. 323–345, here pp. 323–324.
^Bruce, Scott G.: Michael W. Herren. An Appreciation. In: Litterarum dulces fructus, Studies in Early Medieval Latin Culture in Honor of Michael Herren for His 80th Birthday, ed. by Scott G. Bruce, Turnhout 2021, pp. 9–13, here pp. 9–12 and Profile of Michael W. Herren on the York University website.
