Acknowledgments
This book has been facilitated, supported, moulded, and greatly ameliorated by the company and kindnesses of many others, upon whom I have depended in myriad ways. Above all: Logan Timmermann and Teresa Nieman, who have made my life immeasurably richer and fuller, far more fun, and always more interesting. They are not ‘just’ family, but also my two best and dearest friends. And many thanks also to other friends and/or family who have provided great support of different kinds during the years I’ve been at work on this book.
My longtime supervisor, Courtney Booker, has given my successive theses such exacting, careful attention, and has modelled—over a dozen-plus years of diligent guidance—what it means to be a dedicated, perspicacious historian. Together with Professor Booker, Mark Vessey, Paul Dutton, and Richard Pollard have been vital mentors, generously sharing their time and expertise over the years I have had the very good fortune to get to know them. I am grateful to say that they have also become valued friends (even if I still find it a challenge at times to switch over from formal titles to first names …). To Professor Vessey I owe an extra debt of gratitude for recommending my work for this exciting new series on the reception of the Fathers, a serendipitous fit and happy home for my book! Thanks as well to Paolo Sachet and Anthony Grafton for inviting me aboard and helping to guide this book to publication.
For their thoughtful advice, generous sharing of materials and insights, and/or general guidance, I offer my appreciation to the following friends, colleagues, and interlocutors: Jean-Félix Aubé-Pronce, Andrew Cain, Martina Carandino, Christopher Friedrichs, David Ganz, Gregg Gardner, Valerie Garver, Marina Giani, Jacob Goldowitz, Mor Hajbi, Sean Hannan, Jessica Hanser, Sabrina Inowlocki, Peter Jones, Jesse Keskiaho, Beatrice Kitzinger, Rutger Kramer, Erik Kwakkel, Conrad Leyser, Sharon Lim, Riccardo Macchioro, Richard Menkis, Shachar Orlinski, Leslie Paris, Matthieu Pignot, Sebastian Prange, Evina Steinová, Karl Ubl, Graeme Ward, Greg Werker, and Veronika Wieser. I wish, too, to extend my thanks to the organisers, co-contributors, and attendees of the ‘Living in the Carolingian World’ sessions at the 2018 International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo; the 2019 UBC Medieval Workshop, ‘Theologies of the Political: From Augustine to Agamben, and Beyond’; the ‘Augustine and the Making of Christian Practice (400–1000)’ workshop held at the University of Durham in 2023; the ‘Carolingian Receptions of Augustine’s Texts and Ideas’ session at the 2023 International Medieval Congress, Leeds; and the ‘Marriage of Patristics and Reception Studies: Challenges and Prospects’ workshop at the 2024 Oxford Patristics conference. Gestating versions of certain sections of this book were presented at these conferences, and those sections benefitted significantly from the perceptive criticisms and suggestions of those present. Of special importance for me and for this book, the Wallace Johnson Program for first-book authors in early medieval legal history (broadly defined, thankfully!) provided an invaluable and accessible initiation to the seemingly quite daunting work of preparing, pitching, and publishing one’s first monograph. To our intrepid program organiser, Andrew Rabin, and my assigned mentor, Jennifer Davis, I offer particular gratitude; I learned a great deal from all the participating Johnson Program mentors and fellows, whom it was a real pleasure getting to know over our year together. I also wish to acknowledge here my terrific teaching assistants and the bright, engaged groups of students whom I have been fortunate to get to teach at the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria. They have vigorously challenged my hazily evolving ideas and arguments, all ultimately helping in some sense or another to make what is fixed now in print stronger, more complete, more carefully considered, and more refined than it would have been otherwise.
To be sure, I accept total responsibility for any and all errors, infelicities, or missteps that remain in the pages that follow—but very much of whatever is good here derives from the fruits of collegial generosity, mentorial guidance, friendship, and receptive pedagogy, learning whilst teaching. I want to acknowledge, too, the wonderful librarians and archivists at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver School of Theology, St. Mark’s College, Regent College, Historisches Archiv des Erzbistums Köln, Erzbischöfliche Diözesan- und Dombibliothek Köln, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma, Biblioteca Queriniana (Brescia), and Burgerbibliothek (Bern). The present study would be quite different, and markedly poorer in substance and quality, without the helpful assistance and access to resources provided by the excellent staff members at these institutions.
This book is dedicated to my son, Logan, with love and tremendous pride in the wonderful young man he’s grown into being over the years that I wrote it.
Vancouver, September 2024