The second volume in Jane Chance's study of the history of mediaeval mythography from the 5th through the 15th centuries focuses on the time period in Western Europe between the School of Chartres and the papal court at Avignon. This examination of historical and philosophical developments in the story of mythography reflects the ever-increasing importance of the subjectivity of the commentator. In this period between two great cultural and literary renaissances, Chance shows how scholars working in the most conservative and least literary of genres covertly played out the meaning of new ideas that were too dangerous to espouse publicly. She finds several factors facilitating this development: the assimilation of the classical and moralizing Christian traditions and dissemination of the mythographies of the Martianus commentaries; the advent of the "New Science", Aristotelian philosohy, and its influence on Ovid commentary and mythological exemplum; and the rise in accusations of heresy among scholars and the appearance of mythographic exemplar in preaching manuals to counter its popular spread.
Through her vast and wide-ranging familiarity with hitherto seldom studied primary texts spanning nearly 1000 years, Chance provides a guide to the assimilation of classical myth into the Chrisian Middle Ages. Rich in insight and example, dense in documentation, and compelling in its interpretations, "Mediaeval Mythography" is an important tool for scholars of the classical tradition and for mediaevalists working in any language.