374 DOI 10.2357/ VOX-2021-022 Vox Romanica 80 (2021): 374-376 Besprechungen - Comptes rendus diplomàtiques de Catalunya i de la Corona catalanoaragonesa a l’edat mitjana, vol. I.1: Tractats i negociacions diplomàtiques amb Occitània, França i els estats italians 1067-1213, Barcelona, Institut d’Estudis Catalans (Memòries de la Secció Històrico-Arqueològica 93) 1.1: 13-150. Rarissimi sono gli errori di stampa nel volume qui recensito: si avverte però che nella Bibliografia l’item relativo a Ferran Valls i Taberner si trova fuori luogo (235). Si tratta di minime considerazioni che non compromettono ovviamente la qualità del lavoro di Premi, le cui proposte ecdotiche ed esegetiche risultano di norma convincenti e discusse con scientificità e sostenute da argomentazioni solide. In conclusione, quella che ci è offerta è una bella edizione, elegantemente stampata e tanto più apprezzabile in quanto opera di un giovane e valente studioso. Gerardo Larghi (Como) ★ Iberoromania Joan Argenter/ Jens Lüdtke (ed.), Manual of Catalan linguistics, Berlin/ Boston (De Gruyter) 2020, 784 p. (Collection Manuals of Romance Linguistics 25). De Gruyter’s new series Manuals of Romance Linguistics (MRL) is meant to be a continuation and amplification of its two standard manuals Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik (1988- 2005) and Romanische Sprachgeschichte (2003-2008). Instead of binding together various shorter articles in one volume following the classical alphabetical ordering of encyclopedias, MRL follows the principles first established by Presses Universitaires de France in their Que-saisje? -collection. The present volume should therefore be seen as a huge one-volume entry s.v. Catalan Linguistics in the virtual Encyclopedia of Romance Linguistics, MRL. The editor claims on the back cover that in this series a «special focus will be placed on the presentation and analysis of the smaller languages» and it is to be feared that this is probably supposed to include Catalan to which the present volume is dedicated. That Catalan, a full-fledged literary and administrative language of the European Union with 9,2 million speakers in Europe should be considered a «small language» is certainly not the editor’s fault, but nevertheless a sad facet of our system of cultural classification. There are currently 24 official and working languages in the EU. If Catalan, with its 9,2 million speakers (Wikipedia), were the 25th official language of the EU, its number of speakers would be exactly in the middle, in 12th place, with more speakers than even Danish (5,3), Finnish (6,0), Slovak (6,0), Croatian (7,0) or Bulgarian (8,0), and with not much fewer speakers than Swedish with 10,5 million or Czech with 13,4 million. Catalan is therefore a medium-sized European cultural language with a rich literature and a writing tradition dating back to the 13th century. It is the official language of Catalonia, Valencia (Comunitat Valenciana), the Balearic Islands and Andorra. All the more it is to be welcomed that a whole substancial volume has been dedicated to Catalan Linguistics! 375 DOI 10.2357/ VOX-2021-022 Vox Romanica 80 (2021): 374-376 Besprechungen - Comptes rendus In 2013, the series editors approached prof. em. Jens Lüdtke and proposed to him to edit a Manual of Catalan Linguistics. This choice may not be immediately obvious to the Catalan-speaking public, but it certainly was to German-speaking Catalanists, as Jens Lüdtke’s introductory work Katalanisch. Eine einführende Beschreibung (1984) had long since turned into a classic that everybody knew. As so often, however, publishing in German was a sure way of getting overlooked by the international scientific community. Jens Lüdtke conceptualised the immense new task as a collective effort to recreate his 1984 Introduction for an international audience. Early on, Joan Argenter too was involved in the project, first in an advisory role, but increasingly as a de facto co-editor, a role which was finally formalised by the publisher. Sadly, Jens Lüdtke did not live to see their common project come to fruition as he passed away in early 2019. It was for Joan Argenter to finish it alone. The volume we’re reviewing contains 37 articles on 784 pages and is, therefore, a substancial and comprehensive undertaking. An introductory part, containing the «Introduction» proper by the editor Joan Argenter, an essay on «Languages, Cultures, Nations: A History of Europe» by Valencian essayist Joan F. Mira and a «History of Catalan Linguistics» by Joan Julià-Muné. The remaining 34 articles in this volume are distributed over the three main sections «Language Description», «Language History» and «Catalan Today». For reasons of space, we won’t be able to review and each and every one of these articles. The authors are mainly well known linguists from all over the catalanophone area (Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Isles), backed up by a number of equally renowned international colleagues. The main part of the book is structured in three sections: Language Description, Language History, and Catalan today. The first section, «Language Description», consists of 13 contributions and is dedicated to the various facets of what would traditionally be considered «grammar». Here we find articles on «Spelling» (Xavier Lamuela) and «Phonology, Phonetics, Intonation» (Nicolau Dols). A sub-section on «Morphosyntax» contains five contributions: «Word Classes, Inflectional Categories and Paradigms» (Mar Massanell i Messalles), «The Simple Sentence» (Gemma Rigau and Manuel Pérez Saldanya), «The Complex Sentence» (Manuel Pérez Saldanya and Gemma Rigau), «Modality and Information Structure: Focus, Dislocation, Interrogative and Exclamatory Sentences» (Ingo Feldhausen and Xavier Villalba), and «Lexicalized Syntax: Phraseology» ( Jaume Mateu). The remaining articles treat «Pragmatics and Text Linguistics» (Maria Josep Cuenca), a sub-section on «Lexicon» with the two contributions «General Lexicon» ( Josep Martines), and «Word-Formation» ( Jens Lüdtke), another subsection «Variation and Varieties» consisting of two articles: «Dialects» (Mar Massanell i Messalles), and «Social and Functional Variation in Catalan» (Miquel Àngel Pradilla Cardona); the first main section is closed by the article «Language Corpora» ( Joan Soler Bou). From synchronic descriptive linguistics we now pass on to the second main section which bears the title «Language History». Here, the initial article «Early Medieval Catalan» (Philip D. Rasico) describes the early internal developments leading from Proto-Romance to early Catalan and therefore the internal history of the language. The remaining articles are more centered around external historical, cultural and sociolinguistic aspects. The following articles, «The Growth and Expansion of Catalan (1213-1516)» (Antoni Ferrando), «The Origins 376 DOI 10.2357/ VOX-2021-023 Vox Romanica 80 (2021): 376-380 Besprechungen - Comptes rendus of Modern Catalan: Cultural and Linguistic Evolution» (Miquel Nicolás) and «Renaixença» ( Jenny Brumme) retrace the rise, decadence and resurrection of Catalan as a written language of literature, culture and administration. The following sub-section «Towards Language Institutionalization» contains the two articles «The Language Reform, the lnstitut d'Estudis Catalans and the Work of Pompeu Fabra» (August Rafanell) and «From Pompeu Fabra to the Present Day: Language Change, Hindrance to Corpus and Status Planning» (August Rafanell). The section is closed by articles on «Onomastics: Personal Names and Place Names» (Albert Turull) and «Translation» (Montserrat Bacardí and Joaquim Mallafrè). The last main section, finally, is dedicated to sociolinguistics and the sociology of language. Under the section titel «Catalan Today», 9 articles treat the subjects «Languages in Contact: A Sociocultural Approach» ( Joan A. Argenter), «Language Demography» (F. Xavier Vila), «Language Law and Language Policies» (Eva Pons), «Teaching and Learning of Catalan» (F. Xavier Vila), «Catalan in the Mass Media: The Rise of Stylebooks» (Oriol Camps Giralt and Aina Labèrnia Romagosa), «Terminology and Neology» (M. Teresa Cabré and M. Amor Montané), «Language Ideologies in Society» (Emili Boix-Fuster and Kathryn A. Woolard), «Migration in Catalonia: Language and Diversity in the Global Era» ( Joan Pujolar) and «Catalan Worldwide» (August Bover i Font). This publication covers many subjects also treated in another collective work dedicated to Catalan linguistics, namely the great Gramàtica del català contemporani in three large volumes, edited by Joan Solà et al. in 2002. However, the editors of the Manual of Catalan Linguistics did not succumb to the temptation of basically reproducing a shortened version of the Gramàtica, superficially translated into English. Rather, the Manual is carefully edited towards a non Catalan-speaking audience of international linguists who may or may not be familiar with Catalan and its culture, thus opening this rich field of linguistic research to readers outside of Catalan or even Romance Philology. Hans-Ingo Radatz (Bamberg) ★ Carlos Alvar/ Guillermo Alvar Nuño, Normas de comportamiento en la mesa durante la Edad Media, Madrid (Sial ediciones) 2020, 366 p. (Colección Sial/ Trivium). En esta monografía los profesores Carlos Alvar y Guillermo Alvar Nuño recorren la tradición sobre normas de comportamiento en la mesa desde el siglo IX hasta principios del siglo XVI en el occidente europeo. Las reglas que rigen las relaciones sociales han ido cambiando a lo largo del tiempo, desde aquellos valores que desaparecen en favor de otros, la lengua en la que se escriben los textos en los que se imparte ese tipo de enseñanza, e incluso los espacios donde se pone en práctica. Pero estas normas tienen como objetivo el reconocimiento y aprobación del individuo por parte de un grupo humano que, quizás en algunos casos, le permita elevarse en el escalafón social, alcanzar la fama o el estatus necesario para gozar de ciertos privilegios. El núcleo de estas relaciones sociales sigue siendo el banquete.