In memoriam Samuel N. Rosenberg (1936-2020)

In memoriam
Samuel N. Rosenberg (1936–2020)1

© Courtesy of the Indiana University Archives.

Old French Lyric scholar and translator Samuel Rosenberg, a dear friend to many in the ICLS, died June 30, 2020, at the age of 84 at his home in Bloomington, IN. As the editor of Encomia from 2005–2009, his organizational and editorial skills, intellectual breadth, and ethical 192standards were appreciated by medievalists across North America and Europe, while for his students, colleagues, and scholarly collaborators, to that list of assets must be added keen intelligence and wit, patience, and kindness. A tireless scholar with more than 30 books and 50 articles to his credit, he remained active until the end of his life, with a manuscript submitted for publication hours before his death and an editing project in the incipient stages on his desk.

One of the foremost experts in Old French Lyric of his generation, his editions were collaborations that fruitfully brought together expert musicologists and philologists – among them Hans Tischler, Hendrik van der Werf, Samuel Danon, Gérard Le Vot, Margaret Switten, Eglal Doss Quinby, Marie-Geneviève Grossel, and Gaël St. Cricq – to offer the academy new, holistic approaches to trouvère song.

With his first book-length publication a translation – Antoine Meillet’s The Indo-European Dialects, Sam’s output as a translator was as prolific as his work as an editor. In addition to the lyrics of his own editions, his most recent work included the Old French romance Robert le Diable, which was shortlisted for the National Translation Award in poetry, Berlioz’s music criticism, and newly edited poems of Paul Verlaine.

He will be remembered with deep affection by all who knew him.

Chris Callahan

Illinois Wesleyan University

callahan@iwu.edu

Sam Rosenberg with ICLS Officers at the Conference in Lausanne / Geneva
in 2007. Top row: Emma Cayley / Kathy Krause / June Hall McCash.
Bottom row: Sam Rosenberg / Michelle Szkilnik.
© Private cliché.