The Destruction of Jerusalem, or Titus and Vespasian, ed. Kara L. McShane and Mark J. B. Wright. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 2021, ix, 228 pp

There are two long medieval English poems on the Fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. The one edited here is not the alliterative Siege of Jerusalem, but (with its two titles) the other, in couplets. It has a long and short version and was popular in the fifteenth century (twelve manuscripts survive), although not thereafter, because it is a chamber of horrors. Its author sets out the Jewish hatred of Christ, his murder by the Jews, the suffering that it brought them, 'King' Vespasian's leprosy, his cure by St. Veronica's napkin, Pontius Pilate's unquiet grave, the besieging of Jerusalem (with famine and cannibalism for those within), its capture, and enslavement or slaughter for survivors. A repellent work. Small wonder if its editors admit that form and content "contribute to its ongoing marginalization" (p. 1).