Homage volumes do not always succeed in either reflecting the work of the honorand, or in conveying a real sense of his her or her achievements and why the volume has been put together in the first place. This one does both and it does them very well. It is a fitting tribute to one of the leading figures in medieval and modern French linguistics but who also (as the subtitle and indeed the coverage in the volume suggests) has produced remarkable work in literary and historical studies. One of the strengths of the collection (as of its dedicatee) is precisely that the linguistic and the literary remain (as they should be) inseparable. The search for meaning requires proper understanding of the former, and sensitivity to the latter. The volume is divided into four major sections. (I) Morphologie et syntaxe; (II) Corpus et variation; (III) Énonciation et texte; (IV) Littérature et histoire. To each area Christiane Marchello-Nizia has made a major contribution: for example, under (I), her study of the complexities of OF si; for (II), the establishment of the Base de Français Médiéval at Lyon; in (III), a range of definitive books on different aspects of OF and Middle French grammar; as to (IV), editions of important texts and studies of many more. The whole range of the history of French is covered in this collection from participial agreement in spoken French to the exclusively medieval, but more often than not, the rich and well-informed contributions are genuinely diachronic in that they seek to explore how and why change has occurred. There are thus (for example) studies of verbal periphrasis, deverbals in -ant, and syntactic variation which all introduce a diachronic dimension. Medieval usages and texts are examined in the case of particular expressions (c'est mon, etc.) or the representation of ‘l’étrangeté’. The literary-historical section deals with romance, knighthood and sodomy, the sun in the Roland and Hervis de Mes, and the role of dreams in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence's life of Thomas Becket. The flavour of the collection is thus wide-ranging and deliberately inclusive, including also two contributions on the historiography of the discipline: a short history of the Groupe de linguistique romane (1971–1980) of which Marchello-Nizia was part, and a fascinating study of the philologist and socialist, Charles Bonnier. The authors represent no fewer than nine countries in a demonstration of the international diffusion and impact which Christiane Marchello-Nizia's work has had. Above all, perhaps, the collection shows the extent to which the historical dimension is essential; and the obvious affection in which the recipient of this tribute is held by a wide range of colleagues across the world. In short, a good collection, well-chosen contributors, and amply deserved.