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Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Ed. by John T. Koch. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 2006. 5 vols, acid free $485 (ISBN 1-85109-440-7).
With ABC-Clio's impressive foray into the world of Celticism, the long wait is over for patrons and librarians seeking a reputable reference source on all things Celtic. John Koch, a senior research fellow at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Celtic Studies, has assembled more than 1,450 entries penned by 338 Celtic studies scholars (who, though named, are unfortunately not identified by institutional affiliation). This encyclopedia is the first in a series of works planned by the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Celtic Studies project called, "The Celtic Languages and Cultural Identity: A Multidisciplinary Synthesis." Forthcoming works include an English/Early-Irish database, a "Proto-Celtic Vocabulary," and a collection of maps for Celtic studies.
The entries vary greatly in length and justifiably so. While the entry on the Middle-Welsh text Breuowyt Pawl Ebostol (the dream of St. Paul the Apostle) is but a paragraph long, the entry on nationalism in the...