Seeking the elusive meaning of the editorial choices made by the anthologists at the end of the Middle Ages, Taylor (Durham U.) argues that the social and cultural environment in which the anthologies
This book casts new light on the life and work of François Villon, one of the most famous but least understood poets of the later Middle Ages. Traditionally Villon has been viewed by scholars as an alienated outsider in his own time, whose work was in many respects derivative and commonplace. Jane Taylor instead points to the flair and originality of Villon's poetry, and the urgency and brilliance of his poetic dialogue with his predecessors and contemporaries. Taylor describes Villon's literary milieu as marked by an enjoyment of debate and competition, and shows the prominent place that he occupied in that poetic landscape. She argues that Villon's contemporaries were accustomed to reading in depth and in detail: they would have recognized and appreciated the flamboyance with which Villon challenged commonplace or ideological preconception.
Arthurian romance in Renaissance France has long been treated by modern critics as marginal - although manuscripts and printed volumes, adaptations and rewritings, show just how much writers, and espe
This collection of commissioned essays re-evaluates the role of medieval women as readers, authors, and subjects of books, and the depiction of the relationships between women and books in medieval a
Jean le Maingre, Maréchal Boucicaut (1364-1421), was the very flower of chivalry. From his earliest years at the royal court in Paris, he distinguished himself in knightly pursuits - sorties against s
Jean de Saintre is the intriguing story of a young knight's training, his first love, and his disillusionment. It teems with details of armor, jousting and tournaments, heraldry and crusading—and also
