The Medieval Python

The German mystic Gertrude the Great of Helfta (c.1256–1301) is a globally venerated saint who is still central to the Sacred Heart Devotion. Her visions were first recorded in Latin, and they inspired generations of readers in processes of creative rewriting. The vernacular copies of these redactions challenge the long-standing idea that translations do not bear the same literary or historical weight as the originals upon which they are based. In this study, Racha Kirakosian argues that manuscript transmission reveals how redactors serve as cultural agents. Examining the late medieval vernacular copies of Gertrude's visions, she demonstrates how redactors recast textual materials, reflected changes in piety, and generated new forms of devotional practices. She also shows how these texts served as a bridge between material culture, in the form of textiles and book illumination, and mysticism. Kirakosian's multi-faceted study is an important contribution to current debates on medieval m

Examines the Great Peace (taiping), one of the first utopian visions in Chinese history, and its impact on literati lives in Han China.

In this volume Iurie Stamati analyzes the archaeological discourse on the place of the old Slavs in the medieval history of Moldova of the Soviet period.

Irish inhabitants of the 'four obedient shires' - a term commonly used to describe the region at the heart of the English colony in the later Middle Ages - were significantly anglicised, taking on English names, dress, and even legal status. However, the processes of cultural exchange went both ways. This study examines the nature of interactions between English and Irish neighbours in the four shires, taking into account the complex tensions between assimilation and the preservation of distinct ethnic identities and exploring how the common colonial rhetoric of the Irish as an 'enemy' coexisted with the daily reality of alliance, intermarriage, and accommodation. Placing Ireland in a broad context, Sparky Booker addresses the strategies the colonial community used to deal with the difficulties posed by extensive assimilation, and the lasting changes this made to understandings of what it meant to be 'English' or 'Irish' in the face of such challenges.

The first history of the Biblical heroine Jael (Judges 4), a blessed murderess and fertile moral paradox in medieval and Renaissance art.

John Drawbridge has moved to Widemoat Castle to learn to become a knight. And there is a LOT to learn...How to charge with a lance on horseback without falling off. Why the spiral staircases always go

Compellingly written, Cluny and the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet provides us with an unparalleled opportunity to examine Christian perceptions of Islam in the Crusading era.

Drawing on Dante's two most famous works--The Banquet, and The Divine Comedy, Grzybowski explores the impact that the cosmological picture of the universe and the geocentric model had on the mentality

Of the 18 contributions, one-third are in English, and the others are in German; abstracts in the alternate language are provided for each. The papers are from the 2011 conference held in Spain titled

The rise of literary fiction in medieval Europe has been a hotly debated topic among scholars, but until now that debate has come with severe limitations, focusing on “modern” French and German romanc

This is the first study to examine the rise and fall of a medieval religious group, the Order

Stanford (humanities, classics, and comparative literature; Brigham Young U.) introduces Strasbourg's Archives Municipaux Oeuvre Notre-Dame 1, to a wider scholarly audience and contextualizes it withi

Questions of pain and suffering occur frequently in medieval theological debate. Here, Dr Mowbray examines the innovative views of Paris's masters of theology in the thirteenth century, illuminating

Describes the discovery of the lost works of Archimedes, the great Greek mathematician, as part of a palimpsest from a medieval prayer book created during the thirteenth century, and offers a revealin

Specialists in the history of late antique and Byzantine art and architecture are the contributors to this commemorative volume. Funeral practices, court ceremonial, and architectural use are some of

Presenting a comprehensive survey of the historical underpinnings of baptismal liturgies and theologies, Bryan Spinks presents an ecumenically and geographically wide-ranging survey and discussion of

When Ireland passed into the control of the English crown late in the twelfth century, it acquired an English system of administration in the form of a chief governor, a chancery and an exchequer. Alt

The bishoprics that emerged in the town of Orvieto in Umbria in the 12th century became an important institution for accessing and reforming political and ecclesiastical power.

In his examination of the bishopric of Orvieto from 1100 to 1250, David Foote reveals how three defining developments of the Middle Ages--the feudal revolution, ecclesiastical reform, and state buildi

Bast selects and translates from the German nine essays by Hamm (historical theology, Erlangen U.), who specializes in the intellectual history of late-medieval and Reformation Germany. The topics inc

This volume provides a comprehensive historico-doctrinal analysis of the transformation of the concept of time in the transition from the medieval debate to early modern philosophy. 21 contributions a