The Medieval Python

A must-have book for the millions of fans of the Wheel of Time books and Prime Video streaming series!“Jordan has come to dominate the world Tolkien began to reveal.” ―The New York Times on The Wheel of Time® seriesExplore never-before-seen insights into the Wheel of Time, including:- A brand-new, redrawn world map by Ellisa Mitchell using change requests discovered in Robert Jordan's unpublished notes- An alternate scene from an early draft of The Eye of the World- 8 page, full color photo insertTake a deep dive into the real-world history and mythology that inspired the world of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time®. Origins of The Wheel of Time is written by Michael Livingston, Secretary-General of the United States Commission on Military History and professor of medieval literature at The Citadel, with a Foreword by Harriet McDougal, Robert Jordan's editor, widow, and executor of his estate.This companion to the internationally bestselling series will delve into the creation of Robert

This is a standard work of reference for the study of the religious history of western Christianity in the later middle ages which, since its original publication in French in 1981, has come to be regarded as one of the great contributions to medieval studies of recent times. Hagiographical texts and reports of the processes of canonisation - a mode of investigation into saints' lives and their miracles implemented by the popes from the end of the twelfth century - are here used for the first time as major source materials. The book illuminates the main features of the medieval religious mind, and highlights the popes' attempts to gain firmer control over the wide variety of expressions of faith towards the saints in order to promote a higher pattern of devotion and moral behaviour among Christians.

Constantine's victory in 312 at the battle of the Milvian Bridge established his rule as the first Christian emperor. This book examines the creation and dissemination of the legends about that battle and its significance. Christian histories, panegyrics and an honorific arch at Rome soon commemorated his victory, and the emperor himself contributed to the myth by describing his vision of a cross in the sky before the battle. Through meticulous research into the late Roman narratives and the medieval and Byzantine legends, this book moves beyond a strictly religious perspective by emphasizing the conflicts about the periphery of the Roman empire, the nature of emperorship and the role of Rome as a capital city. Throughout late antiquity and the medieval period, memories of Constantine's victory served as a powerful paradigm for understanding rulership in a Christian society.

Transactions of the Royal Historical Society is an annual collection of major articles representing some of the best historical research by some of the world's most distinguished historians. Volume 22 of the sixth series includes the following articles: 'French Crossings: III. The Smile of the Tiger', 'Orientation in Three Spheres: Medieval Mediterranean Boundary Clauses in Latin, Greek and Arabic', 'Monastic Reform and the Geography of Christendom: Experience, Observation and Influence', 'Negotiating the Medieval in the Modern: European Citizenship and Statecraft', 'People of the Covenant and the English Bible', 'The Moral Geography of British Anti-Slavery Responsibilities' (The Alexander Prize Essay),'The Challenger: Hugh Hamilton Lindsay and the Rise of British Asia, 1832–1865', 'After 1848: The European Revolution in Government', 'Auditory Snapshots from the Edges of Europe'. The volume also carries the Report of Council for 2011–12.

Constantine's victory in 312 at the battle of the Milvian Bridge established his rule as the first Christian emperor. This book examines the creation and dissemination of the legends about that battle and its significance. Christian histories, panegyrics and an honorific arch at Rome soon commemorated his victory, and the emperor himself contributed to the myth by describing his vision of a cross in the sky before the battle. Through meticulous research into the late Roman narratives and the medieval and Byzantine legends, this book moves beyond a strictly religious perspective by emphasizing the conflicts about the periphery of the Roman empire, the nature of emperorship and the role of Rome as a capital city. Throughout late antiquity and the medieval period, memories of Constantine's victory served as a powerful paradigm for understanding rulership in a Christian society.

Distinguishing four sources of power in human societies – ideological, economic, military and political – The Sources of Social Power traces their interrelations throughout human history. In this first volume, Michael Mann examines interrelations between these elements from neolithic times, through ancient Near Eastern civilizations, the classical Mediterranean age and medieval Europe, up to just before the Industrial Revolution in England. It offers explanations of the emergence of the state and social stratification; of city-states, militaristic empires and the persistent interaction between them; of the world salvation religions; and of the particular dynamism of medieval and early modern Europe. It ends by generalizing about the nature of overall social development, the varying forms of social cohesion and the role of classes and class struggle in history. First published in 1986, this new edition of Volume 1 includes a new preface by the author examining the impact and legacy of t

Professor F. W. Maitland was the foremost Victorian scholar on English legal history, and Mary Bateson a Cambridge medieval historian. This 1901 volume was edited for the Corporation of Cambridge and the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. It provides a transcript and translation of the royal charters issued to the borough of Cambridge between the twelfth and the seventeenth centuries. Maitland lays stress on the considerable independence the medieval borough had. It was largely self-governing, royal charters bestowing or confirming liberties rather than regulating the town governance or providing a constitution. However, there were some limitations, chiefly relating to justice, for which royal permission was needed. It was not until the late seventeenth century that royal authority began to tighten its control of borough affairs. The introduction explains the conventions of such charters, and how the reader should interpret the information contained therein. A valuable source of local hist

Did the laity have a part in the Carolingian Renaissance? If so, how were lay elites, and through them the laity at large affected? This fascinating and wide-ranging volume examines these questions through a study of lay involvement in literary and artistic activity in early medieval Europe. Leading historians explore a diverse range of Latin and vernacular texts written by secular authors and use richly drawn case studies to illuminate such key issues as the extent of lay literacy, the contexts in which learned laity could flourish, the transformative impact of the Carolingian Renaissance, and the interaction of 'lay' and 'clerical' values on both sides of the Channel. This volume demonstrates that the learned laity, both women as well as men, contributed much more as writers and patrons to early medieval culture than was previously thought and it will be essential reading for scholars of Carolingian and Anglo-Saxon history.

Magic on the Early English Stage investigates the performance of magical tricks, illusions, effects and their staged appearance in the medieval and early English theatre. Performers who created such magic were not known as conjurors, as we might refer to them today, but as jugglers. Records concerning jugglers on the medieval stage have been hitherto misunderstood or misapplied. These references to jugglers are re-examined in the light of discussions of 'feats of activity' that also include tumbling, vaulting and 'dancing on the rope'; appearances and disappearances of the 'Now you see it, now you don't' variety; and stage versions of these concepts; magic through sound in terms of ventriloquy and sound through pipes; mechanical images and puppets; and stage tricks. Information that has remained dormant since original publication is discussed in relation to jugglers such as Thomas Brandon, the King's Juggler, and William Vincent, alias 'Hocus Pocus'.

Did the laity have a part in the Carolingian Renaissance? If so, how were lay elites, and through them the laity at large affected? This fascinating and wide-ranging volume examines these questions through a study of lay involvement in literary and artistic activity in early medieval Europe. Leading historians explore a diverse range of Latin and vernacular texts written by secular authors and use richly drawn case studies to illuminate such key issues as the extent of lay literacy, the contexts in which learned laity could flourish, the transformative impact of the Carolingian Renaissance, and the interaction of 'lay' and 'clerical' values on both sides of the Channel. This volume demonstrates that the learned laity, both women as well as men, contributed much more as writers and patrons to early medieval culture than was previously thought and it will be essential reading for scholars of Carolingian and Anglo-Saxon history.

Magic on the Early English Stage investigates the performance of magical tricks, illusions, effects and their staged appearance in the medieval and early English theatre. Performers who created such magic were not known as conjurors, as we might refer to them today, but as jugglers. Records concerning jugglers on the medieval stage have been hitherto misunderstood or misapplied. These references to jugglers are re-examined in the light of discussions of 'feats of activity' that also include tumbling, vaulting and 'dancing on the rope'; appearances and disappearances of the 'Now you see it, now you don't' variety; and stage versions of these concepts; magic through sound in terms of ventriloquy and sound through pipes; mechanical images and puppets; and stage tricks. Information that has remained dormant since original publication is discussed in relation to jugglers such as Thomas Brandon, the King's Juggler, and William Vincent, alias 'Hocus Pocus'.

This is the first-ever history of the literary theory and criticism produced during the Middle Ages that covers all the main traditions in Latin, the major European vernaculars and Byzantine Greek. Starting with the study of grammar and the formal 'arts' of poetry, letter-writing and preaching, it proceeds to offer a full description of the Latin commentary tradition on classical and classicising literature, followed by explanations of medieval views on literary imagination and memory and the ways in which certain texts were believed to achieve moral profit through pleasure. Subsequent essays explore the diverse theoretical and critical traditions which developed in the vernacular languages, ranging from Medieval Irish to Old Norse, Occitan to Middle High German, concentrating particularly on Dante and his commentators and Italian humanist criticism. The volume concludes with an examination of the attitudes to literature and its uses in Greek Byzantium.

This concise introduction to the history of physical science in the Middle Ages begins with a description of the feeble state of early medieval science and its revitalization during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as evidenced by the explosion of knowledge represented by extensive translations of Greek and Arabic treatises. The content and concepts that came to govern science from the late twelfth century onwards were powerfully shaped and dominated by the science and philosophy of Aristotle. It is, therefore, by focussing attention on problems and controversies associated with Aristotelian science that the reader is introduced to the significant scientific developments and interpretations formulated in the later Middle Ages. The concluding chapter presents a new interpretation of the medieval failure to abandon the physics and cosmology of Aristotle and explains why, despite serious criticisms, they were not generally repudiated during this period. As detailed critical bibliogra

Medieval slavery has received little attention relative to slavery in ancient Greece and Rome and in the early modern Atlantic world. This imbalance in the scholarship has led many to assume that slavery was of minor importance in the Middle Ages. In fact, the practice of slavery continued unabated across the globe throughout the medieval millennium. This volume – the final volume in The Cambridge World History of Slavery – covers the period between the fall of Rome and the rise of the transatlantic plantation complexes by assembling twenty-three original essays, written by scholars acknowledged as leaders in their respective fields. The volume demonstrates the continual and central presence of slavery in societies worldwide between 500 CE and 1420 CE. The essays analyze key concepts in the history of slavery, including gender, trade, empire, state formation and diplomacy, labor, childhood, social status and mobility, cultural attitudes, spectrums of dependency and coercion, and life

This re-issue of F. W. Maitland's translation of a vital section from Otto Gierke's monumental Das Deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht makes available once again one of the seminal texts in the historiography of political thought. Famed, inter alia, for the elegance and lucidity of Maitland's own expository introduction, Political Theories of the Middle Age is concerned in essence with the medieval development of the doctrine of State and Corporation - a concept which, as Maitland indicates, has been prone to misunderstanding by English minds versed in the tradition of the common law. Gierke identifies the peculiar characteristic of medieval political thought as its vision of the universe as one articulated whole, and every being, whether a joint-being (community) or a single-being - as both a part and a whole: his text examines the potentially revolutionary effect upon this of certain crucial intellectual intrusions, derived in part from Roman Law, described by Gierke as 'ancient-modern'.

"Herbals" - collections describing plants used for medicinal purposes - were among the ancient and medieval world's most valued scientific texts, synthesizing a vast treasury of medical learning to fa

This fourth volume of essays under the title The Shaping of English Poetry consolidates the work of the previous three volumes on the great subjects of English literature in the Medieval and Renaissan

This is the first detailed study of the career of one of the most important medieval archbishops of Canterbury. Robert Winchelsey sought to defend ecclesiastical rights and liberties at a time when the English Church was under constant pressure from the king and his government, and he suffered suspension from office as a result of his opposition to Edward I. The theme of the book is the relationship of this learned and saintly archbishop with the Crown during the last troubled years of Edward I's reign and the first equally troubled years of Edward II's reign.

An alternative agenda for the philosophy of religion emerges from this interdisciplinary collection. Going outside the traditional concerns of natural theology, the distinguished contributors to this volume explore such topics as the nature of selfhood and its images in the ancient, the medieval and the modern world; the role of philosophy as a route to wisdom; non-conceptual awareness; and the nature of love and its relation to attention. Discussion focuses on the figures of Plato and Augustine, William James and the Absolute Idealist F. H. Bradley, Kierkegaard and Heidegger, as well as leading figures of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

M. R. James (1862-1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and many of his stories reflect his academic background. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still of value to scholars today. James's catalogue of the extensive manuscript holdings of Trinity College was first published in four volumes between 1900 and 1904, the final volume consisting of plates and an index. Now reissued, it will be welcomed by librarians and researchers alike.

M. R. James (1862–1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and many of his stories reflect his academic background. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still of value to scholars today. James' catalogue of the extensive manuscript holdings of Trinity College was first published in four volumes between 1900 and 1904, the final volume consisting of plates and an index. Now reissued, it will be welcomed by librarians and researchers alike.

M. R. James (1862–1936) is probably best remembered as a writer of chilling ghost stories, but he was an outstanding scholar of medieval literature and palaeography, who served both as Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and many of his stories reflect his academic background. His detailed descriptive catalogues of manuscripts owned by colleges, cathedrals and museums are still of value to scholars today. James' catalogue of the extensive manuscript holdings of Trinity College was first published in four volumes between 1900 and 1904, the final volume consisting of plates and an index. Now reissued, it will be welcomed by librarians and researchers alike.

The Cambridge Companion to Lesbian Literature examines literary representations of lesbian sexuality, identities, and communities, from the medieval period to the present. In addition to providing a helpful orientation to key literary-historical periods, critical concepts, theoretical debates and literary genres, this Companion considers the work of such well-known authors as Virginia Woolf, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Alison Bechdel and Sarah Waters. Written by a host of leading critics and covering subjects as diverse as lesbian desire in the long eighteenth century and same-sex love in a postcolonial context, this Companion delivers insight into the variety of traditions that have shaped the present landscape of lesbian literature.

The Cambridge Companion to Lesbian Literature examines literary representations of lesbian sexuality, identities, and communities, from the medieval period to the present. In addition to providing a helpful orientation to key literary-historical periods, critical concepts, theoretical debates and literary genres, this Companion considers the work of such well-known authors as Virginia Woolf, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Alison Bechdel and Sarah Waters. Written by a host of leading critics and covering subjects as diverse as lesbian desire in the long eighteenth century and same-sex love in a postcolonial context, this Companion delivers insight into the variety of traditions that have shaped the present landscape of lesbian literature.

This ambitious book treats urbanisation and urbanism all over the world, and from the earliest times to the present. Aidan Southall, a pioneer in the study of African cities, discusses the urban centres of ancient Sumeria, Greece and Rome, as well as medieval European cities, Chinese, Japanese, Islamic and Indic cities, colonial cities, and the great metropolises of the twentieth century. Drawing on this historical and comparative perspective, he offers a fresh analysis of world urbanisation in the contemporary period of globalisation. The study emphasises the enduring paradox of the city, which juxtaposes splendid cultural productions with the poverty and deprivation of the majority.

The domestic unit is inseparable from its homestead, and the 'house', at once a physical place and a social unit, is often also a unit of production and consumption, a cult group, and even a political faction. Inspired by Lévi-Strauss's suggestion that the multi-functional noble houses of medieval Europe were simply the best-known examples of a widespread social institution, the contributors to this collection analyse 'house' systems in Southeast Asia and South America, exploring the interrelationships between buildings, people, and ideas. They reveal some of the ways in which houses can stand for social groups and serve as images of process and order.

The Rise and Decline of an Iberian Bourgeoisie is one of the first long-term studies in English of an Iberian town during the late medieval crisis. Focusing on the Catalonian city of Manresa, Jeff Fynn-Paul expertly integrates Iberian historiography with European narratives to place the city's social, political and economic development within the broader context of late medieval urban decline. Drawing from extensive archival research, including legal and administrative records, royal letters, and a cadastral survey of more than 640 households entitled the 1408 Liber Manifesti, the author surveys the economic strategies of both elites and non-elites to a level previously unknown for any medieval town outside of Tuscany and Ghent. In a major contribution to the series, The Rise and Decline of an Iberian Bourgeoisie reveals how a combination of the Black Death, royal policy, and a new public debt system challenged, and finally undermined urban resilience in Catalonia.

This collection of essays analyzes film representations of the Crusades, other medieval East/West encounters, and the modern inheritance of encounters between orientalist fantasy and apocalyptic cons

A revealing glimpse into the tumultuous history of England’s medieval period, full of knights in shining armor and terrible peasant suffering.Covering the violent and disease-ridden period between 127

Challenging three narrative traditions of Reformation history, Volkmar inquires into the role of the princes in the Reformation; looks for the (apparently lost) link between late medieval church r

Sufi Aesthetics argues that the interpretive keys to erotic Sufi poems and their medieval commentaries lie in understanding a unique perceptual experience. Using careful analysis of primary texts, Cyr

In this collection of primary resources, many translated for the first time, Robinson (medieval history, Trinity College, Dublin) gives readers a chance to experience the earliest biographies of popes

The Domesday Book has long been used as a source of information about legal and economic matters, but its bearing upon the geography of medieval England has been comparatively neglected. The extraction of geographical information involves problems of interpretation, since it necessitates an analysis into elements and their subsequent reconstruction on a geographical basis. But this process makes available new materials for forming a general picture of the relative prosperity of different areas, as well as for data for the comparative study of varying geographic and economic factors. This volume on the northern counties of England contains chapters on Yorkshire by I. S. Maxwell, Nottinghamshire, Cheshire, and Lancashire by I. B. Terrett, Derbyshire by Dr Holly and the Northern Counties by H. C. Darby.

Life in the Middle Ages will appeal to readers who want to get behind the generalizations of historians by reference to the raw material. This collection of documents covers a wide field. The topics range form clergy and laity, saints and sinners, to love, battles, pageants and some details of everyday life. The extracts are drawn from documentary material in six languages and the majority were translated for this collection; they represent thirty years' study among all kinds of medieval writings and have been chosen as specially representative of the period. The full collection is now published in two parts. The first encompasses 'Religion, Folklore and Superstition', and 'Chronicles, Science and Art', and the second, 'Men and Manners', and 'Monks, Friars and Nuns'.

A series of studies on patristic, medieval, and Reformation-era sermons. The series comprises monographs and miscellanies, such as papers from focused conferences within the field. Editions of short t

Participants in the extensive project, undertaken in advance of redevelopment, explain their findings in the southwest quadrant of the Roman and medieval town of Bath. Their coverage also extends back

Essays by Hungarian scholars specializing in Ottoman and Habsburg-Hungarian history of the 15th-17th centuries consider border defense systems established on the territory of Medieval Hungary in the 1

Medieval Douai was one of the wealthiest cloth towns of Flanders, and it left an enormous archive documenting the personal financial affairs of its citizens--wills, marriage agreements, business contr

In this study of poetry written in languages other than the poet's native tongue Professor Forster begins with a general survey of multilingualism and its effects on literature. This is followed by a survey of medieval examples, with the main emphasis on Latin as lingua franca and language of scholarship. In the nineteenth century the concept of language as a function of nationality arose and 'language-loyalty' came to play an important part. With Dadaism and Surrealism language once again became simply material with which the poet worked and in principle any language was as good as another. Professor Forster examines with particular attention works by Milton, Stefan George, Rilke, T. S. Eliot and James Joyce. His discussion leads to more general questions of the relationship between the poet and his medium.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Jacob Grimm published a collection of late medieval records of local law—called Weistumer—that was scarcely less comprehensive than his famous collection of fairy tales.