The Medieval Python

Horrendous news from the Middle East fills our newspapers and screens every day. How can we begin to understand what drives people to treat each other as they do? “Medieval” is a word often used. Well

"If there is anyone who has emerged from the crowded field of medieval mysteries to take the place of the late Ellis Peters, it is Peter Tremayne." --Denver Post on Master of SoulsIreland AD 670: When

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were a time of great upheaval for medieval France. In 1328 the Capetian line came to an end. This was the trigger for the Hundred Years War (1337-1453)?as succes

The second of three core rulebooks for the 4th Edition Dungeons & DragonsR Roleplaying Game.The Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game has defined the medieval fantasy genre and the tabletop RPG

The work of the twelfth-century Shi’ite scholar al-Tabrisi, Majma’ al-bayan, is one of the most important works of medieval commentary on the Qur’an, and is still in use today. This work is an in-dept

The work of the twelfth-century Shi’ite scholar al-Tabrisi, Majma’ al-bayan, is one of the most important works of medieval commentary on the Qur’an, and is still in use today. This work is an in-dept

Birgitta of Sweden (1302/3–1373) was a mother, visionary, counsellor to a king, inventor of her own rule, saint, and one of the best known medieval women in history. As a wife and a mother of eight ch

This is the tale of Paulo, the story of a young wood merchant in the grim medieval Domain and a burning quest, to reach the magnificent Golden City he is sure exists but that no one ever dares mention

All three 4th Edition core rulebooks in one handsome slipcase.The Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game has defined the medieval fantasy genre and the tabletop RPG industry for more than 30 years. I

This book investigates the central role of reason in Islamic intellectual life. Despite widespread characterization of Islam as a system of belief based only on revelation, John Walbridge argues that rational methods, not fundamentalism, have characterized Islamic law, philosophy and education since the medieval period. His research demonstrates that this medieval Islamic rational tradition was opposed by both modernists and fundamentalists, resulting in a general collapse of traditional Islamic intellectual life and its replacement by more modern but far shallower forms of thought. However, the resources of this Islamic scholarly tradition remain an integral part of the Islamic intellectual tradition and will prove vital to its revival. The future of Islam, Walbridge argues, will be marked by a return to rationalism.

Throughout much of their modern history Britons turned to the past for evidence in current controversies. Within this tradition of historical self-justification the Middle Ages had a special place: the early forms of the law and the constitution belong to the medieval centuries while the continuous history of the English Church began in the Saxon age. In this dialogue between present and past new political realities, fresh sensibilities and developing scholarship ensured that the interpretation of the Middle Ages did not for long remain unaltered. This book examines the use of medieval precedent in political and ecclesiastical debate between one such great change, the Revolution of 1688, and the mid-nineteenth-century reforms that ultimately made the tradition of historical apologetic obsolete.

How did medieval people define themselves? And how did they balance their identities as individuals with the demands of their communities? Lives, Identities and Histories in the Central Middle Ages intertwines the study of identities with current scholarship to reveal their multi-layered, sometimes contradictory dimensions. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from legal texts to hagiographies and biblical exegesis, and diverse cultural and social approaches, this volume enriches our understanding of medieval people's identities - as defined by themselves and by others, as individuals and as members of groups and communities. It adopts a complex and wide-ranging understanding of what constituted 'identities' beyond family and regional or national belonging, such as social status, gender, age, literacy levels, and displacement. New figures and new concepts of 'identities' thus emerge from the dialogue between the chapters, through an approach based on life-histories, lived experience, et

The thousand years explored in this book witnessed developments in the history of Ireland that resonate to this day. Interspersing narrative with detailed analysis of key themes, the first volume in the Cambridge History of Ireland presents the latest thinking on key aspects of the medieval Irish experience. The contributors are leading experts in their fields, and present their original interpretations in a fresh and accessible manner. New perspectives are offered on the politics, artistic culture, religious beliefs and practices, social organisation and economic activity that prevailed on the island in these centuries. At each turn the question is asked: to what extent were these developments unique to Ireland? The openness of Ireland to outside influences, and its capacity to influence the world beyond its shores, are recurring themes. Underpinning the book is a comparative, outward-looking approach that sees Ireland as an integral but exceptional component of medieval Christian Eur

This broad-ranging study explores the nature of national sentiment in fourteenth-century England and sets it in its political and constitutional context for the first time. Andrea Ruddick reveals that despite the problematic relationship between nationality and subjecthood in the king of England's domains, a sense of English identity was deeply embedded in the mindset of a significant section of political society. Using previously neglected official records as well as familiar literary sources, the book reassesses the role of the English language in fourteenth-century national sentiment and questions the traditional reliance on the English vernacular as an index of national feeling. Positioning national identity as central to our understanding of late medieval society, culture, religion and politics, the book represents a significant contribution not only to the political history of late medieval England, but also to the growing debate on the nature and origins of states, nations and n

This broad-ranging study explores the nature of national sentiment in fourteenth-century England and sets it in its political and constitutional context for the first time. Andrea Ruddick reveals that despite the problematic relationship between nationality and subjecthood in the king of England's domains, a sense of English identity was deeply embedded in the mindset of a significant section of political society. Using previously neglected official records as well as familiar literary sources, the book reassesses the role of the English language in fourteenth-century national sentiment and questions the traditional reliance on the English vernacular as an index of national feeling. Positioning national identity as central to our understanding of late medieval society, culture, religion and politics, the book represents a significant contribution not only to the political history of late medieval England, but also to the growing debate on the nature and origins of states, nations and n

Catharine Burton (1688–1714) was an English Carmelite nun who in 1697 was inspired to write her autobiography following visions of her patron saint, St. Francis Xavier. During a severe illness in her teenage years which left her near death, Burton underwent a spiritual conversion and resolved to enter a religious order should she survive. After her recovery, Burton entered the English Carmelite convent in Antwerp in 1693. She was elected Superior of the convent in 1700. This volume, first published in 1876, contains her autobiography as arranged by her confessor, Father Thomas Hunter (1666–1725). Burton describes her childhood and spiritual struggles in fascinating detail, and provides a vivid account of her daily life, bodily sufferings and religious practices as a nun. This volume combines elements from medieval accounts of female religious experiences with early modern philosophical ideas, providing valuable information concerning changes in the representation of female spirituality

The Fall of a Carolingian Kingdom investigates how the first royal divorce scandal led to the collapse of a kingdom, changing the fate of medieval Europe. Through a set of annotated translations of key contemporary sources, the book presents the downfall of the Frankish middle kingdom Lotharingia as a case study in early medieval politics, equipping readers to develop their own independent interpretations. The book tracks the twists and turns of the scandal as it unfolded over a crucial decade and a half in the ninth century. It pinpoints key decisions and traces their consequences, placing them in the wider context of Carolingian politics, as the heirs of the Frankish emperors Charlemagne and Louis the Pious struggled to master their legacies. Drawing on primary sources such as letters, material culture, and secret treaties, The Fall of a Carolingian Kingdom offers readers a sharply defined window onto one of the most dramatic episodes in Carolingian history, rich with insights into t

User-friendly instructions from an expert on recreating the 4 major medieval styles — early medieval Roman rustic, early Uncial, Carolingian, and late medieval Gothic textura —come

Jewish medieval philosophy has formed the subject of much research over the past thirty years since the appearance of Gutmann's Philosophies of Judaism, resulting in greater understanding and a new need for summation. This important work, now available in paperback, aims to supply that need, and devotes ample discussion to the major figures of the period like Saadiah Gaon, Maimonides, Abraham Ibn Ezra and Judah Halevi. It also gives much attention to the discussion and presentation of texts by lesser known authors clustering around the greater men and movements.

In his own personal weight-loss struggle, David Zulberg turned to the forgotten wisdom of Maimonides, a medieval Jewish expert on philosophical subjects, to find consensus on ideal nutrition and optim

Examining how three medieval Sufi Qur’an commentators explained the story of Moses’ journey with al-Khidr, this volume conveys various teachings about the path of Sufism and the nature of spiritual au

This catalogue of Italian maiolica and incised slipware in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, gives detailed information on over 500 objects in the collection, which was formed between 1904 and 1991. It includes medieval, Renaissance and later maiolica. The history of the collection is fully described by Julia Poole; the catalogue which follows is divided into separate sections according to period and religion, with each object illustrated in black and white next to its catalogue entry for ease of reference, and an additional section for colour plates. This catalogue will prove an indispensable work of reference for scholars and students of the applied arts.

A specialist in medieval heraldry, Pastoureau (history of western symbols, Ecole Pratique des Hautes +tudes, Sorbonne) began noticing a long time ago that in medieval documents, figures wearing stripe

Randall Collins traces the movement of philosophical thought in ancient Greece, China, Japan, India, the medieval Islamic and Jewish world, medieval Christendom, and modern Europe. What emerges from t

First published in 1936, this book contains an edition of the oldest extant manuscript in the series of records entitled Acts of Court of the Mercers' Company. The manuscript was compiled about the end of the first quarter of the sixteenth century and details the minutes of the meetings of the Mercers' Company as well as those of the Merchant Adventurers for the period 1453 to 1527. Although the early history of many medieval institutions and guilds remains uncertain, this volume importantly throws light on the affairs of the Mercers and the Merchant Adventurers over a period of great importance in the development of both bodies.

The Transactions of the Royal Historical Society publish an annual collection of major articles representing some of the best historical research by some of the world's most distinguished historians. The volume includes the following articles: Presidential Address: Britain and Globalisation since 1850: II. The Rise of Insular Capitalism, 1914–1939, King Henry I and Northern England, Aristocratic Widows and the Medieval Welsh Frontier: The Shropshire Evidence, The Burden and Conscience of Government in the Fifteenth Century, 'Representing' Africa: Ambassadors and Princes from Christian Africa to Renaissance Italy and Portugal, 1402–1608, How Scientific Conversation Became Shop Talk and Théodore Vacquer and the Archaeology of Modernity in Haussmann's Paris.

This book represents an attempt to depict the late Roman and Byzantine monetary economy in its fullest possible social, economic and administrative context, with the aim of establishing the basic dynamics behind the production of the coinage, the major mechanisms affecting its distribution, and the general characteristics of its behaviour once in circulation. The book consists of four main sections, on economy and society, on finance, and on the circulation and production of coinage, and has made an unrivalled contribution in the field of late classical, Byzantine and medieval economic history. The text is fully supported by the extensive quotation of translated sources, and by maps, tables and plates.

A number of significant sites and areas of past human activity and inhabitation from the Iron Age, the Romano-British period, the medieval and early post-medieval periods have been recorded. The resul

Clocks became common in late medieval Europe and the measurement of time began to rule everyday life. God's Clockmaker is a biography of England's greatest medieval scientist, a man who solved major p

These ten papers, based on the conviction that texts and ideas moved in medieval societies from one author, era or context to another, transforming with each move, give case studies on how medieval cu

Religious freedom has become an emblematic value in the West. Embedded in constitutions and championed by politicians and thinkers across the political spectrum, it is to many an absolute value, something beyond question. Yet how it emerged, and why, remains widely misunderstood. Tracing the history of religious persecution from the Fall of Rome to the present-day, Noel D. Johnson and Mark Koyama provide a novel explanation of the birth of religious liberty. This book treats the subject in an integrative way by combining economic reasoning with historical evidence from medieval and early modern Europe. The authors elucidate the economic and political incentives that shaped the actions of political leaders during periods of state building and economic growth.

Religious freedom has become an emblematic value in the West. Embedded in constitutions and championed by politicians and thinkers across the political spectrum, it is to many an absolute value, something beyond question. Yet how it emerged, and why, remains widely misunderstood. Tracing the history of religious persecution from the Fall of Rome to the present-day, Noel D. Johnson and Mark Koyama provide a novel explanation of the birth of religious liberty. This book treats the subject in an integrative way by combining economic reasoning with historical evidence from medieval and early modern Europe. The authors elucidate the economic and political incentives that shaped the actions of political leaders during periods of state building and economic growth.

Ceremonies of Innocence, originally published in 1989, was the most comprehensive study of pastoralism in Edmund Spenser's poetry undertaken. The book traces the evolution of Spenser's own role as a poet in Elizabethan courtly society through an examination of his use and definition of pastoral. Rather than concentrating exclusively on his works in pastoral genres, it includes pastoral themes, motifs, and patterns in all of the works against the background of ideas about the contemplative life, medieval allegorical readings of Virgil, and the pastoral as an established courtly mode. It specific thesis is that Spenser gradually evolves a 'pastoral of contemplation' as against the sychophantic 'pastoral of power' identified by some Spenser and Renaissance scholars.

Latin paleography of the classical period and beyond the Carolingian era has been well studied and described. But from about 1100 onwards we find a period of increasing national divergence in the character of book-hands used for writing, formal MSS. In this book Professor Thomson provides 132 characteristic specimens of the period 1100–1500, reproduced by lithography (in all cases in the original size). He excludes curial or chancery hands. Opposite each plate is a transcription of several lines. Above this, Professor Thomson provides comments on the distinguishing characteristics of the script. Cumulatively, the effect of these analyses is to provide a method of dating late medieval MSS and ascribing them to their country of origin.

This volume of essays honours Henry Chadwick, probably the greatest and best-known of English scholars of early Christianity. The essays, written by many of the leading theologians and church historians in the English-speaking world, discuss different aspects of how Christianity developed norms and standards in its teaching, how it came to have - and to enforce - a definition of orthodoxy and heresy. It is a collection of fundamental work by internationally recognised experts. It covers issues of orthodoxy from the first right up to the sixth century, and its wide-ranging surveys of centrally important material in early Christianity will find broad appeal among scholars and students of Old and New Testaments, medieval history and patristics.

Molecular simulation is a powerful tool in materials science, physics, chemistry and biomolecular fields. This updated edition provides a pragmatic introduction to a wide range of techniques for the simulation of molecular systems at the atomic level. The first part concentrates on methods for calculating the potential energy of a molecular system, with new chapters on quantum chemical, molecular mechanical and hybrid potential techniques. The second part describes methods examining conformational, dynamical and thermodynamical properties of systems, covering techniques including geometry-optimization, normal-mode analysis, molecular dynamics, and Monte Carlo simulation. Using Python, the second edition includes numerous examples and program modules for each simulation technique, allowing the reader to perform the calculations and appreciate the inherent difficulties involved in each. This is a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students wanting to know how to use atomic-sc

This is the first detailed scholarly history of libraries in Britain and Ireland, first published in 2006. It aims to provide a panorama of the great variety of libraries since the medieval period, setting them in their social and cultural contexts and interpreting their role as it has changed over time. Libraries of all kinds are included, from monastic libraries and other manuscript collections to the modern world of electronic information. Special attention is given to the purposes of libraries - in education, for professional use, for religious purposes and of course for leisure and general reading. Large libraries and small are covered, with examples from all over the British Isles of how needs have been met. Each volume includes an extensive bibliography of sources and secondary works.

Mark Miller's innovative study argues that Chaucer's Canterbury Tales represent an extended mediation on agency, autonomy and practical reason. This philosophical aspect of Chaucer's interests can help us understand what is both sophisticated and disturbing about his explorations of love, sex and gender. Partly through fresh readings of the Consolation of Philosophy and the Romance of the Rose, Miller charts Chaucer's position in relation to the association in the Christian West between problems of autonomy and problems of sexuality and reconstructs how medieval philosophers and literary writers approached psychological phenomena often thought of as distinctively modern. The literary experiments of the Canterbury Tales represent a distinctive philosophical achievement that remains vital to our own attempts to understand agency, desire and their histories.

This is the first detailed scholarly history of libraries in Britain and Ireland, first published in 2006. It aims to provide a panorama of the great variety of libraries since the medieval period, setting them in their social and cultural contexts and interpreting their role as it has changed over time. Libraries of all kinds are included, from monastic libraries and other manuscript collections to the modern world of electronic information. Special attention is given to the purposes of libraries - in education, for professional use, for religious purposes and of course for leisure and general reading. Large libraries and small are covered, with examples from all over the British Isles of how needs have been met. Each volume includes an extensive bibliography of sources and secondary works.

Charles Taliaferro has written a dynamic narrative history of philosophical reflection on religion from the seventeenth century to the present, with an emphasis on shifting views of faith and the nature of evidence. The book begins with the movement called Cambridge Platonism, which formed a bridge between the ancient and medieval worlds and early modern philosophy. While the book provides a general overview of different movements in philosophy, it also offers a detailed exposition and reflection on key arguments. The scope is broad, from Descartes to contemporary feminist philosophy of religion. Written with clarity and verve, this is a book that will appeal to professionals and students in the philosophy of religion, religious studies, and the history of ideas, as well as informed lay readers.