The Medieval Python

Specialist in medieval and early modern astronomy Chabas (emeritus, U. Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) and specialist in ancient and medieval astronomy Goldstein (emeritus, U. of Pittsburgh) classify and ill

The role of monastic institutions in society during the Central Middle Ages has been much debated in medieval studies. Some scholars saw monasticism as the principal motivator of economic, social, int

The variety of experience available to medieval scholars and the vitality of medieval thought are both reflected in this collection of original essays by distinguished historians. Intellectual Life in

It has been estimated that over 90% of England's figurative medieval art was obliterated in the image destruction of the Reformation. Medieval angel roofs, timber structures with spectacular and ornat

Highlighting the rich political heritage of late medieval and early modern Scotland, this volume is a scholarly biography of the two kings who established medieval Scotland’s most famous and durable r

In this book, Curtis Gruenler proposes that the concept of the enigmatic, latent in a wide range of medieval thinking about literature, can help us better understand in medieval terms much of the era’

This is the a major study of the cultural work performed by grammatica, the central discipline concerned with literacy, language, interpretation and literature in medieval society. Grammatica was, with all aspects of Latin literary text, its language, meaning and value. Martin Irvine demonstrates that grammatica, though the first of the liberal arts, was not simply one discipline among many: it had an essentially constitutive function, defining language, meaning and texts for other medieval disciplines. Martin Irvine draws together several aspects of medieval culture - literary theory, the nature of literacy, education, biblical interpretation, the literary canon and linguistic thought - in order to disclose the more far-reaching social effect of grammatica, chief of which was the making of textual culture in the medieval West.

Dr Hackett discovered in the Angelica Library in Rome a manuscript containing a unique text of the first constitution of Cambridge University. The centrepiece of this book is a critical edition of the text with an English translation on facing pages. The importance of his discovery for historians of Cambridge and of medieval university education cannot be overestimated. The Cambridge constitutions form a complete code, promulgated at a remarkably early date (c. 1250). Dr Hackett shows that Oxford lagged more than 50 years behind Cambridge in codifying its statutes and neither Paris nor Bologna, the oldest of all universities, had a written constitution or code of laws at this time.

It is important for historians studying West Africa before the sixteenth century, particularly social and economic historians, to know what the basic foods were before the arrival of crops from the Americas such as maize, cassava, ground nuts, red peppers and tomatoes. Medieval Arabic historians and geographers recorded a great deal of information about social and economic life in Africa during the period and this is a full-scale attempt to make use of the material related to foodstuffs and the preparation of the food. The references collected from the Arabic texts are interpreted in the light of the work of modern ethnographers and the descriptions given by travellers in more recent times.

The Paston letters have long exercised a tremendous fascination for their capacity to recreate in vivid detail the lives of an ordinary well-to-do fifteenth-century family. H. S. Bennett's classic study recreates beautifully their historical context and offers the additional perspectives provided by the letters of their correspondents: bishops and serving men, prisoners and dukes, priests and ribald companions. Among the intriguing areas of late medieval life which are explored are marriage, women's lives, education, travelling, the law and lawlessness, the clergy and the changing face of the English countryside. This account of the Pastons' England reveals an age of historical transition as it was played out in the daily challenges of individual lives.

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. First published in 1899, this book provides a description and brief history of the stained-glass windows in King's College chapel, together with explanations of their symbolism. A description of the remains of painted glass in the side chapels is also included. Now reissued, it will be welcomed by librarians and researchers alike.

The Journey of Life is both a cultural history of aging and a contribution to public dialogue about the meaning and significance of later life. The core of the book shows how central texts and images of Northern middle-class culture, first in Europe and then in America, created and sustained specifically modern images of the life course between the Reformation and World War I. During this long period, secular, scientific and individualist tendencies steadily eroded ancient and medieval understandings of aging as a mysterious part of the eternal order of things. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, however, postmodern images of life's journey offer a renewed awareness of the spiritual dimensions of later life and new opportunities for growth in an aging society.

Friedmann's study sheds light on medieval attitudes to religious tolerance.

In the late fourth century, in the absence of formal church councils, bishops from all over the Western Empire wrote to the Pope asking for advice on issues including celibacy, marriage law, penance and heresy, with papal responses to these questions often being incorportated into private collections of canon law. Most papal documents were therefore responses to questions from bishops, and not initiated from Rome. Bringing together these key texts, this volume of accessible translations and critical transcriptions of papal letters is arranged thematically to offer a new understanding of attitudes towards these fundamental issues within canon law. Papal Jurisprudence, c.400 reveals what bishops were asking, and why the replies mattered. It is offered as a companion to the forthcoming volume Papal Jurisprudence: Social Origins and Medieval Reception of Canon Law, 385–1234.

The architectural facade addresses and enhances the space of the city, while displaying, or dissembling, interior arrangements. In this book, Charles Burroughs tracks the emergence of the facade in late medieval Florence and then follows the sharply diverging reactions of Renaissance architects to new demands and possibilities for representation in both residential and governmental contexts. Understanding the facade as an assemblage of elements of diverse character and origin, Burroughs explores the wide range of formal solutions available to architects and patrons. In the absence of explicit reflection on the facade in Renaissance architectural discourse, Burroughs notes the theoretical implications of certain celebrated designs, implying mediation on the nature of architecture itself and the society it serves and represents, as well as on the relationship between nature and culture.

Chrétien de Troyes was one of the most important medieval writers of Arthurian narrative. A key figure in reshaping the 'once and future fictions' of Arthurian story, he was instrumental in the late twelfth-century shift from written and oral legendary traditions to a highly sophisticated literary cultivation of the Old French verse romance. While examining individually each of Chretien's five Arthurian romances, Donald Maddox looks at their coherence as a group, suggesting that their intertextual relations lend a harmony of meaning and design to the ensemble as a whole. Central to his argument is the focus on customs, which provide unity within as well as among the works while conveying an acute sense of the vulnerability and dissolution of feudal institutions in an age of social crisis and transition.

The architectural facade addresses and enhances the space of the city, while displaying, or dissembling, interior arrangements. In this book, Charles Burroughs tracks the emergence of the facade in late medieval Florence and then follows the sharply diverging reactions of Renaissance architects to new demands and possibilities for representation in both residential and governmental contexts. Understanding the facade as an assemblage of elements of diverse character and origin, Burroughs explores the wide range of formal solutions available to architects and patrons. In the absence of explicit reflection on the facade in Renaissance architectural discourse, Burroughs notes the theoretical implications of certain celebrated designs, implying mediation on the nature of architecture itself and the society it serves and represents, as well as on the relationship between nature and culture.

Presents a study of the transition from the Classical world to Medieval Europe.

Examines Maimonides' political thought in light of his medieval Aristotelian and Jewish sources.

This volume explores a world that thought deeply about imperial power and emperors but one that perhaps never had an “empire” of its own. These synthetic essays from experts across a wide variety of disciplines mine the intellectual world of this period and begin to demolish the myth of the so-called “Dark Ages,” showing how the European Middle Ages were illuminated by vigorous debates that echo today. The story of medieval Western empires is both familiar and foreign. It is a story about politics, culture, religion, society, gender, sex, and economics, and how porous the boundaries between those categories can often be. A Cultural History of Western Empires in the Middle Ages offers a detailed and highly-illustrated account of how we got to where we are, as well as the dangers of not fully understanding why those origins matter.

Troubled politically and personally, Wordsworth and Coleridge turned in 1797 to the London stage. Their tragedies, The Borderers and Osorio, were set in medieval Britain and early modern Spain to avoid the Lord Chamberlain's censorship. Drury Lane rejected both, but fifteen years later Coleridge's revision, Remorse, had spectacular success there, inspiring Shelley's 1819 Roman tragedy, The Cenci, aimed for Covent Garden. Reeve Parker makes a striking case for the power of these intertwined works, written against British hostility to French republican liberties and Regency repression of home-grown agitation. Covertly, Remorse and The Cenci also turn against Wordsworth. Stressing the significance of subtly repeated imagery and resonances with Virgil, Shakespeare, Racine, Jean-François Ducis and Schiller, Parker's close readings, which are boldly imaginative and decidedly untoward, argue that at the heart of these tragedies lie powerful dramatic uncertainties driven by unstable passions -

The consumption of books is closely intertwined with the material conditions of their production. The Tudor period saw both revolutionary progress in printing technology and the survival of traditional forms of communication from the manuscript era. Offering a comprehensive account of Tudor book culture, these essays by experts in early book history consider the formative years of English printing; book format, marketing, and the reception of books; print, politics, and patronage; and connections between reading and religion. They challenge the conventional view of the 1557 foundation of the Stationers' Company as an event that marks a shift between older and newer modes of book production, sale, and reading. Both continuity and change led to the gradual development of late medieval book culture into the genuinely early modern book culture that emerged by the death of Queen Elizabeth.

Roger Bacon, the medieval natural philosopher who broke new ground in promoting scientific method, produced the encyclopedic Opus Majus or 'Greater Work' in the mid-thirteenth century. This 1897 publication in two volumes was the first complete edition of the work to appear in print. Written at the request of Pope Clement IV, the Opus Majus is the most significant and most influential of Bacon's works, containing his observations of the natural world and theories on knowledge acquisition. Bacon's text appears in the original Latin, and Bridges includes a substantial introduction and brief analysis of each chapter in English, as well as extensive footnotes and an analytical table to aid the reader. The book covers theology, language and mathematics, optics, experimental science, and moral philosophy. This reissue also incorporates a later supplement containing additional material and corrections.

This book explores the revivals of Shakespeare's history plays during the Victorian period, as staged by the famous actor-manager Charles Kean. Between 1852 and 1859, Kean produced celebrated productions of Henry V, Henry VIII, King John, Macbeth and Richard II, renowned for their unprecendented attention to antiquarian detail in sets, costumes, and properties (many of which are shown in the book's illustrations). These productions provided audiences with an unparalleled opportunity to participate in the Victorian obsession with history, especially of the medieval period. Using valuable primary sources, including promptbooks, scenic designs, costume sketches and contemporary reviews, Richard Schoch places mid-Victorian attitudes towards the theatre in the context of major intellectual and political movements of the age. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of theatre history, Shakespeare studies and Victorian culture.

There are many questions yet to be answered about how Standard English came into existence. The claim that it developed from a Central Midlands dialect propagated by clerks in the Chancery, the medieval writing office of the king, is one explanation that has dominated textbooks to date. This book reopens the debate about the origins of Standard English, challenging earlier accounts and revealing a far more complex and intriguing history. An international team of fourteen specialists offer a wide-ranging analysis, from theoretical discussions of the origin of dialects, to detailed descriptions of the history of individual Standard English features. The volume ranges from Middle English to the present day, and looks at a variety of text types. It concludes that Standard English had no one single ancestor dialect, but is the cumulative result of generations of authoritative writing from many text types.

Delumeau explores the medieval conviction that paradise existed in a precise although unreachable earthly location.

The Complete Language of Herbs is a comprehensive and definitive dictionary/reference presenting the history, symbolic meaning, and visual depiction of 500 herbs and spices from around the world in one volume. The Complete Language of Herbs is a comprehensive encyclopedia providing the meanings, powers, facts, and folklore for over 500 herbs and spices.Along with a beautiful visual depiction, each entry provides the herb or spice’s scientific and common names, characteristics, and historic meanings and powers from mythology, medieval legends, folklore, and flower poetry. Did you know that allspice can be added to herbal mixtures to attract money or luck? Or that sprinkling arrowroot at the doors of your home will keep guests’ negative energy from entering? Reaching the height of popularity during the Victorian era, floriographies―dictionaries of symbolic flower meanings―were an amusing pastime and art to subtly communicate unspoken emotions. To complement the success of The Complete La

In this book, Richard J. A. McGregor offers a history of Islamic practice through the aesthetic reception of medieval religious objects. Elaborate parades in Cairo and Damascus included decorated objects of great value, destined for Mecca and Medina. Among these were the precious dress sewn yearly for the Ka'ba, and large colorful sedans mounted on camels, which mysteriously completed the Hajj without carrying a single passenger. Along with the brisk trade in Islamic relics, these objects and the variety of contested meanings attached to them, constituted material practices of religion that persisted into the colonial era, but were suppressed in the twentieth century. McGregor here recovers the biographies of religious objects, including relics, banners, public texts, and coverings for the Ka'ba. Reconstructing the premodern visual culture of Islamic Egypt and Syria, he follows the shifting meanings attached to objects of devotion, as well as the contingent nature of religious practice

The Christian doctrine of justification is of immense interest to historians and theologians ,and continues to be of major importance in modern ecumenical discussions. The present work appeared in its first edition in 1986, and rapidly became the leading reference work on the subject. Its many acclaimed features include a detailed assessment of the semantic background of the concept in the Ancient Near East, a thorough examination of the doctrine of the medieval period, and an especially careful analysis of its development during the critical years of the sixteenth century. The substantially rewritten fourth edition thoroughly updates the work, responding to the latest developments in scholarly literature and user feedback. It will remain an essential resource for all concerned with the development of Christian doctrine, the history of the Reformation debates on the identity of Christianity, and modern discussions between Protestants and Roman Catholics over the nature of salvation.

The Christian doctrine of justification is of immense interest to historians and theologians ,and continues to be of major importance in modern ecumenical discussions. The present work appeared in its first edition in 1986, and rapidly became the leading reference work on the subject. Its many acclaimed features include a detailed assessment of the semantic background of the concept in the Ancient Near East, a thorough examination of the doctrine of the medieval period, and an especially careful analysis of its development during the critical years of the sixteenth century. The substantially rewritten fourth edition thoroughly updates the work, responding to the latest developments in scholarly literature and user feedback. It will remain an essential resource for all concerned with the development of Christian doctrine, the history of the Reformation debates on the identity of Christianity, and modern discussions between Protestants and Roman Catholics over the nature of salvation.

The Beginnings of Islamic Law is a major and innovative contribution to our understanding of the historical unfolding of Islamic law. Scrutinizing its historical contexts, the book proposes that Islamic law is a continuous intermingling of innovation and tradition. Salaymeh challenges the embedded assumptions in conventional Islamic legal historiography by developing a critical approach to the study of both Islamic and Jewish legal history. Through case studies of the treatment of war prisoners, circumcision, and wife-initiated divorce, she examines how Muslim jurists incorporated and transformed 'Near Eastern' legal traditions. She also demonstrates how socio-political and historical situations shaped the everyday practice of law, legal education, and the organization of the legal profession in the late antique and medieval eras. Aimed at scholars and students interested in Islamic history, Islamic law, and the relationship between Jewish and Islamic legal traditions, this book's inte

The fourteenth century witnessed the emergence of the parliamentary common petition, a statement of grievance and request for reform that provided the basis for much of the royal legislation of the period. In the process of compiling the common petitions, much proposed business was set aside and not committed to the permanent record of the parliament roll. A significant body of that 'lost' material has now been recovered and is published here for the first time, providing a fresh understanding of the full range of preoccupations of the medieval House of Commons as it emerged as the mouthpiece of the political community before the king. Alongside questions over the rights of the church, the corruption of officials and the processes of royal justice, the commons also expressed deep concerns over the many political, economic and social concerns of the period, including the consequences of war, plague and revolt.

The Beginnings of Islamic Law is a major and innovative contribution to our understanding of the historical unfolding of Islamic law. Scrutinizing its historical contexts, the book proposes that Islamic law is a continuous intermingling of innovation and tradition. Salaymeh challenges the embedded assumptions in conventional Islamic legal historiography by developing a critical approach to the study of both Islamic and Jewish legal history. Through case studies of the treatment of war prisoners, circumcision, and wife-initiated divorce, she examines how Muslim jurists incorporated and transformed 'Near Eastern' legal traditions. She also demonstrates how socio-political and historical situations shaped the everyday practice of law, legal education, and the organization of the legal profession in the late antique and medieval eras. Aimed at scholars and students interested in Islamic history, Islamic law, and the relationship between Jewish and Islamic legal traditions, this book's inte

In this thought-provoking book, Mona Siddiqui reflects upon key themes in Islamic law and theology. These themes, which range through discussions about friendship, divorce, drunkenness, love, slavery and ritual slaughter, offer fascinating insights into Islamic ethics and the way in which arguments developed in medieval juristic discourse. Pre-modern religious works contained a richness of thought, hesitation and speculation on a wide range of topics, which were socially relevant but also presented intellectual challenges to the scholars for whom God's revelation could be understood in diverse ways. These subjects remain relevant today, for practising Muslims and scholars of Islamic law and religious studies. Mona Siddiqui is an astute and articulate interpreter who relays complex ideas about the Islamic tradition with great clarity. Her book charts her own journey through the classical texts and reflects upon how the principles expounded there have guided her own thinking, teaching an

In this thought-provoking book, Mona Siddiqui reflects upon key themes in Islamic law and theology. These themes, which range through discussions about friendship, divorce, drunkenness, love, slavery and ritual slaughter, offer fascinating insights into Islamic ethics and the way in which arguments developed in medieval juristic discourse. Pre-modern religious works contained a richness of thought, hesitation and speculation on a wide range of topics, which were socially relevant but also presented intellectual challenges to the scholars for whom God's revelation could be understood in diverse ways. These subjects remain relevant today, for practising Muslims and scholars of Islamic law and religious studies. Mona Siddiqui is an astute and articulate interpreter who relays complex ideas about the Islamic tradition with great clarity. Her book charts her own journey through the classical texts and reflects upon how the principles expounded there have guided her own thinking, teaching an

The Cartulary of Beauchief Abbey, here published for the first time with a full historical introduction and English summaries of all the Latin and French charters, is an invaluable resource for the study of relationships between a small community of regular canons with a large outreach in the English Midlands in the late Middle Ages. Over two hundred charters and a wide range of other sources show in considerable and valuable detail how the canons of Beauchief, although they belonged to a monastic order and led a life of withdrawal from the world, nonetheless engaged successfully with numerous benefactors in contributing, by active management of properties and parishes, to the promotion of religious life in town and country as well as to long-lasting developments in farming and industry. This book underlines the increasing recognition of the historical importance of regular canons in late medieval England.

William Stubbs (1825–1901), one of the leading historians of his generation, pursued his academic research alongside his work as a clergyman. He was elected Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in 1866 and appointed a bishop in 1884. Stubbs was a foundational figure in medieval English history, with a special interest in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The three-volume study reissued here, originally published between 1874 and 1878, was one of his most influential works. Nine editions appeared during his lifetime and it was prescribed reading for generations of students. It traces the evolution of English political institutions from the early Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain to 1485, relying mainly on primary sources. Volume 1, published in 1874, begins with evidence for Germanic administrative systems during the Roman period, and then focuses on the Anglo-Saxon era and the Norman period, ending with the reign of Henry II.

William Stubbs (1825–1901), one of the leading historians of his generation, pursued his academic research alongside his work as a clergyman. He was elected Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in 1866 and appointed a bishop in 1884. Stubbs was a foundational figure in medieval English history, with a special interest in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The three-volume study reissued here, originally published between 1874 and 1878, was one of his most influential works. Nine editions appeared during his lifetime and it was prescribed reading for generations of students. It traces the evolution of English political institutions from the early Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain to 1485, relying mainly on primary sources. Volume 2, published in 1875, focuses on the period from Edward I to Richard II, tracing the development of Parliament and the rise of the Commons, and examining the issue of the royal prerogative.

William Stubbs (1825–1901), one of the leading historians of his generation, pursued his academic research alongside his work as a clergyman. He was elected Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in 1866 and appointed a bishop in 1884. Stubbs was a foundational figure in medieval English history, with a special interest in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The three-volume study reissued here, originally published between 1874 and 1878, was one of his most influential works. Nine editions appeared during his lifetime and it was prescribed reading for generations of students. It traces the evolution of English political institutions from the early Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain to 1485, relying mainly on primary sources. Volume 3, published in 1878, examines the developing role of Parliament during the Hundred Years' War, as well as considering the changing relationship between church and state towards the end of the Middle Ages.

Iconoclasm, the debate about the legitimacy of religious art that began in Byzantium around 720 and continued for nearly one hundred and twenty years, has long held a firm grip on the historical imagination. This is the first book in English for over fifty years to survey this most elusive and fascinating period in medieval history. It is also the first book in any language to combine the expertise of two authors who are specialists in the written, archaeological and visual evidence from this period, a combination of particular importance to the iconoclasm debate. The authors have worked together to provide a comprehensive overview of the visual, written and other materials that together help clarify the complex issues of iconoclasm in Byzantium. In doing so they challenge many traditional assumptions about iconoclasm and set the period firmly in its broader political, cultural and social-economic context.