The Medieval Python

For the affluent merchant class of fifteenth-century Florence, the education of future generations was a fundamental matter. Together with texts, images played an important role in the development of the young into adult citizens. In this book, Federico Botana demonstrates how illustrated manuscripts of vernacular texts read by the Florentine youth facilitated understanding and memorisation of basic principles and knowledge. They were an important means of acquiring skills then considered necessary to gain the respect of others, to prosper as merchants, and to participate in civic life. Botana focuses on illustrated texts that were widely read in Quattrocento Florence: the Fior di virtù (a moral treatise including a bestiary), the Esopo volgarizzato (Aesop's Fables in Tuscan), the Sfera by Goro Dati (a poem on cosmology and geography), and mathematical manuals known as libri d'abbaco. He elucidates, in light of original sources and medieval and modern cognitive theory, the mechanisms

Scottish nationalism is a powerful movement in contemporary politics, yet the goal of Scottish independence emerged surprisingly recently into public debate. The origins of Scottish nationalism lie not in the medieval battles for Scottish statehood, the Acts of Union, the Scottish Enlightenment, or any other traditional historical milestone. Instead, an influential separatist Scottish nationalism began to take shape only in the 1970s and achieved its present ideological maturity in the course of the 1980s and 1990s. The nationalism that emerged from this testing period of Scottish history was unusual in that it demanded independence not to defend a threatened ancestral culture but as the most effective way to promote the agenda of the left. This accessible and engaging account of the political thought of Scottish nationalism explores how the arguments for Scottish independence were crafted over some fifty years by intellectuals, politicians and activists, and why these ideas had such a

America frequently talks about impeaching a president, but the impeachment provisions of the American constitution are widely misunderstood. In High Crimes and Misdemeanors, constitutional scholar Frank O. Bowman, III offers unprecedented clarity to the question of impeachment, tracing its roots to medieval England through its adoption in the Constitution and 250 years of American experience. By examining the human and political history of those who have faced impeachment, Bowman demonstrates that the Framers intended impeachment to be a flexible tool, adaptable to the needs of any age. Written in a lively, engaging style, the book combines a deep historical and constitutional analysis of the impeachment clauses, a coherent theory of when impeachment should be used to protect constitutional order against presidential misconduct, and a comprehensive presentation of the case for and against impeachment of President Trump. It is an indispensable work for the present moment.

This is the first global history of dress regulation and its place in broader debates around how human life and societies should be visualised and materialised. Sumptuary laws were a tool on the part of states to regulate not only manufacturing systems and moral economies via the medium of expenditure and consumption of clothing but also banquets, festivities and funerals. Leading scholars on Asian, Latin American, Ottoman and European history shed new light on how and why items of dress became key aspirational goods across society, how they were lobbied for and marketed, and whether or not sumptuary laws were implemented by cities, states and empires to restrict or channel trade and consumption. Their findings reveal the significance of sumptuary laws in medieval and early modern societies as a site of contestation between individuals and states and how dress as an expression of identity developed as a modern 'human right'.

How did empires rule different peoples across vast expanses of space and time? And how did small numbers of imperial bureaucrats govern large numbers of subordinated peoples? Empires and Bureaucracy in World History seeks answers to these fundamental problems in imperial studies by exploring the power and limits of bureaucracy. The book is pioneering in bringing together historians of antiquity and the Middle Ages with scholars of post-medieval European empires, while a genuinely world-historical perspective is provided by chapters on China, the Incas and the Ottomans. The editors identify a paradox in how bureaucracy operated on the scale of empires and so help explain why some empires endured for centuries while, in the contemporary world, empires fail almost before they begin. By adopting a cross-chronological and world-historical approach, the book challenges the abiding association of bureaucratic rationality with 'modernity' and the so-called 'Rise of the West'.

How did empires rule different peoples across vast expanses of space and time? And how did small numbers of imperial bureaucrats govern large numbers of subordinated peoples? Empires and Bureaucracy in World History seeks answers to these fundamental problems in imperial studies by exploring the power and limits of bureaucracy. The book is pioneering in bringing together historians of antiquity and the Middle Ages with scholars of post-medieval European empires, while a genuinely world-historical perspective is provided by chapters on China, the Incas and the Ottomans. The editors identify a paradox in how bureaucracy operated on the scale of empires and so help explain why some empires endured for centuries while, in the contemporary world, empires fail almost before they begin. By adopting a cross-chronological and world-historical approach, the book challenges the abiding association of bureaucratic rationality with 'modernity' and the so-called 'Rise of the West'.

Medieval western theologians considered the Johannine comma (1 John 5:7-8) the clearest biblical evidence for the Trinity. When Erasmus failed to find the comma in the Greek manuscripts he used for his New Testament edition, he omitted it. Accused of promoting Antitrinitarian heresy, Erasmus included the comma in his third edition (1522) after seeing it in a Greek codex from England, even though he suspected the manuscript's authenticity. The resulting disputes, involving leading theologians, philologists and controversialists such as Luther, Calvin, Sozzini, Milton, Newton, Bentley, Gibbon and Porson, touched not simply on philological questions, but also on matters of doctrine, morality, social order, and toleration. While the spuriousness of the Johannine comma was established by 1900, it has again assumed iconic status in recent attempts to defend biblical inerrancy amongst the Christian Right. A social history of the Johannine comma thus provides significant insights into the rece

First published in 1921, this book examines the changes in styles of warfare between the medieval period and the Renaissance. Frederick Lewis Taylor links the transformations in intellectual and cultural life in this period with contemporary military innovations. His discussion focuses on the Italian wars between Spain, France and the Netherlands between 1494 and 1529, both because the aggression of competing states in a small area led to frequent wars, and because the influence of the Renaissance was strongest in its birthplace, the Italian peninsula. Taylor traces the stages in the development in all aspects of military operations, and also investigates the development of a theoretical study of war. His work remains one of the most complete reviews in English of the Italian wars of this period, and explains the origins of the style of warfare which would dominate Europe in the following centuries.

Sir George Francis Hill (1867–1948) was perhaps best known as a numismatist, although his scholarly interests and accomplishments included a range of time periods and subjects. A classicist by training, Hill built his career at the British Museum's department of coins and medals. In his forty-three years there he produced volumes on coins of antiquity; Greek history and art; coins, heraldry, and iconography of medieval and Renaissance Italy; and treasure troves. In 1931 Hill became the Museum's director and principal librarian, the first archaeologist to hold this post. His four-volume History of Cyprus (1940–1952) ranged from Cyprus' earliest years to the twentieth century, and became the standard text on the subject. It is a valuable resource for scholars of the country, of antiquity and of the Mediterranean world. Volume 1 describes the land of Cyprus before unravelling its history from the Stone Age to the Crusades.

In 1500 fewer than three million people spoke English; today English speakers number at least a billion worldwide. This book asks how and why a small island people became the nucleus of an empire 'on which the sun never set'. David Rollison argues that the 'English explosion' was the outcome of a long social revolution with roots deep in the medieval past. A succession of crises from the Norman Conquest to the English Revolution were causal links and chains of collective memory in a unique, vernacular, populist movement. The keyword of this long revolution, 'commonwealth', has been largely invisible in traditional constitutional history. This panoramic synthesis of political, intellectual, social, cultural, religious, economic, literary and linguistic movements offers a 'new constitutional history' in which state institutions and power elites were subordinate and answerable to a greater community that the early modern English called 'commonwealth' and we call 'society'.

In 1500 fewer than three million people spoke English; today English speakers number at least a billion worldwide. This book asks how and why a small island people became the nucleus of an empire 'on which the sun never set'. David Rollison argues that the 'English explosion' was the outcome of a long social revolution with roots deep in the medieval past. A succession of crises from the Norman Conquest to the English Revolution were causal links and chains of collective memory in a unique, vernacular, populist movement. The keyword of this long revolution, 'commonwealth', has been largely invisible in traditional constitutional history. This panoramic synthesis of political, intellectual, social, cultural, religious, economic, literary and linguistic movements offers a 'new constitutional history' in which state institutions and power elites were subordinate and answerable to a greater community that the early modern English called 'commonwealth' and we call 'society'.

The opening lines of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri launched Rod Dreher on a journey that rescued him from exile and saved his life. Dreher found that the medieval poem offered him a surprisingl

The opening lines of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri launched Rod Dreher on a journey that rescued him from exile and saved his life. Dreher found that the medieval poem offered him a surprisingl

This book is the culmination of the author’s lifelong interest in the Roman to medieval transition in England and in the analysis of the historic landscape of Wessex. It begins with a focused, r

The province of Baetica, in present-day Spain, was one of the most important areas in the Roman Empire in terms of politics, economics, and culture. And in the late medieval period, it was the center

The three counties of England's northern borderlands have long had a reputation as an exceptional and peripheral region within the medieval kingdom, preoccupied with local turbulence as a result of the proximity of a hostile frontier with Scotland. Yet, in the fifteenth century, open war was an infrequent occurrence in a region which is much better understood by historians of fourteenth-century Anglo-Scottish conflict, or of Tudor responses to the so-called 'border reivers'. This first book-length study of England's far north in the fifteenth century addresses conflict, kinship, lordship, law, justice, and governance in this dynamic region. It traces the norms and behaviours by which local society sought to manage conflict, arguing that common law and march law were only parts of a mixed framework which included aspects of 'feud' as it is understood in a wider European context. Addressing the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland together, Jackson W. Armstrong transcen

Drawing on a range of evidence related to royal authority, political events and literate culture, this study traces how kings and emperors involved themselves in the affairs of the Spanish March, and examines how actively people in Catalonia participated in politics centred on the royal court. Rather than setting the political development of the region in terms of Catalonia's future independence as a medieval principality, Cullen J. Chandler addresses it as part of the Carolingian 'experiment'. In doing so, he incorporates an analysis of political events alongside an examination of such cultural issues as the spread of the Rule of Benedict, the Adoptionist controversy, and the educational programme of the Carolingian reforms. This new history of the region offers a robust and absorbing analysis of the nature of the Carolingian legacy in the March, while also revising traditional interpretations of ethnic motivations for political acts and earlier attempts to pinpoint the constitutional

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; he also received many honorary degrees and decorations. Stubbs devoted much of his intellectual energy to medieval English history, focusing especially on 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. Well-organised and easy to use, it was prescribed reading for generations of students, and provided the foundation for many later analyses. It traces the evolution of English political institutions from the early Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain to 1485, relying mainly on primary sources, and argues that modern English constitutional liberties owed much to those of the early Germanic tribes.

This is a study of marriage litigation (with some reference to sexual offenses) in the archiepiscopal court of York (1300–1500) and the episcopal courts of Ely (1374–1381), Paris (1384–1387), Cambrai (1438–1453), and Brussels (1448–1459). All these courts were, for the most part, correctly applying the late medieval canon law of marriage, but statistical analysis of the cases and results confirms that there were substantial differences both in the types of cases the courts heard and the results they reached. Marriages in England in the later middle ages were often under the control of the parties to the marriage, whereas those in northern France and southern Netherlands were often under the control of the parties' families and social superiors. Within this broad generalization the book brings to light patterns of late medieval men and women manipulating each other and the courts to produce extraordinarily varied results.

A fascinating look into the business and lifestyle philosophy of Jason Kingsley OBE, CEO of Rebellion. Rebellion is one of the world's most successful independent games developers and also a film and TV production company and publisher. Combining his love of Medieval History and success in business, this unique book will give insight into a modern interpretation of the Knightly Code of Chivalry, the moral system which combined a warrior ethos, knightly piety, and courtly manners, all combining to establish a notion of honour and nobility, in a motivational and aspirational take on how to live life to the fullest. Each chapter will focus on one main chivalric theme, and how it has influenced his philosophy, helped equip him with personal tools to succeed, and how it has maximised his work-life balance. The book will also provide insight into his love for the medieval period and how this complements his professional life.

In Florence in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, the essentially medieval values of the age of Dante were transformed into the intellectual attitudes characteristic of the early Renaissance. Mr Green examines this change as it was reflected in the works of the city's vernacular chroniclers. These merchant historians evolved out of the traditional universal chronicle of the Middle Ages an embryonic form of the modern history, exemplified at the beginning of the fifteenth century by the Istoria di Firenze of Goro Dati. In the course of this transition from chronicle to history, the world-view expressed by the chronicle - which assumed that all that happened contributed to a divinely inspired historical plan - yielded before a more selective conception of the significance of events as possible natural causes of change. At the same time, the ideals underlying the medieval sense of cosmic order, with their other worldly overtones, gave way before the more secular, humanist value

Medieval Rome was uniquely important, both as a physical city and as an idea with immense cultural capital, encapsulating the legacy of the ancient Empire, the glorious world of the martyrs and the triumph of Christian faith. Rome across Time and Space explores these twin dimensions of 'place' and 'idea' and analyses Rome's role in the transmission of culture throughout the Middle Ages. Ranging widely over liturgy, architecture, sculpture and textual history, the authors focus on the mutual enrichment derived from the exchange of ideas and illuminate how cultural exchanges between Rome and its 'neighbours' (Byzantium, Italy, England and France), and within Rome (between Ancient and early Christian Rome and the medieval city) worked as catalysts for change, both to shape the medieval city and to help construct the medieval idea of Rome itself. The result is a rich and original perspective on a beguiling city with enduring appeal.

The first edition of this book appeared in German in 1985, and set an agenda for the study of medieval literary theory. Rather than seeing vernacular writers' reflections on their art, as found in prologues, epilogues and interpolations in literary texts, as merely deriving from established Latin traditions, Walter Haug shows that they marked the gradual emancipation of an independent vernacular poetics that went hand in hand with changing narrative forms. While focusing primarily on medieval German writers, Haug also takes into account French literature of the same period, and the principles underlying his argument are equally relevant to medieval literature in English or any other European language.

This volume contains descriptions - including, in many cases, precise identifications - of approximately 6,000 manuscript fragments from the Taylor-Schechter New Series originating in the world-famous Genizah of Cairo, and now at Cambridge University Library. The emphasis is on classical and medieval rabbinic literature, but many fragments belonging to other genres, which were placed in boxes dedicated to Talmudic and rabbinic literature, are also described. It is anticipated that the volume will be of considerable assistance to researchers in a variety of disciplines, by facilitating access to material of various sorts and substantially reducing the amount of time which must be devoted to preliminary searches.

Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) was a student of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and bequeathed his personal library of 3000 volumes to the College on condition that the contents remained intact and unaltered; they remain there, in his original bookcases, to this day. In the early twentieth century, a project to produce a complete catalogue was begun, and four volumes were published between 1914 and 1940. They respectively describe the 'sea' manuscripts, relating to maritime and naval matters, the early printed books, the medieval manuscripts, and the books on shorthand, providing notes about authors, bibliographic history, and other contextual information. Originally published as a limited edition of 500 copies each, these valuable reference works are now made available again.

A popular ‘culture of persuasion’ fostered by the Reformation promoted a displacement of late-medieval ‘sacramental culture’ through argument, textual interpretation, exhortation, reasoned opinion, an

Medieval Islamic philosophers were occupied with questions of cosmology, predestination and salvation and human responsibility for actions. For Ismailis, the related notions of religious leadership, n

Award-winning religion journalists describe a recently rediscovered medieval prayer tool that provides fresh inspiration and daily prayers for contemporary Christians.All people of faith struggle at t

In Imagining the Text, James Brown examines ekphrasis, illuminated manuscripts, and the changing notions of courtly identity in Wirnt von Gravenberg’s popular medieval German Arthurian romance Wigaloi

Examining, outlining, elucidating, and supplementing the existing body of scholarship concerning the medieval theological supposition that man was created as a replacement for fallen angels, Cur Homo?

Medieval Iberian liturgical practice was independent of the Roman liturgy. As such, its sources preserve an unfamiliar and fascinating devotional journey through the liturgical year. However, although

This issue of Edebiyat discusses topics ranging from medieval grammar, prosody and rhetoric to computer-assisted techniques of analysis. It also features excerpts from Michael Cooperson’s translation

The Repentant Abelard is both an innovative study and English translation of the late poetic works of controversial medieval philosopher and logician Peter Abelard, written for his beloved wife Helois

This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the career of Fryderyk Jagiellon (1468a€“1503) arguably the most powerful churchman in medieval or early modern Central Europe. Royal prince, bis

Addresses the social significance of orthodox Islam during the medieval period in Baghdad. This book develops a new approach to the process of institutionalization and its social significance by focus

To examine the long-run origins of democracy and dictatorship, Brian Downing focuses on the importance of medieval political configurations and of military modernization in the early modern period. He

This study argues that the vernacular fable constituted a productive site for negotiating scholastic poetics in late medieval England. On the basis of a close reading of Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest’s Tale

In From She-Wolf to Martyr, Elizabeth Casteen examines Johanna I of Naples's evolving, problematic reputation and uses it as a lens through which to analyze often-contradictory late-medieval conceptio

Thomas More is a complex and controversial figure who has been regarded as both saint and persecutor, leading humanist and a representative of late medieval culture. His religious writings, with their

Genoa enjoyed an important and ever-changing role in the early modern Mediterranean world. In medieval times, the city transformed itself from a tumultuous maritime republic into a stable and prospero