The Medieval Python

Over the last two decades there has been an increasing interest in the influence of medieval Jewish thought upon Spinoza's philosophy. The essays in this volume, by Spinoza specialists and leading scholars in the field of medieval Jewish philosophy, consider the various dimensions of the rich, important, but vastly under-studied relationship between Spinoza and earlier Jewish thinkers. It is the first such collection in any language, and together the essays provide a detailed and extensive analysis of how different elements in Spinoza's metaphysics, epistemology, moral philosophy, and political and religious thought relate to the views of his Jewish philosophical forebears, such as Maimonides, Gersonides, Ibn Ezra, Crescas, and others. The topics addressed include the immortality of the soul, the nature of God, the intellectual love of God, moral luck, the nature of happiness, determinism and free will, the interpretation of Scripture, and the politics of religion.

This is the first book-length study of popular culture in Islamic society, drawing together a wealth of Arabic sources to explore literature, religious celebrations and annual festivities in medieval Cairo and addressing questions of relevance throughout the Islamic world and beyond. Dr Shoshan examines popular religion against the background of the growing influence of Sufism, discussing the sermons of Abn Ata Allah, a leading Cairene Sufi, which shed considerable light on the beliefs of ordinary Muslims. The author then analyses the importance of a biography of Muhammad, which has been attributed to Abu'l-Hasan al-Bakri and suppressed by the learned, and traces the origins and popular practices of the annual Nawruz festival. Finally he explores the political beliefs and economic expectations of the Cairene commoners and demonstrates the complex relationship between the culture of the Cairene elite and that of the people.

This 1998 collection of studies examines the use of the written word in Celtic-speaking regions of Europe between c. 400 and c. 1500. Building on previous work as well as presenting the fruits of much new research, the book seeks to highlight the interest and importance of Celtic uses of literacy for the study of both medieval literacy generally and of the history and cultures of the Celtic countries in the Middle Ages. Among the topics discussed are the uses and significance of charter-writing, the interplay of oral and literate modes in the composition and transmission of medieval Irish and Welsh genealogies, prose narratives and poetry, the survival of Celtic culture in Brittany and of Gaelic literacy in eastern Scotland in the twelfth century, and pragmatic uses of literacy in later medieval Wales.

This book describes the organization and illustrates the equipment of the armies that shaped the remarkably varied and colourful history of medieval Poland. It traces them from the birth of the Christ

In this book, John Haines presents a detailed survey of songs performed in Vulgar Latin and early Romance languages from around 500 to 1200. The first part of the book discusses this enormous body of neglected songs according to the categories of lament, love song, epic and devotional song. Medieval sources - mostly condemnations - ranging from sermons to chronicles attest to the long life and popularity of this music performed all throughout this period, and predominantly by women. Performance contexts range from the burial of the dead to the nursing of infants. The study argues for the reinstatement of female vernacular song in the mainstream of medieval music historiography and ends with a discussion of the neglected medieval lullaby. The second part of the book presents an edition and informative commentary of the dozen surviving witnesses with musical notation in the early Romance period prior to 1200.

In the thirteenth century, the University of Paris emerged as a complex community with a distinctive role in society. This book explores the relationship between contexts of learning and the ways of knowing developed within them, focusing on twelfth-century schools and monasteries, as well as the university. By investigating their views on money, marriage and sex, Ian Wei reveals the complexity of what theologians had to say about the world around them. He analyses the theologians' sense of responsibility to the rest of society and the means by which they tried to communicate and assert their authority. In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, however, their claims to authority were challenged by learned and intellectually sophisticated women and men who were active outside as well as inside the university and who used the vernacular - an important phenomenon in the development of the intellectual culture of medieval Europe.

In this book, John Haines presents a detailed survey of songs performed in Vulgar Latin and early Romance languages from around 500 to 1200. The first part of the book discusses this enormous body of neglected songs according to the categories of lament, love song, epic and devotional song. Medieval sources - mostly condemnations - ranging from sermons to chronicles attest to the long life and popularity of this music performed all throughout this period, and predominantly by women. Performance contexts range from the burial of the dead to the nursing of infants. The study argues for the reinstatement of female vernacular song in the mainstream of medieval music historiography and ends with a discussion of the neglected medieval lullaby. The second part of the book presents an edition and informative commentary of the dozen surviving witnesses with musical notation in the early Romance period prior to 1200.

This is an introduction to the history of the Muslim East from the rise of Islam to the Mongol conquests. It explains and indicates the main trends of Islamic historical evolution during the Middle Ag

Originally published in 1955, this volume incorporates the substance of the Gregynog Lectures delivered at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth during the Session 1952–3. The text was created to give an account of the lives of a few men and women of the fifteenth century, enabling the reader to understand something of what existence was like at that time. Chapters are included on the following figures: Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester; Sir John Fastolf; Thomas Hoccleve; Margaret Paston; Margery Kempe; Richard Bradwater. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in British history and the fifteenth century.

This is a collection of influential and challenging essays by British medievalist Timothy Reuter, a perceptive and original thinker with extraordinary range who was equally at home in the Anglophone or German scholarly worlds. The book addresses three interconnected themes in the study of the history of the early and high Middle Ages. Firstly, historiography, the development of the modern study of the medieval past. How do our contemporary and inherited preconceptions and pre-occupations determine our view of history? Secondly, the importance of symbolic action and communication in the politics and polities of the Middle Ages. Finally, the need to avoid anachronism in our consideration of medieval politics. Throwing light both on modern mentalities and on the values and conduct of medieval people themselves, and containing articles, at time of publication, never previously been available in English, this book is essential reading for any serious scholar of medieval Europe.

"For many, the medieval world seems dark and foreign-a miraculous, brutal, and irrational time of superstition and strange relics. The pursuit of heretics, the Inquisition, the Crusades and the domina

"For many, the medieval world seems dark and foreign-a miraculous, brutal, and irrational time of superstition and strange relics. The pursuit of heretics, the Inquisition, the Crusades and the domina

These ten specially commissioned essays demonstrate that during the Middle Ages the idea of an English nation was not fixed. The contributors examine and contrast the thinking behind the ways in which

Almost all the great medieval shrines disappeared at the Reformation, yet for several centuries they were the outward and visible sign of the spiritual benefits believed to flow from proximity to the

How to Read Medieval Art introduces the art of the European Middle Ages through 50 notable examples from the Metropolitan Museum’s collection, which is one of the most comprehensive in the world. Thi

This book establishes the existence, character and causes of a renaissance of Buddhism in the fifteenth century in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. It provides the basis for the historical study of Newa

The annual journal of De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History is the only forum dedicated to the subject. It publishes high-quality scholarly articles on topics across the full thema

The Atlas of Medieval Jewish History is a comprehensive visual introduction to the history of the Jewish people in the Middle Ages. The atlas includes more than one hundred maps with accompanying text

This important study provides the only comprehensive survey of Chinese women during the early medieval period of disunion, which lasted from the fall of the Eastern Han dynasty in 220 AD to the reunif

Modern international business has its origins in the overseas trade of the Middle Ages. Of the various communities active in trade in the Islamic countries at that time, records of only the Jewish com

Modern international business has its origins in the overseas trade of the Middle Ages. Of the various communities active in trade in the Islamic countries at that time, records of only the Jewish com

From the divine right of kings to the political philosophies of writers such as Machiavelli, the medieval city-states to the unification of Spain, Daniel Waley and Peter Denley focus on the growing po

Examines the ways in which art was used to promote the power and rule of the Bagrat'ioni rulers of Georgia in Caucasia from the 9th through the early 13th century. Ignoring naturalistic portraits, Eas

The Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection of ivory carvings from c. 1200–1550 is one of the most important in the world. Containing 289 entries, this book is the first catalog of the material to be

This collaborative volume explores how the creation and the crossing of faculty, disciplinary and social boundaries contributed to the development of the medieval European university.

Examines the social structure in the Middle Ages, including kings and rulers, courtly life, the nobility, knights, peasants, rebelliousness, religion, and other parts of the world.

For many, Shakespeare represents the advent of modernity. It is easy to forget that he was in fact a writer deeply embedded in the Middle Ages, who inherited many of his shaping ideas and assumptions from the medieval past. This collection brings together essays by internationally renowned scholars of medieval and early modern literature, the history of the book and theatre history to present new perspectives on Shakespeare and his medieval heritage. Separated into four parts, the collection explores Shakespeare and his work in the context of the Middle Ages, medieval books and language, the British past, and medieval conceptions of drama and theatricality, together showing Shakespeare's work as rooted in late medieval history and culture. Insisting upon Shakespeare's complexity and medieval multiplicity, Medieval Shakespeare gives readers the opportunity to appreciate both Shakespeare and his period within the traditions that fostered and surrounded him.

In Medieval Technology and Social Change, Lynn White considers the effects of technological innovation on the societies of medieval Europe: the slow collapse of feudalism with the development of mac

The history of moral dilemma theory often ignores the medieval period, overlooking the sophisticated theorizing by several thinkers who debated the existence of moral dilemmas from 1150 to 1450. In this book Michael V. Dougherty offers a rich and fascinating overview of the debates which were pursued by medieval philosophers, theologians and canon lawyers, illustrating his discussion with a diverse range of examples of the moral dilemmas which they considered. He shows that much of what seems particular to twentieth-century moral theory was well-known long ago - especially the view of some medieval thinkers that some forms of wrongdoing are inescapable, and their emphasis on the principle 'choose the lesser of two evils'. His book will be valuable not only to advanced students and specialists of medieval thought, but also to those interested in the history of ethics.

Throughout the Middle Ages, Christians wrote about Islam and the life of Muhammad. These stories, ranging from the humorous to the vitriolic, both informed and warned audiences about what was regarded

The masterpieces of medieval Spanish literature have come to be known and loved by Hispanists, and more recently by others throughout the world. But the brilliant illuminations with which the original

The tenth anniversary of the Journal includes pieces by some of the most distinguished scholars of military history, including an analysis of tenth-century Ottonian warfare on the eastern frontier of

For nearly a thousand years, monasteries dominated the landscape of England and the lives of English people. Throughout the Middle Ages, a fascinating variety of people joined the monasteries, from s

Medieval German Literature provides a comprehensive survey of this Germanic body of work from the eighth century through the early fifteenth century. The authors treat the large body of late-medieval

This impressive survey covers the early history of Ireland from the coming of Christianity to the Norman settlement. Within a broad political framework it explores the nature of Irish society, th

This impressive survey covers the early history of Ireland from the coming of Christianity to the Norman settlement (400 - 1200 AD). Within a broad political framework it explores the nature of Irish

This is the first encyclopedic work to focus exclusively on medieval Jewish civilization, from the fall of the Roman Empire to about 1492. The more than 150 alphabetically organized entries, written b

These ten essays on the theme of the Gothic, written by scholars from Taiwan and the USAand introduced by Professor David Punter of Bristol University, range across the boundaries of time, space

The journal's hallmark of a broad chronological, geographic, and thematic coverage of the subject is underlined in this volume. It begins with an examination of the the brief but fascinating career o

This impressive survey covers the early history of Ireland from the coming of Christianity to the Norman settlement (400 - 1200 AD). Within a broad political framework it explores the nature of Irish