The Medieval Python

Medieval beliefs about the body were drastically different from ours today: Hair was thought to be a condensation of fumes emitted from the pores, ideas were supposedly committed to memory by being di

Despite an unprecedented level of interest in the interaction between law and literature over the past two decades, readers have had no accessible introduction to this rich engagement in medieval and early Tudor England. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Law and Literature addresses this need by combining an authoritative guide through the bewildering maze of medieval law with concise examples illustrating how the law infiltrated literary texts during this period. Foundational chapters written by leading specialists in legal history prepare readers to be guided by noted literary scholars through unexpected conversations with the law found in numerous medieval texts, including major works by Chaucer, Langland, Gower, and Malory. Part I contains detailed introductions to legal concepts, practices and institutions in medieval England, and Part II covers medieval texts and authors whose verse and prose can be understood as engaging with the law.

Despite an unprecedented level of interest in the interaction between law and literature over the past two decades, readers have had no accessible introduction to this rich engagement in medieval and early Tudor England. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Law and Literature addresses this need by combining an authoritative guide through the bewildering maze of medieval law with concise examples illustrating how the law infiltrated literary texts during this period. Foundational chapters written by leading specialists in legal history prepare readers to be guided by noted literary scholars through unexpected conversations with the law found in numerous medieval texts, including major works by Chaucer, Langland, Gower, and Malory. Part I contains detailed introductions to legal concepts, practices and institutions in medieval England, and Part II covers medieval texts and authors whose verse and prose can be understood as engaging with the law.

Contributors to this collection consider the multiplicity and instability of medieval French literary identity, arguing that it is fluid and represented in many different ways. Inherently unstable, id

In his first book composed in English, Rémi Brague maintains that there is a fundamental problem with modernity: we no longer consider the created world and humanity as intrinsically valuable. Curing

Introducing scribe sleuth Christine de Pizan in the first of an intriguing new historical mystery series set in 14th Century FranceParis, 1393. Recent widow Christine de Pizan became a scribe to suppo

Patronage, power, and competition in the Sultan’s courtThe Sword of Ambition opens a new window onto interreligious rivalry among elites in medieval Egypt. Written by the unemployed bureaucrat ?

Introducing scribe sleuth Christine de Pizan in the first of an intriguing new historical mystery series set in 14th Century FranceParis, 1393. Recent widow Christine de Pizan became a scribe to suppo

Arguing that women’s "silencing" is in part the result of women’s voices being treated as the white noise of history, Medieval Gossips and the Art of Listening: Avid Ears explores the historical repre

This volume contains a number of important studies relating to the archaeology of medieval Dublin, including the results of Antoine Giacometti's excavations piecing together the medieval urban landsca

This volume of the Haskins Society Journal demonstrates the Society's continued engagement with historical and interdisciplinary research on the early to the central Middle Ages, focusing on the Anglo

Women have long been active supporters and promoters of Buddhist rituals and functions, but their importance in the operations of Buddhist schools has often been minimized. Chin’ichibo (?–1344), a nun

Introducing scribe sleuth Christine de Pizan in the first of an intriguing new historical mystery series set in 14th Century FranceParis, 1393. Recent widow Christine de Pizan became a scribe to suppo

This is the definitive catalogue of one of the most important collections of medieval art that exists in private hands, not previously accessible to the public. Comprised of outstanding European sculp

This collection establishes the term ‘medical paratexts’ as a useful addition to medical humanities, book history, and literary studies research. As a relatively new field of study, little critical at

The studies collected in the present volume constitute the first attempt at tackling the different aspects of the “problem of the instant of change”, a physical and logical problem that was intensely

The coming of Christianity to Northern Europe resulted in profound cultural changes. In the course of a few generations, new answers were given to fundamental existential questions and older notions were invalidated. Jonas Wellendorf's study, the first monograph in English on this subject, explores the medieval Scandinavian reception and re-interpretation of pre-Christian Scandinavian religion. This original work draws on a range of primary sources ranging from Prose Edda and Saxo Grammaticus' History of the Danes to less well known literary works including the Saga of Barlaam and the Hauksbók manuscript (c.1300). By providing an in-depth analysis of often overlooked mythological materials, along with translations of all textual passages, Wellendorf delivers an accessible work that sheds new light on the ways in which the old gods were integrated into the Christian worldview of medieval Scandinavia.

Composed in Germany in the early thirteenth century by Judah ben Samuel he-hasid, Sefer Hasidim, or "Book of the Pietists," is a compendium of religious instruction that portrays the everyday life of