The Medieval Python

This collection of essays analyzes the role of demons and the devil in ancient and medieval Christianity. Proceeding from a variety of scholarly perspectives—historical, philosophical and theological,

This book explores the world of religious thinking on imprisonment, and how images of imprisonment were used in monastic thought, the cult of saints, the early inquisitions, preaching and hagiographic

Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2008. A Cultural History of Animals in the Medieval Age investigates the changing roles of animals in medieval culture, economy and society in the period 1000 to 140

In this book, Louise Bourdua examines how Franciscan church decoration developed between 1250 and 1400. Focusing on three important churches - San Fermo Maggiore, Verona, San Lorenzo, Vicenza and Sant'Antonio, Padua - she argues that local Franciscan friars were more interested in their own conception of how artistic programs should work than merely following models for decoration issued from the mother church at Assisi. In addition, lay patrons also had considerable input into the decoration programs. These case studies serve as a multiform model of patronage, which is tested against other commissions of the Trecento.

Aiming for an expanded and more nuanced understanding of religious orders that exist by means of alms or begging, this collection offers a close look at the origins and foundations of mendicancy, the

In this, the first comprehensive survey of glassmaking in Ireland, the evolution of the industry from the sixteenth through to the twenty-first century is chronicled, and the impact of technological

In 1406 a young Venetian nobleman, Marin Contarini, married into another ancient patrician clan. His wife's family owned an old palace on the Grand Canal. Contarini demolished the old palace and, in 1421, he began to build the Cà d'Oro, his 'House of Gold'. This 1993 book tells the history of the building of the palace over a period of nearly twenty years. After a general introduction to the city of Venice at the beginning of the quattrocento, Dr Goy discusses the background to the building of the palace. There follows a discussion of the building industry in Venice in this flourishing period, and of the functions of the three chief building crafts. In the latter half of the study, the whole building process is recreated in detail; the relationships between Contarini and his craftsmen are analysed, as is the pivotal role of Contarini himself, the architect manqué whose monument this was to become.

This volume embraces a range of disciplines, offering a variety of approaches to the study of the tenth to twelfth-century history. Topics range from Bede's use and revision of the anonymous Life of

Convicted of treason, Crispin Guest was stripped of his title, his land, his money and his friends. Now with only his considerable wits to sustain him, Guest works the mean streets of 14th century Lo

In July 1290, Edward I issued writs to the Sheriffs of the English counties ordering them to enforce a decree to expel all Jews from England before All Saints' Day of that year. England became the fir

"Slovenia's Transition is the first comprehensive, accessible account of that country's transition from a minor republic in former Yugoslavia to an independent nation in the European Union. Richly det

"Great books need not be fat, and Michael Mitterauer, the Viennese medievalist, has written a great book....Mitterauer has something to teach even veteran historians."Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung"An

Lettering the Self argues that letters in medieval and early-modern France reveal the contours of the pre-modern self. Letters in this period were complicated compositions which, in addition to their

In his Etymologiae, St Isidore of Seville put together a systematic survey of the world in the form of a vast thesaurus of Latin vocabulary, which supplies a more or less accepted or fanciful etymology for each term. It became one of the most influential books of European culture through the whole medieval period. This Latin 'Roget' is traditionally used as a reference work, accessed through an elaborate index system. In this book Professor Henderson, the most challenging critic writing on Latin literature and Roman culture, presents a full reading of all twenty books of the Etymologiae, showing how the material is sequenced so that its reader is treated to a thoroughgoing education in the world as it was apprehended in Jewish, Graeco-Roman and Christian culture. All Latin, including etymologies, is translated.

From the Viking invasions to the Crusades to the Hundred Years War, wars were crucial agents of change in medieval Europe. They fostered many economic and political changes. They also affected the sci

This book brings together for the first time the astonishing diversity of excavated furnishings and artefacts from medieval London homes. These include roofing and other structural items, decorative

The first book of a two-volume history of siege warfare and techniques in Europe and the Middle and Far East covering the period 450-1500.Medieval warfare was dominated by the attack and defence of f

Sieges were the predominant form of warfare across the medieval world and siege methods and technology developed alongside improvements in defence. This book goes back to the original sources to pres

Bringing together the surviving material and manuscript evidence, this book looks closely at a fascinating medieval sundial in the form of a ship. It considers who made and used the surviving instrume

"An extremely ample survey, and yet fully mastered...Lobban neatly outlines how the regions extending beyond the first cataract of the Nile yielded contributions that proved to be fundamental for the

A painstaking look into everything that has to do with medieval towns in the lesser-known Romanian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. A new and fascinating perspective on the history of the urb

Replete with terror, passion, and hope, this gripping narrative history explores the intricate mysteries of medieval Europe?through the lives of the great heretics whose beliefs and practices challeng

Galbert of Bruges's The Murder, Betrayal and Assassination of the Glorious Charles, Count of Flanders is one of the most widely read books of the Middle Ages. It recounts the assassination of Charles,

Tosa Mitsunobu and the Small Scroll in Medieval Japan is the first book-length study to focus on short-story small scrolls (ko-e), one of the most complex but visually appealing forms of early Japanes

The medieval period was one of extraordinary literary achievement sustained over centuries of great change, anchored by the Norman invasion and its aftermath, the re-emergence of English as the nation's leading literary language in the fourteenth century and the advent of print in the fifteenth. This Companion spans four full centuries to survey this most formative and turbulent era in the history of literature in English. Exploring the period's key authors - Chaucer, Langland, the Gawain-Poet, Margery Kempe, among many - and genres - plays, romances, poems and epics - the book offers an overview of the riches of medieval writing. The essays map out the flourishing field of medieval literary studies and point towards new directions and approaches. Designed to be accessible to students, the book also features a chronology and guide to further reading.

The medieval period was one of extraordinary literary achievement sustained over centuries of great change, anchored by the Norman invasion and its aftermath, the re-emergence of English as the nation's leading literary language in the fourteenth century and the advent of print in the fifteenth. This Companion spans four full centuries to survey this most formative and turbulent era in the history of literature in English. Exploring the period's key authors - Chaucer, Langland, the Gawain-Poet, Margery Kempe, among many - and genres - plays, romances, poems and epics - the book offers an overview of the riches of medieval writing. The essays map out the flourishing field of medieval literary studies and point towards new directions and approaches. Designed to be accessible to students, the book also features a chronology and guide to further reading.

Central to Islamic practice and law, the term hadith is applied to first-hand reports of the Prophet Muhammad's words and deeds, passed from generation to generation. Informative and accessible, this

This volume investigates the changing roles of animals in medieval culture, economy and society in the period 1000 to 1400. The period saw significant changes in scientific and philosophical approache

This thoughtfully produced study presents analysis of daily life based on archaeological excavation at four sites in Sweden, Skinnerud, Skramle, Saxholmen, and Edsholm. A lengthy introduction presents

Central to Islamic practice and law, the term hadith is applied to first-hand reports of the Prophet Muhammad's words and deeds, passed from generation to generation. Informative and accessible, this

While there has been a great tradition of scholarship in medieval manuscripts, most studies have focused on the details of manuscript production by male copyists. In this study, Cynthia J. Cyrus demon

Emily Steiner describes the rich intersections between legal documents and English literature in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The literature of this period, from Passion lyrics to Lollard sermons, abounds in documentary language and metaphors. Steiner argues that documentary culture (including charters, testaments, patents and seals) enabled writers to think in new ways about the conditions of textual production in late medieval England. She explains that the distinctive rhetoric, material form and ritual performance of legal documents offered writers of Chaucer's generation and the generation succeeding him a model of literary practice. Covering a wide variety of medieval texts: sermons, lyrics, Piers Plowman, Mum and the Sothsegger, The Book of Margery Kempe, heretical writings and trial records, this study will be of interest to scholars of medieval literary studies and medieval studies in general.

In Translations of Authority in Medieval English Literature, leading critic Alastair Minnis presents the fruits of a long-term engagement with the ways in which crucial ideological issues were deployed in vernacular texts. The concept of the vernacular is seen as possessing a value far beyond the category of language - as encompassing popular beliefs and practices which could either confirm or contest those authorized by church and state institutions. Minnis addresses the crisis for vernacular translation precipitated by the Lollard heresy; the minimal engagement with Nominalism in late fourteenth-century poetry; Langland's views on indulgences; the heretical theology of Walter Brut; Margery Kempe's self-promoting biblical exegesis; and Chaucer's tales of suspicious saints and risible relics. These discussions disclose different aspects of 'vernacularity', enabling a fuller understanding of its complexity and potency.

Astrology is a major feature of contemporary popular culture. Recent research indicates that 99% of adults in the modern west know their birth sign. In the modern west astrology thr

The period we know as the Middle Ages, roughly the years 400-1400, saw the formation of ideas and institutions that mark modern societies. Developments as disparate as the foundation of Islam and the

In this interdisciplinary collaboration, an international group of scholars have come together to suggest new directions for the study of the family in Scotland circa 1300-1750. Contributors apply too

The Theatre of Medieval Europe brings together the work of thirteen internationally recognized scholars of early drama to give a comprehensive account of recent findings in the field. Whilst reflecting the large body of research on English drama, the book widens the focus of its survey to represent the continental theatre of the period, with a succession of essays covering England, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, central Europe and the Low Countries. In addition, it deals with Latin musical and liturgical drama, and addresses both the archival and stage-orientated aspects of theatre research. In reviewing the field in this way, this collection not only offers an account of recent discoveries across a range of countries and types of drama, but also suggests the comparative and interdisciplinary ground on which these fields of research may increasingly come to meet and cross-fertilise one another in the future. A major feature of the book is its authoritative, chronological and fully-inde

This study covers the history of the underage male kings of England, examining their historical relationship to one another and assessing their collective impact on the political and constitutional de