The current focus on the theme of authorship in Medieval and Early Modern studies reopens questions of poetic agency and intent. Bringing into conversation several kinds of scholarship on medieval authorship, the essays in Author, Reader, Book examine interrelated questions raised by the relationship between an author and a reader, the relationships between authors and their antecedents, and the ways in which authorship interacts with the physical presentation of texts in books.The broad chronological range within this volume reveals the persistence of literary concerns that remain consistent through different periods, languages, and cultural contexts. Theoretical reflections, case studies from a wide variety of languages, examinations of devotional literature from figures such as Bishop Reginald Pecock, and analyses of works that are more secular in focus, including some by Chaucer and Christine de Pizan, come together in this volume to transcend linguistic and disciplinary boundaries.

In this book, Pascal Buresi and Hicham El Aallaoui edit, translate, and study an Arabic manuscript of the Royal Library of Rabat, containing 77 appointments of provincial officials. The Almohad Caliphs were the first Berbers to unite the whole Maghrib and the Iberian Peninsula under an imperial ideology elaborated at the end of the 12th C.E. by the most famous scholars, such as Averroes. This peripheral Islamic dynasty produced a pragmatic documentation that provides exceptional information about the administrative, political, ideological, and religious organisation of the largest medieval European-African Empire. Buresi and El Aallaoui convincingly stress the importance of the literature of the Chancellery in renewing the history of power and authority in medieval Islamic lands.

Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, has been called the Stonehenge of North America. Its spectacular pueblos, or great houses, are world famous and have attracted the attention of archaeologists for more than a century. Beautifully illustrated with color and black-and-white photographs, Chaco Canyon draws on the very latest research on Chaco and its environs to tell the remarkable story of the people of the canyon, from foraging bands and humble farmers to the elaborate society that flourished between the tenth and twelfth centuries A.D. Brian Fagan is a master story teller, and he weaves the latest discoveries into a compelling narrative of people living in a harsh, unpredictable environment. Indeed, this is not a story about artifacts and dusty digs, but a riveting narrative of people in the distant past, going about their daily business, living and dying, loving, raising children, living in plenty and in hunger, pondering the cosmos, and facing the unpredictable challenges of the environment. Drawing on rare access to the records of the Chaco Synthesis Project, Fagan reveals a society where agriculture and religion went hand-in-hand, where the ritual power of Chaco's leaders drew pilgrims from distant communities bearing gifts. He describes the lavish burials in the heart of Pueblo Bonito, which offer clues about the identity of Chaco's shadowy leaders. And he explores the enduring mystery of Chaco's sudden decline in the face of savage drought and shows how its legacy survives into modern times. Here then is the first authoritative account of the Chaco people written for a general audience, lending a fascinating human face to one of America's most famous archaeological sites.

"Necessary Conjunctions" is an original study of how regular medieval people created their public social identities. Focusing especially on the world of English townspeople in the later Middle Ages, the book explores the social self, the public face of the individual. It gives special attention to how prevalent norms of honor, fidelity and hierarchy guided and were manipulated by medieval citizens. With variable success, medieval men and women defined themselves and each other by the clothes they work, the goods they cherished, as well as by their alliances and enemies, their sharp tongues and petty violence. Employing a highly interdisciplinary methodology and an original theory makes it possible to see how personal agency and identity developed within the framework of later medieval power structures.

This volume contains a series of articles - both reviews and case studies - dealing with a range of topics related to the history of education and learning in the Netherlands during a crucial period of transition. Schooling saw enormous progress, both in terms of numbers of people participating in it on various levels and of increasing diversity of institutions providing education. In the same period, learning and education penetrated deeply into society; they fulfilled a steadily growing number of functions, enhancing the competence of officials and contributing to the accumulation of intellectual and symbolic capital by both individuals and groups. A third major development was the change of discourse which was brought about by the advent of humanism in both Latin and vernacular culture. Contributors include: Arnoud-Jan A. Bijsterveld, Sabrina Corbellini, Peter van Dael, Mario Damen, Karel Davids, Arjan van Dixhoorn, Hildo van Engen, Koen Goudriaan, Antheun Janse, Madelon van Luijk, Jaap van Moolenbroek, Bart Ramakers, Marijke Spies, Ad Tervoort, Ilja M. Veldman, Gerrit Verhoeven, and Samme Zijlstra+.

This is a fascinating story of the meteoric rise and fall of one of the grandest noble families in medieval England set against the backdrop of Viking raids and the Norman Conquest of 1066. Among the most famous families in English history was that of the Earl Godwin of Wessex ,whose most famous son was King Harold. KEY TOPICS: This is the history of the powerful Godwin dynasty, from the mystery of their ancestral origins and background, to their rise to power under King Cnut, and their opportunism and accumulation of wealth under his successors. Frank Barlow charts the family through to Harold - the last Anglo-Saxon king - and finally the crowning of William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest. It was a period of violent upheaval in English history with Viking attacks and the conquest of England by Danish kings. The author unravels the gripping history of a feuding family that nevertheless determined the course and fortunes of all the English. MARKET: For those interested in Medieval, British or Scandinavian history.

The women in the family which ruled 13th-century Castile used maternity, familial and political strategy, and religious and cultural patronage to secure their personal power as well as to promote their lineage. Leonor of England, and her daughters Blanche of Castile (Queen of France), Urraca (Queen of Portugal), Costanza (a Cistercian nun of Las Huelgas) and Leonor, (Queen of Aragon) provide the context for a study focusing on Berenguela of Castile, Queen of Leon through marriage and of Castile by right of inheritance, whose most significant accomplishment was to enable the successful rule of her son Fernando.

The history of the Lollard movement is intimately concerned with their writings and literacy. The connection between the writings of Wyclif himself and Lollars popularisers in Latin and English has never been clear, especially in the crucial years between Wyclif's death in 1382 and archbishop Arundel's visitation of Oxford in 1411. Anne Hudson's work in this fields is the most important contribution to the subject. As editor of English Wycliffite Sermons and Selections From Wycliffite Writings,her work is based on a uniquely close study of the manuscript sources. Lollards and Their Books brings together the articles that she has published since 1971; together they make indisepensable reading for anyone interested in the history or the literature of the period.Anne Hudson shows that the debate on translating the Bible was not closed by the condemnation of Wyclif himself, but continued until Arundel's Constitutions; she examines the material for the life and work of John Purvey, for long held to be one of Wyclif's principal successors, and demonstrates the significance of the Opus Aruduum, written within the six years of Wyclif's death, as evidence for the progress of Lollardy in Oxford at that time. As well as discussing the dissemination of Lollard thought and the production of Lollard books, Anne Hudson discusses how far the Lollard heresy was connected with the use of English in theological topics, the examination of Lollards by the authorities, the links between Hussites in Bohemia and Wcyliffites in England as shown by manuscripts, and the printing of Lollard texts in the early years of the Reformation.

All divisions of history into periods are artificial in proportion as they are precise. In history there is, strictly speaking, no end and no beginning. Each event is the product of an infinite series of causes, the starting-point of an infinite series of effects. Language and thought, government and manners, transform themselves by imperceptible degrees; with the result that every age is an age of transition, not fully intelligible unless regarded as the child of a past and the parent of a future. Even so the species of the animal and vegetable kingdoms shade off one into another until, if we only observe the marginal cases, we are inclined to doubt whether the species is more than a figment of the mind. Yet the biologist is prepared to defend the idea of species; and in like manner the historian holds that the distinction between one phase of culture and another is real enough to justify, and, indeed, to demand, the use of distingui-shing names.

In this compelling book Nigel Saul opens up the world of medieval gentry families, using the magnificent brasses and monuments of the Cobham family as a window on to the social and religious culture of the middle ages.

This book reconsiders a wide array of images of Byzantine empresses on media as diverse as bronze coins and gold mosaic from the fifth through seventh centuries A.D. The representations have often been viewed in terms of individual personas, but strong typological currents frame their medieval context. Empress Theodora, the target of political pornography, has consumed the bulk of past interest, but even her representations fit these patterns. Methodological tools from fields as disparate as numismatics as well as cultural and gender studies help clarify the broader cultural significance of female imperial representation and patronage at this time.

In this collection of essays Robin Frame concentrates upon two main themes: the place of the Lordship of Ireland within the Plantagenet state; and the interaction of settler society and English government in the culturally hybrid frontier world of later medieval Ireland itself. As a preludeto both these themes, Ireland and Britain, 1170-1450 begins with a hitherto unpublished discussion of why 'the first English conquest of Ireland' has been viewed as a failure, and has rarely received the attention it deserves.
The first group of essays addresses such topics as the changing character of the aristocratic networks that bound Ireland to britain; the impact of the Scottish invasion led by Edward and Robert Bruce in the early fourteenth centruy; the identity of the 'English' political community that emerged in Ireland by the reign of Edward III; and the case for a broadly conceived British history, incorporating rather than excluding the English of Ireland. The subsequent group explore the character of Irish warfare, the adaptation of English institutions to a marcher environment; the exercise of power by regional magnates; and the complex practical interactions between royal government and Gaelic Irish Leaders.

The Iberian Peninsula has always been an integral part of the Mediterranean world, from the age of Tartessos and the Phoenicians to our own era and the Union for the Mediterranean. The cutting-edge essays in this volume examine what it means for medieval and early modern Iberia and its people to be considered as part of the Mediterranean.

The varied cultural functions of dress, textiles and clothwork provide an especially cogent lens through which to reexamine our assumptions about the Middle Ages because of the topic's conceptual breadth. Its implications range from the highly theoretical to the very concrete. At one end of the spectrum, questions of dress call up feminist theoretical investigations into the body and subjectivity, while broadening those inquiries to include theories of masculinity as well. At the other extreme, the production and distribution of textiles carries us into the domain of economic history and the study of material commodities, trade and cultural patterns of exchange within western Europe and between east and west. Contributors to this volume represent a broad array of disciplines currently involved in rethinking medieval culture in terms of the material world.

This unique look at the town of Westminster is a study of the nature of the urban community in the late Middle Ages. As a small town, characterized by a complex economy and society but lacking legal incorporation, Westminster typified the large yet neglected class of medieval urban centers. Rosser here examines the forces that existed to contain tensions and ensure continuity in the community. The regular expressions of shared interests and common identity--in local government, parochial life, and the activities of guilds--are shown to be essential to the survival of the town. A valuable contribution to the study of the social and economic history of the late Middle Ages, this work will be of interest to students of late medieval economic and social history as well as to urban historians.

From a renowned historian who writes with "maximum vividness" ("The New Yorker") comes the most authoritative, readable single-volume history of the brutal struggle for the holy land

Nine hundred years ago, a vast Christian army, summoned to holy war by the Pope, rampaged through the Muslim world of the eastern Mediterranean, seizing possession of Jerusalem, a city revered by both faiths. Over the two hundred years that followed, Islam and Christianity fought for dominion of the Holy Land, clashing in a succession of chillingly brutal wars: the Crusades. Here for the first time is the story of that epic struggle told from the perspective of both Christians and Muslims. A vivid and fast-paced narrative history, it exposes the full horror, passion, and barbaric grandeur of the Crusading era, revealing how these holy wars reshaped the medieval world and why they continue to influence events today.

This is an innovative analysis of the relationship between women's economic opportunity and marriage in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is based on an intensive study of York and Yorkshire, but also utilizes evidence from other parts of England and continental Europe. P. J. P. Goldberg explores the role of women in the economy and the part that marriage played in their lives. Importantly, he challenges the Wrigley and Schofield thesis of nuptiality: his analysis of the demography of marriage demonstrates that in late medieval Yorkshire, women participated strongly in the labour force, deferring marriage or avoiding it entirely. This is a stimulating and intelligent book, which makes an important contribution to our understanding of medieval ways of life.

Settled for many thousands of years by Native Americans, who had developed extensive, varied and long-lasting cultures across the continent, North America's economic development on the eve of the European invasions was not hugely dissimilar to that of the European settlers themselves. 

The author of the present volume aims to investigate the relationships between Romanians and nomadic Turkic groups (Pechenegs, Uzes, Cumans) in the southern half of Moldavia, north of the Danube Delta, between the tenth century and the great Mongol invasion of 1241-1242. The Carpathian-Danubian area particularly favoured the development of sedentary life, throughout the millennia, but, at various times, nomadic pastoralists of the steppes also found this area favourable to their own way of life. Due to the basic features of its landscape, the above-mentioned area, which includes a vast plain, became the main political stage of the Romanian ethnic space, a stage on which local communities had to cope with the pressures of successive intrusions of nomadic Turks, attracted by the rich pastures north of the Lower Danube. Contacts of the Romanians and of the Turkic nomads with Byzantium, Kievan Rus', Bulgaria and Hungary are also investigated. The conclusions of the volume are based on an analysis of both written sources (narrative, diplomatic, cartographic) and archaeological finds.

Francis Oakley continues his magisterial three-part history of the emergence of Western political thought during the Middle Ages with this second volume in the series. Here, Oakley explores kingship from the tenth century to the beginning of the fourteenth, showing how, under the stresses of religious and cultural development, kingship became an inceasingly secular institution. "A masterpiece and the central part of a trilogy that will be a true masterwork."-Jeffrey Burton Russell, University of California, Santa Barbara

This study examines the post-medieval reception of Vienna's women's monastic institutions as historical icons of the medieval past. Over time, the eight major women's convents of Vienna become linked in the popular mind with the broader mythology of "Alt-Wien," the old Vienna. Accounts of the city in geographical materials of the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries - maps and panoramas, topographies, travel literature, and Vienna-centric folktale collections - frequently allude to the convents' former identities at the expense of their ongoing presence as active female religious establishments. By teasing out the way people think about the physical and historical place such women's institutions held in this important urban and political center, Received Medievalisms provides a new picture of the ways in which the medieval shapes later understandings of women's role and agency within the city.

Eating and drinking are essential to life and therefore of great interest to the historian. As well as having a real fascination in their own right, both activities are an integral part of the both social and economic history. Yet food and drink, especially in the middle ages, have received less than their proper share of attention. The essays in this volume approach their subject from a variety of angles: from the reality of starvation and the reliance on 'fast food' of those without cooking facilities, to the consumption of an English lady's household and the career of a cook in the French royal household.

Bodzia is one of the most fascinating archaeological discoveries of the post-war period in Poland. It is one of the few cemeteries in Poland from the time of the origins of the Polish state. The unique character of this discovery is mainly due to the fact that a small, elite population was buried there. The burials there included people whose origins were connected with the Slavic, Nomadic-Khazarian and Scandinavian milieus. For the first time the evidence from this area is given prominence. This book is designed mainly for readers outside Poland. The reader is offered a collection of chapters, combining analyses and syntheses of the source material, and a discussion of its etno-cultural and political significance. The authors formulate new hypotheses and ideas, which put the discoveries in a broader European context. Contributors are Wieslaw Bogdanowicz, Mateusz Bogucki, Andrzej Buko, Magdalena M. Bus, Maria Dekowna, Alicja Drozd-Lipinska, Wladyslaw Duczko, Karin Margarita Frei, Tomasz Goslar, Tomasz Grzybowski, Zdzislaw Hensel, Iwona Hildebrandt-Radke, Michal Kara, Joanna Koszalka, Anna B. Kowalska, Tomasz Kozlowski, Marek Krapiec, Roman Michalowski, Michael Muller-Wille, T. Douglas Price, Tomasz Purowski, Tomasz Sawicki, Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka, Stanislaw Suchodolski and Kinga Zamelska-Monczak.