0
Your cart

Your cart is empty

Browse All Departments
Price
  • R50 - R100 (2)
  • R100 - R250 (341)
  • R250 - R500 (1,536)
  • R500+ (14,239)
  • -
Status
Format
Author / Contributor
Publisher

Books > Humanities > History > World history > 500 to 1500

The Horde - How the Mongols Changed the World (Paperback): Marie Favereau The Horde - How the Mongols Changed the World (Paperback)
Marie Favereau
R509 R414 Discovery Miles 4 140 Save R95 (19%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Cundill Prize Finalist A Financial Times Book of the Year A Spectator Book of the Year A Five Books Book of the Year The Mongols are known for one thing: conquest. But in this first comprehensive history of the Horde, the western portion of the Mongol empire that arose after the death of Chinggis Khan, Marie Favereau takes us inside one of the most powerful engines of economic integration in world history to show that their accomplishments extended far beyond the battlefield. Central to the extraordinary commercial boom that brought distant civilizations in contact for the first time, the Horde had a unique political regime-a complex power-sharing arrangement between the khan and nobility-that rewarded skillful administrators and fostered a mobile, innovative economic order. From their capital on the lower Volga River, the Mongols influenced state structures in Russia and across the Islamic world, disseminated sophisticated theories about the natural world, and introduced new ideas of religious tolerance. An eloquent, ambitious, and definitive portrait of an empire that has long been too little understood, The Horde challenges our assumptions that nomads are peripheral to history and makes it clear that we live in a world shaped by Mongols. "The Mongols have been ill-served by history, the victims of an unfortunate mixture of prejudice and perplexity...The Horde flourished, in Favereau's fresh, persuasive telling, precisely because it was not the one-trick homicidal rabble of legend." -Wall Street Journal "Fascinating...The Mongols were a sophisticated people with an impressive talent for government and a sensitive relationship with the natural world...An impressively researched and intelligently reasoned book." -The Times

War and Collective Identities in the Middle Ages - East, West, and Beyond (Hardcover, New edition): Yannis Stouraitis War and Collective Identities in the Middle Ages - East, West, and Beyond (Hardcover, New edition)
Yannis Stouraitis
R3,640 Discovery Miles 36 400 Ships in 12 - 17 working days
Medieval Herbal Remedies - The Old English Herbarium and Early-Medieval Medicine (Hardcover, 2nd edition): Anne Van Arsdall Medieval Herbal Remedies - The Old English Herbarium and Early-Medieval Medicine (Hardcover, 2nd edition)
Anne Van Arsdall
R3,761 Discovery Miles 37 610 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Featured here is a modern translation of a medieval herbal, with a study showing how this technical treatise on herbs was turned into a literary curiosity in the nineteenth century. The contours of this second edition replicate the first; however, it has been revised and updated throughout to reflect new scholarship and new findings. New information is presented on Oswald Cockayne, the nineteenth-century philologist who first translated the Old English medical texts for the modern world. Here the medieval text is read as an example of technical writing (i.e., intended to convey instructions/information), not as literature. The audience it was originally aimed at would know how to diagnose and treat medical conditions and knew or was learning how to follow its instructions. For that reason, while working on the translation, specialists in relevant fields were asked to shed light on its terse wording, for example, herbalists and physicians. Unlike many current studies, this work discusses the Herbarium and other medical texts in Old English as part of a tradition developed throughout early-medieval Europe associated with monasteries and their libraries. The book is intended for scholars in cross-cultural fields; that is, with roots in one field and branches in several, such as nineteenth-century or medieval studies, for historians of herbalism, medicine, pharmacy, botany, and of the Western Middle Ages, broadly and inclusively defined, and for readers interested in the history of herbalism and medicine.

The Reivers - The Story of the Border Reivers (Paperback, New edition): Alistair Moffat The Reivers - The Story of the Border Reivers (Paperback, New edition)
Alistair Moffat 1
R344 R313 Discovery Miles 3 130 Save R31 (9%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

From the early fourteenth century to the end of the sixteenth, the Anglo-Scottish borderlands witnessed one of the most intense periods of warfare and disorder ever seen in modern Europe. As a consequence of near-constant conflict between England and Scotland, Borderers suffered at the hands of marauding armies, who ravaged the land, destroying crops, slaughtering cattle, burning settlements and killing indiscriminately. Forced by extreme circumstances, many Borderers took to reiving to ensure the survival of their families and communities, and for the best part of 300 years, countless raiding parties made their way over the border. The story of the Reivers is one of survival, stealth, treachery, ingenuity and deceit, expertly brought to life in Alistair Moffat's acclaimed book.

Women, Wealth, and Community in Perpignan, c. 1250-1300 - Christians, Jews, and Enslaved Muslims in a Medieval Mediterranean... Women, Wealth, and Community in Perpignan, c. 1250-1300 - Christians, Jews, and Enslaved Muslims in a Medieval Mediterranean Town (Paperback)
Rebecca Lynn Winer
R1,185 Discovery Miles 11 850 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Women, Wealth, and Community in Perpignan, c. 1250-1300 investigates the gender system at work in medieval Perpignan. Using a series of notarial registers - unique as surviving records for the social history of the thirteenth-century realms of Aragon and Majorca, the political confederations to which this town belonged - Rebecca L. Winer opens a window onto the experiences of women and their families. Her interpretive framework reveals medieval assumptions about the distinct natures of Christian, Jewish, and enslaved Muslim women by analyzing which actions were curbed, controlled, or fostered in these different groups. Sensitive to questions of social rank and marital status, the book departs from traditional women's history by asking how a woman's religious identity factored in determining her economic and legal options in this society. As a frontier town, Perpignan lends itself well to an analysis of relations among Christians, Jews and Muslim slaves. The later thirteenth century also provides an ideal focus for this inquiry since the politics of Christian expansion and the economics of the western Mediterranean meant that Jewish communities flourished. In contrast, Christian/Muslim relations unfolded particularly tensely due to intermittent conflict and both groups' slave trade almost exclusively in each other's people. Winer reconstructs how the members of these three communities negotiated shared space, conducting all manner of exchanges, making (endogamous) marriages, wills, commercial contracts, and arranging for the care of children whose fathers were lost to war or disease. The first section of the book focuses on women's legal status, work and control of financial resources in the two dominant communities, Christian and Jewish, across the social spectrum. It goes on to compare the ways in which mothers' relationships to their children were understood in the Christian and Jewish communities. The book concludes by entering the homes of Christian

Metaphysics and Hermeneutics in the Medieval Platonic Tradition (Paperback): Stephen Gersh Metaphysics and Hermeneutics in the Medieval Platonic Tradition (Paperback)
Stephen Gersh
R1,188 Discovery Miles 11 880 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Metaphysics and Hermeneutics in the Medieval Platonic Tradition consists of twelve essays originally published between 2006 and 2015, dealing with main trends and specific figures within the medieval Platonic tradition. Three essays provide general surveys of the transmission of late ancient thought to the Middle Ages with emphasis on the ancient authors, the themes, and their medieval readers, respectively. The remaining essays deal especially with certain major figures in the Platonic tradition, including pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Iohannes Scottus Eriugena, and Nicholas of Cusa. The principal conceptual aim of the collection is to establish the primacy of hermeneutics within the philosophical program developed by these authors: in other words, to argue that their philosophical activity, substantially albeit not exclusively, consists of the reading and evaluation of authoritative texts. The essays also argue that the role of hermeneutics varies in the course of the tradition between being a means towards the development of metaphysical theory and being an integral component of metaphysics itself. In addition, such changes in the status and application of hermeneutics to metaphysics are shown to be accompanied by a shift from emphasizing the connection between logic and philosophy to emphasizing that between rhetoric and philosophy. The collection of essays fills in a lacuna in the history of philosophy in general between the fifth and the fifteenth centuries. It also initiates a dialogue between the metaphysical hermeneutics of medieval Platonism and certain modern theories of hermeneutics, structuralism, and deconstruction. The book will be of special interest to students of the classical tradition in western thought, and more generally to students of medieval philosophy, theology, history, and literature. (CS1094).

The Conquest of Santarem and Goswin's Song of the Conquest of Alcacer do Sal - Editions and Translations of De... The Conquest of Santarem and Goswin's Song of the Conquest of Alcacer do Sal - Editions and Translations of De expugnatione Scalabis and Gosuini de expugnatione Salaciae carmen (Paperback)
Jonathan Wilson
R1,174 Discovery Miles 11 740 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Achieved at the height of the Crusades, the Christian conquests of Santarem in 1147 by King Afonso I, and of Alcacer do Sal in 1217 by Portuguese forces and northern European warriors on their way by sea to Palestine, were crucial events in the creation of the independent kingdom of Portugal. The two texts presented here survive in their unique, thirteenth-century manuscript copies appended to a codex belonging to one of Europe's most important monastic library collections accumulated in the Cistercian abbey of Alcobaca, founded c. 1153 by Bernard of Clairvaux. Accompanied by comprehensive introductions and here translated into English for the first time, these extraordinary texts are based on eyewitness testimony of the conquests. They contain much detail for the military historian, including data on operational tactics and the ideology of Christian holy war in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Literary historians too will be delighted by the astonishing styles deployed, demonstrating considerable authorial flamboyance, flair and innovation. While they are likely written by Goswin of Bossut, the search for authorship yields an impressive array of literary friends and associates, including James of Vitry, Thomas of Cantimpre, Oliver of Paderborn and Caesarius of Heisterbach.

The Making of Early Kashmir - Intercultural Networks and the Identity Formation (Hardcover): Muhammad Ashraf Wani, Aman Ashraf... The Making of Early Kashmir - Intercultural Networks and the Identity Formation (Hardcover)
Muhammad Ashraf Wani, Aman Ashraf Wani
R3,766 Discovery Miles 37 660 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This is the first full-length history of early Kashmir locating it beyond its regional context, from pre-history to the 13th century. Drawing on a variety of sources - including conventional archaeological and literary sources, as well as non-conventional sources like philology, toponym, surnames - it presents a connected history of early Kashmir over the longue duree. It also challenges tendencies towards nationalist historiographies of the region by situating it in the context of the shared histories of humanity. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, archaeology, and South Asian studies.

The Routledge History of Medieval Magic (Paperback): Sophie Page, Catherine Rider The Routledge History of Medieval Magic (Paperback)
Sophie Page, Catherine Rider
R1,406 Discovery Miles 14 060 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

The Routledge History of Medieval Magic brings together the work of scholars from across Europe and North America to provide extensive insights into recent developments in the study of medieval magic between c.1100 and c.1500. This book covers a wide range of topics, including the magical texts which circulated in medieval Europe, the attitudes of intellectuals and churchmen to magic, the ways in which magic intersected with other aspects of medieval culture, and the early witch trials of the fifteenth century. In doing so, it offers the reader a detailed look at the impact that magic had within medieval society, such as its relationship to gender roles, natural philosophy, and courtly culture. This is furthered by the book's interdisciplinary approach, containing chapters dedicated to archaeology, literature, music, and visual culture, as well as texts and manuscripts. The Routledge History of Medieval Magic also outlines how research on this subject could develop in the future, highlighting under-explored subjects, unpublished sources, and new approaches to the topic. It is the ideal book for both established scholars and students of medieval magic.

Byzantine Military Rhetoric in the Ninth Century - A Translation of the Anonymi Byzantini Rhetorica Militaris (Hardcover):... Byzantine Military Rhetoric in the Ninth Century - A Translation of the Anonymi Byzantini Rhetorica Militaris (Hardcover)
Georgios Theotokis, Dimitrios Sidiropoulos
R1,496 Discovery Miles 14 960 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

Byzantine Military Rhetoric in the Ninth Century is the first English translation of the ninth-century Anonymi Byzantini Rhetorica Militaris. This influential text offers a valuable insight into the warrior ethic of the period, the role of religion in the justification of war, and the view of other military cultures by the Byzantine elite. It also played a crucial role in the compilation of the tenth-century Taktika and Constantine VII's harangues during a period of intense military activity for the Byzantine Empire on its eastern borders. Including a detailed commentary and critical introduction to the author and the structure of the text, this book will appeal to all those interested in Byzantine political ideology and military history.

Communicating Papal Authority in the Middle Ages (Hardcover): Minoru Ozawa, Georg Strack, Thomas W Smith Communicating Papal Authority in the Middle Ages (Hardcover)
Minoru Ozawa, Georg Strack, Thomas W Smith
R3,758 Discovery Miles 37 580 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This book bridges Japanese and European scholarly approaches to ecclesiastical history to provide new insights into how the papacy conceptualised its authority and attempted to realise and communicate that authority in ecclesiastical and secular spheres across Christendom. Adopting a broad, yet cohesive, temporal and geographical approach that spans the Early to the Late Middle Ages, from Europe to Asia, the book focuses on the different media used to represent authority, the structures through which authority was channelled and the restrictions that popes faced in so doing, and the less certain expression of papal authority on the edges of Christendom. Through twelve chapters that encompass key topics such as anti-popes, artistic representations, preaching, heresy, the crusades, and mission and the East, this interdisciplinary volume brings new perspectives to bear on the medieval papacy. The book demonstrates that the communication of papal authority was a two-way process effected by the popes and their supporters, but also by their enemies who helped to shape concepts of ecclesiastical power. Communicating Papal Authority in the Middle Ages will appeal to researchers and students alike interested in the relationships between the papacy and medieval society and the ways in which the papacy negotiated and expressed its authority in Europe and beyond.

Mobile Saints - Relic Circulation, Devotion, and Conflict in the Central Middle Ages (Hardcover): Kate Craig Mobile Saints - Relic Circulation, Devotion, and Conflict in the Central Middle Ages (Hardcover)
Kate Craig
R3,833 Discovery Miles 38 330 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

Mobile Saints examines the central medieval (ca. 950-1150 CE) practice of removing saints' relics from rural monasteries in order to take them on out-and-back journeys, particularly within northern France and the Low Countries. Though the permanent displacements of relics-translations- have long been understood as politically and culturally significant activities, these temporary circulations have received relatively little attention. Yet the act of taking a medieval relic from its "home," even for a short time, had the power to transform the object, the people it encountered, and the landscape it traveled through. Using hagiographical and liturgical texts, this study reveals both the opportunities and tensions associated with these movements: circulating relics extended the power of the saint into the wider world, but could also provoke public displays of competition, mockery, and resistance. By contextualizing these effects within the discourses and practices that surrounded traveling relics, Mobile Saints emphasizes the complexities of the central medieval cult of relics and its participants, while speaking to broader questions about the role of movement in negotiating the relationships between sacred objects, space, and people.

Viking-Age Trade - Silver, Slaves and Gotland (Paperback): Jacek Gruszczynski, Marek Jankowiak, Jonathan Shepard Viking-Age Trade - Silver, Slaves and Gotland (Paperback)
Jacek Gruszczynski, Marek Jankowiak, Jonathan Shepard
R1,291 Discovery Miles 12 910 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

That there was an influx of silver dirhams from the Muslim world into eastern and northern Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries is well known, as is the fact that the largest concentration of hoards is on the Baltic island of Gotland. Recent discoveries have shown that dirhams were reaching the British Isles, too. What brought the dirhams to northern Europe in such large numbers? The fur trade has been proposed as one driver for transactions, but the slave trade offers another - complementary - explanation. This volume does not offer a comprehensive delineation of the hoard finds, or a full answer to the question of what brought the silver north. But it highlights the trade in slaves as driving exchanges on a trans-continental scale. By their very nature, the nexuses were complex, mutable and unclear even to contemporaries, and they have eluded modern scholarship. Contributions to this volume shed light on processes and key places: the mints of Central Asia; the chronology of the inflows of dirhams to Rus and northern Europe; the reasons why silver was deposited in the ground and why so much ended up on Gotland; the functioning of networks - perhaps comparable to the twenty-first-century drug trade; slave-trading in the British Isles; and the stimulus and additional networks that the Vikings brought into play. This combination of general surveys, presentations of fresh evidence and regional case studies sets Gotland and the early medieval slave trade in a firmer framework than has been available before.

The Cursed Carolers in Context (Paperback): Lynneth Miller Renberg, Bradley Phillis The Cursed Carolers in Context (Paperback)
Lynneth Miller Renberg, Bradley Phillis
R1,172 Discovery Miles 11 720 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The Cursed Carolers in Context explores the interplay between the forms and contexts in which the tale of the cursed carolers circulated and the meanings it had for medieval and early modern authors and audiences. The story of the cursed carolers has circulated in Europe since the eleventh century. In this story, a group of people in a village in Saxony skip Christmas mass to perform a circle dance in the cemetery, only to be cursed and forced to keep dancing for a whole year. By approaching the story in specific historical contexts, this book shows how the story of the cursed carolers became a space in which medieval readers, writers, and listeners could debate the meaning and significance of a surprising variety of questions, including ecclesiastical authority, gender roles, pastoral responsibility, and even the conduct of crusades. This consideration of the interplay between text and context sheds new light on how and why the story of the dancers achieved such popularity in the Middle Ages, and how its meanings developed and changed throughout the period. This book will appeal to scholars and students of medieval European history, literature, and dance, as well as those interested in cultural history.

Medieval Rus' and Early Modern Russia - Texts and Contexts (Hardcover): Susana Torres Prieto, Andrei Franklin Medieval Rus' and Early Modern Russia - Texts and Contexts (Hardcover)
Susana Torres Prieto, Andrei Franklin
R3,765 Discovery Miles 37 650 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Research on the East Slavs in the medieval period has considerably changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The emergence of new states forced a rethinking of many aspects of the history and culture of the early East Slavs as the subject became increasingly disentangled from the umbrella of Byzantine studies and fruitful collaboration was fostered between scholars worldwide. This book, which brings together scholars from Russia, Ukraine, western Europe and North America, of several generations, presents a broad overview of the main results of the last three decades of research and mutual collaboration. This is important work, providing a much-needed counterbalance to studies of western Europe in the period, which has been the main focus of study, with the lands of the East Slavs relatively neglected.

Networking in Late Medieval Central Europe - Friends, Families, Foes (Hardcover): Beata Mozejko, Anna Orlowska, Leslie... Networking in Late Medieval Central Europe - Friends, Families, Foes (Hardcover)
Beata Mozejko, Anna Orlowska, Leslie Carr-Riegel
R3,771 Discovery Miles 37 710 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The concept of friends is considered broadly, as connections of mutual affection but also simply through business relationships. Families are considered in terms of how they helped or hindered local integration for foreigners and the matrimonial strategies they pursued. Networks were also deeply impacted by rivalry and hostility.

Coins in Churches - Archaeology, Money and Religious Devotion in Medieval Northern Europe (Hardcover): Svein H. Gullbekk,... Coins in Churches - Archaeology, Money and Religious Devotion in Medieval Northern Europe (Hardcover)
Svein H. Gullbekk, Christoph Kilger, Steinar Kristensen, Hakon Roland
R4,310 Discovery Miles 43 100 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

This book focuses on the formative period of Church reform in the Middle Ages in Northern Europe, when the Church paved the way for the development of money economy on its own doorstep. Church archaeology provides evidence for patterns of monetary use related to liturgy, church architecture and devotional culture through the centuries. This volume encompasses Alpine European evidence, with emphasis on Gotland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland, which opens up a new field of research on religion and money for an international audience. Based on 100,000 single finds of coins from the 11th to 18th centuries from 650 Scandinavian churches, the volume offers an in-depth discussion of the concepts of ritual, liturgy and devotional uses of money, monetary space and spiritual economy within the framework of Christendom, the medieval church and church architecture. Written by international scholars, Coins in Churches will be a valuable resource for readers interested in the history of religion, money, the economy, and church architecture in Northern Europe in the Middle Ages.

Edmund - In Search of England's Lost King (Paperback): Francis Young Edmund - In Search of England's Lost King (Paperback)
Francis Young
R402 Discovery Miles 4 020 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

What buried secret lies beneath the stones of one of England's greatest former churches and shrines, the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmunds? The search for the final resting place of King Edmund has led to this site, beneath which Francis Young argues the lost king's remains are waiting to be found. Edmund: In Search of England's Lost King explores the history of the martyred monarch of East Anglia and England's first patron saint, showing how he became a pivotal figure around whom Saxons, Danes and Normans all rallied. Young also examines Edmund's legacy in the centuries since his death at the hands of marauding Vikings in the 9th century. In doing so, this fascinating book points to the imminent rediscovery of the ruler who created England.

Supplications from England and Wales in the Registers of the Apostolic Penitentiary, 1410-1503 - Volume I: 1410-1464... Supplications from England and Wales in the Registers of the Apostolic Penitentiary, 1410-1503 - Volume I: 1410-1464 (Hardcover)
Peter Clark, Patrick N. R. Zutshi
R1,062 Discovery Miles 10 620 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

First edition of supplications concerning England and Wales from the Apostolic Penitentiary - an essential resource for any historian of the pre-Reformation Church. The Apostolic Penitentiary was and remains the highest office in the Catholic Church concerned with sin and matters of conscience. The papacy reserved to itself absolution from certain grave sins, and successive popes empowered the cardinal penitentiary in charge of the office to absolve sinners in these reserved cases, which included violence against or by the clergy and abandonment of the religious life. The cardinal was also authorised to grant other favours that were a papal monopoly, including dispensations, notably for marriages between close relatives normally forbidden by church law, and special licences, for example allowing confession to a personal chaplain rather than one's parish priest. Petitioners from across Western Europe requested such favours in their thousands and their supplications shed important new light on religious, social and even political history, covering themes as varied as marriage, sexual deviance, violence, the religious life, popular piety, illegitimacy, and pilgrimage. This valuable evidence, recorded in the registers of the Apostolic Penitentiary held in the Vatican Archives, has only beenavailable to researchers since 1983. This edition makes accessible for the first time over 4,000 supplications concerning England and Wales in the office's fifty earliest surviving registers; they are presented with notes and introduction and other apparatus. Peter D. Clarke is Reader in Medieval History at the University of Southampton; Patrick N.R. Zutshi is Keeper of Manuscripts and University Archives, Cambridge University Library, and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology in Cambridge - College, Church and City (Paperback): Gabriel Byng, Helen Lunnon Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology in Cambridge - College, Church and City (Paperback)
Gabriel Byng, Helen Lunnon
R1,205 Discovery Miles 12 050 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

This book shines a much needed light on the city in the later Medieval Ages. Essays include studies of buildings and objects in the city and its immediate surrounds, both from archaeological and thematic approaches. In addition, a number of chapters reflect on the legacy and influence medieval art and architecture had on the later city. The volume also provides detailed studies of some of the most important master masons, glassmakers and carpenters in the medieval city, as well as of patrons, building types and institutional development

Courtly Pastimes (Hardcover): Gloria Allaire, Julie Human Courtly Pastimes (Hardcover)
Gloria Allaire, Julie Human
R3,628 Discovery Miles 36 280 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The modern concept of passing leisure hours pleasantly would, in the Middle Ages, have fallen under the rubric of Sloth, a deadly sin. Yet aristocrats of past centuries were not always absorbed in affairs of state or warfare. What did they do in moments of peace, "downtime" as we might call it today? In this collection of essays, scholars from various disciplines investigate courtly modes of entertainment ranging from the vigorous to the intellectual: hunting, jousting, horse racing; physical and verbal games; reading, writing, and book ownership. Favorite pastimes spanned differences of gender and age, and crossed geographical and cultural boundaries. Literary and historical examples come from England, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Courtly Pastimes analyzes the underlying rationales for such activities: to display power and prestige, to acquire cultural capital, to instill a sense of community, or to build diplomatic alliances. Performativity so crucial in social rituals could become transgressive if taken to extremes. Certain chapters explore the spaces of courtliness: literal or imaginary; man-made, natural, or a hybrid of both. Other chapters concern materiality and visual elements associated with courtly pastimes: from humble children's toys and playthings to elite tournament attire, castle murals, and manuscript illuminations.

Early Medieval Scotland - Individuals, Communities and Ideas (Paperback, 2nd Alternate): David Clarke, Alice Blackwell, Martin... Early Medieval Scotland - Individuals, Communities and Ideas (Paperback, 2nd Alternate)
David Clarke, Alice Blackwell, Martin Goldberg
R816 R741 Discovery Miles 7 410 Save R75 (9%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

The elaborately carved Hilton of Cadboll stone, the house-shaped Monymusk Reliquary and the sumptuously decorated Hunterston brooch (all on view in the National Museum of Scotland) are evidence of the sophistication of Scottish craftsmen in the time AD 300-900. A pioneering partnership between National Museums Scotland and The Glenmorangie Company has supported a major programme of research into the archaeology of Scotland during the Early Medieval period. This is the paperback edition of the book first published in 2012.

Aethelstan - The First King of England (Paperback): Sarah Foot Aethelstan - The First King of England (Paperback)
Sarah Foot 1
R570 Discovery Miles 5 700 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

"AEthelstan was perhaps the most important king of tenth-century England, but we know very little about him, and he has no modern biography. Sarah Foot triumphantly fills this gap, and adds to the richness of our understanding of the period in a way that few others have managed."-Chris Wickham, author of The Inheritance Of Rome The powerful and innovative King AEthelstan reigned only briefly (924-939), yet his achievements during those eventful fifteen years changed the course of English history. He won spectacular military victories (most notably at Brunanburh), forged unprecedented political connections across Europe, and succeeded in creating the first unified kingdom of the English. To claim for him the title of "first English monarch" is no exaggeration. In this nuanced portrait of AEthelstan, Sarah Foot offers the first full account of the king ever written. She traces his life through the various spheres in which he lived and worked, beginning with the intimate context of his family, then extending outward to his unusual multiethnic royal court, the Church and his kingdom, the wars he conducted, and finally his death and legacy. Foot describes a sophisticated man who was not only a great military leader but also a worthy king. He governed brilliantly, developed creative ways to project his image as a ruler, and devised strategic marriage treaties and gift exchanges to cement alliances with the leading royal and ducal houses of Europe. AEthelstan's legacy, seen in the new light of this masterful biography, is inextricably connected to the very forging of England and early English identity.

The Bible and Jews in Medieval Spain (Paperback): Norman Roth The Bible and Jews in Medieval Spain (Paperback)
Norman Roth
R1,245 Discovery Miles 12 450 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The Bible and Jews in Medieval Spain examines the grammatical, exegetical, philosophical and mystical interpretations of the Bible that took place in Spain during the medieval period. The Bible was the foundation of Jewish culture in medieval Spain. Following the scientific analysis of Hebrew grammar which emerged in al-Andalus in the ninth and tenth centuries, biblical exegesis broke free of homiletic interpretation and explored the text on grammatical and contextual terms. While some of the earliest commentary was in Arabic, scholars began using Hebrew more regularly during this period. The first complete biblical commentaries in Hebrew were written by Abraham Ibn 'Ezra, and this set the standard for the generations that followed. This book analyses the approach and unique contributions of these commentaries, moving on to those of later Christian Spain, including the Qimhi family, Nahmanides and his followers and the esoteric-mystical tradition. Major topics in the commentaries are compared and contrasted. Thus, a unified picture of the whole fabric of Hebrew commentary in medieval Spain emerges. In addition, the book describes the many Spanish Jewish biblical manuscripts that have remained and details the history of printed editions and Spanish translations (for Jews and Christians) by medieval Spanish Jews. This book will appeal to scholars and students of medieval Spain, as well as those interested in the history of religion and cultural history.

Hunting Picts - Medieval Sculpture at St Vigeans, Angus (Paperback): Jane Geddes Hunting Picts - Medieval Sculpture at St Vigeans, Angus (Paperback)
Jane Geddes
R866 Discovery Miles 8 660 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The Drosten stone - one of Scotland's premier monuments - came to light during restoration work at St Vigeans church, near Arbroath, in the 1870s. A rare example of Pictish writing, the Drosten stone is just one in an astounding collection of exquisitely preserved Pictish sculptures discovered in and around the church. The carvings on these stones revel in Pictish inventiveness, teeming with lively naturalistic animals and innovative compositions of monsters and people, as well as both Pictish symbols and everyday objects. The sculptures' iconography also draws on a deep knowledge of Christian and classical literature, witness to a highly literate and cosmopolitan society. This definitive study of St Vigeans' Pictish stones, generously illustrated with plates of the full collection, begins in the recent past, when the sculptures began to emerge as a remarkable historic entity. It then explores the history of the sculptures, including an analysis of the carvings, the geology of the stones and attempts to extract meaning and context for this unique stone collection as part of a powerful ecclesiastical landscape.

Free Delivery
Pinterest Twitter Facebook Google+
You may like...
Old Parish Life - A guide for the…
Hardcover R603 Discovery Miles 6 030
Powers And Thrones - A New History of…
Dan Jones Paperback R395 R316 Discovery Miles 3 160
A History of the Vikings
Sir Thomas D. Kendrick Hardcover R3,911 Discovery Miles 39 110
The Plantagenets - The Kings Who Made…
Dan Jones Paperback  (1)
R385 R308 Discovery Miles 3 080
The Wobbly Kings of England
Tony Maclachlan Paperback R326 Discovery Miles 3 260
The Siege of Caerlaverock
Barbara Henderson Paperback R160 Discovery Miles 1 600
Danish Kings and the Jomsvikings in the…
Olafur Halldorsson Paperback R300 R268 Discovery Miles 2 680
Children of Ash and Elm - A History of…
Neil Price Paperback R489 Discovery Miles 4 890
The Real Valkyrie - The Hidden History…
Nancy Marie Brown Hardcover R517 Discovery Miles 5 170
Femina - The instant Sunday Times…
Janina Ramirez Hardcover R649 Discovery Miles 6 490

 

Partners