This book offers a full-scale study of angels and angelology in the Middle Ages. Seeking to discover how and why angels became so important in medieval society, David Keck considers a wide range of fascinating questions such as: Why do angels appear on baptismal fonts? How and why did angels become normative for certain members of the church? How did they become a required course of study? Did popular beliefs about angels diverge from the angelologies of the theologians? Why did some heretics claim to derive their authority from heavenly spirits? Keck spreads his net wide in the attempt to catch traces of angels and angelic beliefs in as many portions of the medieval world as possible. Metaphysics and mystery plays, prayers and pilgrimages, Cathars and cathedrals-all these and many more disparate sources taken together reveal a society deeply engaged with angels on all its levels and in some unlikely ways.

In medieval and early modern Britain, people would refer to their local district as their 'country', a term now largely forgotten but still used up until the First World War. Core groups of families that remained rooted in these 'countries', often bearing distinctive surnames still in use today, shaped local culture and passed on their traditions. In The Grass Roots of English History, David Hey examines the differing nature of the various local societies that were found throughout England in these periods. The book provides an update on the progress that has been made in recent years in our understanding of the history of ordinary people living in different types of local societies throughout England, and demonstrates the value of studying the varied landscapes of England, from towns to villages, farmsteads, fields and woods to highways and lanes, and historic buildings from cathedrals to cottages. With its broad coverage from the medieval period up to the Industrial Revolution, the book shows how England's socio-economic landscape had changed over time, employing evidence provided by archaeology, architecture, botany, cultural studies, linguistics and historical demography. The Grass Roots of English History provides an up-to-date account of the present state of knowledge about ordinary people in local societies throughout England written by an authority in the field, and as such will be of great value to all scholars of local and family history.

This book traces the origins and evolution of the enmity between England and France over the four hundred years in which England was a continental European land power. The medieval claim to the throne of France was not formally abandoned by the British monarchy until 1802. The so-called Hundred Years War between England and France was never concluded by a peace treaty.This book argues that medieval and early modern England, like Britain today, was a two-faced polity: one face looked westward and northward towards its Celtic neighbours; the other faced eastward and southward towards continental Europe. Ultimately, from the reign of Edward III onwards, the French throne itself became the object of English ambitions and the book discusses the implications of Henry V's pursuit of that claim and its aftermath. It emphasizes the extent to which the story of Joan of Arc, for example, has become a myth which has contributed its share to the perpetuation of Anglo-French antipathy and estrangement. The book also examines the emergence of English national identity and the part played by language in this process, as the English increasingly defined themselves against their French enemy.But the common assumptions, behavioural patterns, and culture which bound the upper ranks of English and French society together throughout this period are also stressed. The book ends with a discussion of the legacy left by this 'continentalist' phase of English history to the changed, but by no means totally transformed, world of early modern Europe.

This volume presents one of the most important historical sources for medieval Islamic scholarship - Khwandamir's "The Reign of the Mongol and the Turk". It covers the major empires and dynasties of the Persianate world from the 13th to the 16th century, including the conquests of the Mongols, Tamerlane, and the rise of the Safavids. Distinguished linguist and orientalist, Wheeler M. Thackston, provides a lucid, annotated translation that makes this key material accessible to a wide range of scholars.

How did the life course, with all its biological, social and cultural aspects, influence the lives, writings, and art of the inhabitants of early medieval England? This volume explores how phases of human life such as childhood, puberty, and old age were identified, characterized, and related in contemporary sources, as well as how nonhuman life courses were constructed. The multi-disciplinary contributions range from analyses of age vocabulary to studies of medicine, name-giving practices, theology, Old English poetry, and material culture. Combined, these cultural-historical perspectives reveal how the concept and experience of the life course shaped attitudes in early medieval England. Contributors are Jo Appleby, Debby Banham, Darren Barber, Caroline R. Batten, James Chetwood, Katherine Cross, Amy Faulkner, Jacqueline Fay, Elaine Flowers, Daria Izdebska, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Thijs Porck, and Harriet Soper.

In Sefer Tagin Fragments from the Cairo Genizah, Marc Michaels transcribes and recreates fragments of arguably the earliest found manuscript of the manual for sofrim (scribes) concerning the decorative tagin (tittles) and 'strange' letter forms that adorn certain words in the Torah. Comparing these found fragments against other core and secondary sources of Sefer Tagin (including several pages of a new secondary source), Michaels establishes the most likely readings to assist the reconstruction of the fragments and shed light on the original intention of the author of Sefer Tagin.

Byzantium in Eastern European Visual Culture in the Late Middle Ages, edited by Maria Alessia Rossi and Alice Isabella Sullivan, engages with issues of cultural contact and patronage, as well as the transformation and appropriation of Byzantine artistic, theological, and political models, alongside local traditions, across Eastern Europe. The regions of the Balkan Peninsula, the Carpathian Mountains, and early modern Russia have been treated in scholarship within limited frameworks or excluded altogether from art historical conversations. This volume encourages different readings of the artistic landscapes of Eastern Europe during the late medieval period, highlighting the cultural and artistic productions of individual centers. These ought to be considered individually and as part of larger networks, thus revealing their shared heritage and indebtedness to artistic and cultural models adopted from elsewhere, and especially from Byzantium. See inside the book.

This volume consists of 19 studies by leading historians of the Mamluks. Drawing on primary Arabic sources, the studies discuss central political, military, urban, social, administrative, economic, financial and religious aspects of the Mamluk Empire that was established in 1250 by Mamluks (manumitted military slaves, mostly Turks and Circassians). It was a Sunni orthodox state that had a formidable military, a developed and sophisticated economy, a centralized Arab bureaucracy and prestigious religious and educational institutions.
There are special articles about Cairo, Damascus, Jerusalem, Safed and Acre. The last part of the volume describes the Mamluk military class that survived in Egypt (although in a transformed form) under the Ottoman suzerainty after the Empire annexed Egypt and Syria in 1517.
With contributions by Reuven Aharoni, Reuven Amitai, Frederic Bauden, Jonathan Berkey, Daniel Crecelius, Joseph Drory, Jane Hathaway, Robert Irwin, Donald Little, Nimrod Luz, Carl Petry, Thomas Philipp, Yossef Rapoport, Andri Raymond, Donald S. Richards, Warren Schultz and Hannah Taragan

This study of disputes and their settlement in twelfth-century Tuscany is more than just legal history. Studded with colourful contemporary narratives, the book explores the mindsets of medieval Italians, and examines the legal framework which structured their society. Chris Wickham uncovers the interrelationships and collisions between different legal systems, and in doing so provides a new understanding of mentalities and power in the Italian city-state.

The first Franciscan friar to occupy a chair of theology at Oxford, Adam Marsh became famous both in England and on the continent as one of the foremost Biblical scholars of his time. He moved with equal assurance in the world of politics and the scholastic world of the university. Few men without official position can have had their advice so eagerly sought by so many in high places. He was counsellor to King Henry III and the queen, the spiritual director of Simon de Montfort and his wife, the devoted friend and counsellor of Robert Grosseteste, and consultant to the rulers of the Franciscan order. Scholars have long recognized the importance of his influence as mentor and spiritual activator of a circle of idealistic clergy and laymen, whose pressure for reform in secular government as well as in the Church culminated in the political upheavals of the years 1258-65. The collection of his letters, compiled by an unknown copyist within thirty years of his death, is perhaps the most illuminating and historically important series of private letters to be produced in England before the fifteenth century. The inclusion among his correspondents of such notable figures as Grosseteste, Simon de Montfort, Queen Eleanor, and Archbishop Boniface, make the collection a source of primary importance for the political history of England, the English Church, and the organization of Oxford University in the turbulent middle years of the thirteenth century. This critical edition, which supersedes the only previous edition published by J. S. Brewer in the Rolls Series nearly 150 years ago, is accompanied for the first time by an English translation. One batch of correspondence is included in this volume, along with an introduction that elucidates the role of Adam Marsh in the political and religious movements of the thirteenth century. A further set of letters and an index will follow in Volume II.

In Hospitals and Urbanism in Rome 1200 - 1500, Carla Keyvanian offers a new interpretation of the urban development of Rome during three seminal centuries by focusing on the construction of public hospitals. These monumental charitable institutions were urban expressions of sovereignty. Keyvanian traces the political reasons for their emergence and their architectural type in Europe around 1200. In Rome, hospitals ballasted the corporate image of social elites, aided in settling and garrisoning vital sectors and were the hubs around which strategies aimed at territorial control revolved. When the strategies faltered, the institutions were rapidly abandoned. Hospitals in areas of enduring significance instead still function, bearing testimony to the influence of late medieval urban interventions on modern Rome.

This volume in Oxford Medieval Text contains Eadmer's Lives of Saints Oda, Dunstan, and Oswald, as well as the Miracles of Dunstan and Oswald. These three English saints, together with AEthelwold of Winchester, were key figures in the Benedictine revival of the tenth century, which saw a flowering of Anglo-Saxon religious, artistic, and literary culture. Eadmer of Canterbury (c.1060-c.1130), the secretary, confidant, and biographer of Saint Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury (1033-1109), was one of the most important historians and biographers in the period after the Norman Conquest. His works, written in Latin, look back constantly to the Anglo-Saxon past, while at the same time they accurately reflect the present-day realities of the wider European society into which England had been forcibly integrated. Manuscripts of his Lives of the Saints circulated widely in both in England and France, but apart from his Life of Anselm they have been little studied, and have remained largely untranslated. The works newly edited and translated in this edition provide many insights into the wider political history of the pre- and post-Conquest periods, as well as important evidence for the cults of the saints in Canterbury and Worcester.

Among the few surviving archaeological sites from the medieval Christian kingdom of Nubia-located in present day Sudan-Qasr Ibrim is unique in a number of ways. It is the only site in Lower Nubia that remained above water after the completion of the Aswan high dam. In addition, thanks to the aridity of the climate in the area the site is marked by extraordinary preservation of organic material, especially textual material written on papyrus, leather, and paper. Particularly rich is the textual material from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries CE, written in Old Nubian, the region's indigenous language. As a result, Qasr Ibrim is probably the best documented ancient and medieval site in Africa outside of Egypt and North Africa. Medieval Nubia will be the first book to make available this remarkable material, much of which is still unpublished. The evidence discovered reveals a more complicated picture of this community than originally thought. Previously, scholars had thought medieval Nubia had existed in relative isolation from the rest of the world and had a primitive economy. Legal documents, accounts, and letters, however, reveal a complex, monetized economy with exchange rates connected to those of the wider world. Furthermore, they reveal public festive practices, in which lavish feasting and food gifts reinforced the social prestige of the participants. These documents show medieval Nubia to have been a society combining legal elements inherited from the Greco-Roman world with indigenous African social practices. In reconstructing the social and economic life of medieval Nubia based on the Old Nubian sources from the site, as well as other previously examined materials, Giovanni R. Ruffini will correct previous assumptions and produce a new picture of Nubia, one that connects it to the wider Mediterranean economy and society of its time.

Many cultures, including Greeks, Romans, French, and British, have taken great pride in legends that recount the foundation of their society. This book demonstrates the contexts in which a medieval British matriarchal legend, the Albina narrative, was paired over time with a patriarchal narrative, which was already widely disseminated, leading to the attribution of British origins to the warrior Brutus. By the close of the Middle Ages, the Albina tale had appeared in multiple versions in French, Latin, English, Welsh, and Dutch. This study investigates the classical roots of the narrative and the ways it was manipulated in the Middle Ages to function as a national foundation legend. Of especial interest are the dynamic qualities of the text: how it was adapted over the span of two centuries to meet the changing needs of medieval writers and audiences. The currency in the Middle Ages of the Albina narrative is attested to by its inclusion in nearly all the extant manuscripts of the Middle English Prose Brut, many of the French and Latin Bruts, and in a variety of other chronicles and romances. In total, there are over 230 manuscripts surviving today that contain versions of the Albina tale. Despite this, however, relatively little modern scholarship has focused on this widely disseminated and adapted legend. This book provides the first-ever overview of the entire Albina tradition, from its roots to its eventual demise as a popularly accepted narrative. The Classical basis of the narrative in the Hypermnestra story and the ways it was manipulated in the medieval era to function as a national foundation legend are considered. Folkloric, biblical, and legal influences on the development of the tradition are addressed. The tale is viewed through a variety of lenses to suggest ways it may have functioned or was put to use in the Middle Ages. The study concludes with an overview of the narrative's demise in the Renaissance. This is a useful reference source for medievalists and other scholars interested in chronicle studies, literature, folklore, foundation narratives, manuscript studies, and historiography. It will also be useful to art historians who wish to study the various depictions of the Albina narrative in illuminated texts. The tale's emphasis on matriarchy and its subversion of the accepted societal norm will attract the interest of scholars in feminist studies. As the first analysis of the Albina tradition as a whole, it will be a valuable cornerstone for later studies.

This is an up-to-date history of the years 1471-1529. It examines the period in its own right, treating it neither as an epilogue to the Middle Ages nor as a prelude to modern times. The book begins with a narrative of political events and the main developments in foreign affairs. The author stresses the extent to which dynastic and royal issues influenced both internal and external policy.

The book then develops an analysis of the structure of political activity. Through chapters on the court, country and parliament, the author examines the ways in which royal power was reconstructed following the disasters of the mid-fifteenth century. He explains the need for kings to work in co-operation with men of independent means in the shires, and assesses the extent to which royal authority was vulnerable to adverse opinion.

The final part of the book examines the economy and society of the period. It discusses, for instance, contemporary commonplaces about social rank, family, community and commonwealth. It also contains a new analysis of the changing role of London. The author ends with a reassessment of general economic development, again highlighting the problems of explaining the period simply in the context of transition from one distinct age to another.

This comprehensive resource explores the intersection of religion, politics, and the supernatural that spawned the notorious witch hunts in Europe and the New World. "Witch Hunts in the Western World: Persecution and Punishment from the Inquisition through the Salem Trials" traces the evolution of western attitudes towards magic, demons, and religious nonconformity from the Roman Empire through the Age of Enlightenment, placing these chilling events into a wider social and historical context. Witch hunts are discussed in eight narrative chapters by region, highlighting the cultural differences of the people who incited them as well as the key reforms, social upheavals, and intellectual debates that shaped European thought. Vivid accounts of trials and excerpts from the writings of both witch hunters and defenders throughout the Holy Roman Empire, France, the British Isles and colonies, Southern Europe, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe bring to life one of the most intriguing and shocking periods in Western history.

This in-depth and comprehensive resource explores the intersection of religion, politics, and the supernatural that spawned the notorious witch hunts in Europe and the New World. "Witch Hunts in the Western World" traces the evolution of western attitudes towards magic, demons, and religious nonconformity from the Roman Empire through the Age of Enlightenment, placing these chilling events into a wider social and historical context. Witch hunts are discussed in fascinating detail by region, highlighting the cultural differences of the people who incited them as well as the key reforms, social upheavals, and intellectual debates that shaped European thought. Vivid accounts of trials and excerpts from the writings of both witch hunters and defenders throughout the Holy Roman Empire, France, the British Isles and colonies, Southern Europe, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe bring to life one of the most intriguing and shocking periods in Western history.

Accessible narrative chapters make this a fascinating volume for general readers while offering a wealth of historic information for students and scholars. Features include a complete glossary of terms, timeline of major events, recommended reading selections, index, and black and white illustrations.

Gervase of Tilbury's Otia Imperialia was written in the early thirteenth century for his patron, the Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV. This is the first English translation of this major medieval text which is both learned and entertaining, full of scientific and theological speculation and a wealth of accounts of folklore and popular belief.

A full colour map showing London about 1270 to 1300 - its walls and gates, parish churches, early monasteries and hospitals, and a growing number of private houses. The city's streets and alleyways had been established. Dominating London are the Tower of London in the east, the old St Paul's Cathedral in the west and London Bridge in the south. Up-river in Westminster, the abbey and the royal palace had been well established, and the great Westminster Hall is very evident. London's playground in Southwark was beginning to grow.

Current concerns about the survival of marine life and the fishing industry have contributed to a rising interest in their past development. While much of the scholarship is focused on the recent past, this collection of essays presents new interpretations in the pre-industrial history of the fisheries by highlighting the consequences of the northern fisheries through an interdisciplinary approach, including the environment, economy, politics, and society in the medieval and early modern periods. A wide variety of topics related to the fisheries, such as settlement and spatial organisation, processing methods, trade, profitability and taxation, consumption, communication and cooperation, ranging from the Viking Age until industrialisation are dealt with in a long term perspective, offering new insights in the intriguing relationship between marine life and humanity. Contributors are Ines Amorim, James H. Barrett, Christiaan van Bochove, Petra van Dam, Chloe Deligne, Carsten Jahnke, Alison M. Locker, Thomas H. McGovern, Sophia Perdikaris, Marnix Pieters, Peter Pope, Bo Poulsen, Callum M. Roberts, Louis Sicking, Dries Tys, Adri van Vliet, Annette de Wit, Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz.

This volume is one of the most important historical sources for medieval Islamic scholarship - Mirzar Haydar's "Tarikh- i - Rashidi" (History of Rashid). It offers a history of the Khans of Moghulistan, the vast stretch of territory between the ancient cities of Central Asia and Mongolia, and was written in the early 16th century by Mirza Haydar, a Turco-Mongol military general and ruler of Kashmir. Distinguished linguist and orientalist, Wheeler Thackston, presents a lucid, annotated translation that makes this key material accessible to a wide range of scholars.

This book explores the Merovingian kingdoms in Gaul within a broader Mediterranean context. Their politics and culture have mostly been interpreted in the past through a narrow local perspective, but as the papers in this volume clearly demonstrate, the Merovingian kingdoms had complicated and multi-layered political, religious, and socio-cultural relations with their Mediterranean counterparts, from Visigothic Spain in the West to the Byzantine Empire in the East, and from Anglo-Saxon England in the North to North-Africa in the South. The papers collected here provide new insights into the history of the Merovingian kingdoms by examining various relevant issues, ranging from identity formation to the shape and rules of diplomatic relations, cultural transformation, as well as voiced attitudes towards the "other". Each of the papers begins with a short excerpt from a primary source, which serves as a stimulus for the discussion of broader issues. The various sources' point of view and their contextualization stand at the heart of the analysis, thus ensuring that discussions are accessible to students and non-specialists, without jeopardizing the high academic standard of the debate.

The Knights of St John of Jerusalem, also known as the Hospitallers, were a military religious order, subject to monastic vows and discipline but devoted to the active defence of the Holy Land. After evacuating the Holy Land at the beginning of the fourteenth century, they occupied Rhodes, which they held into the sixteenth century, when their headquarters moved to Malta. Branches of the order existed throughout Europe, and it is the English branch in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that is examined here. Among the major subjects researched by O'Malley are the recruitment of members of the Hospital and their family ties; the operation of the order's career structure; the administration of its estates; its provision of spiritual and charitable services; and the publicity and logistical support it provided for the holy war carried on by its headquarters against the Ottoman Turks. It is argued that the English Hospitallers in particular took their military and financial duties to the order very seriously, making a major contribution to the Hospital's operations in the Mediterranean as a result. They were able to do so because they were wealthy, had close family and other ties with gentle and mercantile society, and above all because their activities had royal support. Where this was lacking or ineffective, as in Ireland, the Hospital might become the plaything of local interests eager to exploit its estates, and its wider functions might be neglected. Consequently the heart of the book lies in an extended discussion of the relationship between senior Hospitaller officers and the governing authorities of Britain and Ireland. It is concluded that rulers were generally supportive of the order's activities, but within strict limits, particularly in matters concerning appointments, the size of payments to the east, and the movement and foreign allegiances of senior brethren. When these limits were breached, or at times of political or religious sensitivity such as the 1460s and 1530s, the Hospital's personnel and estates would suffer. In addition, more general areas of historical debate are illuminated such as those concerning the relationship between late medieval societies and the religious orders; 'British' attitudes to Christendom and holy war, and the rights of rulers over their subjects. This is the first such book to be based on archival records in both Britain and Malta, and will make a major contribution to understanding the order's European network, its place in the ordering of Latin Christendom, and in particular its role in late medieval British and Irish society.

This volume aims to present the current state of research on Roman roads and their foundations in a combined historical and archaeological perspective. The focus is on the diverse local histories and the varying degrees of significance of individual roads and regional networks, which are treated here for the most important regions of the empire and beyond. The assembled contributions will be of interest to historians, archaeologists and epigraphers, since they tackle matters as diverse as the technical modalities of road-building, the choice of route, but also the functionality and the motives behind the creation of roads. Roman roads are further intimately related to various important aspects of Roman history, politics and culture. After all, such logistical arteries form the basis of all communication and exchange processes, enabling not only military conquest and security but also facilitating the creation of an organized state as well as trade, food supply and cultural exchange. The study of Roman roads must always be based on a combination of written and archaeological sources in order to take into account both their concrete geographical location and their respective spatial, cultural, and historical context.