Bertrand du Guesclin was one of the main architects of the recovery of France. From humble beginnings he rose to become one of the great heroic figures of French history. This is the first English translation of Cuvelier's epic poem about him. Bertrand du Guesclin is one of the great French heroes of the Hundred Years War, his story every bit as remarkable as Joan of Arc's. The son of a minor Breton noble, he rose in the 1360s and '70s to become the Constable of France- a supreme military position, outranking even the princes of the blood royal. Through campaigns ranging from Brittany to Castile he achieved not only fame as a pre-eminent leader of Charles V's armies, but a dukedom in Spain, burial among the kings of France in the royal basilica at Saint-Denis, and recognition as nothing less than the "Tenth Worthy", being ranked alongside the nine paragons of chivalry who included Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne and King Arthur. His is a truly spectacular story. And the image of Bertrand, and many of the key events in his extraordinary life, are essentially derived from The Song of Bertrand du Guesclin, this epic poem by Cuvelier. Written in the verse-form and manner of a chanson de geste, it is the very last of the Old French epics and an outstanding example of the roman chevaleresque. It is a fascinating and major primary source forhistorians of chivalry and of a critical period in the Hundred Years War. This is its first translation into English. Cuvelier is a fine storyteller: his depictions of battle and siege are vivid and thrilling, offering invaluable insights into medieval warfare. And he is a compelling propagandist, seeking through his story of Bertrand to restore the prestige of French chivalry after the disastrous defeat at Poitiers and the chaos that followed, andseeking, too, to inspire devotion to the kingdom of France and to the fleur-de-lis. NIGEL BRYANT is well known for his lively and accurate versions of medieval French authors. His translations of Chretien de Troyes' Perceval and all its continuations and of the extraordinary late Arthurian romance Perceforest have been major achievements; he has also translated Jean le Bel's history of the early stages of the Hundred Years War, and the biography of William Marshal.

This volume is a comparative study of the practice of impagination across different ages and civilizations. By impagination we mean the act of placing and arranging spatially textual and other information onto a material bearer that could be made of a variety of materials (papyrus, bamboo slips, palm leaf, parchment, paper, and the computer screen). This volume investigates three levels of impagination: what is the page or other unit of the material bearer, what is written or printed on it, and how is writing or print placed on it. It also examines the interrelations of two or all three of these levels. Collectively it examines the material and materiality of the page, the variety of imprints, cultural and historical conventions for impagination, interlinguistic encounters, the control of editors, scribes, publishers and readers over the page, inheritance, borrowing and innovation, economics, aesthetics and socialities of imprints and impagination, and the relationship of impagination to philology. This volume supplements studies on mise en page and layout - an important subject of codicology - first by including non-codex writings, second by taking a closer look at the page or other unit than at the codex (or book), and third by its aspiration to adopt a globally comparative approach. This volume brings together for comparison vast geographical realms of learning, including Europe, China, Tibet, Korea, Japan and the Near Eastern and European communities in which the Hebrew Bible was transmitted. This comparison is significant, for Europe, China, and India all developed great traditions of learning which came into intensive contact. The contributions to this volume are firmly rooted in local cultures and together address global, comparative themes that are significant for multiple disciplines, such as intellectual and cultural history of knowledge (both humanistic and scientific), global history, literary and media studies, aesthetics, and studies of material culture, among other fields.

Volume XVIII/2 of History of Universities contains the customary mix of learned articles, book reviews, conference reports and bibliographical information, which makes this publication such an indispensable tool for the historian of higher education. Its contributions range widely geographically, chronogically, and in subject-matter. The volume is, as always, a lively combination of original research and invaluable reference material.

Modern historiography has become accustomed to portraying the emperor Theophilos of Byzantium (829-842) in a favourable light, taking at face value the legendary account that makes of him a righteous and learned ruler, and excusing as ill fortune his apparent military failures against the Muslims. The present book considers events of the period that are crucial to our understanding of the reign and argues for a more balanced assessment of it. The focus lies on the impact of Oriental politics on the reign of Theophilos, the last iconoclast emperor. After introductory chapters, setting out the context in which he came to power, separate sections are devoted to the influence of Armenians at the court, the enrolment of Persian rebels against the caliphate in the Byzantine army, the continuous warfare with the Arabs and the cultural exchange with Baghdad, the Khazar problem, and the attitude of the Christian Melkites towards the iconoclast emperor. The final chapter reassesses the image of the emperor as a good ruler, building on the conclusions of the previous sections. The book reinterprets major events of the period and their chronology, and sets in a new light the role played by figures like Thomas the Slav, Manuel the Armenian or the Persian Theophobos, whose identity is established from a better understanding of the sources.

Jean Gerson and Gender examines the deployment of gendered rhetoric by the influential late medieval politically active theologian, Jean Gerson (1363-1429), as a means of understanding his reputation for political neutrality, the role played by royal women in the French royal court, and the rise of the European witch hunts.

When barbarians invaded the Roman Empire in the years around 400 AD, Christian monks hid in their cloisters - or so it is often assumed. Conrad Leyser shows is that monks in the early medieval West were, in fact, pioneers in the creation of a new language of moral authority. He describes the making of this tradition over two centuries from St Augustine to St Benedict and Gregory the Great.

The Religious Polemics of the Muslims of Late Medieval Christian Iberia examines the corpus of polemical literature against the Christians and the Jews of the protected Muslims (Mudejars). Commonly portrayed as communities in cultural and religious decay, Monica Colominas convincingly proves that the discourses against the Christians and the Jews in Mudejar treatises provided authoritative frameworks of Islamic normativity which helped to legitimize the residence of their communities in the Christian territories. Colominas argues that, while the primary aim of the polemics was to refute the views of their religious opponents, Mudejar treatises were also a tool used to advance Islamic knowledge and to strengthen the government and social cohesion of their communities.

The first study of its kind in English in more than fifty years, this book surveys the history of the medieval Crown of Aragon from its early origins in counties of the eastern Pyrenees. Reviewing the most recent research into the well-preserved archives of the region, Bisson recreates a sense of the energy, drama, and color of these creative and expansionist people between the 12th and 15th centuries. Throughout, the book duly stresses individual achievement and personality while at the same time providing a balanced overview of political and dynastic evolution, institutional foundations, economic and cultural affairs, and the socio-economic weaknesses that eventually led to a crisis in the federated realms in the late Middle Ages.

In this book the seventeenth century, heavy with significance for the future of Europe, is fully explored by Professor Bergin and six major authors as they address, in turn, economy, society, politics, war and international relations, science, thought and culture ('The Age of Curiosity'), and Europe in the wider world. In a set of chapters covering and contrasting the European experience across the full century and the full continent, the reader is offered a rich, lively, and provocative introduction to the period, and students a superbly authoritative context for more detailed work.

The study of pastoral care in the middle ages has seen a resurgence in recent years. Scholars are now approaching this subject less from their respective ecclesiastical or parochial biases and more out of an effort to understand the significant role pastors (secular and religious) had in the shaping of medieval society at large. This book explores some of the new ways scholars are approaching this topic. Using a variety of sources and disciplinary angles: theology, preaching, catechesis, confessional literature, visitation records, monastic cartularies and the like, these studies show the many and varied ways in which pastoral care came to play such an important role in the day to day lives of medieval people. Contributors include: C. Colt Anderson, Michelle Armstrong-Partida, Beth Allison Barr, Sabrina Corbellini, Alexandra da Costa, Laura Michele Diener, William Dohar, James Ginther, Joe Goering, Ann M. Hutchison, Greg Peters, C. Matthew Phillips, Andrew Reeves, Ronald J. Stansbury, Susan M.B. Steuer, Mathilde van Dijk, and Anne T. Thayer.

In Entombed Epigraphy and Commemorative Culture Timothy M. Davis presents a history of early muzhiming-the most versatile and persistent commemorative form employed in the elite burials of pre-modern China. While previous scholars have largely overlooked the contemporary religious, social, and cultural functions of these epigraphic objects, this study directly addresses these areas of concern, answering such basic questions as: Why were muzhiming buried in tombs? What distinguishes commemorative biography from dynastic history biography? And why did muzhiming develop into an essential commemorative genre esteemed by the upper classes? Furthermore, this study reveals how aspiring families used muzhiming to satisfy their obligations to deceased ancestors, establish a multi-generational sense of corporate identity, and strengthen their claims to elite status.

The volume brings together 17 articles by leading Islamicists and Arabists, on a variety of topics in Medieval and Early Modern times, including the Qur'?n, Shi'ism, ?bb?sid historiography, the Crusaders, and Mamluk history.

The essays in this volume in honour of Paul Brand, Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, match his career and interests in the world of legal history as well as medieval social and economic history and textual studies. The topics explored include the Angevin reforms, legal literature, the legal profession and judiciary, land law, the relation between the crown and the Jews, the interaction of the Common Law with Canon and Civil Law, as well as procedural and testamentary procedures, the management of both ecclesiastical and lay estates and the afterlife of medieval learning. Like Brand's own work, all the essays are grounded on detailed studies of primary sources. The result is a high quality scholarly book that will be of interest and use to medieval scholars, students and non-specialists with wide-ranging and varied interests. Contributors include Sir John H. Baker*, David Carpenter, David Crook, Charles Donahue, Jr, Barbara Harvey, Richard H. Helmholz, John Hudson, Paul Hyams, David J. Ibbetson, Susanne Jenks, Janet S. Loengard, Alexandra Nicol, Bruce R. O'Brien, Robert C. Palmer, Sandra Raban, Jonathan Rose, Henry Summerson and Sarah Tullis. *Professor Jon Baker is the winner of the American Society for Legal History's 2013 Sutherland Prize. The prize, which is awarded annually, is for the best article on English legal history published in the previous year. The Prize was awarded to John baker for his article "Deeds Speak Louder Than Words: Covenants and the Law of Proof, 1290-1321" in Laws, Lawyers and Texts: Studies in Medieval Legal History in Honour of Paul Brand, ed. Susanne Jenks, Jonathan Rose and Christopher Whittick (2012). For more information about the Prize see: http://aslh.net/about-aslh/honors-awards-and-fellowships/sutherland-prize/

This is the first comprehensive English-language collection of sources yet to treat the city of Naples from late antiquity to the beginning of the Renaissance. Sources are drawn from its historical, economic, literary, artistic, religious and cultural life from the fall of Rome through the Byzantine, ducal, Norman, Hohenstaufen and Angevin periods. The Introduction offers a comprehensive survey of the periods covered, with a discussion of the historiography and of important research and interpretive issues. These include the material development of the city from late antiquity through the end of the Angevin period, the condition and use of the available primary sources and archaeological evidence, with particular attention given to the wide variety of recent excavations and of archival materials, the question of the ruralization and recovery of its urban core through the little known ducal period, Naples' importance as a commercial and political capital, its developing economic and material base, and the issue of its relationship to its hinterland on the one hand and to broader Mediterranean contexts on the other. It also surveys changes in Naples' urban plan, its walls, fortifications and port and its commercial and residential development. For the later Middle Ages, Musto traces Naples' intellectual life and the complex historiography of what he terms the "black legend of the Angevins" and its continued impact on perceptions of Naples and the Italian South. Documents include chronicles and histories; archival materials, accounts, financial and commercial records, contracts, wills, notarial and legislative documents; poetry, romances, biographies, letters, travelers' accounts and legends; liturgical and hagiographical texts; as well as examples of manuscript production and illustration, painting and architecture. 460 pages. Preface, introduction, notes and bibliography; appendices, including the Tavola Strozzi with key, Map of Medieval Naples with thumbnail key; index. 82 readings, 74 b&w figures, plus 60 thumbnail images. Links to online resources from A Documentary History of Naples, including image galleries with over 460 additional images in full color; and to full bibliographies with ongoing supplements.

First full-scale account of the medieval realm of Powys. Powys, extending over north-east and central Wales, was one of three great medieval Welsh polities, along with Gwynedd to the north and Deheubarth (south-west), occupying nearly a quarter of the country. However, it has been somewhat neglected by historians, who have tended to dismiss it as a satellite realm of England, and viewed its leaders as obstacles to the efforts of Gwynedd leaders to construct a principality of Wales. This book provides the first full, authoritative history of Powys in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It argues in particular that the Powysian rulers were dogged and resourceful survivors in the face of pressure from Welsh rivals and the problems ofinternal fragmentation; and that, paradoxically, co-operation with the English and intermarriage with marcher families underlay a desire to regain lands to the east lost in earlier centuries. Dr David Stephenson is anHonorary Research Fellow in the School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology, Bangor University.

Roman identity is one of the most interesting cases of social identity because in the course of time, it could mean so many different things: for instance, Greek-speaking subjects of the Byzantine empire, inhabitants of the city of Rome, autonomous civic or regional groups, Latin speakers under 'barbarian' rule in the West or, increasingly, representatives of the Church of Rome. Eventually, the Christian dimension of Roman identity gained ground. The shifting concepts of Romanness represent a methodological challenge for studies of ethnicity because, depending on its uses, Roman identity may be regarded as 'ethnic' in a broad sense, but under most criteria, it is not. Romanness is indeed a test case how an established and prestigious social identity can acquire many different shades of meaning, which we would class as civic, political, imperial, ethnic, cultural, legal, religious, regional or as status groups. This book offers comprehensive overviews of the meaning of Romanness in most (former) Roman provinces, complemented by a number of comparative and thematic studies. A similarly wide-ranging overview has not been available so far.

After the invention of a national script, c.400 AD, Armenians rapidly developed their own literary forms, drawing on foreign texts as well as their own traditions. Historical writing is the most original genre in classical and medieval Armenian literature. Greek works (including the Chronicle of Eusebius, now lost in Greek but preserved in Armenian) constituted the major part of translated histories. But in the thirteenth century the extensice Chronicle of the Syrian Patriarch Michael and the first part of the Georgian chronicles were adapted for an Armenian readership. The collection known as the `Georgian Chronicles' was finally codified in the eighteenth century and represents only a small part of Georgian historical writing. The thirteenth century Armenian version is in fact the earliest attestation of this growing corpus of texts, predating all extant Georgian manuscripts of it. This book presents the two texts, Georgian and Armenian, in English translation for the first time. The Introduction and Commentary draw attention to the ways in which the unknown Armenian translator changed his original material in a pro-Armenian fashion. His rendering became the standard source for early Georgian history used by later Armenian historians. The book includes a useful overview of the background to the chronicles, the history and culture of Christian Georgia and Armenia, and their respective languages and literature.

Theorizing Legal Personhood in Late Medieval England is a collection of eleven essays that explore what might be distinctly medieval and particularly English about legal personhood vis-a-vis the jurisdictional pluralism of late medieval England. Spanning the mid-thirteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries, the essays in this volume draw on common law, statute law, canon law and natural law in order to investigate emerging and shifting definitions of personhood at the confluence of legal and literary imaginations. These essays contribute new insights into the workings of specific literary texts and provide us with a better grasp of the cultural work of legal argument within the histories of ethics, of the self, and of Eurocentrism. Contributors are Valerie Allen, Candace Barrington, Conrad van Dijk, Toy Fung Tung, Helen Hickey, Andrew Hope, Jana Mathews, Anthony Musson, Eve Salisbury, Jamie Taylor and R.F. Yeager.

This book is a general introduction to the structures of the different medieval Romance vernaculars most commonly known as Old or Medieval Spanish, as preserved in texts from Spain from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries. After discussing general methodological questions concerning the description and analysis of an earlier historical stage of a modern language, the individual chapters in the first part of the book describe the orthography, phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary of medieval Hispano-Romance. Steven N. Dworkin offers the first systematic description of the language in English, and compares its structures with those found in the modern variety. In the second part of the book, the features of medieval Hispano-Romance are exemplified in an anthology of selected texts, one from each of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, accompanied by linguistic commentary. The volume will be of interest to scholars and students of Romance linguistics, Spanish historical linguistics, and Spanish medieval literary and cultural studies.

When considering relations between Britain and the Continent, the core issues are commonly those identified by politicians: sovereignty, law, taxation and foreign policy. For others the Continent has other connotations: a source of economic rivalry, an artistic inspiration, a sporting challenge, a holiday destination and even a focus for nationalist xenophobia.However, in the medieval past, there were no British interests at stake because England and Scotland were separate kingdoms and the Welsh had their own agenda. English kings ruled extensive lands on the Continent, so it was hard to know how English interests could be separately identified, let alone voiced. For centuries after the Norman Conquest, the language of public discourse in England was French.

This book presents a historical study of the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity from the accession of the emperor Diocletian 284 to the death of the emperor Heraclius in 641.* The only modern study to cover the western and eastern empire and the entire period from 284 to 641 in a single volume* A bibliographical survey supports further study and research* Includes chronological tables, maps, and charts of important information help to orient the reader* Discusses the upheaval and change caused by the spread of Christianity and the barbarian invasions of the Huns, Goths and Franks* Contains thematic coverage of the politics, religion, economy and society of the late Roman state* Gives a full narrative of political and military events* Discusses the sources for the period

In "The Making of Europe": Essays in Honour of Robert Bartlett, a group of distinguished contributors analyse processes of conquest, colonization and cultural change in Europe in the tenth to fourteenth centuries. They assess and develop theses presented by Robert Bartlett in his famous book of that name. The geographical scope extends from Iceland to the Islamic Mediterranean, from Spain to Poland. Themes covered range from law to salt production, from aristocratic culture in the Christian West to Islamic views of Christendom. Like the volume that it honours, the present book extends our understanding of both medieval and present day Europe. Contributors are Sverre Bagge, Piotr Gorecki, John Hudson, Hugh Kennedy, Simon MacLean, William Ian Miller, Esther Pascua Echegaray, Ana Rodriguez, Matthew Strickland, John Tolan, Bjorn Weiler, and Stephen D. White. This is an excellent collection of essays that do justice to Rob Bartlett's inexhaustible book, The Making of Europe. Rather than merely repeating and venerating Bartlett's ideas, the essays engage creatively and critically with them and spark new ideas and insights that cast a flood of light on the culture of medieval Europe. The result is a worthy tribute that will send readers scurrying back to Bartlett to quarry yet more nuggets from The Making of Europe, still fizzing with intellectual brio some twenty years after its publication. Stuart Airlie, University of Glasgow October 2015

Robert Couzin's Right and Left in Early Christian and Medieval Art is the first in-depth study of handedness, position, and direction in the visual culture of Europe and Byzantium from the fourth to the fourteenth century. Heretofore largely unnoticed or ignored, the pre-eminence of the right and lapses or intentional departures from that norm in medieval imagery are relevant to such major themes as iconography, visuality, reception, narrative, form, gender, production, and patronage. The author's investigation of right and left in visual culture is informed by modern experimental research on laterality and contextualized within prevailing theological doctrines and socio-cultural practices. Illustrations in the text are complemented by hundreds more made available on Brill's Arkyves platform here. See inside the book.

Fruits of the most recent research on the worlds of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The contributions in this volume illuminate critical aspects of the Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman and Angevin worlds - and more. Essays consider the complexities of the Norman administration in North Africa, the Canterbury primacy controversy through the lens of the relics of St Ouen, and the meanings of natura and divinitas in the works of Bernardus Silvestris. Additional chapters explore cross-cultural definitions of masculinity articulated through the biblical figure of David, the social networks and monastic patronage of the female lords of Braine, and the links between legal classifications of adultery and thirteenth-century fabliaux. The Journal continues its focuson source criticism with explorations of two Italian sources -- a Miscellany from the Piedmontese monastery of Novalesa and an overlooked Venetian source for Byzantine imperial history. A re-assessment of the legal and judicial activities of King Henry I rounds out the volume. Contributors: JASON BAXTER, LUIGI ANDREA BERTO, APRIL HARPER, JOHN HUDSON, RUTH MAZO KARRAS, MATT KING, BRIDGET K. RILEY, EDWARD M. SCHOOLMAN, YVONNE SEALE.