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Apocalypse and Reform from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages
provides a range of perspectives on what reformist apocalypticism
meant for the formation of Medieval Europe, from the Fall of Rome
to the twelfth century. It explores and challenges accepted
narratives about both the development of apocalyptic thought and
the way it intersected with cultures of reform to influence major
transformations in the medieval world. Bringing together a wealth
of knowledge from academics in Britain, Europe and the USA this
book offers the latest scholarship in apocalypse studies. It
consolidates a paradigm shift, away from seeing apocalypse as a
radical force for a suppressed minority, and towards a fuller
understanding of apocalypse as a mainstream cultural force in
history. Together, the chapters and case studies capture and
contextualise the variety of ideas present across Europe in the
Middle Ages and set out points for further comparative study of
apocalypse across time and space. Offering new perspectives on what
ideas of 'reform' and 'apocalypse' meant in Medieval Europe,
Apocalypse and Reform from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages
provides students with the ideal introduction to the study of
apocalypse during this period.
"The beauty and levity that Perry and Gabriele have captured in
this book are what I think will help it to become a standard text
for general audiences for years to come....The Bright Ages is a
rare thing-a nuanced historical work that almost anyone can enjoy
reading."-Slate "Incandescent and ultimately intoxicating." -The
Boston Globe A lively and magisterial popular history that refutes
common misperceptions of the European Middle Ages, showing the
beauty and communion that flourished alongside the dark brutality-a
brilliant reflection of humanity itself. The word "medieval"
conjures images of the "Dark Ages"-centuries of ignorance,
superstition, stasis, savagery, and poor hygiene. But the myth of
darkness obscures the truth; this was a remarkable period in human
history. The Bright Ages recasts the European Middle Ages for what
it was, capturing this 1,000-year era in all its complexity and
fundamental humanity, bringing to light both its beauty and its
horrors. The Bright Ages takes us through ten centuries and
crisscrosses Europe and the Mediterranean, Asia and Africa,
revisiting familiar people and events with new light cast upon
them. We look with fresh eyes on the Fall of Rome, Charlemagne, the
Vikings, the Crusades, and the Black Death, but also to the
multi-religious experience of Iberia, the rise of Byzantium, and
the genius of Hildegard and the power of queens. We begin under a
blanket of golden stars constructed by an empress with Germanic,
Roman, Spanish, Byzantine, and Christian bloodlines and end nearly
1,000 years later with the poet Dante-inspired by that same
twinkling celestial canopy-writing an epic saga of heaven and hell
that endures as a masterpiece of literature today. The Bright Ages
reminds us just how permeable our manmade borders have always been
and of what possible worlds the past has always made available to
us. The Middle Ages may have been a world "lit only by fire" but it
was one whose torches illuminated the magnificent rose windows of
cathedrals, even as they stoked the pyres of accused heretics. The
Bright Ages contains an 8-page color insert.
This volume explores a world that thought deeply about imperial
power and emperors but one that perhaps never had an "empire" of
its own. These synthetic essays from experts across a wide variety
of disciplines mine the intellectual world of this period and begin
to demolish the myth of the so-called "Dark Ages," showing how the
European Middle Ages were illuminated by vigorous debates that echo
today. The story of medieval Western empires is both familiar and
foreign. It is a story about politics, culture, religion, society,
gender, sex, and economics, and how porous the boundaries between
those categories can often be. A Cultural History of Western
Empires in the Middle Ages offers a detailed and highly-illustrated
account of how we got to where we are, as well as the dangers of
not fully understanding why those origins matter.
Apocalypse and Reform from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages
provides a range of perspectives on what reformist apocalypticism
meant for the formation of Medieval Europe, from the Fall of Rome
to the twelfth century. It explores and challenges accepted
narratives about both the development of apocalyptic thought and
the way it intersected with cultures of reform to influence major
transformations in the medieval world. Bringing together a wealth
of knowledge from academics in Britain, Europe and the USA this
book offers the latest scholarship in apocalypse studies. It
consolidates a paradigm shift, away from seeing apocalypse as a
radical force for a suppressed minority, and towards a fuller
understanding of apocalypse as a mainstream cultural force in
history. Together, the chapters and case studies capture and
contextualise the variety of ideas present across Europe in the
Middle Ages and set out points for further comparative study of
apocalypse across time and space. Offering new perspectives on what
ideas of 'reform' and 'apocalypse' meant in Medieval Europe,
Apocalypse and Reform from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages
provides students with the ideal introduction to the study of
apocalypse during this period.
This volume explores a world that thought deeply about imperial
power and emperors but one that perhaps never had an "empire" of
its own. These synthetic essays from experts across a wide variety
of disciplines mine the intellectual world of this period and begin
to demolish the myth of the so-called "Dark Ages," showing how the
European Middle Ages were illuminated by vigorous debates that echo
today. The story of medieval Western empires is both familiar and
foreign. It is a story about politics, culture, religion, society,
gender, sex, and economics, and how porous the boundaries between
those categories can often be. A Cultural History of Western
Empires in the Middle Ages offers a detailed and highly-illustrated
account of how we got to where we are, as well as the dangers of
not fully understanding why those origins matter.
Essays on the various manifestations of Charlemagne and his
legends. This book explores the multiplicity of ways in which the
Charlemagne legend was recorded in Latin texts of the central and
later Middle Ages, moving beyond some of the earlier canonical "raw
materials", such as Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni, to focus on
productions of the eleventh to fifteenth centuries. A distinctive
feature of the volume's coverage is the diversity of Latin textual
environments and genres that the contributors examine in their
work,including chronicles, liturgy and pseudo-histories, as well as
apologetical treatises and works of hagiography and literature.
Perhaps most importantly, the book examines the "many lives" that
Charlemagne was believed to have lived by successive generations of
medieval Latin writers, for whom he was not only a king and an
emperor but also a saint, a crusader, and, indeed, a necrophiliac.
William J. Purkis is a Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the
University of Birmingham; Matthew Gabriele is an Associate
Professor of Medieval Studies in the Department of Religion &
Culture at Virginia Tech. Contributors: Jeffrey Doolittle, Matthew
Gabriele, Miguel Dolan Gomez, Oren Margolis, William J. Purkis,
Andrew J. Romig, Sebastian Salvado, Jace Stuckey, James Williams.
Beginning shortly after Charlemagne's death in 814, the inhabitants
of his historical empire looked back upon his reign and saw in it
an exemplar of Christian universality - Christendom. They mapped
contemporary Christendom onto the past and so, during the ninth,
tenth, and eleventh centuries, the borders of his empire grew with
each retelling, almost always including the Christian East.
Although the pull of Jerusalem on the West seems to have been
strong during the eleventh century, it had a more limited effect on
the Charlemagne legend. Instead, the legend grew during this period
because of a peculiar fusion of ideas, carried forward from the
ninth century but filtered through the social, cultural, and
intellectual developments of the intervening years. Paradoxically,
Charlemagne became less important to the Charlemagne legend. The
legend became a story about the Frankish people, who believed they
had held God's favour under Charlemagne and held out hope that they
could one day reclaim their special place in sacred history.
Indeed, popular versions of the Last Emperor legend, which spoke of
a great ruler who would reunite Christendom in preparation for the
last battle between good and evil, promised just this to the
Franks. Ideas of empire, identity, and Christian religious violence
were potent reagents. The mixture of these ideas could remind men
of their Frankishness and move them, for example, to take up arms,
march to the East, and reclaim their place as defenders of the
faith during the First Crusade. An Empire of Memory uses the legend
of Charlemagne, an often-overlooked current in early medieval
thought, to look at how the contours of the relationship between
East and West moved across centuries, particularly in the period
leading up to the First Crusade.
Beginning shortly after Charlemagne's death in 814, the inhabitants
of his historical empire looked back upon his reign and saw in it
an exemplar of Christian universality - Christendom. They mapped
contemporary Christendom onto the past and so, during the ninth,
tenth, and eleventh centuries, the borders of his empire grew with
each retelling, almost always including the Christian East.
Although the pull of Jerusalem on the West seems to have been
strong during the eleventh century, it had a more limited effect on
the Charlemagne legend. Instead, the legend grew during this period
because of a peculiar fusion of ideas, carried forward from the
ninth century but filtered through the social, cultural, and
intellectual developments of the intervening years.
Paradoxically, Charlemagne became less important to the Charlemagne
legend. The legend became a story about the Frankish people, who
believed they had held God's favour under Charlemagne and held out
hope that they could one day reclaim their special place in sacred
history. Indeed, popular versions of the Last Emperor legend, which
spoke of a great ruler who would reunite Christendom in preparation
for the last battle between good and evil, promised just this to
the Franks. Ideas of empire, identity, and Christian religious
violence were potent reagents. The mixture of these ideas could
remind men of their Frankishness and move them, for example, to
take up arms, march to the East, and reclaim their place as
defenders of the faith during the First Crusade.
An Empire of Memory uses the legend of Charlemagne, an
often-overlooked current in early medieval thought, to look at how
the contours of the relationship between East and West moved across
centuries, particularly in the period leading up to the First
Crusade.
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