The essays in this volume, a Festschrift for Professor Kenneth Varty, are centred on the relatively unexplored theme of rewards and punishments in French Arthurian romance and the medieval lyric. The Arthurian studies range over verse (Beroul, Chretien, Jean Renart, the Roman de Silence) and prose (Robert de Boron, the Queste del Saint Graal, Perlesvaus, Lancelot and the Tristan/), reflecting a variety of different approaches, from an examination of the legal background to the work of Beroul to an iconographical survey of hitherto undiscussed and unpublished Tristan illustrations to close textual analysis of an episode in Robert de Boron's Joseph and Merlin.

The first political treatise written by a woman. Christine de Pizan's The Book of the Body Politic is the first political treatise written by a woman. It not only advises the prince, but nobles, knights, and common people as well. It promotes the ideals of interdependence and social responsibility. Rooted in the mindset of medieval Christendom, The Book of the Body Politic heralds the humanism of the Renaissance, highlighting classical culture and Roman civic virtues. This new edition and translation offers a faithful rendering of Christine de Pizan's writing, as well as a thorough contextualization of her career as a political writer at the end of the Middle Ages in France. The Book of the Body Politic resounds to this day, urging for the need for probity in public life and the importance of responsibilities and rights.