Medieval Money explores the ways art reflected and reinforced the complex ethical discussions that developed from the widespread role of money in everyday life in the Middle Ages. It traces the origins of global money, and surveys economic history, focusing on the environment, the plague, Jews, and institutions, using a wealth of imagery including illuminated manuscripts, coins, artworks, money chests, and account books. The iconography, minting, and foreign exchange of coins are examined, and the choice that Christians faced is investigated: should they save their money or their soul? The authors explore images of Avarice, the greedy punished in hell, and immoral ways to earn and spend money, and analyse representations of charity and voluntary poverty. Final chapters examine the material culture of the monetary economy (from an illuminated oath for minters to purses and lockboxes) and images of medieval money management. AUTHORS: Diane Wolfthal specializes in late medieval and early modern European art. Founding Co-editor of Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, she is David and Caroline Minter Chair Emerita in the Humanities and professor emerita of Art History, Rice University. She is the co-author, with Elisabeth Hollander, of a volume on the fourteenth-century Ma?zor in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Deirdre Jackson is assistant curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, the Morgan Library Steven A. Epstein is professor emeritus, department of history at the University of Kansas. He was educated at Swarthmore College, St. John's College (Cambridge University), and Harvard College, where he developed his interests in medieval social and economic history. David Yoon is Mark Salton Associate Curator of Medieval, Renaissance and Early European Numismatics, American Numismatic Society SELLING POINTS: . A richly illustrated interdisciplinary volume, with chapters written by social historian Steven Epstein, numismatist David Yoon, and art historians Deirdre Jackson and Diane Wolfthal . Vibrantly illustrated with illuminated manuscripts, panel paintings, prints, stained glass, sculpture, and all sorts of material objects 150 colour illustrations

One of the first volumes to explore the intersection of economics, morality, and culture, this collection analyzes the role of the developing monetary economy in Western Europe from the twelfth to the seventeenth century. The contributors"scholars from the fields of history, literature, art history and musicology"investigate how money infiltrated every aspect of everyday life, modified notions of social identity, and encouraged debates about ethical uses of wealth. These essays investigate how the new symbolic system of money restructured religious practices, familial routines, sexual activities, gender roles, urban space, and the production of literature and art. They explore the complex ethical and theological discussions which developed because the role of money in everyday life and the accumulation of wealth seemed to contradict Christian ideals of poverty and charity, revealing a rich web of reactions to the tensions inherent in a predominately Christian, (neo)capitalist culture. Money, Morality, and Culture in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe presents a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary assessment of the ways in which the rise of the monetary economy fundamentally affected morality and culture in Western Europe.

One of the first volumes to explore the intersection of economics, morality, and culture, this collection analyzes the role of the developing monetary economy in Western Europe from the twelfth to the seventeenth century. The contributors"scholars from the fields of history, literature, art history and musicology"investigate how money infiltrated every aspect of everyday life, modified notions of social identity, and encouraged debates about ethical uses of wealth. These essays investigate how the new symbolic system of money restructured religious practices, familial routines, sexual activities, gender roles, urban space, and the production of literature and art. They explore the complex ethical and theological discussions which developed because the role of money in everyday life and the accumulation of wealth seemed to contradict Christian ideals of poverty and charity, revealing a rich web of reactions to the tensions inherent in a predominately Christian, (neo)capitalist culture. Money, Morality, and Culture in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe presents a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary assessment of the ways in which the rise of the monetary economy fundamentally affected morality and culture in Western Europe.

The first book-length study of household servants and slaves, exploring a visual history over 400 years and four continents The first book-length study of both images of ordinary household workers and their material culture, Household Servants and Slaves: A Visual History, 1300-1700 covers four hundred years and four continents, facilitating a better understanding of the changes in service that occurred as Europe developed a monetary economy, global trade, and colonialism. Diane Wolfthal presents new interpretations of artists including the Limbourg brothers, Albrecht Durer, Paolo Veronese, and Diego Velazquez, but also explores numerous long-neglected objects, including independent portraits of ordinary servants, servant dolls and their miniature cleaning utensils, and dummy boards, candlesticks, and tablestands in the form of servants and slaves. Wolfthal analyzes the intersection of class, race, and gender while also interrogating the ideology of service, investigating both the material conditions of household workers' lives and the immaterial qualities with which they were associated. If images repeatedly relegated servants to the background, then this book does the reverse: it foregrounds these figures in order to better understand the ideological and aesthetic functions that they served.

The love of books in the Jewish tradition extends back over many centuries, and the ways of interpreting those books are as myriad as the traditions themselves. Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink offers the first full survey of Jewish illuminated manuscripts, ranging from their origins in the Middle Ages to the present day. Featuring some of the most beautiful examples of Jewish art of all time--including hand-illustrated versions of the Bible, the Haggadah, the prayer book, marriage documents, and other beloved Jewish texts--the book introduces readers to the history of these manuscripts and their interpretation. Edited by Marc Michael Epstein with contributions from leading experts, this sumptuous volume features a lively and informative text, showing how Jewish aesthetic tastes and iconography overlapped with and diverged from those of Christianity, Islam, and other traditions. Featured manuscripts were commissioned by Jews and produced by Jews and non-Jews over many centuries, and represent Eastern and Western perspectives and the views of both pietistic and liberal communities across the Diaspora, including Europe, Israel, the Middle East, and Africa. Magnificently illustrated with pages from hundreds of manuscripts, many previously unpublished or rarely seen, Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink offers surprising new perspectives on Jewish life, presenting the books of the People of the Book as never before.

Peace was far from a pale, static concept - a simple lack of violence - in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Rather, it was at times constructed as a rich and complex, positive and dynamic ideal. The thirteen articles in this volume cover a broad range of disciplines, times, and geographical areas and explore strategies that were used in the past to resolve conflict and attain peace. They examine events, texts, and images that date from the fifth through the sixteenth centuries, and their authors focus not only on Western Europe, but also on Scandinavia, the Caucusus, and Egypt. This volume rests on the assumption that peace covers a spectrum of situations that connects the personal and the political. Therefore, the papers presented here examine not only how nations negotiated peace, but also how individuals did. Similarly, although several essays spotlight those in the seat of power, others explore those who are politically marginalized. our views about peace and conflict, as this collection makes clear, are shaped in part by the mentalites of the past. Although some peacemaking strategies may be unacceptable to us today - forced marriages and conversions, for example - we can learn from other strategies how to transcend or modify various modes of antagonistic thinking.

Rereading Huizinga: Autumn of the Middle Ages, a Century Later explores the legacy and historiographical impact of Johan Huizinga's 1919 masterwork a century after its publication. Often considered one of the most successful books in medieval European history, its reception has varied over the last hundred years, popular with non-academic readers, and appraised more critically by fellow historians and those more generally in the field of medieval studies. There is broad consensus, however, about the work's absolute centrality, and the authors of this volume assess the Autumn of the Middle Ages reception, afterlife, and continued vitality.