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[This] substantial book...makes an important and stimulating
contribution. MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY Warfare in Europe in the middle
ages underwent a marked change of emphasis as urban life expanded.
The concentration of wealth represented by a city was a valuable
objective, and the static nature of a siege was infinitely
preferable to the uncertainties of campaign. As the incidence of
sieges increased, so pitched battles declined. The studies in this
book, intended for specialists as well as general readers, follow
the history of siege warfare, exploringthe urban milieu within
which it developed, and the evolution of siege technology up to the
advent of gunpowder weaponry. The logistics of specific sieges,
from the Crusader kingdoms in the Near East and the Byzantine
Empire as well as medieval Europe, are also considered, with
evidence from literature, engineering, architecture and
cliometrics. IVY CORFIS is professor in the department of Spanish
and Portuguese at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; MICHAEL
WOLFE is professor in the department of history at Penn State
University, Altoona. Contributors: MICHAEL WOLFE, JAMES F. POWERS,
MICHAEL TOCH, DENYS PRINGLE, ERIC McGEER, PAUL E. CHEVEDDEN,
MICHAEL HARNEY, HEATHER ARDEN, WINTHROP WETHERBEE, KELLY DEVRIES,
MICHAEL MALLETT, BERT S. HALL.
The sottie was a short, comical play which flourished in France
from about 1440 to 1560. Although a vital part of late medieval
popular culture, this dramatic genre has received scant critical
attention. In this study, Dr Arden adds to our understanding of the
sottie by examining in detail the subjects satirised in the plays,
the dramatic structure underlying this satire, the attitudes
expressed by the plays, and their social function in late medieval
France. Through an approach combining critical readings of the
texts with historical study of class structure and its evolution in
this period, she offers a fresh interpretation of a remarkable type
of satire. In addition to analysing the undercurrent of class
conflict in late medieval theatre, Dr Arden clarifies lower-class
values of the period and suggests a reason for the widespread
fascination with folly and the fool in the late Middle Ages.
Studies of women's roles in the secular literary world, as patrons,
authors, readers, and characters in secular literature. This second
volume of proceedings from the `Women and the Book' conference,
held at St Hilda's College, Oxford in 1993, brings together fifteen
papers dealing with women's experience in the secular literary
world. It covers the whole variety of roles women might take, as
patrons, authors, readers, and characters in secular literature;
encompassed in its range are well-known characters, real and
fictional, such as Christine de Pisan and the Wife of Bath, and the
more obscure but no less fascinating topic of women in Chinese
medieval court poetry. Like its predecessor Women, the Book, and
the Godly(Brewer, 1995), this volume illuminates the world of
medieval women with carefulscholarship and attention to sources,
producing new readings and new materials which shed fresh light on
an increasingly important field of study. Contributors: PATRICIA
SKINNER, PHILIP E. BENNETT, JENNIFER GOODMAN, CHARITY
CANNON-WILLARD, BENJAMIN SEMPLE, ANNE BIRRELL, JEANETTE BEER, MARK
BALFOUR, CAROL HARVEY, HEATHER ARDEN, KAREN JAMBECK, JULIA BOFFEY,
JENNIFER SUMMIT, MARGARITA STOCKER
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