Medieval Italian communes are known for their violence, feuds, and vendettas, yet beneath this tumult was a society preoccupied with peace. Peace and Penance in Late Medieval Italy is the first book to examine how civic peacemaking in the age of Dante was forged in the crucible of penitential religious practice. Focusing on Florence in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, an era known for violence and civil discord, Katherine Ludwig Jansen brilliantly illuminates how religious and political leaders used peace agreements for everything from bringing an end to neighborhood quarrels to restoring full citizenship to judicial exiles. She brings to light a treasure trove of unpublished evidence from notarial archives and supports it with sermons, hagiography, political treatises, and chronicle accounts. She paints a vivid picture of life in an Italian commune, a socially and politically unstable world that strove to achieve peace. Jansen also assembles a wealth of visual material from the period, illustrating for the first time how the kiss of peace--a ritual gesture borrowed from the Catholic Mass--was incorporated into the settlement of secular disputes. Breaking new ground in the study of peacemaking in the Middle Ages, Peace and Penance in Late Medieval Italy adds an entirely new dimension to our understanding of Italian culture in this turbulent age by showing how peace was conceived, memorialized, and occasionally achieved.

Medieval Italian communes are known for their violence, feuds, and vendettas, yet beneath this tumult was a society preoccupied with peace. Peace and Penance in Late Medieval Italy is the first book to examine how civic peacemaking in the age of Dante was forged in the crucible of penitential religious practice. Focusing on Florence in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, an era known for violence and civil discord, Katherine Ludwig Jansen brilliantly illuminates how religious and political leaders used peace agreements for everything from bringing an end to neighborhood quarrels to restoring full citizenship to judicial exiles. She brings to light a treasure trove of unpublished evidence from notarial archives and supports it with sermons, hagiography, political treatises, and chronicle accounts. She paints a vivid picture of life in an Italian commune, a socially and politically unstable world that strove to achieve peace. Jansen also assembles a wealth of visual material from the period, illustrating for the first time how the kiss of peace-a ritual gesture borrowed from the Catholic Mass-was incorporated into the settlement of secular disputes. Breaking new ground in the study of peacemaking in the Middle Ages, Peace and Penance in Late Medieval Italy adds an entirely new dimension to our understanding of Italian culture in this turbulent age by showing how peace was conceived, memorialized, and occasionally achieved.

"An exciting and well-written work based on outstanding research. Katherine Jansen neatly lays out how the late medieval Magdalen was 'created, ' partly by errors and misunderstandings, partly as conscious creation for both spiritual and political needs. There are moments in this book that are as much fun as a good mystery story."--Penelope D. Johnson, New York University

"Katherine Jansen's major study emerges as a real masterpiece. With subtlety and clarity she untangles the thread of multiple images of the saint, sometimes contradictory or paradoxical. She has established an exemplary historical study of undeniable solidity and great suggestive force."--Nicole Beriou, University Lumiere Lyon 2 (France)

"A wonderful book: exhaustively researched, masterfully crafted, deftly written, strongly persuasive, and full of keen-sighted apercus."--Robert E. Lerner, Northwestern University

"Spirituality, iconography, saints, cults, religious women, and Mary Magdalen herself, all marginal to historical discourse until recently, are skillfully woven together in this book of central importance for understanding later medieval religion and society."--Lester K. Little, American Academy in Rome

"Thoroughly grounded in the intricacies and history of medieval Magdalen legends, Jansen's superb research of previously unexplored sources highlights new evidence that medieval preachers were convinced that Mary Magdalen indeed preached. This fascinating book casts new light on how Mary Magdalen was represented in sermons, art, and the minds of late medieval Christians. Captivating and essential reading for scholars of medieval religion and history, this clearly written book will appeal to allthose interested in Mary Magdalen."--Beverly Kienzle, Harvard Divinity School

"This original and beautifully written book traces change in the image of and devotion to Mary Magdalen from the High Middle Ages to the cusp of modernity. This is a book for historians and history buffs, feminists and all who are interested in Christian popular devotion."--E. Ann Matter, University of Pennsylvania

Humility Is the New Smart Your job is at risk-if not now, then soon. We are on the leading edge of a Smart Machine Age led by artificial intelligence that will be as transformative for us as the Industrial Revolution was for our ancestors. Smart machines will take over millions of jobs in manufacturing, office work, the service sector, the professions, you name it. Not only can they know more data and analyze it faster than any mere human, say Edward Hess and Katherine Ludwig, but smart machines are free of the emotional, psychological, and cultural baggage that so often mars human thinking. So we can't beat 'em and we can't join 'em. To stay relevant, we have to play a different game. Hess and Ludwig offer us that game plan. We need to excel at critical, creative, and innovative thinking and at genuinely engaging with others-things machines can't do well. The key is to change our definition of what it means to be smart. Hess and Ludwig call it being NewSmart. In this extraordinarily timely book, they offer detailed guidance for developing NewSmart attitudes and four critical behaviors that will help us adapt to the new reality. The crucial mindset underlying NewSmart is humility-not self-effacement but an accurate self-appraisal: acknowledging you can't have all the answers, remaining open to new ideas, and committing yourself to lifelong learning. Drawing on extensive multidisciplinary research, Hess and Ludwig emphasize that the key to success in this new era is not to be more like the machines but to excel at the best of what makes us human.