The Chronicle of the Czechs by Cosmas of Prague (d. 1125) is a masterwork of medieval historical writing, deeply erudite, consciously researched, and narrated in high rhetorical style. Regarded as the foundational narrative of Czech history, it is the source of the oldest stories about the land, people, and rulers of Bohemia and Moravia. Lisa ......
This is the first book to include full texts and photographs from the Apostolic Penitentiary, ""A Sip from the 'Well of Grace'"", which is groundbreaking in its analysis of one of the most important papal offices of the Middle Ages. The Penitentiary alone was responsible for granting absolutions, dispensations, licenses, and special declarations ......
Known in the West as a 'noble heathen," the great Muslim sultan Saladin led Muslim forces in the reconquest of the Crusader kingdoms and captured Jerusalem in 1187. This concise history traces Saladin's role in the contest between Islam and Christianity during the twelfth century. Following the Sultan's life from the rise of the Crusader ......
Known to the west as ''the noble heathen,'' the great Muslim emperor Saladin led Arab forces in the reconquest of the Crusader kingdoms and captured Jerusalem in 1187. This concise history traces Saladin's role in the contest between Islam and Christianity during the twelfth century.Tracing the Sultan's life from the rise of the Crusader States ......
How much can we know about sensory experience in the Middle Ages? While few would question that the human senses encountered a profoundly different environment in the medieval world, two distinct and opposite interpretations of that encounter have emergedone of high sensual intensity and one of extreme sensual starvation. Presenting original, ......
Born to Isabel and Ferdinand, the Catholic Monarchs whose marriage united the realms of Castile and Aragon, Juana ''the Mad'' (14791555) is one of the most infamous but least studied monarchs of the Renaissance. Conventional accounts of Juana portray her as a sullen woman prone to depression, a jealous wife insanely in love with her husband, and ......
During the First Crusade launched in 1095, thousands of Europeans fought to liberate Jerusalem from the Seljuk Turks. By 1099, they had succeeded, and in the decades that followed, Franks settled in the newly conquered territory, creating a rich intellectual and cultural life. They wrote poetry and histories of their experiences, erected churches ......
Transversal Performance and Cultural Dissidence in Early Modern England
In this book Bryan Reynolds argues that early modern England experienced a sociocultural phenomenon, unprecedented in English history, which has been largely overlooked by historians and critics. Beginning in the 1520s, a distinct ''criminal culture'' of beggars, vagabonds, confidence tricksters, prostitutes, and gypsies emerged and flourished. ......
The Theodore Psalter is one of the most valuable illuminated manuscripts to survive from the Byzantine Empire. One of only a few ''fixed points'' guiding the historian's understanding of Byzantine art and society, the Theodore Psalter's illumination is a uniquely rich source of insight into monastic organization, spirituality, book production, and ......