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Book Synopsisthe transmission and reception of an Enlightenment discourse in the Spanish Empire;Spain’s role in shaping a modern conception of the natural sciences.The portrait of a demarginalised, modernising and enlightened Spain emerges clearly from this book;Trade ReviewReviews ‘This book and the windows it opens into recent and stimulating research […] are an example of the critical engagement of some of the best Spanish scholarship and international historiographical debate on the Enlightenment’.CROMOHS‘Un recueil riche en informations et suggestions, et dont il est malaisé de rendre compte avec justesse en quelques lignes’.Dix-huitième siècle‘Esta reseña no consigue revelar con justicia el valor de esta obra colectiva en cada uno de los campos abordados por diversos expertos de la Ilustración española […] y su importancia a la hora de reivindicar un merecido lugar para España tanto en la historia intelectual del siglo de las luces’.Cuadernos de Ilustración y RomanticismoTable of ContentsJesús Astigarraga, Introduction: admirer, rougir, imiter – Spain and the European EnlightenmentMaría Victoria López-Cordón Cortezo, The merits of good gobierno: culture and politics in the Bourbon courtJoaquín Álvarez Barrientos, The Spanish Republic of Letters in its European context: images, economics, and the representation of the man of lettersJesús Astigarraga, Economic societies and the politicisation of the Spanish EnlightenmentJuan Pimentel, The Indians of Europe: the role of Spain’s Enlightenment in the making of a global scienceJavier Usoz, Political economy and the creation of the public sphere during the Spanish EnlightenmentIgnacio Fernández Sarasola, Constitution projects during the Spanish EnlightenmentGabriel Paquette, The reform of the Spanish empire in the age of EnlightenmentJesús Astigarraga, Niccolò Guasti and Juan Zabalza, The Spanish debate on public finance: a privileged laboratory for enlightened reformsJoaquín Varela Suanzes-Carpegna, The image of the British system of government in Spain (1759-1814) Javier Fernández Sebastián, From the ‘voice of the people’ to the freedom of the press: the birth of public opinionAlejandro Agüero and Marta Lorente, Penal Enlightenment in Spain: from Beccaria’s reception to the first criminal codeSummariesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisAnalysis of Raynal's renowned 18th-century classic the 'Histoire des Deux Indes', focusing on its colonial aspects and global networks.Trade ReviewReviews ‘All of the essays are scrupulously researched, with extensive footnotes referencing primary and secondary sources, and the volume’s bibliography is a comprehensive guide to the booming field of Raynal studies. [It will form a] substantive contribution to the interdisciplinary study of the “global eighteenth century”.’Modern Language Review‘This volume of twenty essays constitutes a timely intervention into debates about global history, which, where studies of the eighteenth century are concerned, have been characterized by a certain scepticism’.French Studies‘Ce volume propose une moisson fort riche sur une œuvre considérable dans son étendue’.-Dix-huitième siècleTable of ContentsCecil Courtney and Jenny Mander, IntroductionI. The theme of global exchange in the Histoire des deux IndesStéphane Pujol, La logique des échanges dans l’Histoire des deux IndesPeter Jimack, Coconuts, spice and sugar: indolence, energy and social interaction in the Histoire des deux IndesChristian Donath, Apostles of the state: legitimate colonisation tactics in the Histoire des deux IndesAntonella Alimento, Entre rivalité d’émulation et liberté commerciale: la présence de l’école de Gournay dans l’Histoire des deux IndesSylvana Tomaselli, On labelling Raynal’s Histoire: reflections on its genre and subjectDaniel Droixhe, Y a-t-il vraiment une ethnologie chez Raynal? L’enfance de l’art américain dans les ‘Deux Indes’ Daniel Gordon, Uncivilised civilisation: Raynal and the global public sphereII. Mediating networks: the making and marketing of the Histoire des deux IndesKenta Ohji, Raynal auto-compilateur: le projet d’une histoire politique de l’Europe moderne – des Mémoires historiquesà l’Histoire des deux IndesGilles Bancarel, Ecriture et information: aux sources du réseau de RaynalGianluigi Goggi, La seconde édition de l’Histoire des deux Indes: relations entre libraires et stratégie de lancement dans les annonces des gazettesIda Federica Pugliese, From antagonism to a common fate: Guillaume-Thomas Raynal and William RobertsonSusanne Greilich, ‘Et moi suis-je sur des roses?’: l’Histoire des deux Indes entre l’historiographie espagnole, leyenda negra et discours anticolonialUrsula Haskins Gonthier, The ‘Supplément au journal de Bougainville’: representations of Native Canadians in the Histoire des deux IndesIII. The Histoire des deux Indes and its network of readersFredrik Thomasson, Raynal and Sweden: royal propaganda and colonial aspirationsReinier Salverda, Raynal and Holland: Raynal’s Histoire des deux Indes and Dutch colonialism in the age of EnlightenmentHans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, Controverses transatlantiques: contenus, enjeux et impact international de la Letter to the abbé Raynal (1782) de Thomas PaineJennifer Tsien, Louisiana as a figment of the imagination: Raynal’s reflections on the French American colonyMuriel Collart, L’Histoire des deux Indes et le Dictionnaire universel des sciences de Jean-Baptiste RobinetPhilippe Barthelet, Raynal sous le feu de ses adversaires: l’exemple de Joseph de MaistreGeorges Dulac, Un protestant languedocien admirateur de Raynal: l’Histoire des deux Indes dans le fonds Louis Médard de Lunel

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Book SynopsisA critical edition of two 18th-century encyclopedia articles on Spain (one French, one Spanish) that caused much controversy at a time when Spain was asserting its role in the Enlightenment.Trade ReviewReviews ‘ce travail veut être une contribution à l’étude d’une ‘géographie des Lumières’' et du regard des nations éclairées sur les autres nations, aussi bien que des réponses de celles-ci à ces regards.’ Dix-huitième siècle‘[…] it offers both scholars and students emblematic sources of a crucial period of Spanish history, culture and commerce, as well as a more profound understanding of cultural and knowledge transfer in Enlightened Europe.’ Modern Language Review‘Pour la première fois […] grâce à cette compilation minutieuse de dix ans de travail, une vision réelle des écrits dans une relation triangulaire de la langue, des disciplines et des divisions entre l’Europe du Nord, l’Europe du Sud et la peninsula ibérique.’ Recherches sur Diderot et sur l’Encyclopédie‘Thanks to [the editors’] efforts and their excellent translations, we now have access, in the same volume, to one of eighteenth-century Spain’s most fervent polemics. This work is a most welcome addition to eighteenth-century scholarship.’ DieciochoTable of ContentsList of illustrationsAcknowledgmentsNote to the translations1. Clorinda Donato, Introduction. ‘Espagne’ or ‘España’? Answering Enlightenment in the Encyclopedia metódica, the Spanish translation of the Encyclopédie méthodique2. ‘Espagne’, by Nicolas Masson de Morvilliers‘Spain’, by Nicolas Masson de Morvilliers. Translated by Clorinda Donato and Ricardo López3. ‘España’, by Julián de Velasco‘Spain’, by Julián de Velasco. Translated by Clorinda Donato and Ricardo López 4. Biographical notes5. Brittany Anderson-Cain, Locating encyclopedic knowledge in the global eighteenth century: a bibliographical essayBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisFocusing on the representation of ruins by Italian writers, scientists, and artists between the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Sabrina Ferri explores the culture of the period and traces Italy’s complex relationship with its past.Table of ContentsList of illustrationsAcknowledgments Introduction1. ‘The great fragments of antiquity’: ruins and recovery of the past in Giambattista Vico’s New science2. ‘The ruined cities lie desolate’: natural catastrophe and historical change in eighteenth-century Italy3. Time of nature, time of man: ruins and the materiality of the historical imagination4. Melancholies of the modern: nature and history in the late eighteenth-century Picturesque5. The ghostly ruins of Neoclassicism: Alessandro Verri’s Roman nights and the posthumous life of the ancient6. The shipwrecks of time: Giacomo Leopardi’s poetics of ruinsEpilogue: a glance backBibliographyIndex

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis* This is the first accessible discussion of the role of money in the life and economy of the Middle Ages. * The author pays particular attention to the way in which the Church viewed money, and how it taught Christians what attitudes they should adopt towards it and towards the uses to which it could be put.Trade Review"Le Goff is magisterial in his treatment of medieval documentary sources, and of modern historical debate." Ashmolean Museum "Money and the Middle Ages provides those insights into the period which we associate with this master of historical writing." Times Literary Supplement "Le Goff has produced a masterpiece: a work which brings together all the complex issues surrounding money and the ways it was conceived and utilized. At the same time he has succeeded in telling a story about individual people and their hopes and fears." Michael Clanchy, University of London "In this sweeping essay, at once concise and inventive, Jacques Le Goff returns to a theme on which he has been writing for over fifty years: history, culture, and money. The argument is brisk, the examples wonderful, and his engagement with the material and religious contexts as vigorous as ever. This is still the Le Goff whose history-writing has proved so influential for two generations now." John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame "A very clear and authoritative analysis of the perception and use of money across three very turbulent centuries of western European history" MAKE Literary MagazineTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. The heritage of the Roman Empire and Christianization 2. From Charlemagne to feudalism 3. The rise of coin and money at the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 4. The wonderful thirteenth century of money 5. Trade, money and coin in the commercial revolution of the thirteenth century 6. Money and the nascent states 7. Lending, debt and usury 8. A new wealth and a new poverty 9. From the thirteenth to the fourteenth century: money in crisis 10. The perfecting of the financial system at the end of the Middle Ages 11. Towns, states and money at the end of the Middle Ages 12. Prices, wages and coin in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Appendix: Was there a land market in the Middle Ages? 13. The mendicant orders and money 14. Humanism, patronage and money 15. Capitalism or caritas? Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive analysis of the professionalization of medicine in postcolonial Mexico.Trade Review"Hernández Sáenz knows her subject extremely well and has assembled a rich and thorough analysis of the different dimensions of medical professionalization in Mexico." Adam Warren, University of Washington and author of Medicine and Politics in Colonial Peru: Population Growth and the Bourbon Reforms"This welcome contribution to the history of medicine offers a detailed examination of the trajectories of licensed medical practitioners and their efforts to acquire professional, social, and scientific recognition between the 1800s and the 1870s. Hernández Sáenz challenges the traditional and linear interpretations that have characterized the history of medical professionalization in Mexico and offers a novel understanding of both medical and Mexican history during an era that had seldom been the focus of a coherent and encompassing investigation." Journal of the History of Medicine"Hernández Sáenz's story is not merely a Mexican history of medicine. It is a medical history of Mexico, a story about how medicine -- in carefully building its nest -- helped create moden Mexico itself." Social History of Medicine

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Book SynopsisHow anti-Catholicism reflected and constructed English Canadian identity in the twentieth century and why it remains important today.Trade Review"Not Quite Us is an important and original book that adds a crucial dimension to our understanding of inequality and exclusion in twentieth-century Canada." Lynne Marks, University of Victoria

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Book SynopsisBuilding on a foundation of newly discovered primary sources and recent secondary interpretations, Jeffrey Burton Russell first establishes the facts and then explains the phenomenon of witchcraft in terms of its social and religious environment, particularly in relation to medieval heresies.Trade ReviewA magnificent history.... Russell's survey of modern literature on the subject is in itself almost a major contribution, and his careful period-by-period and phase-by-phase description of the development of witchcraft through the fifteenth century is indispensable to any further serious treatment of the phenomenon in Europe. * Georgia Review *Russell fills a real gap in the literature. He does so with the scholarly probity and sound good sense that arc the absolute prerequisites for any serious work on the subject, and he has composed his book for the general reader as well as the specialist.... In the course of his narrative Russell successfully lays to rest any number of erroneous 'well-known facts,' and he demonstrates that classical witchcraft was largely a creature of Christianity and that heresy was the strongest influence on its development as an idea. * History *Russell's contribution will undoubtedly become a standard reference work on witchcraft. It is a clear, straightforward account resting on meticulous textual analysis and comprehensive documentation. * The Review of Books and Religion *The study of witchcraft is of more than fleeting interest. To understand this phenomenon is to acquire a more profound understanding of man, society, and self. Thus Russell's book is of singular importance.... With insight the author demonstrates how political, social, economic, religious, and intellectual developments either fostered or militated against the growth of witchcraft. * Church History *Table of Contents1. The Meaning of Witchcraft2. Witchcraft in History3. The Transformation of Paganism, 300–7004. Popular Witchcraft and Heresy, 700–11405. Demonology, Catharism, and Witchcraft, 1140–12306. Antinomianism, Scholasticism, and the Inquisition, 1230–13007. Witchcraft and Rebellion in Medieval Society, 1300–13608. The Beginning of the Witch Craze, 1360–14279. The Classical Formulation of the Witch Phenomenon, 1427–148610. Witchcraft and the Medieval MindAppendix: The Canon Episcopi and Its VariationsNotes Abbreviations Bibliography Theorists of Witchcraft, 1430–1486 Books and Articles Index

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Book SynopsisThis compelling book, first published in 1995, changed historians' understanding of the history of public penance...Trade ReviewMansfield argues that public penance continued to flourish throughout the thirteenth century.... She examines a rich variety of sources drawn primarily from northern France. The surviving narratives report a surprising number of cases of public penance involving notorious figures. * Law and History Review *Mansfield's book challenges long-held assumptions about the disappearance of public penance after the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.... The Humiliation of Sinners shows that Mansfield was a young woman of extraordinary promise in the field of medieval studies. * Choice *The Humiliation of Sinners is the work of a formidable scholar whose intensive research... produced a bold reinterpretation of the history of medieval penance. * Catholic Historical Review *This book is a major achievement. Its masterly synthesis is extensively documented, based on very close reading of a wide range of manuscript and printed material. Coherent in itself, it contains much of value beyond its own immediate concerns. * French History *This book will command the attention of anyone interested in the religious transformations of the High Middle Ages, and more broadly, in issues of private conscience and public justice. * Church History *

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Book SynopsisWhile earlier historians have seen the elaborate public rituals of the Burgundian dukes as stagnant forms held over from the chivalric world of the High Middle Ages, Peter Arnade argues that they were a vital theater of power through which the ducal...Trade ReviewPeter Arnade's superb new book offers a much-needed introduction to Ghent's heritage.... Arnade's book offers a fascinating tale of civic pride, of forced accommodation, and, ultimately, of subjugation.... Arnade skillfully uses ritual and its many manifestations to weave a compelling tale about civic identity. * Speculum *

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Book SynopsisThis book considers the role of anger in the social lives and conceptual universes of a varied and significant cross-section of medieval people: monks, saints, kings, lords, and peasants.Trade ReviewOverall, this work fills a large lacuna because... the history of anger has not yet been written.... This work will be a welcome addition to research and graduate libraries. * History *The collection of articles assembled in this book is yet another proof for the vibrancy and progressiveness of medieval studies at large... The authors demonstrate the excellent results of interdisciplinary research employing both traditional philological research skills as well as insights from anthropology, sociology, and Mentalités-geschite.... This excellent volume demonstrates that medieval society was neither primitive nor ideal, as it experienced many forms of anger, but often knew very well how to deal with it, as anger assumed an important ritual function for the aristocracy. -- Albrecht Classen, Arthuriana * Arthuriana *

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Book SynopsisA new generation of historians today is borrowing from cultural anthropology, post-modern critical theory, and gender studies to understand the social meanings of medieval religious movements, practices, figures, and cults. In this volume Sharon...Trade ReviewA common feature of these studies is the full and helpful citation of primary sources combined with an extensive acquaintance with relevant scholarly work. They merit the careful attention of those interested in their subjects, and they inspire confidence in the judicious use of the approach that they adopt. -- H.E.J. Cowdrey * Oxford. English Historical Review *Its introduction and ten essays are well written and engage with wide-ranging and serious issues.... Their authors succeed in asking innovative questions and suggesting new approaches with a clear sense of the demands and limitations posed by the documentary remains that sustain their inquiries. -- Miri Rubin, University of London * Speculum *The volume's essays are important, original contributions. -- Robert C. Figueira, Lander University * History *

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Book SynopsisHow, in the years before the advent of urban maps, did city residents conceptualize and navigate their communities? In his strikingly original book, Daniel Lord Smail develops a new method and a new vocabulary for understanding how urban men and women...Trade ReviewThis book makes a lively and original contribution to current debates on state development. -- Karl Appuhn, Columbia University * Sixteenth Century Journal *In this interesting and thought-provoking work, Daniel Smail concludes that the emergence of the street as the normal cartographic marker led first to the development of urban maps, and finally to the process of attaching street addresses to citizens.... Smail's work is scholarly and is highly recommended. -- A.G. Traver * History: Reviews of New Books *This book is elegantly written, and it is a pleasure to follow its argument through learned forays into topics ranging from cognitive psychology to cartography.... This is an ambitious book, filled with ideas that will stimulate researchers to look much more closely at records that they may have taken for granted. -- John Drendel, Universite du Quebec * Speculum *Imaginary Cartographies is a masterful case study of the relationship between spatial representation and the emergence of identity in late medieval and early modern Marseille. Through exhaustive archival and theoretical research, Smail explores the ways in which notorial records refer to an individual's relationship to the territory, thereby revealing the emergence of the notion of personal and national identity.... The author's convincing argument allows his readers to rethink not only how identity was articulated in the late medieval and early modern period, but also how both visual and linguistic spatial representations intersect in an emergent national imagination. The scope of Smail's work will appeal across lines of discipline as this book... lays out a solid methodological approach, navigating smoothly between the theoretical and the archival. -- Elisabeth Hodges * Mapline *This is an important work, establishing a methodology and analytical framework that I hope will inspire studies of these questions of language, perception, and statecraft elsewhere, including the other towns of Provence and cities in the north that were little affectd by the culture of the public notaries. -- David Nicholas, Clemson University * American Historical Review *

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Book SynopsisBefore France became France its territories included Occitania, roughly the present-day province of Languedoc. The city of Narbonne was a center of Occitanian commerce and culture during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. For most of the second half...Trade ReviewA book that is both about southwestern France in the twelfth century and also about the challenges of biography. It is a fascinating study, beautifully written.... This rich and highly rewarding work should find a wide audience: scholars of the Middle Ages, historians who are not medievalists, even advanced undergraduates. * American Historical Review *Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours is a spectacular recreation of the times in which Ermengard lived.... With melancholy nostalgia, Cheyette depicts a powerful woman in her vibrant and doomed society. To be clear at once: this is a fabulous book.... This book, with its recreation of a lost world, its challenge to historians and historiography, and its narrative drive, is extraordinary, brilliant, unique—and a little sad. * The Medieval Review *This book defies description: lyrical and scholarly, leisurely and densely packed, it meanders through a vast range of topics while keeping to its fundamental premise, that the Occitan region had a brilliant, lively, hybrid culture in which the 'traditional' Northern relationships of lords and vassals, city and countryside, sacred and secular held little sway. And in the midst of this complex region was Ermengard: daughter, wife, widow, warrior, patron, subject, diplomat-in short, a figure whose gender was not always connected to traditional notions about her sex.... This is a beautiful, if occasionally difficult, book that anyone interested in the period or in 'post-Annaliste' historiography should read. Highly recommended. * Choice *This is a book about much more than its title suggests. It is not just about the extraordinary viscountess of Narbonne, though it probably tells us as much as we can know about her, nor about the literary culture of her region. Rather, it is a book about myriad aspects of her world: about the city she ruled for half a century and its inhabitants; about relations within and among classes; about commerce, culture, religion, and politics, how they affected her, and how she reacted to and influenced them. It sets her fully within her context, a context that includes the poets but goes well beyond them. * Speculum *This study of Ermengard and her world is an original and valuable contribution to our knowledge of an admirable woman—in the end an immensely sad figure—and of the endangered culture in which she lived.... Professor Cheyette says he meant this book 'to be read, not consulted,' and as a common reader with an amateur interest in that culture and its long shelf life, which continues into our own time and literature, I am indebted to him. * The New York Review of Books *Though this book has all the trappings of a deeply scholarly excursus, it is ultimately directed to the general reader and reaches that mark successfully I believe.... This is not the sort of book that can be gobbled up in one sitting, while it is definitely one to read rather than consulted or dipped into. * H-France *

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Book SynopsisIn a major contribution to the debate among medievalists about the nature of social and political change in Europe around the turn of the millennium, Jeffrey A. Bowman explores how people contended over property during the tenth and eleventh centuries...Trade ReviewBowman is very good at breaking down the distinctions between oral and documentary forms of evidence and between supposedly private and public elements in the administration of justice. -- Roger Collins * History *Bowman's chapters dedicated to the careers of Catalan judges and the day-to-day practice of law and adjudication will prove extremely interesting for both legal and institutional historians of the early Middle Ages.... From a close study of the prologues of many different types of contemporary legal documents,... Bowman fashions a clear portrait of Catalan judges who, unlike their counterparts from many other parts of Carolingian Francia, were well-trained, well-respected, and well-compensated. -- Warren Brown, California Institute of Technology * American Historical Review *

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Book SynopsisDuels and bloodfeuds have long been regarded as essentially Continental phenomena, counter to the staid and orderly British ways of settling differences. In this surprising work of social and legal history, Paul R. Hyams reveals a post-Conquest England not all that different from the realms across the Channel. Drawing on a wide range of texts and the long history of argument about these texts, Hyams shatters the myth of English exceptionalism, the notion that while feud and vengeance prevailed in the lands of the Franks, England had advanced beyond such anarchic barbarism by the time of the Conquest and forged a centralized political and legal system. This book provides support for the notion that feud and vengeance flourished in England long beyond the Conquest, and that this fact obliges us to reconsider the genealogies of both common law and the English monarchy.Moving back and forth between a broad overview of 300 years of legal history and the details of specific Trade Review"Paul R. Hyams engages in some feuds of his own in this consistently informative, learned, and imaginative account of feud's stubborn refusal to take its leave from the legal and political stage from the 9th to the 13th century, though it was invited (ambivalently) by king and cleric to vacate the scene." -- William Ian Miller, University of Michigan Law School"Rancor and Reconciliation in Medieval England is calculated to start a new round in the endless dialogue among historians. Private vengeance, and specifically the feud, Paul R. Hyams argues, was as much in vogue in early medieval England as it was on the Continent. Not only that, it continued to be the way that medieval English men and women often preferred to redress their wrongs, not only in the decades that followed the Norman conquest, but right up to the reign of Edward I, more than a century after English common law had begun to provide alternative means to settle disputes. Legal historians, Hyams insists, need to pay more attention than they have usually done to the choices that law's consumers make when they seek satisfaction for the wrongs they have suffered. In a book filled with learning and shrewd observations, Hyams offers historians a provocative new construction of the early history of the common law." -- James A. Brundage, Ahmanson-Murphy Professor Emeritus, The University of Kansas

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Book SynopsisUsing inquisitorial depositions, notarial records, and the previously unknown Beguin martyrology, Burnham vividly recreates the world in which the Beguins lived and died for their beliefs.Trade Review"Louisa A. Burnham addresses a uniquely significant but hitherto neglected chapter in the history of popular religious movements in the Middle Ages: the Beguins of fourteenth-century Languedoc. Her research unveils a community of believers straddling the fringes of orthodoxy and dedicated to preserving the controversial apocalyptic teachings of their spiritual father, Peter John Olivi. Burnham's description of the bonds of fellowship among a generation of dedicated believers, and their resistance tactics when forced underground by persecution, is composed with uncommon compassion and scholarly acumen. Rich in historical detail and in intimate human portraits, So Great a Light, So Great a Smoke provides both a history of the Beguin movement as a whole and a moving reconstruction of the lives of individual men and women struggling to maintain their beliefs and survive in the face of repression." -- Nancy Caciola, University of California, San Diego, author of Discerning Spirits"Louisa A. Burnham has employed her extensive knowledge of inquisitorial sources concerning Languedoc and her close acquaintance with archival sources from Montpelier to produce a book that will be of great interest to every student of medieval heresy, Franciscan history, or French social history. She also manages to be very readable, a rare attainment for any scholar." -- David Burr, Virginia Tech"So Great a Light, So Great a Smoke is an incredibly thorough piece of work, immensely readable, and stuffed with fascinating stories. I particularly like the fact that Louisa A. Burnham solved a couple of age-old mysteries during the course of her research." -- Catherine Jinks, author of The Secret Familiar"This is a very well-written, clever, humane, and insightful piece of history; calling it 'a delight' may seem gauche, given the often rather terrible subject matter, but nonetheless it does delight, enthrall, and impress throughout.... It is... written with considerable verve and imagination, based upon a thorough, insightful, and diligent interrogation of a variety of unpublished archival sources."

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Book SynopsisLuongo investigates how Catherine's spiritual authority and sanctity were linked with contemporary political and cultural developments.Trade ReviewThis is an important book. Luongo examines the career of Catherine of Siena... in a new light and offers a picture of Catherine that diverges from those presented by her hagiographers,... biographers, and more recently, scholars of medieval women's religiousness.... Luongo's portrayal of Catherine is exciting and compelling: exciting in revealing the intrigue and danger in which Catherine actively participated, compelling in its evidence and interpretation.... The book unquestionably stands as a major contribution to the history of medieval Christianity. -- Anne L. Clark * Church History *Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Catherine's Vocational Years: Worldliness and Female Sanctity2. Catherine Enters Tuscan Politics: Networks and Letter Writing3. Niccolò di Toldo and the Erotics of Political Engagement4. Catherine’s Sienese famiglia: Pious Networks and Political Identities5. Prophetic Politics: Catherine in the War of Eight SaintsConclusionBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisMedieval Arras was a thriving town on the frontier between the kingdom of France and the county of Flanders, and home to Europe''s earliest surviving vernacular plays: The Play of St. Nicholas, The Courtly Lad of Arras, The Boy and the Blind Man, The Play of the Bower, and The Play about Robin and about Marion. In A Common Stage, Carol Symes undertakes a cultural archeology of these artifacts, analyzing the processes by which a handful of entertainments were conceived, transmitted, received, and recorded during the thirteenth century. She then places the resulting scripts alongside other documented performances with which plays shared a common space and vocabulary: the crying of news, publication of law, preaching of sermons, telling of stories, celebration of liturgies, and arrangement of civic spectacles. She thereby shows how groups and individuals gained access to various means of publicity, participated in public life, and shaped publicTrade ReviewCarol Symes analyzes five of Europe's earliest vernacular plays created in the medieval town of Arras.... She entertains and educates in this most revealing book, making interesting connections between the public sphere and the creation and performance of plays.... Symes seamlessly melds multiple disciplines, utilizing text analysis as well as drawing upon the historical record to create a unique English-language interpretation of the role and meaning of theater in medieval life. -- Mihaela Luiza Florescu * Comitatus *

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Book SynopsisIn Out of Love for My Kin, Amy Livingstone examines the personal dimensions of the lives of aristocrats in the Loire region of France during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. She argues for a new conceptualization of aristocratic family life based on an ethos of inclusion. Inclusivity is evident in the care that medieval aristocrats showed toward their families by putting in place strategies, practices, and behaviors aimed at providing for a wide range of relatives. Indeed, this careand in some cases outright affectionfor family members is recorded in the documents themselves, as many a nobleman and woman made pious benefactions out of love for my kin.In a book made rich by evidence from charterswhich provide details about life events including birth, death, marriage, and legal disputes over propertyLivingstone reveals an aristocratic family dynamic that is quite different from the fictional or prescriptive views offered by literary depictions or ecclesiastical sourcTrade ReviewLivingstone's examination of aristocratic family life in central France during the eleventh and twelfth centuries takes issue with models presented in works by Georges Duby and Karl Schmid. Rejecting their concept of a revolution in family relationships centered on patrilineage, primogeniture, and exclusion of kin to preserve assets, the author argues for inclusive behavior that valued a broad definition of kin and provided liberally for all offspring. Citing evidence from charters, monastic obituaries, and chronicles, Livingstone presents abundant examples of family life marked by affection, devotion, and cooperation. Such a revision of family dynamics also influences the portrait of the medieval noblewoman, who is here revealed to be valued by parents and spouse, active in disposing of lands both her own and shared, and retaining a place within her natal family as well as carving out a cooperative lordship with her husband. * Choice *The prosopography, of course, is splendid in all technical aspects. But it is more than this: she seems so familiar with and understanding of these people that they come alive on the page. Her treatment of the name Domitilla (pp. 176-178), which at least two women assumed in the course of their lives, is a gem in its technical virtuosity and as a way to understand the noble self-fashioning of her aristocratic subjects. The book is full of gems. In a phrase this is an extraordinarily fine book and a most valuable blueprint for future work on other regions. The author is to be commended. -- William Chester Jordan * Medieval Prosopography *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Aristocrats and Their Families1. The Lands of the Loire, 1000–12002. Aristocratic Family Life3. Aristocratic Family Life Writ Small: The Fréteval, Mondoubleau, and Dives Kindred4. Inheritance: Diversity and Continuity5. Marriage and the Disposition of Property: A Sign of Status?6. Marriage: Practicalities, Ideologies, and Affection7. For Better, Not Worse: Wives and Husbands as Partners in Family and Lordship8. Contestations: Asserting and Reasserting a Place in the FamilyConclusion: Out of Love for My KinAppendix. Genealogical Charts 1. The Counts of Chartres 2. The Viscounts of Châteaudun to c. 1200 3. The Viscounts of Chartres 4. The Vidames of Chartres 5. The Lords of Alluyes-Gouet 6. The Lords of Montigny 7. The Fréteval-Mondoubleau-Dives Kindred 8. The Lords of Fréteval 9. The Dives Family 10. The Lords of Mondoubleau 11. The Descendants of Ingelbald Brito and Domitilla of Vendôme 12. The Lords of Lisle 13. The Lords of LangeaisWorks Cited Index

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Book SynopsisIn Creating Cistercian Nuns, Anne E. Lester addresses a central issue in the history of the medieval church: the role of women in the rise of the religious reform movement of the thirteenth century. Focusing on the county of Champagne in France, Lester reconstructs the history of the women's religious movement and its institutionalization within the Cistercian order.The common picture of the early Cistercian order is that it was unreceptive to religious women. Male Cistercian leaders often avoided institutional oversight of communities of nuns, preferring instead to cultivate informal relationships of spiritual advice and guidance with religious women. As a result, scholars believed that women who wished to live a life of service and poverty were more likely to join one of the other reforming orders rather than the Cistercians. As Lester shows, however, this picture is deeply flawed. Between 1220 and 1240 the Cistercian order incorporated small independent communities Trade ReviewAnne Lester's Creating Cistercian Nuns is a wonderful achievement. This book reconstructs ground-up a whole new socioreligious landscape in and around the country of Champagne while also contributing broadly to a new and evolving narrative of women's religious life in the thirteenth century. Lester's craft in this first monograph is remarkably mature, an ability to construct landscape and narrative out of the raw stuff of documentary records and to do so in pleasing prose. -- John Van Engen * Speculum *Lester examines the transition and transformation of informal communities of religious women living the apostolic life—characterized by charity, penitential piety, and poverty—into organized communities of Cistercian nuns after the Fourth Lateran Council (1215).... The author concentrates on Champagne, where some twenty Cistercian convents were established in the 13th century, and her impressive analysis of unpublished archival sources offers new perspectives on the dynamics of religious reform and the monastic life after 1215. * Choice *The book will be a welcome addition to the academic study of monastic and church history and gender studies. -- Mary Forman * ABR *With Creating Cistercian Nuns, Anne Lester has made a vital contribution to our understanding of the deeply nuanced relationship between the thirteenth-century women's religious movement in Champagne and the apparatus of the Cistercian order. It fills several important lacunae and reconfigures the historiography. This is a book that will be read for some time to come. -- David Winter * Canadian Journal of History *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsOn Currencies, Names, and TranscriptionsList of Abbreviations and Short TitlesIntroduction: Written Fragments and Living Parts1. Concerning Certain Women: The Women's Religious Movement in Champagne2. Cities of Refuge: The Social World of Religious Women3. Under the Religious Life: Reform and the Cistercian Order4. The Bonds of Charity: The Special Cares of Cistercian Nuns5. One and the Same Passion: Convents and Crusaders6. A Space Apart: Gender and Administration in a New Social LandscapeEpilogue: A Deplorable and Dangerous State: Crisis, Consolidation, and CollapseAppendix: Cistercian Convents and Domus-Dei of ChampagneBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisSpiritual seekers throughout history have sought illumination through solitary contemplation. In the Christian tradition, medieval England stands out for its remarkable array of hermits, recluses, and spiritual outsiders—from Cuthbert, Godric of Fichale, and Christina of Markyate to Richard Rolle, Julian of Norwich, and Margery Kempe. In The...Trade ReviewIt is one of many achievements of Riehle's book to bring to the fore the 'vivid exchange of ideas' between the medieval English mystics and their continental counterparts.... It has been a great pleasure to read this book. The translation is graceful, and the physical, editorial, and typographical makeup of the book reflects the high standards of the press. Considering the ever-decreasing attention non-English publications receive in Anglo-American scholarship, the translation of Riehle's important book into English will ensure that it gets the recognition it deserves. * Anglistik *A completely fresh look at the question of solitude and its relationship to the production of theological texts.... A sensitive and subtle book.... Although The Secret Within is centered on familiar writers and works, Riehle's approach to them gives them new freshness.... His detailed, subtle, and dense readings serve to remind us how rich these texts are and how fully they repay constant study. * Speculum *It is in the large number of texts analysed that readers can really appreciate the depth and breadth of Riehle's achievement here. Riehle aims to 'consider the texts as works of literary and theological significance' (p. xv), and the book certainly succeeds in these twin aims, at times arguing that the theological sophistication of certain texts has been under-appreciated in previous scholarship (e.g. in relation to Julian of Norwich), and in the process providing the reader with a thorough reminder of the long and varied textual tradition (e.g. the Psalms, Pauline writings, Origen) from which medieval mystical writers could gain both certainty and confusion in theological matters. * parergon *Table of Contents1. The Development of Eremitical Mysticism in the British Isles2. Early Cistercian Theology in England3. Ancrene Wisse: A Magnificent Exemplar of Early English Mysticism4. "Female" versus "Male" Spirituality? A Talking of the Love of God and the Meditations of the Monk of Farne5. Richard Rolle of Hampole: England's First Great Mystic6. Marguerite Porete's The Mirror of Simple Souls and Its Reception in England7. The Cloud of Unknowing and Related Tracts8. Walter Hilton: England’s Mystic Theologian9. The Singular Vision of Julian of Norwich10. Margery Kempe: The Shocking “Fool in Christ”11. Some Aspects of Popularizing Mysticism in Late Medieval EnglandConclusion

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Book SynopsisSuperstitions are commonplace in the modern world. Mostly, however, they evoke innocuous images of people reading their horoscopes or avoiding black cats. Certain religious practices might also come to mindpraying to St. Christopher or lighting candles for the dead. Benign as they might seem today, such practices were not always perceived that way. In medieval Europe superstitions were considered serious offenses, violations of essential precepts of Christian doctrine or immutable natural laws. But how and why did this come to be? In Fearful Spirits, Reasoned Follies, Michael D. Bailey explores the thorny concept of superstition as it was understood and debated in the Middle Ages. Bailey begins by tracing Christian thinking about superstition from the patristic period through the early and high Middle Ages. He then turns to the later Middle Ages, a period that witnessed an outpouring of writings devoted to superstitiontracts and treatises with titles such as De superstitionibTrade ReviewFearful Spirits, Unreasoned Follies is a groundbreaking work, suitable for graduate seminars and advanced undergraduate courses on premodern magic and witchcraft. It exemplifies why Bailey is one of the best scholars writing about the Middle Ages today. * The Catholic Historical Review *As Bailey elegantly points out, church authorities used superstition to promote proper religious devotion, and understanding these actions and beliefs is vital to understanding medieval culture and society. Basing his book upon a close reading of the primary sources, Bailey clearly explains the importance of superstition among the elite and in common practice during the late Middle Ages and explains how authorities sought to create a coherent theory of superstition to better control society. Summing Up: Highly recommended. * Choice *Bailey provides his reader with a broad overview of Christian thinking about superstition from the patristic period through to the fourteenth century. The complexity of the multiple meanings that inhered in the term is immediately apparent, but Bailey writes with an eye to the future, and particularly the emergence of what he sees as a new impetus in this long-standing discussion. * Renaissance Quarterly *Bailey writes clearly, without jargon and is excellent at noting changes in emphasis over time and differences between his sources without overplaying them. Yet he is far from being unreflective and concludes with a chapter explicitly pondering the trope of "modernity" and the role the concept of superstition has played in its construction. * Speculum *Bailey's approach to late medieval superstition highlights the challenges of determining what constitutes acceptable spiritual practice. He emphasizes that an exact definition of superstition may not exist: superstition itself is slippery and protean.... Bailey enriches his subject while expanding its relevance. * Fortean Times *This stimulating book traces a neglected thread in the Western intellectualtradition and challenges those modern prejudices and tropes of medievalsuperstition that are so irritating and offensive to historians of the period. Although the main focus of Michael Bailey's investigations is predominantly German writers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, he placesthem within a discourse stretching back to the Romans and forward intoour own time.... Bailey is to be commended for approaching these complex issues from a fresh and provocative angle. Students of both science and witchcraft have much to ponder here. * Parergon - Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies *As many scholars have pointed out, the differences between religion and superstition are in the eye of the beholder. Focusing largely on the works of French—and German—speaking theologians, Mark Bailey's detailed and readable new book argues that debates about this boundary were also important to medieval thinking. * the english historical review *The book's structure is clear, logical, and useful.... Bailey has addressed a very complicated topic with impressive skill, facing multiple difficulties with the subject matter head-on. His convincing argument regarding the changes in the meaning of "superstition" lead to one of the first statements of the conclusion, that "there is the abiding modern prejudice to view both the 'medieval' and the 'superstitious' as indicative of fundamentally immutable premodern irrationality.... This, then, is a much welcome book, useful to historians of both religion and magic alike. * The Journal of religion *Elegantly written and cogently argued, Bailey's book should be required reading for undergraduate and graduate students in a variety of fields, from European History and Religion to the History of Science. For scholars, Bailey has generously provided a wealth of material for further study in an Appendix of Late Medieval Sources Addressing Superstition. * magic, ritual, and witchcraft *Bailey draws on a range of theorists and specialists to contribute meaningfully to the deconstruction of that great scholarly irony: modernity.... It amused this reader greatly that through a study of medieval understandings of superstition, Bailey helps to show that modernity itself is every bit as shadowy a thing as are those werewolves of the forest. * Journal of Religious History *Table of ContentsPrologueIntroduction: The Meanings of Medieval Superstition1. The Weight of Tradition2. Superstition in Court and Cloister3. The Cardinal, the Confessor, and the Chancellor4. Dilemmas of Discernment5. Witchcraft and Its Discontents6. Toward Disenchantment?EpilogueAppendix Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisVincent Ferrer was revered as a living saint during his lifetime, receiving papal canonization within fifty years of his death. In this book, Laura Ackerman Smoller recounts the fascinating story of how Vincent became the subject of widespread devotion.Trade Review[W]onderfully nuanced and deftly argued.... A skilfully layered exploration of not only the politics of sanctity and canonisation but also of late medieval and early modern piety. -- Simon Ditchfield * English Historical Review *In this book, Smoller takes the study of Ferrer in a new direction by focusing very little on Ferrer himself, but instead on how others (whether wealthy and powerful lay locals, ordinary town dwellers, or the invested religious) made a saint out of him and crafted his image in such ways as to further their own agendas. She tackles this task head on, demonstrating an enviable ability to work in multiple disciplines and with numerous types of sources in several different media, while communicating her research results through the graceful and lucid prose her readers have come to expect from her work. Simply put, Smoller has produced an entertaining, educational, and highly original piece of scholarship that will serve as a model for religious historians to follow for some time to come.... It is an important, thought-provoking, and entertaining monograph. Indeed, Smoller's enthusiasm for the subject radiates from the text, and she expresses her refreshing brand of humor on many occasions throughout the book. -- Brian N. Becker * H-Italy *Laura Ackerman Smoller has been publishing interesting and informative articles about the cult of St. Vincent since the 1990s, and here she utilizes the larger canvas of a book to paint a more detailed and wider-ranging picture of how this Catalan friar was imagined and represented....[T]he prose is always clear and backed by wide research in sometimes arcane and difficult sources. Ending with a personal reminiscence of a visit to the church of Saint Vincent Ferrer on Lexington Avenue in New York City, this book provides a fine case study of a cult, demonstrating both the remarkable longevity of devotion to individual saints and the metamorphoses they underwent to achieve that long, posthumous life. -- Robert Bartlett * American Historical Review *The author has done well to let facts, legends, and evidentiary threads open one onto another into nets of quesetions and resources for future Ferrer studies. There is much to learn from this exemplary study of Ferrer's afterlife. * The Catholic Historical Review *Smoller deploys an impressive and exceptionally thorough array of sources, textual and visual, print and manuscript, and her readings are skilled and insightful. Her interpretation of the inquest records is masterful, as she ferrets out the 'small cracks' that hint at the otherwise lost experiences of individuals. Her analysis of the many Ferrers in the hagiographical literature is detailed and engaging. Smoller strikes a judicious balance between a Ferrer whose image was wholly shaped by elites and imposed from the top down and a popular cult that bubbled up from the bottom, finding instead a multiplicity of Ferrers and a cult that evolved and changed over place and time. The extended time frame, spanning the medieval/early modern divide, gives her analysis a depth not found in many similar studies. All of these qualities, coupled with the author's fluid and engaging style, make Smoller's The Saint and the Chopped-Up Baby a standout in religious history and a methodological model for future studies. -- A. Katie Harris * The Medieval Review *Table of ContentsPrologue: From Preacher to Saint 1. The Situation 2. The Process of Canonization 3. Shaping the Narratives of the Saint 4. Creating the Offi cial Image of the Saint 5. Competing Stories: Whose Vincent Ferrer Is It Anyway? 6. The Afterlife of the Chopped-Up Baby: The Sixteenth Century and Beyond Epilogue: Saint Vincent Ferrer in the Spanish Americas

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Book SynopsisHistorians typically single out the hundred-year period from about 1050 to 1150 as the pivotal moment in the history of the Latin Church, for it was then that the Gregorian Reform movement established the ecclesiastical structure that would ensure Rome's dominance throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. In Before the Gregorian Reform John Howe challenges this familiar narrative by examining earlier, pre-Gregorian reform efforts within the Church. He finds that they were more extensive and widespread than previously thought and that they actually established a foundation for the subsequent Gregorian Reform movement.The low point in the history of Christendom came in the late ninth and early tenth centuriesa period when much of Europe was overwhelmed by barbarian raids and widespread civil disorder, which left the Church in a state of disarray. As Howe shows, however, the destruction gave rise to creativity. Aristocrats and churchmen rebuilt churches and constructed new oTrade ReviewA comprehensive and accessible survey of two hundred years of church history.... A richly textured and arresting image of a world rooted in its Carolingian past yet foundational to the expansionist and ecumenical church of the later Middle Ages.... Indispensible to any medieval history syllabus. * H-Soz-Kult *Howe calls upon a truly impressive array of evidence and scholarship from the fields of history, literature, liturgical studies, art and architectural history, and theological studies in support of his argument, and scholars will profit immensely from perusing his footnotes. The book is loaded with important insights and asides.... Most importantly, Howe's work lands another hammer blow on the older, confessionally-driven, top-down paradigm of church reform... and does so in a style that is self-consciously accessible to specialist and non-specialist readers. * SPECULUM *Builds on a good deal of recent research which emphasises the deep roots of later developments, and draws attention to the diversity and vitality of religious life at this time.... He succeeds in evoking interest in the tenth-century Church. * English Historical Review *There is much of use here: the stress on the physical, acoustic and aesthetic aspects of developments in the tenth and early eleventh centuries is welcome, and these sections bring together a wide range of recent literature. Mediterranean areas, especially Italy, receive due attention... the emphasis on Byzantine ideas is refreshing. * Journal of Ecclesiastical History *An extensively researched, engagingly written, and nicely illustrated book.... Howe draws upon his own impressive research to demonstrate the numerous contacts between the Roman and Greek churches. * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: A Pre-Gregorian Reform? 1. "Wolves Devouring the Lambs of Christ" 2. "Enter Confidently into the War of the Lord God" 3. "A White Mantle of Churches" 4. "To Rouse Devotion in a Carnal People" 5. "Following in the Footsteps of the Saints" 6. "When My Soul Longs for the Divine Vision" 7. "Learning Is Part of Holiness" 8. "The Body Is Not a Single Part" 9. "One Shepherd Presides over All Generally" Epilogue: A Pope Captured, A Church Triumphant

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Book SynopsisCompellingly written, Cluny and the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet provides us with an unparalleled opportunity to examine Christian perceptions of Islam in the Crusading...Trade ReviewOverall, this is an impressive book. It diligently unpacks the development of the hagiographical legend surrounding the kidnapping of Maiolus and assesses its impact upon later Cluniac authors—especially Peter the Venerable. It makes positive contributions to several major debates surrounding Peter and the broad character of the Cluniac engagement with non-Christians and places that discussion within a long-term context. Bruce expresses himself with some neat turns of phrase and the book as a whole is a very easy read. It is much to be recommended! * Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations *Crisply written and easy to read, given the density of some of the material. Highly recommended. * Reading Religion *A thoughtful and provocative book... Bruce has demonstrated the importance of the vita of Maiolus on the attitudes of the twelfth-century abbot and raised new ways to think about Peter's approach to Islam. * Journal of Religion *Meticulously researched and highly readable, this book will be a valuable addition to the shelves of all scholars of polemic and interreligious interactions in the Middle Ages. In drawing scholarly attention to the influence of devotional and hagiographical texts in shaping the attitudes of medieval theologians, Bruce provides fresh material and an original perspective to ongoing conversations about the ways in which medieval Christian writers interacted with Islam and the texts that shaped their thought-worlds. * Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures *This is a welcome work, bringing greater attention to a small but telling episode in the life of one Cluniac abbot and the polemical work of another Cluniac abbot, while also satisfying a modern desire for insight into Christian-Muslim relations in the past. * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Hagiography and Religious Polemic in the Cluniac Tradition 1. News of a Kidnapping The Perils and Promises of Transalpine Travel The Muslims of La Garde-Freinet "The Hordes of Belial Have Surrounded Me" 2. Monks Tell Tales By Savaage Hands Restrained The Preacher's Prowess Fulcher and the Great Wolf Enter Muhammed Interlude: A Cluniac Mission on the Spanish Frontier 3. Peter and the Venerable, Butcher of God Against the Heirs of Inquiry A Christian Arsenal against Islam Assailing the Monstrous Beast Recourse to Reason 4. Hagiography and the Muslim Policy of Peter the Venerable Reasoning with Unbelievers in the Decades around 1100 A Reservoir of Eastern Censure Nalgod's Industry Conclusion

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Book SynopsisAn example of microhistory at its best, this book offers a new perspective on the socal history of medieval and early modern Europe and on historiography more broadly.Trade Review"The merit of Honor, Vengeance, and Social Trouble: Pardon Letters in the Burgundian Low Countries lies in its attempt, wherever possible, to corroborate the cases it examines by unearthing supplementary archival data from a variety of sources, and to vividly and amusingly illuminate the social world in the towns and villages of the fifteenth-century Burgundian lands." -- Thierry Boucquey * Comitatus 47 *The novelty of this book lies in chapters 3 and 4, where the focus shifts from homicide to a set of pardon letters—statistically, a tiny minority—involving the abduction, real or alleged, of a woman. Here we get an illuminating glimpse of marriage law, interpersonal violence, the interaction between these two, and fifteenth-century life generally. -- Pieter Spierenburg * Renaissance Quarterly *Table of ContentsIntroduction. The Forgiving Prince: Pardons and Their Origins1. Social Discord: Disputes, Vendettas, and Political Clients2. Violence, Honor, and Sexuality3. Marital Conflict4. Actress, Wife, or Lover? Maria van der Hoeven Accused and DefendedConclusion. People and Their StoriesBibliographical Note Index

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Book SynopsisIn a book with a bold new view of medieval Jewish history, written in a style accessible to nonspecialists and students as well as to scholars in the field, Marina Rustow changes our understanding of the origins and nature of heresy itself. Scholars have long believed that the Rabbanites and Qaraites, the two major Jewish groups under Islamic rule, split decisively in the tenth century and from that time forward the minority Qaraites were deemed a heretical sect. Qaraites affirmed a right to decide matters of Jewish law free from centuries of rabbinic interpretation; the Rabbanites, in turn, claimed an unbroken chain of scholarly tradition.Rustow draws heavily on the Cairo Geniza, a repository of papers found in a Rabbanite synagogue, to show that despite the often fierce arguments between the groups, they depended on each other for political and financial support and cooperated in both public and private life. This evidence of remarkable interchange leads Rustow to the conclTrade ReviewRustow's book provides us fascinating new insights into the history of Jewish Eastern communities of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine during the crucial and politically unstable period of the rule of the Fatimid caliphs.... Her focus on documentary and epistolary sources and on the caliphal administration allows Rustow to present a picture of Rabbanite-Karaite relations which differs from the more standard views of modern scholarship... that present Karaism as a separatist 'sect' and a threat to Judaism.... On the contrary, Rustow shows, the Karaites constituted one among other Jewish groups of the period and were fully engaged in Jewish community life as a whole. * Journal of Jewish Studies *The Cairo Geniza documents have been at the center of Jewish scholarship for over a century. Rustow has reviewed the medieval and modern models that emerged on the basis of the rich polemical literature and challenges them against the extant contemporary correspondence that describe the actual interactions.... This well-written and reader-friendly major contribution is accessible to neophyte and scholar alike, and will engender a new, nuanced view of the social relations among Jews and Muslims in the medieval Mediterranean. Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction AbbreviationsPart I: The Shape of the Jewish Community 1. The Tripartite Community 2. Jewish Book Culture in the Tenth Century 3. The Limits of Communal AutonomyPart II: Rabbanites, Qaraites, and the Politics of Leadership 4. Qaraites and the Politics of Powerlessness 5. "Nothing but Kindness, Benefi t, and Loyalty": Qaraites and the Ge'onim of Baghdad 6. "Under the Authority of God and All Israel": Qaraites and the Ge’onim of Jerusalem 7. "Glory of the Two Parties": Petitions to Qaraite Courtiers 8. The Affair of the Ban of Excommunication in 1029Part III: Scholastic Loyalty and Its Limits 9. Rabbanite-Qaraite Marriages 10. In the Courts: Legal ReciprocityPart IV: The Origins of Territorial Governance 11. Avignon in Ramla: The Schism of 1038–42 12. The Tripartite Community and the First CrusadeEpilogue: Toward a History of Jewish HeresyGlossary Guide to Places and People Manuscript Sources Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn Prosperity for All, the first international history of consumer activism, Matthew Hilton shows that modern consumer advocacy reached the peak of its influence in the decades after World War II and focused on creating a more equitable marketplace.Trade ReviewHilton's fine book traces the history of the consumer movement, focusing on how its agenda has changed and how, in the process, it has neglected two critical issues, overconsumption by some groups and underconsumption by others.... The powerful narrative makes insightful links to broader social and global issues. Highly recommended. * Choice *Taking a refreshing view of the history of consumption, Matthew Hilton identifies a change in the relative weight given by consumer groups from a 'focus on access to one of choice' and thus redefines consumer history according to the historical balance between social welfare and individual gain as the dual goals of consumer organizations.... Prosperity for All deserves attention for its insightful use of the consumer movement to help explain larger and economic and social trends. The international transformation of consumer politics from an emphasis on democracy and social justice to the neoclassical prominence of individual choice stands as an important narrative of twentieth-century global history.... Perhaps most importantly, Hilton successfully incorporates consumer activists—emphasizing the links between the individual battles against breast milk substitutes, crop modification, and pharmaceutical dumping—into the greater story of international social movements. -- Christopher R. W. Dietrich * Itinerario *

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Book SynopsisThe real history and meaning of the Feast of Fools—usually misunderstood as a sacrilegious festival.Trade ReviewMax Harris has responded to the challenge laid down by Aimé Chérest more than 150 years ago, to produce fresh ideas on the Feast of Fools... . Sacred Folly is a splendid response to Chérest's challenge, clear headed, well structured, based on very wide reading and sensitively handled material. It deserves to be widely read. -- Jean Dunbabin * Medium Aevum *The Feast of Fools has provided modern imaginations with a suggestive picture of medieval clerical dissolution. Popular fiction has found the picture irresistible.... What Max Harris's stunning new book, Sacred Folly, reveals is that the phenomenon has been grossly misrepresented in scholarly literature, too. Harris dismantles prevailing accounts of the Feast of Fools piece by piece, disentangling the historical evidence from the imaginative projections of generations of scholars.... Sacred Folly puts the historical discussion of the Feast of Fools on an entirely new footing. -- William Robins * The Journal of Medieval Latin *Table of ContentsPrologue: A Letter from ParisPart I. Before the Feast of Fools 1. The Kalends of January 2. The Holy City of Byzantium 3. Roman Games 4. Herod in Germany 5. Tossing a Ball in a French CathedralPart II. Shaping the Feast of Fools 6. The Feast of the Subdeacons 7. The Feast of the Ass 8. The Complaints of Innocent III 9. The Office of the Circumcision 10. The Plays of Daniel and JosephPart III. Supporting the Feast of Fools 11. Chapter Support 12. Rumors of Disorder 13. A Spirited Defense 14. Youth Groups, Coal Dust, and Cow Dung 15. Outside FrancePart IV. Suppressing the Feast of Fools 16. Jean Gerson and the Auxerre Affair 17. Trouble in St.-Omer and Noyon 18. Troyes, Sens, and the Council of Basel 19. Rereading the Letter from Paris 20. A Durable FeastPart V. Beyond the Feast of Fools 21. Festive Societies 22. Innocents and Fools 23. King of the Breeches 24. Our Lady of the Trellis 25. Mother FoolEpilogue: Orange Peel in AntibesBibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA reconstruction and exploration of the phenomenon of religious cursing in medieval Europe.Trade Review'May they be cursed in town and cursed in the fields. May their barns be cursed and may their bones be cursed. May the fruit of their loins be cursed as well as the fruit of their lands.' French monks of the Middle Ages hurled curses like these at their enemies, seeking supernatural assistance when no secular judge could help them. In a long-awaited book written with elegance and erudition, Lester Little undertakes the first full-length study of these maledictions.... The book's focus is the way that religious communities—especially the monks who followed Benedict's Rule and hence were known by his name—used liturgical cursing to safeguard their integrity and their possessions, against both laymen and other ecclesiastics. * Journal of Social History *Little begins with a custom that may seem quaint; he ends by leading the reader through a series of centrally important historical developments, and in most cases he succeeds in showing their relevance to this extraordinary custom of liturgical cursing. -- Richard Kieckhefer, Northwestern University * American Historical Review *Professor Little has carried out in masterly fashion his stated goal, the re-creation of the whole cutlure of medieval clamor, and in the process he has illuminated many other aspects of medieval religious, social, and legal practices. His book, filled with charming personal asides, will be duly appreciated by scholars, admirers, and nonspecialists. -- Bede K. Lackner, University of Texas, Arlington * Speculum *

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Book SynopsisJenny Jochens captures in fascinating detail the lives of women in pagan and early Christian Iceland and Norwaytheir work, sexual behavior, marriage customs, reproductive practices, familial relations, leisure activities, religious practices, and legal constraints and protections. Women in Old Norse Society places particular emphasis on changing sexual mores and the impact of Christianity as imposed by the clergy and Norwegian kings. It also demonstrates the vital role women played in economic production.Trade ReviewA thoroughly rewarding book.... The section on economics and production of wadmal and shaggy overcoats deserves close attention as the best treatment in English of an important topic hitherto neglected. * English Historical Review *Although a number of scholars have begun in recent years to approach Old Norse literature from a feminist perspective, Jenny Jochens has been the only historian in the United States to use gender analysis to study the society represented in that literature.... Jochens brings to bear on the Icelandic material a very broad range of knowledge: not only the Old Norse sources in all their complexity but also the body of scholarship in women's history and feminist theory.... This book can be read with profit by all medievalists and is essential reading for anyone interested in Old Norse society. * Speculum *Jenny Jochens has been one of the most prolific scholars working on the perennially interesting theme of the role played by women and scholars in Old Icelandic history and literature. Jochens presents a wealth of fascinating detail, never before collected to this extent... offering a full picture of the lives of medieval Icelandic women. * Saga-Book *Jochens's study is a model of interdisciplinary techniques and research; she carefully describes her sources—largely laws and sagas of various types—and their limitations, and then draws from them information, such as the etymology of key words ('wife,' 'husband'), possible only for a linguistic scholar of her caliber. * Choice *Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionChapter One. Gudny Bodvarsdottir and Gudrun Gjukadottir: Nordic-Germanic ContinuityChapter Two. MarriageThe Pagan-Christian ConflictPagan MarriageChristian MarriageTwo MarriagesDivorce and WidowhoodChapter Three. ReproductionConception: Theory and KnowledgeHeterosexual LovemakingSexual InitiativePregnancy and BirthPaternityInfanticideBaptismReproduction and Royal SuccessionChapter Four. LeisureWork before LeisureGenderIdleness and SleepSports and GamesStorytellingDrinking and Word GamesEmotional DistressPoliticsChapter Five. WorkGender Division of LaborOutdoor WorkIndoor WorkChapter Six. The Economics of HomespunGeneral UseCoatsCloth as Medium of ExchangeExport of Cloth and CoatsMeasurementsForeign ClothConclusionAppendix: SourcesSagas of IcelandersKings'SagasContemporary SagasLawsChristianity, Historicity, Oral Tradition, and Poststructural DoubtAbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisWhy did early medieval kings declare certain properties to be immune from the judicial and fiscal encroachments of their own agents? Did weakness compel them to prohibit their agents from entering these properties, as historians have traditionally...Trade ReviewAn unconventional new contribution.... Rosenwein's line of thought opens up entirely new vistas of interpretation to historians as she reads between the lines of apparently dry-as-dust material hitherto relegated to diplomatic and legal history, and finds vitally important power politics and enormous creativity lurking behind its demurely formal record.... Beyond its stated subject of the ordering of space, Rosenwein's book suggests that creativity and ingenious power politics are as characteristic of troubled times as of peaceful prosperity. -- Aline G. Hornaday * Journal of Unconventional History *While it is essential reading for anyone interested in questions of law, power, and politics in the early Middle Ages, Rosenwein's forays into anthropological literature and Anglo-American legal history recommend this work to a wider audience. -- Adam J. Kosto * Law and History Review *In this able and thought-provoking book... Rosenwein investigates her case studies with her customary disciplined scholarship and sensitivity to nuance. There is much absorbing material to ponder here, not only about the workings of power relationships in early medieval societies but also about notions concerning holy places, gift-giving, purity, defilement, protection, and asylum.... There are lessons to be learned in all sorts of directions.... Historians will find challenging food for thought in Rosenwein's pages. -- Richard Fletcher * Times Literary Supplement *Our understanding of how early-medieval Europe functioned as a secular and a religious community is greatly enhanced by this splendid monograph.... A superb study. -- Harry Rosenberg * Speculum *Anyone who has picked up a volume of early medieval charters has encountered an immunity diploma. Anyone who has read Barbara Rosenwein's wonderful book will never read an immunity the same way again. This is one of the most interesting and important books I have read in many years. -- Thomas F. X. Noble * Arthuriana *Readers will learn much from this book about monastic privileges in the early Middle Ages. Rosenwein has taken a subject that has been in the bailiwick of continental scholarship and introduced it to an English-speaking audience with style and wit. -- Kenneth Pennington, Syracuse University * American Historical Review *Rosenwein has produced another original and ambitious study of a topic with wide-ranging implications. One of its greatest merits is that it seems likely to provoke readers to thought and, with luck, to further research on some of the issues that it raises. -- James A. Brundage * Church History *

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Book SynopsisGendering the Master Narrative asks whether a female tradition of power might have existed distinct from the male one, and how such a tradition might have been transmitted. It describes women''s progress toward power as a push-pull movement, showing how practices and institutions that ostensibly enabled women in the Middle Ages could sometimes erode their authority as well.This book provides a much-needed theoretical and historical reassessment of medieval women''s power. It updates the conclusions from the editors'' essential volume on that topic, Women and Power in the Middle Ages, which was published in 1988 and altered the prevailing view of female subservience by correcting the nearly ubiquitous equation of power with public authority. Most scholars now accept a broader definition of power based on the interactions between men and women.In their Introduction, Mary C. Erler and Maryanne Kowaleski survey the directions in which the study of medieval women''s Trade ReviewInterdisciplinary essays on the exercise and transmission of female power in medieval society. * The Chronicle of Higher Education *By entitling this collection Gendering the Master Narrative, editors Mary C. Erler and Maryanne Kowaleski intend to prepare readers for the fact that the essays supplement the story of men's access to and wielding of power in European Middle Ages with the story of women's. -- Conrad Leyser, University of Manchester * American Historical Review *

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Book SynopsisThis compelling book, first published in 1995, changed historians' understanding of the history of public penance...Trade ReviewMansfield argues that public penance continued to flourish throughout the thirteenth century.... She examines a rich variety of sources drawn primarily from northern France. The surviving narratives report a surprising number of cases of public penance involving notorious figures. * Law and History Review *Mansfield's book challenges long-held assumptions about the disappearance of public penance after the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.... The Humiliation of Sinners shows that Mansfield was a young woman of extraordinary promise in the field of medieval studies. * Choice *The Humiliation of Sinners is the work of a formidable scholar whose intensive research... produced a bold reinterpretation of the history of medieval penance. * Catholic Historical Review *This book is a major achievement. Its masterly synthesis is extensively documented, based on very close reading of a wide range of manuscript and printed material. Coherent in itself, it contains much of value beyond its own immediate concerns. * French History *This book will command the attention of anyone interested in the religious transformations of the High Middle Ages, and more broadly, in issues of private conscience and public justice. * Church History *

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Book SynopsisOffers an account of the Cheyennes' life on the Great Plains, their system of government and religion, and their relation to the fur and hide trade during their last years of freedom. Their turbulent, colourful history related by Donald Berthrong will interest the general reader as well as the historian and anthropologist.

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Book SynopsisTells for the first time the story of how during World War II, the British, with the aid of forty-four oilfield roughnecks from the US, developed vital shallow pools of oil in Britain's famed Sherwood Forest. The Secret of Sherwood Forest is based on extensive research using thousands of reports, letters, and documents.Trade Review""The book cost us some sleep, because we couldn't put it down unread."" - Dorothy CableThe Morgantown News Herald ""The book reconstructs, in a folksy and imaginative way, the story of the American party and their experiences under the greenwood trees of Sherwood Forest."" - R.A. Buchman Technology and Culture ""Much more than exciting cloak-and-dagger story of men at war, the book is a fine study in human adaptation…a book that is not only fascinating, but important: a chapter in history that needed to be told."" - Dan R. Chambers Tulsa Sunday World

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Book SynopsisMakes a significant contribution to the new field sometimes known as occupation studies, which focuses on the ways a victorious army attempts to reconcile a conquered populace to the new political order. Combining military history with political and social history, the book delineates what we now call the cultural terrain of war.Trade Review"Charles Esdaile's account of Napoleonic Andaluc a is important not only for what it tells us about the failure of France in Spain but also because it throws great light on the dynamics of Napoleonic rule and on the nature of political culture during an important period of Europe's evolution."--Jeremy Black, author of The War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon "Outpost of Empire sheds much new light on the goals and machinery of the French effort to expand their Empire into Andaluc a. In the process, it enriches our understanding of the meaning of the Empire for the French and, more importantly, for the development and evolution of the French imperial army. It will reward readers interested in the Peninsular War or the nature of military occupation generally." - Michigan War Studies Review

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Book SynopsisAlthough an army's success is often measured in battle outcomes, its victories depend on strengths that may be less obvious on the field. In Sickness, Suffering, and the Sword, military historian Andrew Bamford assesses the effectiveness of the British Army in sustained campaigning during the Napoleonic Wars.Trade ReviewAndrew Bamford's first-rate study provides an excellent reminder of key aspects of soldiering during the Napoleonic wars. Well grounded in the sources, this book is of importance not only for the history of the British army but also for that of other armies of the period."" - Jeremy Black, author of The War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon and Fighting for America: The Struggle for Mastery in North America, 1519 - 1871""An important work that will be required reading for students of the British army of the Napoleonic wars, this study provides the first account ever written of how Britain managed its limited military manpower. The book's conclusions will both surprise and impress."" - Charles J. Esdaile, author of Outpost of Empire: The Napoleonic Occupation of Andalucía, 1810 - 1812

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Book SynopsisFor the Cherokee Nation, the Civil War was more than a contest between the Union and the Confederacy. It was yet another battle in the larger struggle against multiple white governments for land and tribal sovereignty. Cherokee Civil Warrior tells the story of Chief John Ross as he led the tribe in this struggle.Trade Review“Cherokee Civil Warrior boldly places Chief John Ross at the center of the political struggle for Native sovereignty, recognizing the impact of his leadership far beyond Removal and the Civil War. It offers a fresh approach to fathoming the drastic changes in federal Indian policy at the end of the nineteenth century by looking through the lens of Cherokee autonomy.”—Clarrissa Confer, author of The Cherokee Nation in the Civil War

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Book SynopsisRevising the view that the German Second Reich was merely a precursor to the Third, this broad-scoped study presents pre- World War I Germany in its own fascinating and often contradictory terms.

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