About the Book
Deftly written and beautifully illustrated, The Worlds of Medieval Europe, Third Edition, presents a distinctive and nuanced portrayal of the Greater West during its medieval millennium. By integrating the histories of the Islamic and Byzantine worlds into the main narrative, author Clifford R. Backman offers an insightful, detailed, and often witty look at the continuum of interaction--social, cultural, intellectual, and commercial--that existed among all three societies.
This compelling volume surpasses traditional textbook representations of the Middle Ages by balancing the conventional focus on political affairs, especially those of northern Europe, with equally detailed attention to medieval society as it developed in the Mediterranean. In addition, Backman describes the ways in which the medieval Latin West attempted to understand the unified and rational structure of the human cosmos, which they believed existed beneath the observable diversity and disorder of the world. This effort to recreate a human ordering of "unity through diversity" provides an essential key to understanding medieval Europe and the ways in which it regarded and reacted to the worlds around it.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
How to Read a Primary Source
Chapter 1: The Roman World at its Height
1.1 Virgil, The Aeneid [Bk. 1, ll. 1-33]
1.2 Tacitus, The Histories [Bk. 1, ch. 1-6; Bk. 5, ch. 2-9]
1.3 Josephus, The Jewish War [Bk. 6, ch. 1, 3-4, 8-10]
1.4 Epictetus, The Enchiridion
1.5 Marcus Aurelius, Meditations [Bk. 2, ch. 1, 5, 14, 16-17]
1.6 Imperial Crisis in the 3rd Century
Chapter 2: The Rise of Christianity
2.1 Chronology of the New Testament
2.2 New Testament selections [Matthew ch. 5-7. 1 Corinthians ch. 15]
2.3 Pliny the Younger [Letter to Trajan]
2.4 Minucius Felix, Octavius [Ch. 30-31]
2.5 The Passion of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity.
2.6 Edicts of Toleration/Milan [Lactantius, On the Deaths of Our Persecutors, ch. 34 and 48; Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, Bk. 10, ch. 5]
2.7 Nicene Creeds
2.8 Origen, Against Celsus
2.9 Gospel of Thomas
2.10 St. Augustine [Two sermons on the First Epistle of John]
Chapter 3: Early Germanic Society
3.1 Jordanes, Getica [Ch. 176-178, 180-186, 194-198, 207-213, 217-227, 254]
3.2 Sidonius Apollinarus, Letters
3.3 Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks [Bk. II, ch. 35-42; Bk. VI, ch. 5]
3.4 Ethelbert of Kent, Laws regarding women
Chapter 4: Cloister and Culture
4.1 Sulpicius Severus, Life of St. Martin [Ch. 2-3, 5-8, 10, 15, 26-27]
4.2 Gregory the Great, The Life of Saint Benedict [ch. 1-2], and Letter [30] to Empress
Constantina
4.3 St. Benedict, The Benedictine Rule [Prologue and ch. 4]
4.4 Caesarius of Arles, Rule for Nuns [Ch. 1-5, 7-11, 19, 23-25, 36, 40, 47]
Chapter 5: The Emergence of the Medieval Worlds
5.1 Gildas, On the Ruin of Britain
5.2 Bede I, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and II, Ecclesiastical History of Britain (Bk. 5, ch. 23-24)
5.3 Martin of Braga, On the Correction of Peasants
5.4 Procopius on Justinian/Heraclius
5.5 Islam [Qur'an, Ibn Ishaq]
5.6 Periods of Islamic History
5.7 Genealogies of Islam
5.8 The Umayyad Caliphs
5.9 The Shi'i Imams
Chapter 6: The Carolingian Era
6.1 The Donation of Constantine
6.2 Einhard, The Life of Charlemagne
6.3 Dhuoda, Advice to Her Son William
Chapter 7: The Time of Troubles
7.1 Asser, Life of Alfred
7.2 Hrotsvitha, Dulcitius
7.3 Ibn Fadlan, Risala [Ch. 80-84, 87-92]
7.4 Al-Kindi, On First Philosophy
Chapter 8: Revolutions on Land and Sea
8.1 Burchard of Worms, The Corrector
8.2 Adso of Montier, The Antichrist Letter
8.3 The Abbasid Caliphs
Chapter 9: A New Europe Emerges: North and South
9.1 The Song of Roland
9.2 The Song of the Cid
9.3 Otto of Freising, The Two Cities
9.4 Ibn Hawqal, Portrait of the World
9.5 Medieval Jewish Chronology
Chapter 10: The Reform Of The Church
10.1 Prologue to the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals
10.2 Gregory VII, Letters
10.3 Ecumenical Councils of the Latin Church
10.4 Usamah ibn Munqidh, Memoirs
10.5 Chronology of the Crusades
Chapter 11: The Renaissances of the Twelfth Century
11.1 Peter Abelard, Sic et Non
11.2 Ibn Rushd, On the Harmony of Religious Law and Philosophy
11.3 Al-Ghazali, The Deliverer from Error
11.4 Maimonides, Letter to Yemen
11.5 Trotula, On the Maladies of Women
Chapter 12: The Papal Monarchy
12.1 Lucius III, Ad abolendam
12.2 The Inquisition at Work
12.3 Gospel According to the Marks of Silver
12.4 Innocent III, Decree on Jews
12.5 Innocent III, A Christmas Sermon
12.6 Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogue on Miracles
12.7 Hildegard of Bingen, The Book of Divine Works
Chapter 13: Politics in the Thirteenth Century
13.1 John of Salisbury, Policraticus
13.2 Giano della Bella, Speech in Praise of Republican Government
13.3 Ordinances of the Merchants' Guild of Southampton
13.4 Ibn Battuta, Travels
13.5 Giovanni Piano, History of the Mongols
Chapter 14: Art and Intellect in the Thirteenth Century
14.1 St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles
14.2 Roger Bacon, Opus maius
14.3 Marie de France, Lanval
14.4 Two Fabliaux
14.5 The Arabian Nights
Chapter 15: Daily Life at the Medieval Zenith
15.1 William Fitz Stephen, "A Description of the Most Noble City of London"
15.2 Giovanni Villani, Description of Florence
15.3 Benjamin of Tudela, Itinerary
15.4 Prominent Rabbis of the Middle Ages
Chapter 16: Changes in Religious Life
16.1 Gregory IX, Mira circa nos, Canonization of St. Francis
16.2 Gregory IX, Canonization of St. Dominic
16.3 Mechthild on Magdeburg, The Flowing Light of Divinity
Chapter 17: The Crises of the Fourteenth Century
17.1 St. Catherine of Siena, Letters
17.2 Boccaccio, "The Great Plague"
17.3 The Battle of Poitiers: Two Versions
17.4 Jean de Froissart, "On the Flagellants"
17.5 Jakob Twinger, Chronicle
17.6 The 100 Years War: 1337-1453
Chapter 18: Signs of a New Era
18.1 Marsilius of Padua, Defender of the Peace
18.2 William of Ockham, Letter to the Friars Minor
18.3 Dante, "Hymn to Mary" from The Divine Comedy
18.4 Chaucer, Prologue to "The Pardoner's Tale"
18.5 Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies
Chapter 19: Closings In, Closings Out
19.1 Francesco Guicciardini, The History of Florence
Chapter 20: The Renaissance In Medieval Context
20.1 Petrarca, Letter to Posterity
Appendix: List of Popes
About the Author :
Clifford R. Backman is Associate Professor of History at Boston University. He is the author of The Cultures of the West (OUP, 2013) and The Decline and Fall of Medieval Sicily: Politics, Economy, and Religion in the Reign of Frederick III, 1296-1327 (1995).
