The Medieval World: (Routledge Worlds)

Ranging from Connacht to Constantinople and from Tynemouth to Timbuktu, the forty-four contributors to The Medieval World seek to bring the Middle Ages to life, offering definitive appraisals of the distinctive features of the period. This second edition includes six additional chapters, covering the Byzantine empire, illuminated manuscripts, the 'ésprit laïque' of the late middle ages, saints and martyrs, the papal chancery and scholastic thought. Chapters are arranged thematically within four parts: 1. Identities, Selves and Others 2. Beliefs, Social Values and Symbolic Order 3. Power and Power Structures 4. Elites, Organisations and Groups The Medieval World presents the reader with an authoritative account of original scholarship across the medieval millennium and provides essential reading for all students of the subject.

Table of Contents:
List of illustrations List of contributors Abbreviations Preface to the Second Edition 1. Introduction Part I. Identities: Selves and Others 2. Courts in East and West, Jonathan Shepard 3. At the Spanish Frontier, Peter Linehan 4. Muslims in Christian Iberia, 1000-1526, David Nirenberg 5. How many Medieval Europes? The 'pagans' of Hungary and regional diversity in Christendom, Nora Berend 6. Christians, Barbarians and Monsters. The European discovery of the world beyond Islam, Peter Jackson 7. The Empire of Byzantium, Averil Cameron 8. The Establishment of Medieval Hermeticism, Charles Burnett 9. What the Crusades meant to Europe, Christopher Tyerman 10. The Crusades and the Persecution of the Jews, J. A. Watt 11. Imagines Historiarum: Visions of the Past in Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts, Rosa Rodriguez Porto 12. Strange Eventful Histories: the Middle Ages in the cinema, Stuart Airlie II. Beliefs, Social Values and Symbolic Order 13. Political Rituals and Political Imagination in the Medieval West from the 4th Century to the 12th, Philippe Buc 14. Modern Mythologies of Medieval Chivalry, Dominique Barthélemy 15. The Unique Favour of Penance: the Church and the People, c.800-c.1100, Sarah Hamilton 16. Gender Negotiations in France during the central Middle Ages: the literary evidence, Linda Paterson 17. Symbolism and medieval religious thought, David d'Avray 18. Sexuality in the Middle Ages, Ruth Mazo Karras 19. Sin, Crime and the Pleasures of the Flesh: the medieval Church judges sexual offences, James Brundage 20. Through a Glass Darkly: seeing medieval heresy, Peter Biller 21. À la recherché de l’esprit laïque in the late middle ages, Roberto Lambertini 22. Saints and Martyrs in Late Medieval Religious Culture, Carl Watkins 23. The Corpse in the Middle Ages: the problem of the division of the body, Agostino Paravicini Bagliani 24. The Crucifixion and the Censorship of Art around 1300, Paul Binski III. Power and Power-structures 25. Space, Culture and Kingdoms in Early Medieval Europe, Paul Fouracre 26. The Outward Look: Britain and beyond in medieval Irish literature, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh 27. Powerful Women in the early Middle Ages: queens and abbesses, Pauline Stafford 28. Perceptions of an Early Medieval Urban Landscape, Cristina La Rocca 29. Assembly Politics in Western Europe from the Eighth Century to the Twelfth, Timothy Reuter 30. Beyond the Comune: the Italian city-state and its inheritance, Mario Ascheri 31. Timbuktu and Europe: trade, cities and Islam in 'medieval' West Africa, Timothy Insoll 32. Medieval Law, Susan Reynolds 33. Rulers and Justice, 1200-1500, Magnus Ryan 34. The King's Counsellors' Two Faces: a Portuguese perspective, Maria João Branco 35. Fullness of Power? Popes, bishops, and the polity of the Church, 1215-1517, James Burns 36. The papal chancery: Avignon and beyond, Patrick Zutshi IV. Elites, Organisations and Groups 37. A New Legal Cosmos: late Roman Lawyers and the early medieval Church, Caroline Humfress 38. Medieval Monasticism, Janet L. Nelson 39. Aspects of the Early Medieval Peasant Economy as revealed in the Polyptych of Prüm, Yoshiki Morimoto 40. Privilege in Medieval Societies from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Century, or: How the exception proves the rule, Alain Boureau 41. What did the Twelfth-Century Renaissance Mean?, Jacques Le Goff 42. The English Parish and its Clergy in the Thirteenth Century, C. H. Lawrence 43. Everyday Life and Elites in the later Middle Ages: the civilised and the barbarian, Gabor Klaniczay 44. Scholastic Thought in Humanist Guise: François Hotman’s Ancient French Constitution, George Garnett 45. On 1500, Elizabeth A.R. Brown Elizabeth A.R.Brown

About the Author :
Peter Linehan is a Fellow of St John’s College Cambridge and of the British Academy. Dame Janet L. Nelson is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at King’s College London and a Fellow of the British Academy. Marios Costambeys is Reader in Medieval History at the University of Liverpool.

Review :
Praise of the first edition: 'The editors should be toasted for having distilled something of the lively spirit and substance of their subject into a single, concentrated product. Those with a taste, whether refined or modest, for the Middle Ages are urged to partake.' – History Today 'A rich and exemplary picture of contemporary issues, debates and approaches ... fresh, well-written, and intelligently presented ... invaluable not only to scholars and students of history, but to anyone who has ever wondered at the Middle Ages and its continuing hold on our imagination.' – Professor Patrick Geary, University of California, USA 'The range of scholarship displayed in this volume is staggering... The Medieval World offers a feast for the beginner and some choice offerings for the seasoned historical palate.' - Professor Miri Rubin, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, UK.