New Medieval Books: No Return
Usury—the practice of lending money at interest—became a major social flashpoint in western Europe during the Middle Ages. This book traces how resentment of usury fuelled hostility that, in many places, escalated into the expulsion of Jewish communities and other Christian moneylenders.
New Medieval Books: The Forsaken 14th Century
Covering every region of the world, this book introduces readers to the many states and cultures that existed through an era of sweeping change and major catastrophes.
New Medieval Books: Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Italian Renaissance
Between the 15th and 17th centuries, Italian women left a clear imprint as rulers, writers, artists, and intellectuals. This book profiles 25 of them, tracing their lives, work, and the worlds they moved through.
New Medieval Books: The Florentine florin
This open-access book traces the rise of the Florentine florin, the gold coin first minted by Florence in the mid-thirteenth century. More than a merchant’s currency, it became a monetary powerhouse sought after by traders, kings, and popes alike.
New Medieval Books: Old High German Poetry
Old High German was spoken between the eighth and eleventh centuries, and a small but significant body of its literature has survived. This anthology brings together editions and translations of about a dozen poetic works, spanning subjects from religious devotion to historical narrative.
New Medieval Books: Mongol Invasion against Europe (1236-1242)
The 27 articles in this collection explore the lead-up to, course of, and aftermath of the Mongol campaigns into Rus and Eastern Europe in the mid-13th century, examining one of the period’s most consequential military and political upheavals.
New Medieval Books: The Horse in History
This collection of 11 essays focuses on the equipment used by people with their horses—from saddles to spurs—while honouring the scholarship of John Clark. Its chapters range widely in time and place, exploring not only gear but also training, folklore, and the meanings attached to horses.
New Medieval Books: Joan of Arc
Even within her short lifetime, Joan of Arc was already becoming a legend. This book traces how her story has been continually retold—casting her at different times as hero, monster, and saint—and shows why, six centuries on, she remains a powerful icon, especially in France.
New Medieval Books: Ming-Dynasty China and the World Along the Silk Road
Across sixteen essays, the author examines the Ming dynasty’s diplomatic and commercial networks, tracing how the “Silk Road” linked China with regions far beyond its borders.
New Medieval Books: A Demon Spirit
Abū Nuwās is widely regarded as one of the great poets of the Middle Ages. This book brings together more than a hundred poems attributed to him—each with an English translation—focused on hunting.
New Medieval Books: Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript
A single medieval manuscript in the British Library contains the only surviving copies of several of the most important Middle English texts. This book explores how those works and the manuscript that preserves them are inseparable.
New Medieval Books: Interconnected Traditions
This open-access book brings together more than thirty essays on languages and the ways they develop, interact, and influence one another. Its main focus is the Middle East, where Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic long existed side by side and often overlapped in everyday use, scholarship, and culture.
New Medieval Books: Impossible Recovery
The writings of Julian of Norwich, the fourteenth-century English mystic, have long fascinated medievalists. This book zeroes in on Julian’s illness during her visions, asking what that experience was like in human terms — as the author puts it, “What did she really experience, what did she feel, there in her sickbed in 1373?”
New Medieval Books: More Swindles from the Late Ming
The second instalment of a translation of an early seventeenth-century Chinese source on scams and cons offers a fascinating window into pre-modern crime.
New Medieval Books: The Conquest of al-Andalus
We have relatively few sources for the Islamic conquest of Iberia in the early eighth century. This translation of a later account offers fresh insight into those events.
New Medieval Books: The Public House in Central Europe
Public houses—places that sold alcoholic drinks—were a central part of life in Cracow in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This book explores how these establishments worked: who owned them, who gathered inside, and how city authorities dealt with disorder when drinking turned into violence.
Medieval Book of the Year: The Hungry City
Medievalists.net’s choice for the Book of the Year! This book offers a compelling account of the famine that struck Barcelona in 1333–34, reconstructed through the records of the city’s government. Vividly written yet firmly grounded in the sources, it stands as a fitting culmination of Kelleher’s work as a medievalist.
20 New Open Access Books Medieval History Fans Can Read for Free
Medieval studies fans can download and read all of these 20 newly published open-access books.
New Medieval Books: Europe and the End of Medieval Japan
The years 1549 to 1650 are often described as Japan’s ‘Christian Century’—a period marked by intense contact with European traders, missionaries, and ideas. This book uses that era as a case study in medieval and early modern globalisation, tracing how cross-cultural exchanges reshaped politics, religion, and daily life.
New Medieval Books: Assassins and Templars
When it comes to the crusading era, few groups have been more mythologised than the Knights Templar and the Ismailis—often labelled the “Assassins.” This book takes a fresh look at both, showing not only how their histories have been shaped by legend, but also how—and why—they could resemble each other in surprising ways.
New Medieval Books: Lion Hearts
Dan Jones has a gift for writing vivid, compelling prose, whether he’s tackling history or historical fiction. This novel is best read after the first two books in the trilogy. Readers interested in the fourteenth century and the Hundred Years’ War will likely find it especially rewarding.
New Medieval Books: The Floods of the Tiber
In 1530, the River Tiber burst its banks, triggering a major flood in Rome. The following year, a scholar named Luis Gómez wrote about the disaster—placing it alongside earlier floods recorded in the city’s history.
New Medieval Books: Approaching Pipe Rolls
This book guides historians in working with Pipe Rolls, the English government’s financial records that date back to the twelfth century. These documents reveal a great deal about how England’s administration functioned during the Middle Ages.
New Medieval Books: Motherland
A sweeping exploration of pre-modern African history, this book traces the continent’s cultures, migrations, and identities. It blends rigorous research with personal reflection to highlight Africa’s global influence and enduring legacy.
