New Medieval Books: The North Caucasian Kingdom of Alania, 850–1240
The medieval world saw many kingdoms and states rise to dominate their regions, only to collapse and fade from memory. This book tells the story of one such realm—Alania—and traces its nearly 400 years of history.
New Medieval Books: Constructing the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
Few texts are as important to our understanding of early medieval England as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. This book investigates how the Chronicle came into being and how generations of scribes and scholars sustained the project for over 200 years.
New Medieval Books: Depicting the Holy War
How did Europeans view the crusades during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries? According to this book, the answer is literally painted on the walls. It examines five sets of murals from the period, revealing how medieval people chose to depict, remember, and interpret the crusades.
New Medieval Books: Saint Benedict, Montecassino, and the Crisis of Ninth-Century Southern Lombards in Early Medieval Cassinese Memory
Southern Italy in the ninth century was beset by warfare, political rivalry, and frequent Muslim raids. The monks of Montecassino Abbey witnessed these turbulent times and left behind a valuable account, translated here.
New Medieval Books: Medieval Mining and Power in Thirteenth-Century Europe
Silver mines, flooded tunnels, and fierce political rivalries lay at the heart of a medieval struggle for wealth and power in the Alps. This book reveals how controlling water and underground resources helped reshape society, technology, and economic life in thirteenth-century Europe.
New Medieval Books: The Genius of Invective
Have you ever watched a deep dive into a movie where someone explains all the hidden details and Easter eggs? This is the medieval equivalent: a famous eleventh-century letter that later inspired one particularly detailed analysis written three hundred years afterward.
New Medieval Books: The Medieval Mediterranean between Islam and Christianity
If you are interested in the connections between Christian and Islamic cultures in the Middle Ages, physical objects can reveal remarkable stories of exchange and interaction. This book brings together ten essays exploring the materials, artifacts, and goods that moved between these two societies, shedding light on the cultural ties that linked the medieval Mediterranean world.
New Medieval Books: The People’s Princes
While Niccolò Machiavelli is often associated with ruthless or disreputable tactics, a closer reading of his works reveals a far more nuanced thinker with substantial insights into politics and government. This book explores his ideas on the relationship between rulers and the people they govern.
New Medieval Books: Chinese Characters across Asia
Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese By Zev Handel University of Washington Press ISBN:…
New Medieval Books: The Art of Making Verses
Gervase of Melkley promises that “This little book is for beginners!”—yet his medieval guide to poetry is surprisingly inventive. Instead of repeating standard rules, he introduces a fresh method for composing verse, leading readers from clear expression to metaphor and irony.
New Medieval Books: Vikings, Knights, Elves, and Ogres
This collection of nine essays explores medieval literature from England and Scandinavia, bringing together studies on figures and texts including Beowulf, Sir Gawain, the wolf Fenrir and Tolkien.
New Medieval Books: The Life of St. Othmar
This hagiographical work recounts the life of Othmar, the first abbot of the Abbey of St. Gall. It describes his leadership, his imprisonment and death, and the miracles later attributed to him.
New Medieval Books: Light on Darkness
For the uninitiated, the rituals, prayers, and music of the Catholic Church can seem difficult to understand. This book provides an accessible introduction to liturgy in Western Europe, showing what these rituals were meant to convey from the Middle Ages to the present day.
New Medieval Books: Widow City
In late medieval Italy, women often outlived their husbands. This book examines writings from the period to explore the different ways widows mourned their spouses and how they chose to carry on with their lives afterwards.
New Medieval Books: Approaching Records of the Household and Wardrobe
The Household and Wardrobe Accounts are English records that document the daily needs of the king and his family. This book serves as a guide to these sources, showing how they can be used and what valuable insights they offer into medieval government.
New Medieval Books: Chronicle of Michael the Great
One of the most important accounts from the Near East in the 12th century is the Chronicle of Michael the Great. This book offers an English translation of the abridged Armenian version of that chronicle.
New Medieval Books: Othon de Grandson
Othon de Grandson was one of the leading household knights of Edward I of England. This biography traces Othon’s career, from his military service in Wales to his participation in crusading expeditions to the Near East and his later work as a diplomat in continental Europe.
New Medieval Books: Silence of the Gods
By the end of the Middle Ages, the last predominantly pagan regions of Europe were undergoing conversion to Christianity. This book traces that transition and explores how older pagan beliefs and practices continued to endure for centuries afterward.
New Medieval Books: The Lost Kingdom: The Rise and Fall of the Taifa of Albarracín (1012–1300)
This book attempts to recount the history of the small taifa state of Albarracín in Iberia. Unfortunately, it provides too few details to serve as a truly useful resource.
New Medieval Books: The Taifa Kingdoms
Iberia in the eleventh century fractured into dozens of rival states, triggering decades of warfare and political upheaval. Bringing together 23 papers, this volume offers the most comprehensive account of the taifa era and its wider impact.
New Medieval Books: Father Chaucer and the Apologists
One of the most hotly debated issues in medieval literary studies in recent years concerns Cecily Chaumpaigne, Geoffrey Chaucer, and the contested meaning of the phrase de raptu meo. This book traces how scholars have interpreted the case since the nineteenth century and shows how those debates have shaped—and sometimes reshaped—the study of Chaucer’s writings.
New Medieval Books: The Conqueror’s Gift
The Romans were deeply connected with peoples both within and beyond their empire. This book explores how those ties shifted between the first and seventh centuries AD—especially as Christianity spread—and how these changes reshaped the Empire.
New Medieval Books: The Medieval Moon
People across the medieval world looked up at the moon and found all kinds of meaning in it—scientific learning, literature, art, faith, and folklore. This book explores how the moon shaped society in all these ways, and why it mattered so much to people at the time.
New Medieval Books: Ipomedon
Want a medieval tale about a prince who goes incognito to meet a queen—only to be sent off on adventures, thrown into tournaments, and tested at every turn? Will this couple earn their happy-ever-after? Find out in this translation of a 12th-century romance.
New Medieval Books: A Medieval Case for Islam’s Superiority
At the end of the eighth century, the Abbasid caliph sent a letter to the Byzantine emperor. This book presents a new edition and translation of that remarkable text—one of the earliest surviving defences of Islam—offering a rare insight into how its author explained Islamic belief and set out what he believed Christianity had misunderstood.