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This second volume by Graham Loud focuses on two key centres of the south Italian church in the central Middle Ages. The first section concentrates on the'golden age'of the abbey of Montecassino, during the 11th and 12th centuries, when it was at the height of its influence and three of its monks became popes. The studies seek to place the abbey in its context, examining its relations with the papacy, Byzantium, and the local nobility. The second part deals with Benevento and the abbey of St Sophia, and looks at its development and administration, as well as the tensions that arose from its position as a papal enclave within the Kingdom of Sicily. Based on extensive archival research, the volume as a whole presents a fresh and original insight into the society of southern Italy from the coming of the Normans to its conquest by Charles of Anjou.

Collective religious enthusiasm was a surprisingly many-sided, influential and widespread phenomenon in medieval Europe. Amongst the forms it took were remarkable revivalist movements like the flagellants of 1260; popular crusades like the often mythologized'children's crusade'of 1212 and the'shepherds'crusade'of 1251; as well as popular excitement involving living saints and their veneration (115 cults in Perugia). This book focuses upon particular thirteenth-century revivals and popular crusades, but does so in order to illuminate the nature of medieval western religious enthusiasm by exploring such topics as crowds, penitential self-laceration, charismatic leaders, prophecy, runaway youths, popular crusading fervour, dreams, and sanctity, male and female. A previously unpublished essay introduces the book, initiating a discussion of religious enthusiasm in the medieval West and the second conversion of Europe.

The Waldenses, like the Franciscans, emerged from the apostolic movements within the Latin Church of the decades around 1200, but unlike the Franciscans they were driven underground. Not a full counter-Church, like the Cathar heretics, they formed a clandestine religious order, preaching to and hearing the confessions of their secret followers, and surviving until the Reformation. This volume begins by surveying modern historiography. Then, using both inquisition records from the Baltic to the Alps and the Waldenses'own books, the author deals with the asceticism of the Waldensian order, its practice of poverty and medicine, the culture of the Brothers and the preaching of the Waldensian Sisters, the way both used and mythicised history to support their position, and the composition of their followers. The final chapters examine their origins and authorship of the inquisitors'texts, and look through them to see how inquisitors viewed the Waldenses.

This third volume by David Abulafia looks at the interactions between territories, peoples and religions across the Mediterranean, and at the influence of the Mediterranean economy on the world beyond. Topics addressed are trade across the Christian-Muslim frontier; the relative importance of local and long distance trade in economic development; the policies of Frederick II and his successors towards the Jews and Muslims; and the complex political relationships within the western and central Mediterranean in the aftermath of the revolt of the Sicilian Vespers. Attention is also paid to Italian merchants and bankers as far afield as London and Southampton, and to the business affairs of Lorenzo de'Medici. Taken together, these papers present an original, Mediterranean, perspective on the economy, society and politics of central and late medieval Europe.

These essays are concerned with the nature of early renaissance political thought and the relationship between humanism and medieval rhetoric. One group traces the influence of medieval political thought on the rise of the modern conception of republicanism; others focus on the medieval art of letter writing and its place in the medieval cultural context; while still others analyse the often contradictory thought of the early humanist, Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406), who struggled to reconcile his classical learning with his medieval allegiances. In the collection as a whole humanism emerges as a literary movement drawing as heavily on patristic and medieval culture as on antiquity. Awareness of its various debts permits recognition of what humanism itself contributed to the development of western thought and ethics.

In these articles Professor McGuire explores the riches of the Cistercian exemplum tradition. These texts are made up of brief stories, often with a miraculous content, which provided moral support for novices and monks in Cistercian abbeys all over Europe in the High Middle Ages. The Cistercians have been seen mainly in terms of their great writers like Bernard of Clairvaux and the impressive buildings they left behind. But Cistercian literature also provides us with more humble insights from daily life, shedding light on questions of sexuality, anger, depression, and bonds of friendship, also between monks and nuns. They bring a freshness of insight and immediate experience, and their seeming naivety lets us be aware of monks'commitment to each other in individual and community bonds. In Cistercian storytelling, the Gospel's message meets an historical context and bears witness to a transformation of Christian life and idealism, while at the same time allowing us precious insights into how ordinary men and women, not just monks and nuns, lived and thought.

Documenting the Past in Medieval Puglia, 1130-1266 explores the production of historical memory in the region of Puglia after it was subsumed within the new Kingdom of Sicily in 1130. It assesses the significance of the apparent disappearance of more traditional forms of Pugliese historical writing after 1130, and explores the existence of other historical discourses (beyond those solely preserved in the few'royal-centred'high-status chronicles) which were embedded in surviving local documentation. The volume incorporates an extensive examination of charters and correspondence, an evidence-type yet to be fully utilised for this purpose in the study of medieval Puglia. Closely analysing the corpus of extant Pugliese charters and correspondence for the period of Norman-Staufen rule (1130-1266) in the kingdom reveals the existence of embedded'histories'. One of the book's key aims is to examine the role of both Pugliese individuals and communities, and'central agents'(monarchy, papacy), in producing local historical memory, especially across phases of political upheaval and socio-cultural transformation. The charter evidence demonstrates the preservation and creation of multiple, intersecting public and private historical narratives and remembrances, developed to protect the past, present, and future. These'histories'were the product of repeated encounters between local communities and centralised superstructures. We can, therefore, identify the vibrant production of local historical narratives and memories claimed by monastic, episcopal, professional, urban, and familial communities. As such this book contributes to a broader understanding of'use'of the past and of the nuanced inter-relationship between'Centre'and'Periphery'in medieval polities.

A complete reappraisal of the papacy of Honorius II, highlighting the strategies to which this pontificate turned in order to govern ecclesiastical institutions and to deal with secular matters.The papacy of Honorius II (1124-1130) has often been overlooked by historians, usually considered uneventful, transitional and colourless. This book offers a complete reappraisal, drawing on a detailed examination of the surviving letters produced by the papal chancery to show that conversely, it was a vital and innovative pontificate. It argues that during what was a stabilising period for the papacy in an era of peace, Honorius and the chancery were able to enact the instruments and ecclesiological claims dictated by external threats and produced during previous papacies. In particular, it shows that by adapting the content and form of the letters it issued, Honorius's chancery, led by the official Haimeric, played a decisive role in extending the ecclesiological thinking of the papacy. Furthermore, these years paved the way for ideas which were further developed later in the twelfth century, especially the arguments created by the warring parties in the Schism of 1130 to legitimise their respective popes. This study thus presents a different view of Honorius'administration, highlighting the strategies to which the papacy turned in order both to govern ecclesiastical institutions and to deal with secular matters, when previous protocols and routines could no longer be relied upon.

Study of the Norman World's borders, frontiers, and boundaries in Europe, shedding fresh light on their nature and extent.The Normans exerted great influence across Christendom and beyond in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Figures like William the Conqueror and Robert Guiscard subdued vast territories, their feats recorded for posterity by chroniclers such as Orderic Vitalis and Geoffrey Malaterra. Through travel and conquest, the Normans encountered, created, and conceptualised many borders, with the areas of Europe that they ruled and most affected often being grouped together as the'Norman World'.This volume examines the nature, forms, and function of borders in and around this'Norman World', looking at Normandy, the British-Irish Isles, and Southern Italy. Three sections frame the collection. The first concerns physical features, from broad frontier expanses, to rivers and walls that were both literally and metaphorically lines of division. The second shows how borders were established, contested, and negotiated between the papacy and lay rulers and senior churchmen. Finally, the third highlights the utility of conceptual frontiers for both medieval authors and modern historians. Among the subjects covered are Archbishop Anselm's travels across Christendom; the portrayal of borders in the writings of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Gerald of Wales; and the limits of Norman seigneurial and papal power at the edges of Europe. Overall, the essays demonstrate the role that the manipulation of borders played in the creation of the'Norman World', and address what these borders did and whom they benefited.

This book explores one of the most significant medieval saints'cults, that of St. Maurus, the first known disciple of Saint Benedict. Despite the centrality of this story to the myth of medieval Benedictine culture, no major scholarly work has been devoted to Maurus since the late nineteenth century. Drawing on memory studies, this book investigates the origins and history of the cult, from the ninth-century Life of St. Maurus by Odo, abbot of Glanfueil, to its appropriation and re-shaping by three powerful abbeys through to the thirteenth century—Fossés, Cluny, and Montecassino. It traces how these institutions deployed caches of mostly forged documents (many translated here for the first time) to adapt the cult to their aspirations and, moreover, considers how the cult adapted itself further, to face the challenges of the modern world.

Dans la seconde moitie du VIe siecle, les Lombards conquierent la majeure partie de l'Italie. Trois cites du littoral tyrrhenien, Naples, Gaete et Amalfi, resistent avec succes a l'invasion et se constituent peu a peu en duches independants. Cette specificite fait de ces trois cites un cadre privilegie pour observer la vie et les mentalites religieuses dans une perspective sociale, culturelle et institutionnelle entre Antiquite tardive et haut Moyen Age. Isolees politiquement dans un environnement domine par les Lombards, les trois duches conservent jusqu'a la conquete normande, au XIIe siecle, des structures ecclesiastiques ailleurs disparues. L'isolement n'est toutefois pas absolu et des influences exterieures, lombardes, byzantines et surtout romaines, sont perceptibles. En effet, malgre la perte progressive de leurs possessions, les papes conservent un lien hierarchique et religieux privilegie avec la region. L'importance, l'anciennete et la permanence de ses institutions ecclesiastiques encouragent meme l'Eglise de Naples, au IXe siecle, a se comparer avec celle de Rome. L'originalite de cette region latinophone, dotee d'un patrimoine litteraire et surtout documentaire exceptionnel, reside dans la coexistence de traditions culturelles latines et grecques. La vie religieuse des clercs, des moines et des fideles se distingue enfin par son caractere tres urbain qui encourage un developpement precoce de formes de piete collective. Ces territoires d'Italie meridionale constituent ainsi de remarquables observatoires pour suivre en detail les evolutions religieuses qui ont marque le haut Moyen Age en Europe et dans le monde mediterraneen.

Als die Normannen ab der Mitte des 11. Jahrhunderts große Teile des ehemals byzantinisch geprägten Süditaliens eroberten, entstand ein Herrschaftsbereich, der sich verstärkt nach Westen orientierte. Dies hatte auch kirchliche Veränderungen zur Folge, die eine strukturelle und hierarchische Neuordnung der süditalienischen Kirchenlandschaft verlangten. In etwa zeitgleich versuchte das Papsttum in Rom, seinen Anspruch auf die universelle Leitung der Kirche sukzessiv zu verwirklichen. Damit einher ging eine innere Reorganisation und Vereinheitlichung von Verwaltung und Recht in den Regionen der abendländischen Kirche. Weite Teile Süditaliens erwiesen sich dabei als Sonderfall, in dem die Maßnahmen der Kirchenreform nicht mit der Wirkmächtigkeit zum Einsatz kommen konnten wie in anderen europäischen Regionen. Diese Studie erforscht u.a. anhand der päpstlichen Urkunden für die Region und der päpstlichen Jurisdiktion vor Ort, inwiefern das hochmittelalterliche (Reform-)Papsttum die Entwicklung der lateinischen Kirche in der süditalienischen Region Apulien prägen konnte und sich Integrationsprozesse vollzogen.

St Peter Damian (1007-1072) is an exceptional example of a paradox that is found in many saints and thinkers through the ages (St Jerome, St Bernard, St Bridget of Sweden, St Teresa of Avila and Thomas Merton come to mind) – of a lifelong tension between two competing vocations: the call to solitude and holiness and the call to prophetic social and ecclesial engagement. The author has explored this tension throughout his adult life, both in his published work and in his own life as an Episcopalian/Anglican priest and later bishop. Damian's “The Book of ‘The Lord be with you'” is a profound exploration of the spirituality of solitude, whereas his “Book of Gomorrah” is an intense attack on clerical sexual abuse which has helped to give Damian a new recent prominence in the light of the huge challenges facing the Church today. The Bonds of Love shows that the paradox at the heart of Damian's life and everything he cared about was rooted in the remarkable theology of love which finds expression across the whole of his work and gives it both coherence and dynamism. His life and spirituality are of far more than academic interest, and will make a major contribution, not only to those committed to ecclesial reform and renewal, but to all who struggle to live with the kind of competing tensions that made St. Peter Damian who he was.

This volume on Norman Italy (southern Italy and Sicily, c. 1000–1200) honours and reflects the pioneering scholarship of Graham A. Loud. An international group of scholars reassesses and recasts the paradigm by which Norman Italy has been conventionally understood, addressing varied subjects across four key themes: historiographies, identities and communities, religion and Church, and conquest. The chapters revise and refine our understanding of Norman Italy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, demonstrating that it was not just a parochial Norman or Mediterranean entity but also an integral player in the medieval mainstream.

In this wide-ranging conversation with the Italian journalist Luigi Geninazzi, Cardinal Angelo Scola discusses both the salient moments of his own life and the path and situation of the Church and society in Europe over the last half-century. The Cardinal recounts his life, speaking of the extraordinary gift of particular friendships he has had, starting with Luigi Giussani, founder of the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation (CL), and moving on to discuss Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri De Lubac, and Joseph Ratzinger. A figure who bridges the past three pontificates, Scola discusses his relationships with St. John Paul II, by whom he was nominated a bishop at the relatively young age of forty nine; Benedict XVI, with whom he has had an intense intellectual friendship for decades; and Pope Francis, of whom he speaks with affection and hope. At the center of this rich fresco of anecdotes and reflections stands a crucial question: what is the true path of the Church today? Between those who reduce Christianity to a mere civil religion and those who propose a purist return to the Gospel, the cardinal indicates a'third way'by betting on the freedom of the human person to recognize the supreme value of Christ. This is at the same time a bet on the active commitment of believers to contribute, starting from faith, to the birth of a new Europe, inevitably more diverse but no loss of its identity.

New insights into key texts and interpretive problems in the history of England and Europe between the eighth and thirteenth centuries.This volume of the Haskins Society Journal demonstrates the Society's continued engagement with historical and interdisciplinary research on the early to the central Middle Ages, focusing on the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Normanworlds - and beyond. It includes an investigation of equestrian symbolism in Lombard southern Italy; an inquiry into documentary production in Northern France; and a new look at Anglo-Saxon servitude. Further chapters offer an exploration of Norman ducal estates through GIS mapping; a study of Winchester cathedral priory through the lens of the Codex Wintoniensis; an examination of royal political strategy during the interregnum crisis of King Stephen; and a prosopographical analysis of Robert Curthose's crusade curiales. The first critical edition and translation of the Carmen Ceccanense - an overlooked source for German imperial history - will be widely welcomed. A new look at the Domesday Book, with a comprehensive survey of previous scholarship, completes the volume. Contributors: Stephen Baxter, Paul Bertrand, Stephen D. Church, Alexander Dymond, Jennie M. England,Thomas Foerster, S. Jay Lemanski, Simon Thomas Parsons, Chiara Provesi.

The eighteen studies included here reflect three particular aspects of Leonard Boyle's remarkable impact on teaching and scholarship. His abiding interest in the early history and architecture of the basilica of San Clemente in Rome forms the focus of Part I; his profound contribution to the theory and practice of palaeography is reflected in Part II; and his creative work on clerical education, pastoral care, and the Dominican Order, inspires Part III. In all these areas, Fr Boyle combined remarkable attention to detail with the humane ability to bring clarity to complex issues. This book commemorates his inspiration, but also reflects his favourite maxim, derived from the twelfth-century teacher-theologian, Hugh of St-Victor, to'Learn everything', for'afterwards you will find that nothing is superfluous.'The fourth section is devoted to Fr Leonard as friend, scholar, and Prefect of the Vatican Library, and it ends, fittingly, with what may be regarded as his own scholarly valediction,'St Thomas Aquinas and the Third Millennium'.

In Where Three Worlds Met, Sarah Davis-Secord investigates Sicily's place within the religious, diplomatic, military, commercial, and intellectual networks of the Mediterranean by tracing the patterns of travel, trade, and communication among Christians (Latin and Greek), Muslims, and Jews. By looking at the island across this long expanse of time and during the periods of transition from one dominant culture to another, Davis-Secord uncovers the patterns that defined and redefined the broader Muslim-Christian encounter in the Middle Ages.

Die Heiligenverehrung in drei Städten Süditaliens steht im Fokus dieses Bandes. Am Beispiel von Benevent, Neapel und Bari in der Zeit vom 8. bis zum beginnenden 11. Jahrhundert werden jene Heilige untersucht, die in der süditalienischen Region Verehrung erfuhren. Diese wurden entweder aufgrund von Translationen in die jeweiligen Städte gebracht oder in den Kalendarien der verschiedenen Orte aufgeführt, weswegen man in beiden Fällen einen Kult annehmen kann. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Frage, wie sich die Heiligenverehrung in einer kulturell durchmischten Region entwickelte: Gab es Unterschiede zwischen den langobardisch, römisch-lateinisch und byzantinisch-griechisch geprägten Gebieten in Bezug auf die Heiligenkulte? Wenn ja, welche waren diese und wo kam es zu Überschneidungen? Wer besaß Einfluss auf die Einführung und Etablierung von Heiligenkulten? Diesen Fragen geht Larissa Düchting anhand hagiographischer, historiographischer, architektonischer und liturgischer Quellen nach.

This student-friendly volume brings together English translations of the main narrative sources, and a small number of other relevant documents, for the reign of Roger II, the founder of the kingdom of Sicily. The kingdom created by King Roger was the most centralised and administratively advanced of the time, but its genesis was fraught with difficulty as the king sought to extend his power from the island of Sicily and Calabria into other parts of the south Italian mainland. This struggle, that lasted from 1127 until 1140, is graphically revealed by the two main texts in this book. A number of other texts illuminate key aspects of the reign: the relationship with the papacy, the German invasion of 1137 that came close to toppling the king's rule, the expansion of Sicilian power into the Abruzzi in 1140, and the law and administration of the kingdom, often seen as a model for the growth of effective government in the twelfth century. Despite the great intrinsic interest of the reign of King Roger, these texts have never appeared in English translation before.This will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of medieval Europe.

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the Normans had a formative influence on the development of states and societies in the British Isles, southern Italy and the Levant. Their achievements still resonate powerfully today, and represent a vital field of historical study. But how far did colonial elites define themselves as Norman, and to what extent were they categorized as such by others? What were the defining attributes of the supremacies achieved by the Normans, and by other incomers associated with them, and how decisive and diverse was the impact of their influence on local power-structures and native societies? How readily did they reach accommodations with those societies, and how might their own identities be renegotiated within the context of cross-cultural encounters? And, in terms of the progress and practices of state-formation, what was the balance between'old'and'new'? These are some of the key questions addressed in this collection of essays, which also treats the Normans as a genuinely European phenomenon. Norman activity in the British Isles and in the Mediterranean lands receives equal coverage; and the topics explored include identities and identification, marriage policies, acculturation, the pre-existing landscapes of power and how far they were transformed, castle-building strategies, the nature of frontiers, urban government, and law and legislation. This volume therefore serves both to illustrate and to open up for fresh debate many of the salient themes concerning the Norman experience of diaspora and settlement. At the same time, it seeks to underscore how the dynamics, character and consequences of Norman expansion - and the connections, continuities and contrasts - can better be appreciated by taking the wider Norman world, or worlds, as the focus for collective study.

Selected as a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2013 The most horrific battles of World War II ring in the popular memory: Stalingrad, the Bulge, Iwo Jima, to name a few. Monte Cassino should stand among them. Waged deep in the Italian mountains beneath a medieval monastery, it was an astonishingly brutal encounter, grinding up ten armies in conditions as bad as the Eastern Front at its worst. Now the battle has the chronicle it deserves. In Monte Cassino, military historian Peter Caddick-Adams provides a vivid account of how an array of men from across the globe fought the most lengthy and devastating engagement of the Italian campaign in an ancient monastery town. Not simply Americans, British, and Germans, but Russians, Indians, Georgians, Nepalese, Ukrainians, French, Slovaks, Armenians, New Zealanders, and Poles, among others, fought and died there. Caddick-Adams offers a panoramic view, surveying the strategic heights and peering over the shoulders of troops fruitlessly digging for cover in the stony soil. Here are incisive sketches of the theater commanders--Field Marshal'Smiling Albert'Kesselring, who outmaneuvered Rommel to command German troops in Italy, and the English aristocrat General Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, tall, upbeat,'and--crucially for Churchill--looked every inch a general.'Caddick-Adams puts Cassino into the context of the Italian campaign and larger Allied war plans, and takes readers into the savage, often hand-to-hand combat in the bombed-out medieval town. He captures the brutal weather and unforgiving terrain--the rubble and rocky slopes that splintered dangerously under artillery barrages and caused shellfire to echo with such volume that men had trouble keeping their sanity due to acoustics alone. Over four months, the struggle would inflict some 200,000 casualties, and Allied planes would level the historic monastery-and eventually the entire town as well. With scholarly care, insightful analysis, and narrative verve, Caddick-Adams has crafted a monumental account of one of World War II's lesser-known but no less devastating battles.

The Normans have long been recognised as one of the most dynamic forces within medieval western Europe. With a reputation for aggression and conquest, they rapidly expanded their powerbase from Normandy, and by the end of the twelfth century had established themselves in positions of strength from England to Sicily, Antioch to Dublin. Yet, despite this success recent scholarship has begun to question the'Norman Achievement'and look again at the degree to which a single Norman cultural identity existed across so diverse a territory. To explore this idea further, all the essays in this volume look at questions of Norman traditions in some of the peripheral Norman dominions. In response to recent developments in cultural studies the volume uses the concepts of'tradition'and'heritage'to question the notion of a stable pan-European Norman culture or identity, and instead reveals the degrees to which Normans adopted and adapted to local conditions, customs and requirements in order to form their own localised cultural heritage. Divided into two sections, the volume begins with eight chapters focusing on Norman Sicily. These essays demonstrate both the degree of cultural intermingling that made this kingdom an extraordinary paradigm in this regard, and how the Normans began to develop their own distinct origin myths that diverged from those of Norman France and England. The second section of the volume provides four essays that explore Norman ethnicity and identity more broadly, including two looking at Norman communities on the opposite side of Europe to the Kingdom of Sicily: Ireland and the Scandinavian settlements in the Kievan Rus. Taken as a whole the volume provides a fascinating assessment of the construction and malleability of Norman identities in transcultural settings. By exploring these issues through the tradition and heritage of the Norman's'peripheral'dominions, a much more sophisticated understanding can be gained, not only of th

Medieval Italy gathers together an unparalleled selection of newly translated primary sources from the central and later Middle Ages, a period during which Italy was famous for its diverse cultural landscape of urban towers and fortified castles, the spirituality of Saints Francis and Clare, and the vernacular poetry of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. The texts highlight the continuities with the medieval Latin West while simultaneously emphasizing the ways in which Italy was exceptional, particularly for its cities that drove Mediterranean trade, its new communal forms of government, the impact of the papacy's temporal claims on the central peninsula, and the richly textured religious life of the mainland and its islands.A unique feature of this volume is its incorporation of the southern part of the peninsula and Sicily—the glittering Norman court at Palermo, the multicultural emporium of the south, and the kingdoms of Frederick II—into a larger narrative of Italian history. Including Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and Lombard sources, the documents speak in ethnically and religiously differentiated voices, while providing wider chronological and geographical coverage than previously available.Rich in interdisciplinary texts and organized to enable the reader to focus by specific region, topic, or period, this is a volume that will be an essential resource for anyone with a professional or private interest in the history, religion, literature, politics, and built environment of Italy from ca. 1000 to 1400.

Medieval art is wordy; inscriptions and poems, commentaries and chronicles accompany and adorn it. The Art of Words presents a series of detective stories by a renowned explorer of medieval philological evidence who here examines the thought and objects of the Venerable Bede and Theodulf of Orleans. What physical objects did Bede have in mind, for example, when writing about the paintings of his monastic churches? How did he conceive of the division of biblical books into chapters? Why was the famous Libri Carolini made for Charlemagne never published? Indeed what did it mean in the Middle Ages to publish something? Pursuing the story of Bede's calendar shows how Valentine's Day began with a reference to birds. To unravel the meaning of the image of Ezra in the Codex Amiatinus the author then demonstrates the importance of knowing the books that Bede knew and wrote. The final topic is the celebrated Apse mosaic of Germigny-des-Prés, how it was saved from destruction and how Theodulf's words explain what we see. Words matter and, in these studies Paul Meyvaert constantly delights the reader with careful excavations of that place in medieval art and thought where images and words connect and collide.

Throughout his career, Robert Brentano attempted to understand the nature and'style'of ecclesiastical institutions in Italy and the British Isles, the specific qualities of saints and the communities that formed around them, and the ways in which seemingly cryptic archival remains of medieval administrative activity, as well as chronicles and lives, could reveal vital details about change and continuity in local and regional religious life and even'the color of men's souls'. These issues are explored in the essays assembled in Parts I (Bishops) and II (Saints). Part III (Historians) brings together articles that examine the writing of history by both medieval authors and modern historians, and includes Brentano's reflections on his own practice as an historian. The introduction by W. L. North offers a brief biography and introduction to reading Brentano's works, followed by a complete bibliography of his publications.

First published in 2007, this was the first significant study of the incorporation of the Church in southern Italy into the mainstream of Latin Christianity during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Professor G. A. Loud examines the relationship between Norman rulers, south Italian churchmen and the external influence of the new'papal monarchy'. He discusses the impact of the creation of the new kingdom of Sicily in 1130; the tensions that arose from the papal schism of that era; and the religious policy and patronage of the new monarchs. He also explores the internal structures of the Church, both secular and monastic, and the extent and process of Latinisation within the Graecophone areas of the mainland and on the island of Sicily, where at the time of the Norman conquest the majority of the population was Muslim. This is a major contribution to the political, religious and cultural history of the Central Middle Ages.

Literally thousands of annals, chronicles, and histories were produced in Italy during the Middle Ages, ranging from fragments to polished humanist treatises. They become part of the very history they are describing. This book is composed of a set of case studies exploring the kinds of historical writing most characteristic of the period.

A series which is a model of its kind EDMUND KING, HISTORYThis volume contains the usual wide range of topics, and offers some unusual and provocative perspectives, including an examination of what the evidence of zooarchaeology can reveal about the Conquest. The other subjects discussedare the battle of Alençon; the impact of rebellion on Little Domesday; Lawrence of Durham; Thomas Becket; Peter of Blois; Anglo-French peace conferences; episcopal elections and the loss of Normandy; Norman identity in southern Italian chronicles; and the Normans on crusade. Contributors: RICHARD BARTON, NAOMI SYKES, LUCY MARTEN, MIA MÜNSTER-SWENDSEN, JOHN D. COTTS, J.E.M. BENHAM, JÖRG PELTZER, JULIE BARRAU, EMILY ALBU, EWAN JOHNSON, G. A. LOUD, HANNA VOLLRATH.

This volume presents a series of studies by Jacqueline Caille, acknowledged as the leading expert on medieval Narbonne, which chart the development and history of the city from its Roman origins to its decline in the late Middle Ages. They focus on the period of Narbonne's heyday, from the mid-11th to the mid-14th centuries, and a central place is held by Ermengarde, viscountess for half the 12th century, and celebrated figure in the'world of the troubadours'. The book opens with an important new introductory survey, in English, setting the context for the detailed studies which follow, several of which also appear in English for the first time, and all being updated with additional notes. These articles cover the physical growth of the great medieval centre, the relations and conflicts between its secular and ecclesiastical lords, its administrative and religious life, and its political and commercial connections with the areas around. Ce volume regroupe une série d'études de Jacqueline Caille, spécialiste reconnue de l'histoire de Narbonne au Moyen Age. L'antique cité y est présentée depuis ses origines romaines jusqu'à la fin du XVe siècle, en insistant particulièrement sur la période la plus brillante des siècles médiévaux, du milieu du XIe au milieu du XIVe siècle. Le recueil s'ouvre par un'long survol historique'inédit, en anglais, brossant le contexte général où s'insèrent les études spécialisées qui suivent, réactualisées par des notes additionnelles. Les principaux thèmes pouvant être dégagés des ces articles concernent le développement topographique de cette'grande ville médiévale', les relations et les conflits entre les seigneurs qui la dirigent (archevêques et vicomtes), la vie administrative et religieuse de l'agglomération ainsi que ses relations politiques et commerciales avec les régions environnantes. Enfin, une place de choix est faite à l'une des éminentes figures du'monde des troubadours', la victomtesse

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The complete history of this exciting period in one comprehensive reference, The Middle Ages fascinates scholars and laypeople alike. The period has been romanticized, misrepresented, and misunderstood perhaps more than any other in history. Behind the imaginative stories of knights, castles, and epic quests there lies a medieval world that is every bit as incredible and intriguing as the fictional one, only its people really lived, its events actually happened, and its achievements helped create the world of today. The two-volume Encyclopedia of the Medieval World provides a detailed look at this significant thousand-year period. Broad cultural and geographic coverage based on reliable and accurate scholarship, this comprehensive yet accessible encyclopedia covers the medieval world from Scandinavia to the Maghreb and Iceland to Moscow, including Byzantium, Seljuk and early Ottoman Anatolia, Armenia, the Kurds, the Levant, Syria, and Palestine. Approximately 2,000 entries offer exhaustive coverage on everything from significant personalities, archaeology, arts and architecture, institutions, literature, philosophy, and religion to economy, law, science, technology, politics, and warfare. Reflecting the changes in scholarly interest that have occurred over the last two decades, this encyclopedia is interdisciplinary and comparative with attentive detail to cultural and geographic subject matter. Topics that have been treated only marginally in previous publications on the Middle Ages such as women, ecology, ethnicity, nationalism, and labor are treated more thoroughly here, making this an authoritative resource that readers with an interest in the Middle Ages will want to consult. Highly accessible historical information. Further readings listed at the end of all articles and a comprehensive bibliography in the second volume direct readers to the latest and most accessible scholarship. More than 120 black-and-white photographs and illustrations depict battles, significant individuals, artifacts, and more, and stunning maps and charts make this period come to life. A detailed index, bibliography, cross-references, and chronology complete this magnificent encyclopedia. In a reference perfect for high school and college students, academic scholars, and general readers interested in the Middle Ages, Encyclopedia of the Medieval World covers more information than any single reference book of its kind. Coverage includes: Significant individuals (Charlemagne, Gregory VII, Saladin); Archaeological artifacts of particular importance (Sutton Hoo); Economic and agricultural practices, ideas, and commodities (plough, gold, banking, usury); Institutions of church and state (papacy, parliament, commune) Scientific and technological knowledge and inventions (Roger Bacon, the compass); Items and practices from daily life (games, food, cooking); Landmark documents (Magna Carta); Artistic production, styles, techniques, themes, producers, and patrons for painting, sculpture, architecture, and the minor arts (Romanesque, Gothic, manuscript illumination); Social ideas and practice (marriage, death and burial, childhood) from all levels of society; Warfare (technology, battles, and wars); Kingship (dynasties and practices); National literary and cultural authors (Dante), monuments (Decameron), subjects (Gawain), and styles; Religious ideas and practices (simony, reform movements, heresies, saints); Cultural interchange among peoples (peaceful and violent); Theological and philosophical ideas, individuals, and movements (scholasticism, Thomas Aquinas); Travel and expansion (Eastern Europe, the Levant, geographical knowledge, ships).

The eleventh to the early fourteenth centuries saw a great transformation in the political, cultural and economic life of the Italian peninsula, marked by the rise of the autonomous city-states in the north and centre, the expansion of international trade, and the creation of a wealthy southern kingdom which reached the peak of its power in this period, before fragmenting in two in the late thirteenth century. It was also the period in which the various dialects that we now call the Italian language came into being, and in which Tuscan in particular became the vehicle for impressive literary innovation. Presenting a rounded view of Italy at a time when it was the most dynamic region in western Europe, this book looks at Italy in its entirety, rather than concentrating largely on the north, as previous studies have done. It also includes expert coverage of topics such as the family and the Jewish, Greek, and Muslim minority communities, in addition to its coverage of developments in the cities, rural life, trade, the monarchy, papal Italy, and language and culture.

Title from eBook title screen (viewed on Sept. 9, 2004).

Every once in a while there emerges a literary voice with the power and urgency to immerse readers deep within a previously'invisible'culture. From a young African writer who has already earned comparisons to Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez comes this masterful saga of life in 20th-century Uganda.The teller of this panoramic tale is Mugezi, a quick-witted, sharp-eyed man whose life encompasses the traditional and the modern, the peaceful and the insanely violent, the despotic and the democratic. Born in a rural community in the early 1960s, he is raised by his grandfather, a deposed clan chief, and his great-aunt, or'grandmother,'after his parents immigrate to the capital city of Kampala. At age nine, he leaves behind his secure life in the village to join his parents and siblings in the city, where he is first exposed to the despotism and hardship that he will contend with in the years to come.The nightmare reign of Idi Amin and its chaotic aftermath are the backdrop to Mugezi's troubled coming-of-age: his constant struggle with his harsh mother and austere father; his years spent as caregiver to his parents'ever-growing brood of children; his sojourn in a horrifically repressive Catholic seminary. He goes to work as a high school teacher, becomes enmeshed in a tragic romance, finds himself drawn into a dubious, potentially dangerous alliance with the military after Amin's fall and witnesses the widespread ravages of the AIDS virus. Finally, sickened by personal loss and national tragedy, he manages to immigrate to Amsterdam.The details of Mugezi's life provide a foundation for Isegawa's brilliant and profoundly illuminating portrait of the contemporary, postcolonial African experience. Filled with extraordinary characters, animated by a wicked sense of humor and guided by an intense yet clear-eyed compassion, Abyssianian Chronicles is our introduction to a superlative new writer.