This series presents the latest research on key medieval themes. It is not confined to any particular period, geographic area or school of thought and seeks to cover a broad range of topics and events.
By Keagan Brewer
February 09, 2016
Wonder and Skepticism in the Middle Ages explores the response by medieval society to tales of marvels and the supernatural, which ranged from firm belief to outright rejection, and asks why the believers believed, and why the skeptical disbelieved. Despite living in a world whose structures more ...
By Heather N. Keaney
September 08, 2015
This book is a comparative analysis of the medieval Sunni historiography of the caliphate of Uthman b. Affan and the revolt against him. By comparing treatments of Uthman in pietistic literature and universal chronicles, the work traces the gradual silencing of more critical accounts in favor of ...
By Gail Ashton
July 16, 2015
In this interdisciplinary and boundary-breaking study, Gail Ashton examines the portrayals of women saints in a wide range of medieval texts. She deploys the French feminist critical theory of Cixous and Iriguray to illuminate these depictions of women by men and to further our understanding of ...
By Sara M. Butler
February 27, 2015
Divorce in Medieval England is intended to reorient scholarly perceptions concerning divorce in the medieval period. Divorce, as we think of it today, is usually considered to be a modern invention. This book challenges that viewpoint, documenting the many and varied uses of divorce in the medieval...
Edited
By Jonathan Adams, Jussi Hanska
October 28, 2014
This book explores the complexity of preaching as a phenomenon in the medieval Jewish-Christian encounter. This was not only an "encounter" as physical meeting or confrontation (such as the forced attendance of Jews at Christian sermons that took place across Europe), but also an "imaginary" ...
By Kathleen Coyne Kelly
April 09, 2014
This book challenges the belief that female virginity can be reliably and unambiguously defined, tested and verified. Kelly analyses a variety of medieval Western European texts - including medical treatises and their Classical antecedents - and historical and legal documents. The main focus is the...
By Susan S. Morrison
April 09, 2014
This thought-provoking book explores medieval perceptions of pilgrimage, gender and space. It examines real life evidence for the widespread presence of women pilgrims, as well as secular and literary texts concerning pilgrimage and women pilgrims represented in the visual arts. Women pilgrims were...
Edited
By Harilaos Kitsikopoulos
September 23, 2011
Agrarian Change and Crisis in Europe, 1200-1500 addresses one of the classic subjects on economic history: the process of aggregate economic growth and the crisis that engulfed the European continent during the late Middle Ages. This was not an ordinary crisis. During the period 1200-1500, Europe ...
By Ragnhild Johnsrud Zorgati
September 20, 2011
The challenges of cultural and religious diversity that face European and American societies today are not a new phenomenon. People in the Middle Ages lived in pluralistic societies, and they found highly interesting ways of dealing with religious and cultural diversity. While religious and ...