Medieval robots took such forms as talking statues, mechanical animals, or silent metal guardians; some served to entertain or instruct while others performed surveillance or discipline. Medieval Robots explores the forgotten history of real and imagined machines that captivated Europe from the ninth through the fourteenth centuries.
Medieval robots took such forms as talking statues, mechanical animals, or silent metal guardians; some served to entertain or instruct while others p...
During the thirteenth century, the widespread conviction that the Christian lands in Syria and Palestine were of utmost importance to Christendom, and that their loss was a sure sign of God's displeasure with Christian society, pervaded nearly all levels
During the thirteenth century, the widespread conviction that the Christian lands in Syria and Palestine were of utmost importance to Christendom, and...
Next to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, William Langland's Piers Plowman is perhaps the best-known literary picture of fourteenth-century England. Langland's work, more socially concerned and critical than Chaucer's, reflected an age of religious controversy, social upheaval, and political unrest. The World of Piers Plowman> puts the reader in touch with the sources that helped shape Langland's somber vision. The representative documents included in this book, often cited in connection with the poem yet difficult to come by, disclose the background of Piers Plowman in...
Next to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, William Langland's Piers Plowman is perhaps the best-known literary picture of fourteenth-century En...
In the growth of towns and the revival of commerce, historians have seen the development of a bourgeois and capitalist Europe, but Pierre Riche reminds us that Carolingians saw a world of forest and wasteland, in which scattered castles and villages were
In the growth of towns and the revival of commerce, historians have seen the development of a bourgeois and capitalist Europe, but Pierre Riche remind...
In the early Middle Ages, magic was considered a practical science, requiring study and skill. But as European society became more articulate and self-conscious, the old tradition of magic as a science became associated with heresy and sorcery. Thereafter the Middle Ages knew no safe, learned magic that was not subject to accusation of diabolism in one form or another, and the magician, like the later witch, could be punished for both spiritual and temporal offenses. Through Peters's analysis of the legal, ecclesiastical, and literary responses to this problem, magic and witchcraft are...
In the early Middle Ages, magic was considered a practical science, requiring study and skill. But as European society became more articulate and s...
"Here is an excellent collection of texts illustrative of the struggle between medieval sects and ecclesiatical authorities in medieval Europe. . . . Excellent bibliographical essays complement chapter introductions, making this volume unusually valuable
"Here is an excellent collection of texts illustrative of the struggle between medieval sects and ecclesiatical authorities in medieval Europe. . . . ...
The most important illuminating source that survived from the two centuries termed "the dark ages of Byzantium" is the chronicle of the monk Theophanes (d. 817 or 818). In it Theophanes paints a vivid picture of the Empire's struggle in the seventh and eighth centuries both to withstand foreign invasions and to quell internal religious conflicts. Theophanes's carefully developed chronological scheme was mined extensively by later Byzantine and Western record keepers; his chronicle was used as a source of information as well as a stylistic model. It is for us the framework upon which all...
The most important illuminating source that survived from the two centuries termed "the dark ages of Byzantium" is the chronicle of the monk Theophane...
Using sermons, exorcisms, letters, biographies of the saints, inscriptions, autobiographical and legal documents--some of which are translated nowhere else--J. N. Hillgarth shows how the Christian church went about the formidable task of converting western Europe. The book covers such topics as the relationship between the Church and the Roman state, Christian attitudes toward the barbarians, and the missions to northern Europe. It documents as well the cult of relics in popular Christianity and the emergence of consciously Christian monarchies.
Using sermons, exorcisms, letters, biographies of the saints, inscriptions, autobiographical and legal documents--some of which are translated nowh...
Dino Campagni's classic chronicle gives a detailed account of a crucial period in the history of Florence, beginning about 1280 and ending in the first decade of the fourteenth century. During that time Florence was one of the largest cities in Europe and a center of commerce and culture. Its gold florin was the standard international currency; Giotto was revolutionizing the art of painting; Dante Alighieri and Guido Cavalcanti were transforming the vernacular love lyric. The era was marked as well by political turmoil and factional strife. The inexorable escalation of violence, as insult...
Dino Campagni's classic chronicle gives a detailed account of a crucial period in the history of Florence, beginning about 1280 and ending in the f...
"The Republic of St. Peter" seeks to reclaim for central Italy an important part of its own history. Noble's thesis is at once original and controversial: that the Republic, an independent political entity, was in existence by the 730s and was not a creation of the Franks in the 750s.
Noble examines the political, economic, and religious problems that impelled the central Italians--and a succession of resolute popes--to seek emancipation from the Byzantine Empire. He delineates the social structures and historical traditions that produced a distinctive political society, describes the...
"The Republic of St. Peter" seeks to reclaim for central Italy an important part of its own history. Noble's thesis is at once original and controvers...
