In 1961 Georges Duby wrote what is still the best overview of European medieval rural history to date. Originally published in French and first translated into English in 1968, Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West brings together local research on the countryside and its economic life and distills from it lessons that apply much more widely. With this edition, the University of Pennsylvania Press brings this modern classic back into print.

These studies . . . not only illuminate the past with a fierce and probing light but also raise, with nuance and power, fundamental issues of interpretation and method."--from the Foreword by Caroline Walker Bynum Female saints, mystics, and visionaries have been much studied in recent years. Relatively little attention has been paid, however, to the ways in which their experiences and voices were mediated by the men who often composed their vitae, served as their editors and scribes, or otherwise encouraged, protected, and collaborated with the women in their writing projects. What...

"Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, son of the King of England, remained with Philip, the King of France, who so honored him for so long that they ate every day at the same table and from the same dish, and at night their beds did not separate them. And the King

Were aristocratic women in medieval France little more than appendages to patrilineal families, valued as objects of exchange and necessary only for the production of male heirs? Such was the view proposed by the great French historian Georges Duby more t

""A masterful, up-to-date revision, which has taken a classic to an even higher level of historical inquiry and subtlety.""--James Ross Sweeney, Pennsylvania State University ""As a work of scholarship the new edition is a considerable achievement since it

The popular image of the Viking as a horn-helmeted berserker plying the ocean in a dragon-headed long boat is firmly fixed in history. Imagining Viking "conquerors" as much more numerous, technologically superior, and somehow inherently more warlike than their neighbors has overshadowed the cooperation and cultural exchange which characterized much of the Viking Age. In actuality, the Norse explorers and traders were players in a complex exchange of technology, customs, and religious beliefs between the ancient pre-Christian societies of northern Europe and the Christian-dominated nations...

Las Siete Partidas, Volume 1 The Medieval Church: The World of Clerics and Laymen (Partida I) Translated by Samuel Parsons Scott. Edited by Robert I. Burns, S.J. "An indispensable contribution the the medieval Iberian field, and a valuable addition to medieval studies generally. . . . On almost any page, one finds a wealth of engrossing data concerning daily life, practice, and belief in thirteenth-century Castile. The level of detail is compelling, and provides a wide-ranging view of medieval life and thought that goes far beyond mere prescriptive edicts."--Olivia Remie Constable, The...

Las Siete Partidas, or Seven Divisions, is the major law code of thirteenth-century Spain, compiled by Alfonso X the Learned of Castile. Seven centuries later, this compendium of legal and customary information remains the foundation of modern Spanish law. In addition, its influence is notable in the law of Spain's former colonies, including Texas, California, and Louisiana. The work's extraordinary scope offers unparalleled insight into the social, intellectual, and cultural history of medieval Spain. Built on the armature of a law code, it is in effect an encyclopedia of medieval...

Las Siete Partidas, Volume 3 The Medieval World of Law: Lawyers and Their Work (Partida III) Translated by Samuel Parsons Scott. Edited by Robert I. Burns, S.J. "An indispensable contribution the the medieval Iberian field, and a valuable addition to medieval studies generally. . . . On almost any page, one finds a wealth of engrossing data concerning daily life, practice, and belief in thirteenth-century Castile. The level of detail is compelling, and provides a wide-ranging view of medieval life and thought that goes far beyond mere prescriptive edicts."--Olivia Remie Constable, The...

Las Siete Partidas, Volume 4 Family, Commerce, and the Sea: The Worlds of Women and Merchants (Partidas IV and V) Translated by Samuel Parsons Scott. Edited by Robert I. Burns, S.J. "An indispensable contribution the the medieval Iberian field, and a valuable addition to medieval studies generally. . . . On almost any page, one finds a wealth of engrossing data concerning daily life, practice, and belief in thirteenth-century Castile. The level of detail is compelling, and provides a wide-ranging view of medieval life and thought that goes far beyond mere prescriptive edicts."--Olivia Remie...