A comprehensive introduction to the sources, methods, and theories most often used by historians of the western middle ages, this book explores the origins of the idea of the 'middle ages' and its development in Renaissance and modern European historical discourse, the problem of periodisation and the principal themes of modern historiography. Describing the sources of medieval history in detail, it also features chapters on history-writing in the middle ages, administrative and legal documents, coinage and the evidence of archaeology.

Professor Delogu examines the materials of...