If terms are associated with particular historical periods, then polemic is firmly rooted within early modern print culture, the apparently inevitable result of religious controversy and the rise of print media. Taking a broad European approach, this collection brings together specialists on medieval as well as early modern culture in order to challenge stubborn assumptions that medieval culture was homogenous and characterized by consensus; and that literary discourse is by nature eirenic . Instead, the volume shows more clearly the continuities and discontinuities, especially how medieval...