Download or read book Medieval Literature 1300 1500 written by Pamela King and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-24 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medieval literature can be daunting. This critical guide is designed to help readers to relax in the company of diverting and entertaining voices from that 'other country' that is the past.Medieval Literature 1300-1500 offers close readings of Middle English texts placed within the culture with which they interact. Famous works, like The Canterbury Tales, are discussed alongside lesser-known poems, prose, and plays, in five thematically-organised chapters, accompanied by helpful critical apparatus. Reflecting the proliferation of user-friendly editions, many available on-line, this book extends the range of Middle English writing for which there is accessible up-to-date critical support, enabling the student, the general reader, the course designer, and the aspirant specialist, to read widely and with enjoyment in the medieval period.

Download or read book Medieval Literature 1300 1500 written by Pamela M. King and published by Edinburgh Critical Guides to L. This book was released on 2011 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This series provides accessible yet provocative introductions to a wide range of literatures. The volumes will initiate and deepen the reader's understanding of key literary movements, periods and genres, and consider debates that inform the past, present and future of literary study. Resources such as glossaries of key terms and details of archives and internet sites are also provided, making each volume a comprehensive critical guide. Medieval literature can be daunting. This critical guide is designed to help readers to relax in the company of diverting and entertaining voices from that `other country' that is the past. Medieval Literature 1300-1500 offers close readings of Middle English texts placed within the culture with which they interact. Famous works, like The Canterbury Tales, are discussed alongside lesser-known poems, prose and plays, in five thematically organised chapters, accompanied by helpful critical apparatus. Reflecting the proliferation of user-friendly editions, many available on-line, this book extends the range of Middle English writing for which there is accessible up-to-date critical support, enabling the student, the general reader, the course designer, and the aspirant specialist to read widely and with enjoyment in the medieval period.

Download or read book Books of Knowledge in Late Medieval Europe written by Pavlina Cermanova and published by . This book was released on 2021-06-30 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a series of studies concerning unique medieval texts that can be defined as 'books of knowledge', such as medieval chronicles, bestiaries, or catechetic handbooks. Thus far, scholarship of intellectual history has focused on concepts of knowledge to describe a specific community, or to delimit intellectuals in society. However, the specific textual tool for the transmission of knowledge has been missing. Besides oral tradition, books and other written texts were the only sources of knowledge, and they were thus invaluable in efforts to receive or transfer knowledge. That is one reason why texts that proclaim to introduce a specific field of expertise or promise to present a summary of wisdom were so popular. These texts discussed cosmology, theology, philosophy, the natural sciences, history, and other fields. They often did so in an accessible way to maintain the potential to also attract a non-specialised public. The basic form was usually a narrative, chronologically or thematically structured, and clearly ordered to appeal to readers. Books of this kind could be disseminated in dozens or even hundreds of copies, and were often available (by translation or adaptation) in various languages, including the vernacular. In exploring these widely-disseminated and highly popular texts that offered a precise segment of knowledge that could be accessed by readers outside the intellectual and social elite, this volume intends to introduce books of knowledge as a new category within the study of medieval literacy.

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature written by Robert T. Lambdin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2000 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive guide to literature written 500 to 1500 A.D., a period that gave rise to some of the world's most influential works; its emphasis is on English texts, but also covers Islamic, Hispanic, Germanic, Italian, and Russian works.

Download or read book The life cycle in Western Europe c 1300 c 1500 written by Deborah Youngs and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-03 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first study to examine the entire life cycle in the Middle Ages. Drawing on a wide range of secondary and primary material, the book explores the timing and experiences of infancy, childhood, adolescence and youth, adulthood, old age and, finally, death. It discusses attitudes towards ageing, rites of passage, age stereotypes in operation, and the means by which age was used as a form of social control, compelling individuals to work, govern, marry and pay taxes. The wide scope of the study allows contrasts and comparisons to be made across gender, social status and geographical location. It considers whether men and women experienced the ageing process in the same way, and examines the differences that can be discerned between northern and southern Europe. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries suffered famine, warfare, plague and population collapse. This fascinating consideration of the life cycle adds a new dimension to the debate over continuity and change in a period of social and demographic upheaval.

Download or read book Medieval Writers and their Work written by J. A. Burrow and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2008-02-07 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an updated edition of his hugely successful student introduction to English literature from 1100 to 1500, J. A. Burrow takes account of scholarly developments in the the field, most notably devoting a final chapter to the impact of historicism on medieval studies. Full of information and stimulating ideas, and a pleasure to read, Burrow's book deals with circumstances of composition and reception, the main genres, 'modes of meaning' (allegory etc.), and medieval literature's afterlife in modern times. It shows that the literature of authors such as Chaucer, Gower, and Langland is more readily accessible than usually imagined, and well worth reading too. By placing medieval writers in their historical context - the four centuries between the Norman Conquest and the Renaissance - Professor Burrow explains not only how they wrote, but why.

Download or read book The Merchant Class of Medieval London 1300 1500 written by Sylvia L. Thrupp and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A social history of the merchant class of 14th- and 15th-century London

Download or read book Condottiere 1300 1500 written by David Murphy and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-12-23 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally contracted by wealthy Italian city states to protect their assets during a time of ceaseless warring, many condottieri of the Italian peninsula became famous for their wealth, venality and amorality during the 14th and 15th centuries. Some even came to rule cities themselves. Lavishly illustrated with contemporary depictions and original artwork, this title examines the complex military organization, recruitment, training and weaponry of the Condottieri. With insight into their origins and motivations, the author, Dr David Murphy, brings together the social, political and military history of these powerful and unscrupulous men who managed to influence Italian society and warfare for over two centuries.

Download or read book A Companion to Medieval English Literature and Culture c 1350 c 1500 written by Peter Brown and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to Medieval English Literature and Culture,c.1350-c.1500 challenges readers to think beyond a narrowlydefined canon and conventional disciplinary boundaries. A ground-breaking collection of newly-commissioned essays onmedieval literature and culture. Encourages students to think beyond a narrowly defined canonand conventional disciplinary boundaries. Reflects the erosion of the traditional, rigid boundary betweenmedieval and early modern literature. Stresses the importance of constructing contexts for readingliterature. Explores the extent to which medieval literature is in dialoguewith other cultural products, including the literature of othercountries, manuscripts and religion. Includes close readings of frequently-studied texts, includingtexts by Chaucer, Langland, the Gawain poet, and Hoccleve. Confronts some of the controversies that exercise students ofmedieval literature, such as those connected with literary theory,love, and chivalry and war.

Download or read book The Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal 1300 1500 written by Clayton J. Drees and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2000-11-30 with total page 912 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As part of a unique series covering the grand sweep of Western civilization from ancient to present times, this biographical dictionary provides introductory information on 315 leading cultural figures of late medieval and early modern Europe. Taking a cultural approach not typically found in general biographical dictionaries, the work includes literary, philosophical, artistic, military, religious, humanistic, musical, economic, and exploratory figures. Political figures are included only if they patronized the arts, and coverage focuses on their cultural impact. Figures from western European countries, such as Italy, France, England, Iberia, the Low Countries, and the Holy Roman Empire predominate, but outlying areas such as Scotland, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe are also represented. Late medieval Europe was an age of crisis. With the Papacy removed to Avignon, the schism in the Catholic Church shook the very core of medieval belief. The Hundred Years' War devastated France. The Black Death decimated the population. Yet out of this crisis grew an age of renewal, leading to the Renaissance. The great Italian city-states developed. Humanism reawakened interest in the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. Dante and Boccaccio began writing in their Tuscan vernacular. Italian artists became humanists and flourished. As the genius of Italy began spreading to northern and western Europe at the end of the 15th century, the age of renewal was completed. This book provides thorough basic information on the major cultural figures of this tumultuous era of crisis and renewal.

Download or read book An Introduction to Medieval English Literature written by Anna Baldwin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-15 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a comprehensive guide to a literary period characterized by great variety and imagination, and vividly alert to the social transformations overtaking society. Spanning almost two centuries, it introduces the reader to a diverse range of authors writing for a fast-developing readership of both men and women. Each chapter focuses on a group of genres primarily associated with a particular social class – from the Drama and Saints' Lives accessible to the illiterate, to the sophisticated Romances of Love savoured by the aristocracy and the Court. Lively historical narratives place each group of texts in their social, political and cultural contexts. Significant or typical texts are given more detailed analysis that includes critical issues and questions to guide the reader's own approach, and each section is supported by a detailed bibliography of further reading.

Download or read book Archery and Crossbow Guilds in Medieval Flanders 1300 1500 written by Laura Crombie and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2016 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First full study devoted to the archery and crossbow guilds which grew up in Flanders in the middle ages.

Download or read book Silver Saints written by Hanneke van Asperen and published by . This book was released on 2021-06-30 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Late medieval books served as treasure chests for all kinds of religious keepsakes, notably small metal badges. Devotees sewed these religious badges and pilgrimage souvenirs to the parchment of their treasured devotional books and manuscript illuminators depicted silver and gilt badges in the margins as if they are sewn to the pages. Medieval manuscripts are often admired for their aesthetic qualities, but many of them also served a practical use as instruments for the physical and mental wellbeing of the owners and their families. Manuscripts and incunabula containing metal badges illustrate how the owners used their books, which texts they favored, but also who collected badges and why. The depicted badges that only appear in richly illuminated and expensive manuscripts expand the knowledge of these metal objects that have been passed down in small numbers only. The painted motifs that have a more decorative and structuring role in the book fulfilled different functions than the original badges. 'Silver Saints' discusses the religious life of lay people in the late Middle Ages and the meaning of badges in books, both the painted motifs in beautifully decorated manuscripts and many traces of original badges.

Download or read book Sex and the New Medieval Literature of Confession 1150 1300 written by Pierre J. Payer and published by Brepols Publishers. This book was released on 2009 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume rounds out an important trilogy of studies by Pierre Payer on the topic of sex in the ecclesiastical thought and writings of the middle ages that began with Sex and the Penitentials: The Development of a Sexual Code, 550-1150 (1984) and continued with The Bridling of Desire: Views of Sex in the Later Middle Ages (1993). In every way the equal of the two magisterial studies that preceded it, this third volume examines the treatment of sex in the 'new' literature of penance and confession. Composed by canon lawyers and by theologians for the instruction of priests, it is one of the most popular genres of writing of the later middle ages, although it remains largely unknown and underutilized as a historical source. Pierre Payer guides readers through this varied and heterogenous corpus with great patience and erudition. His analysis ranges over the origin and development of the idea of lechery as one of the capital sins and the distinction between natural and unnatural acts, and explores the moral consequences of sexual beahviour even within marriage, providing us much insight into the act, and art, of confession and the intimate relationship between priest and penitent that underlies it.

Download or read book The Later Medieval City 1300 1500 written by David Nicholas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 1997 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: That traced the rise of the medieval European city system from late antiquity to the early fourteenth century; this offers a portrait of the fully developed later medieval city in all its richness and complexity.

Download or read book Medieval Interpretation written by Robert Stuart Sturges and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Viewing the medieval period as an era of constant change rather than as a monolithic whole, Robert S. Sturges examines a wide variety of English and French literary works within the cultural contexts of the early and late Middle Ages. Sturges analyzes these medieval works in roughly chronological order, thus providing a sense of historical change within the general period. Seeking to discover which critical methods best serve each work, he also compares medieval with postmodern approaches to interpretation, pointing out, of course, where current critical practices do not apply. Examining the Chanson de Roland, and Chrétien’s Charrette, Sturges reveals how belief in an indeterminacy of literary meaning grew between the 12th and 15th centuries. He argues that whereas the earlier Middle Ages’ Neoplatonic cultural context produced the "directed vision" of the early genres (chanson de gest, saint’s life), changes introduced in the 12th century and later allowed a second vision to emerge. Supplementing rather than replacing the Neoplatonic view, this new mind set emphasized a multiplicity of possible literal meanings in the world and in language. Authoritative truths no longer could be revealed through allegorical interpretation. In his second chapter, Sturges compares Chrétien’s Conte del Graal with the Queste del saint Graal to counterpoise the levels of interpretation required by allegory against the potential multiplicity of literal meanings possible when interpreting nonallegorical works. Chrétien, he notes, rejects allegory in favor of ambiguity. Chapter 3 compares Marie de France’s Lais with Machault’s Voir-Dit, making an analogy between the erotic activity of the represented lovers and the reader’s interpretation of the literary works. Sturges points out that by the 14th century semantic indeterminacy in love and in reading was expected, conventional, and enjoyable. Still, both Marie and Machault suggest the dangers of uncertainty in human relations: if true knowledge of the other (lover or text) is impossible, how can we communicate? In his fourth chapter, Sturges examines The Book of the Duchess, Troilus and Criseyde, and "The Wife of Bath’s Tale" to determine how at various points of his career Chaucer responded to the essential question: how can any truth be communicated among people or between texts and readers? Chapter 5 approaches such questions of truth and communication from the perspective of alterity and historical understanding in both La Mort le roi Artu and the final sections of Malory’s Mort Darthur, two works that present themselves as works of history. Yet the ambiguity introduced from 13th-century romance on through the 15th century undermined the historical foundation such works rest on. Sturges considers four centuries, two nationalities, and the genres of verse and prose romance, allegory, Breton lay, dit, dream-vision, and frame-story. He convincingly applies his study of medieval literature to issues vital to 20th-century literary theory, issues ranging from the interplay of speech and writing to the reader’s role in the production of meaning.

Download or read book The Medieval British Literature Handbook written by Daniel T. Kline and published by Continuum. This book was released on 2009 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One-stop resource for courses in medieval literature, providing students with a comprehensive guide to the historical and cultural context; major texts and movements; reading primary and critical texts; key critics, concepts and topics; major critical approaches and directions of new research.