Best of
Medieval

1964

The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature


C.S. Lewis - 1964
    Lewis' The Discarded Image paints a lucid picture of the medieval world view, as historical and cultural background to the literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. It describes the image discarded by later ages as the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe. This, Lewis' last book, was hailed as the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind.

Medieval Civilization 400-1500


Jacques Le Goff - 1964
    Jacques Le Goff has written a book which will not only be read by generations of students and historians, but which will delight and inform all those interested in the history of medieval Europe. Part one, Historical Evolution, is a narrative account of the entire period, from the barbarian settlement of Roman Europe in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries to the war-torn crises of Christian Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.Part two, Medieval Civilization, is analytical, concerned with the origins of early medieval ideas of culture and religion, the constraints of time and space in a pre-industrial world and the reconstruction of the lives and sensibilities of the people during this long period. Medieval Civilization combines the narrative and descriptive power characteristic of Anglo-Saxon scholarship with the sensitivity and insight of the French historical tradition.

Feudal Society, Volume 1


Marc Bloch - 1964
    Bloch dared to do this and was successful; therein lies the enduring achievement of Feudal Society."—Charles Garside, Yale Review

A Guide to Old English


Bruce Mitchell - 1964
    This updated sixth edition retains the structure and style of the popular previous editions, and includes two new, much-requested texts: Wulf and Eadwacer and Judith.The book consists of two parts. Part One comprises an introduction to the Old English language, including orthography and pronunciation, inflexions, word formation, an authoritative section on syntax. This is followed by an introduction to Anglo-Saxon studies, which discusses language, literature, history, archaeology, and ways of life. Sound changes are treated as they become relevant in understanding apparent irregularities in inflexion. Part Two contains verse texts, most of them complete, which fully reveal the range that Old English poetry offers in mood, intensity, humor, and natural observation. Full explanatory notes accompany all the texts, and a detailed glossary is provided.The new edition of this highly-acclaimed Guide will be welcomed by teachers and by anyone wanting to gain a greater understanding and enjoyment of the language and literature of the Anglo-Saxons.

Stories from Old Russia


Edward W. Dolch - 1964
    These stories have provided inpiration for poems, plays, and operas. Russian children of today still enjoy listening to the tales of magic and wonder--the stories once told to pass the hours during the cold, dark Russian winters. Supernatural figures--witches, demons, and the like--are important in Russian folklore and appear often in this book. One of the most vivid of these characters is ugly Baba Yaga, the witch who lives in the forest. Children will enjoy reading of the way she is outwitted by beautiful Vasilisa.Several of the tales included in Stories from Old Russia have become world-famous. Alexander Pushkin, the Russian poet, turned the story of the golden cock into a long poem. This same story is the basis of Rimshki-Korsakov's opera, The Golden Cockerel. Rimski-Korsakov also told, in operatic form, the take of Sadko of Novgorod, who sang while he played the gusli.These stories and many more are in this selection of Russian folktales. They have long delighted Russian children, and will charm American boys and girls.

The Mystical Theology of St. Bernard (Cistercian Studies)


Étienne Gilson - 1964
    Directing his attention to 'perhaps the most neglected aspect' of Cistercian mysticism, the great French medievalist and philosopher Etienne Gilson directs attention to 'that part of Bernard's] theology on which his mysticism rests', his 'systematics'.Cistercian Publications brings this important book back into print in celebration of the nine-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Saint Bernard, hoping that new generations of scholars will find it food for thought and further research.

Origins of Modern Europe, 1660-1789


James Llewelyn White - 1964