From the French peasant girl who led an army to the icon burned at the stake, Joan has been a blank slate on which thousands have written. Pernoud and Clin clear away the myths so that modern readers can see Joan as she was and include a glossary of important individuals, historical events and interpretations of Joan through the ages. Joan of Arc: Her Story is the thrilling life of a woman who obsesses us even to this day.

    Compelled to flee from his homeland, he continued with his work of translating the Scriptures whilst slipping from city to city in Germany, Holland and Belgium in an attempt to avoid the agents which were sent from England to arrest him.

    By scrutinizing the lives of saints, miracle stories, descriptions of fantastic travels, penitential literature, catechisms and similar genres, from the fifth to the 15th centuries, the author identifies elements of popular culture that found their way into Latin literature through mutual interaction between author and audience. The author thus offers a fresh and original insight into the world of the common man, his everyday habits, beliefs and behaviour.

    This illustrated survey of gardening lore from the era between the Norman Conquest and the Renaissance reveals a wealth of ancient secrets. Drawn from obscure sources — scraps of parchment from account rolls, charters, surveys, and registers — the book provides hitherto inaccessible knowledge about the plans, organization, and common uses of gardens in the pre-industrial world. Both an excellent work of scholarship and a fascinating read, the book examines the location, ownership, purpose, layout, overall appearance, fashions, and workmanship of English gardens. It further explores the gardens' colorful and fragrant contents, describing castle gardens, pleasure gardens, lovers' gardens, and secret gardens. Other subjects include infirmary gardens, herbariums, kitchen gardens, and flowery meads in addition to the cultivation of orchards, vineyards, and beehives.

    Bede began his Ecclesiastical History with a chapter 'Of the situation of Britain and Ireland, and of their ancient inhabitants, ' and other similar descriptions survive from the period. The latest, largest, and most helpful was the attempt to record the state of England in January 1066: the Domesday Book.It is not possible for the historian today to understand the England of Alfred and Ethelred as they did, having learned the shape of the realm through their feet as they walked and their bones as they rode. But it is possible to recognize athe geographic framework in which they lived and the constraints it imposed upon them, and to provide a basis for such an understanding is the purpose of this book.David Hill records what of the Anglo-Saxon world can be looked at spatially and cases new light on the known and stimulates new ideas about the known and the unknown.Presented in five sections, the 260 maps and charts portray the background and the events: they show sea-level changes, settlement patterns and place names, invasions and campaigns, royal itineraries, land holdings, mints and coinage; in short most aspects of war and peace, town and country, church and state.The Atlas represents a massive contribution to our understanding of early England.

    Hagiographical texts and reports of the processes of canonisation - a mode of investigation into saints' lives and their miracles implemented by the popes from the end of the twelfth century - are here used for the first time as major source materials. The book illuminates the main features of the medieval religious mind, and highlights the popes' attempts to gain firmer control over the wide variety of expressions of faith towards the saints in order to promote a higher pattern of devotion and moral behaviour among Christians.

    The description for this book, Apparitions in Late Medieval and Renaissance Spain, will be forthcoming.

    Traces the history of the Roman Empire and the Dark Ages which followed through a description of common objects, tools, clothes, dwellings, food, and day-to-day activities of the people in both the cities and in the country.