Gifted with the ability to see beauty when others only see hunger, brutal work, and disease, Marion becomes her medieval English village's salvation, in an evocative celebration of Everywoman.

    The story then moves to Rome in the time of the Emperor Hadrian, exploring Roman beliefs in the geometrical perfection of the body.The second part of the book examines how Christian beliefs about the body related to the Christian city—the Venetian ghetto, cloisters, and markets in Paris. The final part of Flesh and Stone deals with what happened to urban space as modern scientific understanding of the body cut free from pagan and Christian beliefs. Flesh and Stone makes sense of our constantly evolving urban living spaces, helping us to build a common home for the increased diversity of bodies that make up the modern city.

    Suddenly life in England is going to be completely different, especially for Ailith, a young Saxon wife. It is the year in which she loses both her husband and young son, and the year in which the Normans come, not as friends, but in search of conquest. Ailith's grief and despair run so deep that she would have done away with herself and joined her husband and son if a handsome, womanizing Norman, Rolf de Brize, had not happened by in the nick of time. Feeling strangely responsible for the woman whose life he has saved, the normally unreliable Rolf installs Ailith as chatelaine of Ulverton, his English estate. Despite his wife and daughter in France, he and Ailith eventually fall in love and have a daughter, Julitta. But can love truly conquer all - even Rolf's wife's decision to take her rightful place as mistress of Ulverton, and Ailith's discovery of a betrayal at the Battle of Hastings that she can never forgive?

    The life and spiritual teachings of the Catholic Church's greatest classical theologian as seen through the eyes of a contemporary theologian. Robert Barron examines the life and work of Catholicism's premier scholar and discovers a saintly deep in love with Jesus Christ.

    Violence in the Middle Ages, however, functioned differently, according to David Nirenberg. In this provocative book, he focuses on specific attacks against minorities in fourteenth-century France and the Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia). He argues that these attacks--ranging from massacres to verbal assaults against Jews, Muslims, lepers, and prostitutes--were often perpetrated not by irrational masses laboring under inherited ideologies and prejudices, but by groups that manipulated and reshaped the available discourses on minorities. Nirenberg shows that their use of violence expressed complex beliefs about topics as diverse as divine history, kinship, sex, money, and disease, and that their actions were frequently contested by competing groups within their own society.Nirenberg's readings of archival and literary sources demonstrates how violence set the terms and limits of coexistence for medieval minorities. The particular and contingent nature of this coexistence is underscored by the book's juxtapositions--some systematic (for example, that of the Crown of Aragon with France, Jew with Muslim, medieval with modern), and some suggestive (such as African ritual rebellion with Catalan riots). Throughout, the book questions the applicability of dichotomies like tolerance versus intolerance to the Middle Ages, and suggests the limitations of those analyses that look for the origins of modern European persecutory violence in the medieval past.

    Join Mary, Brad and Gareth as together they set forth on their mission, an adventure that entertwines past and present and that ultimately teaches them life-changing truths.

    With a tiny, cluttered house, giggling children, and a snoring wife, one man can't get a good night's sleep. "If only," he thinks, "I had a big quiet house!" He throws off his covers and decides to visit the wise old woman at the edge of the village. Surely she can help him solve his problem and she does, but not without giving him some very unusual advice.The woman convinces the man to fill his house with rambling animals, none of which cure his sleeping problem. Until one day, the man takes the animals back to where they belong, and he welcomes the rhythmic sound of his wife's snoring. This ancient Yiddish folktale proves that quite often, nonsense makes the best sense of all. Susan Greenstein's bold illustrations--white pencil on black surface with watercolor - carry the reader through the warm interiors and peaceful nights of the shtetls of Eastern Europe. This story highlights the importance of perspective. Everyone has problems, however attitude can dramatically affect perception. It is the man who changes, and the world he perceives is transformed.

    Extracts from texts are presented in the original Old English with modern translations and useful information, such as comparative sizes of swords and other weapons, is presented in tables. Appendices give original translations of three important military poems; the battles of Maldon, Finnsburh and Brunanburh. This new edition has been expanded with the results of recent research and more illustrations. This is a very useful book for enthusiast and researcher alike.

    It should be useful for the study of Latin texts and documents in any fields of medieval studies.

    Beautiful, full-color illustrations evoke all the mystery and delight of this centuries-old story of valor, honor, and magic.

    It explores the development, amongst the diverse peoples of the vast landmass between the Carpathians and the Urals, of a society underpinned by a broadly common culture and eventually a common faith, out of which would emerge the future Russia and its neighbours. The book also describes the emergence of a dominant state centred on Kiev and the coming of Christianity to the Slavs. Finally, it shows how the gradual proliferation of new dynastic centres northwards and westwards shifted the power-base of the region into Russi proper, where it would subsequently stay.

    The book examines the process whereby Henry II gained sovereignty over Brittany, and how it was governed thereafter. This is the first study of this subject, offering an important contribution to the historiography of both Brittany and the Angevin empire. It also offers a corrective to previous scholarship by suggesting that the Angevin regime in Brittany was neither alien nor opppressive to the Bretons.

    This is a collection of essays on the literature of "saints' lives" in Anglo-Saxon literature.

    There are many who seek to supplant or control the boy-king, and as he grows, his protectors struggle against the threats. This trilogy paints a picture of the turbulent life of the weak-willed king.

    John Cantacuzene was unique in that he wrote his own memoirs and in his varied talents and interests in a long life, as a soldier, scholar, and theologian. His dealings with the earliest leaders of the Ottoman Turks, with the merchants of Venice and Genoa, with the papacy, and with Stephen Dusan of Serbia also give his career a special interest. This is the first biography of John Cantacuzene in English.

    to 1600 A.D. Beginning with the clay-tablet libraries of the ancient Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian empires, to those inspired by the Italian Renaissance, Mr. Staikos reveals the majesty of Western literature within these great depositories of human knowledge. Using over 400 illustrations [130 in full color] the reader is treated to hundreds of beautifully photographed interiors of these legendary libraries and their rare treasures.Chapter by chapter, the stories of the fabled libraries of Alexandria, Greece and Rome unfold like an unbroken chain, connecting the wisdom of the ancients to the magnificent libraries of the European Renaissance.The author also shares with us the very personal stories of the founders and the un-sung librarians, who struggled during wars and countless disasters to preserve and protect their precious holdings. The chapters on the contributions of the Byzantine and Greek monastic libraries, the foundation of the Western Renaissance, are especially revealing.Mr. Staikos' original scholarship and well-written prose makes a very readable work of surprising originality. He has created a literary masterpiece that captures the rich heritage of one of man's greatest achievements. This is a very special, large-format volume no bibliophile will want to be without. Co-published with The British Library.

    The manuscript furnishes a wealth of varied information offering insights into the period immediately preceding Islam and extending through the first four centuries of Islamic rule. The book provides valuable information on "gifts" exchanged on various occasions between Islamic rulers and their foreign counterparts. "Rarities" form a part of the gifts; some of them are marvels, others are mythical.The manuscript is an invaluable source of information in many fields. It abounds with technical references and details in various areas of Islamic art, which renders it unique as a reference. The extensive detailed treatment, in the context of the overall material culture, provides a particularly rich source of information for those working both in the specific field of Islamic art and in that of Islamic culture as a whole.

    Following a general essay which surveys the field as a whole, the essays begin with the arrival of Theodore and Hadrian in the late-7th century and with the establishment of their school at Canterbury, investigating the range of Greek and Latin learning which they brought to bear on the study of the Bible and other curriculum texts. The achievements of their student Aldhelm are also examined. Evidence is presented for the English origin of two other anonymous works from this period, the Liber monstrorum and an Isidorian florilegium called De diversis rebus. The poetic achievement of Bede is seen in a new light, as is that of Aediluulf, an early ninth-century Northumbrian poet. Finally, two essays consider the evidence for books and learning in ninth-century England, a period which saw the interruption of scholarly activity in the face of Viking onslaughts, and the subsequent re-establishment of learning through the energies of King Alfred.

    A new generation of readers will enjoy the adventures of Robin Hood and his companions in Sherwood Forest with medieval-style illustrations and detailed borders, all enhanced with gold.

    It treats the Balkans as the frontier of the Byzantine empire, and considers imperial relations with the peoples living in the Balkans, including the Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians and Hungarians. It also considers responses to invasions from beyond the frontier: by steppe nomads, from beyond the Danube, and by western powers through Hungary and across the Adriatic sea. The first four crusades, 1095-1204, are considered in some detail, and extensive use is made of archaeology.

    By the end of the 13th century the Book of Hours had become a favourite prayerbook of ordinary people throughout Western Europe and in the years that followed its popularity spread. Often small and highly decorated, these books provide an insight into the daily life of the Middle Ages.

    Though methods of warfare are integral to the book, the emphasis is on conduct in battle and siege rather than with tactics and strategy. It explores ideas of ransom and the treatment of prisoners, the extent to which there was a brotherhood in arms among noble opponents, and how the knights treated the peasantry and churchmen in wartime.

    Many of them survive, allowing us to appreciate their radiance and the skill of the men who created them. This fascinating and evocative book examines the exquisite decorative techniques which captured some of the most important chronicles of history. 1-84186-101-4.

    This volume, the result of some of the most recent scholarship in the area and written by leading contemporary authorities in the field, sheds a new and more realistic light on their history.

    He reached power shortly after the Romans evacuated Britain at the end of the fifth century and died at the Battle of Camlann. He became king at 15 under the name of Ambrosius Aurelianus and fought against the Saxons on the mainland as Riothamus, thus explaining the regeneration motif so closely tied to the mythical Arthur. This study reveals that the integrity and ideals central to Arthurian myth were very much a part of the real Arthur.