The Middle Ages in Texts and Texture: Reflections on Medieval Sources

Think of being the instructor for the year-long undergraduate survey and of inviting a series of friends to give guest lectures, each lecture centering around an assigned source and now being delivered with a degree of polish that we are more likely to devote to a one-off and flattering guest appearance than to the regular Tuesday-Thursday stand up performance. The Medieval Review

This book presents a series of twenty-six insightful, short essays, each about a different medieval author or text, written to appeal to undergraduate students and their instructors. The essays are concise and digestible and offer a variety of perspectives on approaching medieval authors and texts. Comitatus

Those in search of evidence that teaching and scholarship are mutually reinforcing aspects of the historian's work need look no further. In this volume, experienced scholar-teachers address the greatest primary-source hits of the medieval studies syllabus. Anyone who teaches such a course will find here fresh readings of familiar texts, as well as reasons to start working with some unfamiliar ones. And read cover to cover, the collection provides for any reader a novel and kaleidoscopic view of the medieval millennium. Adam J. Kosto, Columbia University

There is nothing like this book on the market. Inspired by the pedagogy of Robert Brentano, master teacher and scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, these essays introduce students to the Middle Ages through the lens of primary sources. Each essay provides historical and usually historiographical context about a particular medieval text—whether a saint's life, epic, or chronicle—but also problematizes the historical issues raised by the text and shows how it can be used to collect evidence about medieval people and their lives. Although aimed at students, teachers will also profit from the innovative insights and focus on 'how to do history.' Maryanne Kowaleski, Fordham University

The Middle Ages in Texts and Texture deserves a prominent place on one's shelf of primary texts and teaching materials. It will serve instructors and students alike as a set of skeleton keys, unlocking complex textual gateways into various places, moments, and minds of the medieval past. It is a book that proudly espouses and confirms the abiding truth of that age-old maxim ad fontes—to the sources! Courtney M. Booker, University of British Columbia