The Middle Ages in Texts and Texture: Reflections on Medieval Sources
© 2011
The Middle Ages in Texts and Texture is an introduction to medieval Europe unlike any other. These 26 essays, written by accomplished scholars all trained at the University of California, Berkeley, reflect on medieval texts and the opportunities they present for exploration of the Middle Ages. Introduced in a foreword by Thomas N. Bisson (Harvard University), these essays present a textured picture of the medieval world and offer models for how to reflect fruitfully on medieval sources. To help orient the reader, three maps, the editor's introduction, and an index are provided.
Product Details
- World Rights
- Page Count: 368 pages
- Dimensions: 6.0in x 0.9in x 9.0in
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Reviews
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 -
Author Information
Jason Glenn is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Politics and History in the Tenth Century: The Work and World of Richer of Reims (2004) and has published several articles on medieval political, religious, and intellectual culture. -
Table of contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
A Note on References
Introduction
Jason Glenn
1. Hearing Voices in Late Antiquity: An Aural Approach to Augustine's Confessions
William North
2. Confessor Saints and the Origins of Monasticism: The Lives of Saints Antony and Martin
John M. McCulloh
3. The Barbarian Ethos: The Germania, Beowulf, and the Life of Saint Boniface
Judith Beall
4. The Written World of Gregory of Tours
Sam Collins
5. Two Lives of Saint Radegund
Jason Glenn
6. The Avenging Abbot: Gregory the Great and His Life of Saint Benedict
Carole Straw
7. Crime and Punishment: Anglo-Saxon Law Codes
Kathleen Casey
8. Conversion, Miracles, and the Creation of a People in Bede's Ecclesiastical History
Jay Rubenstein
9. Between Two Empires: Einhard and His Charles the Great
Jason Glenn
10. Divine Lessons in an Imperfect World: Bernard of Angers and The Book of Sainte Foy's Miracles
Kathleen Stewart Fung
11. William of Poitiers Talks about War
Jay Rubenstein
12. Epic Values: The Song of Roland
Susan P. Millinger
13. Galbert of Bruges: The Notary as Poet
Lawrence R. Jannuzzi
14. Odo of Deuil's The Journey of Louis VII to the East: Between The Song of Roland and Joinville's Life of Saint Louis
Rudi Paul Lindner
15. Encountering the Cid
Helen Nader
16. Wondrous Crusade Encounters: Usamah ibn Munqidh's Book of Learning by Example
Adnan Husain
17. Between History and Literature: Chretien de Troyes's Lancelot and Marie de France's Lais
Amy G. Remensnyder
18. Walter Daniel's Life of Aelred of Rievaulx: The Heroism of Intelligence and the Miracle of Love
Katherine Christensen
19. Richard of Devizes: The Monk Who Forgot to be Medieval
Nancy Partner
20. Mission to Crusade: Friar William of Rubruck's Journey to the Mongols
Adnan Husain
21. Saint Francis and Salimbene de Adam: The Franciscan Experience of Family
Victoria M. Morse
22. Cities and Kingship in the Medieval West: Joinville's Louis IX and Paris
John Tuthill
23. The Virgin and the King: Alfonso X's Cantigas de Santa Maria
Amy G. Remensnyder
24. Moving the Masses: Cola di Rienzo, the Anonimo Romano, and the Roman Crowd
Jennifer A. Heindl
25. Christine de Pizan on Gossip, Misogyny, and Possibility
Dallas G. Denery II
26. Why Margery Kempe is Annoying and Why We Should Care
Clementine Oliver
Contributors
Index
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Subjects and Courses