A delightfully captivating journey across the medieval world, seen through the eyes of those who travelled across it. History readers will love this gift!**'Rich and wonderful . . . This is the world as you've never seen it before' Ian Mortimer'A joyful, erudite book . . . A global Middle Ages for our times' Jerry Brotton**_____________________From the bustling bazaars of Tabriz, to the mysterious island of Caldihe, where sheep were said to g...

This is a new account of the late-fourteenth-century mystic and pilgrim Margery Kempe. Kempe, who had 14 children, travelled all over Europe and recorded a series of unusual events and religious visions in her work The Book of Margery Kempe, which is often called the first autobiography in the English language. Anthony Bale charts her life, and tells her story through the places, relationships, objects and experiences that influenced her. Extensive quotation from Kempe’s ...

'Alas that I ever did sin! It is so merry in Heaven!' The Book of Margery Kempe (c. 1436-8) is the extraordinary account of a medieval wife, mother, and mystic. Known as the earliest autobiography written in the English language, Kempe's Book describes the dramatic transformation of its heroine from failed businesswoman and lustful young wife to devout and chaste pilgrim. She vividly describes her prayers and visions, as well as the temptations in daily l...

FROM THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF A TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE MIDDLE AGESIn the year 1324, in the burgeoning town of Kilkenny, Ireland's second biggest town, there lived a wealthy, powerful woman named Dame Alicia Kyteler.After three of her husbands died suspiciously, and with the fourth gravely ill, Alicia and eleven accomplices came under the suspicion of the local bishop, Richard Ledrede. A witch-hunt began. As with every tragedy, we start with ...

This volume examines the erotic in the literature of medieval Britain, primarily in Middle English, but also in Latin, Welsh and Old French. Seeking to discover the nature of the erotic and how it differs from modern erotics, thecontributors address topics such as the Wife of Bath's opinions on marital eroticism, the role of clothing and nudity, the tension between eroticism and transgression, the interplay between religion and the erotic, and the hedonistic horrors of the cannibalistic Gi...

Blood is something that all humans share: a vital force that courses through our veins – the giver of life. This book gathers together specially commissioned essays from leading scholars which reflect on the religious, historical, and medical dimensions of blood. Written for a broad audience and illustrated with full colour plates, the essays encompass history, literature, art history, religious studies and medical humanities and explore some of the most challenging issues surrounding bloo...

The medieval Christian attitude towards Jews included a pervasive fear of violence enacted against Christians. Many Christians believed that Jews committed crimes against Christian children, Christ’s body and the Eucharist, leading them to conclude that Jews were out to destroy their religion and way of life. They retaliated with expulsions, riots and murders that systematically denied Jews the right to religious freedom and peace.Feeling Persecuted exposes the violence en...

How were the Crusades, and the crusaders, narrated, described, and romanticised by the various communities that experienced or remembered them? This Companion provides a critical overview of the diverse and multilingual literary output connected with crusading over the last millennium, from the first writings which sought to understand and report on what was happening, to contemporary medievalism, in which crusading is a potent image of holy war and jihad. The chapters show the enduring le...

'Another island in the Great Ocean has many sinful and malevolent women, who have precious gems in their eyes.' In his Book of Marvels and Travels, Sir John Mandeville describes a journey from Europe to Jerusalem and on into Asia, and the many wonderful and monstrous peoples and practices in the East. He tells us about the Sultan in Cairo, the Great Khan in China, and the mythical Christian prince Prester John. There are giants and pygmies, cannibals and Amazons, headless humans and people...

Europeans of the Middle Ages were the first to use travel guides to orient their wanderings, as they moved through a world punctuated with miraculous wonders and beguiling encounters. In this vivid and alluring history, medievalist Anthony Bale invites listeners on an odyssey across the medieval world.Journeying alongside scholars, spies, and saints, from Western Europe to the Far East, the Antipodes and the ends of the earth, Bale provides indispensable information on the exchange...

Since its founding in 1943, Medievalia et Humanistica has won worldwide recognition as the first scholarly publication in America to devote itself entirely to medieval and Renaissance studies. Since 1970, a new series, sponsored by the Modern Language Association of America and edited by an international board of distinguished scholars and critics, has published interdisciplinary articles. In yearly hardcover volumes, the new series publishes significant scholarship, criticism, an...

FROM THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF A TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE MIDDLE AGESIn the year 1324, in the burgeoning town of Kilkenny, Ireland's second biggest town, there lived a wealthy, powerful woman named Dame Alicia Kyteler.After three of her husbands died suspiciously, and with the fourth gravely ill, Alicia and eleven accomplices came under the suspicion of the local bishop, Richard Ledrede. A witch-hunt began. As with every tragedy, we start with ...