In Phantoms of Remembrance, Patrick Geary makes important new inroads into the widely discussed topic of historical memory, vividly evoking the everyday lives of eleventh-century people and both their written and nonwritten ways of preserving the past. Women praying for their dead, monks creating and re-creating their archives, scribes choosing which royal families of the past to applaud and which to forget: it is from such sources that most of our knowledge of the mediev...

The eminent historian Patrick J. Geary has written a provocative book, based on lectures delivered at the Historical Society of Israel about the role of language and ideology in the study and history of the early Middle Ages. He includes a fascinating discussion of the rush by nationalist philologists to rediscover the medieval roots of their respective vernaculars, the rivalry between vernacular languages and Latin to act as transmitters of Christian sacred texts and administrative docume...

To obtain sacred relics, medieval monks plundered tombs, avaricious merchants raided churches, and relic-mongers scoured the Roman catacombs. In a revised edition of Furta Sacra, Patrick Geary considers the social and cultural context for these acts, asking how the relics were perceived and why the thefts met with the approval of medieval Christians.

In these four artfully crafted essays, Patrick Geary explores the way ancient and medieval authors wrote about women. Geary describes the often marginal role women played in origin legends from antiquity until the twelfth century.Not confining himself to one religious tradition or region, he probes the tensions between women in biblical, classical, and medieval myths (such as Eve, Mary, Amazons, princesses, and countesses), and actual women in ancient and medieval societies. Using ...

Offering a clear and accessible introduction to the fast-growing field of archaeogenetics, this book pays particular attention to the methods and approaches that are reshaping how archaeologists and historians think about the past.Written for readers with no prior background in genetics, it explains in straightforward terms how genomic research can shed light on mobility, population change, social organization and cultural practices. At the same time, it begins wit...

This is the most wide-ranging series of essays ever published on the Great Irish Famine, and will prove of lasting interest to the general reader. Leading historians, economists and geographers – from Ireland, Britain and the United States – have assembled the most up-to-date research from a wide spectrum of disciplines including medicine, folklore and literature, to give the fullest account yet of the background and consequences of the Famine. Contributors include Dr Kevin Whelan, Profess...

Patrick J. Geary's highly acclaimed collection of source materials on the medieval period is well-known for offering an excellent selection of substantial excerpts—or whole documents wherever possible—from the most widely studied historical texts.This much-anticipated fifth edition features a larger format, as well as enlarged type, to make the collection more reader-friendly. Study questions have been added at the end of each section to help students focus on key points in the tex...

Patrick J. Geary's highly acclaimed collection of source materials on the Western medieval world is well-known for offering an excellent selection of substantial excerpts—or entire documents wherever possible—from the most widely studied historical texts.This much-anticipated fifth edition features a larger format, as well as enlarged type, to make the collection more reader-friendly. Study questions have been added at the end of each section to help students focus on key points in...

Patrick J. Geary's highly acclaimed collection of source materials on the medieval period is well-known for offering an excellent selection of substantial excerpts—or whole documents wherever possible—from the most widely studied historical texts.This much-anticipated fifth edition features a larger format, as well as enlarged type, to make the collection more reader-friendly. Study questions have been added at the end of each section to help students focus on key points in the tex...

A hugely interesting set of essays, reflecting on a variety of ways in which medieval history has developed to the present time. Scholarship of the highest standard, deeply thought-provoking and deeply engaged with the inheritances and future tasks of medieval academic history. The collection will be essential reading for all medievalists. John Arnold, Professor of Medieval History, University of Cambridge.Medieval history is present in manyforms in our world. Monuments from the Mi...

The anonymous author who has come to be known as Fredegar put together a collection of historical sources, together with items of his own composing in the second half of the 7th century. His work forms the most important source for the history of France in the period 594 to 642. It was added to in the mid 8th century, in two continuations that provide vital evidence for their own time. Gregory I (590-604) is often considered the first medieval pope; and as fourth doctor of the church, he i...

Volume II of the AUTHORS OF THE MIDDLE AGES series contains nos. 5-6 in the series: 'Peter Abelard' by Constant J. Mews and 'Honorius Augustodunensis' by V.I.J. Flint. PETER ABELARD (1079-1142) was one of the most creative and controversial thinkers of the 12th century. This study traces his life as a logician and theologian, paying particular attention to the many scholarly debates provoked by the Historia calamitatum and the celebrated exchange of letters with Heloise. It contains a full...