Medieval Law in Context: The Growth of Legal Consciousness from Magna Carta to The Peasants’ Revolt (Manchester Medieval Studies)
Anthony Musson
Publisher: Manchester University Press 2001
ISBN-13: 978-0719054945

BOOK DESCRIPTION
Offering an important new perspective on medieval political, legal, and social history in England, Anthony Musson examines how medieval people at all social levels thought about law, justice, politics, and their role in society. He provides a history of medieval law and judicial developments in the 13th and 14th centuries, while interweaving within each chapter a special focus on different facets of legal culture and experience. This illuminating approach reveals a comprehensive picture of two centuries worth of tremendous social change.

Magna Carta: A Very Short Introduction 
Nicholas Vincent
Publisher: Oxford University Press (September 7, 2012)
ISBN-13: 978-0199582877

BOOK DESCRIPTION
The Magna Carta is arguably the greatest constitutional document in recorded history, yet few people today understand either its contents or its context. This Very Short Introduction, which includes a full English translation of the 1215 Magna Carta, introduces the document to a modern audience, explaining its origins in the troubled reign of King John, and tracing the significant role that it played thereafter as a symbol of the subject’s right to protection against the absolute authority of the sovereign. Drawing upon the great advances that have been made in our understanding of thirteenth-century English history, Nicholas Vincent demonstrates why the Magna Carta remains hugely significant today. The book is the result of

1215: The Year of Magna Carta
Danny Danziger (Author), John Gillingham (Author)
Publisher: Touchstone; Touchstone Edition edition (May 17, 2005)
ISBN-13: 978-0743257787

BOOK DESCRIPTION: 
Surveying a broad landscape through a narrow lens, 1215 sweeps readers back eight centuries in an absorbing portrait of life during a time of global upheaval, the ripples of which can still be felt today. At the center of this fascinating period is the document that has become the root of modern freedom: the Magna Carta. It was a time of political revolution and domestic change that saw the Crusades, Richard the Lionheart, King John, and — in legend — Robin Hood all make their marks on history.

The events leading up to King John’s setting his seal to the famous document at Runnymede in June 1215 form this rich and riveting narrative that vividly describes everyday life from castle to countryside, from school to church, and from hunting in the forest to trial by ordeal. For instance, women wore no underwear (though men did), the average temperatures were actually higher than they are now, and the austere kitchen at Westminster Abbey allowed each monk two pounds of meat and a gallon of ale per day. Broad in scope and rich in detail, 1215 ingeniously illuminates what may have been the most important year of our history.

Cultural Exchange: Jews, Christians, and Art in the Medieval Marketplace (Jews, Christians and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World)
Joseph Shatzmiller
Princeton University Press 2013
ISBN-13: 978-0691156996

Demonstrating that similarities between Jewish and Christian art in the Middle Ages were more than coincidental, Cultural Exchange meticulously combines a wide range of sources to show how Jews and Christians exchanged artistic and material culture. Joseph Shatzmiller focuses on communities in northern Europe, Iberia, and other Mediterranean societies where Jews and Christians coexisted for centuries, and he synthesizes the most current research to describe the daily encounters that enabled both societies to appreciate common artistic values.

Detailing the transmission of cultural sensibilities in the medieval money market and the world of Jewish money lenders, this book examines objects pawned by peasants and humble citizens, sacred relics exchanged by the clergy as security for loans, and aesthetic goods given up by the Christian well-to-do who required financial assistance. The work also explores frescoes and decorations likely painted by non-Jews in medieval and early modern Jewish homes located in Germanic lands, and the ways in which Jews hired Christian artists and craftsmen to decorate Hebrew prayer books and create liturgical objects. Conversely, Christians frequently hired Jewish craftsmen to produce liturgical objects used in Christian churches.

With rich archival documentation, Cultural Exchange sheds light on the social and economic history of the creation of Jewish and Christian art, and expands the general understanding of cultural exchange in brand-new ways.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Joseph Shatzmiller is the Smart Family Professor of Judaic Studies at Duke University. He is the author of Shylock Reconsidered and Jews, Medicine, and Medieval Society.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• List of Illustrations vii
• Preface xi
• Introduction 1
• Part 1 Pawnbrokers: Agents of Cultural Transmission 5
• Chapter 1 Financial Activities in the Medieval Marketplace 7
• Chapter 2 Securities for Loans: Church Liturgical Objects 22
• Chapter 3 High Finance: Urban and Princely Pledges 45
• Part 2 Human Imagery in Medieval Ashkenaz 59
• Chapter 4 The Decorated Home of the Rabbi of Zurich 61
• Chapter 5 German Jews and Figurative Art: Appreciation and Reservation 73
• Part 3 At the Marketplace: Professionals in the Service of the “Other” 111
• Chapter 6 Christian Artists and Jewish Patronage 113
• Chapter 7 Jewish Craftsmanship at the Service of the Church 141
• Conclusions 158
• Appendix Jewish Traditions and Ceremonies: How Original? 162
• Select Bibliography 167
• Index 177

The Book is published in the series: Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World

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Introduction

Owain Glyndwr: A Casebook (Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies)
Michael Livingston (Editor), John K. Bollard (Editor)
Liverpool University Press 2013
ISBN-13: 978-0859898843

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Owain Glyndwr (1357?-1415) was the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales and a revolutionary. This book presents the original text and English translations of the medieval and post-medieval records, documents, poems and chronicles relating to him, his career and his legacy. In addition, textual notes and essays on the historical, social and literary context of these documents will provide up-to-date perspectives and commentary on the man and his times. For the first time, historians, literary scholars, students and the general reader will be able to view a wide range of materials collected in a single volume and will be able to assess for themselves the significance of Glyndwr in Welsh, English and European history from the late Middle Ages into the Renaissance and to redress the imbalance of historical accounts past and present. The high profile international contributors include: John K. Bollard, Independent Scholar of Welsh Kelly DeVries, Loyola University, Maryland Helen Fulton, University of York, UK Rhidian Griffiths, Independent Scholar Elissa Henken, University of Georgia Michael Livingston, The Citadel Alicia Marchant, University of Western Australia Scott Lucas, The Citadel William Oram, Smith College Gryffydd Aled Williams, Aberystwyth University, UK

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Michael Livingston is an Associate Professor at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. He is the editor of The Battle of Brunanburh: A Casebook (2011), along with scholarly editions of Siege of Jerusalem (2004), In Praise of Peace (2005), and The Middle English Metrical Paraphrase of the Old Testament (2011).

John K. Bollard is a Medieval Welsh scholar, editor, and lexicographer. He has published extensively on The Mabinogi and other early Welsh works, including popular translations of The Mabinogi (2006), Companion Tales to The Mabinogi (2007), and Tales of Arthur (2010).

Medieval Clothing and Textiles 9
Robin Netherton (Editor), Gale R. Owen-Crocker (Editor)
Hardcover: 182 pages
Publisher: Boydell Press (18 July 2013)
ISBN-13: 978-1843838562

BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Topics in this volume range widely throughout the European middle ages. Three contributions concern terminology for dress. Two deal with multicultural medieval Apulia: an examination of clothing terms in surviving marriage contracts from the tenth to the fourteenth century, and a close focus on an illuminated document made for a prestigious wedding. Turning to Scandinavia, there is an analysis of clothing materials from Norway and Sweden according to gender and social distribution. Further papers consider the economic uses of cloth and clothing: wool production and the dress of the Cistercian community at Beaulieu Abbey based on its 1269-1270 account book, and the use of clothing as pledge or payment in medieval Ireland. In addition, there is a consideration of the history of dagged clothing and its negative significance to moralists, and of the painted hangings that were common in homes of all classes in the sixteenth century. Robin Netherton is a professional editor and a researcher/lecturer on the interpretation of medieval European dress; Gale R. Owen-Crocker is Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture at the University of Manchester. Contributors: Antonietta Amati, Eva I. Andersson, John Block Friedman, Susan James, John Oldland, Lucia Sinisi, Mark Zumbuhl

CONTENTS:

• Preface
• Bridal Gifts in Medieval Bari
• The Marriage of the Year [1028]
• Clothing as Currency in Pre-Norman Ireland?
• Cistercian Clothing and Its Production at Beaulieu Abbey, 1269-70
• Clothing and Textile Materials in Medieval Sweden and Norway
• The Iconography of Dagged Clothing and Its Reception by Moralist Writers
• Domestic Painted Cloths in Sixteenth-Century England: Imagery, Placement, and Ownership
• Recent Books of Interest
• Contents of Previous Volumes

Medieval Life Cycles: Continuity and Change (International Medieval Research 18)
Isabelle Cochelin (Editor), Karen Smyth (Editor)
Hardcover: 357 pages
Publisher: Brepols Pub (30 July 2013)
ISBN-13: 978-2503540696

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

The essays in this collection present new research into a variety of questions on birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, middle age, and old age, ordered in a more or less chronological manner according to the lifecycle. The volume exposes attitudes and representations of the lifecycle from the Anglo-Saxon period to the end of the Middle Ages as being full of inconsistencies as well as definitive categories, and of variation and stasis. This attests to the fact that medieval conceptions and representations of the stages of life and their interrelationships are much more nuanced and less idealized than is usually credited. Medieval conceptual, mental, artistic, cultural, and sociological processes are scrutinized using various approaches and methods that cross disciplinary boundaries. What is emphasized across the volume is that there were varying, context-dependent rhythms of continuity and change in every stage of life in the medieval period. The volume’s selection of authors is international in scope and represents some of the leading current scholarship in the field.

LIST OF CONTENT:

• Introduction: Pre-Thirteenth-Century Definitions of the Life Cycle by Isabelle Cochelin
• Baptism and Infant Burial in Anglo‑Saxon England by Sally Crawford
• Wanton Boys in Middle English Texts and the Christ Child in Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, MS Z822 N81 by Mary Dzon
• Adolescence Uncloistered (Cluny, Early Twelfth Century) by Isabelle Cochelin
• Rebellious Youth and Pliant Children: Jewish Converts in Adolescentia by Jessie Sherwood
• Generational Discourse and Images of Urban Youth in Private Letters: The Nuremberg Tucher Family around 1550 by Christian Kuhn
• Adulthood in Medieval Europe: The Prime of Life or Midlife Crisis? by Deborah Youngs
• The Middle-Aged Meanderings of Margery Kempe: Medieval Women and Pilgrimage by Sue Niebrzydowski
• ‘Byð se ealda man ceald and snoflig’: Stereotypes and Subversions of the Last Stages of the Life Cycle in Old English Texts and Anglo‑Saxon Contexts by Philippa Semper
• Imagining Age in the Fifteenth Century: Nation, Everyman, and the Self by Karen Smyth