Category Books

Landscape with Two Saints: How Genovefa of Paris and Brigit of Kildare Built Christianity in Barbarian EuropeBy Lisa BitelOxford University Press, 2009ISBN: 9780195336528At a time when Europeans still longed to be Roman and were just learning to be Christian, two extraordinary holy women – Genovefa of Paris (ca.

Licoricia of Winchester: Marriage, Motherhood and Murder in the Medieval Anglo-Jewish CommunityBy Suzanne BartletVallentine Mithcell, 2009ISBN: 978-05-85303-822-1On a spring day in 1277, the prominent Jewish businesswoman Licoricia of Winchester was found by her daughter murdered, stabbed to death in her own house.

Letters from the East: Crusaders, Pilgrims and Settlers in the 12th–13th CenturiesEdited by Malcolm Barber and Keith BateAshgate, 2010ISBN: 978-0-7546-6356-0From the series Crusade Texts in TranslationNo written source is entirely without literary artifice, but the letters sent from Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine in the high middle ages come closest to recording the real feelings of those who lived in and visited the crusader states.

The Maps of Matthew Paris: Medieval Journeys through Space, Time and LiturgyBy Daniel K. ConnollyBoydell and Brewer, 2009ISBN: 9781843834786The illustrations of the Benedictine monk, artist, and chronicler Matthew Paris offer a gateway into the thirteenth-century world. This new study of his cartography emphasises the striking innovations he brought to it, and shows how the maps became an investment and repository of certain medieval spatial practices: travel through the world, the occurrence of history in that world, and the religious practices and devotional attitudes that were assiduously cultivated within the larger visual culture of St.

Viking Age ArchaeologyBy by Richard HallShire Books, 2010 (first published in 1990)ISBN: 9780747800637Viking raids, and the subsequent Scandinavian settlements in the ninth and tenth centuries, had a major effect on many parts of Britain and Ireland. These impacts can best be seen in a wide variety of archaeological discoveries, primarily from distinctive pre-Christian burials, which contain weapons, tools, jewellery and metal, wood and bone artefacts.

A Companion to Clare of Assisi: Life, Writings, and SpiritualityBy Joan MuellerBrill, 2010ISBN: 978 90 04 18216 5Clare of Assisi: Life, Writings and Spirituality examines Clare not merely as an obedient footnote to the friars, but as a Franciscan founder in her own right who kept primitive Franciscan ideals alive into the middle of the thirteenth century and transposed them into a woman’s key.

Building the Medieval WorldBy Christine SciaccaJ.Paul Getty Museum / British Library, 2010ISBN: 978-1-60606-006-3Some of the great and lasting achievements of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are the architectural wonders of soaring cathedrals and grand castles and palaces. While many of these edifices survive, many more are lost, and it is within the pages of illuminated manuscripts that we often find the best record of the appearance of these amazing buildings.

Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the CrusadesBy Jonathan PhillipsBodley Head, 2009ISBN: 97802240799372Synopsis: In his remarkable book, Jonathan Phillips explores the conflict of ideas, beliefs and cultures and shows both the contradictions and diversity of holy war. He draws on contemporary writings – on chronicles, songs, sermons, travel diaries and peace treaties – to throw a brilliant new light on people and events we thought we knew well.

Edward IV and the Wars of the RosesBy David SantiustePen and Sword Books, 2010ISBN: 978-1844159307Indisputably the most effective general of the Wars of the Roses, Edward IV died in his bed, undefeated in battle. Yet Edward has not achieved the martial reputation of other warrior kings such as Henry V – perhaps because he fought his battles against his own people.

Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070By Robin FlemingPenguin/Allen Lane, 2010ISBN: 9780713990645The extraordinary discovery last year of some 1,500 pieces of Anglo-Saxon gold in a Staffordshire field has galvanised interest in a mysterious, remote time in this country’s history.In Britain After Rome Robin Fleming writes about the people of early medieval Britain and the communities in which they lived.

Sandwich – The ‘Completest Medieval Town in England’: A Study of the Town and Port from its Origins to 1600By Helen Clarke, Sarah Pearson, Mavis Mate and Keith ParfittOxbow Books, 2010ISBN: 978-1-84217-400-5Book Description: To the casual visitor of today, Sandwich appears as simply a small inland market town on the bank of a modest river.

The Golden Summary of Cinggis QayanBy Leland Liu RogersHarrassowitz Verlag, 2009ISBN: 978-3-447-06074-5The Golden Summary of Cinggis Qayan (Cinggis Qayan-u Altan Tobci) is the earliest post-Mongol Empire period compilation of legends of the Genghis Khan mythos known to date. These stories are the original legends from which many later Genghis Khan Chronicles were based and were central to the mythos of the Cult of Genghis Khan.

Last week, we reviewed a book entitled “Eadric the Grasper: Sons of Mercia Vol. I”. I had the pleasure of interviewing author Jayden Woods about her upcoming book, background, and future novels.Jayden graduated from the University of Southern California’s Writing for Screen and Television program and lived Los Angeles for five years before deciding to leave Hollywood and become an author.

Medieval Fantasy as Performance: The Society for Creative Anachronism and the Current Middle AgesBy Michael A. CramerScarecrow Press, 2009ISBN: 978-0-8108-6995-0In this book, Michael Cramer views the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), an organization that studies and recreates the middle ages, as a case study for a growing fascination with medieval fantasy in popular culture.

Here are four recent publications about the Vikings and/or Norse society.Vikings in the Irish SeaBy David GriffifthsThe History Press, 2010ISBN: 9780752436463Vikings began raiding islands and monasteries on the Atlantic fringes of Europe in the 790s. The Irish Sea rapidly became one of their most productive hunting-grounds.

The Medieval Household: Daily Life in Castles and Farmsteads: Scandinavian Examples in their European ContextBy Eva SvenssonBrepols, 2008ISBN: 978-2-503-52590-7Recent archaeological excavations in Scandinavia provide us with a fascinating insight into the household and its function as a social focus for people of different medieval social estates.

The Dublin region in the Middle Ages: Settlement, land-use and economyBy Margaret Murphy and Michael PottertonFour Courts Press, 2010ISBN: 978-1-84682-266-7This is the first major publication of the Discovery Programme’s Medieval Rural Settlement Project. The book is a study of the medieval region that contained and was defined by the presence of Ireland’s largest nucleated settlement.

The Almohads: The Rise of an Islamic EmpireBy Allen J. FromherzIB Tauris, 2010ISBN: 9781845116514How did an obscure Islamic visionary found an empire? The Almohad Empire at its zenith in the 12th century was the major power in the Mediterranean and North Africa, ruling a huge region from the Atlas Mountains to Andalusia.

Holinshed’s Nation: Ideals, Memory, and Practical Policy in the ChroniclesBy Igor DjordjevicAshgate, 2010ISBN: 978-1-4094-0035-6Raphael Holinshed’s account of English history from 1377-1485 in the Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland is most well-known as the source of Shakespeare’s English history plays.

History in an Hour has released its first title related to medieval history. 1066 In An Hour, by Kaye Jones, is available as an ebook and as an app on the iPhone and iPad.The work examines the events in England and Normandy in the year 1066, when the Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor died, leading to a struggle for his throne.