A Guide to The Guide to the
Perplexed
A Reader’s Companion to Maimonides’ Masterwork
Lenn Goodman
May May 247pp
9781503637474 £21.99/ $25.00 PB
9781503629530 £76.00/ $85.00 HB
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
In this volume, noted philosopher Lenn E. Goodman shares the insights gained over a lifetime of pondering the meaning and purpose of Maimonides' celebrated Guide to the Perplexed.
Christian Images and Their Jewish Desecrators
The History of an Allegation, 4001700
Katherine Aron-Beller
Jewish Culture and Contexts
January 2024 440pp 28 b&w illus., 2 tables
9781512824100 £72.00/ $79.95 HB
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
Historian Aron-Beller analyzes the Christian charge that Jews violated Christian images, and host desecration to ultimately inform dangerous and longlasting prejudices in medieval and early modern Europe. Aron-Beller demonstrates that this was a powerful expression of the Christian majority’s anxiety around committing idolatry.
Don't Think for Yourself Authority and Belief in Medieval Philosophy
Peter Adamson
Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies
February 2024 194pp
9780268203405 £40.00/ $45.00 NIP
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS
How do we judge whether we should be willing to follow the views of experts or whether we ought to try to come to our own, independent views? This book seeks the answer in medieval philosophical thought. This clear and eloquently written book will interest scholars in and enthusiasts of medieval philosophy, Islamic studies, Byzantine studies, and the history of thought.
Byzantine Media Subjects
Glenn A. Peers
Medieval Societies, Religions, and Cultures
June 2024 320pp 41 b&w hts., 38 color hts.
9781501776267 £27.99/ $32.95 PB 9781501775024 £112.00/ $125.00 HB
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Invites readers into a world replete with images— icons, frescoes, and mosaics filling places of worship, politics, and community. Interrogating the fundamental role of representation in the making of the Byzantine human, Peers argues that Byzantine culture was (already) posthuman. Media studies has made its subject the modern world, but this book argues for media having made historical subjects.
Coterie Poetics and the Beginnings of the English Literary Tradition
From Chaucer to Spenser
R. D. Perry
The Middle Ages Series
June 2024 344pp 3 b&w illus.
9781512826029 £63.00/ $69.95 HB
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
Elana Stein Hain traces the development of these loopholes over time, revealing that rabbinic literature does not consistently accept or reject loopholes. This book brings readers through the Second Temple period to the modern era to see how loopholing has evolved over millennia.
In the Doorway of All Worlds
Gonzalo de Berceo’s Translation of the Saints
Robin M Bower
July 2024 304pp
9781487547875 £52.00 / $75.00 HB UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
In the Doorway of All Worlds revisits the hagiographical poetry of Gonzalo de Berceo in the context of the emergent vernacular culture of thirteenth-century Iberia.
From 1st April 2024
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Monstrous Fantasies
England's Crusading Imaginary and the Romance of Recovery, 1300-1500
Leila K. Norako
August 2024 300pp
9781501776311 £54.00/ $59.95 HB
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Asks why medieval romances reimagining the crusades ending in a Christian victory circulated in England with such abundance after the Muslim reconquest of Acre, the last of the Latin crusader states in the Holy Land, in 1291, and what these texts reveal about the cultural anxieties of late medieval England.
Petrarch's Penitential Psalms and Prayers
Edited and translated by Demetrio S. Yocum & Francesco Petrarca
William and Katherine Devers Series in Dante and Medieval Italian Literature
May 2024 146pp
9780268207854 £29.99/ $35.00 PB
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS
The Psalms and Prayers are intricately crafted poetic and devotional works, presented in facing Latin/ English format. In his extensive introduction and commentary, Yocum situates these bold, original compositions within their historical, literary, and religious contexts, deftly drawing connections to classical texts, the Bible and the writings of the church fathers, and Petrarch’s own life, work, and poetics.
Speaking Truth to Power
The Legacy of the Young Cid
Matthew Bailey
November 2023 200pp
9781487506872 £45.00 / $65.00 HB
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
This book traces the evolution of an oral narrative tradition that inspired the Spanish epic poem Mocedades de Rodrigo.
From 1st April 2024
Nothing Pure
Jewish Law, Christian Supersession, and Bible
Translation in Old English Mo Pareles
February 2024 270pp
9781487550677 £59.00 / $85.00 HB
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Drawing on a wide range of Old English literary and religious texts, Nothing Pure explores the cultural translation of Jewish law in pre-Conquest England.
From 1st April 2024
Portraying Authorship
Juan Manuel and the Rhetoric of Authority
Anita Savo
May 2024 304pp 17 b&w illus.
9781487553234 £66.00 / $95.00 HB
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
This book investigates how a noted fourteenth-century Castilian writer developed and disseminated a concept of individual authorship.
From 1st April 2024
Suspect Saints and Holy Heretics
Disputed Sanctity and Communal Identity in Late Medieval Italy
Janine Larmon Peterson
March 2024 270pp 3 b&w hts., 1 map, 2 charts
9781501775901 £21.99/ $24.95 NIP
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Peterson investigates regional saints whose holiness was contested. She explores who these unofficial saints were, how the phenomenon of disputed sanctity arose, and why communities would be willing to risk punishment. The case studies detail how the political climate allowed communities to use saints' cults as a tool to negotiate religious and political autonomy in opposition to growing papal bureaucratization.
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The Crusades
A Reader, Third Edition
Edited by S.J. Allen & Emilie Amt
June 2024 512pp 19 b&w illus.
9781487525781 £38.00 / $54.95 PB
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
This collection of medieval primary sources provides a comprehensive view of the Crusades from multiple perspectives.
From 1st April 2024
The Last Ta'ifa
The Banu Hud and the Struggle for Political Legitimacy in alAndalus
Anthony H. Minnema
Medieval Societies, Religions, and Cultures
May 2024 216pp 12 b&w hts., 3 maps, 1 chart
9781501774898 £42.00/ $46.95 HB
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Uses the history of the Ban Hd, an Arab dynasty from Zaragoza, to connect the pursuit of legitimacy in alAndalus to the politics of other emerging kingdoms and emirates. The actions of Hūdid leaders echoed across the region as others employed parallel methods to gain power and resist the forces of centralization.
The Tree and the Column
The Bronze Door of Hildesheim
Isabelle Marchesin
Translated by Janice Bertrand
Owen & Ester Zago
Medieval Societies, Religions, and Cultures
March 2024 240pp 194 color hts., 2 b&w line drawings, 2 maps
9781501768668 £25.99/ $29.95 PB
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Examines the bronze door of Hildesheim Cathedral, which is among the most studied works of medieval sculpture. Marchesin closely analyzes the detailed iconography to excavate the elaborate theological and deeply spiritual significance of the biblical scenes cast into metal.
The Guide to the Perplexed
A New Translation
Moses Maimonides
Translated by Lenn E. Goodman & Phillip I. Lieberman
May 2024 720pp
9780804787383 £45.00/ $50.00 HB
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
In this landmark new translation of the most significant text in medieval Jewish thought, Maimonides' warm, conversational voice and clear explanatory language come through as never before in English.
The Permeable Self
Five Medieval Relationships
Barbara Newman
The Middle Ages Series
February 2024 384pp
9781512826067 £25.99/ $29.95 NIP UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
The Permeable Self offers medievalists new insight into the appeal and dangers of the erotics of pedagogy; the remarkable influence of courtly romance conventions on hagiography and mysticism; and the unexpected ways that pregnancy—often devalued in mothers— could be positively ascribed to men, virgins, and God.
Tropes of Engagement
Chaucer’s Italian Poetics of Intertextuality
Leah Schwebel
July 2024 352pp
9781487552602 £80.00 / $115.00 HB
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Exploring the work of Chaucer and Boccaccio, Tropes of Engagement redefines our understanding of textual influence by examining modes, rather than evidence, of authorial engagement.
From 1st April 2024
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Truth Is Trickiest
The Case for Ambiguity in the Exeter Book Riddles
Jennifer Neville
May 2024 376pp
9781487552527 £66.00 / $95.00 HB
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Truth Is Trickiest seeks to turn the study of Old English riddles away from reductive searches for single answers.
From 1st April 2024
England’s Jews
Finance, Violence, and the Crown in the Thirteenth Century
John Tolan
The Middle Ages Series
April 2023 264pp 9 hts.
9781512823899 £40.00/ $45.00 HB
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
PRESS
Historian John Tolan tells the story of the thousands of Jews who lived in medieval England. Protected by the Crown and granted the exclusive right to loan money with interest, Jews financed building projects, provided loans to students, and bought and rented out housing. Historical texts show that they shared meals and beer, celebrated at weddings, and sometimes even ended up in bed with Christians.
Humour in Old English Literature
Communities of Laughter in Early Medieval England
Jonathan Wilcox
October 2023 358pp
9781487545307 £62.00 / $90.00 HB
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Deploys modern theories of humour to explore the style and content of surviving writing from early medieval England. The book analyses Old English riddles, wisdom literature, runic writing, the deployment of rhymes, and humour in heroic poetry, hagiography, and romance.
From 1st April 2024
Between Christian and Jew
Conversion and Inquisition in the Crown of Aragon, 1250-1391 Paola Tartakoff
The Middle Ages Series
October 2023 224pp 3 b&w illus.
9781512825459 £25.99/ $29.95 PB
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
In 1341 in Aragon, a Jewish convert to Christianity described a Jewish conspiracy to persuade recent converts to denounce their newfound Christian faith. His claims became the catalyst for a series of trials that unfolded. Tartakoff closely analyzes these events.
Geoffroy of Villehardouin, Marshal of Champagne
His Life and Memoirs of the Fourth Crusade Theodore Evergates
Medieval Societies, Religions, and Cultures
January 2024 246pp 1 b&w ht., 7 maps, 2 diagrams, 2 charts
9781501773495 £40.00/ $44.95 HB
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Traces the remarkable life of Geoffroy of Villehardouin (c. 1148–c.1217) from his earliest years in Champagne through his last years in Greece after the crusade. Geoffroy dictated the earliest war memoir in medieval Europe, which is also the earliest prose narrative in Old French.
Knowledge True and Useful
A Cultural History of Early Scholasticism
Frank Rexroth
Translated by John Burden
The Middle Ages Series
November 2023 400pp
9781512824704 £63.00/ $69.95 HB
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
Rexroth shows how, beginning in the 1070s, a new kind of knowledge arose in Latin Europe that for the first time could be deemed “scientific.” Rexroth shows how the resulting transformations produced a new understanding of truth and the utility of learning— marking a turning point in European intellectual culture that culminated in the birth of the university.
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recent highlights
Manuscript Poetics
Materiality
and Textuality in Medieval Italian Literature
Francesco Marco Aresu
William and Katherine Devers Series in Dante and Medieval Italian Literature
November 2023 552pp 19 color illus., 2 b&w illus.
9780268206499 £58.00/ $65.00 PB
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS
Investigates the correspondences between textuality and materiality, content and medium, and visualverbal messages and their physical support through readings of Dante Alighieri’s Vita nova, Giovanni Boccaccio’s Teseida, and Francesco Petrarca’s canzoniere (Rerum vulgarium fragmenta). Aresu shows that they deployed the tools of scribal culture to shape meanings beyond those they conveyed in their written texts.
Old Norse Folklore Tradition, Innovation, and Performance in Medieval Scandinavia
Stephen A. Mitchell
Myth and Poetics II
December 2023 306pp 13 b&w hts.
9781501773402 £24.99/ $28.95 PB
9781501773396 £112.00/ $125.00 HB
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Provides critical new perspectives on the Old Norse world, some of which appear in this volume for the first time in English. He examines, interprets, and reinterprets the medieval data bequeathed to us by posterity—myths, legends, riddles, charms, court culture, conversion narratives, landscapes, and mindscapes—targeting largely overlooked, yet important sources of cultural insights.
The Politics of Emotion
Love, Grief, and Madness in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia
Nuria Silleras-Fernandez
February 2024 390pp 11 b&w hts., 1 map, 2 charts
9781501773860 £58.00/ $64.95 HB
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Explores the intersection of powerful emotional states with gender and political power on the Iberian Peninsula from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. Silleras-Fernandez addresses critical questions about how royal women in Iberia were expected to behave and how perceptions about their emotional states influenced the way they were able to exercise power.
Medieval Sex Lives
The Sounds of Courtly Intimacy on the Francophone Borders
Elizabeth Eva Leach
December 2023 330pp 3 b&w hts., 18 b&w line drawings, 3 charts
9781501771873 £42.00/ $46.95 HB
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Examines courtly song as a complex cultural product and social force in the early fourteenth century, exploring how it illuminates the relationship between artistic production and the everyday lives of the elites. Medieval Sex Lives presents a provocative hypothesis about the power of courtly songs to model, inspire, and support sexual behaviors and fantasies.
The Fall of a Carolingian Kingdom
Lotharingia 855-869
September 2023
9781487545161 / $39.95 HB
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
The Fall of a Carolingian Kingdom investigates how the first royal divorce scandal led to the collapse of a kingdom, changing the fate of medieval Europe. Through a set of annotated translations of key contemporary sources, the book presents the downfall of the Frankish kingdom of Lotharingia as a case study in early medieval politics, equipping readers to develop their own independent interpretations.
From 1st April 2024
The Splendor and Opulence of the Past Studyingthe Middle Ages in Enlightenment Catalonia
Paul Freedman
Medieval Societies, Religions, and Cultures
November 2023 354pp 8 b&w hts., 3 maps
9781501772221 £51.00/ $56.95 HB
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Traces the career of Jaume Caresmar (1717–1791), a church historian and a key figure of the Catalan Enlightenment who transcribed tens of thousands of parchments. Caresmar's books, essays, and transcriptions provide fresh insights into the Middle Ages and illustrate how a nation's past glories and humiliations can inform contemporary culture.
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