The Liber Manualis is a distinctive guidebook to conduct and survival in tumultuous times written by a Carolingian mother for her adolescent son. This edition provides a complete translation in English, accompanied by the Latin original. Advancing views of Dhuoda's individuality and mindset, her possible models and intended readership, the introduction places her handbook within the context of French and Germanic literary traditions. Explanatory references illuminate the life and work of this remarkable and well-educated ninth-century woman. Often called the first Western treatise of childhood education, the Liber Manualis forefronts the name and voice of a courageous mother, whose moral position remains unique in a patriarchal society.
The Liber Manualis is a distinctive guidebook to conduct and survival in tumultuous times written by a Carolingian mother for her adolescent son. This edition provides a complete translation in English, accompanied by the Latin original. Advancing views of Dhuoda's individuality and mindset, her possible models and intended readership, the introduction places her handbook within the context of French and Germanic literary traditions. Explanatory references illuminate the life and work of this remarkable and well-educated ninth-century woman. Often called the first Western treatise of childhood education, the Liber Manualis forefronts the name and voice of a courageous mother, whose moral position remains unique in a patriarchal society.
Dhuoda of Septimania was a remarkable Carolingian aristocrat who wrote a Liber Manualis of biblically based practical directions for her at times wayward warrior son. Her method of interpreting the Bible is of special interest. The meaning of the ancient Old Testament texts opened up for her not through allegory, as it did for Origen, but through a sense of experience shared across the centuries. The tales of the religious experiences of Israel were seen by her as family experiences, involving a sense of genuine continuity. Or, from another direction, she used the concrete experiences of her life to find a special meaning in the biblical text. Mayeski explores this approach in considerable detail through Dhuoda's interpretation of the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman in Matthew 15:21-25 and Mark 7:24-30. Interpreting it for her son, she speaks of the encouragement that can be found there in the way that God supplies the food of grace to those who persist in seeking it. She also uses the beatitudes as an outline of a treatise on her son's responsibilities as a member of the ruling class. Underlying her practical bent is the vision of human life as a journey toward the kingdom of God, with its need for alertness and its sense of motion.
"Instructors of medieval history are fortunate to have at their disposal a new edition of the best selection of medieval primary sources in English translation available today. Like its predecessors, this fourth edition fulfills the promise expressed in the author's preface: to introduce us and our students to documents representing a great variety of genres, subjects, and places throughout medieval Europe and to present those documents in their entirety or in substantial portions. The documents allow us, the teachers, and more importantly, our students, the freedom to read in depth, select, and analyze---to practice history at its best, right in the classroom."---Piotr Gorecki, University of California, Riverside "Geary's careful and wise selection of texts in his reader provides the best balance between range and depth necessary for a successful source book. Students are introduced to the richness of medieval evidence and can engage with the personalities who produced it in a way that encourages further study and reflection on the Middle Ages."---Nicholas Everett, University of Toronto "Provides an excellent selection of complete texts or substantial extracts from key primary sources, helpfully grouped thematically and illustrating many current issues in modern historical study ... an invaluable introduction."---Rosamond McKitterick, Newnham College, University of Cambridge "The best collection of medieval documents in print."---A.J. Andrea, University of Vermont For this new edition, Patrick J. Geary has incorporated more bibliographical information into the introductions to the readings. Five texts have been added to better reflect legal, religious, Polish, and women's history. A glossary is provided to help with unfamiliar terms. For students who want to dig deeper into the primary sources, secondary readings about the primary sources are listed.
In the middle of the 9th century William, the son of the Frankish nobelwoman Dhuoda, was held hostage by Charles the Bald. At the same time, Dhuoda's younger son was missing, lost in war. Dhuoda expressed her concern by writing a guide for her son, urging him to live a life of moral, religious and military responsibility.
From women's medicine and the writings of Christine de Pizan to the lives of market and tradeswomen and the idealization of virginity, gender and social status dictated all aspects of women's lives during the middle ages. A cross-disciplinary resource, Women and Gender in Medieval Europe examines the daily reality of medieval women from all walks of life in Europe between 450 CE and 1500 CE, i.e., from the fall of the Roman Empire to the discovery of the Americas. Moving beyond biographies of famous noble women of the middles ages, the scope of this important reference work is vast and provides a comprehensive understanding of medieval women's lives and experiences. Masculinity in the middle ages is also addressed to provide important context for understanding women's roles. Entries that range from 250 words to 4,500 words in length thoroughly explore topics in the following areas: · Art and Architecture · Countries, Realms, and Regions · Daily Life · Documentary Sources · Economics · Education and Learning · Gender and Sexuality · Historiography · Law · Literature · Medicine and Science · Music and Dance · Persons · Philosophy · Politics · Political Figures · Religion and Theology · Religious Figures · Social Organization and Status Written by renowned international scholars, Women and Gender in Medieval Europe is the latest in the Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages. Easily accessible in an A-to-Z format, students, researchers, and scholars will find this outstanding reference work to be an invaluable resource on women in Medieval Europe.
This is one of the first anthologies devoted to the writings of women in the Middle Ages. The fifteen women whose works are represented span seven centuries, eight languages, and ten regions or nationalities. Many are recognized, taught, and anthologized in their own countries but have been inaccessible to students in English. Others are little read today because their literary fortunes have paralleled fluctuations in literary taste and literary patronage. Katharina M. Wilson's introduction to the volume places these writers in historical context and explores the question of the female imagination and who these women were who were writing at a time when very few women were literate and most literature, sacred and secular, was penned by men. Each of the fifteen chapters has been written by a different scholar and includes a biographical and critical introduction to the writer, a representative selection of her works in translation, and a bibliography.
In all religions, in the medieval West as in the East, ideas about the past, the present and the future were shaped by expectations related to the End. The volumes Cultures of Eschatology explore the many ways apocalyptic thought and visions of the end intersected with the development of pre-modern religio-political communities, with social changes and with the emergence of new intellectual and literary traditions. The two volumes present a wide variety of case studies from the early Christian communities of Antiquity, through the times of the Islamic invasion and the Crusades and up to modern receptions, from the Latin West to the Byzantine Empire, from South Yemen to the Hidden Lands of Tibetan Buddhism. Examining apocalypticism, messianism and eschatology in medieval Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist communities, the contributions paint a multi-faceted picture of End-Time scenarios and provide their readers with a broad array of source material from different historical contexts. The first volume, Empires and Scriptural Authorities, examines the formation of literary and visual apocalyptic traditions, and the role they played as vehicles for defining a community’s religious and political enemies. The second volume, Time, Death and Afterlife, focuses on key topics of eschatology: death, judgment, afterlife and the perception of time and its end. It also analyses modern readings and interpretations of eschatological concepts.
