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"I recommend this book strongly to anyone serious about understanding Francis of Assisi. I admire the clarity and brevity of the writing. With decisiveness, Thompson cuts through the conflicting medieval accounts of each event in Francis' life, adjusts for the hagiographers' spin and creates a credible chronology out of the blurry dates. His knowledge of medieval Italy allows him to provide insightful explanations of the legal, liturgical, and ecclesiastical practices of the time."—Paul Moses, America Among the most beloved saints in the Catholic tradition, Francis of Assisi (c. 1181–1226) is popularly remembered for his dedication to poverty, his love of animals and nature, and his desi...
In So Great a Light, So Great a Smoke, Louisa A. Burnham takes us inside the world of a little-known heretical group in the south of France in the early fourteenth century. The Beguins were a small sect of priests and lay people allied to (and sharing many of the convictions of) the Spiritual Franciscans. They stressed poverty in their pursuit of a Franciscan evangelical ideal and believed themselves to be living in the Last Days. By the late thirteenth century, the leaders of the order and the popes themselves had begun to discipline the Spirituals, and by 1317 they had been deemed a heresy. The Beguins refused to accept this situation and began to evade and confront the inquisitorial machi...
The Founder is the second volume of the long-awaited and best-selling project Francis of Assisi: Early Documents. All three volumes contain helpful introductions to each section, colored maps, cross references, and extensive annotation. The Founder contains: The Beginning or the Founding of the Order and the Deeds of those Lesser Brothers who where the First Companions of Blessed Francis in Religion The Legend of the Three Companions The Assisi Compilation The Remembrance of the Desire of A Soul by Thomas of Celano The Treatise on the Miracles of Saint Francis by Thomas of Celano An Umbrian Choir Legend A Letter on the Passing of Saint Francis Attributed to Elias of Assisi The Legends and Sermons about Saint Francis by Bonaventure of Bagnoregio Related Documents
Since its founding in 1943, Medievalia et Humanistica has won worldwide recognition as the first scholarly publication in America to devote itself entirely to medieval and Renaissance studies. Since 1970, a new series, sponsored by the Modern Language Association of America and edited by an international board of distinguished scholars and critics, has published interdisciplinary articles. In yearly hardbound volumes, the new series publishes significant scholarship, criticism, and reviews treating all facets of medieval and Renaissance culture: history, art, literature, music, science, law, economics, and philosophy.
This volume is a collection of essays written in honor of David Burr, emeritus professor at the Polytechnic University of Virginia (Blacksburg): a scholar who has spent a career researching and publishing on the multi-faceted phenomenon of the Spiritual Franciscans (late 13th-early 14th century) and, in particular, on the life and writings of Peter of John Olivi in southern France. Representing some of the finest scholars in the field these eighteen scholarly essays touch on aspects of both phenomena. Three essays are devoted to the historiography of David Burr; three are dedicated to medieval Apocalypticism; another seven deal specifically with Peter of John Olivi; and five final essays explore aspects of the Spiritual Franciscans, their precursors and adherents. Contributors are C. Colt Anderson, Marco Bartoli, Michael F. Cusato, Gilbert Dahan, Alberto Forni, Fortunato Iozzelli, Philip D. Krey, Robert E. Lerner, Warren Lewis, Michele Lodone, Kevin Madigan, Antonio Montefusco, Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel, Dabney G. Park, Sylvain Piron, Gian Luca Potestà, Marco Rainini, and Paolo Vian.
Analyses of different aspects of the history of warfare in the Mediterranean in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Examines the motivations, inner spiritual lives, and religious commitments of seven key inquisitors of the Middle Ages.
Toward a Definition of Antisemitism offers new contributions by Gavin I. Langmuir to the history of antisemitism, together with some that have been published separately. The collection makes Langmuir's innovative work on the subject available to scholars in medieval and Jewish history and religious studies. The underlying question that unites the book is: what is antisemitism, where and when did it emerge, and why? After two chapters that highlight the failure of historians until recently to depict Jews and attitudes toward them fairly, the majority of the chapters are historical studies of crucial developments in the legal status of Jews and in beliefs about them during the Middle Ages. Two concluding chapters provide an overview. In the first, the author summarizes the historical developments, indicating concretely when and where antisemitism as he defines it emerged. In the second, Langmuir criticizes recent theories about prejudice and racism and develops his own general theory about the nature and dynamics of antisemitism.
In the 1290s a new guild-based Florentine government placed a group of noble families under severe legal restraints, on the grounds that they were both the most powerful and the most violent and disruptive element in the city. In this colorful portrayal of civic life in medieval Florence, Carol Lansing explores the patrilineal structure and function of these urban families, known as "magnates." She shows how they emerged as a class defined not by specific economic interests but by a distinctive culture. During the earlier period of weaker civic institutions, these families built their power by sharing among themselves crucial resources--forts, political alliances, ecclesiastical rights. Lans...