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Roman and barbarian precedents The growth of self-centered agriculture The take-off of the commerical revolution The uneven diffusion of commercialization Between crafts and industry The response of the agricultural society.
One of the most original and enlightening one-volume accounts of medieval Europe ever published.--The Virginia Quarterly Review
This collection of merchant documents is essential reading for any student of economic developments in the Middle Ages who wishes to go beyond the level of textbook summaries. Different aspects of economic life in the Mediterranean world are delineated in the light of a rich variety of articles and other contemporary writings, drawn from Muslim and Christian sources. From commercial contracts, promissory notes, and judicial acts to working manuals of practical geography and philology, this volume of documents provides an unparalleled portrait of the world of medieval commerce.
Mr. Lopez reinterprets the civilization of the High Renaissance in Italy as a dramatic succession of three ages: Youth, 1454-1494; Maturity, 1494-1527; Decline, 1527-1559. In the first period, political and economic stabilization brings forth a mood of confident expectation which expresses itself in literature, art, and philosophy, all reaching for a goal of "self-centered aesthetic harmony." In the second period, a series of foreign invasions shatters the political and economic well-being of the Indian elite but does not slow down the artistic and literary drive. Whether in hope or in sorrow, in response to shock or in escape from reality, the Renaissance attains its glorious climax. The th...
A compelling study of a "best-seller" from the Middle Ages
This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Between Religion and Ethnicity: Twentieth-Century Jewish Émigrés and the Shaping of Postwar Culture" that was published in Religions
This book investigates Jan Van Eyck's patronage by the Crown of Portugal and his role as diplomat-painter for the Duchy of Burgundy following his first voyage to Lisbon in 1428-1429, when he painted two portraits of Infanta Isabella, who became the third wife of Philip the Good in 1430. New portrait identifications are provided for the Ghent Altarpiece (1432) and its iconographical prototype, the lost Fountain of Life. These altarpieces are analysed with regard to King Joao I's conquest of Ceuta, achieved by his sons, who were hailed as an "illustrious generation." Strong family ties between the dynastic houses of Avis and Lancaster explain Lusitania's sustained fascination with Arthurian lo...
Opulent jeweled objects ranked among the most highly valued works of art in the European Middle Ages. At the same time, precious stones prompted sophisticated reflections on the power of nature and the experience of mineralized beings. Beyond a visual regime that put a premium on brilliant materiality, how can we account for the ubiquity of gems in medieval thought? In The Mineral and the Visual, art historian Brigitte Buettner examines the social roles, cultural meanings, and active agency of precious stones in secular medieval art. Exploring the layered roles played by gems in aesthetic, ideological, intellectual, and economic practices, Buettner focuses on three significant categories of ...
Barbarians and Romans (1983) examines the rise of the barbarian tribes and the consequent decline of the Roman Empire. The author contends that the two sides were not bent on destroying each other, and that after years of accommodation and alienation a new world would emerge that had its foundations not only in Rome but also in Germanic culture. The book ranges across the Roman world, and from the rulers to the ruled, combining the study of monuments and artefacts with the literary evidence of the period.