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  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. The Middle Ages in 50 Objects
  • Cited by 4
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
May 2018
Print publication year:
2018
Online ISBN:
9781316577189
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316577189
Subjects:
Area Studies, Art: General Interest, Art, History, European Studies, European History 450-1000
Information

Book description

The extraordinary array of images included in this volume reveals the full and rich history of the Middle Ages. Exploring material objects from the European, Byzantine and Islamic worlds, the book casts a new light on the cultures that formed them, each culture illuminated by its treasures. The objects are divided among four topics: The Holy and the Faithful; The Sinful and the Spectral; Daily Life and Its Fictions, and Death and Its Aftermath. Each section is organized chronologically, and every object is accompanied by a penetrating essay that focuses on its visual and cultural significance within the wider context in which the object was made and used. Spot maps add yet another way to visualize and consider the significance of the objects and the history that they reveal. Lavishly illustrated, this is an appealing and original guide to the cultural history of the Middle Ages.

Reviews

‘A splendid visual feast, this compelling account of the Middle Ages will fascinate and engage students, specialists and general readers alike. This is Medieval History with a difference - of approach, scope, and content - that is as stimulating as it is enjoyable.'

Julia M. H. Smith - University of Oxford

‘The Middle Ages in 50 Objects will appeal to anyone with a passion for history and delight in things. Evocatively bringing the medieval world alive, it unearths buried weapons, de-codes enigmatic images, and rewards the curious with details of materials and makers, myths and movements. An outstanding resource for instructors and visual learners, this volume satisfies both the intellect and the senses.'

Maureen C. Miller - University of California, Berkeley

‘The recent turn to 'materiality' among medievalists has paid off handsomely in this informative and beautifully presented study. The book testifies to the added value of collaboration in scholarship and of the utility of integrating different scholarly approaches to the study of objects. The authors obviously experienced great joy in executing the project, and I experienced the same emotion in reading it.'

William Chester Jordan - Princeton University, New Jersey

'The luxury items and ordinary medieval artefacts this volume showcases range across the full chronological and geographical scope of the capacious Middle Ages. They comprise a splendid cabinet of curiosities, a wondrous collection of images and stories, wrapped in rich contextualizations, that allows the reader to assemble a complex, multifaceted image of the Middle Ages.'

Asa Simon Mittman - California State University, Chico

'With its focus on carefully selected objects and its attention to material culture, this book is both a masterpiece of methodology and a must-read volume for scholars, students and interested public alike. Using the objects to address broad interdisciplinary questions concerning Islamic, Byzantine and European societies, it brings the Middle Ages back to life in a sophisticated and intelligent way.'

Claudia Bolgia - University of Edinburgh

'The Middle Ages in 50 Objects, as its name suggests, places objects front and center in the telling of history. Using select works from the rich collections of the Cleveland Museum of art, the authors present an admirably broad and diverse picture of the medieval era. Written in an engaging, approachable style, and with an authoritative erudition, this work will offer students an excellent introduction to the field.'

Christina Maranci - Tufts University, Massachusetts

'An appealing and original guide to the cultural history of the Middle Ages.'

Source: Antiques and Auction News

'This handsome publication represents the collaborative effort of two well-regarded medievalists, an art historian (Gertsman, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland) and a scholar known primarily for her studies of the history of the emotions (Rosenwein, Loyola University, Chicago). They selected 50 objects they deemed illustrated salient aspects of the Middle Ages, and each object is the subject of informative yet accessible commentary. The objects appear under four headings: 'The Holy and the Faithful', 'The Sinful and the Spectral', 'Daily Life and Its fictions', 'Death and Its Aftermath'. … Recommended.'

W. Cahn Source: Choice

‘… the book is a wonderful introduction to the objects of the museum’s collection, and Gertsman and Rosenwein are to be congratulated for distilling these objects’ complexity and historical context for a broader readership, and for painting a picture of the field that showcases the richness of both its objects and methodologies.’

Karl Whittington Source: Speculum

'These extraordinary objects remind us of the sheer strangeness of this world, and the volume is beautifully illustrated.'

Hannah Skoda Source: BBC History Magazine

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Contents

Page 2 of 3

Contents

Page 2 of 3

References

References

Introduction

Fliegel, Stephen N. and Gertsman, Elina eds., Myth and Mystique: Cleveland’s Gothic Table Fountain (Cleveland/London, 2016).
Remigius of Auxerre, Commentum in Martianum Capellam, quoted in Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300–1475, ed. Copeland, Rita and Sluiter, Ineke (Oxford, 2009), 49.

1

The Bible translation used here and throughout this book is from Douay-Rheims Bible, accessible at www.drbo.org.

2

Procopius I.1.46 , trans. Cyril A. Mango at www.learn.columbia.edu/ma/htm/or/ma_or_gloss_proko.htm.
Martyr, Saint Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 40 in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, at http://st-takla.org/books/en/ecf/001/0010501.html.

4

Psellus, , Chronographia, I, 117, trans. Sewter, E.R.A (New Haven, 1953) at http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/psellus-chrono01.asp.
Isidore of Seville, Etymologies: Complete English Translation, XVI.vii.8, trans. Throop, Priscilla, 2 vols. (Charlotte, VT, 2005), 1:xvi.7.8.
Choniates, Nicetas, Historia, in Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of History, vol. 3 (Philadelphia, PA, 1907), 15–16.

5

Widukind of Corvey, Deeds of the Saxons, trans. Bachrach, Bernard S. and Bachrach, David S. (Washington, DC, 2014), 62–64.
Otto, III, Diplomata, ed. Sickel, Teodor, Die Urkunden Otto des II, Monumenta Germaniae Historicae, Dip. regum 2.1 (Hanover, 1893), 775, trans. BHR.
Gilsdorf, Sean, Queenship and Sanctity: The Lives of Mathilda and the Epitaph of Adelheid (Washington, DC, 2004), 132.

6

The Qur’an translation used here and throughout this book is from The Koran Interpreted, trans. Arberry, A. J. (New York, NY, 1955).

7

at-Tawhidi, Abu Hayyan, “Epistle on Penmanship,” in Four Essays on Art and Literature in Islam, ed. Rosenthal, Franz (Leiden, 1971), 24, 34, 36.

8

Ottonian Germany: The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg, trans. Warner, David A. (Manchester, 2001), 265.
Bernard of Clairvaux, Apologia for Abbot William, in The Cistercian World: Monastic Writings of the Twelfth Century, ed. and trans. Matarasso, Pauline (London, 1991), 56.
“Translatio: The Translation of Sainte Foy, Virgin and Martyr, to the Conques Monastery,” in The Book of Sainte Foy, ed. and trans. Sheingorn, Pamela (Philadelphia, PA, 1996), 266.

10

Aelred of Rievaulx, A Rule of Life for a Recluse, in The Works of Aelred of Rievaulx, vol. 1: Treatises; The Pastoral Prayer, trans. Macpherson, Mary Paul (Spencer, MA, 1971).
Suso, Henry, The Life of the Servant, trans. Clark, James M. (Cambridge, 1952), 18–19.
Ebner, Margaret, The Revelations, in Major Works, trans. and ed. Hindsley, Leonard P. (New York, NY, 1993), 125.

11

Council of Lyon II, Constitution on the Procession of the Holy Spirit, quoted in Fortman, Edmund J., The Triune God: A Historical Study of the Doctrine of the Trinity (Grand Rapids, MI, 1982, reprint 1999), 218–219.
López de Ayala, Pedro, Rimado de Palacio, quoted in O’Callaghan, Joseph F., A History of Medieval Spain (Ithaca, NY, 1975), 631.
Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P., Sermon for Trinity Sunday (1), trans. Judy, Albert G., O.P. at www.svfsermons.org/B294_Trinity.htm.
Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias, trans. Mother Hart, Columba and Bishop, Jane (Mahwah, NY, 1990), 161.

12

Leland, John, Itinerary in England and Wales; Parts I–III (London, 1907), 38.
“Trial and Flagellation; Crucifixion,” Play 15, Chester Cycle 1572/2010, ed. Johnston, A. F., p.7, at http://groups.chass.utoronto.ca/plspls/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/chester15.pdf.

13

The Rule of the Franciscan Order, trans. Burr, David at https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/stfran-rule.html.
David of Augsburg, De exterioris et interioris hominis compositione, quoted in Loewen, Peter V., Music in Early Franciscan Thought (Leiden, 2013), 95, n. 10, trans. BHR.

14

Tertullian, , Disciplinary, Moral and Ascetic Works, trans. Arbesmann, Rudolph, Daly, Emily Joseph, and Quain, Edwin A. (Washington, DC, 1959), 117–118.
“Adam lay ybounden,” in Songs and Carols from a Manuscript in the British Museum of the Fifteenth Century, ed. Wright, Thomas (London, 1856), 32–33, trans. EG.

15

Eusebius, , Church History 2.16.1, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 2nd series, vol. 1 (New York, NY, 1890), 116.

16

Robert the Monk, Urban II’s Sermon at Clermont in Urban and the Crusaders, ed. Munro, Dana C. (Philadelphia, PA, 1895), 7.
Samson, Solomon bar, Hebrew Chronicle, in Jews in Christian Europe: A Source Book, 315–1791, ed. Marcus, Jacob Rader and Saperstein, Marc (Pittsburgh, PA, 2015), 77.
Nathan, Rabbi Eliezer ben, “O God, Insolent Men,” trans. Einbinder, Susan L., in Rosenwein, Barbara H., ed. Reading the Middle Ages: Sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic World, 2nd ed. (Toronto, 2014), 269.

17

Aberdeen Bestiary, University of Aberdeen Library, Special Collections, MS 24 at www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary.

18

Abelard, Letter 7 (to Heloise), in Guidance for Women in Twelfth-Century Convents, trans. Morton, Vera and Wogan-Browne, Jocelyn (Cambridge, 2003), 67.
Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica [henceforth ST] II-II, Q.94, art.4, at www.newadvent.org/summa/3094.htm#article4.
Tertullian, On Idolatry 1.1, in Tertullianus: De idololatria, ed. and trans. Waszink, J. H. and van Winden, J. C. M. (Leiden, 1987), 23.
Tertullian, The Apparel of Women 1.1, in Disciplinary, Moral, and Ascetical Works, trans. Arbesmann, Rudolph et al. (Washington, DC, 1959, reprint. 2010), 117–118.

19

Bernard of Clairvaux, Apology, trans. Burr, David at http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/bernard1.asp.
The Rule of St. Benedict, ed. and trans. Venarde, Bruce L. (Cambridge, MA, 2011), 3.
Jotsaldus, De vita et virtutibus sancti Odilonis Abbatis 2.13, Patrologia Latina 142:926, trans. BHR.
Third Lateran Council, Canon 27, quoted in Moore, R. I., The War on Heresy (Cambridge, MA, 2012), 205.

20

Aquinas, Thomas, ST II-II, Q.77, art.4 and Q.35, art.3, at www.newadvent.org/summa/3077.htm#article4 and www.newadvent.org/summa/3035.htm#article3.
Cavalca, Domenico, Specchio de’ Peccati (Florence, 1828), 37.
Alighieri, Dante, Purgatory 18:100–104, in The Divine Comedy, trans. Singleton, Charles S. (Princeton, NJ, 1970–1975), 195.
Dante Alighieri, Inferno, 7:118–124, in The Divine Comedy, 77.

22

Sister Riccoboni, Bartolomea, Life and Death in a Venetian Convent: The Chronicle and Necrology of Corpus Domini, 1395–1436, ed. and trans. Bornstein, Daniel (Chicago, IL, 2000), 47.

24

Aquinas, Thomas, ST I, Q.63, art.3 and art.8, and Q.64, art. 4, at www.newadvent.org/summa/1063.htm and www.newadvent.org/summa/1064.htm.
Fourth Lateran Council, Select Canons, 1215, Canon 1, trans. Schroeder, H. J. at http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/lat4-select.asp.

26

Pactus Legis Salicae, in The Laws of the Salian Franks, trans. Drew, Katherine Fischer (Philadelphia, PA, 1991), 73, 91.
Beowulf (bilingual edition), ed. Heaney, Seamus (New York, 2001), 213, lines 3163–3168.
Einhard, , Vita beati Karoli magni 23, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores 2, ed. Pertz, G. H. (Hanover, 1829), 456, trans. BHR.
Notker, , Gesta Caroli Magni 2.17, quoted in Stone, Rachel, “The Emperor’s New Clothes: Moral Aspects of Carolingian Royal Costume,” Paper presented at International Medieval Congress, Leeds, July 2011, p.1 at www.academia.edu/3630842/The_emperors_new_clothes_moral_aspects_of_Carolingian_royal_costume.

27

Odo of Deuil, De profectione Ludovici VII in Orientem, quoted in Kazhdan, A. P. and Epstein, Ann Wharton, Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Berkeley, CA, 1985), 76.

29

Charlemagne, De litteris colendis, trans. Munro, D. C. at http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/carol-baugulf.asp.
Scribal complaints quoted in Avrin, Leila, Scribes, Script, and Books: The Book Arts from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Chicago, IL, 1991), 224.

30

al-Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, Poems of Al-Mutanabbī, ed. and trans. Arberry, A. J. (Cambridge, 1967), 29.

32

The Ilkhanid Book of Ascension: A Persian-Sunni Devotional Tale, trans. Gruber, Christiane J. (New York, 2010), 70, 72.

33

Laws of King Canute, 1.7, trans. Robertson, A. J., in Love, Marriage, and Family in the Middle Ages: A Reader, ed. Murray, Jacqueline (Toronto, 2010), 40.

34

Boccaccio, Giovanni, The Decameron, trans. Aldington, Richard (New York, 1930), 409.
Bologna statutes in Medieval Medicine: A Reader, ed. Wallis, Faith (Toronto, 2010), 203.
Archimatthaeus, trans. Sigerist, Henry E., in Reading the Middle Ages: Sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic World, ed. Rosenwein, Barbara H., 2nd ed. (Toronto, 2014), 346.
Master Bartholomaeus of Salerno, in Medieval Medicine: A Reader, trans. Wallis, Faith (Toronto, 2010), 409.
The Trotula, trans. Green, Monica, in Medieval Medicine: A Reader, 189.
Saint Augustine, Sermones Guelferbytani 17.1, trans. Arbesmann, Rudolph in “The Concept of ‘Christus Medicus’ in St Augustine,” Traditio 10 (1954), 19.

35

Huon de Bordeaux: Chanson de Geste, in Les anciens poetes de la France, ed. Guessard, F. and Grandmaison, C. (Paris, 1860), 221–222, trans. BHR.
Vidal, Peire, Drogoman senher, s’agues bon destrier, in Troubadour Poems from the South of France, trans. Paden, William D. and Paden, Frances Freeman (Cambridge, 2007), 134.
Froissart, , The Online Froissart: A Digital Edition of the Chronicles of Jean Froissart, fol. 2r, trans. Borrill, Keira, at www.hrionline.ac.uk/onlinefroissart.
Inventaires mobiliers et extraits des comptes des ducs de Bourgogne de la maison de Valois (1363–1477), ed. Prost, Bernard (Paris, 1902), 266, no. 1460, trans. in Randall, Richard H. Jr., “Popular Romances Carved in Ivory,” in Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. Barnet, Peter (Princeton, NJ, 1997), 70.
Titre LXI.1, in Les métiers et corporations de la ville de Paris: XIIIe siècle. Le livre des métiers d’Étienne Boileau, ed. de Lespinasse, René and Bonnardot, François (Paris, 1879), 127, trans. in Sears, Elizabeth, “Ivory and Ivory Workers in Medieval Paris,” in Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. Barnet, Peter (Princeton, NJ, 1997), 20.

36

The Good Wife’s Guide: Le Ménagier de Paris, A Medieval Household Book, trans. Greco, Gina L. and Rose, Christine M. (Ithaca, NY, 2009), 57, 59, 94, 142, 222, 253, 257.
The Travels of Leo of Rozmital through Germany, Flanders, England, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, 1465–1467, ed. and trans. Letts, Malcolm Henry Ikin (Cambridge, 1957), 57.
de Lorris, Guillaume and de Meun, Jean, The Romance of the Rose, trans. Horgan, Frances (Oxford, 1994), 25.
de Machaut, Guillaume, The Fountain of Love, in The Fountain of Love (La Fonteinne Amoureuse) and Two Other Love Vision Poems, ed. and trans. Palmer, R. Barton (New York, 1993), lines 1418–1419.
Boccaccio, Giovanni, The Decameron, trans. Aldington, Richard (New York, 1930), 173.

37

Robert the Monk, Urban II’s Sermon at Clermont in Urban and the Crusaders, ed., Munro, Dana C., University of Pennsylvania, Translation and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, vol. 1, no. 2 (Philadelphia, PA, 1895), 8.
O City of Byzantium, in Annals of Niketas Choniates, trans. Magoulias, Harry J. (Detroit, 1984), 313.

38

Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics 4.2, trans. Rackham, H. (Cambridge, MA, 1932), 207.
Woven inscription quoted in Weigert, Laura, Weaving Sacred Stories: French Choir Tapestries and the Performance of Clerical Identity (Ithaca, NY, 2004), xvii, trans. BHR.

39

Lactantius, , Of the Manner in which the Persecutors Died cap. 44, trans. Fletcher, William, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1871), 2:203.
Epitaphs in Recueil des inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule, vol. 1: Première Belgique, ed. Gauthier, Nancy (Paris, 1975), nos. 49 and 13b; vol. 15: Viennoise du Nord, ed. Marrou, Henri I. and Descombes, Françoise (Paris, 1985), no. 112, trans. BHR.
Jordanes, , The Gothic History, trans. Mierow, Charles Christopher (Princeton, NJ, 1915), 95.
Visigothic Code 2.11, ed. Scott, S. P. in The Library of Iberian Resources Online, at http://libro.uca.edu/vcode/vg2-5.pdf.
Lives of the Visigothic Fathers, trans. and ed. Fear, A. T. (Liverpool, 1997), 59–61.

40

Caesarius of Arles, quoted in James, Edward, The Franks (Oxford, 1988), 140–141.
Gregory of Tours, Ten Books of Histories 4.51, in Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks, trans. Thorpe, Louis (London, 1974), 248.

41

al-Abiwardi, Abu l-Muzaffar, Poem, in Arab Historians of the Crusades, trans. from Arabic, Gabrielli, Francesco, trans. from Italian, Costello, E. J. (Berkeley, CA, 1969), 12.
Report on envoy’s speech quoted in Peacock, A. C. S., The Great Seljuk Empire (Edinburgh, 2015), 83.

42

Onlooker of Astruga’s execution quoted in Burnham, Louisa, So Great a Light, so Great a Smoke: The Beguin Heretics of Languedoc (Ithaca, NY, 2008), 77.
de Voragine, Jacobus, The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints, trans. Ryan, William Granger (Princeton, NJ, 2012), 453, 456–457.

43

The Life of Beatrice of Nazareth, 1200–1268, trans. De Ganck, Roger with Hasbrouck, J. B. (Kalamazoo, MI, 1991), 279.
Paris, Matthew, English History from the Year 1235 to 1273, trans. Giles, J. A. (London, 1853), 2: 241.

45

de Voragine, Jacobus, The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints, trans. Ryan, William Granger (Princeton, NJ, 2012), 464–465.
Meditations on the Life of Christ, An Illustrated Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS ital. 115), trans. and ed. Ragusa, Isa and Green, Rosalie B. (Princeton, NJ, 1961), 387.
Virgine, De B. Coleta [Colette of Corbie], Acta sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur, vol. 6 (Antwerp, 1643), 555, quoted in Natvig, Mary, “Rich Clares, Poor Clares: Celebrating the Divine Office,” in Women & Music, 4 (2000): 59–70 at 69.

46

Girolami, Remigio dei, Sermo in morte di Beatrice d’Angiò, ed. and trans. (into Italian) at www.e-theca.net/emiliopanella/remigio/8150.htm, trans. BHR.
Statute of Valréas quoted in Chiffoleau, Jacques, La Comptabilité de l’au-delà (Rome, 1980), 139.
William of Tocco, Ystoria sancti Thome de Aquino de Guillaume de Tocco (1323), ed. Brun-Gouanvic, Claire le (Toronto, 1996), 157, trans. BHR.

48

Capsali, Elijah, Seder Eliyahu Zuta, quoted and translated in Bonfil, Robert, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy, trans. Oldcom, Anthony (Berkeley, CA, 1994), 268–269.

49

Victricius of Rouen, De laude sanctorum, in Christianity and Paganism, 350–750: The Conversion of Western Europe, ed. and trans. Hillgarth, J. N. (Philadelphia, PA, 1986), 25.
Vision of the Monk of Eynsham, in Visions of Heaven and Hell before Dante, ed. Gardiner, Eileen (New York, 1989), 197–218, 209.
Jotsaldus, , De vita et virtutibus sancti Odilonis Abbatis 2.13, Patrologia latina 142:926, quoted in Rosenwein, Barbara H., “Cluniac War and Monastic Peace: Cluniac Liturgy as Ritual Aggression,” Viator 2 (1971), 129–157.
Aquinas, Thomas, ST(Appendix II), at www.newadvent.org/summa/7001.htm and ST II-II, Q.83, art. 11, at www.newadvent.org/summa/3083.htm#article11.
Alighieri, Dante, Purgatory 10, in The Divine Comedy, trans. Singleton, Charles S. (Princeton, NJ, 1970–1975), 99.

50

Fasciculus Morum, a Fourteenth-century Preacher’s Handbook, ed. and trans. Wenzel, Siegfried (University Park, PA, 1989), 101–102, 718–719.

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