Medieval and Renaissance Books

This is a highly detailed study of the metallurgy of medieval and Renaissance armour. It reveals some surprising facts and challenges some commonly held beliefs. The level of accuracy and detail are unmatched in this book. It features hundreds of pieces of armour from collections all over the world.

I highly recommend this book!

I think this is a book very interesting for all ages becacuse of its graphics and easy language, etc. I'd like to get information regarding this type of books.(would like to buy many)(in spanish)

El autor Rodriguez de Montalvo, Garci fue la primera persona en mencionar la palabra California. Este nombre era atribuido a una tribu de mujeres nativas en una "isla llamada California". Esta isla era considerada un Paraiso Terrenal habitada ademas de estas mujeres exoticas por animales unicos. Este libro fue publicado en 1510 por el mencionado autor a quien se le atribuye haber traducido uno de los libros del Amadis de Gaula titulado " Las Sergas de Espalndian"... Si Ud es intersado en la historia y origenes de nombres, este libro debe estar en su coleccion personal ya que no solo informa sino tambien educa sobre el origen del nombre California... (For the English speaking readers. This is a golden book for its historical context. This book is the first written information that mentioned the word California published in 1510. I am recomending this book for his historical context, if you are a history lover) Alberto.:

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This is one of the greatest books to use on the Crusades- period. If you want to sell yourself short, go and buy one of the new histories found on the shelves of the local book store, and you'll get a clear picture: Crusades happened, then we moved on. Wrong. That genuine sense of wonder for history makes this book so good. Not that the book evokes the wonder- it merely fulfills its musings. Housley's book is a massive reminder that the Crusades weren't just episodes in the 13th, 12 centuries, but affected Western interests for hundreds of years. A bit dry and something that would make me fall asleep at night, the book is nonetheless a must have for real Crusade enthusiasts, becuase unlike other books, this one sets you into the Crusades as seen by those discovering more about it- the historians, scholars, and researchers. Don't miss a chance to get this thing. As a reference, you can't beat it. And the history is fascinating.

"This book analyses the social, political and religious roles of confraternities -- the lay groups through which Italians of the Renaissance expressed their individual and collective religious beliefs -- in Bologna in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Confraternities shaped the civic religious cult through charitable activities, public shrines and processions. This civic religious role expanded as they became politicized: patricians used the confraternities increasingly in order to control the civic religious cult, civic charity, and the city itself.

This book examines in detail how confraternities initially provided laypeople of the artisanal and merchant class with a means of expressing a religious life separate from, but not in opposition to, the local parish or mendicant house. By the mid-sixteenth century, patricians dominated the traditional lay confraternities while artisans and merchants had few options beyond parochial confraternities which were controlled by parish priests."

Regarding the LIBELLUS DE ARTE COQUINARIA AN EARLY NORTHERN COOKBOOK, I can report as to exactly what this volume is all about. The LIBELLUS is among the oldest of culinary recipe collections & dates from the early thirteenth century. It survives in 4 versions in three languages... Danish, Icelandic, & Low German. It is thought to date back to possibly even the 12th century. It's a small collection of only 35 recipes and was published as part of the Collection included in AN OLD ICELANDIC MEDICAL MISCELLANY [Ms. Royal Irish Academy 23D 43.]in 1931 by Henning Larsen.

What this new 158 page book does is to bring together the four versions, translate them, add textual notes, commentary indices, glossaries, and bibliographies. As such, it offers a rare glimpse into the world of early culinary manuscripts in Northern Europe. I should mention that it's the work of the late Rudolf Grewe (who provided us with the LIBRE DE SENT SOVI in 1979) and Constance B. Hieatt who is of course the scholar behind PLEYN DELIT, CURYE ON INGLYSCH, and AN ORDINANCE OF POTTAGE. The scholarship is as expected excellent.

So, if you collect medieval culinary texts, this is one for your shelves. Unlike PLEYN DELIT, it does not contain modernized versions of the medieval recipes, but the composite translations offer many details and much commentary for any cook wishing to create their own working versions of these early recipes.

One does not have to be an archeologist to appreciate this lovely book. While scholarly in its detail it is also a wonderful history about another way of life in another age. Being a Benedictine nun myself and having visited the magnificent frescoes at San Vincenzo, I can only express gratitude to Richard Hodges for making this work available to American audiences.

Fruit of over ten years of close readings of John Donne's poetry, this book presents the non-casual reader with a flowing series of essays by Theresa DiPasquale on the poets verbal research for Real Presence. Followed by a clarifying appendix on the doctrine of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, this book uses as a gauge of the poet's intentions both the contemporary doctrinal disputes on the nature of the Eucharist, and the reader-response to the confusing textual whirlpools of Donne's religious meditation. Donne is thus portrayed as a poet working with complex theological instruments, and dealing seriously with the doctrinal questions propounded by Roman Catholics, Puritans and Anglicans. The petrarchan, the erotic and the theo-philosophical overtones of Donne's poetry are all re-elaborated through the lens of the critic's theory on the intersection between literature and sacrament. A sine qua non for scholars-to-be and for seriously interested readers of John Donne's difficult poetry.

The return of this book to print is a great boon to anyone interested in Machiavelli, or who has ever struggled through the Discourses wondering just what Old Nick is getting at.

Originally published more than 20 years ago, "New Modes and Orders" remains the only full length commentary on the Discourses ever published in English. As such, it is indespensible, for the Discourses is at once Machiavelli's most difficult and most important book. Those of us who until now have had to rest content with rumaging through library copies dreading the due date will gladly shell out...to have a copy on our own shelves.

"New Modes" has often been critized for its reserve bordering on circumspection. There is justice in this criticism. This book is not an easy read, and it does not "explain" the difficulties of the Discourses in a way that readers who are not willing to work will find helpful.

But despite his overall reserve, Mansfield is surprisingly candid on a few points of extreme importance. My own impression is that his method is to state baldly a handful of broad but essential points, and then elusivley wade through a host of details the understanding of which allows us to fill in the gaps between the broad points.

One example will suffice. You don't need to be well versed in military affairs to realize that practically none of Machiavelli's arguments in Book II of the Discourses makes any sense. Mansfield helps us resolve this difficulty, right at the outset of his treatment of that Book, by plainly stating that Book II is an argument not about physical warfare but about spiritual warfare. It is in fact a long, sustained metaphor in which certain topics and terms serve as stand-ins for Machiavelli's real subjects. Then, having drawn the curtain completely open, just for a second, Mansfield lets it close, and proceeds to his line-by-line discussion of Book II--but only after he has let us know what is really going on, thereby giving us the tools to understand for ourselves what will be discussed in this all-important section.

I wish also to note that Mansfield is a masterful writer, and that few books--and almost no scholarly books--can claim to be this well done. He is also a very funny man. Machiavelli is lucky to have found a commentator who not only appreciates his sublte jokes but contributes some delightful jokes of his own that are worthy of the master.

In sum: this book will frustrate you. It will make you sweat and curse and fume. But it rewards the patient.