Middle Ages Books

In _Prairie Town_, the work, play, and socializing of a small community are vividly illustrated in a way to capture the interest of young and old. The finely wrought etchings are _Prairie Town's_ greatest strength. Even adults will enjoy tracing changes in buildings and activities as a small farm town moves from spring to summer to fall to winter. Watching the tree house expand was one of my favorites. Each time a reader goes through the book, he or she will notice new details. The only drawback to this excellent picture book is the occasional use of vocabulary too advanced for the 6 to 8 year olds that would seem to be the book's intended audience. Anyone who enjoyed Geisert's _Haystack_ will find delightful references in _Prairie Town_ to the earlier book. The cycle of the seasons is an ongoing part of all Midwesterners' lives, and the Geiserts' _Prairie Town_ captures that cycle very effectively.

I have a book for kids under the age of 13 years old. It is about a boy named Josh and he was born at a carnival. Josh only has two close friends named Bill and Rainy. He makes one more friend named Kate. Bizarre things happen like a sunny day turns into poring rain, and a guy brings his dead dog back to life. Like almost all books there are funny parts in them. This book also has some funny things. This book is full a magical things and it's a great book.

I first heard of Tom Brewer's work in 1979 during my nurse's training. (the editor, Gail Sforza Brewer is married to Tom) His groundbreaking work in maternal nutrition was a subject for much discussion at the time. It is my opinion his theories about the prevention of eclampsia through good nutrition are sound. I followed the suggestions in the nutrition section and had no problems with high blood pressure with any of my pregnancies (3 in all)
I was delighted to discover Gail's book...which gathers information about diverse topics throughout pregnancy and childbirth. This book recognizes the complex changes to the couple-dynamics caused by pregnancy and childbirth, and deals with them fairly and equitably. It's a great starting point.
The various contributors are experts in each field, and explain in clear, non-judgemental tone what's happening throughout the pregnancy...and why it is important. Good overview of cooperative attitude between birthing parents and hospital (or midwife)
This is a book I've kept over the years so my daughters and son have a resource at hand. Some of the photos were good teaching aids when I needed to answer my kids' questions about babies and childbirth. Of course, they have friends who have read it as well. The bibloigraphy can lead the reader to additional sources for more in-depth study.
I strongly recommend this book for new and repeating parents!

This is a highly original examination of what it takes to become a saint. Kleingberg shows that it is not as simple as being perceived to have performed a few miracles but rather meeting a combination of complex parameters including personal behaviors and community expectations. The key to why this book works is that Kleinberg uncovers the truth of various saintly journeys by using a multi-dsiciplinary approach which examines the whole system to understand the function of the parts. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in developing a critical eye when reading traditional hagiographical texts.

An intersting book , aimed at expatriates, visitors and anyone else who wants to find out more about life in the State of Qatar. The country has undergone enormous changes over the past few years in terms of its economy,and standard of living. The expatriate community in Qatar has played a signifcant role in the overall development of the country for many years, and continues to grow and thrive as the State of Qatar is poised on the brink of a major leap forward thanks to the exploitation of its vast natural gas reserves.

Expatriate life in Qatar is rewarding and enjoyable. This book has been created with the aim of helping you make the most of your time here.

"Racinet's Full-Color Pictorial History of Western Costume," by Auguste Racinet, is a marvelous collection of illustrations that record trends in European clothing. The cover and title page boast that the book contains 92 plates showing over 950 costumes from the Middle Ages to 1800. The copyright page notes that this book is a selection of plates from the 6-colume "Le Costume Historique" published in 1888.

Depicted are costumes from France, Spain, Italy, Russia, and other nations. Many different types of people are depicted: soldiers, clergymen, nuns, noblewomen, peasants, etc. The plates of military dress are particularly interesting; in addition to showing knights' armor and other clothing, the illustrations also show many different weapons. Horses in regalia are shown in addition to human figures. Also depicted are musical instruments.

The pictures include both individual figures and scenes depicting costumed figures in social interaction. Some famous people, like Elizabeth I of England, are depicted. There are some really colorful and ornate items, like elaborate ladies' headdresses. I really liked the illustrations of kilted Scotsmen. Along the way are some curious sights, such as a bizarrely dressed and masked Venetian penitent. Overall, this book is a marvelous and educational visual feast.

This book is about a girl called Alys who travels from a town called a small town in Sussex(the town, Little Merdon, does not exist, but most{or all} other places mentioned in this book are real) to Scotland in search of her father and her brother, Robin, who are believed to be dead after the Battle of Bannockburn.She travels with her brother's friend Hugh, and during the journey experiencinces lots of delays and suprises.Ransom for a Knight gives you the feeling of what it was like to live during the reign of Edward II.It also adds useful bits history combined with suspense.

This book is for readers ages 9 to 199 who want a good book.I foung this book at my elementary school library in 5th grade.Unfourtuanetly,(please excuse my spelling) it was published in the 1950's and I can see it is now out of print.I am going to middle school next year, so I won't be able to get hold of this book, unless I can persuade one of my three siblings to check it out for me!

By the way, does anyone know if Barbara Leonie Picard is still alive? For other good books, check out the Redwall series or the Harry Potter series.

It is not surprising that the development of the internet and related electronic technologies has coincided with an academic interest in the history of reading. Using and transmitting texts in new ways, scholars have become increasingly aware of the precise ways in which manuscripts and printed books transmitted texts to early modern readers. This volume collects nine essays on reading and literacy in Europe from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Topics include: the function of marginalia in vernacular medieval manuscripts; the trope of reading in the fourteenth century; the definition of literacy in early modern England; marginalia and reading practices in early modern Italy; revision of medieval texts in the Renaissance; the prevalence of translated French poetry in sixteenth-century England; the use of poems as props in the plays of Shakespeare; the private reading of the playscripts of masques; and early-modern women's reading practices. These essays demonstrate the energy and excitement of the rapidly developing field of the history of reading. They will appeal to those interested in European cultural history, the transition from manuscript to print culture, the history of literacy, and the history of the book.

I love this book. It is very useful in that prior to each primary document, the reader is given a brief background. In some cases the book also gives short interpretations. It is very useful and goes along great with Rosenwein's other book entitled A Short History Of The Middle Ages.

Epilogue:
At my ripe age, I still brag about late antiquity Alexandria, its scientists, mathematicians and great theologians, even to establishing a Confraternity for John Philoponus the Great seventh Century scientist philosopher. Attending a graduate elective in the philosophy of science by the eminent professor De Venezio, kept the flame of my interest burning. My visit in 1964 to the ancient university of Padua, capital of the organic tradition in science, in response to the invitation of my Thermodynamics professor I. Sorgato, left me impressed. He kindly showed us around, and I still remember the anatomy theatre attended by John Evelyn in 1646, where he saw three corpses dissected (you could examine a photo of the anatomy theatre in Hugh Kearney's 'Sience and Change'.

Rise & Role of University:
Natural philosophy, mathematics and medicine during the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern period took place in the setting of the Medieval universities. The earliest University foundations were in Bologna, Paris and Oxford but these were followed by dozens more in the next few centuries. What almost all universities had in common was their independent self governance, supported by both church and state. Their major purpose was to train men to be lawyers, physicians, and theologians, but they were also increasingly sought by the gentry to educate their sons in the cultural skills necessary for courtly life. Although historiography has usually tended to downplay universities' influence during the scientific revolution, scholars consented that the universities had a valuable role in providing an enclave for science in the Middle Ages. They have been portrayed as reactionary bastions of Aristotelianism against the onslaught of the new philosophy, after Thomas Aquinas, a view which is now under attack. As more work is done on what was actually being taught and studied at the universities in the sixteen and seventeenth centuries, universities have been revealed as more educationaly effective institutions than previously thought. The large majority of early modern men of science had university educations and many continued to work in them after graduation.

University Life and Records:
Plenty of primary sources are in print for nearly all the medieval universities. Major collections exist for Paris (Paris, 1891-9), Bologna (Bologna, 1909-39), and Padua (Venice, 1884-8), etc. "A useful collection of sources in translation for those without Latin is Lynn Thorndike University Life and Records (this book). Sources for the early modern period become harder to come by as the sheer volume of material has probably precluded publication programs. Padua has an ongoing project. There is a large collection of registers and statutes for many colleges, schools and universities in the University Library Reading room just to the right of the door into the West Room and much, much more in the education section." James Hannam

* An Invective Against the New Learning: (No.11, pp. 22-24)
Bishop Stephen of Tournai to the Pope (1192-1203)
A. Having obtained indulgence, let us speak to our lord, whose gentleness emboldens us, whose prudence sustains us in our inexperience, whose patience promises impunity. To this the authority of our ancestors compels us and a disease gradually insinuating whose ills, if not met at the start, will be incurable in the end. Nor do we say this, father, as if we wished to be censors of morals, or judges of doctors, or debaters of doctrines. This load requires stouter shoulders, and this battle awaits the robust frames of spiritual athletes. We merely wish to indicate the sore spot to your holy paternity, to whom God has given both the power to uproot errors and the knowledge to correct them.
B. The studies of sacred letters among us are fallen into the workshop of confusion, while both disciples applaud novelties alone and masters watch out for glory rather than learning. They everywhere compose new and recent summulae and commentaries, by which they attract, detain, and deceive their hearers, as if the works of the holy fathers were still not sufficient, who, we read, expounded holy scripture in the same spirit in which we believe that apostles and prophets composed it. They prepare strange and exotic courses for their banquet, when, at the nuptials of the son of the King of Taurus his own flesh and blood are killed and all prepared, and the wedding guests have only to take and eat what is set before them. Contrary to the sacred canons there is public disputation as to the incomprehensible deity; concerning the incarnation of the Word, verbose flesh and blood irreverently litigates. The indivisible Trinity is cut up and wrangled over in the streets, so that now there are as many errors as doctors, as many scandals as classrooms, as many blasphemies as public squares.

* Regulation of Booksellers, Paris 1275: (No. 44, pp. 100)
The university of masters and students at Paris as a perpetual reminder. Since that field is known to bring forth rich fruit, for which the care of the farmer colonus provides painstakingly in all respects, lest we, laboring in the field of the Lord to bring forth fruit a hundredfold in virtues and science, the Lord disposing, should be molested or impeded, especially by those who by a bad custom hang about the university of Paris for the sake of gain, which they make in mercenary works and assistance, we ordain by decree and decree by ordinance that the stationers who vulgarly are called booksellers (librarii), shall each year or every second year or whenever they shall be required by the university, give personal oath that, in receiving books to sell, storing, showing, and selling the same and in their other functions in connection with the university, they will conduct themselves faithfully and legitimately.
Also, since some of the aforesaid booksellers, given to insatiable cupidity, are in a way ungrateful and burdensome to the university itself, when they put obstacles in the way of procuring books whose use is essential to the students and by buying too cheaply and selling too dearly and thinking up other frauds make the same books too costly, ... , we have decreed that the same booksellers swear, as has been stated above, that within a month from the day on which they receive books to sell they will neither make nor pretend any contract concerning those books to keep them for themselves, nor will they suppress or conceal them in order later to buy or retain them, but in good faith, immediately they have received the books or other things, they will offer them for sale at an opportune place and time. ... They shall also swear that, when they sell the books, they will not assign or transfer them entirely to the purchasers nor receive the price for them until they have communicated to the seller or his representative what price he is going to receive, and that concerning the price offered for the book they will tell the pure and simple truth without fraud and deceit, nor otherwise in any way shall they attempt anything about their office by cupidity or fraud, whence any detriment could come to the university or the students.


Science and change, 1500-1700 (World university library)

The Mind's Eye: Art and Theological Argument in the Middle Ages (Publications of the Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University)