New Distributed Titles Fall 2009 - Oxbow Books

medieval studies
Old Worlds, New Worlds
European Cultural Encounters, c. 1000–c. 1750
edited by L Bailey, L Diggelmann and K M Phillips
Pre-modern European history is replete with moments of encounter.
En route and at the end of arduous sea and land journeys,
Europeans met people who challenged their assumptions
and certainties about the world. This collection examines key
themes and moments in European cultural expansion. Unlike
many studies, it spans both the medieval and early modern
periods, challenging the stereotype of the post-Columbus ‘age
of discovery’. Several essays deal with authors, events, and
ideas unfamiliar to most readers but which deserve greater
attention in the history of encounter and exploration.
243p, 16 b/w illus, hardback, 9782503531328, $87.00,
Brepols Publishers, December 2009, Late Medieval and Early
Modern Studies 18.
Sacral Geographies
Relics and Reliquaries in Medieval Ireland
by K Overbey
More than merely containers for holy bodies and objects, reliquaries
powerfully mediated the experience of holy objects
for their medieval audiences, creating socially charged spaces.
This volume demonstrates how the sacred space of reliquaries
intersected with the territorial spaces of secular kingship,
with the hierarchical spaces of monastic enclosures, and with
the devotional spaces of cultic communities. It explores the
role of reliquaries such as the Domnach Airgid book shrine,
the Shrine of St Brigid’s Shoe, and St Manchan’s Shrine in the
construction of spatial identity in early Ireland.
300p, paperback, 9782503527673, $116.00, Brepols Publishers,
December 2009, Studies in the Visual Cultures of the Middle Ages 3.
50
Charisma and Religious Authority
Jewish, Christian and Muslim Preaching, 1200–1500
edited by Katherine L Jansen and Miri Rubin
This volume of essays concentrates on the effects of preaching in late-medieval and early-modern
Europe, particularly through the concept of charisma, a term introduced into the discussion of religion
and politics by Max Weber. Used by Weber, the term indicates the power of a person to move others
to action, to animate and mobilize them. Preaching events were the mass media of the day, and
in their wake could follow pogrom, lay revival, crusade, peace movement, or reconciliation within a
faction-riven city. The power of these events was great and not merely confined to Christianity. This
volume introduces for the first time a comparative dimension which looks at the theme of charisma
and religious authority in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim preaching traditions.
213p, 15 b/w illus, hardback, 9782503528595, $87.00, Brepols Publishers, September 2009, Europa Sacra 4.
Laus Angelica
Poetry in the Medieval Mass
by Gunilla Iversen
The liturgical celebration of the Mass, a multifarious spiritual, artistic,
and intellectual manifestation, had a central position in the
cultural life of medieval Europe. Until now, this fascinating material
has been the preserve of a small circle of specialists in musicology
and philology. With this volume, the author introduces and analyses
these hidden treasures to make them available to a wider public.
279p, 4 col & 51 b/w illus, 1 b/w line art, hardback, 9782503531335,
$116.00, Brepols Publishers, December 2009, Medieval Church Studies 5.
Bono Communi
The Discourse and Practice of the Common Good in the European City (13th–16th c.)
edited by E Lecuppre-Desjardin and A-L van Bruaene
Traditionally confined to the sphere of the State and of auctoritas, the phrase the “Common Good” is set
to conquer the cities in the late Middle Ages and at the beginning of the Early Modern period. This volume
traces the intellectual and theoretical roots leading to the emergence of the notion of the “Common
Good” in the urban world of Western Europe by analyzing the practical forms of its manifestations.
300p, paperback, 9782503529981, $94.00, Brepols Publishers, December 2009,
Studies in European Urban History (1100-1800) 25.
Laments for the Lost in Medieval Literature
edited by J Tolmie and M J Toswell
This is a collection of essays on the subject of lament in the medieval period, with a particular emphasis
on parental grief. The analysis of texts about pain and grief is an increasingly important area in medieval
studies, offering as it does a means of exploring the ways in which cultural meanings arise from loss
and processes of mourning.
330p, hardback, 9782503528588, $87.00, Brepols Publishers, December 2009,
Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe 19.
The David Brown Book Company – Fall 2009