Ecstasies is the culmination of Ginzburg's longstanding fascination with popular myths that are shared across different cultures and eras. Here he follows the accounts given by those accused of witchcraft centuries ago, gradually weaving them together into a startling pattern, revealing evidence of a hidden shamanistic culture that flourished across Europe for millenia. Photographs and maps.

Germans Versus Rome--The Goghic Kingdoms--The Darkness Comes--The Merovingians--The Mayors of the Palace--From Mayor to King--Charlemagne--The Successors of Charlemagne--The End of the Carolingians--The Darkness Begins

Beginning in 1095, Christianity and Islam clashed repeatedly over a 200-year period in the Middle East, in the series of wars we call The Crusades. This era saw naked scheming, selfish grabs for power, treachery of all kinds, and horrific battles--and also many examples of nobility, heroism, and faith on both sides. Robert Silverberg, writing as Franklin Hamilton, brings alive the human participants in these wars, and demonstrates why they remain so strikingly relevant to the political situation of our modern-day world.

Professor Robert Lopez provides an incisive analysis of the economic structure of the Middle Ages. He makes use of modern economic concepts to explain how an underdeveloped economic system gave birth to the commercial revolution through which Europe succeeded in developing itself. The book goes far beyond the familiar picture of medieval European society, with its magnificent cathedrals and imposing castles, to concentrate instead on the walled cities and open countryside, for it was here that the revolution was born. Deftly and concisely, Professor Lopez traces the history of this remarkable economic upheaval which saw the rise of merchants and craftsmen and the decline of agricultural dependence by the society.

The Saga Of The Jomsvikings is a book written by Lee Milton Hollander, which tells the story of the legendary Jomsvikings, a group of Viking warriors who lived in the 10th century. The book is a translation of the original Icelandic saga, which is one of the most famous and important sagas of the Viking Age.The Jomsvikings were a group of elite warriors who lived in a fortress on the island of Jomsborg, located in modern-day Poland. They were known for their bravery, skill in battle, and strict code of honor, which included loyalty to their leader and fellow warriors.The book follows the story of the Jomsvikings, from their origins as a group of mercenaries to their rise as one of the most feared and respected warrior groups in the Viking world. It also explores the relationships between the Jomsvikings and their allies and enemies, including the Danish king Harald Bluetooth and the Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason.Throughout the book, the reader is taken on a journey through the Viking Age, with vivid descriptions of battles, raids, and political intrigue. The Saga Of The Jomsvikings is a fascinating and exciting read for anyone interested in Viking history and culture.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Henry II conquered the largest empire of any English medieval king. Yet it is the people around him we remember: his wife Eleanor, whom he seduced from the French king; his son Richard the Lionheart; Thomas Becket, murdered in his cathedral. Who was this great, yet tragic king? For fans of Dan Jones, George RR Martin and Bernard Cornwell. The only thing that could have stopped Henry was himself. Henry II had all the gifts of the gods. He was charismatic, clever, learned, empathetic, a brilliant tactician, with great physical strength and an astonishing self-belief. Henry was the creator of the Plantagenet dynasty of kings, who ruled through eight generations in command of vast lands in Britain and Europe. Virtually unbeaten in battle, and engaged in a ceaseless round of conquest and diplomacy, Henry forged an empire that matched Charlemagne's. It was not just on the battlefield that Henry excelled; he presided over a blossoming of culture and learning termed 'the twelfth century Renaissance', pursued the tenets of reason over religious faith, and did more to advance the cause of justice and enforce the rule of law than any other English monarch before or since. Contemporaries lauded his greatness and described him as their 'Alexander of the West'. And yet it is the people around him who are remembered: his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, whom he seduced away from the French king; his sons Richard the Lionheart and John; Thomas Becket, murdered in his cathedral. Henry - so famed during his lifetime - has slipped into the shadows of history. King of the North Wind offers a fresh evaluation of this great yet tragic ruler. Written as a historical tragedy, it tells how this most talented of kings came into conflict with those closest to him, to become the most haunted.

Before Guy Gavriel Kay became known for his groundbreaking works of speculative fiction, establishing himself as one of the world's most respected writers in that genre, he was an accomplished poet, his work appearing in major literary journals such as The Antigonish Review and Prism . Through the years, while writing his dramatic international bestsellers, Kay has continued to quietly explore the paths and boundaries of poetry as well. Now for the first time, Guy Gavriel Kay's poetry has been gathered and selected for publication. For those familiar with his fiction, the poems in Beyond This Dark House will resonate for their linguistic and emotional nuances and their mythological allusions, echoing and illuminating themes of his fiction. But readers of contemporary poetry will also be captivated by the exquisite craft and power of these poems. Some are ironic and austere, slyly tracing the interplay of writer and world, present and past; others are sensual, even erotic, charting the mercurial but abiding nature of passion-in love, in language, in history.

FREDERICK THE SECOND is the story of the remarkable man whose power and sphere of influence straddled the worlds of Christendom and of Islam. The last of the Hohenstaufens, HolyRoman Emperor and King of Sicily and Jerusalem, Frederick II was an energetic and versatile ruler, a man of great ambition in whose lifetime the conflict between Emperor and Pope reached a newintensity. Excommunicated three times by the Church, he was an absolute monarch whose power, defended in almost continuous struggle, extended over much of Germany and Italy as well as the Holy Land. Frederick was a complex man of cultured tastes and licentious manners who had unusually wide intellectual interests. At his Sicilian court scholars of all religions were welcomed--Christian, Jewish, Mohammedan. He founded the University of Naples in 1224 and was a patron of the arts and sciences. The life of this dynamic man is fully explored in Ernst Kantorowicz's notable biography, filled with dramatic incident and absorbing detail, and written with style and scholarship.

The four centuries of the Han dynasties from 206 BC to AD 220 witnessed major developments in the ideas of sovereignty. Michael Loewe traces these changes along with some of their religious aspects, including the techniques used by emperors and others to forecast the future or to divine the present. Both mythology and the tradition of learning affected the growth of the imperial ideal that, despite its failings, was of major importance both for the Han and China's subsequent dynasties.

Stephen Haliczer has mined rich documentary sources to produce the most comprehensive and enlightening picture yet of the Inquisition in Spain. The kingdom of Valencia occupies a uniquely important place in the history of the Spanish Inquisition because of its large Muslim and Jewish populations and because it was a Catalan kingdom, more or less "occupied" by the despised Castilians who introduced the Inquisition. Haliczer underscores the intensely regional nature of the Valencian tribunal. He shows how the prosecution of religious deviants, the recruitment and professional activity of Inquisitors and officials, and the relations between the Inquisition and the majority Old Christian population all clearly reflect the place and the society. A great series of pogroms swept over Spain during the summer of 1391. Jewish communities were attacked and the Jews either massacred or forced to convert. More than ninety percent of the victims of the Valencian Inquisition a century later were descendants of those who chose conversion, the conversos. Haliczer argues convincingly against those who see all the conversos as "secret Jews." He finds, on the contrary, that a wide range of religious beliefs and practices existed among them and that some were even able to assimilate into Old Christian society by becoming familiares of the Inquisition itself. Nevertheless, it was controversy over the sincerity of the converted which spawned the first proposals for the establishment of a Spanish national Inquisition. That very same controversy, persisting in the writings of history, may be resolved by Haliczer's stimulating discoveries. Inquisition and Society in the Kingdom of Valencia is a major contribution to the lively field of Inquisition studies, combining institutional history of the tribunal with socioreligious history of the kingdom. The many case histories included in the narrative give both Valencian society and the Inquisition very human faces. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.

2013 Reprint of 1928 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This is still one of the best discussions of the 19th century Utilitarian movement in England-the rise of the Benthamites and the conflict between the growing economic philosophy and older philosophies that emphasized human and social values. Halevy discusses Locke, Newton, Gay, Hartley, Hume, Bentham, Adam Smith, Burke, Godwin, Malthus, James Mill, Ricardo, Grote and others. Remains a standard work to this day.

The Individual and the Cosmos has long been regarded as a classic in its field. Ernst Cassirer here examines the interdependence of philosophy, language, art, and science, along with the great thinkers of the period-from Leonardo and Galileo to Pico della Mirandola and Giordano Bruno.

The central theme of this book is the unity of European artistic development from the breakup of the ancient world to the age of the great cathedrals. Illustrated with over 48 plates, reproducing photographs from the collection of early medieval art in the British Museum, it contains chapters on late antique, Early Christian, Carolingian, Byzantine, Ottonian, medieval Spanish and Italian, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth century art. According to the author, "...during the early Middle Ages, which are still often regarded merely as a hiatus, the entire foundations of European art were were changed and a new and great ideal found full expression..." In his critical survey, Mr. Kitzinger, a Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard University, Busch-Reisinger Musueum, and formerly associated with the British Museum, described the way in which the propagandist art of the late Roman emperors and the symbolic language used in early Christian monuments led to the vivid narrative style of early Byzantine and Carolingian art, and eventually to the ecstatic expressionism of the Ottonian age.

This volume brings together 144 examples of lyric poetry, notable in quality and representative of their times. Besides an introduction to the nature of the lyric, there are commentaries at the head of each poem, textual and explanatory footnotes, a general bibliography, and a comprehensive glossary keyed to the text.

This is the first comprehensive account, based on manuscript and archaeological evidence, of the high Hebraic culture developed by the Jews in Normandy during the Middle Ages, and in particular during the Anglo-Norman period. The book explores the origins of this remarkable community, beginning with topographical evidence pointing to the arrival of the Jews in Normandy as early as Roman and Gallo-Roman times, and finally uses the rich manuscript evidence of twelfth- and early thirteenth-century writers. The text is illustrated copiously with maps and other illustrations, many reproduced here for the first time.

French

"Illich discusses reading as a major part of life. His belief is that reading and studying are synonymous with a religious lifestyle, either that of a Christian monk, or those who follow Judaism. He tells of those who continue to read the scriptures when they return from the synagogue. Illich shows us how a meditative state of mind is conducive to world peace and harmony, and how this can come about if we listen to those who follow a 'bookish' lifestyle."

incl. illust. - Eginhard of Franconia ibn Khordadhbeh Judah Haleli Rabbi Petachia Rabbi Jacob Ven Rabbi R.N. Ha Cohen David Azulai and other travellers

Over the past sixty-five years Ernst Kitzinger has been one of the foremost interpreters of the art of Late Antiquity, Byzantium and the medieval West. Beginning with his "influential doctoral dissertation, reprinted here, on early medieval painting in the city of Rome, where western and eastern Byzantine traditions met, one of his principal concerns has been the movement and exchange of artistic ideas and patterns around the Mediterranean. Painting and mosaics have always been central to his enquiry. One focus has been the mosaics of Norman Sicily, on which he has published numerous ground-breaking books and papers. All of Professor Kitzinger's essays on Norman Sicily are included here. Other areas in which he has made outstanding contributions are the arts of Late Antiquity, with a particular emphasis on floor mosaics, medieval Rome, Byzantium in the early and high Middle Ages, and the arts of Anglo-Saxon England. These two volumes include all of Professor Kitzinger's major essays, apart from an earlier selection reprinted in 1975. Each has a new preface by Professor Kitzinger, and comes with a comprehensive index.

Over the past sixty-five years Ernst Kitzinger has been one of the foremost interpreters of the art of Late Antiquity, Byzantium and the medieval West. Beginning with his "influential doctoral dissertation, reprinted here, on early medieval painting in the city of Rome, where western and eastern Byzantine traditions met, one of his principal concerns has been the movement and exchange of artistic ideas and patterns around the Mediterranean. Painting and mosaics have always been central to his enquiry. One focus has been the mosaics of Norman Sicily, on which he has published numerous ground-breaking books and papers. All of Professor Kitzinger's essays on Norman Sicily are included here. Other areas in which he has made outstanding contributions are the arts of Late Antiquity, with a particular emphasis on floor mosaics, medieval Rome, Byzantium in the early and high Middle Ages, and the arts of Anglo-Saxon England. These two volumes include all of Professor Kitzinger's major essays, apart from an earlier selection reprinted in 1975. Each has a new preface by Professor Kitzinger, and comes with a comprehensive index.