Tag Archives: New Book

New Book Series & Call for Manuscripts: Mediterranean Studies in Late Antiquity and The Middle Ages Series, edited by Damien Kempf

This series is devoted to the study of the Mediterranean world in late antiquity and the medieval period. It welcomes original scholarly research pertaining to the fields of: history, art history, social history, cultural history, hagiography, religious studies, textual studies, archaeology, and gender studies. We invite proposals for monographs, edited volumes, and conference proceedings. AllContinue reading “New Book Series & Call for Manuscripts: Mediterranean Studies in Late Antiquity and The Middle Ages Series, edited by Damien Kempf”

New Publication: Jewish Treasures from Oxford Libraries, Edited by Rebecca Abrams and César Merchán-Hamann

Representing four centuries of collecting and 1,000 years of Jewish history, this book brings together extraordinary Hebrew manuscripts and rare books from the Bodleian Library and Oxford colleges. Highlights of the collections include a fragment of Maimonides’ autograph draft of the Mishneh Torah; the earliest dated fragment of the Talmud, exquisitely illuminated manuscripts of theContinue reading “New Publication: Jewish Treasures from Oxford Libraries, Edited by Rebecca Abrams and César Merchán-Hamann”

New Publication: East Anglian Church Porches and their Medieval Context, by Helen E. Lunnon

The church porches of medieval England are among the most beautiful and glorious aspects of ecclesiastical architecture; but in comparison with its stained glass, for example, they have been relatively little studied. This book, the first detailed study of them for over a century, gives new insights into this often over-looked element.

New Publication: Mary, The Apostles, and the Last Judgment: Apocryphal Representations from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, Edited by Stanislava Kuzmová and Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky

This volume presents a timely contribution to the growing body of scholarship on the apocryphal writings and their reception in the Middle Ages, especially in connection with visual representation. It aims to bridge what often remains disconnected, the visual art and the written text, the early Christian roots and medieval reception, the East and the West, as well as methodologies of various disciplines.

New Publication: Reliquary Tabernacles in Fourteenth-Century Italy: Image, Relic and Material Culture, by Beth Williamson

Ground-breaking study of the enigmatic and unique tabernacles from fourteenth-century Italy, which for the first time combined relics and images. Images and relics were central tools in the process of devotional practice in medieval Europe. The reliquary tabernacles that emerged in the 1340s, in the area of Central Italy surrounding the city of Siena, combinedContinue reading “New Publication: Reliquary Tabernacles in Fourteenth-Century Italy: Image, Relic and Material Culture, by Beth Williamson”

New Publication: Architecture of the Islamic West: North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, 700–1800, by Jonathan M. Bloom

An authoritative survey situating some of the Western world’s most renowned buildings within a millennium of Islamic history.Some of the most outstanding examples of world architecture, such as the Mosque of Córdoba, the ceiling of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo, the Giralda tower in Seville, and the Alhambra Palace in Granada, belong to the WesternContinue reading “New Publication: Architecture of the Islamic West: North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, 700–1800, by Jonathan M. Bloom”

New Publication: Tree of Pearls: The Extraordinary Architectural Patronage of the 13th-Century Egyptian Slave-Queen Shajar al-Durr, by D. Fairchild Ruggles

Shajar al-Durr—known as “Tree of Pearls”—began her remarkable career as a child slave, given as property to the Ayyubid Sultan Salih of Egypt. She became his favorite concubine, was manumitted, became the sultan’s wife, served as governing regent, and ultimately rose to become the legitimately appointed sultan of Egypt in 1250 after her husband’s death.Continue reading “New Publication: Tree of Pearls: The Extraordinary Architectural Patronage of the 13th-Century Egyptian Slave-Queen Shajar al-Durr, by D. Fairchild Ruggles”

New publication: Architecture of Disjuncture: Mediterranean Trade and Cathedral Building in a New Diocese (11th-13th Centuries), by Joseph C. Williams

Through careful analysis of the Romanesque cathedral of Molfetta (in Apulia, southern Italy), Williams demonstrates how the commercial boom of the medieval Mediterranean changed the way churches were funded, designed, and built. The young bishopric of Molfetta, emerging in an economy of long-distance trade, competed with much wealthier institutions in its own diocese. Funding forContinue reading “New publication: Architecture of Disjuncture: Mediterranean Trade and Cathedral Building in a New Diocese (11th-13th Centuries), by Joseph C. Williams”