history / medieval

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history / medieval

Meetings with remarkable manuscripts

twelve journeys into the medieval world
"Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is a captivating examination of twelve illuminated manuscripts from the medieval period. Noted authority Christopher de Hamel invites the reader into intimate conversations with these texts to explore what they tell us about nearly a thousand years of medieval history--and about the modern world, too. In so doing, de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, and collectors. He traces the elaborate journeys that these exceptionally precious artifacts have made through time and shows us how they have been copied, how they have been embroiled in politics, how they have been regarded as objects of supreme beauty and as symbols of national identity, and who has owned them or lusted after them (and how we can tell). From the earliest book in medieval England to the incomparable Book of Kells to the oldest manuscript of the Canterbury Tales, these encounters tell a narrative of intellectual culture and art over the course of a millennium. Two of the manuscripts visited are now in libraries of North America, the Morgan Library in New York and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Part travel book, part detective story, part conversation with the reader, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts allows us to experience some of the greatest works of art in our culture to give us a different perspective on history and on how we come by knowledge"--.
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Defending the City of God

a medieval queen, the first Crusades, and the quest for peace in Jerusalem
2014
Explores the first crusades in Jerusalem, focusing on the influences of Melisende, the eldest daughter of the third Crusader king of Jerusalem, and her sisters, discussing her influence which reached as far as France and England.

The race for paradise

an Islamic history of the crusades
2014
" ... a representation of the Islamic experience of the Crusades during the Middle Ages, [overturning] previous claims and present[ing] new arguments, such as the idea that the Frankish invasions of the Near East were something of a side-show to the broader internal conflict between Sunnis and Shi'ites in the region ... "--Provided by publisher.
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