After an extensive introduction that takes stock of the relevant research literature on Old Age in the Middle Ages and the early modern age, the contributors discuss the phenomenon of old age in many different fields of late antique, medieval, and early modern literature, history, and art history. Both Beowulf and the Hildebrandslied, both Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and Titurel, both the figure of Merlin and the trans-European tradition of Perceval/Peredur/Parzival, then the figure of the vetula in a variety of medieval French, English, and Spanish texts, and of the Old Man in The Stricker's Daniel, both the treatment of old age in Langland's Piers the Plowman and in Jean Gerson's sermons are dealt with. Other aspects involve late-antique epistolary literature, early modern French farce in light of Disability Studies, the social role of old, impotent men in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Netherlandish paintings, and the scientific discourse of old age and health since the 1500s. The discourse of Old Age proves to have been of central importance throughout the ages, so the critical examination of the issues involved sheds intriguing light on the cultural history from late antiquity to the seventeenth century.

Peter of Celle was a figure of great authority and influence in twelfth-century France. His letters offer unique insight into the ideals and values of the monastic world at a critical turning point for western religion. This is the first translation of his correspondence and the first complete modern edition.

The Latin vocabulary of intellectual life in the Middle Ages has been the focus of the CIVICIMA-series: nine volumes of conference-proceedings, monographs and collective works. The series has proved convincingly that analyses of the verbal expressions of medieval intellectual life and their precise meanings is a worthwhile and rewarding task, which sharpens and deepens our understanding of education and learning in the medieval world. With this tenth volume the series has been brought to a conclusion. It serves as a handbook, a practical tool for finding information and material about a considerable number of key terms, which have been classified in four categories of technical vocabulary--terms that developed specialized meanings in the context of medieval education and learning. The first category consists of the vocabulary of schools and universities (for instance, schola, magister, universitas, etc.); the second the vocabulary of the book and book production (for instance, armarium, pecia, scriptorium, etc.); the third treats the vocabulary of teaching-methods, instruments and products of intellectual life (for instance, concordantia, disputatio, glossa, etc.); the fourth the names of the disciplines, their teachers and students (for instance, artes liberales, canonista, decretista, theologia, etc.). Terms from these four categories are treated, either individually or in groups coherent with respect to content, in short and uniform articles. Their medieval meanings are described, together with their origins, their classical meanings, their semantic development, and the historical or regional differences in meaning.

This is a new critical edition of the letters of the Franciscan Adam Marsh, spiritual counsellor to many of the leading figures of his generation, including Simon de Montfort, and Queen Eleanor, making the letters an important source for the history of England and the Church in the turbulent middle years of the thirteenth century.