An elaborate Latin encyclopedia compiled in 1408.

The second volume in Jane Chance’s study of the history of medieval mythography from the fifth through fifteenth centuries focuses on the time period in Western Europe between the School of Chartres and the papal court at Avignon. This examination of historical and philosophical developments in the story of mythography reflects the ever-increasing importance of the subjectivity of the commentator. Through her vast and wide-ranging familiarity with hitherto seldom studied primary texts spanning nearly one thousand years, Chance provides a guide to the assimilation of classical myth into the Christian Middle Ages. Rich in insight and example, dense in documentation, and compelling in its interpretations, Medieval Mythography is an important tool for scholars of the classical tradition and for medievalists working in any language.

A new exploration of the secular manuscripts and medieval medical texts associated with the York Guild and its members. Produced in 1486 and subsequently augmented, the Guild Book of the Barbers and Surgeons of York (British Library Egerton MS 2572) is a unique record of the knowledge, ambitions, activities and civic relationships maintained by the Barbers and Surgeons Guild over a period of 300 years. The manuscript's earliest folios contain images, astrological tracts, a plague treatise and a bloodletting poem. To these were added early modern ordinances and oaths, a series of royal portraits, and the names of the Guild's masters and apprentices. It is a rare survival of late medieval medical knowledge placed within a civic context. This new multi-disciplinary examination of the York Guild Book presents a comprehensive edition of its content and a detailed study of the creation and use of this fascinating manuscript. The York Guild Book was not owned by any one person but was intended to be representative of the types of manuscripts the Guild's members might have individually possessed. The Guild's commission elevated their manuscript's functional content into something which could be proudly owned and displayed, as is demonstrated by the stylishly executed pen and ink drawings, two of which are possibly unique. Through a contextualisation of the form and content of the manuscript, the book articulates ideas about material culture and the ceremonial role of secular manuscripts whilst shedding new light on the dissemination and status of medieval medical texts.

John Somer was one of the leading English astronomers of the late fourteenth century. Geoffrey Chaucer likely consulted Somer’s Kalendarium to relate dates, times, and movements of the stars and planets to events in his tales. In her introduction to this scholarly edition, Linne Mooney discusses not only Somer’s importance but also Chaucer’s use of the Kalendarium in composing his texts from The Parliament of Fowls through The Canterbury Tales. She examines the thirty-three complete and nine fragmentary copies of the work known today and explains Somer’s innovative and influential eclipse tables, adopted by some scribes in later copies of the Kalendarium of Nicholas of Lynn, a contemporary of Somer’s. Somer’s Kalendarium itself is presented in the original Latin text with English translation on facing pages. Mooney also provides full textual apparatus for the eleven complete manuscripts closest to the base text.

The essays in this volume, some reprinted in their original form and some extensively revised, are concerned with the Arthurian traditions associated with Glastonbury Abbey. Certain of the essays are analytic and others provide editions of hitherto unknown texts. They all examine ways in which legendary materials and historical facts interconnected in the process by which Glastonbury Abbey came to present itself, nationally and internationally, as the custodian of King Arthur's relics and the burial place of Joseph of Arimathea, and the importance, political and ecclesiastical, that it derived from the connection. Professor JAMES CARLEY is the author of Glastonbury Abbey: The Holy House at the Head of the Moors Adventurous and a past editor of Arthurian Literature. Topics: Glastonbury Legends (WATKIN, GRANSDEN), Legend of St Joseph of Glastonbury (LAGORIO), Guinevere at Glastonbury (WOOD), Vera Historia de Morte Arthuri (BARBER, LAPIDGE), Was Mordred buried at Glastonbury? (BARBER), Glastonbury in Welsh Vernacular Tradition (LLOYD-MORGAN), Second Exhumation of Arthur's Remains, 1278 (PARSONS), Abbey Memorial Plate (GOODALL), Arthur's Epitaph/s (CARLEY, BROWN, WRIGHT, WITHRINGTON), Hardyng and Holy Grail (KENNEDY, RIDDY), Henry V and Joseph of Arimathea's Bones, Holy Cross of Waltham at Montacute, Excavation of Arthur's Grave (CARLEY), Perlesvaus (Wells fragment), Quedam Narracio de nobili rege Arthuro, De Origine Gigantum (CARLEY, CRICK, EVANS), Glastonbury tablets (KROCHALIS), Relics in 14th Century (CARLEY, HOWLEY).

Using sources ranging from the famous 12th-century female practitioner, Trota of Salerno, through to the great tomes of Renaissance male physicians, this is a pioneering study challenging the common belief that, prior to the 18th century, men were never involved in any aspect of women's healthcare in Europe.

Drawing on medieval accounts of the earliest European journeys to China, India, Mongolia, and southeast Asia, Before Orientalism explores European attitudes toward Asian eating habits, sexual practices, femininities, and civility, reconstructing a precolonial vision of the East that was often neutral or admiring.