Books by Maryanne Kowaleski

From at least the mid-thirteenth century, the Earl of Cornwall, the wealthiest and most politically powerful lord in the county, employed a special official - called the havener - to supervise the administration of his maritime profits in the county. When the Duchy of Cornwall was created in 1337, the havener's duties were expanded, and he was made a permanent salaried official. The office of havener, for which there was no parallel in medieval Britain, allowed the duchy to manage and exploit its maritime properties and prerogatives in a particularly efficient manner. The accounts of the havener record this management, and survive in summary from the late thirteenth century, but inmore detailed, separate accounts from the early fourteenth century. In focusing on the seventy years from 1287 to 1356, this edition allows readers to trace the impact on Cornwall of such major events as the Hundred Years War (begun in 1337) and the devastating plague of the Black Death in 1348-9. The annual accounts of the havener also offer a wealth of information on the development and prosperity of individual ports, including Plymouth, on fishing andthe fish trade, on piracy and privateering, on shipwrecks and 'royal' fish such as whale and porpoise, and on the overseas trade in wine, tin, hides and other goods. Particularly fascinating are the glimpses we can see of the Spanish, French, Irish and English traders, shipmasters, and fishers who visited Cornish shores, and the insights we gain about the people of medieval Cornwall - merchants, fishers, mariners, wreckers, pirates and even peasants - whomade their living from the sea.

Exeter possesses the best series of local customs accounts from medieval England, beginning in 1266 and surviving for almost 70 per cent of the years up to 1498. They are also far more complete than other local accounts: listing ships' names, home ports, shipmasters and dates of arrival, as well as the importers and their cargoes. Equally remarkable is their focus on coastal as well as overseas traffic, unlike the better known national customs accounts which recorded only overseas trade. From the Exeter accounts we can follow the movements of foreign and domestic shipping, grain imports during the great Famine of 1315-17, and the identity of the merchants, shipmasters and marinerswho carried on the various kinds of trade.Dr Kowaleski's introduction provides the first detailed account of the port of Exeter and its activities during this period, followed by a complete translation of the surviving accounts from 1266 to 1321. The book also includes a specimen Latin account, a glossary of weights and measures, map, and full indexes.

Essays discussing the medieval book, its owners and its readers.Reading, writing, sharing texts, and book ownership in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and how they fostered social and intellectual links and networks between individuals, particularly among women: these are subjects whichthe pioneering work of Mary C. Erler has done so much to illuminate. The essays here, in this volume in her honour, build on her scholarship, engaging with Professor Erler's characteristic use of bibliography in the service of biography by investigating how the physical object of the book can enlighten our understanding of medieval readers and writers. They analyze, for example, what "e;reading"e; means in terms of the act itself (and the accessories, such asbookmarks, that helped to set the stage for reading), whether done aloud or silently, in such different venues as an aristocratic court, bourgeois household, village community, and monastic cloister. They also consider the culture of medieval reading practices, especially those of women, across social classes, and in terms of the transition between the pre- and post-Reformation periods; the fluidity of genre boundaries; and changes in devotional reading and writing in this liminal period. A wide variety of genres are covered, including secular romance, devotional texts, schoolbooks, and the illustrated Old Testament preface to the famous Queen Mary Psalter, which recasts the story and image of ancient Israelites to suit elite readerly taste. MARTIN CHASE is Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Fordham University; MARYANNE KOWALESKI is Joseph Fitzpatrick S.J. Distinguished Professor of History and Medieval Studies at Fordham University. CONTRIBUTORS: Allison Alberts, Caroline M. Barron, Heather Blatt, Martin Chase, Joyce Coleman, Sheila Lindenbaum, Joel T. Rosenthal, Michael G. Sargent, Kathryn A. Smith.