Books in the Religion and Culture in the Middle Ages series

First printed in 2001 by the University of Pennsylvania Press, this book has been out of print for several years and is highly sought after by researchers in the field of Medieval cultural studies. "e;Double Agents"e; was the first book length study of women in Anglo-Saxon written culture that took on board the insights of contemporary critical theory, especially feminist theory, in order to elucidate the complex challenges of both the absence and presence of women in the historical record. That is to say, unlike the two earlier books on women in this period (by Fell, 1984, and by Chance, 1986), this is not a book about only those women in the written record (whether we think of it as historical or literary) of Anglo-Saxon England, it also tackles the question of how the feminine is modelled, used, and metaphorised in Anglo-Saxon texts, even when women themselves are absent.This book spans the entire Anglo-Saxon period from Aldhelm and Bede in the earliest centuries to Alfric and the anonymous homilists and hagiographers of the later tenth and eleventh centuries; it draws on Anglo-Saxon vernacular texts as well as Latin ones, and on those works most familiar to literary scholars (such as the "e;Exeter Book Riddles"e; or "e;Cadmon's Hymn"e;, the first so-called poem in English, or the female "e;Lives of Saints"e;) as well as historians (wills, charters, the cult of relics); it deliberately reconsiders, from the perspective of gender and women's agency, some of the key conceptual issues that studying Anglo-Saxon England presents (the relation of orality to literacy; that of poetry and sanctity to belief; and, the cultural significance of names, naming, and metaphors in Anglo-Saxon writing).

This monograph explores the development of the Anglo-Saxon `king by the grace of God', the concept of divinely bestowed kingship, and the subsequent ecclesiastical transformation of the ruler image (c.600 to 1016).

A study of the use of architectural allegory to symbolize religious and ideological systems in the Middle Ages. Assessing major texts such as Chaucer's "House of Fame" as well as lesser-known works, it charts the evolution of this tradition in relation to social, political and religious contexts.

Cultivating the Heart reveals the languages of feeling in a range of religious texts from the High Middle Ages.

Although studies of gender in medieval culture have tended to focus on femininity, the study of medieval masculinities has developed greatly over the last few years. This book concentrates on this aspect of medieval gender studies, and looks at the ways in which varieties of medieval masculinity intersected with concepts of holiness.

This ground-breaking volume brings together contributions from scholars across a range of disciplines (including literary studies, history, geography and archaeology) to investigate questions of space, place and identity in the medieval city. Using Chester as a case study - with attention to its location on the border between England and Wales, its rich multi-lingual culture and surviving material fabric - the essays seek to recover the experience and understanding of the urban space by individuals and groups within the medieval city, and to offer new readings from the vantage-point of twenty-first century disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. The volume includes new interpretations of well-known sources and features such as the Chester Whistun Plays and the city's Rows and walls, but also includes discussions of less-studied material such as Lucian's In Praise of Chester - one of the earliest examples of urban encomium from England and an important text for understanding the medieval city - and the wealth of medieval Welsh poetry relating to Chester. Certain key themes emerge across the essays within this volume, including relations between the Welsh and English, formulations of centre and periphery, nation and region, different kinds of 'mapping' and the visual and textual representation of place, borders and boundaries, uses of the past in the production of identity, and the connections between discourses of gender and space. The volume seeks to generate conversation and debate amongst scholars of different disciplines, working across different locations and periods, and to open up directions for future work on space, place and identity in the medieval city.

In late medieval England, many religious texts were based on older source texts that were collected together and adapted to fit the needs of new, late medieval audiences. This book argues that devotional compilations written in Middle English are unique additions to late medieval textual and religious culture.

This volume traces some of the specific manifestations of virginity in late medieval culture. It shows how virginity is represented in medical, legal, hagiographical and historical texts, as well as how the seductive but dangerous figure of the virgin affects the aims and objectives of these texts.

This book explores the influence of the biblical Apocalypse on two influential medieval writers who draw upon its rich descriptions and message, relating them to the turbulence of their shared milieu in both similar and strikingly different ways.

Provides an overview of and introduction to the Towneley cycle of plays, a 32-play cycle written in c 1500, which begins with the fall of Lucifer and ends with the Last Judgement, and was performed as part of the festival of Corpus Christi in Wakefield. This volume examines the cycle's textual history, and discusses issues of language and style.

Examines from a variety of perspectives, and offers a range of interpretations, of the type of rhetoric associated with the anchoritic experience during the Middle Ages and draws conclusions on the many purposes of that rhetoric.

The focus of this volume is the north of England and its regions in the late medieval period. Concentrating on the north as a centre of manuscript production, dissemination and reception, this volume aims to illustrate the fluidity of boundaries and communication, and the resulting links to different geographical regions.

Provides an introduction to "Ancrene Wisse", one of the most important works in English of the thirteenth century. This book offers a fresh contextualisation which engages with the history of lay piety and vernacular spirituality in the Middle Ages.

Sheds light on the religious women of medieval Wales. Drawing on a wide range of sources from saints' lives and native poetry to holy wells and visual evidence, the volume explores feminine sanctity, its meanings, manifestations and related iconography in a specifically Welsh context.

Although studies of gender in medieval culture have tended to focus on femininity, the study of medieval masculinities has developed greatly over the last few years. This book concentrates on this aspect of medieval gender studies, and looks at the ways in which varieties of medieval masculinity intersected with concepts of holiness.

An examination of images of the Virgin Mary in medieval theological, philosophical and literary texts. It shows how the figure of Mary influences the depiction of female characters in sacred writing, and considers key issues in Western thinking about women, Christianity and domestic culture.

This interdisciplinary study of medieval English anchoritism from 1080-1450, explodes the myth of the anchorhold as solitary death-cell, reveals it instead as the site of potential intellectual exchange, and demonstrates an anchoritic spirituality in synch with the wider medieval world.

Brings together the interpretations of the Wohunge Group from scholars working on the fields of medieval spirituality, gender, and the anchoritic tradition, providing literary, theological, linguistic, and cultural context for the works associated with the Wohunge Group. This book discusses and explains the impact of these works.

The Glossa Ordinaria, the medieval glossed Bible first printed in 1480/81, has been a rich source of biblical commentary for centuries. Circulated first in manuscript, the text is the Latin Vulgate Bible of St. Jerome with patristic commentary both in the margins and within the text itself.

This is a book about reading and healing. It shows how literature that makes us feel sad, horrified, or fearful was understood to bring about health of the soul in the Middle Ages. Over five chapters, it considers a specific set of negative emotions and demosntrates precisely how words can evoke strong feelings.

Ranging from studies of the influence of desert eremiticism upon a variety of expressions of religious enclosure in England to the sexualized spirituality of the high Middle Ages, this book contains essays that demonstrate how discourses of anchoritic enclosure were utilized to different ends at different periods throughout the Middle Ages.