Books in the Routledge Research in Medieval Studies series

New Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Gdansk, Poland and Prussia draws together the latest reseach on the important port town of Gdansk and its impact on the surrounding region of Pomerania and Poland as a whole. The twelve chapters explore various political, social, and socio-cultural historical questions and explain s

This volume explores the issues of taking, using and being hostages in the Middle Ages. It brings together recent research in the areas of hostages and hostageships, looking at the act of hostage-taking and the hostages themselves through the lenses of political and social history. Building upon previous work, this volume in particular

This book, first in a series of three, examines the social elites in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland, and which social, political and cultural resources went into their creation, through questions such as: Which types of resources were at play? How did the elites acquire and exchange resources?

This book explores symbolic means of legitimation of medieval Scandinavian elites. It maps out a wide set of cultural practices (literary, spatial, legal, ritualistic, sacral etc.), offering new perspectives to students and researchers on medieval Nordic political order and social distinction.

This book explores the complexity of preaching as a phenomenon in the medieval Jewish-Christian encounter. This was not only an "encounter" as physical meeting or confrontation (such as the forced attendance of Jews at Christian sermons that took place across Europe), but also an "imaginary" or theological encounter in which Jews remained a figure from a distant constructed time and place who served only to underline and verify Christian teachings. Contributors also explore the Jewish response to Christian anti-Jewish preaching in their own preaching and religious instruction.

This thought-provoking book explores medieval perceptions of pilgrimage, gender and space. It examines real life evidence for the widespread presence of women pilgrims, as well as secular and literary texts concerning pilgrimage.

Provides a theoretically guided and historically sensitive account of the geopolitical relations of medieval Latin Christendom. This book develops an historically sensitive conceptual framework for understanding geopolitical conflict and war more generally.

This collection of essays examines the diversity of economic growth patterns across Europe during the late Middle Ages and debates the causes of the fourteenth century crisis which initiated profound institutional transformations.

In this interdisciplinary and boundary breaking study, Gail Ashton examines the depiction of female saints in a wide range of medieval texts.

This study presents a compelling and provocative study of virginity, which challenges the belief that female virginity can be reliably and unambiguously defined, tested and verified.