Books published by Arc Humanities Press

This book explores the famous works of Thomas More, Erasmus, Las Casas, and Guaman Poma de Ayala as they develop what is described here as sixteenth-century liberation thinking in context of the Americas.

A radical rethinking of Andean colonial history from the perspective of the historians of ayllu Qaqachaka (Bolivia), and their play between oral history and written archives.

The twelfth century witnessed the birth of modern Western European literary tradition: major narrative works appeared in both French and in German, founding a literary culture independent of the Latin tradition of the Church and Roman Antiquity. But what gave rise to the sudden interest in and legitimization of literature in these "vulgar tongues"? Until now, the answer has centred on the somewhat nebulous role of new female vernacular readers. Powell argues that a different appraisal of the same evidence offers a window onto something more momentous: not "women readers" but instead a reading act conceived of as female lies behind the polysemic identification of women as the audience of new media in the twelfth century. This woman is at the centre of a re-conception of Christian knowing, a veritable revolution in the mediation of knowledge and truth. By following this figure through detailed readings of key early works, Powell unveils a surprise, a new poetics of the body meant to embrace the capacities of new audiences and viewers of medieval literature and visual art.

This first English translation of Le Roman de Waldef makes a significant representative of the French literature of medieval England accessible for the first time. Its wide-ranging content provides an ideal introduction to a number of themes in medieval literature, making it suitable for a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses. The fast-moving romance plot of this early thirteenth-century tale recounts the ancestry and exploits of Waldef and his two sons, set against a history of pre-Conquest England. The narrative shares themes and incident types with other important insular romances, including the Lai of Haveloc, Boeve de Haumtone, and Gui de Warewic. Waldef's scope, interest in battle, and political stratagems bear reading alongside medieval chronicles, while secret love affairs connect it with other romance literature of the period, and adventures across a wide area of the known world provide affinities with medieval travel narrative.

Best known for his works on the mystical practice of meditative recollection, Franciscan friar Francisco de Osuna published his candid manual for lay life, *Norte de los estados* (*North Star*) in 1531 before leaving Spain to reside in Antwerp. True to its title, the book was intended as a *North Star* that would dependably guide readers through the stages of youth, marriage, and widowhood. Although the historical literature on these themes is dominated by the works of his humanist contemporaries, Erasmus of Rotterdam and Juan Luis Vives, Osunaâ (TM)s close attention to womenâ (TM)s experiences and his critical awareness of social class are distinctive. This first modern edition in Spanish restores Osunaâ (TM)s reformist voice and expansive vision to the animated conversations on marriage and family in which he engaged. His detailed attention to practical questions and his intense spiritualization of spousal love make it an invaluable resource for understanding conjugal relationships in the popular imagination of the early modern world.

Jerome's Abbreviated Psalter was the primary medium for lay people in the Middle Ages to imitate the monastic divine office. This edition presents the Middle English versions in parallel, followed by the Latin version in the Lincoln Thornton manuscript.

The first complete English translation of Hussovianus's Latin poem, a national epic in Lithuania, Belarus, and Poland.

Medieval Cityscapes Today walks you through medieval urban landscapes, drawing upon diverse historical and archaeological sources and the latest digital technologies.