Archive for the ‘Pre-orders’ Category

Western Michigan University’s 45th annual Medieval History Congress was held on May 12-16, 3009 (more or less), with about 3,000 attendees. The weather was drop-dead gorgeous, the sessions interesting, the food as good as college food gets; a few old friends whom I haven’t seen in years attended and a couple even gave sessions, and a few new friends were made. And I was feeling a bit less than adequately healthy, and didn’t do nearly as much as I had wished, particularly during the evening social events, darn it. A good plan with a bad implementation; I hope to do better next year.

I wonder what a journal devoted to postmedievalism is really about. I’ve read the prospectus, and still have no idea.

….but there were some interesting books at the Exhibitors….

Interesting books not yet published:
Robert W. Jones, Bloodied Banners: Martial Display on the Medieval Battlefield. ISBN 9781843835615. $95.00. Available September 2010.
Egan, Geoff, The Medieval Household: Daily Living c. 1150-1450 (new edition). 2010. ISBN 9781843835431. $60.00. Available June 2010.
Spencer, Brian, Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges (new edition). 2010. ISBN 9781843835448 $60.00. Available June 2010.
(The latter two are part of the Finds from Medieval Excavations in London series.)

Interesting non-book items (I believe these recordings can be had; if anyone is interested, let me know):
The Chaucer Studio Recordings. Produced by a non-profit group loosely affiliated with the English departments of the University of Adelaide and Brigham Young University, founded in 1986 “with the aim of producing cassette recordings of medieval English texts” (now “CD’s, CD-ROMs, videos, DVD’s, monographs, and books”). “Readings are made in association with conferences of the Australian and New Zeland Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, ….conferences of the New Chaucer Society, …the International Arthurian Society,….the International Congress of Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo,…and the International Medieval Congress at Leeds.” Languages and books include Chaucer, Middle English Other than Chaucer, Middle English (Chaucer, of course), Old English, Old French, Old Norse, Middle High German, Medieval Italian, and Medieval Music.

Interesting Books currently available, but a bit on the pricey side, and thus I won’t order any unless there’s real, definite interest:
Van Arsdall, Anne, Medieval Herbal Remedies: The Old English Herbarium and Anglo-Saxon Medicine. 2002. 9780415938495 $115.00 (Routledge)
Nigel Morgan and Stella Panayotova, eds., Illuminated Manuscripts in Cambridge, in several volumes. Volume 1: A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges: (Part 1)The Frankish Kingdoms, Northern Netherlands, Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, and Austria; and in Part 2 the Meuse Region, and Southern Netherlands. £200 (Volume 2 will cover Italy, Spain, and Portugal; Volume 3, France; Volume 4, England, Ireldand, Scotland, and Wales; 5, Illuminated Incunabula. Harvey Miller Publishers (a Brepols imprint; available in the US through the David Brown Book Company.)
Owen-Crocker, Gale R., ed., Brill’s Encyclopaedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles c. 450-1450. Approximately $275. Possibly available July 2011.
Taylor, Larissa Juliet, ed., Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage, Brill. 2009. ISBN 9789004181298. $288

Online Resources that are wonderful but out of the reach of individuals:
The Parker Library on the Web: a digitization project by Corpus Christi College, Standford University Libraries, and Cambridge University Library. Published by Harrassowitz, available from October 1, 2009 – for a list price of $9,500., with an annual maintenance fee of $480. An annual subscription is $3500. And a beta version is available (I think) without charge.

I also have a list of 21 blogs put out by various university presses, which I shall get around to looking at and possibly linking to, here, one of these days.

There’s also a set of books that some who read this might want to get. Ashgate Publishing has come out with new translations of a whole bunch of texts written during and about the Crusades. I’ve ordered a lot of them; the ones I haven’t ordered are (if memory serves) not yet published or are available only in hardback for a hair under US$100. I suspect most of my customers can wait until the inexpensive paperback version is out.
Crusade Texts in Translation Series:
“The crusading movement, which originated in the 11th century and lasted beyond the 16th, bequeathed to its future historians a legacy of sources which are unrivalled in their range and variety. These sources document in fascinating detail the motivations and viewpoints, military efforts and spiritual lives of the participants in the crusades. They also narrate the internal histories of the states and societies which crusaders established or supported in the many regions where they fought, as well as those of their opponents. Some of these sources have been translated in the past but the vast majority have been available only in their original language. The goal of this series is to provide a wide ranging corpus of texts, most of them translated for the first time, which will illuminate the history of the crusades and the crusader-states from every angle, including that of their principal adversaries, the Muslim powers of the Middle East.”
Letters from the East Crusaders, Pilgrims and Settlers in the 12th–13th Centuries (hardback)
Robert the Monk’s History of the First Crusade Historia Iherosolimitana
The Book of Deeds – the first known autobiography by a Christian king. Its author was James I of Aragon (1213–76).
The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period from al-Kamil fi’l-Ta’rikh (in three volumes):
Part 1 The Years 491–541/1097–1146: The Coming of the Franks and the Muslim Response
Part 2 The Years 541–589/1146–1193: The Age of Nur al-Din and Saladin
Part 3 The Years 589–629/1193–1231: The Ayyubids after Saladin and the Mongol Menace
The Chronicle of the Third Crusade: The Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi
The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade
The Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa: The History of the Expedition of the Emperor Frederic (hardback)
The Gesta Tancredi of Ralph of Caen: A History of the Normans on the First Crusade
The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin or al-Nawadir al-Sultaniyya wa’l-Mahasin al-Yusufiyya by Baha’ al-Din Ibn Shaddad
The Seventh Crusade, 1244–1254: Sources and Documents
The Song of the Cathar Wars: A History of the Albigensian Crusade