Medieval Studies: An Introduction

by James M. Powell (Editor)

In addition to sections devoted to Latin paleography, diplomatics, computer-assisted research, numismatics, archaeology, problems in chronology, and prospography, this text describes state-of-the-art research methodology and critical approaches to English literature, Latin philosophies, law, science, art and music.

Genres: History, Medieval History, European History, Academic, Medieval

438 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[JD Waggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

AT LONG LAST, I HAVE PREVAILED.

Seriously, that took forever. Mostly because I left it alone for a few years while I wandered off into more interesting things, but sheesh.

This was assigned to me in my Intro to Medieval Studies class the first semester of grad school, and it's pretty much perfect for that. The essays take a chunk of the broader field (and yes, it is VERY broad) and break down who does what and what that field actually is (like numismatics, which nobody knows casually). Since each article was written by a different scholar, it's hit-and-miss in terms of writing style; some of the articles are really well-written and accessible, and some are ungodly dull and awful. Of course, this may also be influenced by my opinions on the various subjects, but not totally; some of them really are just boring as hell. Each article comes with a really great bibliography for persons wishing to study that field further; this is a wonderful thing for a beginning medievalist.

The drawback, though, is that this was published in 19-freaking-92. The area of medieval studies has come through huge changes since then--for crying out loud, Sutton Hoo was still an active archaeological dig at that point--not least because of a little invention called the Internet. There's an article in here titled "Computer-assisted Analysis of the Statistical Documents of Medieval Society," and it's laughably outdated. Digital photography, manuscript scanning, and advances in things like ultraviolet technology have totally changed the way we deal with historical documents, and the ability we have to connect with scholars all around the world has changed the way we collaborate across disciplines within the context of medieval studies.

The thing about this book is that the idea is wonderful and the scholarship outstanding, but it's more of a reference than the starting place it was meant to be. There needs to be a new edition. C'MON, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The essays are patchy. Some are great. I particularly enjoyed the eighth chapter on medieval English literature. Others are little more than chronological lists of publications in the field, which is great if you want to delve more deeply into numismatics or Latin paleography, but not so helpful as an introduction to the sub field if your interest is more general. Furthermore, the listing of sources and even the content of the articles are dated - the second edition was published in 1992. Still, I think the bibliographies are useful starting points for anyone who wants to explore further the topic raised in one of these essays.

I had to read the whole damn thing for an exam (even the chapter on computing which makes reference to the techniques current in the 70's), but I think this book serves better as a source to dip into at a point of interest. I'll be coming back to the literature and law chapters for sure.

[Ellis Knox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an outstanding book. It has undergone a few editions; mine is the first and has some articles that have alas disappeared from later editions. It's a collection of essays on the disciplines peculiar to medieval history, including numismatics, diplomatics, paleography, prosopography and medieval chronology (written by R. Dean Ware, under whom I studied at the University of Mass.). The chapter by Herlihy on computer-assisted analysis of statistical documents is one of those that can be found only in this edition; it's hardly more than a quaint novelty now. At any rate, every graduate student in medieval studies should be required to read this book.

[AskHistorians]

An introduction to the auxiliary disciplines of medieval history - paleography, numismatics, etc. - with many, many references.