Middle Ages Bibliography 1100 to 1450 copyright 1997 by Historical Novelists Center Be sure and catch the Atlas of Civilisation series, in this case the Medieval chapters of The Cultural Atlas of France, The Cultural Atlas of Russia, etc. We always recommend these as among the first books you read. For books covering only the British Isles, not Europe in general or other places, see the British Isles Middle Ages Bibliography. We have split it off to keep this page small for those with slow modems, and anyone when the Internet is jammed! This is a trifle artificial, as the Plantagenets ruled large chunks of what is now France, but you will find most of the background reference on the Plantagenet kings in the other section, not here. Rating System for All Bibliographies no mark: have not read, or read long ago YY = good details, but not focused on the period X = poor, possibly misleading; avoid * = passable; may have noticeable gaps or lacks ** = basic and introductory, but accurate *** = good; may have outstanding features **** = outstanding, even if limited in subject *****! = superb; recommended reading; gives unique insights Amt, Emilie Women's Lives In Medieval Europe *****! Routledge, Chapman, and Hall Inc.: New York, 1993. Accesible, non-technical writing. Covers many aspects of this "man's world." T1 Ayton, Andrew Knights and Warhorses **** Boydell Goes to unexploited source documents to explore the importance of the horse as a weapon of war and an indicator of status, using horse inventories of the times. T3 Barlett, R. & A. MacKay, editors Medieval Frontier Societies **** Oxford University Press Interesting look at the often all-too exciting life on borders: the Elbe, that between Castile and Grenada, and England's borders with Wales and Scotland, as well as that maintained in Ireland. T2 Binns, L. Elliott The Decline & Fall of the Medieval Papacy **** Barnes & Noble, NY Nicely backs the theory that the Papacy failed for the reason that it built itself on a model of failure -- the Roman Empire. T3 Bogin, Meg The Women Troubadors **** W.W Norton and Co., NY, 1980. Now here's a new area for characters! Unusual insights, as you might imagine. T2 Brooke, Rosalind & Christopher Popular Religion in the Middle Ages: Western Europe 1000-1300 *****! Barnes & Noble, NY Considering you can't move or breath without bumping into Christianity in this time and place, this is an invaluable guide to what people believed (as opposed to what theologians preached) about a religion quite different from modern Roman Catholicism. T2 Buehr, Walter Warrior's Weapons *** Crowell, NY, 1963; illustrated by author Good on basic weaponry and metallurgy, explaining why damascening was more than decorative, and the sprinkling of powdered gemstones over blades being forged was more than conspicuous consumption. Simply, pleasantly written. T2 Bullough, Vern L., & James Brundage, editors Sexual Practices and the Medieval Church Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY; 1982; pg. 72-85. Mistress Gunnora recommends the Scandinavian chapter, so the rest should be useful. T2 Chahin, M. The Kingdom of Armenia **** Dorset Great historical coverage with some sociological, from the Bronze Age to the end of the Middle Ages. Think of this as some place different to check out for those who have worn western Europe to shreds. T1 Christiansen, E. The Northern Crusades: The Baltic and the Catholic Frontier 1100-1525 **** London, 1980 A look at the oft-ignored clash between not only Catholic and pagan Slav, but Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. T2 Clements, John Medieval Swordsmanship: Illustrated Methods and Techniques **** Paladin Press, Boulder CO, 1998 It is conceivable that you might do a novel in this time and place and never touch on combat. Otherwise, this would get five stars and a bang for boiling down everything known from written sources and art, working it out in the salle des armes, and presenting it in clear diagrams and fairly simple explanations. His mini-essays against common mistaken theories from other schools of medieval recreation combat are invaluable to get this garbage out of your head, saith this reviewer who had SCA training. The sections on how to practice and spar are not just for those doing this: it may hint you as to how they practiced and sparred 1000-500 years ago. Read this to counteract the Victorian silliness still so prevalent on the subject. T2 Cosman, Madeleine Pelner Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony *** George Braziller, NY, 1976 Text on Table Manners, Courtly Menues, Banquet Music, The Raw Ingredients, etc., in 224 pg, 100 illos, 100 recipes, and a helpful bibliography. T2 Coulton, G. G. The Medieval Village **** Dover NY; 603 pg Okay, let's come down out of the castle and see how the majority of the people get fed and sheltered, and get along. T1 Dahmus, Joseph A History of the Middle Ages *** Barnes & Noble, NY Extends the temporal boundaries back into what we call Dark Ages, and forward into what we call Renaissance. A good one volume coverage. T1 Seven Medieval Kings **** Barnes & Noble, NY Bigger than encyclopedia articles, and how could you write a detail biography (without lots of sociological padding) about people from a time when records are so sparse? Covers quite a range beyond the usual Medieval -- Emperor Justinian, Charlemagne, Harun al-Rashid, and the more expected Henry II, Frederick II, Louis IX, and Louis XI. T2 David, Nicolle, Ph.D. The Moors: The Islamic West 7th-15th Centuries AD <sic> (Men-At-Arms, 348)*** Osprey Pub Co; 2001 Excellent details on organization versus the European warrior of the time, as well as the hardware. T2 Davis, H. W. Carless (Henry William Carless), 1874-1928 Medieval Europe 1915: London Williams and Norgate Delbrück, Hans Medieval Warfare; History of the Art of War, volume III **** University of Nebraska Press, 1990, trans. Walter J. Renfroe, Jr.; orig. 1923; 711 pg, index Opens with the worth of pieces of warrior's equipment in cows according to Frankish laws, and discusses the development and periodic paralyses of political and military systems of the times. Note that the word "Norman" is used for the Scandinavians even before they are given the lower Seine. An early discrediter of body counts, cool, analytical, clarifying the mysteries of Medieval tactics. Especially interesting for his smashing of two common but inaccurate images: the knight who cannot move, let alone fight, dismounted, and the charge at the gallop. T2 Duby, George, & Elborg Forster Medieval Marriage : Two Models from Twelfth-Century France (The Johns Hopkins Symposium) **** Johns Hopkins Univ Press, 1991; 138 pages; Translators, Georges Duby, John W. Baldwin A little deep going for the non-specialist, but accessible with work. T3 Durant, Will The Age of Faith: A History Of Medieval Civilization, Christian, Islamic, and Judaic from Constantine to Dante AD 325-1300 (The Story of Civilization v. IV) *****! 1950. This is the one fat history book you need as a basis for the period. Notice that it covers a thousand years. Heavily oriented to philosophy and the literary arts. T1 Evans, Joan Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance *** Dover Publications, Inc., NY Let's remember that at this time science and magic, religion and superstition, were still strongly entwined. This will give you another aspect of Medieval thought. T2 Fagan, Brian The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations *****! Bloomsbury Press; 2008 Eurocentric, this is aimed at 800-1300, but slides a good deal to each side. T3 ffoulkes, Charles J. The Armourer & His Craft from the XIth to the XVth Century *****! Methuen & Company, Ltd., London, 1912; now from Dover Publications, Inc., NY Excellent! The author appreciates the design of working armor rather than drooling over pretty doodadery, explains design detail, and the work and tools of the armorer. Deals in cuirboilli and jack as well as metallic armor. Excellent appendix of the procedure (incomplete survival) for a judicial armed combat. T1 -- you can't get bad armor myths out of your head too quickl Armour and Weapons ****! Oxford Clarendon press, 1909 Most of the volume is on armour development, as well it might be, including one chapter on horse armour. One chapter only goes to weapons. It's a simple explanation: while you can get all ob-com about details of pommels on swords and the snaggles on polearms, for the most part there is only a limited development of weapons, with variations in size: the sword, the mace, the flail, the spear and lance, the polearm. Here they are considered mostly vis-a-vis their effectiveness against various forms of armour--which in this book strongly considers that of the ordinary man-at-arms, wearing leather or quilted linen, rather than just the knight in iron. Great reference to get away from expensive metallic armour. This is as much as you actually need on the subject of armour. T1 Franklyn, Julian Heraldry *****! A. S. Barnes & Co., NJ, 1968 Easy-reading and graphic, not your usual turgid lap-breaker nor an inaccurate surface pamphlet. Author is a classicist and dislikes Victorian corruptions. Discusses the development of heraldry in this period. Superb first (or only!) book on heraldry. T2 Gardiner, Robert, editor Cogs, Caravels and Galleons; The Sailing Ship 1000-1650 **** Conway's History of the Ship; Conway Maritime Press, London; for USA and Canada, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD; 1994; 188 pg, index, bibliography. Actually a collection of articles written for this volume by a number of experts, it covers as well as it can a period in which information is quite spotty. However, the number of reproduction ships which have sailed should have provided more hard data than this has. T2 Gies, Joseph and Frances (sometimes Frances and Joseph) All books by the Gieses are written for the non-specialist, but are researched by specialists and give you good information.   Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel *****! HarperCollins Highlights the technological advances of the Middle Ages as one of the many signs of its vibrancy. There is a certain quibbling possible, as the Romans used water powered factories and gunpowder may have come from Byzantium or China, but the Gothic cathedral no-one else can claim. T2   The Knight in History   Life in a Medieval Castle *****! Harper and Row, NY, 1974 Centering on the history of one English castle, the authors still range over the whole of Normanized Europe, emphasizing the people over the masonry, and often letting them speak in their own words. T1   Life in a Medieval City   Life in a Medieval Village   Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages *****! Harpercollins Follows the lives of several women of whom there are records. The books of Frances Gies on the realities of medieval female and family life have no axes to grind, except perhaps with those who would make simplistic dreams or nightmares out of the rich and complex reality shown here. T1   Women in the Middle Ages *****! Barnes & Noble Shows the roles of women to have been more independant, more interdependant, and more varied than the stereotype of either princesses or oppression. T1 Glasier, Phillip As The Falcon Her Bells **** Dutton, NY, 1963 Autobiography of a professional falconer, and the other falconers he has known. Excellent for tales of how the birds behave: falcons, hawks, eagles, and why no one flys owls. T2 Hale, William Harlan, and the editors of Horizon Magazine Horizon Cookbook and Illustrated History of Eating and Drinking through the Ages *** American Heritage Publishing, Inc., 1968 Part One has the description of customs and habits, foods available, and some interesting art. Part Two has the tastiest recipes, done for the modern kitchen. Especially hits this period in Part One. T1 Hargrove, Ely, 1741-1818 Anecdotes of archery; from the earliest ages to the year 1791. Including an account of the most famous archers of ancient and modern times; with some curious particulars in the life of Robert Fitz-Ooth Earl of Huntington, vulgarly called Robin Hood .. **** York; Hargrove, 1792 Anecdotes are invaluable as a source of what might happen in a skill you don't actually practice. It's up to your good sense to filter these for plausibility, but do remember that Extreme Marksmen proved the Robin Hood shot that Mythbusters supposedly busted: there are one in a million things that do happen, and much is in the sheer quality of your archer, which can be better than any machine. Because you need to know what you might stick in your plot, T2 Harpur, James Revelations: The Medieval World **** Holt Beautifully pictorial with reconstructions on six-page gatefolds and a detailed text. T1 Haskins, Charles Homer The Normans in European History **** Barnes & Noble, NY Treats Normandy as a virtually independent realm, from the arrival of the Viking Rollo to the French conquest of the area in 1204. T2 Heath, Ernest Gerald The Grey Goose Wing *** New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, CN, 1971 Excellent history of the bow; last part Anglocentric, with some coverage of the Turks. T2 Hetherington, P. Byzantine and Medieval Greece *** Concentrates on art and architecture, especially religious, of the area we now call Greece, under the various rulers until the arrival of the Turks. Hogg, Ian V. The History of Fortification *** St. Martin's Press, NY, 1981 Clear, interesting and accurate overview from 7000 BC through the 1970's, well illustrated with photos and diagrams; bibliography and glossary. T1 Hopkins, Andrea Knights *** Shooting Star Clearly differentiates the historical knight from the knight of romance, but shows how the romantic knight affected the historical one. T2 Hughes, Pennethorne Witchcraft *****! Penguin Books, NY, 1965, orig. 1952 Clear, balanced view of Medieval religion, the Other One as well as Christianity. The subject has a lot of revolting aspects, but this version is about as little disgusting as can be managed while still covering the events, unlike the many which dwell morbidly on the tortures. Unfortunately, the author shows his pre-WW1 origins: everything in black Africa is degenerate, all pagan religion derives from Egypt, social Darwinism is assumed, as is the death of paganism. Don't tell it to all the paleo-pagans and neo-pagans we know! T2 Hunt, Edwin S. & James M. Murray A History of Business in Medieval Europe 1200-1550 Cambridge University Press; 1999; Hardcover, 298pp.; indix Covers merchants and other businesspeople in western Europe, Poland and Hungary: how they handled business, invented accounting and corporations, what they traded where. A fine break from all the knights -- though the upper class demand for luxuries, not lower-class needs, was what impelled business. T2 Hyland, Ann The Medieval Warhorse: From Byzantium to the Crusades *****! 1994; Sutton Books, Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire Excellent! Covers not only the military development of heavy armored horses, but also their care. T2 Ingraham, Holly People's Names: A Cross-Cultural Reference Guide to the Proper Use of over 40,000 Personal and Familial Names in over 100 Cultures *****! McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson, NC; 1997; 613 pgs, index, select annotated bibliography The Historical half has special chapters on Medieval English, German, French, and Italian names, besides Basque, Breton, Provencal, Frisian, Frankish, Norse, and others of interest. Cornish and some others will be found in the Contemporary half. Most are pick-lists, a few are build-your-own. If some look a little small, remember that at this period there was a historical tendency to over-use a very small number of acceptable baptismal names, name novelty being despised rather than sought-after. T1 Kingsley, Charles Ancien Régime** 1867; Project Gutenberg, on-line Covers the mounted warrior as the basis of the French noble caste. Knight of La Tour-Landry The Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry *** from the 1200s. The best we have found for something like etiquette.. T1 Kohler, Carl, edited and augmented by Emma von Sichart, translated by Alexander K. Dallas A History of Costume **** 1930; New York, G. Howard Watt Hand-sized, info-packed, based on surviving clothes first and artwork secondarily. Author's line drawings of construction and detail. Neophytes should use with a color picture book, which it will greatly clarify. Germano-centric, which is valuable considering the Anglo-Gallic axis of most costume books.T1 Lacroix, Paul Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period *****! D. Appleton, NY; 1874; "illustrated with 15 chromolithographic prints by F. Kellerhoven and upwards of 400 engravings on wood." Classic French Victorian concepts of the period, which of course need adjustment, but details you won't find elsewhere. T2   also: Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages and at the Period of the Renaissance Arts in the Middle Ages, and at the Period of the Renaissance Science and literature in the Middle Ages and at the Period of the Renaissance (1878, London, Bickers & Son). Litchfield, Frederick Illustrated History of Furniture from the Earliest to the Present Time **** 1903; London: Truslove & Hanson Limited; New York:; illustrated by John Lane 1892-1903. A good basic reference, based on art in early ages. You normally don't have to detail furniture, just know if they had easily movable chairs and tables -- which the Middle Ages don't. Eurocentric, Anglocentric. T1 Lopez, Robert S. The Birth of Europe *** Evans-Lippincott Covers the changes in civilization from the 300's through the 1300's. T1 Lyons, B. D., ed. The High Middle Ages, 1000-1300 **** Free Press These essays accent why the Middle Ages can be considered to start in 1000 -- the revival of trade and cities, the development of the Medieval bourgeoisie, a class too often ignored for knights and peasants. T2 Mackay, Angus, with David Ditchburn Atlas of Medieval Europe **** Routledge If you're staying in the Middle Ages but need a wide range of travel, this may be better than or a supplement to the Atlas of Civilisation series, which goes down a modern national area from prehistory to the present. This stays temporaly concentrated and gives the political units across the continent, as well as other maps of the likes of resources, land use, trade, invasion, etc. T1 Magnus, Albertus, translated from the German Being the Approved, Verified, Sympathetic and Natural Egyptian Secrets, etc. *** paperback, no publishing data, obtained 1971 A typical "cookbook" of magic, alchemy, and chemistry; everything from making yourself invisible and stopping raging housefires with an amulet to a good grease to waterproof your boots and a fake gilding. Half the spells are to cure erysipelas, which must have been rife. One "spell" we found actually works: milk and black pepper to kill flies and gnats. T3 Majno, Guido, MD The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World *****! Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1975 Heavy research and testing, too, to see how well period practices actually worked. Fascinating reading. Among others, covers classic medicine of Rome's Galen, and the Medieval practices are often based on it. T1 Mott, George Fox, and Harold M. Dee An Outline History of the Middle Ages: From the Decline of the Roman Empire through the Reformation *** Barnes and Noble, 1950, orig. 1933; 272 pg, index, supplemental references (good books to check) Just to get you chronologically grounded, between 395 and 1564. Covers social as well as political and religious change. The basic chronology of the Middle Ages hasn't changed in this century; what's different about modern books is the anthropological and sociological interpretation of events. A bare-bones chronology like this can hardly go out of date. T1 National Geographic Society The Age of Chivalry X 1969; 376 pg, index The section on Franks in the 800's illustrates their way of life with paintings from centuries later, when earlier manuscript miniatures are out there. Does this give you a hint on quality? Use only when you know so much it can't foul you up. Does contain the entire Bayeux Tapestry. T3, if at all. Nash, E. Gee The Hansa **** Barnes & Noble You can't go into the Baltic from the 1100's through the 1400's without dealing with the Hanseatic League, which like most Baltic history is given short shrift by historians stuck on the English-French-Italian axis of ideas. Fills a definite gap. T2 Newark, Tim Women Warlords: An Illustrated Military History of Female Warriors *****! Blandford, NY, 1989; index; Angus McBride, illustrator Note the word "history." He skims past all the ones whose reality is shaky and gives some depth on the likes of Matilda of Tuscany. Starts with Artemisia I of Halicarnassus and goes through the Hundred Years Wars. T1 Nicolle, David The Medieval World: Civilization from 1000 to 1500 **** A good cultural introduction (only about 200 pgs) to life in city and country as well as castle, to artists, doctors, and peasants as well as knights and clergy. T1 Norman, A. V. B. The Medieval Soldier *** Barnes & Noble, NY Follows the development of the personnel in the Medieval army from Charlemagne in the Dark Ages, on forward through the Crusades. Its value depends on your level of study of military history. It seems less sterling after reading Delbrueck. T2 Oakeshott, Ewart The Archaeology of Weapons, Arms and Armor From Prehistory to the Age of Chivalry; **** New York, Barnes & Noble Books, 1994, illustrated by the author Uses contemporary manuscript illustrations, analysis of extant weapons, and the author's own illustrations to show how weapons were used. A trifle weak in the ancient world, but gets more than solid in this period . T2 Ohler, Norbert The Medieval Traveller *** 1989 A broad study of travel means and conditions, who travels and why, and what snags may be met upon the road. However, there are some very erronious assumptions made (like assuming medieval peasants ate oats, which only Scotsman did, and then because they had only oats, they ate porridge instead of bread; in fact, medieval peasants ate wheat porridge -- frumenty -- when they wished to avoid the expense of the miller and the baker, home grinding and baking being illegal), and in some places he contradicts himself a few pages apart. Best for the real beginner who can correct errors later, or someone already very deeply into the research, who can spot the glitches. T1 Oman, Sir Charles William Chadwick (1860-1946) The Art of War in the Middle Ages, A.D. 378-1515 **** Oxford : Blackwell, 1885. Nowhere as good as Delbrück, but he's free for those of you who need it. Also a bit more introductory. T2   A History of the Art of War, the Middle Ages from the Fourth to the Fourteenth Century **** 1898; G.P. Putnam's Sons This covers a bit less time. We would say it was more definitely medieval rather than shading into the Renaissance. T2 Osprey Books The worst book from Osprey rates three stars, and many are five stars. They are not easily come by, unless you buy them, at $9-13 apiece. If your library has them, you are very lucky! T2 In the Men-At-Arms Series: French Medieval Armies 1000-1300, #231 Knights of Christ, #155 El Cid & the Reconquista, #200 Medieval European Armies, #50 The Swiss 1300-1500, #94 Italian Armies 1300-1500, #136 German Armies 1300-1500, #166 Hungary & Eastern Europe 1000-1568, #195 The Venetian Empire, #210 Armies of Crecy and Poitiers, #111 Medieval Burgundy 1364-1477, #144 Armies of Agincourt, #113 Medieval Heraldry, #99 Elite Series: The Normans, #9 Knights at Tournament, #17 Medieval Siege Warfare, #28 Warrior Series: Norman Knight, #1 Paetow, Louis John, 1880-1928 A guide to the study of medieval history, for students, teachers, and libraries 1917: Berkeley [Calif.] University of California Press) Peic, Sava Medieval Serbian Culture **** Alpine Gives as much on art and culture as on history, 800's to 1400's, none of which are easy to find in most books. Most general history books limit their coverage of the Middle Ages to England, France, Germany, Italy, and the Crusades, with occasional notes of the existence of Iberia and Scandinavia, so this is very welcome. Setting your knights in armor tale here would give it a peculiarly contemporary spin, considering the area's modern headline-grabbing. T1 Plaidy, Jean, aka Victoria Holt The Spanish Inquisition **** Most people think of this as a Renaissance thing, but the Spanish Inquisition was founded in 1232, so you should consider it if your story goes to Iberia. T2 Rashdall, Hastings The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages **** Oxford University Press Unless your story centers around university life, you do not need to know this much about them: 1500 pages in three volumes, covering academic institutions in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. If that's what you're writing about, get your own copy now! Incredible detail. T3 Ratcliffe, Derek A. The Peregrine Falcon YY Buteo Books, Vermillion, SD, 1980; illus. by Donald Watson Mostly ornithological information with a little falconry and history of books on falconry, but valuable on how and where and when birds can be found, since they were not bred in captivity. T2 Rice, David Talbot Islamic Art *** Let's not forget who controls much of Spain, not to mention Sicily and occasional spots in Italy and southern France. See what's arriving on the ships from Outre-Mer. T3 Richards, Jeffrey Sex, Dissidence & Damnation: Minority Groups in the Middle Ages *****! Barnes & Noble, NY Everyday life for people likely to be whipped, branded, or burnt alive whenever the local authorities ceased to be lethargic: gays, anyone not Roman Catholic, those forced into economic shadows, like prostitutes, and the hapless lepers. The ugly side of society. T2 Rodgers, William Ledyard Naval Warfare Under Oars, 4th to 16th Centuries. A Study of Strategy, Tactics and Ship Design *** Naval Institute Press, 1990 (1940); 358 pg, index A classic back in print. In this period rigging is so primitive that oars are necessary for any but the crudest maneuvering. Especially useful if you are covering your Crusaders crossing the Mediterranean. T2 Rosenthal, Joel T. Medieval Women and the Sources of Medieval History Athens: Univ. of Georgia Press. 1990 Ross, James Bruce, and Mary Martin McLaughlin, editors The Portable Medieval Reader *****! The Viking Press, 1949, still in print; 698 pg Writings culled from the period on an illuminating variety of topics. Excellent first book to read. T1 Rossiaud, Jacques Medieval Prostitution **** Barnes & Noble, NY; 213 pg A study of whores, pimps, brothel keepers, and what was considered their contribution to the stability and safety of society. T2 Saalman, Howard Medieval Cities *** George Braziller, 1968 Illustrated with original city plans (usually Renaissance), gives reasons why the city of the Middle Ages grows the way it does. T3 Salmonson, Jessica Amanda The Encyclopedia of Amazons: Women Warriors from Antiquity to the Modern Era *****! Paragon House, NY, 1991; 290 pg, no index, bibliography Wonderfully informative in this period, provided you ferret the ladies out of alphabetical order. Almost all are from the upper classes, where the male warriors were clustered, too. Women were nowhere near as frail and subdued as Victorian Romanticism has painted them for us! T2 Seward, Desmond The Monks of War **** Penguin Books, NY Basics on the major military orders -- the Templar, Hospitallers, and the Teutonic Knights -- from their formation before the first Crusade through their present remnants. T2 Shaw, Henry Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages, from the Seventh to the Seventeenth Century **** 1843; London, William Pickering Very Anglo-centric rather than Franco-centric like Lacroix.T1 Silver, Caroline Guide to the Horses of the World *** Chartwell Books, 1990, orig. 1975; 223 pg, index Good historical notes should guide you to avoiding most of the breeds in here as too modern, and constructing your few Medieval breeds. Nags rule! T2 Slisbury, Joyce E., ed Sex in the Middle Ages New York: Garland. 1991 Stephenson, Carl Mediavel Feudalism ****! 1942: Cornell University Press This was published as a standard text on the subject through the 1970s (and may be yet). It is a brief and pointed essay: he does not go on for 400 pages on intricacies and hundreds of examples and exceptions. Instead, he lays it out in what came to about 40 pages in my compressed text version (8.5 x 11, single-space, no index). Having learned to write before obfustication in academia became the norm, it's really understandable. T1, because most people have this all wrong in their heads. Stierlin, Henri, ed. Architecture of the World: Gothic *****! Taschen, 192 pg More than the fast, one-page summary in encyclopedias and histories of art and architecture, but not so heavy that you get lost in details of structural engineering. T1 Summers, Rev. Montague, trans The Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger **** Dover Publications, Inc., NY Here it is, the Hammer of the Witches, in translation by a modern day believer in the Powers of Evil. Start your witch-hunting here. T3 Taton, Rene History of Science: Ancient and Medieval Science from the Beginnings to 1450 1957: Presses Universitaires de France This gives you an alternate view from Lacroix. T1   Toy, Sidney A History of Fortification from 3000 BC to AD 1700 *****! Pen & Sword (2006) Toy visited and walked all these sights, looking at them militarily. T1   Castles: Their Construction and History *****! Dover Publications, NY Covers several centuries and countries, with good plans. Valuable in showing how they work as war machines, and how their unlimate develop was in Japan, based on Portuguese concepts. T1 Viollet-le-duc, Emmanuel; Dictionnaire raisonné de mobilier Français de l'époque Carlovingienne a la Renaissance ****! Paris, Morel, 1874 (multi-volume). t. 1. Meubles (furnishings, and the tents) t. 2. Ustensiles. Orfèvrerie [sic] Instruments de musique. Jeux, passe-temps. Outils. Outillages (games, pastimes, musical instruments, various utensils) t. 3 & 4. Vêtements, bijoux de corps, objets de toilette(costume) t. 5 & 6. Armes de guerre offensives et défensives (weapons & armour) So you don't read French. So didn't most of the people I've known who owned a set, but the illos are so good you often don't need to. F'rinstance, how to dress your head to wear a hennin and all the parts thereof: the pictures were enough for the ladies of the SCA. What's worse is he frequently describes things by quoting old sources in Latin, Old French, or Middle French, so actually reading it can be a bit of a headache. But you'll do fine with pictures of chairs and swords, as long as you can read the dates. Most of the Crusaders worth noting are Norman French. T3 Vivian, E. Charles A History of Aeronautics*** Project Gutenberg; original, 1920 Rather over-written, with too much ornament to the prose. Does begin the history in antiquity with legends of flight, and moves on to recorded attempts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. T2 Wheeler, Bonnie and John C. Parson, ed. Medieval Mothering Feminea Medevalia 3. New York: Garland. 1995 Part of a scholarly series on female roles in the Middle Ages. Includes periphery cultures like Scandinavia. T2 Ziegler, Philip The Black Death **** Alan Sutton Excellent detail history of this event which, during the decades it rampaged, transformed the European mind. Estimates of percent of population killed will leave you aghast! T2 Music (see the bottom of "Notes on Medieval Music" essay) Video Archery, Its History and Its Forms *****! VHS, 72 min. For the many of you who don't hang longbows and recurve stave bows on your walls, this look at period archery in action covers the English longbowman, Turkish archery, and mounted archers as well, all in costume. By the folks who do "The Blow by Blow Guide to Swordfighting" (Renaissance fencing). Very valuable if you also read Hardy or Heath. Websites The Alchemy Web Site and Virtual Library **** http://www.levity.com/alchemy/ "70 megabytes of information on alchemy in all its facets. Divided into over 1300 sections and providing thousands of pages of text, over 1700 images, over 200 complete alchemical texts, extensive bibliographical material on the printed books and manuscripts, numerous articles, introductory and general reference material. There is also a searchable graphics database with 800 images, and a database of alchemy books with 4600 entries and 5 megs of text. It was first launched on 7th May 1995 and new pages are continually being added. There are about 400 people accessing this site each day." Leave for Alchemy Library The Book of Quintessence **** http://hops.whorton.upenn.edu/~loren/Links/maloney/alchemy/quinhome.html The full text and translation of "The Book of Quintessence" a mid-1400s alchemical text. Bryan has a warning/disclaimer against "dabbling around in chemistry" without training in safe handling practices and hazardous substances, in which this text abounds! As he points out, like many would-be alchemists, you, too, could wind up "hurt, crazy, or dead" from actually performing any of the operations described. Leave for The Book of Quintessence   Diotima: Women & Gender in the Ancient World *****! http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/gender.html Lucky for you, a few essays on Medieval sexuality and women's roles snuck in here. Stop by and read them. Leave for Diotima   The Forme of Cury http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/ "A Roll Of Ancient English Cookery, Compiled, about A.D. 1390, by the Master-Cooks of King Richard II, Presented afterwards to Queen Elizabeth, by Edward Lord Stafford, and now in the Possession of Gustavus Brander, Esq. Illustrated with Notes, And a copious Index, or Glossary. A Manuscript of the Editor, of the same Age and Subject, with other congruous Matters, are subjoined." A medieval cookbook, in its Renaissance published form, on-line. Leave for Forme of Cury   Heraldica **** http://www.heraldica.org/ Over 200 articles on the succession, courts, development of titles, lines of descent, legalities of claims to titles, etc. on the upper classes of Europe. Some refer back as far as this period. These are topics often covered nowhere at all. As well, portrait galleries of various families can be found. Leave for Heraldica H-GIG Historical Times & Places *** http://www.ucr.edu/h-gig/topperindex.html A thorough-going linksite maintained by the University of California at Riverside, H-GIG sorts by area , by era (ancient, Medieval<yours>, early Modern, Modern, and 20th C), or by topic (military, women, etc.). It's a good place to start a hunt for books and essays online. Leave for H-GIG   The History of Costume *** http://www.siue.edu/COSTUMES/history.html 125 pages of images from the book "History of Costume" printed in 1861 in Munich. The 500 figures cover "historical dress from antiquity to the end of the 19th century." Victorianized drawings, but it's T1 Leave for History of Costume   Internet Medieval Sourcebook *****! http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html Halsall is collecting texts in translation, and also providing links to other sites like Berkeley, so as not to duplicate effort. This huge initial page links internally and externally to a list of period works, from the late Byzantine-early Christian age to the early Renaissance. Wonderful source, attractive without glitz, many matrices of approach (eg, by a topic like women's roles or by a period). Leave for the Internet Medieval Sourcebook   The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies *** Sponsored by Georgetown University http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/labyrinth-home.html A number of links here are now dead ends. Leave for old Labyrinth http://labyrinth.georgetown.edu The new address, on the other hand, is "not complete" -- is any site? Leave for new Labyrinth   NetSERF: the Internet Connection for Medieval Resources **** http://www.netserf.org/ Over 1400 links to solid sites. With buttheads like Alta Vista now charging for placement and soon to be carried at all, central linksites will become vital again for those of us doing non-commercial work on the Web. Includes texts and a Medieval Glossary that may give you ideas. Leave for NetSERF   Online Medieval & Classical Library **** http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/ Exceedingly large index page takes a long time to load, so you can guess how many entries it has! This is one of those online libraries, with texts in translation, not just a linksite. Leave for Online Medieval & Classical Library   Official and Original Project Gutenberg Web Site and HomePage **** Fine Literature Digitally Republished http://promo.net/pg/ Since 1971 putting classic books into electronic form. All free, just hope they have what you're looking for. Leave for Project Gutenberg Salic Law *****! http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/salic.htm This page, one of many excellent ones at this site, deals with what the actual inheritance law of the Salic Franks was, how it was viewed in the early kingdoms, how it was forgotten and only rediscovered in 1358, not applied to the French succession, and how it was purposely misinterpreted in 1410 to exclude women or a descendant in a female line from the throne of France. Leave for The Salic Law   To Essay on Life for the Upper Classes To Essay on Medieval Music To British Isles Middle Ages Bibliography To the Crusades and Mediterranean Bibliography To the Medieval Scandinavia and Iceland Bibliography To Period Maps To the Medieval Sources To Central Eurasian Bibliography To Bibliography of Middle-Tech Skills