Books

New acquisitions / incorporations

Besson, Anne; Blanc, William; Ferré Vincent (dir.), Dictionnaire du Moyen Âge imaginaire: le médiévalisme, hier et aujourd’hui, Paris: Vendémiaire, 2022, 465 pp.

Abstract

Gentes dames et preux chevaliers, gueux et sorcières, moines rubiconds et inquisiteurs fanatiques, mais aussi Robin des Bois, Jeanne d’Arc, Gengis Khan, Saladin, Mélusine, le roi Arthur…
Le Moyen Âge est bien plus qu’une période historique : c’est un livre d’images foisonnant où artistes, créateurs et cultures populaires n’ont eu de cesse de puiser, réinventant inlassablement selon leur goût et celui de leur temps enluminures, donjons et cathédrales.
Rassemblant les meilleurs chercheurs sur le sujet, ce dictionnaire, premier du genre, décrypte en plus de 120 entrées cette recréation d’un Moyen Âge fantasmé qu’on désigne sous le nom de « médiévalisme », de Walter Scott à Umberto Eco, de l’Allemagne au Japon en passant par la Turquie et l’Afrique, des romans historiques aux films et séries de fantasy, sans oublier les jeux vidéo, les jeux de rôle, la bande dessinée, la peinture, les fêtes médiévales, la musique et la poésie…
Un bréviaire indispensable pour explorer les mille métamorphoses de ce temps lointain qui obsède notre imaginaire contemporain.

Source

CCHSC library reference: 22-6-28

Guereño Sanz, María Teresa López et al (eds.), Migravit a seculo: Muerte y poder de príncipes en la Europa medieval. Perspectivas comparadas, Madrid: Sílex, 2021, 751 pp.

Abstract

En los diversos idearios que las sociedades medievales construyen a lo largo del tiempo, la muerte se articula siempre como un elemento protagonista, no solo por la importancia que se le otorga en los modelos religiosos que los vertebran, sino por el relieve que adquiere en la gestión de lo cotidiano, desde los procesos económicos a las construcciones políticas y de las creaciones culturales a la vida material. No por obvia, esta omnipresencia deja de mostrar una vertiente cada vez mejor definida de instrumentalización por parte del poder y, en especial, de los elementos que conforman las élites de los diversos grupos socio-políticos que hemos dado en llamar “príncipes”: familias regias, aristocracia laica y eclesiástica, patriciado urbano y hasta los miembros más acomodados del campesinado o de las minorías religioso-culturales. Este elemento de la muerte como instrumento para la construcción del poder se constituye en protagonista de este libro, en un intento por establecer modelos de comparación y emulación y relacionar espacios y tiempos, y donde colaboran destacados especialistas y jóvenes investigadores que apenas comienzan a trabajar.

Source

CHSC library reference: 22-6-16

Menjot, Denis et al (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Public Taxation in Medieval Europe, London/New York: Routledge, 2023, 497 pp.

Abstract

Beginning in the twelfth century, taxation increasingly became an essential component of medieval society in most parts of Europe. The state-building process and relations between princes and their subject cities or between citizens and their rulers were deeply shaped by fiscal practices. Although medieval taxation has produced many publications over the past decades there remains no synthesis of this important subject.

This volume provides a comprehensive overview on a European scale and suggests new paths of inquiry. It examines the fiscal systems and practices of medieval Europe, including essential themes such as medieval fiscal theory and the power to tax; royal and urban taxation; and Church taxation. It goes on to survey the entire European continent, as well as including comparative chapters on the non-European medieval world, exploring questions on how taxation developed and functioned; what kinds of problems authorities encountered assessing their fiscal power; and the circulation of fiscal cultures and practices across cities and kingdoms. The book also provides a glossary of the most important types of medieval taxes, giving an essential definition of key terms cited in the chapters.

Source

CHSC library reference: 23-6-1

Friedrich, Markus, The Jesuits: a history, Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2022, 854 pp.

Abstract

Since its founding by Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, the Society of Jesus—more commonly known as the Jesuits—has played a critical role in the events of modern history. From the Counter-Reformation to the ascent of Francis I as the first Jesuit pope, The Jesuits presents an intimate look at one of the most important religious orders not only in the Catholic Church, but also the world. Markus Friedrich describes an organization that has deftly walked a tightrope between sacred and secular involvement and experienced difficulties during changing times, all while shaping cultural developments from pastoral care and spirituality to art, education, and science.

Examining the Jesuits in the context of social, cultural, and world history, Friedrich sheds light on how the order shaped the culture of the Counter-Reformation and participated in the establishment of European empires, including missionary activity throughout Asia and in many parts of Africa in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He also explores the place of Jesuits in the New World and addresses the issue of Jesuit slaveholders. The Jesuits often tangled with the Roman Curia and the pope, resulting in their suppression in 1773, but the order returned in 1814 to rise again to a powerful position of influence. Friedrich demonstrates that the Jesuit fathers were not a monolithic group and he considers the distinctive spiritual legacy inherited by Pope Francis.

With its global scope and meticulous attention to archival sources and previous scholarship, The Jesuits illustrates the heterogeneous, varied, and contradictory perspectives of this famed religious organization.

Source

CHSC library reference: 23-6-6

Petrolini, Chiara; Lavenia, Vincenzo; Pavone, Sabina, Sacre metamorfosi: Racconti di conversione tra Roma e il mondo in età moderna, Roma: Viella, 2022, 578 pp.

Abstract

Tra Cinque e Settecento a Roma confluì un’infinità di storie di conversioni inviate da missionari attivi in Africa, Asia e America, un corpus colossale di racconti di cui questo volume raccoglie e commenta un’ampia selezione. Nonostante i tentativi delle autorità cattoliche per irreggimentarli in un genere “edificante”, si tratta di racconti spirituali che testimoniano una realtà, nei fatti, spesso brutale: bambini rapiti, principi suicidi, adolescenti inseguiti con un’ascia, schiavi condannati al patibolo dopo una breve catechesi. Eppure, queste storie sono attraversate da una certa felicità narrativa e catturano lo scambio tra visibile e invisibile proprio di ogni conversione, evocando visionarie metamorfosi di corpi e di anime. A Ceylon uno stormo di aironi parlanti rapisce un contadino hindu che poi si fa cristiano, nelle foreste del Brasile un crocifisso ligneo solleva la testa e induce alla conversione un intero regno, e così via, passando per schiave georgiane, neonati persiani, regine angolane, ciechi cantori giapponesi, indemoniate vietnamite.

Suddiviso in sezioni tematiche, il libro combina i sofisticati strumenti e i necessari filtri della ricerca storica con una lettura dei testi sempre attenta al dettaglio, così da restituirne la ricchezza di significati e l’esuberanza linguistica, senza coprire il rumore di fondo di una folla di esistenze appena delineate, eppure memorabili.

Source

CHSC library reference: 23-6-24