www.medievalbookshop.co.uk
Bargain books on the Middle Ages and all related subjects
Contact by email or post & phone
Information pages
What is
medieval?
It's a
question that I'm
nearly reluctant to try and answer, because (as the Routledge
Historical
Dictionary tersely dismisses it), it's a matter of individual
taste.
Everyone's interpretation is slightly different: as with most artists,
the medievalist is someone who says they're a medievalist, and woe
betide
anyone who might challenge them.
If you're
reading this
page, you're presumably looking for a simple answer so that you can
decide
whether I'll be interested in the books you want to sell (heaven
forfend
you should be peeking in order to license yourself the eristic joy of
emailing
me to tell me why and in exactly what minutiae of detail I've got it
all
entirely wrong). Broadly speaking, if a book is likely to have some
appeal
to someone who might consider themselves a medievalist, then it usually
gets through - you can get a rough idea if you browse the
attic and see what kinds of books are already in stock.
For the
purposes of this
web site, the Middle Ages (or more usually Middle Age singular
outside
the English-speaking world) is a period of history that stretches from
around 400 or 500 AD/CE to around 1500 AD/CE. There are plenty of
interpretations
that extend the dates in either direction, backwards as far as the
beginning
of AD, forwards into the 1600s and beyond (to round about yesterday, if
Umberto Eco is to be believed). The intention here is to allow a wide
and convenient scope, and these dates comfortably accommodate several
sub-periods such as the dark ages and several renaissances.
Geographically, scholarship has usually
centred the Middle Ages on the so-called "Latin west", and made room
for
Byzantine and Islamic studies when they couldn't conveniently be
excluded.
More recently though, scholars are starting to be interested in what
was
happening in the rest of the world during the same period, so again,
context
will usually decide whether a particular book goes on the
medievalbookshop
list.
It's a
broad canvas,
on which the critic, historian, esotericist, or anyone who feels so
inclined
can and does paint whatever they wish (check out the esoterica and fiction lists!).
Medieval
studies was probably the first truly interdisciplinary
faculty - at a pinch most medievalists seem able to be interested in
almost anything. The borders between the
middle ages and any adjoining period are rarely so clear-cut as to
stand
up to extensive scrutiny, so as far as medievalbookshop is concerned, I
take the broadest possible interpretation (ie, whatever I feel like at
the time). Yes, I do generally allow the Renaissance and Reformation
periods,
because the intellectual paradigms of these periods are built on the
medieval
cultures they react against; and yes, quite often, classical texts may
be of interest, because thinkers of the middle ages tended to perceive
themselves as living in some form of a continuing classical tradition;
likewise prehistoric studies are sometimes of interest for the light
they may shed on what followed. And of course medievalisms from later
periods are becoming a popular
subject
in themselves, so studies in these areas are welcome as well.
Of course,
there are
also plenty of peripheral subjects that have some kind of interest to
the
medievalist, so these will slip in as well. These would particularly
include
books with a broader focus such as reference books, travel guides and
student
introductions.
Click
here for a page listing sources for further study (from the
Internet Medieval Sourcebook).