Europe : a literary history, 1348-1418 / edited by David Wallace.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Wallace, David, 1954- editor.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

European literature--History and criticism.

European literature.

Literature, Medieval--History and criticism.

Literature, Medieval.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

2 volumes (xlii, 747 pages ; xlii, 844 pages) : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

regular print

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 2016.

Summary:

This collaborative two-volume literary history of Europe, the first yet attempted, unfolds through ten sequences of places linked by trade, travel, topography, language, pilgrimage, alliance, disease, and artistic exchange. The period covered, 1348-1418, provides deep context for understanding current developments in Europe, particularly as initiated by the destruction and disasters of World War II. We begin with the greatest of all European catastrophes: the 1348 bubonic plague, which killed one person in three. Literary cultures helped speed recovery from this unprecedented 'ground zero' experience, providing solace, distraction, and new ideals to live by. Questions of where Europe begins and ends, then as now, and disputes over whom truly 'belongs' on European soil are explored, if not solved, through writing. A war that would last for a century convulsed much of western Europe. Divisions between Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianities endured, and in 1378 the West divided again between popes of Avignon and Rome. Arabic literary cultures linked Fes and Granada to Jerusalem and Damascus; Persian and Turkish writings began to flourish south and west of Constantinople; Jewish intellectuals treasured Arabic texts as well as Hebrew writings; Armenian colophons proved unique. From 1414-18 western nations gathered to heal their papal schism while also exchanging literary, humanist, and musical ideas; visitors from the East hoped for commitment to wider European peace. Freed from nation state historiography, as bequeathed by the nineteenth century, these 82 chapters freshly assess the free movement of European literature in all its variety, local peculiarity, and regenerative power. -- From publisher's website.

Contents:

V. 1. pt. I. Paris to Béarn

pt. II. Calais to London

pt. III. St Andrews to Finistère

pt. IV. Basel to Danzig

pt. V. Avignon to Naples

v. 2. pt. VI. Palermo to Tunis

pt. VII. Cairo to Constantinople

pt. VII. Mount Athos to Muscovy

pt. IX. Venice to Prague

pt. X. Nations of Europe, 1414-1418.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780198735359

0198735359

9780199580019

0199580014

9780199580026

0199580022

OCLC:

947961078