Vengeance in medieval Europe : a reader / edited by Daniel Lord Smail and Kelly Gibson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Smail, Daniel Lord, editor.

Gibson, Kelly, 1982- editor.

Series:

Readings in medieval civilizations and cultures ; 13.

Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures ; 13

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Revenge--Europe--History--To 1500.

Revenge.

Revenge--Political aspects--Europe--History--To 1500.

Revenge--Social aspects--Europe--History--To 1500.

Revenge--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Middle Ages.

Europe.

Genre:

History.

Quelle.

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (496 p.)

Place of Publication:

Peterborough, Ontario ; Plymouth, England ; Tonawanda, New York : University of Toronto Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How did medieval society deal with private justice, with grudges, and with violent emotions? This ground-breaking reader collects for the first time a number of unpublished or difficult-to-find texts that address violence and emotion in the Middle Ages.The sources collected here illustrate the power and reach of the language of vengeance in medieval European society. They span the early, high, and later middle ages, and capture a range of perspectives including legal sources, learned commentaries, narratives, and documents of practice. Though social elites necessarily figure prominently in all medieval sources, sources concerning relatively low-status individuals and sources pertaining to women are included. The sources range from saints' lives that illustrate the idea of vengeance to later medieval court records concerning vengeful practices. A secondary goal of the collection is to illustrate the prominence of mechanisms for peacemaking in medieval European society. The introduction traces recent scholarly developments in the study of vengeance and discusses the significance of these concepts for medieval political and social history.

Contents:

Part I. Prologue : Ancient sources for the medieval concept of vengeance. The Old Testament ; The New Testament ; Roman laws

Part II. The Early Middle Ages (400-1000). Codes, capitularies, and penitentials ; Sermons, exegesis, and letters ; Saints lives, chronicles, and epics ; Formularies, charters, and judgments

Part III. The High Middle Ages (1000-1250). The effort to regulate violence and emotion ; Sermons and learned commentary on anger and vengeance ; Saints' lives, chronicles, and epics ; Peace charters and oaths

Part IV. The Later Middle Ages (1250-1500). Municipal, territorial, and royal laws concerning vengeance and murder ; Ecclesiastical and secular commentary on peace and the restraint of emotions ; Saints' lives, chronicles, and epics ; Court cases and notarial peace acts.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781442603509

144260350X

OCLC:

900244324