The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages

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The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages

• LaDawn MusicLIBR 150 Week 9
• Quarter Winter Year 2003

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Call Number, Citation, Arrangement

• Call Number 909.07 ENCYCLOP 1999.
• Bibliographic citation (Author, title, place,
  publisher, date) The Encyclopedia of the Middle
  Ages. Norman F. Cantor, general editor
  contributing editors, Elizabeth Brown... et
  al.. New York Viking, 1999.
• This book has the following sections about this
  book, introduction, alphabetical order entries,
  index, and credits.

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Indexing

• The index provides more then just the standard
  items. It also categorizes the headings. Article
  titles are in bold, image locations are indicated
  in italics, major articles and general surveys
  are indicated in red bold, and all other items
  are in standard black. In addition, most
  articles include cross-references to other
  sections with other relevant information.

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Scope

• Scope The encyclopedia covers day-to-day life,
  foreign influences, countries, writing, places,
  social structure, battles, geography, genealogy,
  recipes, science, medicine, and many other
  aspects of life in the Middle Ages.
• From the world's most distinguished medievalist
  comes a lively and vivid account of the lords and
  ladies, saints and scholars, kings and peasants
  who shaped the history and culture of one of the
  richest and most misunderstood periods in
  history. In this full-color, landmark reference,
  Cantor and a team of scholars and experts explore
  the entire medieval world--from the British Isles
  to the Far East, and the great figures--Dante,
  Chaucer, Aquinas, who defined the period. From
  the Crusades to the Vikings, The Encyclopedia of
  the Middle Ages contains 600 individual entries
  and over 200 illustrations from world-famous
  collections, including the British Museum and the
  Morgan Library. Twenty major essays portraying
  the lives of Medieval luminaries, and original
  maps charting military campaigns and developing
  nations, make this the indispensable home
  reference for scholars and students.
  http//search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnIn
  quiry.asp?userid2V7PDL1VFTisbn0670100110itm3.

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Currency, Physical Format(s), and Special
features.

• Since this book was published in 1999 and it is
  covering a time period centuries ago, it is quite
  current as it includes up to date information by
  medieval historians and writers.
• http//www.barnesandnoble.com and
  http//www.amazon.com/, list this book as
  published in Hardcover only.
• There are many side features in this reference.
  First, there are three types of Sidebars used to
  enhance the text. The first, Illuminations,
  focuses on the writings from medieval sources.
  The second, Life in the Middle Ages, discusses
  some part of day-to-day life. Lastly, the Legend
  and Lore sections detail products of the medieval
  imagination. There are numerous illustrations,
  maps, and photographs through out the book as
  well.

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Intended and Additional Purposes

• Intended This book is a comprehensive resource
  for anyone with interest in the Middle Ages. This
  includes historians, re-creationists, or anyone
  interested in the history of a specific topic
  such as illness, wars, people, music, travel, and
  the list continues.
• Additional Out side of students and teachers
  working through history classes, there are not a
  lot of additional people who would find this book
  of interest. Maybe a person writing a historical
  novel or a person looking to into a themed
  wedding, fair, or feast would find this to be a
  starting place, but there are other more specific
  books available for these topics.

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Authority or credentials of issuing body or
authors

• Norman F. Cantor (the general editor) is among
  the most respected scholars of medieval history
  of our age.  In addition to a life-time of
  scholarly work that has helped define the modern
  appreciation of the Middle Ages, he is the author
  of such highly acclaimed works for the general
  reader as Inventing the Middle Ages (Nominated
  for a National Book Critics Circle Award), The
  Civilization of the Middle Ages (far and away the
  most widely read popular medieval history), and
  Medieval Lives (eight lively portraits of
  charismatic medieval figures).  He is the author
  of works on modern history (The American
  Century), Jewish History (The Secret Chain), and
  a legal history (Imagining the Law), which have
  been praised universally for their
  "sophisticated, yet completely accessible"
  presentation of the broad sweep of history.  The
  Boston Globe said it best when it called him "a
  Renaissance man.  Everything he writes is
  brilliant, exasperating, readable, and just plain
  fun."  He is the recipient of many honors and
  awards (from a Rhodes Fellowship to a Fullbright
  professorship), and, because of his teaching
  career at New York University and at major
  institutions around the world, has to his credit
  a legion of well-schooled, dedicated scholars who
  regard him as their teacher and mentor. (Back
  jacket cover.)

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Review opinion

• Amazon.comAs greater numbers of naysayers look
  forward to the collapse of civilization, perhaps
  it's best to see what happened last time. It
  turns out the Dark Ages weren't so bad--in fact,
  after reading through The Encyclopedia of the
  Middle Ages, you might find yourself pining for
  the good old days before the Renaissance.
  Historian Norman F. Cantor has assembled a crack
  team of experts to unleash their copious
  knowledge on our modern world better still,
  Viking Press has enlisted excellent designers to
  present the information efficiently and even
  beautifully. You'll find yourself irresistibly
  drawn from one entry to the next (there are over
  600, so leave time for browsing) as the story of
  the Council of Nicaea leads on to explorations of
  medieval Christianity and much more. Twenty
  longer essays on general topics provide the
  foundation for the rest of the Encyclopedia and
  make great reading on their own, but the meat of
  the book is in the details. Lavishly illustrated
  in both color and black-and-white, including
  artworks, maps, and timetables, this reference
  work looks as good on the shelf as it does on the
  coffee table. --Rob Lightner

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Personal Impression

• As a medieval hobbyist and re-creationist, I
  found this book to be interesting, colorful, and
  informative.  It covers more then just the
  standard European interests during the Middle
  Ages and the articles are well written for easy
  comprehension. I also enjoyed the Introduction.
  It not only set the basis of the book, but also
  paralleled some of the similarities between
  todays society and the Middle Ages. Now that I
  have looked into this book, I plan to add it to
  my personal collection of Middle Ages and
  Renaissance literature.

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Example of Reference Use

• One of the entries that I found interesting was a
  section on Jews in the Middle Ages. If you look
  at much of the propaganda and movies about the
  Middle Ages, a person could believe that everyone
  in the Middle Ages was either Christian or
  Islamic. This section could be found by searching
  alphabetically in the J section or for more in
  depth information the index lists the main
  article and several other sections where Jews are
  mentioned. Judaism can also be found under
  religions.

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World Wide Web Results

• Using http//www.google.com/ and the search
  criteria "Middle Ages" Jews, I was able to find
  these web sites covering Jews of the Middle Ages
  http//www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-th
  e-pale/english/06.html, http//www.jajz-ed.org.il
  /juice/2000/jerusalem/j3k-9.html,
  http//homeschoolinformation.com/education/educati
  on_in_the_middle_ages.htm, and http//www.bu.edu/e
  nglish/levine/dev.htm. There were several web
  sites on classes discussing the roles of Jews in
  the Middle Ages and the next web site offers a
  bibliography of book information concerning
  Christians and Jews during the Middle Ages.
  http//orb.rhodes.edu/bibliographies/Xnjewbib.html
  .
• Information on the Abbadid Dynasty can be found
  at the Encyclopedia Britannica Online ch.eb.com/eb/article?eu3252. Then a search at
  http//www.google.com/ for Abbadid Dynasty came
  up with 96 possible sites including
  http//www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbadid,
  http//historic-cities.huji.ac.il/spain/seville/s
  eville.html, and http//www.lonelyplanet.com/desti
  nations/europe/seville/history.htm.