Background Reading

Cambridge Histories Online includes chapters discussing the topics of this course in more detail. There are also a number of overviews of medieval history available:

  • Cook, William R., and Ronald B. Herzman. The Medieval World View: An Introduction. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  • McKitterick, Rosamond, ed. The Early Middle Ages: Europe 400–1000. The Short Oxford History of Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • Power, Daniel, ed. The Central Middle Ages: Europe 950–1320. The Short Oxford History of Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  • Rosenwein, Barbara H. A Short History of the Middle Ages. 3rd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.

The following are among the more interesting reflections on the relationship between medieval and modern modes of consuming information:

Research Tools

In research, one can often find a great deal of information that is hidden in unusual places through indexes of scholarly articles:

Oxford Bibliographies also has extensive coverage of the medieval period, and is noteworthy for its carefully curated, annotated bibliographies that serve as excellent introduction to the literature of a particular subject.

For looking up words in ancient languages, the Perseus Word Study Tool (with coverage for Latin, Greek, Arabic, Old Norse) is often a good starting point. Logeion is an excellent collection of dictionaries for Latin and Greek.

Bibliography for Primary Sources

The following are manuscripts and additional resources readily accessible at the University of Toronto for completing the course essay; this is not a comprehensive list, and omits many important works not written in English. The printed introductions to the translations used in class are often an ideal starting point for in-depth study of a book. One can often find more information on a specific manuscript by searching for the shelf mark (the manuscript reference listed below).

Augustine, On Christian Teaching

Manuscripts

Secondary Literature

  • Chadwick, Henry. ‘Augustine’. In The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature, edited by Frances Young, Lewis Ayres, and Andrew Louth, 328–41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521460835.030.
  • Hannam, Walter A. ‘Nodo unitatis et caritatis: The Structure and Argument of Augustine’s De doctrina Christiana’. Florilegium 15 (1998): 145–65. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/flor/article/view/14263.
  • Markus, Robert A. ‘Signs, Communication, and Communities in Augustine’s De doctrina Christiana’. In De Doctrina Christiana: A Classic of Western Culture, edited by Duane W.H. Arnold and Pamela Bright, 97–108. Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity 9. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995.

The secondary literature on Augustine is vast: an overview is provided by Eric Rebillard, ‘Augustine’, Oxford Bibliographies, https://doi.org/10.1093/OBO/9780195389661-0007.

The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity

Manuscripts

Compare the depiction of the martyrdom of Perpetua, Felicitas, Revocatus, Saturninus, and Secundulus in Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat.gr.1613, p. 366 (the Menologion of Basil II, ca. 1000).

Secondary Literature

  • Dronke, Peter. Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua († 203) to Marguerite Porete († 1310). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.01185.0001.001.
  • Heffernan, Thomas J. The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199777570.001.0001. (This is the source for the English translation used in class: it also includes extensive commentary, and appendix 1 discusses the manuscripts and editions, with photographs.)
  • Robert, Louis. ‘Une vision de Perpétue martyre à Carthage en 203’. Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 126, no. 2 (1982): 228–76. https://doi.org/10.3406/crai.1982.13939.
  • Shaw, Brent D. ‘The Passion of Perpetua’. Past & Present 139, no. 1 (May 1993): 3–45. https://doi.org/10.1093/past/139.1.3.

Cassiodorus, Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning

Manuscripts

Secondary Literature

  • Fontaine, Jacques. ‘Education and Learning’. In The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 1, c.500–c.700, edited by Paul Fouracre, 735–59. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521362917.029.
  • O’Donnell, James J. Cassiodorus. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.

Isidore of Seville, Etymologies

Manuscripts

Secondary Literature

  • Henderson, John. ‘The Creation of Isidore’s Etymologies or Origins’. In Ordering Knowledge in the Roman Empire, edited by Jason König and Tim Whitmarsh, 150–74. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511551062.008.
  • Irvine, Martin. The Making of Textual Culture: ‘Grammatica’ and Literary Theory, 350–1100. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 19. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
  • Magallón García, Ana-Isabel. La tradición gramatical de “differentia” y “etymología” hasta Isidoro de Sevilla. Saragossa, Spain: Departamento de Ciencias de la Antigüedad, Universidad de Zaragoza, 1996.
  • Merino, Carmen Codoñer. ‘¿“Origines o Etymologiae”?’. Helmantica 45, no. 136 (1994): 512–27. http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=313723.

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy

Manuscripts

Secondary Literature

For a summary of the literature, see John Marenbon, ‘Boethius’, Oxford Bibliographies, https://doi.org/10.1093/OBO/9780195389661-0219.

John of Damascus, Three Treatises on the Divine Images

Secondary Literature

  • Henry, Patrick. ‘What Was the Iconoclastic Controversy About?’. Church History 45, no. 1 (March 1976): 16–31. https://doi.org/10.2307/3164562.
  • Louth, Andrew. St. John Damascene: Tradition and Originality in Byzantine Theology. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. https://doi.org/10.1093/0199252386.001.0001.
  • Murray, Charles. ‘Art and the Early Church’. Journal of Theological Studies, n.s., 28, no. 2 (1977): 303–45. https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/XXVIII.2.303.
  • Sahas, Daniel J., ed. Icon and Logos: Sources in Eighth-Century Iconoclasm. An Annotated Translation of the Sixth Session of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicea, 787), Containing the Definition of the Council of Constantinople (754) and Its Refutation, and the Definition of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. Toronto Medieval Texts and Translations 4. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986.

Benedict, Rule

Manuscripts

Secondary Literature

  • Delatte, Paul. The Rule of St. Benedict: A Commentary. Translated by Justin McCann. London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1921. https://archive.org/details/ruleofstbenedic00delauoft.
  • Dunn, Marilyn. ‘Asceticism and Monasticism, II: Western’. In The Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. 2, Constantine to c.600, edited by Augustine Casiday and Frederick W. Norris, 669–90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521812443.030.
  • Lawrence, C.H. Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. 4th ed. New York: Routledge, 2015.

Dhuoda, Handbook for Her Warrior Son

Manuscripts

(The manuscripts are also discussed by Marcelle Thiébaux in her introduction to the Handbook, 38–39.)

Secondary Literature

The Utrecht Psalter

Manuscripts

Compare later copies made from this book (linked from the translations):

Secondary Literature

  • Van der Horst, Koert, William Noel, and Wilhelmina C.M. Wüstefeld, eds. The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art: Picturing the Psalms of David. Tuurdijk, Netherlands: HES, 1996.

Gratian, Decretum

Manuscripts

Secondary Literature

  • Bray, Gerald. ‘The Bible and Canon Law’. In The New Cambridge History of the Bible: From 600 to 1450, edited by Richard Marsden and E. Ann Matter, 722–34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521860062.040.
  • Brundage, James A. Medieval Canon Law. London: Longman, 1995.
  • Winroth, Anders. The Making of Gratian’s Decretum. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4th ser., 49. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511496639.

Magna Carta

Manuscripts

Secondary Literature

The Durham copy of the Magna Carta will be on display at Fort York from 4 October–7 November 2015, and is supported by an extensive exhibition website. CBC Radio’s Ideas broadcast ‘Much Ado About Magna Carta’ (part 1, part 2) in June 2015.

Hildegard of Bingen, The Play of the Virtues

Manuscripts

Secondary Literature

For an overview of the literature, see Honey Meconi, ‘Hildegard of Bingen’, Oxford Bibliographies, https://doi.org/10.1093/OBO/9780199757824-0129.

Peter Lombard, The Sentences

Manuscripts

Secondary Literature

  • Rosemann, Philipp W. Peter Lombard. Great Medieval Thinkers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195155440.001.0001.
  • Rosemann, Philipp W. The Story of a Great Medieval Book: Peter Lombard’s Sentences. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2007.
  • Schüssler, Rudolf. ‘Practical Ethics’. In The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy, edited by Robert Pasnau and Christina Van Dyke, 2nd ed., 517–36. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781107446953.046.
  • Verger, Jacques. ‘The Universities and Scholasticism’. In The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 5, c.1198–c.1300, edited by David Abulafia, 256–78. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521362894.014.

The Gloss on the Bible

Manuscripts

A large number of biblical manuscripts with the ‘Glosa’ or ‘Glossa Ordinaria’ can be found online: see for example Trinity College Cambridge (search the page for ‘glos’) or E-codices (search for ‘glosa’, ‘glossa’).

Secondary Literature

Hugh of St Victor, Didascalicon

Manuscripts

Secondary Literature

Al-Qabisi, Treatise Detailing the Circumstances of Students

No manuscript is known to be available online.

Secondary Literature

  • Burnett, Charles. ‘The Transmission of Science and Philosophy’. In The Cambridge World History, vol. 5, Expanding Webs of Exchange and Conflict, 500 CE–1500 CE, edited by Benjamin Z. Kedar and Merry Wiesner-Hanks, 339–58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511667480.014.
  • Young, M.J.L., J.D. Latham, and R.B. Serjeant, eds. Religion, Learning, and Science in the ’Abbasid Period. The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781139424912.

Johannes de Hauvilla, Architrenius

Manuscripts

Secondary Literature

  • Luscombe, David. ‘Thought and Learning’. In The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 4, c.1024–c.1198, part 1, edited by David Luscombe and Jonathan Riley-Smith, 461–98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521414104.013.
  • Murphy, J.J. ‘The Arts of Poetry and Prose’. In The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, vol. 2, The Middle Ages, edited by Alastair Minnis and Ian Johnson, 42–67. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300070.004.

Cincius Romanus, ‘To his most learned teacher Franciscus de Fiana’

No manuscript is known to be available online.

Secondary Literature

  • Black, Robert. ‘Humanism’. In The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 7, c.1415–c.1500, edited by Christopher Allmand, 243–77. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521382960.013.

Johannes Trithemius, In Praise of Scribes

Most surviving copies of Trithemius’s work are incunables (early printed books) rather than manuscripts.

Copies

Secondary Literature

  • McKitterick, David. ‘The Beginning of Printing’. In The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 7, c.1415–c.1500, edited by Christopher Allmand, 287–98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521382960.015.
  • Vale, Malcolm. ‘Manuscripts and Books’. In The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 7, c.1415–c.1500, edited by Christopher Allmand, 278–86. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521382960.014.