Also available in 2 volumes.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

I. Prelude : the Roman world transformed (c.300-c.600). A Christianized empire ; Heresy and orthodoxy ; Patristic thought ; Saintly models ; Barbarian kingdoms ; Timeline for Chapter one -- II. The emergence of sibling cultures (c.600-c.750). The resilience of Byzantium ; The formation of the Islamic world ; The impoverished but inventive West ; Timeline for Chapter -- III. Creating new identities (c.750-c.900). The material basis of society ; The Abbasid reconfiguration ; Al-Andalus ; The western church and empire ; Expanding Christianity ; Timeline for Chapter three -- IV. Political communities reordered (c.900-c.1050). Regionalism : its advantages and its discontents ; Byzantine expansion ; Scholarship across the Islamic world ; Kingdoms in East Central Europe ; Northern Europe ; Timeline for Chapter four -- Containing the holy -- Reading through looking -- V. The expansion of Western Europe (c.1050-c.1150). Commercial take off ; Church reform ; The clergy in action ; The Crusades and reconquista ; The Norman Conquest of England ; The twelfth-century Renaissance ; Cluniacs and Cistercians ; Timeline for Chapter five -- VI. Institutionalizing aspirations (c.1150-c.1250). The Crusades continue ; Grounding justice in royal law ; Local laws and arrangements ; Bureaucracy at the Papal Curia ; Confrontations ; Caring for the body ; Vernacular literature ; New developments in religious sensibilities ; Timeline for Chapter six -- VII. Discordant harmonies (c.1250-c.1350). East Central Europe in flux ; Transformations in the cities ; Heresies and persecutions ; Rulers and ruled ; Modes of thought, feeling, and devotion ; Timeline for Chapter seven -- VIII. Catastrophe and creativity (c.1350-c.1500). The plague ; The Ottomans ; Byzantium : decline and fall ; War and social unrest ; Crises and changes in the Church and religion ; The Renaissance ; Finding a new world ; Timeline for Chapter eight.

"Covering over one thousand years of history and containing primary source material from the European, Byzantine, and Islamic worlds, Barbara H. Rosenwein's Reading the Middle Ages, Second Edition once again brings the Middle Ages to life. Building on the strengths of the first edition, the second edition contains 40 new readings, including 13 translations commissioned especially for this book, and a stunning new 10-plate color insert entitled "Containing the Holy" that brings together materials from the Western, Byzantine, and Islamic religious traditions. Ancillary materials, including study questions, can be found on the History Matters website (www.utphistorymatters.com).-- pub. desc.