UCLA Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies

Cursor Mundi from UCLA CMRS published by Brepols

Conceived as a companion to the journal Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Cursor Mundi is a publication series of inter- and multi-disciplinary studies of the medieval and early modern world, viewed broadly as the period between late antiquity and the Enlightenment. Like Viator, Cursor Mundi brings together outstanding work by medieval and early modern scholars from a wide range of disciplines, emphasizing studies which focus on processes such as cultural exchange or the course of an idea through the centuries, and including investigations beyond the traditional boundaries of Europe and the Mediterranean. Individual entries will generally be substantial single-authored books of at least 90,000 words in length, or multi-authored collections such as Festschriften or groups of articles on a common subject. The series will also include shorter studies, ca. 40,000 words in length, by distinguished scholars on topics of broad interest. Cursor Mundi is published by Brepols Publishers under the auspices of the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

General Editor: Christopher Baswell (English, UCLA)
Executive Editor: Blair Sullivan (CMRS, UCLA)

Editorial Board: William Bodiford (Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA), Peter Cowe (Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA), Teofilo Ruiz (History, UCLA), Giulia Sissa (Classics and Political Science, UCLA), Zrinka Stahuljak (French and Francophone Studies, UCLA)

Advisory Board: Michael D. Bailey (History, Iowa State University); István Bejczy (History, Nijmegen); Florin Curta (History, University of Florida); Elizabeth Freeman (History and Classics, University of Tasmania); Yitzhak Hen (General History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev); Geraldine Heng (English, University of Texas at Austin); Lauren Kassell (History and Philosophy of Science, Pembroke College, Cambridge); David Lines (Department of Italian, University of Warwick); Cary Nederman (Political Science, Texas A&M)

Please direct inquiries to Blair Sullivan, sullivan@humnet.ucla.edu.

Chris Jones
Eclipse of Empire? Perceptions of the Western Empire and its Rulers in Late-Medieval France
approx. pp. x + 314, 1 b/w ill., 4 col. ills., 2 b/w line art, 160 x 240 mm, 2007, CURSOR 1, Hbk, ISBN 978-2-503-52478-8, approx. €60. September 2007.

Through an innovative and wide-ranging exploration this book examines the reality behind the assumption that the idea of a universal ruler became increasingly irrelevant in late-medieval Europe. Focusing on France in the century before the outbreak of the Hundred Years War, it explores attitudes towards the contemporary institution of the western Empire, its rulers, and its place in the world. Historians have tended to assume that there was little place for a universal Empire and its would-be rulers in late-medieval thought. Pointing to the rapid decline in the fortunes of the Empire after the death of the Emperor Frederick II, the rediscovery of Aristotle’s Politics by western Europeans, and the growing confidence – and burgeoning bureaucracy – of the kings of France and England, it is often argued that the claims to universal domination of men like the Emperor Henry VII, or indeed of popes like Boniface VIII, were becoming increasingly anachronistic, not to say a little ridiculous. Perceptions of the Empire undoubtedly changed in this period. Yet, whether it was in the cloisters of Saint-Denis, the pamphlets of Pierre Dubois, or even the thought of Charles d’Anjou, the first Angevin king of Sicily, this book argues that the Empire and its ruler still had an important, indeed unique, role to play in a properly ordered Christian society.
Chris Jones grew up in the Middle East before reading history at Durham. He now lives in New Zealand where he holds a lectureship in History at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch.

Simha Goldin
The Ways of Jewish Martyrdom
approx. pp. x + 394, 4 b/w ills., 5 b/w line art, 160 x 240 mm, 2007, CURSOR 2, Hbk, ISBN 978-2-503-52523-5, approx €70. March 2008.

Jewish martyrdom in the Middle Ages is a most intriguing social, cultural, and religious phenomenon. It was stimulated by ancient Jewish myths, and at the same time it was influenced by the Christian environment in which the Jews lived and operated. The result was a unique and unprecedented event in which the Jews did not simply refuse to convert to Christianity; they were ready to kill themselves and their children so they would not be forced to convert. The Ways of Jewish Martyrdom discusses the phenomenon of Jewish Martyrdom in medieval Germany, northern France, and England from the time of the First Crusade (1096) until the mid-fourteenth century (that is, the time of the ‘Black Death’), in light of modern research and with ample use of hitherto-neglected primary sources. In order to understand the unique phenomenon of Jewish martyrdom, the Jewish and Christian antecedents that might have influenced the notion of Jewish martyrdom in the Middle Ages need analysis. The texts on which the analysis is based are various, ranging from chronicles through memorial books to liturgical materials and Piyyut. The last part of the book reviews the development of this phenomenon after the fourteenth century and delineates the essential changes and transformations therein at the dawn of the early modern period and beyond.

FORTHCOMING IN 2008:

Franks, Northmen, and Slavs: Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe
Ed. by Ildar H. Garipzanov, Patrick Geary, Przemyslaw Urbanczyk
approx. x + 267p., 25 b/w line art, 160 x 240 mm, 2008, CURSOR 5, HbK, ISBN 978-2-503-52615-7, approx. €55. Publication scheduled for May 2008.

In recent decades, historians attempting to understand the transition from the world of late antiquity with its unitary imperial system to the medieval Europe of separate kingdoms have become increasingly concerned with the role of early medieval gentes, or peoples, in the end of the former and the constitution of the latter. Eleven specialists examine here the role of ethnic identity in the formation of medieval polities on the periphery of the Frankish world in the eighth through eleventh centuries. In particular, they explore the intertwined issues of ethnic identity and state formation in Scandinavia and in the western and southern Slavic regions, areas in which the new approaches to the history of ethnicity have but little penetrated traditional scholarship. They ask to what extent common identities assisted in the consolidation and creation of early medieval kingdoms and to what extent the formation of these kingdoms created a discourse of common identity as a means to centralization and control. The authors contend that the developments in Scandinavia and in Slavic areas cannot be understood except in dynamic relationship with the process of state formation and group identity within the Frankish kingdoms. This powerful expansionist society not only interacted with and influenced the development of state structures on its northern and eastern borders, but it also provided models of discourse about the relationship between centralizing power and group solidarity. These discourses were not simply adopted by the Franks’ neighbors, but rather they became part of the range of possible options selectively adapted to local circumstances.

Rethinking Virtue, Reforming Society
New Directions in Renaissance Ethics, 1400-1600
Ed. by David A. Lines, Sabrina Ebbersmeyer
approx. pp. x + 320, 160 x 240 mm, 2008, CURSOR 3, HbK, ISBN 978-2-503-52524-2, approx. €60. Publication scheduled for Autumn 2008.

This volume presents to a broader public the findings of scholars who have worked on ethics in contexts as diverse as literature, philosophy, theology, and history of education. It treats issues that concern anyone studying the Renaissance.

Valentina Prosperi
The Fate of Lucretius in the Italian Renaissance
Di soavi licor gli orli del vaso
approx. pp. x + 240, 160 x 240 mm, 2008, CURSOR 4, HbK, ISBN 978-2-503-52627-0, approx. €60. Publication scheduled for 2008.

Through a wide and detailed analysis of ancient and early modern sources, the book sheds new light not only on Lucretian survival and reception in the Cinquecento, but, through the case study of Tasso, also on the delicate balance between compliance to Catholic censorship and proud self-consciousness in XVIth century Italian intellectuals.