Sacred Fictions of Medieval France


Book Description

A study of the immensely popular "lives" of Christ and the Virgin in medieval France.




A Companion to the Medieval Theatre


Book Description

Vince has provided a useful and, for the most part, usable reference work. His introduction should be required reading for anyone approaching medieval theater. Choice Scholars increasingly see medieval theatre as a complex and vital performance medium related more closely to political, religious, and social life than to literature as we know it. Reflecting the current interest in performance, A Companion to the Medieval Theatre presents 250 alphabetically arranged entries offering a panoramic view of European and British theatrical productions between the years 900 and 1550. The volume features 30 essays contributed by an international group of specialists and includes many shorter entries as well as systematic cross-referencing, a chronology, a bibliography, and a full complement of indexes. Major entries focus on the theatres of the principal linguistic areas (the British Isles, France, Germany, Iberia, Italy, Scandinavia, the Low Countries, and Eastern Europe), and on dramatic forms and genres such as liturgical drama, Passion and saint plays, morality plays, folk drama, and Humanist drama. Other articles examine costume, acting, pageantry, and music, and explore the theatrical dimension of courtly entertainment, the dance, and the tournament. Short entries supply information on over one hundred playwrights, directors, actors and antiquarians whose contributions to the theatre have been documented. This informative guide brings new depth to our appreciation of the richness and color of medieval public entertainments and the symbolism and pageantry that were a part of daily life in the Middle Ages. Designed to appeal to general reader, this volume is also an attractive choice for libraries serving students and scholars of theatre history, English and European literatures, medieval history, cultural history, drama, and performance.




European Drama of the Early Middle Ages


Book Description

First published in 1974, European Drama of the Early Middle Ages stresses the distinctive variety of the dramatic traditions, both secular and religious, and shows that throughout the period the popular and profane was a constant and lively source of enrichment to the mainstream of charge drama.Dr Axton reconstructs the forms and conventions of the major secular traditions and analyses in detail some of the finest plays of the period from traditions as various as the twelfth century Latin music dramas and the unique drama of Arras in Northern France. Turning finally to late medieval English drama he illustrates and underlines his main theme of the largely unrecognised influence of secular traditions on both the morality and cycle plays. The period from 900 to 1400 was remarkable, as Richard Axton demonstrates, for a dramatic range which accommodated the bawdy, the crude and the fantastic beside the solemn and sacred in its constant preoccupation with man and his identity. This is a must read for scholars and researchers of English and European Literature.




Handbook of Medieval Studies


Book Description

This interdisciplinary handbook provides extensive information about research in medieval studies and its most important results over the last decades. The handbook is a reference work which enables the readers to quickly and purposely gain insight into the important research discussions and to inform themselves about the current status of research in the field. The handbook consists of four parts. The first, large section offers articles on all of the main disciplines and discussions of the field. The second section presents articles on the key concepts of modern medieval studies and the debates therein. The third section is a lexicon of the most important text genres of the Middle Ages. The fourth section provides an international bio-bibliographical lexicon of the most prominent medievalists in all disciplines. A comprehensive bibliography rounds off the compendium. The result is a reference work which exhaustively documents the current status of research in medieval studies and brings the disciplines and experts of the field together.




The Vengeance of Our Lord


Book Description

Analyzes the medieval dramatic tradition of history plays (Vengeance of Our Lord) on the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, 70 CE, which enjoyed widespread popularity in the 14th-16th centuries in Germany, France, England, Spain, and Italy. Describes the development of the tradition, and shows how medieval dramatists made use of antisemitic stereotypes and transformed the distant non-Christian past to address contemporary Christian audiences. Traces the sources of this dramatic tradition to Hesegippus's translation of Josephus Flavius in which the fall of Jerusalem is interpreted by Hesegippus as God's punishment of the Jews for deicide, to Church sermons on the Gospels, and to the Vindicta Salvatoris genre describing Titus as a recent convert leading a Christian crusade against deicide Jews who reject the true faith. Includes microfiche reproductions of "Ludus de assumptione beatae Mariae virginis, " "Gothaer Botenrolle, " and Eustache Marcade's "La vengance Jhesucrist."




Bibliography of Medieval Drama


Book Description

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1954.




Music and Ceremony at Notre Dame of Paris, 500-1550


Book Description

This book is a history of the early musical life of the Parisian cathedral of Notre Dame. All aspects of the musical establishment of Notre Dame are covered, from Merovingian times to the period of the wars of religion in France. Nine discrete essays discuss the history of Parisian chant and liturgy and the pattern and structure of the cathedral services in the late Middle Ages; Notre Dame polyphony and the composers most closely associated with the cathedral, among them Leoninus, Perotinus and Philippe de Vitry; the organ and its repertoire; the choir, the musical education and performing traditions; and the relationship of the cathedral to the court.




Dramatic Texts and Records of Britain


Book Description

In 1800 entries this valuable reference work covers texts and records of dramatic activity for about 400 sites in Britain from Roman times to 1558. Grouped in sections - texts listed chronologically; Records of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Other, classified by county, site, and date; and doubtful texts and records - the entries summarize the contents of each record and give bibliographic information. Professor Lancashire presents a comprehensive survey of almost every type of literary and historical record, document, and work: civic, church, guild, monastic, and royal court minutes and financial accounts; national records - Chancery, Parliament, Privy Council, Exchequer; royal proclamations; wills; local court rolls; jest-books, poems, prose treatises, sermons; archaeological remains, artifacts, illustrations. He brings together works in several normally unrelated fields: Roman theatre in Britain; medieval drama as such, including the Corpus Christi play and the moral play; court revels of the Tudors, and of their predecessors in England and Scotland; and finally Latin and Greek drama as played in Oxford and Cambridge colleges. An introduction outlines the history of early drama in Britain. Appendixes include indexes of about 335 towns or patrons with travelling players, complete with rough itineraries; about 180 playwrights; and about 320 playing places and buildings. There are illustrations, four maps, and a large general subject and name index.




The Latin Passion Play


Book Description

In this first comprehensive study of the Latin Passion play, Professor Sticca examines the medieval liturgical ceremonies commemorating the events in Christ's Passion and traces their gradual change in character from the contemplative to the dramatic. The author shows that while Christ's Passion became increasingly popular as one of the sacred mysteries beginning in the tenth century, new forces that allowed a more eloquent and humane visualization and description of Christ's anguish first appeared in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Professor Sticca analyzes the earliest extant Latin Passion play, the twelfth-century Montecassino codex, and compares it with other Latin and vernacular Passion plays. He refutes the traditional view that the Planctus Mariae is the germinal point of the Latin Passion play and then offers a new theory of its inception. As a literary form, the Latin Passion play appears to Professor Sticca as a creation of the Montecassino monastic circle which was inspired by the liturgical services of Good Friday and the Gospel accounts. Particularly influential also were three themes that developed in the eleventh century: in liturgy, a concentration on Christocentric piety; in art, a more humanistic treatment of Christ; and in literature, a consideration of the scenes of the Passion as dramatic and human episodes. In the course of this investigation, Professor Sticca also reappraises traditional views of the origin of the medieval liturgical drama, indicating that it should not be traced exclusively to the tropes from the schools of St. Gall and St. Martial of Limoges, but rather to a number of sources.




Fifteenth-Century Studies


Book Description

This volume of Fifteenth-Century Studies is derived from the 1995 Fifteenth-Century Symposium, held in Kaprun, Austria. As usual, it includes essays on numerous aspects of life during the time:interdisciplinary in approach, topics include Piers Plowman, Christine de Pizan, and Ovid in the Florentine renaissance. Examinations of the recent critical attention given to late-medieval drama and to Villon complete the volume.