Reading the Middle Ages, Volume I: Sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic World, c.300 to c.1150, Second Edition

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

Chapter 1: Prelude: The Roman World Transformed (c.300-c.600) -- A Christianized Empire -- 1.1 Toleration or favoritism? Edict of Milan (313) -- 1.2 Law: The Theodosian Code (438) -- 1.3 Plague: Gregory the Great, Letter to Bishop Dominic of Carthage (600) -- Heresy and Orthodoxy -- 1.4 Heretics: A Donatist Sermon (c.318) -- 1.5 Orthodoxy's declaration: The Nicene Creed (325) -- Patristic Thought -- 1.6 Relating this world to the next: Augustine, The City of God (413-426) -- 1.7 Monasticism: The Benedictine Rule (c.530-c.560) -- Saintly Models -- 1.8 The virginal life: Jerome, Letter 24 (To Marcella) (384) -- 1.9 The eremetical life: Athanasius, Life of St. Antony of Egypt (357) -- 1.10 The active life: Sulpicius Severus, The Life of St. Martin of Tours (397) -- 1.11 St. Radegund as ascetic: Venantius Fortunatus, The Life of St. Radegund (before c.600) -- 1.12 St. Radegund as relic collector: Baudonivia, The Life of St. Radegund (c.600) -- Barbarian Kingdoms -- 1.13 Gothic Italy as Rome's heir: Cassiodorus, Variae (State Papers) (c.507-536) -- 1.14 Gothic Spain converts: The Third Council of Toledo (589) -- 1.15 Merovingian Gaul's bishop-historian: Gregory of Tours, History (576-594) -- Chapter 2: The Emergence of Sibling Cultures (c.600-c.750) -- The Resilience of Byzantium -- 2.1 Byzantine village life and the education of a saint: The Life of St. Theodore of Sykeon (7th c.) -- 2.2 The argument for icons: John of Damascus, On Holy Images (730s or early 750s) -- 2.3 The iconoclastic argument: The Synod of 754 -- 2.4 Vilifying the iconoclasts: The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor (before 818) -- The Formation of the Islamic World -- 2.5 Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry: Al-A'sha, Bid Hurayra Farewell (before 625) -- 2.6 The sacred text: Qur'an Suras 1, 53:1-18, 81, 87, 96, 98 (c.610-622) -- 2.7 Umayyad diplomacy: The Treaty of Tudmir (713) -- 2.8 Taxation: A Tax Demand in Egypt (710) -- 2.9 Praising the caliph: Al-Akhtal, The Tribe Has Departed (c.692) -- The Impoverished but Inventive West -- 2.10 A world explained by words: Isidore of Seville, Etymologies (c.615-c.630) -- 2.11 A modern martyr in Francia: The Passion of Leudegar (680s) -- 2.12 The settlement of disputes: Judgment of Childebert III (709 or 710) -- 2.13 Reforming the Continental church: Letters to Boniface (723-726) -- 2.14 Creating a Roman Christian identity for England: Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731) Chapter 7: Discordant Harmonies (c.1250-c.1350) -- East Central Europe in Flux -- 7.1 The Mongol Challenge: The Secret History of the Mongols (first half of the 13th c.) -- 7.2 A Mongol reply to the pope: Guyuk Khan, Letter to Pope Innocent IV (1246) -- 7.3 The Hungarian king bewails the Mongol invasions: Bela IV, Letter to Pope Innocent IV (c.1250) -- 7.4 Poland as a frontier society: The Henrykow Book (c.1268) -- 7.5 The Lithuanian duke flirts with Christianity: Duke Gediminas, Letter to Pope John XXII (1322) and Letter to the Burghers of Lubeck, Rostock, Stralsund, Griefswald, Stettin, and Gotland (May 26, 1323) -- 7.6 Pagan Lithuania in Christian Europe: Peter of Dusburg, Chronicle of the Prussian Land (c.1320-1326) -- 7.7 Bulgaria claims a saint: The Short Life of St. Petka (Paraskeve) of Tarnov (13th c.) -- 7.8 Bulgaria and Venice regularize commercial relations: Oath and Treaty (1347) -- Transformations in the Cities -- 7.9 The popolo gains power: The Ghibelline Annals of Piacenza (1250) -- 7.10 The Hanseatic League: Decrees of the League (1260-1264) -- 7.11 Food scarcity at Constantinople: Athanasius I, Patriarch of Constantinople, Letter (1306-1307) -- 7.12 Too big to fail? A Great Bank Petitions the City Council of Siena (1298) -- Heresies and Persecutions -- 7.13 Inquisition: Jacques Fournier, Episcopal Register (1318-1325) -- 7.14 Procedures for isolating lepers: Sarum Manual (based on materials from c.1360s) -- 7.15 Jews in England: Statute of the Jewry (1275) and Petition of the "Commonalty" of the Jews (shortly after 1275) -- Rulers and Ruled -- 7.16 A charismatic ruler: Joinville, The Life of St. Louis (1272) -- 7.17 The commons participate: Summons of Representatives of Shires and Towns to Parliament (1295) -- 7.18 The pope throws down the gauntlet: Boniface VIII, Clericis laicos (1296) -- 7.19 The pope reacts again: Boniface VIII, Unam sanctam (1302) -- 7.20 The French king responds to Boniface: William of Plaisians, Charges of Heresy against Boniface VIII (1303) -- 7.21 Assembly of the Estates General in Paris: Grand Chronicles of France (1314) -- Modes of Thought, Feeling, and Devotion -- 7.22 Scholasticism: Thomas Aquinas, Summa against the Gentiles (1259-1264) -- 7.23 The vernacular comes into its own: Dante, Inferno, Canto V (Paolo and Francesca); Paradiso, Canto XXII (Meeting with St. Benedict) (1313-1321) -- 7.24 Medieval drama: Directions for an Annunciation Play (14th c.) -- 7.25 The feast of Corpus Christi: The Life of Juliana of Mont-Cornillon (1261-1264) -- Chapter 8: Catastrophe and Creativity (c.1350-c.1500) -- The Plague -- 8.1 A medical view: Nicephorus Gregoras, Roman History (1350s) -- 8.2 Processions at Damascus: Ibn Battuta, Travels (before 1368) -- 8.3 Prayers at York: Archbishop William, Letter to His Official at York (July 1348) -- 8.4 Blaming the Jews: Heinrich von Diessenhoven, On the Persecution of the Jews (c.1350) -- 8.5 A legislative response: Ordinances against the Spread of Plague at Pistoia (1348) -- The Ottomans -- 8.6 A Turkish hero: Ashikpashazade, Othman Comes to Power (late 15th c.) -- 8.7 Diplomacy: Peace Agreement between the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II and the Signoria of Venice (January 25, 1478) -- Byzantium: Decline and Fall -- 8.8 Before the fall: Patriarch Anthony, Letter to the Russian Church (1395) -- 8.9 The fall bewailed: George Sphrantzes, Chronicle (before 1477) -- 8.10 After the fall: Archbishop Genady of Novgorod and Dmitry Gerasimov, The Tale of the White Cowl (end of the 15th c.) -- War and Social Unrest -- 8.11 Chivalric and non-chivalric models: Froissart, Chronicles (c.1400) -- 8.12 National feeling: Jeanne d'Arc, Letter to the English (1429) -- 8.13 Patriotism in Italy: Petro Gentili's Speech to the Council and Citizens of Lucca (1397) -- 8.14 The commons revolt: Wat Tyler's Rebellion (after 1381) -- Crises and Changes in the Church and Religion -- 8.15 The conciliarist movement: Jean Gerson, Sermon at the Council of Constance (1415) -- 8.16 Taking part in the life of Christ: The Book of Margery Kempe (c.1430) -- 8.17 The Hussite program: The Four Articles of Prague (1420) -- The Renaissance -- 8.18 Re-evaluating antiquity: Cincius Romanus, Letter to His Most Learned Teacher Franciscus de Fiana (1416) -- 8.19 A new theory of art: Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting (1435-1436) -- 8.20 Defending women: Christine de Pisan, The Book of the City of Ladies (1404-1407) -- Finding a New World -- 8.21 A new kind of map: Gabriel de Valseca, Portolan Map (1447) -- 8.22 Taking Mexico: Hernan Cortes, The Second Letter (1520)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 505-513) and index