Suchergebnisse

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- Introduction. The Persistence of Robots: An Archaeology of Automata -- Chapter 1. Rare Devices: Geography and Technology -- Chapter 2. Between Art and Nature: Natura artifex, Neoplatonism, and Literary Automata -- Chapter 3. Talking Heads: Astral Science, Divination, and Legends of Medieval Philosophers -- Chapter 4. The Quick and the Dead: Corpses, Memorial Statues, and Automata -- Chapter 5. From Texts to Technology: Mechanical Marvels in Courtly and Public Pageantry -- Chapter 6. The Clockwork Universe: Keeping Sacred and Secular Time -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments

For the first time, this study examines in depth how the medieval Japanese masters of Heiho - the Art of War - sought to interpret, illustrate and transmit the principles of China's time-honoured military strategist Sun-Tzu during possibly the most turbulent period of Japanese history, the war-torn Muromachi period (c. 1350 - 1575). In these two centuries a number of gifted warriors, steeped in the teachings of Sun-Tzu and the Chinese Military Classics, developed their own concepts of the arts of warfare, expressed in personal combat, to heights of formidable effectiveness. Rather than consider the weaknesses and strengths of the medieval military command structures, the author focuses instead on certain basic strategies still to be found in the upper levels of these individual masters' teachings, some of which have fortunately survived the five hundred or more years that have elapsed since these strategists passed away. Sun-Tzu's lasting legacy was encapsulated in one simple statement: 'All warfare is based on deception'. This volume, supported by a sixteen-page Plate Section, demonstrates how, and from where, some of these master swordsmen derived their unique understanding of these ancient teachings

The Medieval Salento explores the visual and material culture of people who lived and died in this region between the ninth and fifteenth centuries, showing the ways Jews, Orthodox Christians, and Roman-rite Christians used images, artifacts, and texts in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin to construct both independent and intersecting identities

"What do the mysterious Roman author Vegetius, the Byzantine emperor Leo VI, and the Chinese general Li Jing all have in common? They are three of the dozens of authors across the medieval Mediterranean world and beyond who wrote works of military literature, sometimes called military handbooks, manuals, or treatises. This book brings together a multidisciplinary international team of scholars who present cutting edge essays on diverse aspects of medieval military literature. While some chapters offer novel approaches to familiar authors like Vegetius, and some present research on under-valued topics like Byzantine military illustrations, others provide holistic studies on subjects like early modern treatises, they all move the discussion of medieval military literature forward. Contributors are Michael B. Charles, Georgios Chatzelis, Pierre Cosme, Maxime Emion, Immacolata Eramo, Michael Fulton, David Graff, John Haldon, Catherine Hof, John Hosler, Łukasz Różycki, Katharina Schoneveld, Savvas Kyriakidis, Georgios Theotokis, Conor Whately, Michael Whitby, and Nadya Williams"--

The author outlines the development of the undisciplined barbarian war bands of the Dark Ages into the feudal armies of the early Middle Ages. It deals with the arms and equipments of the soldier, not only from surviving specimens but also from descriptions in contemporary medieval documents. Vesey Norman covers the slow development of tactics and the transition of the warrior from a personal follower of a war leader to the knight who served his feudal overlord as a heavily armored cavalryman in return for land. He details the attitude of the Church to warfare, the rise of chivalry and the development of the knights of the military orders, the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights. He answers such questions as what classes of men made up the army, who commanded them, and how they were equipped, paid and organized. Since armies frequently has to be transported by water, a brief description of contemporary ships in included.

Generals and Scholars is the first work in English to examine fully military rule during the Koryo. Although it lasted for only a century, the period was one of dynamic change -- a time of institutional development, social transformation, and the reassertion of the civil service examination and Confucian ideology coupled with the flowering of Son (Zen) Buddhism.

Few historians have argued so persuasively as Bernard S. Bachrach for the study of warfare as demanding of scholarly attention. In his many publications Bachrach has established unequivocally the relevance of military activity for an understanding of medieval European societies, polities, and mentalities. In so doing he has helped to define the status quaestionis for the field of medieval military history. This volume pays tribute to its honoree by gathering seventeen original studies from an international roster of leading experts in the military history of medieval Europe