Felipe Fernández-Armesto is Professor of History at Tufts University, USA and James Muldoon is Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University, and Invited Research Scholar at The John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, USA.

• Contents: Introduction. Part 1 The Matrix: Mentality and Demography: The ascent of Latin Europe, Karl Leyser; On the evidence of growth of population in the West from the 11th to the 13th century, Léopold Génicot; The 'feudal' economy and capitalism: words, ideas and reality, Jacques Heers; Cultural climates and technological advance in the Middle Ages, Lynn White Jr. Part 2 Infrastructure and Ecology: Economic development and aquatic ecosystems in medieval Europe, Richard C. Hoffmann; The extent of the English forest in the 13th century, Margaret Ley Bazeley; The evolution of land transport in the Middle Ages, R.S. Lopez; A day's journey in medieval France, Marjorie Nice Boyer; The Cistercian order and the settlement of Northern England, R.A. Donkin. Part 3 The Rural Economy: The chronology of labour services, M. Postan; An Italian estate, 900-1200, P.J. Jones; Lords and peasants: a reappraisal of medieval economic relationships, M. Toch; An industrial revolution of the 13th century, E.M. Carus-Wilson. Part 4 Urban and Commercial Expansion: Urban evolution during the early Middle Ages, M. Lombard; Settlement patterns, urban functions and capital formation in medieval Flanders, D. Nicholas; Index.