Karl Leyser's intuitive and imaginative historical writing drew on deep reading in the primary sources and, above all, on an intimate knowledge of the major historians of the period displayed in this collection of his work. It was his contention that only through an understanding of the minds of such historians as Nithard, Regino of Prum, Widukind of Corvey and Thietmar of Merseburg, and a reconstruction of their outlook on the world, can we appreciate the aristocratic worlds which these historians depicted in their works.

Karl Leyser's intuitive and imaginative historical writing drew on deep reading in the primary sources and, above all, on an intimate knowledge of the major historians of the period displayed in this collection of his work. It was his contention that only through an understanding of the minds of such historians as Nithard, Regino of Prum, Widukind of Corvey and Thietmar of Merseburg, and a reconstruction of their outlook on the world, can we appreciate the aristocratic worlds which these historians depicted in their works.