Francesca Petrizzo – författare

A translation of The Book of the Civilised Man by Daniel of Beccles brings to light the social and cultural life of medieval people in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries through a previously little-known text.

Known in Latin as Urbanus magnus, it is a complex and illuminating text which covers an array of topics related to social mores in the Middle Ages, including: how to be a good and moral citizen, how to dine courteously, how to maintain standards of hygiene, how to regulate your diet, and how to run your household.

Often described as one of the earliest ‘courtesy texts’, this translation will reveal a text which cannot be easily categorised in any genre but is relevant widely for anyone with an interest in medieval life. An expansive text of enormous breadth, this translation will provide scholars new insight in areas such as social hierarchy, citizenship, morality, friendship, family ties, household administration, food consumption, standards of etiquette, and much more.

A translation of The Book of the Civilised Man by Daniel of Beccles brings to light the social and cultural life of medieval people in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries through a previously little-known text.

Known in Latin as Urbanus magnus, it is a complex and illuminating text which covers an array of topics related to social mores in the Middle Ages, including: how to be a good and moral citizen, how to dine courteously, how to maintain standards of hygiene, how to regulate your diet, and how to run your household.

Often described as one of the earliest ‘courtesy texts’, this translation will reveal a text which cannot be easily categorised in any genre but is relevant widely for anyone with an interest in medieval life. An expansive text of enormous breadth, this translation will provide scholars new insight in areas such as social hierarchy, citizenship, morality, friendship, family ties, household administration, food consumption, standards of etiquette, and much more.

This is the first translation of the Hystoria de via or ‘Monte Cassino Chronicle,’ one of the few surviving crusader sources from Southern Italy, where it was probably compiled (partly from known sources) between the 1130s and 1140s.

The chronicle’s original sections offer new and fresh insight on the knowledge and reception of the First Crusade in Southern Italy, and the devotional and pilgrimage practices which surrounded it. The introduction contextualises the chronicle in the environment which produced it, discussing the historiographical tradition at Montecassino, the likely sources for the Hystoria, and its significance as an original source. The introduction also comments extensively on the theological framework of the Hystoria, which offers an intensely religious view of the crusade as pilgrimage, and insists particularly on the primacy of violence in its vision of Christian devotional practice, and the crusade as continuous movement through suffering for the pilgrims. The translation, which is both faithful to the text and highly readable, is accompanied by detailed references and a full commentary.

The volume makes an important addition to the canon of crusader sources and provides a little-known example for specialists of the literature of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.

This is the first translation of the Hystoria de via or ‘Monte Cassino Chronicle,’ one of the few surviving crusader sources from Southern Italy, where it was probably compiled (partly from known sources) between the 1130s and 1140s.

The chronicle’s original sections offer new and fresh insight on the knowledge and reception of the First Crusade in Southern Italy, and the devotional and pilgrimage practices which surrounded it. The introduction contextualises the chronicle in the environment which produced it, discussing the historiographical tradition at Montecassino, the likely sources for the Hystoria, and its significance as an original source. The introduction also comments extensively on the theological framework of the Hystoria, which offers an intensely religious view of the crusade as pilgrimage, and insists particularly on the primacy of violence in its vision of Christian devotional practice, and the crusade as continuous movement through suffering for the pilgrims. The translation, which is both faithful to the text and highly readable, is accompanied by detailed references and a full commentary.

The volume makes an important addition to the canon of crusader sources and provides a little-known example for specialists of the literature of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.