Thomas O'Donnell – författare

Fosterage was a central feature of medieval Irish society, yet the widespread practice of sending children to another family to be cared for until they reached adulthood is a surprisingly neglected topic. Where it has been discussed, fosterage is usually conceptualised and treated as a purely legal institution. This work seeks to outline the emotional impact of growing up within another family. What emerges is a complex picture of deeply felt emotional ties binding the foster family together. These emotions are unique to the social practice of fosterage, and we see the language and feelings originating within the foster family being used to describe other relationships such as those in the monastery or between humans and animals. This book argues that the more we understand how people felt in fosterage, the more we understand medieval Ireland.

Specialists in other languages offer perspectives on the widespread use of French in a range of contexts, from German courtly narratives to biblical exegesis in Hebrew.French came into contact with many other languages in the Middle Ages: not just English, Italian and Latin, but also Arabic, Dutch, German, Greek, Hebrew, Irish, Occitan, Sicilian, Spanish and Welsh. Its movement was impelled by trade, pilgrimage, crusade, migration, colonisation and conquest, and its contact zones included Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities, among others. Writers in these contact zones often expressed themselves and their worlds in French; but other languages and cultural settings could also challenge, reframe or even ignore French-users' prestige and self-understanding. The essays collected here offer cross-disciplinary perspectives on the use of French in the medieval world, moving away from canonical texts, well-known controversies and conventional framings. Whether considering theories of the vernacular in Outremer, Marco Polo and the global Middle Ages, or the literary patronage of aristocrats and urban patricians, their interlocutions throw new light on connected and contested literary cultures in Europe and beyond.

This is a practical manual for diagnostic testing, focusing on the historical and contemporary research on functional disorders in general, and functional visual disorders in particular. Functional Ophthalmic Disorders: Ocular Malingering and Visual Hysteria is a how-to manual that is written for the practicing ophthalmologist and optometrist, complete with color photos that allow the reader to see pictures of select diseases. In addition to the photos, videos are provided online to illustrate the various tests and possible results conducted on a mock patient to assist in the differential diagnosis. Written and edited by leaders in the field, some of the topics covered include history of functional disorders, ophthalmologic examination in malingering and techniques and tests for functional and simulated defects.

This is a practical manual for diagnostic testing, focusing on the historical and contemporary research on functional disorders in general, and functional visual disorders in particular.