Free summaries
History - Medieval/Middle Ages — page 2
66 public-domain history - medieval/middle ages books, summarised. Page 2 of 2.
Mirabilia descripta: The wonders of the East
Jordanus, Catalani, Bishop of Columbum, active 1302-1330
An observant traveler maps the geography of the medieval imagination, documenting the flora, fauna, and customs of the East with a mix of empirical curiosity and earnest, wide-eyed wonder.
Christianity and Islam
Carl Heinrich Becker
Far from being alien forces, Christianity and Islam share a deeply intertwined history, rooted in the same medieval intellectual soil and forged through centuries of mutual influence.
Beacon Lights of History, Volume 3 part 1: The Middle Ages
John Lord
The Middle Ages: A Chronicle of Power and Spirit The Middle Ages are often reduced to a simple narrative of decline, but this sweeping history reveals them as a complex, vibrant foundation for the modern world. Through a series of focused biographical portraits, the work traces the rise of empires, the struggles of…
The Early Irish Monastic Schools: A study of Ireland's contribution to early medieval culture
Hugh Graham
The early Irish monastic schools represent a lost, golden thread of continuity, bridging the intellectual divide between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the eventual rise of the medieval university. These institutions served as the primary guardians and disseminators of European literacy for several crucial…
Song and Legend from the Middle Ages
Unknown
A gateway to the foundational rhythms of the Western imagination, these collected poems and legends offer a panoramic view of the medieval soul.
Matelda and the cloister of Hellfde
of Magdeburg Mechthild
A medieval mystic’s long-lost journals reveal a soul’s intimate, often turbulent, dialogue with the divine. These writings bridge the gap between ancient solitary devotion and the enduring mystery of spiritual experience.
Science and Medieval Thought: The Harveian Oration Delivered Before the Royal College of Physicians, October 18, 1900
T. Clifford (Thomas Clifford) Allbutt
The history of human knowledge is not a clean, linear ascent, but a messy, turbulent, and deeply human struggle to reconcile our observation of nature with our desire for meaning.
Readings in the History of Education: Mediaeval Universities
Arthur O. Norton
This collection of primary documents invites readers to witness the birth of the university, stripping away centuries of abstraction to reveal the vivid, often contentious lives of medieval scholars and their teachers.
Ruysbroeck and the Mystics: with selections from Ruysbroeck
Maurice Maeterlinck
To read these pages is to step into a quiet, ancient forest where the boundary between human thought and the divine dissolves. It is an invitation to explore the profound, inward architecture of a soul seeking union with the absolute.
Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Antoine de La Salle
Antoine de La Sale
This collection of one hundred short, ribald tales serves as a window into the appetites and anxieties of the late medieval world. It is a work of candid, often cynical, humor that finds its primary entertainment in the subversion of domestic order.
The Chronicle of the Canons Regular of Mount St. Agnes
à Kempis Thomas
A quiet hill near Zwolle becomes a sanctuary of steady work, common property, and shared prayer against the backdrop of medieval plague and war.
Sword and crozier, drama in five acts
Indriði Einarsson
Set against the brutal backdrop of 13th-century Iceland, this stark historical drama follows a fracturing society where the ambitions of powerful chieftains collide with the encroaching, often hypocritical, influence of the Church.
The last age of the church
John Wycliffe
An urgent, apocalyptic warning from the fourteenth century, this text cries out against the moral decay of the Church. It captures a medieval world gripped by the fear that the end of time is near.
English fragments from Latin medieval service-books
Unknown
These fragile remnants of medieval service-books offer a rare, direct look at the English prayers and promises that once anchored the lives of ordinary people within the formal Latin liturgy.
The Supposed Autographa of John the Scot
Edward Kennard Rand
A scholarly detective story, this examination of medieval manuscripts systematically dismantles a celebrated attribution to uncover the true, collaborative nature of a philosopher’s working process.
A marvelous history of Mary of Nimmegen: Who for more than seven year lived and had ado with the devil
Harry Morgan Ayres
This medieval morality play captures the harrowing journey of a young woman who, cast out by a cruel relative, turns to the devil in a moment of despair and spends seven years bound to his service. It serves as a stark, vivid illustration of the infinite reach of divine mercy.
The Vigil of Brunhild: A Narrative Poem
Frederic Manning
The aged Queen of Austrasia, betrayed by her own nobles and facing a brutal execution, confronts her turbulent past in a final, meditative vigil. This narrative poem transforms a historical figure of violence into a tragic, reflective soul grappling with the remnants of her ambition and love.
A Hymn on the Life, Virtues and Miracles of St. Patrick: Composed by his Disciple, Saint Fiech, Bishop of Sletty
Fiech, Saint, Bishop of Sletty, active 6th century
A sixth-century verse chronicle traces the life, spiritual endurance, and miraculous mission of Ireland’s patron saint. This foundational poem preserves an ancient perspective on the conversion of a nation through the eyes of a direct disciple.