Trade, tribute and household responses

This volume examines the politics of space in the most densely urbanized areas of Europe during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. It ranges from Italy to the Parisian region and then to the greater Low Countries, home of Europe's most powerful commercial cities of the period. Hardly inert sites on which political action took place, the spaces these authors investigate conferred power on those who possessed them. At the same time they were themselves transformed by the struggles, thus acquiring new powers that invited future contest. Thus implicitly responding to Georges Lefebvre's claim that space is "produced", the authors ask how space was perceived and used in everyday life, giving specific spaces cultural, social, and political coherence ("le perçu"); how it was represented or theorized, thus encoded in symbols, maps and laws ("le conçu"); and how it was lived, in effect the result of the dialectical relation between the perceived and the represented ("le vécu").

The authors propose a periodization of the history of the Donbas lands during the High and Late Middle Ages. The beginning of a large cycle of migration processes caused by the invasion of the Oghuz tribes invasion was a marker of the High Middle Ages in the region. The demographic crisis at the end of the 14th century is considered as a marker of the beginning of the Late Middle Ages. Generally, the Middle Ages come to an end at the late 16th century when the southern borders of the Muscovite state were systematically moving further into the steppe. Particular attention should be paid to the characteristics of the regional features of the transitional periods from the Late Middle Ages to the Modern Era: there was a change in the vector of ethnic and political dominance in the middle and lower reaches of the Seversky Donets. Conditional periods and epochs, identified according to ethno-cultural and political criteria, are as close as possible to the existing conventional periodization. The proposed local model of the periodization of the history of the Donbas lands largely does not coincide with the periodization of the history of the neighboring regions of southern Eastern Europe. The elaboration of subdivided periodization permits us to more accurately reflect the features of the historical process in the region as parts of global history. Civilization criteria of periodization become more significant in the transition from the characteristics of epochs to the characteristics of specific periods. Migration processes are an important criterion for distinguishing between different epochs. Economic and ethnopolitical processes are of decisive importance for identifying periods of local history. A distinctive feature of the evolution of the lifestyle of medieval nomads was the trend towards sedentarization, the increase in the complexity of the food supply, and the development of sedentary settlement strategies. The principles of elaborating the periodization, tested in this study, can be used in discussing the problems of periodization of global history. Discussion of variants for periodization of local history leads to the improvement of the necessary conceptual apparatus. In the context of the periodization of the history of Donbas, the term “Middle Ages” is largely a conditional concept, different from the classical model.

During the Late Middle Ages, the practice of fasting among religious women in an attempt to follow a pious and ascetic life was common. In this paper, three cases of medieval religious women are described with a particular attention to the figure of St. Catherine of Siena, her life, popularity, and iconography. In the Middle Ages, holy fasting was characterized by a refusal to eat that could involve binging and purging, lack of menstruation, an interest in cooking for others, and in some cases death due to inanition. In the Medieval narratives of fasting holy women, we can see patterns that are compatible with symptoms of anorexia nervosa. From a psychiatric perspective, it is possible to elucidate and understand the practice of fasting among religious people in the Late Middle Ages.

Scholars of the Middle Ages have demonstrated an increasing awareness of the profound importance of biblical exegesis in the formation of medieval theology, and indeed of medieval society as a whole. This article will examine one specific aspect of medieval biblical exegesis, namely the role of the literal sense in the determination of truth in the Late Middle Ages. In fact, the very concept of the literal sense was expanding in its range and complexity at this time, especially as theologians developed theories of authorship which could equate the literal sense of the text with the intended meaning of the author. In the case of Holy Scripture discerning the literal sense meant contending with both a divine and a human author. It was the Divine Author, however, who ultimately ratified the genuine meaning of the biblical text. And inasmuch as Holy Scripture formed the basis for Church doctrine in the Middle Ages, determining the divinely intended meaning of Scripture was tantamount to arriving at the truth of the Catholic faith itself. This study focuses upon five late medieval theologians: Richard FitzRalph, John Wyclif, Henry Totting de Oyta, Jean Gerson, and Paul of Burgos. Here we will examine the sophisticated methodologies they developed in their effort to bring the literal sense of the biblical text to bear in the determination of true doctrine.

Introduction. The images of Demetrius, Borys and Hlib, Archangel Michael, St. George constitute the largest number of monuments in the Ukrainian icon painting of the Late Middle Ages, which can be enlisted as a rank of holy warriors. Problem Statement. In icon painting of the Late Middle Ages the figures of warrior saints are presented with the added scenes of life and their activities. A detailed analysis of the iconographic, artistic and stylistic features of the icons of holy warriors in the context of the development of national culture will allow to analyze the images of the saints, to reveal the content of the works. Purpose of the article is to ostend of artistic-stylistic, compositional, iconographic, figurative-content content of works of icon painting of the second half of XIV – beginning of XVI century, in which the image of holy warriors are present with the life scenes and scenes of their deeds. Methods. In the article were uses general scientific methods: historical – in the reconstruction of the cultural situation of XIV – beginning of XVI century in the context of sacred art; systematic, with which it was possible to trace the dynamics of changes in the icon-painting canon of the holy warrior on the territory of Ukraine; comparative – in revealing stylistic tendencies in painting traditions on the basis of canonical plots of Orthodox icon painting; iconographic – in revealing the sign stability of images in the system of stylistic coordinates of the icon-canon, as well as stylistic changes that took place in the iconography of the studied period; art studies – to study the compositional-stylistic features of icon-painting monuments of this period. Results. On example of memorials of Ukrainian art with the depiction of warriors saints with the scenes of life revealed the images of holy warriors, analyzed compositional construction, iconography, artistic-stylistic features. Payed attention to the iconographic plot "Killing the dragon" presented in "expanded" and "laconic" variants, as a reflection of the scene of life and miracles of St. George. Conclusion images of life cycles of holy warriors in the art of the Late Middle Ages are a significant thematic group among the complex of Ukrainian icons. In the meanwhile, holy warriors portrayed frontal, full-length (iconographic type of foot soldier), with ascetic gaze, monumental interpretation of the image, expressive drawing. Since in the medium the artists depicted the soldiers in a severe static image, the figures of the saints in the stamps were more free and dynamic to reveal the narrative of the plot of their acts. Artistic-style features of icons depicting holy warriors late XIV-early XV centuries. continue the principles of painting Kievan Rus in combination with the traditions Paleologicheskogo icon-painting style. From the XV century in the icons there are elements of Gothic that manifested itself in the image of an elongated figure of soldiers, helmets, and weapons – a sword. Among the most common images of holy warriors is the figure of the Archangel Michael. In the mediator in the figure of a warrior, we see the embodiment of the image of the head over all angels, the military guard of the gates of paradise, the hero, who is the mediator between God and his people. Among the important attributes that appear in the art of the Late Middle Ages in the images of the Archangel is a symbolic stand, twisted in eight, symbolizing infinity and protecting from the dark forces of evil (Uroboros's image is a snake). In the figure of Demetrius of Thessalonica we see a popular Christian hero ready to defend his native land. In the images of the brothers Borys and Hlib, in the images of the living icon there are features of patriotism and asceticism. In the Ukrainian art of theXIV-XVІ centuries. The iconography of St. John became the most popular. George in the plot "Miracle of the Snake", which is known in two versions: "Expanded" and "Laconic". At the end of the fifteenth century. the iconic motif "Miracle of the Snake" is complemented by the scenes of the life of St. George On the icons of St. George is presented on a horse, piercing through a long thin spear the snake's mouth served in an amorphous form. The very image of the warrior is not endowed with features of courage and militancy, but rather interpreted as a manifestation of spiritual struggle between the monster and the saints. The composition reads the folk principle, which manifested itself in such attributes as keys, horns, profile of the Moon on the wings of the snake and associated with the holiday of spring.

In this work a comparative study of the classification of corporal punishments in the Spanish and English Law during the Early and Late Middle Ages is addressed. The purpose is to identify the differences and similarities in the corporal punishment methods. The differences are more marked in the Early Middle Ages, while the Visigoth legislation, mainly contained in Liber, sanctions most of the crimes committed by slavish prisoners with corporal punishments and the crimes committed by noble offenders with an out-of-court settlement, the English criminal law, built around the hieratic links of the tribe, is built around outlawry and blood-feud. The Anglo-Saxon royal punishment system, more homogeneous in the Late Middle Ages, is applied in all territories based on a simple classification of the crime: indemnifiable crime (misdemeanour), sanctioned by out-of-court settlements, and irreparable crime (felony and treason), punished by corporal punishment consisting of “member and life”. On the other hand, in Spanish territories, corporal punishments were given for crimes without any clear classification, and also because each territory had their own criminal sanction.

The region of Bruges (Flanders, Belgium) was an economic and cultural centre during the Late Middle Ages because it was connected to the North Sea via a large tidal inlet called the Zwin, along which smaller towns developed. One of these towns was Aardenburg (Zeeland, The Netherlands), which developed from a Roman castellum to become one of the important medieval towns in the hinterland of Bruges. Unfortunately, archaeological, historical and (palaeo)environmental data about the Roman to medieval evolution of the Zwin area are scarce. However, the continuous occupation of Aardenburg during the first millennium AD and its location on a Pleistocene sand ridge bordering the coastal plain provide a unique opportunity to investigate the natural dynamics of the coastal evolution and the interplay with the human impact that shaped the Zwin region before its heyday. The variable character of the depositional environments on the dynamic coastal plain makes local environmental studies essential for understanding larger patterns, which were previously reduced to a simplistic outdated model over the entire region. Palynological and diatom assemblages of two sequences in Aardenburg allow the reconstruction of the terrestrial and aquatic palaeoenvironments from the Middle Holocene to the high Middle Ages. The results reveal landscape evolution in relation to woodlands, peat bogs, coastal environments and human presence, consistent with previous regional landscape evolution. A distinct increase in marine influence during the Roman and early medieval periods, when human activities played a significant role, was followed by an increase in inland indicators from the high medieval period onwards. This evolution is in accordance with the expansion of the town and the reclamation of the coastal landscape as it evolved to become a cultural centre in the Late Middle Ages.

The following two chapters introduce aspects of popular revolt during the Italian wars that trace convergences with the late Middle Ages. First, Italy did not follow European paths north of the Alps with widespread insurrections comprised largely of peasants that cut across states and linguistic divides. From 1494 to 1559, peasant revolts increased (1) with extensions of the ‘German Peasants’ Revolt’ into northern Italy in 1524–25 and (2) with resistance against billeting and military abuses throughout this period. Their number, however, remained distinctly in the shadows of urban revolt. Second, alliances between urban and peasant rebels also increased. However, in comparison with other European regions, indifference or hostility between urban and rural rebels in Italy largely remained. Third, if mutinies of soldiers are discarded, economic revolts between employers and labourers were even sparser in Italy, 1494 to 1559, than they had been in the Middle Ages. The most striking exception was the year-long Lucchese revolt, called Gli Straccioni (1531–32), that began as a protest of silk workers against new impositions from their bosses, but like Florence’s revolt of the Ciompi in 1378, quickly grew into a revolt of the city’s popolo to extend political representation. Finally, Italy did not follow trends north of the Alps, where religious ideals and doctrines and the role of clerics became central to insurrection. Revolts spawned by religious ideology and influenced by clerics in Italy instead declined below levels even seen in the late Middle Ages.

This chapter reflects on popular memories and various manifestations of interest in the real or imaginary Middle Ages which circulated in the past three centuries. Often connected with political agendas that one tends to classify as “medievalism,” they bring in some important fragments of Central Europe’s “culture of memory” and ways in which modern colonial establishments use its past, “softly” shaping it to justify the recent revival of dictatorship in modern Central Europe. As far as one can reconstruct from modern collections of folklore, some medieval figures—popular saints, celebrated heroes, and rulers—came to be associated with folkloric motifs known world-wide, used as early as the late Middle Ages. Another form of medievalism, the Gothic Revival, reached the region in the mid-nineteenth century, when it was already in decline in Western Europe. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the major occasions for medievalist events were the millennial celebrations connected with the founding of the states in Central Europe more or less a thousand years earlier.

The epic tradition of the French chanson de geste gave way to chivalric romance towards the beginning of the thirteenth century; at the same time, the theatre developed from Church liturgy. The genius of Chretien the Troyes showed the way to a new narrative that was to become the novel (adaptations in prose did the rest) and the progressive emancipation of drama from Church liturgy led to the culture of Passion mysteries in the late Middle Ages. Such, at least, is the traditional presentation of the coming into being of the Aristotelian genres, retrospectively projected on French medieval literature, and that is what we are made to believe. This would mean that the chanson de geste was long extinct when drama evolved towards mystery plays, and that the world of chivalric romance is a world well apart from the so-called religious drama of the period 1450-1550. That is what literary tells us - it is not necessarily what the of literature as a more strictly historical discipline shows.1The aim of this essay is first of all to show that the late Middle Ages still cherished the chanson de geste, that 'chanter de geste' or gest-singing still was fairly common, and perhaps professional practice. Records from the account books of some major cities in Northern France clearly indicate the importance of this practice in municipal life. Sometimes, these performances were also regulated. Thus, a hitherto hidden practice reveals itself, which is of great consequence for the of French epic literature. Next to that first important finding, the second point is that it also is possible to show that professional singers of these gests were implicated in the organisation of mystery plays, and that they were actively sought after by municipalities in order to take things in hand when major productions were planned. Thereby, a totally new chapter in literary is opened, a new continuity is suggested, and an unexpected generic combination becomes possible. It is certainly a finding that is of some consequence for our consideration of medieval drama as drama and for gest-singing as a narrative practice, and it thus seems to re-address the issue already illustrated by Paul Zumthor in his book on the non-existence of medieval literature as such, and the problematic status of the fact within a culture of performance.2 From a different perspective on the same matter, and that will be the third subject addressed here, it is also possible to show that there are multiple records of mystery plays that are clearly related to chivalric and/or epic themes. Thenexistence further illustrates a possible and unexpected continuity in French of literature between a genre supposed extinct or obsolete in the late Middle Ages (don't we all know the romances or romans by Chretien de Troyes put an end to the old gests?) and a genre traditionally associated above all with the Passion of Christ, or more in general with religious themes, vetero-testamentary or hagiographical. That third aspect of the relationship between narratives of chivalry and dramatic productions, situated on a more thematic level, places the historical documents on gest-singers into a new perspective. It is difficult to evaluate, at present, what this all means for the of drama, of epics, or for literary in general, but is clear that we have, here, a radically new topic in theatre history. The term mystery, often synonymous to history or play in the records, will be used in the same free sense as our sources do.The three subjects thus treated, the position of gest-singers in the late Middle Ages, their implications in the organisation of performances, and records about chivalric or epic mystery plays, follow in no way a chronological order; there is no aim to claim some kind of evolutionary vision: quite on the contrary. The organisation of the material in a three-fold plan is for didactic purposes only - and readers are kindly invited to keep an eye on the dates (and places) mentioned below. …

This introductory chapter begins with a historical perspective of the Islamic world. Islam has grown consistently throughout history, expanding into new neighboring territories without ever retreating (except on the margins, as in Sicily and Spain, where it was expelled by force). It began in the seventh century as a small community in Mecca and Medina in the Arabian Peninsula, led by its messenger the Prophet Muhammad (d. 632), who was eventually to unite all the Arab tribes under the banner of Islam. Within the first two centuries of its existence, Islam came into global prominence through its conquests of the Middle East, North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, the Iranian lands, Central Asia, and the Indus valley. In 2014, the year 1435 of the Muslim calendar, the Islamic world was estimated to account for a population of approximately a billion and a half, representing about one-fifth of humanity. The remainder of the chapter discusses the evolution of Islamic political thought; foundations of Islamic political thought; and Islamic political thought in the early Middle Ages (750–1055), high Middle Ages (1055–1258), late Middle Ages (1258–1500), early modern period (1500–1800), and later modern period (from 1800 to the present).

Jews, Christians, and Muslims all have a common belief in the sanctity of a core holy scripture, and commentary on scripture (exegesis) was at the heart of all three traditions in the Middle Ages. At the same time, because it dealt with issues such as the nature of the canon, the limits of acceptable interpretation, and the meaning of salvation history from the perspective of faith, exegesis was elaborated in the Middle Ages along the faultlines of interconfessional disputation and polemical conflict. This collection of thirteen essays by world-renowned scholars of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam explores the nature of exegesis during the High and especially the Late Middle Ages as a discourse of cross-cultural and interreligious conflict, paying particular attention to the commentaries of scholars in the western and southern Mediterranean from Iberia and Italy to Morocco and Egypt. Unlike other comparative studies of religion, this collection is not a chronological history or an encyclopedic guide. Instead, it presents essays in four conceptual clusters (Strategies of reading on the borders of Islam, Dominicans and their disputations, Authority and scripture between Jewish and Christian Readers, and Exegesis and gender: vocabularies of difference) that explore medieval exegesis as a vehicle for the expression of communal or religious identity, one that reflects shared or competing notions of sacred history and sacred text. This timely book will appeal to scholars and lay readers alike and will be essential reading for students of comparative religion, historians charting the history of religious conflict in the medieval Mediterranean, and all those interested in the intersection of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim beliefs and practices.

Reviewed by: Juden in der deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters: Religiöse Konzepte-Feindbilder-Rechtfertigungen Michael Toch Juden in der deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters: Religiöse Konzepte-Feindbilder-Rechtfertigungen, edited by Ursula Schulze. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2002. 290 pp.; 21 pictures. €56. This volume grew out of a research colloquium held at the Free University of Berlin by the editor, her (presumably) younger colleagues, and her students, that is, all scholars of German Philology and Literature. The editor is right in her observation that the analysis of German literature has played only a limited role in the research on Jews in the medieval German empire. The attempt to "grasp more fully the large cultural field of Christian-Jewish relations through a partial scope," that is, vernacular German literary texts of the Middle Ages, is thus a legitimate and promising one. The choice of topics for the eleven articles making up the volume was dictated by two needs: to be representative of the time from the onset of literary production in the German language in the 12th century up to the Reformation; and to be representative of the different literary genres developing in that period of the central and late Middle Ages. After an introduction by the editor, the volume opens with a section devoted to Christian-Jewish religious disputation, first in a 12th century chronicle and then in the double image of Church and Synagogue in visual art and literary genres (articles by Vera Milde and Monika Wolf). A second section titled "Semblances of Cultural Integration of Jews" moves to a pet question of German philology, Süßkind of Trimberg, the still puzzling appearance of a Jew writing courtly poetry in the German language (article by Ricarda Bauschke). A further article, by Annette Schmidt, deals with the oaths demanded of Jews in Christian courts. The third section charts the uniformly negative image of Jews in different literary genres: in vernacular preaching (by Ursula Schulze), through the motif of the "Jewish child in the furnace" in Christian legends (article by Cordula Hennig von Lange), and in the farces and carnival plays by Hans Folz (article by Matthias Schönleber), as well as in passion plays (by Florian Rommel). Two articles, by Nicole Spengler and Björn Berghausen, take up the way pogroms are represented and justified (mainly by recourse to the blood libel and accusation of host desecration) in literary works. The volume closes with a consideration by Stefan Nied of the emergence and diffusion of the motif of the "Eternal Wandering Jew." [End Page 154] This is a well-thought-out and balanced presentation of a topic that occupied medieval writers in the German tongue to an astonishing degree. It is also of contemporary impact, because literature was indeed a major avenue for the perpetuation of medieval Christian anti-Judaism into the early modern period and its eventual transformation into modern antisemitism. The main strength of the volume is the detailed treatment by which the different articles make clear how pervasive anti-Jewish attitudes were in medieval and early-modern literary discourse. One is also struck by the scatological vehemence and sheer brutality of the language employed, and not just in low-brow presentations of farce, but also in more refined genres such as chronicles and legends. The point made by some of the articles—a violent language for a relationship which basically had turned violent—is one well taken. However, exactly at this point a serious problem of the inter-relationship between reality and artistic expression arises. As rightly pointed out by the authors, by the later Middle Ages the anti-Jewish discourse had definitely taken on a life of its own, thus making it difficult to see it as a direct reflection of historical reality. One would have expected scholars of literature to be more aware of this problem. Of the articles in the volume, only one, by Annette Schmidt on Jewish oaths, attempts to come to grips with it. Yet another weakness inherent in the literary approach to historical reality is very apparent in the volume. Most of the case studies presented spend a lot of effort in reconstructing the theological framework of medieval...

The objective of this project is to examine and delineate regional differences within the Kingdom of Hungary (the Carpathian Basin in geographical terms) at the end of the Middle Ages. Whereas statistical data comparable to the modern period are unavailable for the Middle Ages, regional inequalities (the economic activity or inactivity of a region) can be approximated using indirect indicators. Given the relatively well-documented settlement network of the Carpathian Basin in the Late Middle Ages and the abundance of available data that can be employed as indicators (proxies), the project will utilise this methodology to construct a database for the time around 1500. The database will be processed in order to make regional differences in the late Middle Ages visible by means of various geospatial methods. Furthermore, comparisons will be made with maps of earlier and later periods, using similar methodologies. In addition, new datasets will be incorporated into the database for the eighteenth century, comprising data from Croatia north of the River Save and church censuses. The project will conclude with the production of a series of maps that will facilitate the identification of long-term processes, including changes over time, as well as their variable and stable elements. Moreover, the identification of regions within the Carpathian Basin that are permanently developed (active) or underdeveloped (inactive) may provide new perspectives for the formulation of regional development strategies in the present.

Reviewed by: The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages by Geraldine Heng Celeste Chamberland The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages. By Geraldine Heng. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 493 pages. $49.99 (cloth). Categories of race and ethnicity have long elicited heated debate about the complex ways in which structural conditions and differential access to power have shaped identity and social relations in the modern world. While such discussions have shed much light on contemporary racial paradigms, they have focused less on the pre-modern origins of racial thought. Canonical race theory, in particular, has provided crucial insight into the historical connections between systemic racism and cultural perceptions of race, but has typically focused on the construction of race as a modern phenomenon that emerged in tandem with colonial encounters alongside the Spanish Conquest and the Atlantic Slave Trade. While early modern [End Page 196] constructions of race undeniably aligned with practices of plunder and hegemony in the era of colonialism and imperialism, their ancient and medieval origins are generally overlooked by scholars who have typically regarded the category of race as too presentist to appropriately characterize categories of identity prior to the sixteenth century. As Geraldine Heng persuasively asserts in The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages, however, long before the advent of modern constructions of epidermal race, Europeans developed discourses of colonialism as ideological justification for occupying the territories of others and marginalizing Jewish and Muslim communities in their midst. Heng’s masterful analysis traces the nebulous formation of race alongside configurations of power and discourses of difference in medieval Europe. Identifying the development of pre-modern racial disparity and prejudice, as Heng asserts, is not only vital to our understanding of medieval history, but also illuminates contemporary categories of race, since the interplay of the past and the present continues to inform racial thought and the pervasiveness of systemic racism. By providing heretofore widely overlooked historical context through the lens of an innovative multidisciplinary methodological framework, The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages will undoubtedly initiate crucial scholarly discussions about the pre-modern origins of race that will likely be of great interest to medieval scholars and critical race theorists alike. Inasmuch as the construction of pre-modern racial thought reflects the shifting intersections of religious dogma, legal theory, mercantile capitalism, and expressions of cultural belief, The Invention of Race adopts a thematic scheme of organization that effectively underscores the complex processes of othering that unfolded from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries. As Heng incisively contends, ideas of race in medieval Europe were not only formed as a result of colonial encounters in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, but were also expressed in the cultural treatment of Jews, the conquest of neighboring Christian countries, and anti-Islamic sentiment in the high and late Middle Ages. By focusing on themes [End Page 197] of state, color, empire, slavery, and the European imagination across Europe, Heng’s analysis effectively reflects the complexities of numerous sites and contexts of racial formation. The book, moreover, assesses nascent pre-modern racial thought through the methodological lens of medieval studies and draws theoretical inspiration from an array of disciplines, ranging from Queer Studies to Postcolonial Theory. Rather than merely cataloguing or describing taxonomies of race and ethnicity in medieval Europe, Heng’s aim is to provide new paradigms and an appropriate model with which the notion of pre-modern race can be approached. By considering the construction of race within the context of early Christian Europe, Heng’s brilliant volume not only contributes a sorely needed dimension to the existing scholarship on race, but also sheds light on a central, but long overlooked, component of the socio-cultural history of medieval Europe. In recent years, some medievalists, notably Robert Bartlett and Peter Biller, have addressed the concept of race in medieval Europe, but they have generally focused exclusively on the somatic and biological features of race, such as bloodline, purity, and physiognomy. As Heng ably demonstrates in this shrewd work, however, such narrow focuses overlook the socio-cultural determinants of race in the Middle Ages, particularly religion and concepts of barbarity and civility...