Poverty and Prosperity in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Description

In this interdisciplinary and cross-cultural volume edited by Dr. Cynthia Kosso and Dr. Anne Scott, medieval and Early Modern historians and literary scholars unearth, define, and re-define the nature of poverty and prosperity. Through the exploration of texts, religious and spiritual behavior, statistics, class and gender issues, philosophical concepts, and figurative language, the authors investigate poverty and wealth in Middle Ages and Early Modern era. As the introduction to the volume states, “It stands to reason that the multitude of ways in which we represent and have discussed wealth or its absence; the myriad conditions that make us either rich or poor, prosperous or impoverished; and the ways in which we have maintained the better condition or have ameliorated the worse have captured our imaginations and intellect, as they continue to do today.” These essays provide a nuanced examination of the conceptualization and material representation of two terms that help define and shape our very existence today. Drs. Kosso and Scott are the editors of Fear and its Representations in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (2002) and The Nature and Function of Water, Baths, Bathing, and Hygiene from Antiquity through the Renaissance (2009). Front Matter (“Table of Contents”), p. i Free Access Introduction, p. vii Anne Scott, Cynthia Kosso https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101052 Model Rulers and Royal Misers: Public Morality among the Merovingian Aristocracy, p. 3 Alicia Mckenzie https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101053 Living on Loss: Poverty and Wealth in Shakespeare's Sonnets, p. 25 Roy Neil Graves https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101054 A Sham, Pretense, and Hypocrisy? Poverty in The Book of Concord of 1580, p. 55 Jayson S. Galler https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101055 Promiscuous Monks and Naughty Nuns: Poverty, Sex, and Apostasy in Later Medieval England, p. 75 Christian D. Knudsen https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101056 Approaching Poverty in the Medieval Countryside, p. 95 Phillipp R. Schofield https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101057 From Caritas to Charity: How Loving God Became Giving Alms, p. 113 Eliza Buhrer https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101058 The Bonds of Charity: Charitable and Liturgical Obligations in Bolognese Testaments, p. 129 Matthew Thomas Sneider https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101059 Poverty and Charity: Jews in the Medieval Islamic World, p. 143 Mark R. Cohen https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101060 The Voice of the Poor and the Tin Ear of Nineteenth-Century English Medievalism, p. 155 Charles W. Connell https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101061 Comparing Spiritual and Material Goods: Poverty and Prosperity in The Pilgrimage of the Soul and Everyman, p. 179 Rosemarie McGerr https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101062 Innocent IV, John XXII, and the Michaelists on Corporate Poverty, p. 197 Jonathan Robinson https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101063 Traders, Vagabonds, Incarnate Christs, and Pilgrims: The Religious Network of Danilo Filippov, 1650–1850, p. 225 J. Eugene Clay https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101064 The Poor, the Secular Courts, and Access to Justice in Thirteenth-Century France, p. 241 Ada-Maria Kuskowski https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101065 Rich or Poor? Alfred’s Prose Boethius and the Poetic Economy of Anglo-Saxon Exposition, p. 259 Tiffany Beechy https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101066 Wealth, Weber, and Whig Historiography: Reading George Herbert’s “Business”, p. 279 Ronald W. Cooley https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101067 The Economy of the Turnip: Contributions of the Rapularius to the Medieval Debate on Greed, p. 293 Sally Livingston https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101068 Ferocious Appetites: Hunger, Nakedness, and Identity in Sixteenth-Century American Encounters, p. 303 Heather Martel https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ASMAR-EB.1.101069 Back Matter (“Notes on Contributors”, “Index”), p. 323