The Middle Ages Unlocked

A unique guide to all aspects of life in the Middle Ages.

Book 8.5 in the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling Keeper of the Lost Cities series delivers what fans of the series have been begging for! Told in an exciting new way, the saga continues with plenty of huge reveals and shocking new twists—plus a complete series guide with beautiful black-and-white illustrations and other awesome bonuses! In this extra special installment of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, the story picks up right from Legacy’s particularly devastating cliffhanger. But chapters alternate between Sophie and Keefe’s perspectives to give readers deeper insights into both beloved characters. New powers will be discovered. Hard truths from the past will come to light. And all of your favorite characters will find themselves tested in ways they never imagined. And that’s not all! Unlocked also includes a comprehensive guide to the world of the Lost Cities, featuring new character and world details that have never been revealed before—plus fun bonuses like Keeper-themed recipes, a detailed map of the Lost Cities, gorgeous illustrations, and so much more!

During the Middle Ages, the Western world translated the incredible Arabic scientific corpus and imported it into Western culture: Arabic philosophy, optics, and physics, as well as alchemy, astrology, and talismanic magic. The line between the scientific and the magical was blurred. According to popular lore, magicians of the Middle Ages were trained in the art of magic in &“magician schools&” located in various metropolitan areas, such as Naples, Athens, and Toledo. It was common knowledge that magic was learned and that cities had schools designed to teach the dark arts. The Spanish city of Toledo, for example, was so renowned for its magic training schools that &“the art of Toledo&” was synonymous with &“the art of magic.&” Until Benedek L&áng&’s work on Unlocked Books, little had been known about the place of magic outside these major cities. A principal aim of Unlocked Books is to situate the role of central Europe as a center for the study of magic. L&áng helps chart for us how the thinkers of that day&—clerics, courtiers, and university masters&—included in their libraries not only scientific and religious treatises but also texts related to the field of learned magic. These texts were all enlisted to solve life&’s questions, whether they related to the outcome of an illness or the meaning of lines on one&’s palm. Texts summoned angels or transmitted the recipe for a magic potion. L&áng gathers magical texts that could have been used by practitioners in late fifteenth-century central Europe.

This book makes available for the first time in paperback the results of an important interdisciplinary conference held at Rutgers University in 1989. Eighteen internationally known specialists in linguistics, history, philology, Latin, and Romance languages tackle the difficult question of how and when Latin evolved into the Romance languages of French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Catalan. The result is a stimulating and open exchange that offers the most up-to-date and accessible coverage of the topic. Contributors are Paul M. Lloyd, Tore Janson, J&ózsef Herman, Alberto Varvaro, Thomas D. Cravens, Harm Pinkster, John N. Green, Roger Wright, Marc Van Uytfanghe, Rosamond McKitterick, Katrien Heene, Michel Banniard, Birte Stengaard, Carmen Pensado, Thomas J. Walsh, Robert Blake, Ant&ónio Emiliano, and Marcel Danesi.

"Uses a feudal model to analyze contemporary American society, comparing its essential characteristics to those of medieval European societies"--Provided by publisher.

"Presents and analyzes texts of learned magic written in medieval Central Europe (Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary), and attempts to identify their authors, readers, and collectors"--Provided by publisher.

Explores the worldwide popularity of the love-lock as a ritual token of love and commitment by considering its history, symbolism, and heritage. “[T]his is an eminently enjoyable and thorough investigation of a popular phenomenon through the lens of heritage and folk tradition.”—Sara De Nardi, Western Sydney University A padlock is a mundane object, designed to fulfil a specific – and secular – purpose. A contemporary custom has given padlocks new significance. This custom is ‘love-locking’, where padlocks are engraved with names and attached to bridges in declaration of romantic commitment. This custom became popular in the 2000s, and its dissemination was rapid, geographically unbound, and highly divisive, with love-locks emerging in locations as diverse as Paris and Taiwan; New York and Seoul; Melbourne and Moscow. From the introduction: I was distractedly perusing the photo frame aisle, my eyes skimming the generically sentimental stock pictures of happy families smiling at the camera, pretty landscapes, cute pets and couples walking hand-in-hand, when I came across one that jumped out at me.... I recognised the image instantly as a photograph of love-locks: the padlocks that had been appearing en masse on bridges and other public structures on a global scale since the early 2000s. And, having been researching the custom known as lovelocking for about five years at that point, it was with a peculiar sense of pride that I realised love-locks had accomplished the status of a stock image.

The year is 750 CE. Harald Sigurdsson, a Norse boy, signs onto a Viking ship, The Nameless, and agrees to serve its master, Thorkell Fairhair. As the ship sails out to plunder the coasts of England and Scotland, Harald sees men injured, drowned, and killed in battle, and Harald himself kills his first man with his Viking sword. The Viking Trilogy is a trilogy of juvenile historical novels by Henry Treece. They are Viking's Dawn, The Road to Miklagard and Viking's Sunset. Treece wrote several juvenile historical novels, some set during the viking era, and this trilogy is regarded as among his best. The three novels describe the adventures of Harald Sigurdson, a Norwegian viking. He goes on three voyages, which between them are representative of the various voyages which were made by the Vikings, and which take place at different stages in his life.