lamdha books -
Catalogue of books, CDs and DVDs relating to the medieval world in history, culture and the imagination

7495 Antal, Frederick. Florentine Painting and its Social Background The Bourgeois Republic before Cosimo de' Medici's Advent to Power XIV and early XV Centuries. Kegan Paul, 1965. Hardcover, quarto, 388pp., 160 monochrome plates. Lightly foxed prelims, spotted page edges; boards slightly rubbed at lower edges, but clean and solid; dustwrapper discoloured, creased, frayed, significant tears at edges and in panels. Very good in fair dustwrapper. Professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Professor Antal looking at Florence of the 14th and 15th centuries, one of the greatest epochs in the history of art, describes the social and economic condition, political opinions and the intellectual and scientific controversies of the day. In the second part the connection between this society and the works of art it produced is demonstrated and the theme magnificently illustrated by 160 pages of reproductions of Florentine paintings. The book is not intended to be confined to specialists and experts. Its methods of treatment has illuminated the subject for the general reader as the more orthodox books on works of art often fail to do. Click here to order $100

9244 Barber, Richard The Reign of Chivalry St. Martin's Press, New York, 1980. Hardback, quarto, 208 pp., b/w and colour illustrations. Faint foxing to prelims, minor wear, ink stains to page edges; good in dustwrapper chipped at edges, some sunning. Good to very good. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] Presenting a broad picture of the chivalric world, this work shows how chivalry, one of the most original concepts of the medieval mind, affected or was affected by great social movements, great writers and great events, as well as also analysing the legacy it has passed down to later ages. Click here to order $22

33531 Barlow, Frank Thomas Becket Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1986. Hardcover, 334pp., b/w illustrations. Foxed prelims, spotted page edges; boards rubbed, discoloured at edges; dustwrapper creased at edges, but bright and intact. Good in very good dustwrapper. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] How the murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral resulted in his becoming one of the most popular saints in Western Christendom and Canterbury one of the greatest pilgrim shrines in the West. In this biography, which is based on original sources, Professor Barlow follows the London merchant's son through his schooling and clerkships, to his election to the see of Canterbury and his quarrel with Henry II. The drama of the martyrdom and its effects on the main protagonists complete the story. Click here to order $25

44596 Bennett, J.A.W. Middle English Literature: Volume I, Part 2 Oxford University Press, New York, 1986. Hardcover, 496pp. Endpapers and page edges lightly toned. Dustwrapper lightly worn at edges. Very good. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] A comprehensive and authoritative study of English literature by one of the foremost English medievalists of the 20th century - an examination of works such as The Owl and the Nightingale, The Pearl, and Piers Plowman, as well as the work of religious writers such as Julian of Norwich, it bears witness to Professor Bennett's great erudition and to his characteristic sensitivity and elegance of style. Click here to order $35

32753 Bergman, Ingmar The Seventh Seal: DVD Hopscotch. New. Region 4. Widely acknowledged as one of the most important films of all time, The Seventh Seal follows a disillusioned knight returning from the crusades in the 14th century. Despite havng fought for Christianity he finds his faith has dissipated, and searches for proof of God's existence. Enter Death. With a black cowl and a white face, Death has come to fetch him. Antonius challenges Death to a game of chess. As long as they play, Antonius can live.This stunning allegory of man's apocalyptic search for meaning remains a textbook on the art of filmmaking almost fifty years after its release. Click here to order $33

32747 Bergman, Ingmar The Virgin Spring: DVD Hopscotch. New. Region 4. Derived from a medieval legend, this was Bergman's first film to win an Academy Award. When a devout young girl is raped and killed by herders, her deeply religious parents find their most sacred beliefs challenged. A dark, beautiful tale of revenge, religion, redemption and forgiveness in a society on the cusp of mysticism and Christianity. Click here to order $33

52575 Bingen, Hildegard von (Sinfonye) O Nobilissima Viriditas: CD The Complete Hildegard von Bingen Vol. 3 Celestial Harmonies. New. Click here to order $32

52573 Bingen, Hildegard von (Sinfonye) Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations: CD The Complete Hildegard von Bingen Vol. 1 Celestial Harmonies. New. Click here to order $32

52574 Bingen, Hildegard von (Sinfonye & Oxford Girls' Choir) Aurora: CD The Complete Hildegard von Bingen Vol. 2 Celestial Harmonies. New. Click here to order $32

57130 Bloch, R Howard A Needle in the Right Hand of God The Norman Conquest of 1066 and the Making and Meaning of the Bayeux Tapestry. Random House, New York, 2006. Hardcover, 230pp., b&w illustrations and colour plates that reproduce the complete Tapestry. Minor shelf and edge wear to dustwrapper. Otherwise, near fine. This work by Yale Professor Bloch begins with an account of the event that inspired the Bayeux Tapestry, the swift and bloody Battle of Hastings in 1066, and then explores the web of intrigue and scandal that culminated there and redrew the map of medieval Europe. As well as the historical aspects, Bloch also deals with the aesthetic, from the design to the actual manufacture of the 230-foot-long embroidered panorama, the various meanings of mythological design elements and the stitches and silks used. Bloch also deals with the way the Tapestry has been viewed, from medieval times through the French nationalists of the mid-19th century, who unearthed the lost epic "The Song of Roland", which Norman troops had sung in 1066, to Hitler's interest in its Nordic elements and his attempt to bring it to Berlin near the end of World War II. Click here to order $28

39891 Boase, Roger The Troubadour Revival A Study of Social Change and Traditionalism in Late Medieval Spain. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1978. Hardcover, 219pp., b/w illustrations. Owner's name on endpaper. Minor shelf and edge wear to dustwrapper; spine sunned. Very good otherwise. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] Chivalry and courtesy flourished in Europe in the late Middle Ages at a time when the relevance of such ideals to practical affairs was diminishing - as a dominant minority attempted to retreat into the past to preserve their cultural heritage, instead of adjusting to the social and economic changes of the period. The troubadour revival in Spain preached the ennobling power of love at the same time as it provided a cultural endorsement of traditional social stratification. The author applies the insights of history, sociology and economics to problems of literature and demonstrates the importance of the period to late Medieval culture. Click here to order $18

12755 Boccaccio, M Giovanni Decameron (4 vols.) Lippincott, London, 1895. Four volumes, hardcover, with illustrations from 1757 edition by Gravelot and co. Endpapers and pages spotted. Endpaper with bookplate of previous owner as well as bookseller's sticker and name. Spines slightly sunned. Some minor wear to boards, no dustwrapper. Otherwise good. "The Decameron of Boccaccio is now presented to English readers as a classic - a position to which it is entitled, not alone by its graces of style, its wit, and its interesting pictures of social life at and about the great Revival of Letters and Arts, but also on account of the influence which it has exercised upon English literature from the days of Chaucer down to our own time." This late Victorian edition comes with illustrations reproduced from the plates engraved for the celebrated edition of 1757. Click here to order $60

14340 Boyle, David The Troubadour's Song The Capture and Ransom of Richard the Lionheart. Walker & Co., New York, 2005. Hardcover, large 8vo, 369pp., b/w photographs. New. Remainder. The story of the arrest in 1192 of Europe's most powerful king, England's Richard the Lionheart on his way back home from Jerusalem, illustrates the turbulent world of the late twelfth century, when the realities of violence and geopolitics were juxtaposed against chivalric ideals, courts of love and unparalleled tolerance. Boyle recreates the drama of the Third Crusade and the dynamic power politics and personalities of the age, as well as the full story of how Richard came to be in the hands of the Holy Roman Emperor and the effects of the ransom paid by his powerful mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, that secured his release. He also evokes the world of the troubadours, the emergence of Gothic cathedrals such as Chartres and a new culture of music, romance and chivalry through the legend of Blondel, troubador and Richard's own minstrel, who supposedly journeyed across central Europe singing a song he knew Richard would recognise in hope of finding the king. Click here to order $20

37609 Brooke, Christopher with Keir, Gillian The History of London London 800-1216: The Shaping of a City. Secker & Warburg, London, 1975. Hardcover, 424pp., b&w illustrations. Minor wear, very good in like dustwrapper. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] A study of London during the years of urban renaissance of the Early and High Middle Ages when it emerged from its Roman past and came into its new identity as a European capital. From reconstructing the physical nature of London from a unique and vivid contemporary description and details of the maze of parishes, wards and streets, to an examination of its social strata with the personalities and nature of its government placed in the larger commercial world of the age, and lastly its ecclesiastical history, with churches large and small reflecting the aspirations of the citizens and a creative age and illuminating every aspect of social and political history, from welfare for the poor to the rarefied levels of high politics and commerce. Click here to order $30

60278 Bruce, Marie Louise The Usurper King Henry of Bolingbroke 1366-99 The Rubicon Press, London, nd. Hardcover, small quarto, 274pp., b&w illustrations with colour frontispiece. Page edges toned with very light spotting. Dustwrapper chipped and creased at edges; professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Else, very good. In the summer of 1399, Henry of Bolingbroke invaded England and swept to victory, deposing his cousin, King Richard II and having himself crowned King Henry IV. Bruce's work gives a new assessment of the dramatic events - what led to the invasion and why was Henry's victory so easy? She also looks at contemporary views of both Plantagenent princes and the rivalry between them from boyhood. Researched from original sources and told in a very readable style, this is the story if one of the most turbulent and least known periods of English history. Click here to order $25

34669 Cassady, Richard F. The Norman Achievement Guild Publishing, London, 1987. Hardcover, large 8vo, 480pp., colour plates & b&w illustrations. Page edges toned; small scrape on front endpaper. Binding somewhat rolled. Dustwrapper has creasing to all edges; two tiny scrapes on head of spine; professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Else, very good. This work chronicles the history of the Normans in Europe, from the establishment of the Norman dynasty in Southern Italy and the Conquest of England by William in the eleventh century to the death of Richard the Lionheart and, in the south, the takeover of Italy by the German Emperor Henry VI at the end of the twelth century. The Norman Achievement has as its source and inspiration the places in which they lived and worshipped, and is illustrated with photographs and drawings of the castles, cathedrals and landscapes we can see today. The author also covers art, music, sport, festivals, cookery, legal wrangles and the characters of the monarchs, their families and some of their more prominent subjects. Click here to order $26

11319 Chaucer, Geoffrey (illus. by Keith Henderson and Norman Wilkinson) The Romaunt of the Rose Published for the Florence Press by Chatto and Windus, London, 1908. No 18 of 500 copies printed on Aldwych paper and bound in vellum with olive green grosgrain ribbon ties and gilt titling. Twenty tipped-in colour plates, with protective glassine leaves. Some light foxing to prelims and scattered spotting, some stains on opposing pages due to aging of glue; else a near fine copy. Jean de Meun's allegory Roman de la Rose, (as rendered out of the French into English by Geoffrey Chaucer), was written in the thirteenth century and contains advice from the god of love on how to gain a lady's favour. A satirization of courtly love, it was also the starting point of a famous literary debate in fifteenth century France, La Querelle du Rose, begun when Christine de Pisan objected to its slandering of women and motivated her writing The Book of the City of Women to restore their historical reputation. Click here to order $500

41313 Clutton-Brock, Arthur William Morris Grange Books, Rochester, 2007. Hardcover, quarto, 255pp., colour illustrations. Remainder, new. Poet, artist, designer and editor, William Morris was a colossal figure in Victorian England, and the inspiration of the Pre-Raphaelite painters, Rossetti and Burne-Jones, as well as John Ruskin, and was a prime catalyst in his Arts and Crafts movement. Out of respect to the author's original work (of 1914), this text has not been corrected or updated, particularly regarding attribution, dates, and the current locations of works. The information in the captions, however, has been updated. Click here to order $75

7441 Crosby, Sumner McK. The Apostle Bas-Relief at Saint Denis Yale University Press, Princeton, 1972. Hardcover, large octavo, xvi + 116pp., b/w illustrations. Foxed endpapers, spotted page edges; minor wear to boards, some rubbing, esp. at spine and corners; dustwrapper creased, frayed, few small chips, spine panel sunned. Otherwise very good in like dustwrapper. Professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. The discovery of an previously unknown early twelth century bas-relief of the Twelve Apostles at the royal abbey of Saint Denis in 1946, led to the Gothic style being considered in a new light. After summarizing the importance of Abbot Suger's Saint-Denis to the history of medieval art, the author discusses the general details of the relief, its proportions, and the paleography of the inscriptions. This important study is accompanied by over 100 photographs and detailed drawings. Click here to order $60

44693 D'arcy, Mary Ryan The Saints of Ireland A Chronological Account of the Lives and Works of Ireland's Saints and Missionaries at Home and Abroad. Irish American Cultural Institute, St Paul, 1974. Hardcover, 237pp., b/w illustrations. Inscription to owner on title page. Lightly foxed and spotted page edges. Dustwrapper worn and tarnished along edges, with scuffed rear panel and a small stain on tail of spine. Slightly faded spine. Very good. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] Bringing together the resources of literally dozens of libraries in Europe and America, this book focuses on the extraordinary cultural and spiritual contribution of the Irish, "The Irish Miracle", whereby during the early Middle Ages Irish ecclesiastical scholars kept alive the Latin classics as well as recapturing a command of the Greek language and literature, thus "whilst culture was sinking in the West, each of these [Irish monasteries] was lighting a torch whose flame would soon be carried everywhere." This work contains short biographies of the army of saints, famous as well as the lesser known, who emerged from this background. Click here to order $28

36456 Dearmer, Percy & Williams, R Vaughn & Shaw, Martin The Oxford Book of Carols Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1961. Hardback, 491pp. Price stamp on front endpaper, spotting to upper page edges; very good in lightly worn dustwrapper, few tears and a small perforation to spine panel. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] The carol arose with the ballad in the fifteenth century, as less severe than the old Latin office hymns, more vivacious than the plainsong melodies. They marked the emancipation of the people from the old puritanism of the early Middle Ages, as well as the increasing importance of the vernacular in religious feeling and ritual. In fact, "a drawing together, with a new music, in what was almost a new language, of minstrel, literary and folk poetry". The first parts of this work concern traditional carols, with modern carols in the latter half; the carols are grouped according to their seasons and there is a complete table of carols arranged for use throughout the year. The editors have kept as close as possible to the original texts, given each manuscript preserves a different form, and endeavoured to preserve the freshness and buoyancy of the true carol in the tunes and harmonies provided. Click here to order $20

52248 Dennys, Rodney The Heraldic Imagination Barrie & Jenkins, London, 1975. Quarto hardcover, 224pp., mainly b&w illustrations. Lightly toned and spotted page edges. Minor random spotting on half title page. Dustwrapper edges and corners slightly worn, slightly faded spine. Very good. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] Written by a working herald, this book considers heralds as the exponents and professors of armory, and examines this in the light of the literature of heraldry and relates it to the literature and social life of the Middle Ages. Click here to order $35

58187 Dickson, Gary The Children's Crusade Medieval History, Modern Mythistory. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2008. Hardcover, 246pp., b&w illustrations. Near fine in like dustwrapper. In 1212, inflamed and unsettled by a sudden outpouring of crusading enthusiasm, French and German peasant youths set out on a quest to find the True Cross and reclaim Jerusalem. Heading south over the Alps and into Italy, their trek was long and arduous - onlookers watched their march to the sea in amazement, monastic chroniclers found it both astonishing and troubling. Painting its supposedly catastrophic ending in the blackest of colours, chroniclers were soon gripped by its mythic themes. Through the centuries, imaginative writers never forgot it, including even the doyenne of crime writing herself, Agatha Christie. This new comprehensive investigation of the Children's Crusade puts the history, mythistory and memory under the spotlight. Click here to order $32

56907 Dougherty, Martin J Weapons & Fighting Techniques of the Medieval Warrior 100-1500 AD Amber Books, London, 2008. Quarto hardcover, 224pp., colour illustrations. Minor shelf wear only; near fine in like dustwrapper. This work shows how the development of new weapons technology and techniques had a revolutionary impact on the development of European warfare in the Middle Ages - from the disciplined groups of longbowmen defeating better-armoured noble knights at battles such as Crecy (1346) and Agincourt (1415), to the introduction of gunpowder weapons in the mid 15th century and their effects on the way battles were fought. All types of medieval soldiers and fighting techniques are depicted, from Saxon huscarls, English longbowmen and Milanese crossbowmen to Hussite handgunners, Mongol horse archers and Mamluk cavalry; from two-handed swords and poleaxes to forming a shield wall and mounted combat with sword and lance. Illustrated with more than 300 detailed line drawings, reproductions from contemporary works and colour photographs of actual weapons and armour, and written in an accessible style for the non-expert. Click here to order $28

59584 Duby, Georges (ed.) A History of Private Life: Volume II Revelations of the Medieval World. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1988. Softcover, small quarto, 650pp., b&w illustrations and colour plates. Endpapers and page edges lightly toned and spotted. Covers lightly worn at edges with a few small scrapes on spine and rear panel. Good to very good. Click here to order $22

7490 Dvorakova, Vlasta; Krasa, Josef; Merhautova, Anezka; Stejskal, Karel Gothic Mural Painting in Bohemia and Moravia 1300-1378 Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1964. Hardcover, quarto, 160pp, 20 colour and 230 monochrome plates. Some foxing to prelims, spotting to page edges; boards rubbed, corners bumped, but solid and clean; dustwrapper heavily creased, frayed at edges, esp. near spine panel. Good in like dustwrapper. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] The story of mural painting in Bohemia of the fourteenth century is dominated by one man, Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Bohemia. It is in his immensely detailed scheme for the decoration of the royal palace of Karlstejn that the whole philosophy and character of the man are displayed. This book gives a full analysis of the decoration of Karlstejn and also of the cathedral of St. Vitus and the cloisters of the monastery of Emmaus in Prague, as well as some other less important sites. The analysis covers both the subject matter and symbolism of the paintings and their execution. Click here to order $75

59388 Epstein, Marcia Jenneth (ed. & trans.) Prions en Chantant Devotional Songs of the Trouveres University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1997. Quarto paperback, 327pp. Remainder, new. This work, designed for both scholars and performers, offers a selection of largely anonymous songs from the rich medieval French tradition of vernacular devotional songs from two late 13th-century manuscripts. The majority of the music is published here for the first time - sixty-one songs are presented, with forty-nine exhibited in Old French with a facing page modern English translation followed by old musical notation and facing-page modern musical transcription. The introduction places the songs in the context of their literary, musical, and sociological background, so as to examine them as documents attesting to the beliefs of their creators and listeners and to explore the circumstances of their creation and performance. Click here to order $24

52484 Evans, Joan Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and Renaissance Dover, London, 1976. Softcover, 264pp., b&w illustrations. Endpapers and page edges lightly toned and spotted. Cover lightly worn at edges. Very good. The author has examined nearly every lapidary of importance from the ancient world through the Renaissance and beyond, and covers related areas, bringing in information on the influence of the Church, the growth of the universities, medieval astrology, and so on. Click here to order $14

39373 Gibson, Walter S Pieter Bruegel and The Art of Laughter University of California, 2006. Hardcover, 266pp., b&w illustrations. Minor wear, near fine in like dustwrapper. In this illuminating examination of the witty and amusing elements in Breugel's paintings, prints and drawings in relation to the sixteenth-century European culture of laughter, Gibson reminds us exactly why Breugel was one of the most original artists of his time. Click here to order $50

58405 Hahn, Daniel The Tower Menagerie Being the Amazing True Story of the Royal Collection of Wild and Ferocious Beasts. Simon and Schuster, London, 2003. Hardcover, 260pp., b&w and colour illustrations. Page edges lightly toned. Dustwrapper lightly worn at edges. Very good. A history of Britain's first zoo, begun in 1235 with the arrival of three leopards as a gift to Henry II from Frederick, the Holy Roman Emperor. Sent to the Tower of London, they were soon joined by a Norwegian polar bear, which was encouraged to catch its own food from the Thames to save on expenses. From then until 1835, when it was closed down by the Duke of Wellington, the Tower played host to thousands more exotic creatures, all brought from overseas by VIP guests or returning explorers. Hahn explores the uses and abuses of the Menagerie and those who came to behold its wonders, from William Blake, who came to look at 'tygers', to John Wesley, who had a flute played to the lions to establish whether they had souls. Both an intriguing survey of our changing attitudes to animals and an entertaining canter through six centuries of British history. Click here to order $22

10483 Hartshorne, Emily Sophia Heart Burials of English Persons William Andrews, Hull, 1896. Inscription, heavily foxed prelims and spotting throughout. Very good in quarter leather and maroon boards, gilt titling. The text only occupies half the pages, the remaining being blank to which three newspaper cuttings have been layed in. Miss Hartshorne refers to a special object: those English people "who have signified their wish that his portion of their mortal frame should receive sepulture apart from the body". From the earliest recorded instances in the Holy Land of the Crusaders through various royal and noble instances over the following centuries to the most recent concerning a New Zealand man who buried his own heart in his garden after a heart transplant. "The posthumous adventures of historic hearts" is unique. Click here to order $150

50855 HIND, Arthur An Introduction to a History of Woodcut: Volumes 1 and 2 Dover, New York 1963. Paperback, 838pp., b/w illustrations. Page edges toned with some spotting and soiling. Minor wear. Very good. An unabridged reprint of an important work of art history surveying the origins and early developments of woodcut and wood engraving, at the time this was virtually the only work in English that provided a detailed examination of 15th century relief-print artists and their work. The 484 illustrations are unfailingly interesting, providing examples from some 200 artists, including Durer, Altdorfer, Holbein, Mantagna, Berghe, and Jacob of Strassburg. Click here to order $35

41742 Larner, John Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World Yale University, Princeton, 1999. Hardcover, 250pp., colour plates. Slightly worn lower board edges. Dustwrapper with edge and corner wear. Tiny tear on front edge. Very good. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] To study "one of the most important books of the past millenium", Professor Larner begins with a discussion of the extent of European knowledge of Asia early in the 13th century, considers Marco Polo's life and the composition of his Book and traces its manuscript forms and translations in the Middle Ages, its influences on western cartographers, its fortunes in the climate of fifteenth century Humanism, the possible extent of its encouragement of Columbus, and its later evolution into such new guises as the object of historical scholarship and exotic curiosity. Click here to order $30

40280 Le Goff, Jacques Intellectuals in the Middle Ages Blackwell, Cambridge, nd. Paperback. Near fine. This intellectual history of medieval Europe by one of France's most distinguished historians examines both the creation of the medieval universities in the great cities of the European High Middle Ages, and the linked origins of the intellectuals themselves - the first Europeans since the Classical Age to owe their livelihoods to the teaching and accumulation of knowledge. Le Goff argues that this new pursuit of knowledge for its own sake by a new category of person, neither monk nor knight, brought about an irreversible shift in European culture, away from the dominance of the higher echelons of Church and Court. Click here to order $22

35016 Lupack, Alan The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005. Hardcover, 496pp. Minor wear, near fine in like dustwrapper. This comprehensive book presents the Arthurian legends in all their manifestations - from their origins in medieval literature to the modern interpretations in literature, art, film and popular culture. It takes the reader through the chronicle and romance traditions, the influence of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chretien de Troyes and Sir Thomas Malory, the Grail legend, and the stories of Sir Gawain, Merlin, and Tristan and Iseult. Click here to order $75

40389 McIntosh, Christopher The Rosicrucians The History, Mythology, and Rituals of an Esoteric Order. Samuel Weiser, York Beach, 1997. Hardcover, 161pp., b/w illustrations. Remainder. New in like dustwrapper. A chronicle of the obscure and often elusive history of this secret order of the Rosy Cross, from the Qabalistic doctrine, medieval mysticism and Renaissance Neoplatonism that was its fertile soil through Eckhart, Tauler, Comenius and Bacon to its growth and metamorphosis in the 18th and 19th century Germany and France. McIntosh seeks to "enrich the academic ideal of objectivity with the heightened clarity of personal perspective". Click here to order $23

48340 Malory, Thomas (abridged by Alfred W. Pollard) The Romance of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table Macmillan, London, 1917. First trade edition. Square 8vo, original blue cloth, xxiv, 509pp. Illustrations - plates in colour, and black and white line drawings. Plates protected with tissue guards. Clean sound copy; top-edge browned, some foxing to edges and endpapers; mild wear to extremities, otherwise a handsome collector's copy. Abridged from Sir Thomas Malory's fifteenth century Morte D'Arthur by Alfred Pollard, who offers the plea "I have tried to clear away some of the underwoods that the great trees may be better seen, and though I know that I have cleared away some small timber that is fine stuff in itself, if the great trees stand out better, the experiment may be forgiven". Of course the gorgeous and delicate illustrations of Arthur Rackham are justification enough. Click here to order $400

32005 Meer, Frederick van der Apocalypse: Visions from the Book of Revelation in Western Art Thames & Hudson, London, 1978. Hardcover, quarto, 367pp., 82 colour + 146 monochrome illustrations. Light foxing, spotting to page edges; decorated boards clean and firm, some rubbing and discolouration at edges; dustwrapper creased, frayed but bright and intact. Very good in good/very good dustwrapper. Professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. One of the most enigmatic works of all literature, the Book of Revelation has always fascinated artists and theologians alike with the richness of its imagery and the astonishingly visual character of its narrative. Its exotic and bizarre motifs have served as inspiration for great early Roman mosaics, for masters of illuminated manuscripts and for such creative geniuses as Giotto, Van Eyck, Durer and Correggio. Received by St John 'in the spirit', it is a revelation of the things that 'must shortly come to pass', John's testimony of visions that depict the struggle between Good and Evil. As a literary genre, the Apocalypse is older than the Book of Revelation, originating in Jewish circles, where disillusionment has provoked the expectation of a spiritual regime. Also reflected in the Apocalypse is the prophecy of Daniel, along with many symbols and images, while other motifs are taken from the astronomical folklore of the Ancient East. It is a rich mixture: dramatic, colourful, cataclysmic. From the moment the first of the seven Seals is opened, and fire, flood, hailstones and thunder convulse the earth, all manner of forces are unleashed. The four Horsemen of the Apocalypse gallop over a writhing mass of repentant humanity while Babylon topples, its citizenry consumed by fire; the seven-headed Dragon, the Beasts from sea and earth - servants of the Antichrist - wreak their havoc. None, however, can diminish the power of the Lamb nor the final glory of the New Jerusalem. In his detailed study of these awe-inspiring tapestries, frescoes, sculptures and paintings, Professor Van der Meer interprets and enlarges on the visions, their creators and their provenance, referring directly to both the accompanying illustrations and the Book of Revelation. Click here to order $100

7443 Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry (2 vols) The Limbourgs and their Contemporaries. Thames and Hudson, London, 1974. 2 vols, hardcover quarto. Vol. 1 (Text), 533pp.: upper page edges spotted; boards rubbed at edges, slightly discoloured, corners bumped, but firm and bright; dustwrapper frayed with a few small chips. Very good in like dustwrapper. Vol. 2 (Plates), 35 colour and 853 monochrome illustrations: upper page edges spotted; boards rubbed at edges, slightly discoloured, corners bumped, but firm and bright; dustwrapper slightly frayed. Very good in like dustwrapper. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] During the years 1400-25 the great patron and book collector Jean, Duc de Berry, was one of the principal figures in the development of French art. It was for him that the Limbourg brothers created Les Belles Heures du Duc de Berry and Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry - two supreme masterpieces of one of the greatest ages of manuscript illumination. Professor Meiss identifies the characteristics of French painting of this time, concentrating on the literary, intellectual and religious context in which the Limbourgs and their contemporaries worked. He also shows how all these artists fused the principles of Italian trecento painting with a Northern love of light and texture. The final section contains catalogues of the few extant panels of the principal illuminated manuscripts and of the major workshops of the period. The illustrations include all the miniatures from Les Tres Riches Heures and all their work in an earlier Bible. Click here to order $200

57762 Mews, Constant J The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century France. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1999. Hardback, 378pp. Minor wear. Very good in like dustwrapper. In this book, Mews examines a collection of Latin love letters preserved in a 15th century manuscript of Clairvaux, and argues that it records 113 letters exchanged by Heloise and Abelard at the time of their love affair and presents a very different perspective on events to that recorded later by Abelard in his History of My Calamities. Mews explores the political, literary and religious contexts of the times, looks at the way in which the relationship has been perceived over the centuries, and provides an in-depth analysis of the debate concerning the authenticity of the letters themselves. The Latin text of the love letters is reproduced, along with an annotated translation by Neville Chiavaroli and Constant J. Mews. Click here to order $23

31977 Morganstern, Anne McGee Gothic Tombs of Kinship France, the Low Countries, and England. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000. Hardcover quarto, 252pp., 106 monochrome and 4 colour plates. Minor rubbing to board edges, spine rolled. Otherwise fine in like dustwrapper. "Gothic Tombs of Kinship" is a study of one monumental tomb type in Northern Europe, traced from the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries. This is the first extensive treatment that recognises the kinship tomb for what it is, rather than compounding it with its celebrated counterpart, the ceremonial tomb, where the final rites or funeral procession of the deceased are represented. The unique characteristic of a tomb of kinship is that it includes a figurative representation of a family tree. This book established the kinship tomb as an important Northern European iconographical type, equal in interest to the ceremonial tomb as a manifestation of the mentality of the late Middle Ages. It traces the development of the type from its inception in France and diffusion in the Low Countries and England until its vulgarization in prefabricated tombstones and alabaster tombs in the fifteenth century. The study demonstrates that after being imported into England in the late thirteenth century, the kinship tomb became a vehicle for Edward III's accession of his claim to the French throne and, inspired by the king and court, the preferred type of the fourteenth-century baron. Limited to the princes and knights and their ladies in the thirteenth century, the tomb was adopted by the minor gentry and the middle class by the late fourteenth, with a corresponding change from an extended family program to one confined to the nuclear family. "Gothic Tombs of Kinship" identifies a representative number of kinship tombs from the period and the territories that marked their apogee, deciphers their programs, and places them in their cultural context. Click here to order $65

43510 Morris, WIlliam The Defence of Guenevere and other poems John Lane, London, 1904. Hardcover, 310pp., b&w engravings. Inscription on endpaper. Endpapers and page edges toned and spotted. Red cloth boards with gilt title and decoration on spine and front and rear covers; fading to lower front corner and upper rear corner; scuffing to lower edges and rear spine hinge; bumped corners with some fraying; spine sunned with head and tail bent. No dustwrapper as issued. Very good. Medieval by aspiration, Morris' treatment poetic and artistic of the Romance subjects of Guenevere, Arthur and Galahad, as well as divers knights and fair ladies. Click here to order $750

7509 Oakeshott, Walter The Sequence of Medieval Art Illustrated chiefly from Illuminated MSS, 650-1450 Faber & Faber, 1950. Hardcover, small quarto, xi + 55pp., 56 colour and monochrome plates. Foxed prelims and page edges throughout; boards sunned at edges, spotted, spine rolled; dustwrapper frayed at edges, numerous chips, foxed. Good in like dustwrapper. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] The plates in this book have been chosen to illustrate the changing phases of English medieval painting. They are taken mostly from the illustrations of manuscripts, but reproductions of a few full scale paintings are included, such as the 12th century St Paul at Canterbury and the 13th century Virgin and Child at Chichester. In the introduction the main changes of style are distinguished and related to the pattern of medieval history as a whole. Click here to order $90

57161 O'Keeffe, Tadhg Medieval Ireland An Archaeology Tempus, Stroud, 2000. Quarto hardcover, 192pp., mainly b&w illustrations, with some colour photographs. Minor wear, near fine in like dustwrapper. The study of medieval Ireland has traditionally been the domain of history, but taking the huge increase in archaeological data from the period into account, O'Keeffe offers a synthesis of the two fields of study. Individual chapters re-examine such familiar themes as urban and rural settlement, military, domestic and ecclesiastical architecture, while others discuss diet, dress, burial rites and entertainment. The cultural relations between the Gaelic Irish and English populations of medieval Ireland are explored throughout the book, as are Ireland's relations with her European neighbours. Click here to order $27

31964 Painter, George E William Caxton A Quincentenary Biography of England's First Printer. Chatto & Windus, London, 1976. Hardcover, 227pp., b&w illustrations. Ex-library with usual markings, number written on pastedown, red ink stamp of library on top of page 101. Page edges lightly foxed. Otherwise very good in like dustwrapper. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] Printing first came to England when William Caxton set up his press within the precincts of Westminster Abbey in the autumn of 1476. Few events in English history have been so tremendous in their significance or so lasting in their consequence for our language, our culture and daily life. Caxton was the editor-publisher of Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate and Malory as well as the enricher of English literature through the translation of the bestsellers of France and Burgundy. Click here to order $20

7497 Parkes, M.B. The Medieval Manuscripts of Keble College Oxford A descriptive catalogue, with summary descriptions of the Greek and Oriental Manuscripts. Scolar Press, 1979. Hardcover, quarto, in slipcase, xxii + 365pp, 17 colour, 183 monochrome illustrations. Boards show very minor wear; dustwrapper slightly creased at edges, slight fraying at corners, but bright and intact; card slipcase shows moderate wear. Fine in near fine dustwrapper. This important collection of 71 Western, 5 Greek and 13 Oriental medieval manuscripts, mostly comes from the rich trove of one of the most discriminating bibliophiles of the late nineteenth centuries, Sir Thomas Brooke. Comprising of mostly liturgical books, or books of Hours, lavishly decorated and illustrated, the catalogue descriptions are supported by nearly 200 reproductions, seventeen of which are in full colour. Click here to order $150

14841 Peters, Ellis The Hermit of Eyton Forest A Medieval Whodunnit. Headline, London, 1987. First edition. Endpapers slightly spotted, page edges foxed. Binding very slightly rolled. Otherwise very good in near fine dustwrapper. Ellis Peters has gained world-wide praise and recognition for her meticulous recreations of monastic life in the twelth century, and the Fourteenth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael is another triumphant demonstration of her skill. But her research sits lightly on a page-turning tale of intrigue and treachery, thoroughly satisfying on every level: complex medieval whodunnit, richly detailed historical fiction, novel of characters lovingly and humourously portrayed. Click here to order $30

59472 Phillips, Jonathan The Fourth Crusade And the Sack of Constantinople Viking, New York, 2004. Hardcover, 374pp., b&w plates. Remainder, new. In April 1204, the armies of Western Christendom wrote another bloodstained chapter in the history of holy war. Two years earlier, aflame with religious zeal, the Fourth Crusade set out to free Jerusalem from the grip of Islam. Urged on by the Doge of Venice and a pretender to the Byzantine throne, the crusaders turned their weapons against Constantinople, the heart of Christian Byzantium. Some contemporaries were delighted: God had approved this punishment of the treacherous Greeks; others expressed shock and disgust at this perversion of the crusading ideal. History has judged this as the crusade that went wrong and even today the violence and brutality of the Western knights provokes in the Greek Orthodox Church a deep hostility toward the Catholic Church. In this new assessment of the Fourth Crusade, the author, as well as following the fortunes of the leading players, uses firsthand accounts from knights' and commoners' letters to enrich his analysis and explore the conflicting motives that drove the expedition to commit the most infamous massacre of the crusading movement. Click here to order $25

36909 Pollard, A.J. Richard III And the Princes in the Tower BCA, London, 1991. Hardcover, quarto, 260pp., colour and black and white illustrations. Tear on upper rear dustwrapper and on upper rear corner corner. Very good. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] Villain, bloody tyrant and monstrous murderer, or wronged victim and noble prince tragically slain? This book explores the story of Richard III and the tales that have been woven around the historic events of the late fifteenth century; discusses his life and reign and the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower; and assesses the original sources. Dr Pollard suggests that the truth may never be known due to the controversial nature of the events at the time, the paucity of the surviving evidence and the deeply ingrained nature of the received stories. It is argued that there are two archetypal stories on to which the history of Richard III has been grafted and that all accounts tend to fit one or another. The text is illustrated by over 150 manuscript illustrations, engravings, contemporary documents and also photographs, in both black and white and colour. Click here to order $30

34034 Sisam, Celia and Kenneth (eds.) The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, London, 1970. Hardcover, 617pp. Very good in good dustwrapper. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] This selection covers three centuries from the late twelth, when post-Conquest English verse begins, to the late fifteenth, when the medieval period ends. Extracts from well-known authors - Chaucer, Gower, Langland, and the Gawain poet - make the heart of the book; but more space is given to less accessible pieces, mostly anonymous; and an attempt is made to represent the wide range of interests that appear in a period when verse found an audience more readily than prose. For the convenience of general readers, hard words and phrases are glossed at the foot of the page, and some exceptionally difficult texts have continuous glosses. Manuscript spellings are often modified, but the words and metre of the originals have been preserved, and some new readings are offered. Click here to order $20

59592 Spearing, Elizabeth (ed.) Medieval Writings on Female Spirituality Penguin, London, 2002. Paperback, 268pp. Near fine. A wide-ranging collection of writings by and about religious women in the Middle Ages, it includes biographies, poetic compositions, works that are mystical, prophetic, visionary, or meditative. All reflecting the developments in medieval piety, particularly in the link between female spirituality and the body. Among the selections are the visionary writings of Hildegard of Bingen; letters and poems of Hadewijch; revelations received by Bridget of Sweden, the first woman to found a religious order, and by Julian of Norwich, whose theology focuses on God as our Mother. Click here to order $12

30598 Tarkovsky, Andrei Andrei Rublev: 2 DVD Shock. New. Region 4. A loose linking of episodes in the life of the great 15th century Russian icon painter, a meditation on the relationship between the artist and 'history'. Click here to order $38

56095 Trow, M.J El Cid: The Making of a Legend Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2007. Hardback, 248pp., b/w illustrations. Minor wear. Near fine. This work seeks to reveal the true figure of Rodrigo Diaz of Bivar, a warlord in eleventh-century Castile like countless others, who yet lives on as El Cid, the national hero of Spain. The portrait revealed is of a 'traitor' who fought for Muslim as well as Christian, sending a shudder of outrage through the whole of Christendom; a hero who was named 'king's champion', but who died peacefully in bed. Trow also examines the way Spain's politicians and ruling elite have used the icon of the Cid for their own ends and looks at the fascination he has held for writers in many countries. Click here to order $30

13893 Various (Trio Mediaeval) Soir, dit-elle: CD Power, Moody, Bryars, Smith, Harkavyy. ECM. New. Anna Maria Friman: soprano; Linn Andrea Fuglseth: soprano; Torunn Ostrem Ossum: soprano. Including Missa "Alma redemptoris mater", Kyrie and Laude novella. Other works are by contemporary composers. Click here to order $33

36105 Vatasianu, Virgil Wall Painting in Northern Moldavia Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1974. Hardcover, folio, 110pp., colour illustrations. Ribbon marker. Page edges very lightly foxed. Dustwrapper slightly worn along edges otherwise very good to near fine. Protected in book wrap. Fifteenth and sixteenth century Moldavian art is a harmonious blending of aesthetic principles and morphologic experiences, moulded through centuries and rooted in old Romanian tradition or bearing foreign influences - of the neighbouring lands or of remoter countries - but, certainly organically integrated. Most original are religious architecture and painting - wall painting particularly - belonging to the feudal times, being at their acme between the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 17th. A church of Bucovina, whose outside and interior wall painting make it resemble a Limoges enamelled reliquary - seen in huge proportions - is a unique and unforgettable image, a luring and charming one, the very object of the present book. Click here to order $65

31940 Waddell, Helen The Wandering Scholars Constable, London, 1980. Hardcover, 330pp. Owner's name sticker on endpaper. Page edges toned with some spotting. Dustwrapper crumpled along upper edge. Otherwise very good. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] First published in 1927, what had been intended as an account of the traveling scholar-clerics of medieval times outgrew its original purpose to become a history of the preservation of the poetic impulse itself, from the decay of antiquity up to the eve of the Renaissance. It is not only a significant contribution to scholarly knowledge, but is itself a work of pure poetry. Click here to order $20

51684 Williamson, J A (ed.) The Cabot Voyages and Bristol Discovery Under Henry VII With the Cartography of the Voyages. Hakluyt Society, Cambridge, 1962. Hardcover, second series. B&w illustrations and pull-out maps. Page edges foxed. Blue card dustwrapper with edge and corner wear, spine and edges browned; some minor chipping; professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good otherwise. One of the Hakluyt Society's scholarly editions of primary records of voyages, it includes documents from English, Portuguese, and Spanish archives, transcribed or in translation, and from printed sources, relating to the Atlantic voyages out of Bristol; including the voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot. Click here to order $40

31657 Williamson, Paul Medieval Sculpture and Works of Art: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Sotheby's, London, 1987. Hardcover, quarto, 175pp., numerous monochrome and colour plates. Very minor wear to boards and dustwrapper. Otherwise fine in like dustwrapper. Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza's collection of fine Gothic sculptures, ivories and enamels from major European centres as well as works in other media, is here illustrated in full colour with black and white illustrations of comparative material. In a lengthy introduction, the author writes on the collecting of medieval works of art and also on the material and techniques of the medieval artist. Click here to order $70