Dictionary of the Middle Ages:
Highwater, Jamake
Not dark ages but a great bridge DICTIONARY OF THE MIDDLE AGES Edited by Joseph R. Straver Scribner's, $70 each, 13 vols. when complete Jamake Highwater WITH the growing popular interest in the...
...500 to 1500 is indispensable...
...when complete Jamake Highwater WITH the growing popular interest in the societies and philosophies, arts and sciences of the Middle Ages, this definitive survey, in dictionary form, of medieval life in Western Europe, Islam, Byzantium, and the Slavic world from A.D...
...As researchers are aware, the field of medieval studies has been highly fragmented...
...My personal use of the two volumes of the Dictionary currently available has resulted in little frustration: I have been able to find very nearly all the subjects for which I searched (and, obviously, the index will eventually facilitate research enormously...
...Additionally, there are articles on kings, popes, crusaders, caliphs, and philosophers, and the Dictionary also provides studies on Dante, Chaucer, Petrarch, Aquinas, and Augustine-giving extensive information on key figures and movements of the Middle Ages...
...although some entries are fifty-word definitions, the majority of the articles are very substantial, some providing 10,000-word explorations into various medieval subject matters...
...The range of in-depth studies is impressive: art, architecture, music, philosophy, law, theology, social structure, education, economics, politics, language, literature, religion, science, and mathematics were among the subjects the Board of Editors promised to be thoroughly covered, and my use of the Dictionary verified their claims...
...On the whole the writing is clear and engaging, if not always rapt with literary merit...
...The completed series promises over one thousand illustrations...
...The description of the series as a dictionary should not be taken too literally...
...Each article ends with a selective bibliography, pointing the reader to additional readings, on a definitive subject-by-subject basis...
...The Dictionary of the Middle Ages makes it clear that the medieval period was not the dark ages of popular mythology but the great bridge between the classical world and our own epoch...
...The contributing scholars represent the widest possible range of authorities in the English-speaking world: C. E. Bosworth of the University of Manchester, Angus F. Cameron of the University of Toronto, Michael Curschmann of Princeton University, Peter F. Dembowski of the University of Chicago, Fred M. Donner of Yale University, H. R. Loyn of the University of London, Helmut Nickel of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many other notable contributors from the field of medieval studies...
...The final (13th) volume will consist of a comprehensive index, which will be exceptionally valuable in terms of cross-reference searches...
...When the series is completed-about two volumes are being published each year commencing with 1982-the twelve alphabetically arranged books will contain over 5,000 articles, commissioned and written by distinguished medievalists...
...The Dictionary of the Middle Ages intends to organize a vast amount of information into a coherent whole for the first time in English...
...One of the major advantages of this compendium of medieval studies is the availability for the first time in English of many essential documents and studies...
...The value of The Dictionary of the Middle Ages as a research tool is enormous...
...500 to 1500, giving us a profound sense of the origins of modern European and American cultures...
...The breadth and detail of the articles provide a rich intellectual picture of the thousand-year period of A.D...
...The combining of works by over one thousand scholars promises to provide a definitive reference source, containing numerous illustrations, charts, and maps...
Vol. 110 • November 1983 • No. 19
