Fordham Series in Medieval Studies Published Volumes

With a Pure Conscience: Christian Liberty before the Reformation Ian Christopher Levy (2025)

"Seldom are Martin Luther and John Henry Newman presented as allies, but in this learned account of the understanding of conscience, Ian Levy shows that Luther at the Diet of Worms, “I am bound by the testimony of Scripture and my conscience”, and John Henry Newman, in his Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, “conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ” are inheritors of a common Christian tradition forged over centuries in the medieval west." - Robert Louis Wilken, William R. Kenan Professor Emeritus of the History of Christianity at the University of Virginia

"Levy has made an important contribution to our understanding of the ties between scholasticism and the beginning of Reformation thought, showing how scholastics developed the concept of moral autonomy. He brings the reader into the arguments that were ongoing long before Luther, clearly and distinctly showing how the force of conscience evolved to become a powerful agent in realizing God’s will in creation." - Stephen Lahey, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

"A fascinating book that explores the tension between ecclesiastical authority and academic freedom, between the demands of conscience and bonum commune, and between personal conviction and institutional liability. Instead of treating the problem in abstract terms, Ian Levy gives the floor to the people involved in these conflicts. The book is surprising on every page: Not only did medieval theologians recognize the dilemma of this—supposedly modern—challenge, but also did they try to solve it intellectually. The reader is introduced to some of the great dramas of medieval theology, which cannot be separated from the biographies of those involved." - Thomas Prügl, University of Vienna

"If the claim that in medieval universities 'the fundamental principle of libertas inquirendi (freedom of inquiry) was never itself in question' sounds implausible to you; if the claim that, for centuries prior to the Reformation, 'the confessional seal was sacrosanct; defendants had rights; all Christians were subject to fraternal correction; the pope was not above the law, [and] that it was never permissible to act against the dictates of one's conscience' sounds improbable to you; or if the claim that 'Martin Luther's appeal to conscience at Worms in 1521 was by no means revolutionary, but was instead very much in keeping with late medieval principles of Christian freedom, especially with respect to ecclesiastical authority' sounds preposterous to you, then you need to read this book." - Boyd Taylor Coolman, author of Knowledge, Love and Ecstasy in The Theology of Thomas Gallus

Law, Justice, and Society in the Medieval World: An Introduction through Film ed. Esther Liberman Cuenca, M. Christina Bruno, and Anthony Perron (2025)

"This book is a lively and erudite collection of essays addressing the complex relationship between the Middle Ages and their cinematic representation since the beginning of the twentieth century. Certain of the films are well known, classics even; others have fallen into obscurity over the years, but all of them under the skillful scrutiny of the scholars represented in the collection testify powerfully to the benefits—and dangers—of mobilizing imagined medieval histories in the cultural and ideological controversies of modernity." - William Chester Jordan, Princeton University

"These diverse and penetrating essays on medieval films show us the Middle Ages as a collection of legal communities. Legal documents and narratives of justice vividly recreate the lives of everyday medieval people, focusing intimately on their courtroom trials, codes of conduct and religious practices. A powerful teaching tool for a variety of medieval courses." - William F. Woods, MV Hughes Professor of English, emeritus, Wichita State University, and author of Chaucerian Spaces: Spatial Poetics in Chaucer's Opening Tales

"Law, Justice, and Society in the Medieval World is a sophisticated and accessible collection of essays that puts medieval history and medievalist films into productive conversation with each other. It will be an excellent resource for anyone who wants to better understand the historical contexts for medievalist films and as a model for how to take medievalist film seriously as part of the ongoing project of better understanding medieval history and its reception. The essays are engaging, the variety of topics is excellent and timely without feeling trendy, and the appendices provide the concrete and complex historical context we all need in order to avoid oversimplifying the medieval world." - Usha Vishnuvajjala, author of Feminist Medievalisms: Embodiment and Vulnerability in Literature and Film

"This groundbreaking collection is designed to support the teaching of medieval history through film. Its twenty highly accessible chapters concern a century’s worth of medievalist films (produced 1928 – 2021) set all over Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, addressing both the contemporary contexts of the films and the medieval milieux that the films reference. Appended to each chapter are relevant medieval sources and reading questions. Aimed at instructors utilizing medievalist films to teach both the realities of the period and the dynamics of cinematic representation to undergraduates, the collection doesn’t so much fill a gap as create a new paradigm." - Felice Lifshitz, author of Reading Gender: Studies in Medieval Manuscripts and Medievalist Films

"A wonderful resource for lovers of medieval history and cinema alike, this book offers analysis of the last century of film and its representation of legal practice and ideals of justice in medieval Europe. Each chapter offers incisive analysis of a particular film, coupled with a relevant primary source and questions for further thought. The result is an illuminating meditation on the relationship between medieval history and the various contexts and sensibilities that shape its modern portrayal. This book is not only for educators, medieval scholars, and students of history, it is also for all of those who watch a film and then wonder... Is that really how it was?" - Ada Maria Kuskowski, Associate Professor at University of Pennsylvania and author of Vernacular Law: Writing and the Reinvention of Customary Law in Medieval France

"What a refreshing and lively collection of essays! Each one invites us to read film as an interpretive genre that, like traditional historiography, responds to shifts in our understanding of the Middle Ages. Analyzing medieval law and justice through the lens of global film inspires readers to see these fields anew and rethink the place of art in historical inquiry." - Kristina Richardson, Professor of History and Midde Eastern & South Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Virginia

Remember the Hand: Manuscripts in Early Medieval Iberia Catherine Brown (2023)

"Remember the Hand is a unique scholarly achievement: at once erudite, theoretically daring, and a scholarly labor of love. It is sure to be read avidly in the many fields in which manuscript culture and the ethical and haptic nature of texts are of vital present concern: not only in medieval European art history and literary studies, and in the study of non-Western manuscript traditions, but also in fields such as history of religion, anthropology, architecture, and media studies."  - John Dagenais, University of California, Los Angeles

"A smart and substantive study that is sure to make a profound impact across the disciplines and throughout all areas of medieval studies, this monograph is a pleasure to read. Enlightenment in the form of Catherine Brown’s Remember the Hand tastes like a feast."  - Archivo Español de Arte

Viking Mediologies: A New History of Skaldic Poetics Kate Heslop (2022)

"In Viking Mediologies, Kate Heslop approaches skaldic texts through a wholly new interpretive framework. She repositions the texts, opening them up to larger and vital interdisciplinary questions about the poems’ place in Viking and medieval Scandinavian culture. Quite simply, this is one of the most exhilarating and provocative books about Old Norse literature and culture that it has ever been my privilege to read." - Carolyne Larrington, University of Oxford

"In this profoundly erudite and beautifully written book, Kate Heslop shows us that skaldic verse-- like, indeed, much other poetry--acts as intermediary between lived experience as witnessed (according to the claims of the poet) by the composer of the verse, and the imagination of the verse’s audience.... This is a wonderful book. Read it." - Shami Ghosh, The Medieval Review

"Kate Heslop’s Viking Mediologies is an ambitious and well-written book demonstrating on nigh every page a fiery intellect. It is bound to stimulate the curious reader and will surely rank as one of the most important and influential Old Norse studies from the first part of this century." - Journal of English and Germanic Philology

". . .[I]mpressive in the truest sense of the word, in that it will leave an impression not only on its readers but also on the scholarly landscape of skaldic poetics. . . Heslop encourages and challenges us to think carefully about how we approach skaldic poetry as a medium, with which senses we do so, and how these questions might ultimately help us think about memory, reading and voice."  - Saga

Medieval Nonsense: Signifying Nothing in Fourteenth-Century England, Jordan Kirk (2021)

"Medieval Nonsense makes a historically informed, theoretically sophisticated case for the centrality—indeed the foundational necessity—of the concept of nonsignification for medieval writers working across many fields of study and literary traditions, including linguistics, philosophy, theology, devotional literature, and hagiography." - Robert Sturges, Arizona State University

"... [A] provocative, targeted and well-researched inquiry into language and the limits of meaning in medieval sign theory, literature, and sacramental theology." - The Medieval Review

"Evidence of Jordan Kirk’s love of words is apparent everywhere in his engaging and enjoyable book, Medieval Nonsense: Signifying Nothing in Fourteenth Century England." - Studies in the Age of Chaucer

"In Medieval Nonsense, Kirk has made a powerful case for the significance of nonsignification to our comprehension of medieval thought and its afterlife. This is an original and erudite study that proposes unexpected lines of filiation between medieval and modern literature, nuancing our understanding of both." - Speculum

Whose Middle Ages? Teachable Moments for an Ill-Used Past, ed. Andrew Albin, Mary C. Erler, Thomas O'Donnell, Nicholas L. Paul, and Nina Rowe (2019)

"This book is timely in a way that won’t get old. It has something for everyone, from professional educators seeking to enliven their classrooms to anyone curious about the origins of popular symbols and phrases. With a plethora of compelling case studies from contemporary culture, religion, art, and politics, there are vital lessons on almost every page. In example after example, the authors show how people shape the Middle Ages to reflect their fears and dreams for themselves and for society. The results range from the amusing to the horrifying, from video games to genocide. Whose Middle Ages? everyone’s, but not everyone’s in the same way." -Michelle R. Warren, author of Creole Medievalism: Colonial France and Joseph Bédier’s Middle Ages

"Whose Middle Ages? offers an ethical and accessible introduction to a historical period often implicated in racist narratives of nationalism and imperialism. A valuable teaching resource, Whose Middle Ages? will inspire necessary discussions about the politics of engaging the past in the present, as it also recovers a Middle Ages that is complex, messy, and belongs to us all." -Sierra Lomuto, Assistant Professor of English, Macalester College

"This is an important book, filled with brief, accessible essays by a who’s who of experts in medieval studies. As a whole, it demonstrates how scholars can open up their field to a wider audience and why those conversations matter, particularly in our own historical moment when history in general – and the medieval past in particular – is weaponized in the service of hate. Whose Middle Ages? should be on every medievalist’s bookshelf and on every class’ reading list." -Matthew Gabriele, Virginia Tech

"Cross-disciplinary, classroom-ready, and super-timely meditations on medievalisms in our midst, benign and malign, and on medieval self-understanding. Recommended." -David Wallace, Judith Rodin Professor, University of Pennsylvania

King Alfonso VIII of Castile: Government, Family, and War, ed. Miguel Gómez, Kyle C. Lincoln, and Damian J. Smith (2019)

"King Alfonso VIII of Castile brings together an impressive collection of top-notch papers that offer fresh perspectives on the reign of Alfonso VIII. This will be very useful not only to scholars of Iberian studies but to medievalists and royal studies scholars as well who are interested in the monarch and the wide variety of topics covered such as crusading, royal-church relations, religious practices in the period and queenship." -Elena Woodacre, University of Winchester

"The essays in this collection are of an impeccable scholarly standard; the book offers valuable contributions to the scholarship on twelfth-century Iberia, and on a reign that has received little attention in the Anglophone world." -Simon R. Doubleday, Hofstra University

Ecstasy in the Classroom: Trance, Self, and the Academic Profession in Medieval Paris, Ayelet Even-Ezra (2018)

"The intellectual pitch of Ecstasy in the Classroom will be evident from its title. Even-Ezra's fascinating and deeply learned book studies the intricate means by which the rationalism of scholastic inquiry comes to terms with ecstatic, inspired knowledge. The author's point of departure: scholastic philosophy's grappling with the phenomenon of St. Paul's transport into the 'third heaven' as the basis of his theology. The author also probes the psychology and ethics of inspired knowledge, and presents the mediating experiences of trance, ecstasy, prophetic vision as means not only of insight, but of 'transformation of the self.' Even-Ezra's work extends the focal point of mystical knowledge from individuals in isolation to the classroom." -C. Stephen Jaeger, University of Illinois

The French of Outremer: Communities and Communications in the Crusading Mediterranean, ed. Laura K. Morreale and Nicholas L. Paul (2018)

"An excellent and timely collection that makes an important intervention in the fields of Medieval Studies and Mediterranean Studies, highlighting the role of transnational French in the ‘sea of languages’ located at the meeting point of the three known continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa." -Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Center for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto

"A truly interdisciplinary undertaking that connects Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Levant, the collection is supported by an orienting introduction by Morreale and Paul and by maps, notes, and color plates of reliquaries... Highly Recommended." -Choice

Europe after Wyclif, ed. Patrick Hornbeck and Michael van Dussen (2016)

". . . An essential contribution to the ongoing work on relationships between heresy and mainstream religious thinking, as well as on the relationships between England and the continent." -Kantik Ghosh, Trinity College, Oxford

Ecclesiastical Knights: The Military Orders in Castile, 1150-1339, Sam Zeno Conedera, SJ. (2014)

"Provides a valuable window into medieval Iberia...a seminal study that is strongly recommended for personal, community, seminary, and academic library collections." -Midwest Book Review, August 2015

"...concentration on the three Spanish orders of Santiago, Calatrava, and Alcantara... existing ambiguously between the role of a spiritual monastic community...and acting as full-fledged knights in response to the needs of kings...[The book intends] to overturn and discard the terminology 'warrior monks' in favor of ...'ecclesiastical knights'....The book significantly undermines the pseudo-historical and mass-market approaches to the medieval orders that have been pervasive for some years....closely fulfilling the Rankean ideal of presenting history as it was...I highly recommend this book." -H-Net Reviews, January 2016

Eddic, Skaldic, and Beyond: Poetic Variety in Medieval Iceland and Norway, ed. Martin Chase (2014)

"The volume offers a stimulating rejection of traditional categories together with an eloquent plea for the re-examination of texts on or beyond the margins....This wide-ranging and innovative volume offers a welcome reminder that the study of Old Norse and Icelandic poetry has much to contribute to the field of medieval studies as a whole." - Speculum review, January 2016

Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia: A Study of Manuscript Transmission and Monastic Culture, Felice Lifshitz (2014)

Shortlisted for the Canadian Historical Association Wallace Ferguson Prize.

"...presents new perspectives and scenarios on an ongoing debate...a provocative study...which undoubtedly will raise as many questions as it provides answers." -The Medieval Review, October 2015

"A fine and well-argued piece of scholarship that sets out, and successfully so, to push boundaries and force its readers to question long-established scholarly consensus....The book is informed by several decades of carefully conducted research...presented in a concise and well-structured narrative that makes for an enjoyable reading experience." -Institute of Historical Research, U. of London, Reviews in History, October 2015

Medieval Poetics and Social Practice: Responding to the Work of Penn R. Szittya, Seeta Chaganti (2012)

[Penn Szittya] argued that a symbolic readings of the friars...enabled English imaginative writers to envision their age as one of social and religious decay, marked by omens of the end. The essays in the collection certainly measure up to the cast of Szittya's work and take it in some unexpected directions." -Yearbook of Langland Studies review, 2013

Isaac on Jewsish and Christian Altars: Polemic and Exigesis in Rashi and the Glossa Ordinaria, Devorah Schoenfeld (2012)

"Having completed this exceptionally painstaking textual work, advanced an innovative approach to Rashi studies, and having bruited a highly suggestive theory for how Jewish and Christian twelfth century exegetical methods and products came to resemble each other, Schoenfeld has opened up rich prospects for further investigation." - The Medieval Review, 2014

"Schoenfeld is clearly adept in her knowledge of engagement with both the Jewish and Christian sources. Her work skillfully demonstrates the vitality of these exegetical texts and the traditions that produced them....a valuable contribution to the study of this fascinating period, its literary productions, and its intellectual landscape..." - H-net review, February 2014

Medieval Education, eds. Joseph Koterski and Ronald Begley (2005)

Poets of Divine Love: The Rhetoric of Franciscan Spiritual Poetry, Alessandro Vettori (2004)

Dante for the New Millennium, eds. Teodolinda Barolini and H. Wayne Storey (2003)

Medieval Cultures in Contact, ed. Richard Gyug (2002)