Bernard S. Bachrach

Jerome Kroll

Drawing on a database of over 1400 medieval holy persons and in-depth studies of individual saints, this fascinating collaboration between a medieval historian and a professor of psychiatry applies modern biological and psychological research to the lives of medieval mystics and ascetics.

The Psychology of Medieval Mystics and Ascetics

The Mystic Mind

Early Medieval Jewish Policy in Western Europe

Kelly DeVries

Clifford J. Rogers

Ten papers, on campaigns, biographies, military hardware, fortifications and interpreting medieval records.

The Journal of Medieval Military History

Contains documents and excerpts from documents of the 4th-9th centuries concerning Jewish-Christian relationships in Europe of the end of the Western Roman Empire and the barbarian kingdoms established in its territory. Pp. 15-43 contain excerpts from law codes, including Roman, Germanic, and canon law. Most of the laws concerning Jews were intended to prevent them from exercising power over Christians, especially over Christian slaves. There were also laws aiming to create unbearable conditions for Jews (and thus to force them to convert "voluntarily") or to humiliate them. The rest of the book relates to papal and royal policies toward Jews, as well as actual Jewish-Christian relationships, which were not always regulated by the laws. Sometimes, however, these relations included conflicts and violence against Jews.

Jews in Barbarian Europe

Merovingian Military Organization, 481–751 was first published in 1972. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. In the area which is now France and was then Gaul, military institutions fundamentally influenced the successes and failures of the Merovingian dynasty, from 481 to 751. Professor Bachrach examines this period in detail, studying the forms of military organization and their relation to political power. Various aspects of the subject are controversial among scholars specializing in early medieval history, yet this is the first book-length study on the subject to be published. For a hundred years scholars have equated the military institutions of Merovingian Gaul with the customs of the Franks, a minority of the population who were rapidly acculturated. Professor Bachrach's study shows the heterogeneous nature of Merovingian military organization, composed of many institutions drawn from non-Frankish people especially from the remains of the Roman Empire. By dealing with all of the significant sources he demonstrates that there was frequent change in the military institutions rather than revolutionary change. The fluid nature of the military organization also is seen to have had profound effects upon the exercise of political power. Probably the most significant finding of the study is that Merovingian military organization, like much else in Merovingian Gaul, resembled Romania far more than Germania.

Merovingian Military Organization, 481-751

This is the first comprehensive biography of Fulk Nerra, an important medieval ruler, who came to power in his teens and rose to be master in the west of the French Kingdom. Descendant of warriors and administrators who served the French kings, Fulk in turn built the state that provided a foundation for the vast Angevin empire later constructed by his descendants. Bernard Bachrach finds the terms "constructed" and "built" more than metaphorical in relation to Fulk's career. He shows how Fulk and the Angevin counts who followed him based their long-term state building policy on Roman strategies and fortifications described by Vegetius. This creative adaptation of Roman ideas and tactics, according to Bachrach, was the key to Fulk's successful consolidation of political power. Students of medieval and military history will find here a colorful, impressively researched biography.

A Political Biography of the Angevin Count

Fulk Nerra, the Neo-Roman Consul 987-1040

Winner of the Goodzeit Book Award of the New York Military Affairs Symposium.

Prelude to Empire

Early Carolingian Warfare

Steven Fanning

This fascinating account is the principal source for a number of momentous political developments leading up to the millennium. These include struggles among the Carolingians, the rise of the Saxon dynasty in Germany, and various Viking and Magyar raids. Academics please note that this is a title classified as having a restricted allocation of complimentary copies; complimentary copies remain readily available to adopters and to academics very likely to adopt this title in the coming academic year. When adoption possibilities are less strong and/or further in the future, academics are requested to purchase the title at an academic discount, with the proviso that University of Toronto Press will happily refund the purchase price (with or without a receipt) if the book is indeed adopted.

Bernard S. Bachrach

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