Amtower, Laurel, and Vanhoutte, Jacqueline, eds. and trans., A Companion to Chaucer and his Contemporaries (Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press. Medieval Studies Series)
Text name(s): The Brut, or The Chronicles of England; The John Ball Letters; Polychronicon; Froissart's Chronicles; Recueil des croniques et anchiennes istories de la Grant Bretaigne; The Life and Typography of William Caxton; The Voyage and Travel of Sir John Mandeville; The Book of the City of Ladies; The Ancrene Wisse; Margery Kempe's Pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem; The Art of Courtly Love; The Book of Chivalry; The Boke of Curtasye; The Philobiblon; On the Natural Faculties; Of the Four Complexions; Secreta Secretorum; De Coitu
Number of pages of primary source text: 252
Author(s):
- Wavrin, Jehan de
- Higden, Ranulf
- Froissart, Jean
- Knighton, Henry
- Walsingham, Thomas
- Wyclif, John
- Aristotle
- Augustine of Hippo
- Bernard of Clairvaux
- Boccaccio, Giovanni
- Capellanus, Andreas
- Caxton, William
- Charny, Geoffroi de
- Christine de Pizan
- Clanvowe, John
- Dante Alighieri
- Gower, John
- Hugh of Saint Victor
- Kempe, Margery
- Llull, Ramon
- Marsilius of Padua
- Matthew Paris
- Norton, Thomas
- Petrarch
- Richard de Bury
- Usamah ibn-Munqidh
- Jacques de Vitry
- Jerome
- Ranulf de Glanville
Dates: 170 - 1600
Archival Reference:
Original Language(s):
- Arabic
- French - Old French
- Latin
- Spanish - Catalan
- English - Middle English
Translation:
- Translated into English.
Translation Comments: All passages translated into modern English prose with some verse.
Geopolitical Region(s):
- Italy
- Iberian Peninsula
- France
- Europe
- Middle East
- England
- Spain
County/Region:
Record Types:
- Translation
- Literature - Prose
- Guild Records
- Theology - Devotional
- Treatise - Instruction/Advice
- Hagiography
- Treatise - Scientific/Medical
- Treatise - Political
- Theology - Doctrine
- Taxes - Poll Tax
- Theology
- Sermons
- Taxes
- Papal Bull
- Letter
- Law - Treatise/Commentary
- Literature - Verse
- Philosophic Work
- Oration
- Law - Legislation
- Law - Local Ordinances
- Inquisition - Heresy
- Law - Canon Law
- Genealogy
- Contract
- Commentary / Gloss / Exegesis
- Court Roll
- Charters Deeds
- Theology - Practical/Instructional
- Biography
- Cartulary
- Custumal
- Chronicle Annals
- Theology - Mystical Work
Subject Headings:
- Literature - Epics Romance
- War - Military History
- Women / Gender
- War - Chivalry
- Towns / Cities
- Travel / Pilgrimage
- Theology - Heretical
- Revolt
- Piety - Lay
- Plague and Disease
- Theology - Mariology
- Church Fathers
- Science / Technology
- Religion - Institutional Church
- Royalty / Monarchs
- Political Thought
- Piety - Mysticism
- Clergy - Anticlericalism
- Clergy - Monks Nuns, Friars
- Clergy - Priests Bishops, Canons
- Economy - Guilds and Labor
- Crusades
- Economy - Crafts and Industry
- Diplomacy
- Family / Children
- Economy - Trade
- Grammar / Rhetoric
- Heresy
- Government
- Education / Universities
- Literature - Devotional
- Historiography
- Jews / Judaism
- Medicine
- Magic / Witchcraft
- Law - Canon
- Material Culture: Food Clothing, Household
- Law - Secular
- Law - Crime
- Literature - Folklore Legends
- Muslims / Islam
- Nobility / Gentry
- Papacy
- Piety - Confession Penance
- Philosophy / Theology
- Peasants
- Philosophy - Political
- Philosophy - Metaphysics
- Philosophy - Ethics / Moral Theology
- Piety
Apparatus:
- Bibliography
- Introduction
Comments:
This volume gathers together documentary and literary texts that provide context for reading the late medieval works of Geoffrey Chaucer, utilizing these supplementary texts to illustrate aspects of his age in thematically organized chapters. With translations either by the editors or from other cited editions, the texts here are most often excerpted from longer works or records, and in each chapter an ample introduction precedes the texts, surveying historical events and movements and assessing their relevance to Chaucer’s life and work. The themes covered are divided into the following titled chapters: Politics and Ideology in the Fourteenth Century; “From Every Shires Ende”: The Structure of Society; “Of Mete and Drynk”: Daily Life in Medieval England; “Hooly Thought and Werk”: Religious Life, Ritual, and Prayer; “Trouthe and Honour, Freedom and Curtesie”: War, Pageantry, and the Knighthood; “Gladly Wolde He Lerne and Gladly Teche”: Reading, Literacy, and Education; “Magyk Natureel”: Science, Medicine, Psychology, and Alchemy; “To Flaundres Wol I Go”: International Influences and Exchanges. For a full and ordered list of the individual passages included in each chapter visit the Broadview Editions website.
Introduction Summary:
While a general introduction is not included, each chapter does receive a full introduction as indicated above. These various Introductions cover fourteenth-century politics and ideology, societal structure, daily life, religious life, war and pageantry, literacy and education, science, medicine, psychology, alchemy, and international influences and exchanges. In the Preface (2 pp.) the editors briefly explain their motivations and methods in producing this companion volume to Chaucer’s work.
Cataloger: MDP
