Bøger i Medieval Studies serien

"Reform of the United States tax system has become a central political issue. Assessing Tax Reform is a concise, nontechnical book to help general readers and students understand the tax reform issues Congress is now debating. Henry Aaron and Harvey Galper lay out the major alternative proposals and analyze principles of taxation that can be used for judging them. They explore the issues surrounding a move to a comprehensive income tax, a cash-flow tax, and the value-added tax or other consumption-based taxes. They show the conflicts and opportunities resulting from large current government deficits and the move for tax reform.In addition to clarifying the problems that must be solved if large-scale, long-term reform is to be achieved, the authors describe alternative strategies for increasing revenues quickly. They also present their own program for a fair, efficient, and less complex tax structure. They conclude with an examination of the political pitfalls that continue to make any major improvements in the tax system hard to enact."

The first accurate edition and English translation of one of the most fascinating works in medieval Hebrew letters. A rarity of enormous interest, this refurbished Hebrew translation of an Arthurian romance is the only known text of its kind in existence. Based on the writings of an anonymous Italian Jew in 1279, the author presents two stories. The first relates Merlin's role in the seductions of Igerna by Pendragon and the consequent birth of Arthur. The second tells of Arthur's rise to royal glory, of Lancelot's affair with Guinevere, his meeting with the Maid of Askalot, and his skill at a jousting tournament. This romance exists in a unique copy at the Vatican Library, which Curt Leviant personally examined. He offers a highly readable version of that text in corrected Hebrew with graceful English transliteration on facing pages, and an analysis of Jewish aspects of the piece. He also traces its origins to an Old French tale. Not just a literary curiosity, this is at once fine scholarship and compelling proof of the vibrant interaction between Judaism and other cultures of medieval Europe.

An accomplished and original eleventh-century satiric narrative poem, this is the first time this text is available as a stand-alone translation. The volume includes an introduction that places the romance in its rich historical and literary context, and extensive notes that illuminate the wealth of references found in the text.

Considered an important figure in medieval French literature, Chretien de Troyes is credited with inventing the modern novel. This work demonstrates that Chretien learned the importance of translation from the Mediterranean-centered classical tradition. It examines how Irish monastic scholarship influenced the cultural identity of medieval Europe.

More than a quarter century after its publication in English, Umberto Eco's ""The Name of the Rose"" remains a popular novel among medievalists and non-medievalists alike. This collection of essays approaches the novel as a primary text in medieval studies courses and seeks to provide ways of integrating it into such courses effectively.

Reveals how portrayals of peasants from the literature of the Golden Age of Virgilian Pastoral, who behave according to their social station, were increasingly replaced in the Middle Ages by portrayals that present the realistic peasant, whose outrageous behavior betrays his or her class while it threatens those who stand 'above'.

Explores representations of speech in English poetry of the later Middle Ages, proposing that the spoken word, both within Ricardian and Lancastrian poetry and within latemedieval English culture, was understood as an efficacious, powerful medium. Coley examines the work of Chaucer, Gower, Hoccleve, and the anonymous author of St. Erkenwald to show how writers manipulated cultural understandings of speech to engage with the crises that defined the later Middle Ages.

Inspired by the literary history of healing, this book explores the cognitive and physical effects of words in relation to the healing process. It presents an original and theoretically challenging examination of the intersection between medical manuscript and literary texts, such as the ""Canterbury Tales"" and ""Piers Plowman"".