Portraits of Medieval and Renaissance Living

This volume - a collection of essays dedicated to one of this century's most distinguished medieval historians, David Herlihy - introduces the general reader to the new social history of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The essays address three themes: sex and the family, power and patronage in local history, and society in town and countryside. The authors use current research to illustrate how Herlihy's ideas continue to shape work about the lives of powerful and ordinary people in this long and important period of Western history. Like Herlihy's own work, these essays present innovative and challenging hypotheses about significant problems in the history of medieval and Renaissance Europe. Important new material on Florence, family history, religion, the Inquisition, and taxation is presented for the first time, but the essays are not simply technical exercises focused on small or isolated pieces of research. This volume will go beyond the interest of specialists in medieval and Renaissance social history and will attract a wide audience including students and scholars of sociology, law, anthropology, and women's studies.