Offers historical and topical chapters on the whole range of medieval ethical thought in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic philosophy.

Essays on the modern reception of the Middle Ages, built round the central theme of the ethics of medievalism.

Ever since its rediscovery in the thirteenth century, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics has figured as a prime model of philosophical ethics in Western moral thought. This collection of articles for the first time surveys the medieval tradition of commentaries on the work from its origins to the fifteenth century. The twelve articles concentrate on the moral and intellectual virtues around which Aristotle’s ethic revolves and in many cases compare the discussion of the virtues in the medieval commentaries with contemporary theological debate. Taken together, the articles show the diverse and surprisingly creative ways in which medieval intellectuals during three centuries combined widely diverging currents of ancient and Christian moral thought in order to formulate a philosophical ethic suitable to their times. Contributors include: István P. Bejczy, Pavel Blažek, Valeria A. Buffon, Iacopo Costa, Christoph Flüeler, Tobias Hoffmann, Roberto Lambertini, Jörn Müller, Matthias Perkams, Marco Toste, Martin J. Tracey, and Irene Zavattero.

Jessica Rosenfeld provides a history of the ethics of medieval vernacular love poetry by tracing its engagement with the late medieval reception of Aristotle. Beginning with a history of the idea of enjoyment from Plato to Peter Abelard and the troubadours, the book then presents a literary and philosophical history of the medieval ethics of love, centered on the legacy of the Roman de la Rose. The chapters reveal that 'courtly love' was scarcely confined to what is often characterized as an ethic of sacrifice and deferral, but also engaged with Aristotelian ideas about pleasure and earthly happiness. Readings of Machaut, Froissart, Chaucer, Dante, Deguileville and Langland show that poets were often markedly aware of the overlapping ethical languages of philosophy and erotic poetry. The study's conclusion places medieval poetry and philosophy in the context of psychoanalytic ethics, and argues for a re-evaluation of Lacan's ideas about courtly love.

This important study examines the market trade of medieval England by providing a wide-ranging critique of the moral and legal imperatives that underpinned retail trade. James Davis shows how market-goers were influenced not only by practical and economic considerations of price, quality, supply and demand, but also by the moral and cultural environment within which such deals were conducted. This book draws on a broad range of cross-disciplinary evidence, from the literary works of William Langland and the sermons of medieval preachers, to state, civic and guild laws, Davis scrutinises everyday market behaviour through case studies of small and large towns, using the evidence of manor and borough courts. From these varied sources, Davis teases out the complex relationship between morality, law and practice and demonstrates that even the influence of contemporary Christian ideology was not necessarily incompatible with efficient and profitable everyday commerce.

The book covers a wide range of topics and raises issues rarely touched on in the ethics-of-war literature, such as environmental concerns and the responsibility of bystanders.

Essays on the modern reception of the Middle Ages, built round the central theme of the ethics of medievalism.

Guynn offers an innovative new approach to the ethical, cultural, and ideological analysis of medieval allegory. Working between poststructuralism and historical materialism, he considers both the playfulness of allegory and its disciplinary force.

This collection surveys the tradition of medieval commentaries on Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics" from its thirteenth-century origins to the fifteenth century, concentrating on the conception of the moral and intellectual virtues in a continuous interplay of ancient and Christian moral thought.

The late medieval Church obliged all Christians to rebuke the sins of others, especially those who had power to discipline in Church and State: priests, confessors, bishops, judges, the Pope. This practice, in which the injured party had to confront the wrong-doer directly and privately, was known as fraternal correction. Edwin Craun examines how pastoral writing instructed Christians to make this corrective process effective by avoiding slander, insult, and hypocrisy. He explores how John Wyclif and his followers expanded this established practice to authorize their own polemics against mendicants and clerical wealth. Finally, he traces how major English reformist writing - Piers Plowman, Mum and the Sothsegger, and The Book of Margery Kempe - expanded the practice to justify their protests, to protect themselves from repressive elements in the late Ricardian and Lancastrian Church and State, and to urge their readers to mount effective protests against religious, social, and political abuses.