This major work offers a new interpretation of the witchcraft beliefs of European intellectuals between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, showing how these beliefs fitted rationally with other beliefs of the period and how far the nature of rationality is dependent on its historical context.

"Best-selling journalist, historian and author Paul Badde embarks on an exciting quest to discover the truth behind the Holy Face of Manoppello, a relic recently rediscovered and rumored to be the veil of Veronica...Badde was intrigued when he heard of a mysterious image in a remote Italian village--an image of a man's face on byssus cloth. Byssus, or sea silk, is a rare and delicate fabric woven from a silky filament produced by mollusks. It is claimed that the fabric is so thin and delicate that it is impossible to paint on--yet the image in Manoppello is clearly visible, and when laid over the image of the face on the Shroud of Turin, forms a perfect match..."--Dust cover flap.

This interdisciplinary volume includes essays and workshop summaries for the 2006 Attending to Early Modern Women—and Men symposium. Essays and workshop summaries are divided into four sections, "Masculinities," "Violence," "Childhood," and "Pedagogies". Taken together, they considers women's works, lives, and culture across geographical regions, primarily in England, France, Germany, Italy, the Low Countries, the Caribbean , and the Islamic world and explore the shift in scholarly understanding ofwomen's lives and works when they are placed alongside nuanced considerations of men's lives and works.

Shoaf here presents a hitherto neglected Middle English text for both undergraduate and graduate classrooms: Thomas Usk's The Testament of Love. Left unpublished since the nineteenth century, Usk's modern edition includes glosses, notes, and a contextualizing introduction to assist students of all levels in approaching Usk's Middle English poem. The fourteenth century work describes Love descending to Usk's prison cell, and the two engaging in a long, theological conversation reminiscent of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy. Notable for its idiosyncratic imagery, wide variety of themes, and Christian sentimentality, The Testament of Love is a fascinating text to be studied in any Middle English classroom.

The mystery and morality play were two of the three principal kinds of vernacular drama in Europe during the Middle Ages. Mystery plays, usually representing biblical subjects, developed from dramas presented in Latin by churchmen on sacred premises, depicting subjects like the Creation, Adam and Eve and the Last Judgment. They were often performed together in cycles which could last for days at special festivals and occasions. The morality play is an allegorical drama, in which the characters personify moral qualities and undergo didactic lessons. The action centres on a hero, such as Mankind, whose inherent weaknesses are assaulted by personified diabolic forces like the Seven Deadly Sins, but who may choose redemption and enlist the aid of such figures as Mercy, Justice, Temperance and Truth. This eBook presents a comprehensive collection of mystery and morality plays, with numerous illustrations, rare medieval texts, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) Please note: due to the book‐burning zeal of the English Reformation, no English text of a ‘miracle play’ survives and so an example of this drama cannot appear in this edition. * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to mystery and morality plays * Concise introductions to the major cycles and plays * All of the plays of the four principal mystery play cycles (York, Wakefield, N-Town and Chester) * The plays appear in the form of their original Middle English texts * Many rare dramas appearing for the first time in digital publishing * All extant English morality plays from the Middle Ages * Excellent formatting of the texts * Special Middle English glossary of words to aid your reading of the plays * Special contextual section, with four essays charting the development of drama in the Middle Ages * Ordering of texts into chronological order and genres Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles CONTENTS: The Mystery Plays York Mystery Plays (c. mid-14th century) Wakefield Mystery Plays (mid-15th century) N-Town Plays (late 15th century) Chester Mystery Plays (15th century) The Morality Plays The Pride of Life (late 14th century) The Castle of Perseverance (c. 1425) Wisdom (c. 1460) Mankind (c. 1470) Nature (c. 1495) by Henry Medwall Everyman (1510) Contextual Works Miracle Plays and Mysteries (1913) by Georges Michel Bertrin English Miracle Plays (1914) by Arnold Wynne Moralities and Interludes (1914) by Arnold Wynne Rise of the Drama (1921) by Andrew Lang Glossary of Middle English Words Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to purchase this eBook as a Parts Edition of individual eBooks

Usk was a figure of political and literary importance who was in the politics of late 14th-century London. A critical edition of his meditation on the fickle nature of worldly fortune and exploration of the relationship between grace and free will.

Jean Liébault (1535–1596), a doctor of medicine and an agronomist born in Dijon, contributed to the emergence of modern gynaecology by rescuing the Hippocratic medical tradition that recognized the specificity of the female body. His main work, a comprehensive treatise devoted to describing and treating the diseases of women, was highly influential in French gynaecology, being published several times. This book presents the semi-diplomatic edition of the only known English version of Liébault’s work. The manuscript, entitled Treatise on the Diseases of Women (MS Hunter 303, pp. 1–958), is housed in the Hunterian Collection at Glasgow University Library. The edition is accompanied by a palaeographic and a codicological study, and a linguistic analysis of the text, offering a primary source for the research of the English language, as well as the history of medicine and women’s studies.