Booklist
This is a list of books recommended by people on the berklist, with some additions of my own.
I cannot attribute all the recommendations but special mention should go to Eric Kouris, Jeremiah Genest, David Chart and Michael de Vertuil.
Alchemy
Kren C., Alchemy in Europe, a guide to research, Garland, New York, 1990,
ISBN: 0-8240-8538-8
General bibliography on alchemy
Halleux R., Les textes alchimiques, Typologie des sources du Moyen Age
occidental, Fasc. 32, Brepols, Turnhout, 1979, ISBN: ???
Definitely, the best introductory text on alchemy. Must read!
Holmyard E.J., Alchemy, Penguin Books, 1957, (reprint Dover, 1990; ISBN:
0-486-26298-7)
The best introductory text in English
Revue d’histoire des sciences, tome 49, 2-3, avril-septembre 1996, Théorie
et pratique dans la constitution des savoirs alchimiques, Presses
Universitaires de France, Paris, 1997, ISBN: 2 13 047653 8 ISSN: 0151-4105
Relevant to medieval alchemy are an article on Aristotle and Greek alchemy
and another on art and nature in alchemy (both in French)
Kahn D., Matton S. (ed.), Alchimie : art, histoire et mythes, Actes du 1er
colloque international de la société d’étude de l’histoire de l’alchimie,
SEHA-Arché, Paris-Milan, 1995, ISBN: 88-7252-178-5
800+ pages on the history of alchemy (mainly in French). More than 150 p.
on medieval alchemy (mainly Greek alchemy)
Chrysopoeia, Tome VI 1997-1999, SEHA-Arché, Paris-Milan, 2000
ISBN: 88-7252-207-2 ISSN: 0984-7340
Contains the critical edition of Ps.-Appolonius of Tyana's De secretis
naturae (Kitab sirr al-haliqa) in Latin, and two texts of Ps.-Arnaud de
Villeneuve (Latin with French translation)
Kraus P., Jabir Ibn Hayyan, Contribution à l’histoire des idées
scientifiques dans l’Islam, Institut d’Egypte, Le Caire, 1942 (reprinted
Les Belles Lettres, 1986, ISBN: 2-251-35533-2, ISSN: 0761-2605)
Still a reference text on the alchemist Jabir Ibn Hayyan
Lindsay J., The Origins of Alchemy in graeco-roman Egypt, 1970, ISBN: ???
(sorry I just have the French translation)
Could be interesting if the author didn't suffer from the flaw Incomprehensible
Mertens M., Les Alchimistes Grecs, tome IV, Ire partie, Zosime de
Panopolis, Mémoires authentiques, Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 1995, ISBN:
2-251-00448-3, ISSN: 0184-7155
Critical edition of Zosimus texts (in Greek) with French translation
Colinet A., Les Alchimistes Grecs, tome X, L'anonyme de Zuretti, Les Belles
Lettres, Paris, 2000, ISBN: 2251004785
Critical edition (Greek text with French translation) of recipe book on
Greek alchemy
Newman W.R., The Summa Perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber, A critical edition,
translation and study, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1991, ISBN: ??? (sorry I just
have a copy, not the book)
The introduction (roughly 100 pages) is the best text on 13th c. Latin
alchemy Then you have the 400 page Latin text and its English translation
Thiolier-Méjean S., Alchimie Médiévale en pays d'Oc, PUPS, 1999, ISBN:
2-84050-149-X, ISSN: 0756-7847
Critical edition with French translation of this alchemical texts in Langue
d'Oc
Obrist B., Les débuts de l’imagerie alchimique (XIVe-XVe siècles), Le
Sycomore, Paris, 1982, ISBN: ???
The reference text on the history of alchemical illustrations
Comprendre et maîtriser la nature au Moyen Age, Librairie Droz / Librairie
Champion, Genève/Paris, 1994, ISBN: 2-600-0040-2
Contains 30 articles on medieval sciences (mainly in French), two of them
on alchemy (with an interesting overview of the alchemy of Roger Bacon)
Encyclopédies Médiévales, discours et savoirs, Presses Universitaires de
Rennes et Association Diderot, Rennes, 1998, ISBN: 2-86847-382-2 and
2-9506357-9-3, ISSN: 1159-7844
Contains an article (in French) on alchemy in medieval encyclopedias
(particularly Vincent of Beauvais)
Halleux R., Les Alchimistes Grecs, tome I, Papyrus de Leyde, Papyrus de
Stockholm, Fragments de recettes, Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 1981, ISBN:
2-251-10003-2 or 2-251-00003-8 (paperback)
Critical edition of two chemical paryrus (text in Greek with French
translation)
Rashed R. (ed.), Histoires des sciences arabes, tome 3 : technologie,
alchimie, science de la vie, Le Seuil, Paris, 1997, ISBN: 2-02-030354-X
(2-02-030355-8 for the 3 vol. series)
Contains one interesting article on Latin alchemy one not-so-interesting
article on Arab alchemy (both in French)
AlMaghrib
- -Rihla. Ibn yubayr. the voyage of a pilgrim from spain to la Meca write
in 1183. maYbe a strange a difficuld to found book. Is edited in english
like "The voyages of Ibn Jubayr" by R.J.C.Broadhurst, London 1952.
"Ibn Yubair:Rihla" ed. de W.Wright, 2nd ed. revised by M.J. De Goeje,
Leiden-London, 1907, reprint New York, 1973.
- -"A history of the Arab Peoples" Albert Hourani. ed. Faber and Faber
Ltd. 1991
Alpine Faeries
As far as faeries go, try the books with the legends of the Dolomiti by
Carlo Felice Wolf ("I monti pallidi"- non ricordo la casa editrice). They
are full of beatiful stories and ideas on faeries (and other magical beings)
in the Alps. TRULY beatiful. On par with (and imho often even surpassing)
classic anglo-celtic myths as the children of lyr or the sons of tureen
(which ok, aren't exactly on faeries even if they're about the tuatha de
danann).
The Black Sea
Black Sea: The Birthplace of Civilisation and Barbarism. Neal Ascherson.
Vintage Press. ISBN 0-09-959371-8.
Byzantium
A History of the Byzantine State and Society
Warren Treadgold
Stanford UP, 1997
ISBN: 0-8047-2630-2
Balkans
Fine, JVA: The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century
Fine, JVA: The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey form the LAte Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest.
Obolensky, D: The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe 500-1453
Bogomils
Obolensky, D: The Bogomils: A study in Balkan Neo-Manichaeism.
Science
Toby E. Huff, The rise of early modern science, Islam, China and the West,
Cambridge University Press, 1993
Eastern European Maps
Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe, by Paul Robert Magocsi, published by
the University of Washington Press, 1993.
Fiction
Jack Vance: Lyonesse, Lyonesse II: the Green Pearl, Lyonesse III:
Madouc. Entirely in the ArM tradition. Probably where they stole the
idea of the Code from. More focused on mundanes than wizards, but the
fairy sequences province one of the best sources for running the less
than absolutely serious fey.
Paula Volsky: The Sorcerors Lady, ... Heir, ... Curse. Magicians in a
pseudo Venice. So Ars Magicaish it even has a form of certamen.
Judith Merkle-Riley: A Vision of Light, In Pursuit of the Green Lion.
No mages but a great vision of what companions should be like. You
should be warned that the American(as opposed to the English) edition of
Vision looks like a very bad romance novel complete with blue, yellow
and gold cover. Perserve anyway.
Kate Elliot: Kings Dragon (v1 of Crown of Stars series). Although a fantasy world, the parallels to C11th Germany are many. To some extent this is as close as you'll get to Mythic Europe. People have Memory palaces and use Theurgy. There are fae in the forests and the nomadic shamen have powers directly taken from historical texts.
Chaz Brenchly: Tower of the King's Daughter (v1 of the Outremer series). Another fantasy world very closely resembling Mythic Europe - in this case the Crusader states of C12th.
Folklore
Check out "Merlin's Ring" by H. Warner Munn (I'm pretty sure that's the
right name). This is a nice piece of fantasy, which roams across a
substantial portion of the Old World from around AD 1000 to 1500 and has
a lot to say about Gods, the Fay, Magic and the ways in which they can
change or be changed... Mind you, I'm pretty sure it's out of print by
now.
Then again, for a really inspired sampling of Old Greek Myth, read Gene
Wolfe's Duology, "Soldier of Mist" and "Soldier of Arete".
Likewise, Somtow's "Shattered Horse" will give you a lot of ideas about
the Ancient Greek conception of the mythic world.
Forests
The ecological history of European forests / edited by Keith J.
Kirby and Charles Watkins.
European woods and forests : studies in cultural history /
edited by C. Watkins.
Trees and man : the forest in the Middle Ages / Roland Bechmann
; translated by Katharyn Dunham.
Grazing ecology and forest history / F.W.M. Vera
German Faerie Tales
the folktales collected by the brother Grimms : these are all well known
fairytales, and they were collected in situ, so the original stories are
probably pretty old.
The Niebelungen legends (the same used by Wagner in the Tetralogy)
Tales about Till Eulenspiegel (a legendary prankster, the tales of his
mischief is still rather popular in Germany.)
2 poems Die Lorelei, and Der Erlk=F6nig
(from Goethe; if you can't read German, I'm sure they were translated in
just about every every european languages and a dozen others..)
German Nobility
Barraclough, Geoffrey, editor, Mediaeval Germany: 911-1250,
Basil Blackwell, 1961.
Leyser, K. J., Rule and Conflict in an Early Medieval Society:
Ottonian Saxony, Edward Arnold, 1979.
Reuter, Timothy, Germany in the Early Middle Ages C. 800-1056,
Longman, 1991.
Arnold, Benjamin, German Kighthood 1050-1300, OUP 1985
Other books by Arnold include Princes and Territories in Medieval Germany (1991),Count and Bishop in Medieval Germany (1992), Medieval Germany: A Political Interpretation 500-1300 (1997).
Ghosts
_Ghosts in the Middle Ages_ by Jean-Claude Schmitt. ISBN 0-236-73887-6.
Medieval Ghost Stories by Andrew Joynes. ISBN 0-85115-817-X
Hansa
Dollinger, P. ed. The German Hansa (NY: Routledge, 1999)
Hedge Magic
Kieckhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1989.
Seligmann, Kurt. Magic, Supernaturalism and
Religion. Pantheon Books, New York, NY, 1948.
Cavendish, Richard. A History of Magic. Sphere
Books Ltd, London, 1978.
Magnus, Albertus, ed. by Michael R. Best & Frank
H. Brightman. Book of Secrets, Oxford, Clarendon
Press, 1973.
McNeill, F. Marian. The Silver Bough, volume one
scottish folk-lore and folk belief. Cox and
Wyman, Reading, 1956.
Ginzburg, Carlo. Ecstasies: Deciphering the
Witches' Sabbath. Penguin Books, 1991.
McIntosh, Christopher. The Devil's Bookshelf: a
history of the written word in western magic
from ancient egypt to the present day. The
Aquarian Press, Wellingborough,
Northamptonshire, 1985.
[Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Ancient Greece and Rome (London: The Athlone Press, 1999)]
"Forbidden Rites" by Richard Kieckhefer, ISBN 0-7509-1380-0 A genuine fifteenth century necromancer's manual, will full text and good reproductions of the diagrams of the summoning circles,
Alan Sutton Publishers (they have a suspended sheep as their symbol), 'Magic in History' series.
"Conjuring Spirits" edited by Claire Fanger, ISBN 0-7509-1382-7 Several twelfth and thirteenth century magical texts are discussed.
Hermetism
_The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind_, by Garth Fowden. Princeton Paperbacks, ISBN 0-691-02498-7.
Hungarian Folk Tales
Folktales of Hungary, ed. Linda Degh, trans. Judit Halasz, University of Chicago Press, 1965, isbn: 0-226-14024-5.
Iberia
a three volume set by Colin Smith called _Christians
and Moors in Spain_,
Ireland
Curtayne, Alice. The Irish Story: A Survey of Irish History and Culture. New York, New York: P. J. Kenedy and Sons, 1960.
Richter, Michael. Medieval Ireland, The Enduring Tradition. New York, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995
Neville, Peter. A Traveller's History of Ireland. New York, New York: Interlink Books, 1997
Gerald of Wales. The History and Topology of Ireland. Trans. John J. O'Meara. London, England: Penguin Books, 1982
Lithuania, Baltic and Poland
Lithuania Ascending : A Pagan Empire Within East-Central Europe, 1295-1345 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4th Series, 25) by S. C. Rowell.
"The Northern Crusades: The Baltic and the Catholic Frontier, 1100-1525" by Eric Christiansen, published by Macmillan, 1980.
"Gods Playground: A History of Poland", by Norman Davies.
Mechanics
Sherwood. M. "Magic and mechanics in medieval fiction", Studies in Philology, vol. 44 (1947) pp 567-592.
Medieval Culture
Gurevich, Aron. _Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception._ Trans. Janos M. Bak and Paul A. Hollingsworth. Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture 14. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988. ISBN 0-521-38658-6
Moneylending
J. Shatzmiller, Shylock reconsidered: Jews,Moneylending, and Medieval Society, University of California, 1990
Slavic Myth
'Forest of the Vampire' is a book of Slavic myth in the Time Life 'Myth and Mankind' series. ISBN 0 7054 3613 6
Dixon-Kennedy, Mike. Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend.
Esbensen, Barbara J. The Dream Mouse: A Lullaby Tale from Old Latvia.
Illustrated by Judith Mitchell. Little,
Brown. ISBN 0-316-24975-0
Kimmel, Eric A. Sirko and the Wolf. Illustrated by Robert Sauber. Holiday House
(a Ukrainian Tale)
Langton, Jane. The Hedgehog Boy: A Latvian Folktale. Illustrated by Ilse Plume.
Harper.
Lewis, J. Patrick. The Frog Princess: A Russian Folktale. Illustrated by Gennady
Spirin. Dial Books.
Oparenko, C. (1996). Ukrainian Folktales. New York: Oxford University Press.
Saints and the Medieval Paradigm
The Golden Legend, Readings on the Saints by Jacobus de Voragine,
translated by William Granger-Ryan, published by Princeton University Press
in two volumes, hardback and paperback.
Church and Piety
Gurevich, A. (1988) Medieval Popular Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Lynch, J. H. (1992) The Medieval Church (London: Longman)
Moorman, J. R. H. (1945) Church Life in England in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Swanson, R. N. (1995) Religion and Devotion in Europe, c. 1215 - c. 1515 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Medieval Popular Religion 1000-1500 ed. John Shinners ISBN 1-55111-133-0
Prices and Economy
Dyer's "Standards of living in the later Middle Ages"
Universities and Science
Marshall Clagett's The Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages (U. of Wisconsin Press, 1959)
The foundations of modern science in the middle age
Edward Grant Cambridge University Press, 1996
Scotland
Smyth, Alfred P. _Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland, AD 80-1000._ (1984)
Barrow, G.W.S. _Kingship and Unity: Scotland, 1000-1306._ (1981)
Grant, Alexander. _Independence and Nationhood: Scotland, 1306-1469._ (1984)
Barrow, G.W.S. _Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland._
3rd ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-85224-604-8.
[A classic by one of the deans of Scottish medieval history. Later than
the canonical date for ArM, but still a worthwhile antidote to the many
historical liberties taken by "Braveheart."]
Crawford, Barbara E. _Scandinavian Scotland._ Scotland in the Early
Middle Ages, vol. 2; Studies in the Early History of Britain. Leicester:
Leicester University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-7185-1282-0.
Ewan, Elizabeth. _Townlife in Fourteenth Century Scotland._ Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1990. 0-7486-0151-1. [O.K., it's late. But
it's also a paperback treatment of Scottish medieval towns not an easy
thing to find.]
Frame, Robin. _The Political Development of the British Isles, 1100-1400._
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-19-289183-9. [England,
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland treated together in a broad comparative
perspective.]
Pontus and Trbizond
Bryer, Anthony and David Winfield. The Byzantine Monuments and Topography
of the Pontos. Dumbarton Oaks Studies number 20. Washington, D.C.:
Dumbarton Oaks, 1985.
Virgil
Vergil in the Middle Ages
by Domenico Comparetti
Princeton Univ. Press
ISBN: 0691026785
Wales
The Age of Conquest' by RR Davies ISBN 0-19-820198-2
Warfare
Nicolle, David "Medieval Warfare Sourcebook, Vol: 1" (1995)
(Vol 1 covers Western Christendom; Vol 2 will cover Byzantium and the East.)
Damascus
R. Stephen Humphreys, "From Saladin to the Mongols: The Ayyubids of Damascus."
Project Redcap
Spear Peak