Fifteenth-Century Studies Vol. 29

Book excerpt: New essays on topics from love and sexuality to physical handicaps, old age, good and bad fortune, women's virtues, art and literature, and the writing of manuscripts. Fifteenth-Century Studies has appeared annually since 1977. It publishes essays on all aspects of life in the 15th century, including literature, drama, history, philosophy, art, music, religion, science, and ritual and custom. The editors strive to do justice to the most contested medieval century, a period that defies consensus on fundamental issues. In this volume the standard synopsis of research on 15th-c. theater is followed by essays on reflection/meditation on love and sexuality, physical handicaps, old age, betrayal, and false accusations. Contributors investigate good and bad fortune and human reactions to it, as well as women's virtues. Essays deal with poetry, prose, and drama, while others explore art, looking at illuminations, fresco, and tapestry from the vantage point of hagiography and romance. Finally, there is an essay on scribes, codices, and manuscripts from the perspective of New Philology. Contributors: E. DuBruck, C. Azuela, D.E. Booton, L.V. Gerulaitis, R. Hyatte, S. Jefferis, V. Minet-Mahy, C. Politis, M.J. Seaman, E. I. Wade. Edelgard E. DuBruck is professor emerita in the Modern Languages Department at Marygrove College, and Barbara I. Gusick is professor emerita of English at Troy University-Dothan, Dothan, Alabama.