Medievalia et Humanistica, No. 44

Book excerpt: Since its founding in 1943, Medievalia et Humanistica has won worldwide recognition as the first scholarly publication in America to devote itself entirely to medieval and Renaissance studies. Since 1970, a new series, sponsored by the Modern Language Association of America and edited by an international board of distinguished scholars and critics, has published interdisciplinary articles. In yearly hardcover volumes, the new series publishes significant scholarship, criticism, and reviews treating all facets of medieval and Renaissance culture: history, art, literature, music, science, law, economics, and philosophy. Volume 44 showcases the interdisciplinary nature of the series with articles on the role of women in Old English martyrology, the blending of sacred and mundane subjects in medieval biblical plays (Spiele), the relationship between reality and literary topoi in the humanist praise of cities (Städtelob), and reflections on the absence of the bull in early modern European discourse. Volume 44 also includes five review notices that illustrate the journal’s interdisciplinary scope.