Engaging Words: The Culture of Reading in the Later Middle Ages.

X, 243 p. Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langjährigem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Lediglich der Schutzumschlag ist leicht berieben, sonst ein tadelloses Exemplar / Only the dust jacket is slightly rubbed, otherwise a pristine copy. - Acts of reading appear everywhere in the late Middle Ages, from the margins of Books of Hours to self-portraits of authors in their studies. What relevance did this image have for the late medieval imagination? Engaging Words is an interdisciplinary study on the conception of reading in late medieval society. Beginning with an examination of the social conditions that produced a viable reading public, the book surveys popular tastes, the interrelationship between manuscript form and content, and the theory and poetry of late medieval authors. Drawing on images from late medieval culture as well as from historical documents and literary texts, Engaging Words shows how reading became a cultural metaphor in the late Middle Ages that transformed the way the Western world thought about identity and social roles. / CONTENTS List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Series Editor’s Foreword Introduction: Engaging Texts Chapter 1 The Reading Public Chapter 2 The Image of the Book: Mediating the Aesthetics of Reader Response Chapter 3 Authorized Readers, or, Reading Authority Chapter 4 The Ethics of Reading Chapter 5 Textual Subjects Conclusion: Identity and the Book Notes Bibliography Index. ISBN 9780312233839