Pragmatic Utopias: Ideals and Communities, 1200-1630

by Rosemary Horrox, Sarah Rees Jones

Overview

Spanning the artificial divide between medieval and early modern history, this collection of essays shows how men and women tried to put their ideals into practice, sometimes alone, but more commonly within the shared environment of cloister, college or city. The volume is presented to the distinguished medievalist Barrie Dobson in celebration of his 70th birthday, and takes the reader from a rural landscape to the London of Thomas More, and from the forests of Robin Hood to the central law courts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521650601
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/29/2001
Pages:	298
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.83(d)
Lexile:	1550L (what's this?)

Table of Contents

Preface Rosemary Horrox; Richard Barrie Dobson: an appreciation John Taylor; 1. 'If heaven be on this earth, is it in cloister or in school': the monastic ideal in later medieval English literature Derek Pearsall; 2. The 'chariot of Aminadab' and the Yorkshire priory of Swine Janet Burton; 3. 'Godliness and good learning': ideals and imagination in medieval university and college foundations Robert Swanson; 4. Hugh of Balsham, bishop of Ely 1256/7–1286 Roger Lovatt; 5. A cruel necessity? Christ's and St John's, two Cambridge re-foundations Malcolm Underwood; 6. Coventry's 'Lollard' programme of 1492 and the making of Utopia P. J. P. Goldberg; 7. Thomas More's Utopia and medieval London Sarah Rees Jones; 8. Social exclusivity or justice for all? Access to justice in fourteenth-century England Anthony Musson; 9. Idealising criminality: Robin Hood in the fifteenth century A. J. Pollard; 10. Fat Christian and Old Peter: ideals and compromises among the medieval Waldensians Peter Biller; 11. Imageless devotion: what kind of an ideal? Margaret Aston; 12. An English anchorite: the making, unmaking and remaking of Christine Carpenter Miri Rubin; 13. Victorian values in fifteenth-century England: the Ewelme almshouse statutes Colin Richmond; 14. Puritanism and the poor Patrick Collinson; 15. Realising a Utopian dream: the transformation of the clergy in the diocese of York, 1500–1630 Claire Cross; Bibliography of Barrie Dobson's published works.

Editorial Reviews

"The editors of this volume have done an admirable job—through judicious selection—of uniting their material as well as can be expected from a volumue of this nature, and the fifteen essays themselves are so engaging as to be seminal. All contributions are strong, and concise—rarely over a dozen pages, exclusive of notes—and many offer provocative insights that challenge our notions of historic categorization and stereotypes. ...a delightful book, and one deserving of multiple readings." Renaissance and Reformation

"Pragmatic Utopias is an impressive collection, marked by a tightly focused theme but illustrated by a wide range of studies. For scholars who recognize idealism and utopias as a feature of medieval society, this will be an indispensable collection." History

"[A] varied and rich collection." Renaissance Quarterly

"A rich collection...we are fortunate to have [it]." The Medieval Review

From the Publisher