Steven A Epstein
Biographic Data
| ID | 990808 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Steven A Epstein |
| GIVEN NAMES | Steven A |
| FAMILY NAME | Epstein |
| SIGNATURE | EPSTEIN S A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Kansas |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 41 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Human Agency in Medieval Society, 1100–1450 by Ionuţ Epurescu-Pascovici
Epurescu-Pascovici makes strong arguments about individual human agency in medieval France and Italy but does not neglect Providence. He deploys five case studies based on different types of sources classified as ego-documents—self-narratives (autobiographies), cartularies (charters), livres de raison (personal cartularies), Tuscan ricordi and ricordanze (memoires, and account books), and vernacular advice manuals. Some well-studied texts also ap…
A “Treatise on Abundance” (1638) and Early Modern Views of Poverty and Famine
A “Treatise on Abundance” (1638) and Early Modern Views of Poverty and Famine. Carlo Tapia. Ed. Tommaso Astarita and Gaetano Sabatini. Economic Ideas That Built Europe. London: Anthem Press, 2019. x + 230 pp. £80. - Volume 74 Issue 1
Artisans, Objects, and Everyday Life in Renaissance Italy: The Material Culture of the Middling Class by Paula Hohti Erichsen
Environmental History in the JIH, 1970-2020
Over the last five decades since the first Earth Day, the JIH and environmental history, one newborn and the other already well established, have evolved within the broader context of climate change and the human reaction to it. Two of the JIH's special issues, "History and Climate" (1980) and the "Little Ice Age: Climate and History Reconsidered" (2014), serve as bookends for an examination of how the journal responded to the latest scientific a…
Speaking of Slavery: Color, Ethnicity, and Human Bondage in Italy
In this highly original work, Steven A. Epstein shows that the ways Italians employ words and think about race and labor are profoundly affected by the language used in medieval Italy to sustain a system of slavery. The author's findings about the surprising persistence of the "language of slavery" demonstrate the difficulty of escaping the legacy of a shameful past.For Epstein, language is crucial to understanding slavery, for it preserves the h…
Slavery after Rome, 500–1100
Alice Rio has written a fine book about slavery in Western Europe by analyzing her subject with refreshing thematic chapters rather than geographical regions or chronological units. The six chapter
Clerical Households in Late Medieval Italy
This book is mainly about clerical households in northeast Italy in the fourteenth century, with a special emphasis on Venice and Bergamo. The late Shona Kelly Wray’s study of notarial records in Bologna—Communities and Crisis: Bologna during the Black Death (Boston, 2009)—provides a constant touchstone for this book. Most of its data comes from a survey of more than 100 wills by priests, this number obtained from a sample of about 10 percent of …
The Gattilusio Lordships and the Aegean World, 1355–1462
The Gattilusio Lordships and the Aegean World, 1355–1462. Christopher Wright. The Medieval Mediterranean: Peoples, Economies and Cultures, 400–1500 100. Leiden: Brill, 2014. xvii + 470 pp. $218. - Volume 68 Issue 1
Sara Ritchey. Holy Matter: Changing Perceptions of the Material World in Late Medieval Christianity
Sara Ritchey explains that her project “began as a sustained meditation on a specific, pervasive image in medieval Christian art and prayer—trees” (p. viii). These trees, pictures of plants or the cross in manuscripts, become in this book the starting point for an imaginative twist to the current “materiality turn” in medieval studies. The tree as leitmotif appears across texts and well-selected illustrations of genealogical and symbolic trees. M…
Ellen F. Arnold. Negotiating the Landscape: Environment and Monastic Identity in the Medieval Ardennes
Journal Article Ellen F. Arnold. Negotiating the Landscape: Environment and Monastic Identity in the Medieval Ardennes. Get access Ellen F. Arnold. Negotiating the Landscape: Environment and Monastic Identity in the Medieval Ardennes. (The Middle Ages Series.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2013. Pp. 301. $65.00. Steven A. Epstein Steven A. Epstein University of Kansas Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Goo…
The Medieval Discovery of Nature
This book examines the relationship between humans and nature that evolved in medieval Europe over the course of a millennium. From the beginning, people lived in nature and discovered things about it. Ancient societies bequeathed to the Middle Ages both the Bible and a pagan conception of natural history. These conflicting legacies shaped medieval European ideas about the natural order and what economic, moral and biological lessons it might tea…
The Origins of Racism in the West
Miriam Eliav-Feldon, Benjamin Isaac, and Joseph Ziegler, eds. The Origins of Racism in the West. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. xiv + 333 pp. index. illus. $99. ISBN: 978–0–521–88855–4. - Volume 63 Issue 1
Il "Catastico verde" del monastero di S. Giustina di Padova . Lorenzo Casazza , Lorenzo Casazza , Francesco G. B. Trolese
La culture matérielle médiévale: L'Italie méridionale byzantine et normande . Philip Ditchfield
An Anatomy of Trade in Medieval Writing: Value, Consent, and Community . Lianna Farber
Barcelone et le grand commerce d'Orient au moyen âge: Un siècle de relations avec l'Egypte et la Syrie-Palestine (ca. 1330-ca. 1430) . Damien Coulon
Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages . Olivia Remie Constable
The Art of the Deal: Intermediaries of Trade in Medieval Montpellier . Kathryn L. Reyerson
Italy Revisited: The Encyclopedia
The proliferation of encyclopedias and dictionaries in every field raises questions concerning the scholarly purpose and economics of these enterprises: Who stands to benefit from them most, and who can afford them? A new encyclopedia of medieval Italy distills for the current moment the latest canonical judgment of editors and authors about which subjects merit scrutiny and how much weight they should receive in a reference work intended to be c…
Imbreviature: I registro (Anni 1294-1296) . Ser Matteo di Biliotto Notaio , Manila Soffici , Franek Sznura
Dynasty and Diplomacy in the Court of Savoy: Political Culture and the Thirty Years' War
Toby Osborne. Dynasty and Diplomacy in the Court of Savoy: Political Culture and the Thirty Years War. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. xii + 304 pp. index. illus. chron. bibl. $65. ISBN: 0-521-65268-5. - Volume 57 Issue 1
Felix et inclitus notarius: Studien zum italienischen Notariat vom 7. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert . Andreas Meyer
A late medieval lawyer confronts slavery: The cases of Bartolomeo de Bosco
Gilden im mittelalterlichen Skandinavien. Christoph Anz
I Libri iurium della Repubblica di Genova: Introduzione. Dino Puncuh , Antonella Rovere I Libri iurium della Repubblica di Genova, 1/1. Antonella Rovere I Libri iurium della Repubblica di Genova, 1/2.…
The theory and practice of the just wage
The theory and practice of the just wage are neglected subjects and the sources for investigating them are not obvious. Biblical exegies and jurisprudence on Roman law, from both late antiquity and the central Middle Ages, emphasized that the just wage resulted from fair bargaining, but also that this wage should not fall below subsistence. Religion and the law encouraged people to honor contracts and to avoid envy and complaints. Yet labor was n…
Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe
Secrecy and Genoese commercial practices
Genoese commercial practices, among the best known in medieval Europe, relied on notaries and their cartularies to create and preserve valid contracts. This system of generating records raises questions about how private or secret Genoese business was, and whether it was safe from fraud and forgery. Legal and notarial sources reveal methods of organizing commerce that fostered trust by involving suitable witnesses and discreet notaries. The Genoe…
Business Cycles and the Sense of Time in Medieval Genoa
A great deal has been written about the perception of time before the invention of mechanical timepieces, but the nature of the evidence has led much of this literature to take on an impressionistic, even metaphysical, cast. In the following article, Professor Epstein uses specific data gleaned from the cartularies of thirteenth–century Genoese notaries to investigate more concretely the uses of time and the structure of the business day in Genoa…
Labour in thirteenth‐century Genoa
Thirteenth-century Genoa offers an excellent opportunity for looking at the different demands for labour that shaped life in a Mediterranean port town. The city was one of the half dozen or so most important entrepots in that period, and figured prominently in the crusades and long-distance trade. Genoa attempted to establish a hegemony in the western Mediterranean, and in the east her merchants were active in Constantinople, Acre, and other port…
Labour in thirteenth‐century Genoa
Thirteenth-century Genoa offers an excellent opportunity for looking at the different demands for labour that shaped life in a Mediterranean port town. The city was one of the half dozen or so most important entrepots in that period, and figured prominently in the crusades and long-distance trade. Genoa attempted to establish a hegemony in the western Mediterranean, and in the east her merchants were active in Constantinople, Acre, and other port…
Business Cycles and the Sense of Time in Medieval Genoa
A great deal has been written about the perception of time before the invention of mechanical timepieces, but the nature of the evidence has led much of this literature to take on an impressionistic, even metaphysical, cast. In the following article, Professor Epstein uses specific data gleaned from the cartularies of thirteenth–century Genoese notaries to investigate more concretely the uses of time and the structure of the business day in Genoa…
I registri della catena del comune di Savona: Registro 1 . Dino Puncuh , Antonella Rovere I registri della catena del comune di Savona: Registro II (Parte I) . Marina Nocera , Flavia Perasso , Dino Pu…
The theory and practice of the just wage
The theory and practice of the just wage are neglected subjects and the sources for investigating them are not obvious. Biblical exegies and jurisprudence on Roman law, from both late antiquity and the central Middle Ages, emphasized that the just wage resulted from fair bargaining, but also that this wage should not fall below subsistence. Religion and the law encouraged people to honor contracts and to avoid envy and complaints. Yet labor was n…
Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe
Wage Labor & Guilds in Medieval Europe
Dark Age Naval Power: A Reassessment of Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Seafaring Activity
Dark Age Naval Power offers a re-assessment of the evidence for Germanic seafaring before the Viking Age. The book questions many of the pillars of current archaeological orthodoxy - in particular, the assumption that the Vikings were unprecedented seafaring pioneers. As Haywood asserts, Germanic naval activity can be traced almost to the dawn of the recorded history of barbarian Europe. Demonstrating that an excessive concentration on ship-finds…
Jack Cade's Rebellion of 1450
Secrecy and Genoese commercial practices
Genoese commercial practices, among the best known in medieval Europe, relied on notaries and their cartularies to create and preserve valid contracts. This system of generating records raises questions about how private or secret Genoese business was, and whether it was safe from fraud and forgery. Legal and notarial sources reveal methods of organizing commerce that fostered trust by involving suitable witnesses and discreet notaries. The Genoe…
An Island for Itself: Economic Development and Social Change in Late Medieval Sicily
La Sicilia dei grani: Gestione dei feudi e cultura economica fra sei e settecento. Marcello Verga
Città e spazi economici nell'Italia comunale. Giuliano Pinto
Genoa & the Genoese
The Decline and Fall of Medieval Sicily: Politics, Religion, and Economy in the Reign of Frederick III, 1296-1337
1. The kingdom at risk 2. The international scene: war without and within 3. A divided society I: the urban demesnal world 4. A divided society II: the rural baronial world 5. The religious scene: piety and its problems 6. In the margins: slaves, pirates, and women Conclusion Tables Bibliography
Jews in the Notarial Culture: Latinate Wills in Mediterranean Spain, 1250- 1350. Robert I. Burns
A late medieval lawyer confronts slavery: The cases of Bartolomeo de Bosco
Gilden im mittelalterlichen Skandinavien. Christoph Anz
I Libri iurium della Repubblica di Genova: Introduzione. Dino Puncuh , Antonella Rovere I Libri iurium della Repubblica di Genova, 1/1. Antonella Rovere I Libri iurium della Repubblica di Genova, 1/2.…
Spain's Golden Fleece: Wool Production and the Wool Trade from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century
Carla Rahn Phillips and William D. PhillipsJr. , Spain's Golden Fleece: Wool Production and the Wool Trade from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. xviii + 441 pp. $49.95. ISBN: 0-8018-5518-7. - Reinhold C. Mueller, The Venetian Money Market: Banks, Panics, and the Public Debt 1200-1500 The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. xxvii + 711 pp. $65. ISBN: 0-8018-5437-7. - Volume 52 Issue 2
Felix et inclitus notarius: Studien zum italienischen Notariat vom 7. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert . Andreas Meyer
Imbreviature: I registro (Anni 1294-1296) . Ser Matteo di Biliotto Notaio , Manila Soffici , Franek Sznura
Dynasty and Diplomacy in the Court of Savoy: Political Culture and the Thirty Years' War
Toby Osborne. Dynasty and Diplomacy in the Court of Savoy: Political Culture and the Thirty Years War. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. xii + 304 pp. index. illus. chron. bibl. $65. ISBN: 0-521-65268-5. - Volume 57 Issue 1
Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages . Olivia Remie Constable
The Art of the Deal: Intermediaries of Trade in Medieval Montpellier . Kathryn L. Reyerson
Italy Revisited: The Encyclopedia
The proliferation of encyclopedias and dictionaries in every field raises questions concerning the scholarly purpose and economics of these enterprises: Who stands to benefit from them most, and who can afford them? A new encyclopedia of medieval Italy distills for the current moment the latest canonical judgment of editors and authors about which subjects merit scrutiny and how much weight they should receive in a reference work intended to be c…
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