The Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages, by James T. Palmer

This book, by James T. Palmer, provides a detailed overview of the different ways in which apocalyptic thought interacted with social, theological and political changes across six and a half centuries of early medieval history ( c .380– c. 1033). The book was written, the author tells us, because he was surprised to find, after committing to teach the subject to undergraduates, that a single-volume treatment of early medieval apocalypticism did not yet exist (p. x). The book fulfils this primary aim very successfully and its utility for teaching in this field is one of its greatest assets (the relatively modest sticker price for the paperback version will make it widely accessible and this is to be welcomed). The student reader will be enthused by Palmer’s engaging prose style, which never fails to bring life to the medieval past even when the source material has the potential to seem dry to the uninitiated. Some of his more arresting descriptions were perhaps written with this audience in mind, for example the references to the ‘Last Emperor schtick’ of Otto III (p. 206) and Boniface’s ‘humourless love for orderliness’ (p. 147). The book commendably brings Byzantine evidence into dialogue with western material at every appropriate opportunity. It gives a coherent shape to a diverse body of evidence through its simple yet logical chronological structure. Palmer links this material together very well, and, when long-forgotten intellectual concerns reappear in new contexts centuries after they had first disappeared from view, he makes these connections very clear.

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