A Casual Taxonomy of Things a Medievalist Should Know

This little list is based on a privatissimum I gave many years ago, entitled "What Every Medievalist Should Know." This is the original verison and it is old and out of date, but it sort of represents a taxonomy of concerns. I just wanted to list things the medievalists might like to talk about.  Additions and comments are welcome. I have a specialized bibliography available in each of these fields that you will find on the main page. I notice as I look through that this leans a little towards the Germanic and the German.  Such was not my intention; it is
probably just my upbringing.
                                                             Professor James W. Marchand

1. History of the Middle Ages:  Samaran and Hockett for general
method; Gebhardt (German), Propylaeen, Kulturfahrplan (now also
in English as Timetable of History, available on CD-ROM),
Delorme, Hauck, Kulturatlas for German; Paetow, Halphen &
Renouard, Chevalier.  For general MA: Paetow and American
Historical Association, Harvard or Cambridge for bibliography.

2. Art of the Middle Ages.  Re/au, Ku"nstle, Marle (for
iconography); Katzenellenbogen, Simon, Adams (for architecture);
facsimiles of all kinds; Schiller, Aurenhammer, Art Index (also
on CD-ROM, Wilson) for keeping up.

3. Music of the Middle Ages: Coussemaker and Gerbert (+ Strunk
and the German translations) for sources; Die Musik in Geschichte
und Gegenwart, Oxford, Grove, Reese.  Curt Sachs (Jaap Kunst) for
background; any self-instructional manual for learning notation.
New Oxford History + records for more thorough study.  Taylor for
introduction into German Minnesong.  Christ's discography
(Medievalia 2) for French.  North Carolina volujme on
bibliography.  Thomas (University of Illinois).  Monochord of own
making for learning the meaning of notation and the difference
between well-tempered and the medieval system.  Musical
dictionary (e.g. Willi Apel) for understanding terms.  Penguin
history for discography.  Hughes (Toronto)

4. Grammar in the Middle Ages: Specht for education; Keil for
examples (+ the vernacular grammars of ONorse, OE (Aelfric),
Provencal (Leys d'amors), Auraceipt na nEces, etc.  Grabmann for
the history of Sprachlogik; Sandys for the history of grammars.
Bursian + l'Annee philologique for bibliography up to date.
Ga"beler, Steinthal, Robins, Coseriu for history of linguistics.

5. Rhetoric in the Middle Ages: Murphy for bibliography, Faral
and Ro"ckinger for texts; Baldwin, McKeon, Murphy for theory;
classical texts in Loeb Classics (especially Caplan's ed. of the
Ad Herennium).  Curtius, Arbusow (good for list of authorities,
etc.), Brinkmann for theory.

6. Logic in the Middle Ages: Prantl and Bochenski for texts (+
many new texts published in the list handout out in class, by
Wade, Moody, Boehner, Kretzmann, et al.). Prantl and Kneale &
Kneale for history.  Grabmann for language logic.  Stoic
backgrounds (Mates), modern logic, etc.

7. Geometry in the Middle Ages: Thorndike's Sacorbosco and Euclid
for texts; Cantor and Smith for the history of mathematics.

8. Arithmetic (including numerology): Computus (Bede, Alcuin,
Rabanus Maurus; later authors: Brythferth, Alexander de Villa
Dei); for sources, the encyclopedists; for later works see Sarton
or Thorndike's Sacrobosco.  Cantor and Smith for history.  For
numerical symbolism: Liber de numeris, Sauer, Hopper, Bongus.
For bibliography on number symbolism, see Batts.

9. Astronomy (including astrology): for introduction see Hoyle;
Gundel; Zinner (for bibliography), Deinert, etc. for studies;
Horne's Handbook for general orientation.  The sources: Ptolemy;
the Greeks (Bouchet le Clerq; Nilsson); the Babylonians
(Neugebauer); TAPA for tables; l'Annee philologique for
continuing bibliography.  Kratz, Moonbeam, Planets for software.

10. Seven liberal arts: Abelson for general, Koch, Wagner.

11.  Medieval Science: Sarton, Taton, Crombie; Isis and Osiris.
The standard series (Columbia, Wisconsin).

12.  Medieval Technology: Singer and the bibliographies of
medieval science.

13.  Medicine: Singer, Underwood, Castiglione, Sudhoff (Archiv).

14.  Symbolism:  Kaske, Bibliographie zur antiken Bildersprache,
Sauer, Numerical (see above), Art (see above), typology
(Auerbach, Brinkmann), Topology (Curtius, Auerbach),
Bibliographie zur Toposforschung, Klinck (for etymology).
Portal, Wackernagel, Skard (for colors); Durandus for the
symbolism fo the medieval church.

15.  Encyclopedists: Pliny, Varro (lost), Solinus, Martianus
Capella (see transl. and commentary in the Columbia series),
Cassiodorus, Boethius, Isidor, Hugh of St. Victor, Bartholomaeus
Anglicus, Neckham, Vincent of Beauvais.

16.  Commentaries on Bible: Glossa ordinaria, Hugh of St. Cher,
Bersuire, Denys the Carthusian, Cornelius a Lapide, Pitra,
McNally, Spicq, Smalley, de Lubac, Stegmu"ller, Dekkers-Gaar,
Kaske.  NB: many Bibles are now available, some in public domain,
in electronic form (see other sheet).

17.  Calendar: The sources: Jones, Bede; Crawford, Brythferth.
For date checking Mas-Latrie, l'art de ve/rifier les dates.  For
Discussion: Grotefend, Ginzel, Lietzmann, Sta"hlin, Bickerman.
Poole.

18.  Textual Criticism: Maas, Kantorowicz, Be/dier, Vinaver,
Colwell.  See other sheet.

19.  Archaeology: Science in Archaeology (both editions), Kenyon,
Clark, Eggers, Hawkes (for texts), Wooley, Heizer.  Braidwood's
yearly report in the Encyclopedia Britannica is worth reading.

20.  Comparative Religion: Dume/zil, Wach, Halm, de Vries,
Eliade, Turville-Petre, Gro"nbech, Grimm, Hastings, Mana, James,
Diehl.  Mythologies of the World.

21.  Feudalism: Bloch, Ganshof, Thompson, Mohl.

22.  Scripture: Glanzmann & Fitzmyer, Colwell, Schaff-Herzog, Die
Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Reallexikon fu"r Antike und
Christentum.

23.  Liturgy: Hughes, Pfaff, Vogel, Jungmann, Franz, Jahrbuch.

24.  Saints' Lives: Butler, Baring-Gould, Acta Sanctorum,
Analecta Bollandiana, Aigrain, Delehaye, Legenda Aurea.

25.  Latin Literature in the Middle Ages: Schanz-Hosius,
Manitius, Gro"ber (great taxonomy), De Ghellincgk.

26.  English Literature: Greenfield, Malone, Anderson, Ten Brink,
CBEL, Cambridge, Renwick & Orton, Robinson & Greenfield.  DOE.

27.  French Literature: Holmes, Bossuat (don't forget
supplements), Grente, Zumthor, Le/vy (taxonomy).

28.  Spanish Literature: Diaz-Plajo, Seris, Estrada, Simon Diaz,
Deyermond, Bibliography of Old Spanish Texts, Faulhaber.

29.  Russian Literature: Cizevsky (German edition of 1942 best),
Gudzij, Durnovo (taxonomy), Trautmann (for Byline).

30.  Slavic Literatures: Maichel, Horecky, Kauffman
(bibliography).

31.  Norse Literature: de Vries, Finnur Jonsson, Turville-Petre,
Bekker-Nilsson (bib.), Fisk, BONIS, KHL.

32.  Gothic: Mosse/-Marchand-Ebbinghaus, Stutz, Scardigli.

33.  Greek/Byzantine: Schmid-Sta"hlin, Krumbacher, Diehl (for
bibliography and intro.).

34.  Irish Literature: Hull, Knott-Murphy-Carney, d'Arbois de
Jubainville (taxonomy), Best (bibliography), Eager (general
bibliography).

35.  Welsh Literature: Parry, Williams, Skene.

36.  Translations:  Farrar & Evans, Ferguson, Index
translationum, catalogues.

37.  Bibliography: Sheehy (first port of call), Bestermann,
Bibliographic Index.  Wilson and Bowker on CD-ROM.  Current State
and Future Trends, ed. R. B. Downs and F. B. Jenkins.

38.  Social Sciences: White, Bulletin signale/tique, Berelson /
Steiner.  See sheets on "Familiarizing yourself with a new
field."

39.  Folklore:  Internationale Volkskundliche Bibliographie,
Thompson, FFC, Arne, Bechthold-Sta"ubli (first port of call),
Taylor, Mackensen, Peuckert, Dundes.

40.  Palaeography:  Bischoff (both books), Lowe, Thompson,
Kirchner, Cromhout, Petzet & Glauning, Eneccerus, various new
series, Wattenbach, Denholm-Young (not good).  Each of the
traditions has special books, e.g. Lindsay (for Ireland), Lindsay
(for Welsh), Keller (for English, not good), Benediktsson (for
Norse), Durnovo (for Russian), Vajs (Old Church Slavic),
Millares-Carlo (for Spanish), etc. etc.

41.  Liturgical books:  Hughes; Missal, Breviary, Liber Usualis,
Ordinale.  Look for sales.

42.  Literary Market Place; The Writer's Market; MLA bibliography
of periodicals; Leitfaden.

43.  Sociology: Merton, Sorokin (both books), Parsons.

44.  Anthropology: Kroeber (both books), Lowie.

45.  Linguistics: Bibliographie linguistique, Martinet
(Ple/iade), Oxford.

46.  Philosophy: Ueberweg-Heinze, Bochenski, Louvain, Totok.

47.  Middle English: Wells, Severs, Renwick and Orton.
Cambridge, Oxford, CBEL.

48.  Life in the Middle Ages: Schulz, Neumann, Stokes, Langlois,
Cohen, Coulton, Olrik, Hodgkin, Blair, Jusserand, and a grillion
others.

49.  Preaching: Owst, Charland, Caplan, Cruel, Scho"nbach.

50.  Patristics: Quasten (new 3rd vol. too), Bardenhewer,
Altaner, Lietzmann, Fliche & Martin, Migne, Dekkers-Gaar,
Griechische Christliche Schriftsteller, Corpus scriptorum
ecclesiasticorum Latinorum.  Ante and Post-Nicene Fathers, Oxford
Series, Bibliothek der Kirchenv„ter.  Many now available in
electronic form from PHI, CCAT, Brepols, Thesaurus (see other
list).

51.  History of Dogma: Harnack, Seeberg, Fr. Loofs, Leitfaden zum
Studium der Dogmengeschichte (first port of call), Schmaus,
Geiselmann, Rahner, Dogmengeschichte der Fru"hscholastik (good
for browsing).

52.  Social Structure: HRAF (Human Relationships Area Files, now
available on CD-ROM), Murdock (first port of call), Atlas (good
for browsing), Kinship (see other sheet).

53.  Personal Bibliography: Arnim, Hansel, National
Bibliographies.

54.  History of German: Maurer-Stroh, Priebsch-Collinson, Bach
(best).

55.  Dialects of German:  Bach (best), Zhirmunsky, Mitzka,
Mausser, Michels.

56.  Dictionaries:  Grimm, Frings & Karg-Gasterst„dt, Benecke-
Mu"ller-Zarncke, Graf, Schade, Lexer, Bosworth-Toller, DOE,
Concordance of OE, Cleasby-Vigfusson, Holthausen, Lewis & Short,
Georges (best; watch for sales, goes both ways), Lidell & Scott,
DuCange, Godefroy, Tobler-Lommatszch, Sreznevskij, Ettmu"ller,
Zaunmu"ller (bibliography).  For some languages, such as Old
Irish and Old Spanish, you need a commentary on the dictionaries
(see special sheets).  For Old Irish, e.g., Windisch's
dictionary, imbedded in his Irische Texte, is probably still the
best; for Old Spanish, the word list by Oehlschlager and the
like.

57.  Geography: Wright (great for browsing), Bagrow-Skelton,
Imago Mundi, Bunbury, Miller, Beazley.

58.  Travel: Cox (great), the travelers themselves: Hakluyt
Society, Palestine Pilgrims Society.

59.  Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha: Charlesworth (bibliography);
Hennecke-Schneemelcher, Lipsius, James, Michaelis, Goodspeed,
Charles, Charlesworth (new), Aurelio Sanchez.

60.  Attribution:  Erdman and Fogel, Kraft.

61.  Medieval Latin: McGuire (good guide), Strecker-Palmer (out
of date, but good), Mohrmann, Harrington, Grandgent.  Everybody
has a favorite introductory book.

62.  Libraries: Milkau-Leyh, Thompson, Bischoff, Deutsche
Philologie im Aufriss, Lexikon des Buchwesens (first port of
call).

63.  Cross Currents: Deutsche Philologie im Aufriss; Cola Minis,
Bumke, Suolahti.

64.  Education: Marrou (for browsing), Specht, Roger (good for
Aelfric also).

65.  Bestiary:  White (great texts; cheap), Philippe de Thaon,
McCulloch, editions.  Best general guide is the article in Pauly-
Wissowa; bib. in Marchand, Neophilologus, 1991.

66.  Lapidaries:  Evans, von Megenberg, Marbod, Alfonso el Sabio.

67.  Herbals: A. Arber, Herbals, their origin and evolution.
Cambridge, 1938.  Hildegard, the encyclopedists, Martin Levy, The
Medical Formulary of Al.Kindi (Wisconsin, 1966).

68.  Carolingian Renaissance: Hinke, Fichtenau, Baesecke,
Bischoff et al.

69.  Renaissance of the 12th Century: Haskins, Clagett.

70.  Florilegia: Ullmann, Rand, Haskins.

71.  Universitite: Denifle, Rashdall, Wieruszowski.

72.  Classical Heritage: Bolgar, Highet, Newald, Textu"berlieferung.

73.  Drama: Young, Chambers, Creizenach, Froning, Stratman (good bib.),
Cohen.

74.  Law: Senniff, Amira, Homeyer, Wattenbach-Levison, Fehr,
Grimm, Zeitschrift der Savignystiftung, Germanenrechte (for
translations of ONorse), Amira-Schwerin, Wolf (Quellenbuch),
Maitland.

75.  Poetics: Preminger, Kayser, Heusler, Marckwardt, Zumthor, de
Bruyne.

76.  Art Reproductions:  Catalogues of colour reproductions of
paintings, 2 vols (UNESCO, 1959-60 [through 1959]).

77.  Runes: Elliott (rudiments), Arntz, Arntz-Zeiss, Arntz
(Bibl.), Mosse/ (Gothic runes), Marckwardt (English runes, bib.),
plus all the national publications: runverket, Marstrander et
al., Moltke, Krause.  For grammar: Krause, Antonsen.

78.  Seafaring:  Canby, Geschichte der Schifffahrt; Ko"ster, Das
antike Seewesen; Fischer, Altnordisches Seewesen; The Mariner's
Mirror.

79.  Semantics: Ullmann (both books), Baldinger, Strack (see also
other sheet).

80.  Sociology of Knowledge: Parsons, Popper, Weber, Merton (see
other sheet on Sociology of Linguistics).