Alberto Ferreiro Livres

The study of heresy and heterodoxy and of belief in magic, witchcraft and the devil has in the past 25 years made significant advances in our understanding of art and iconography, ideas, mentality and belief, and ordinary life and popular imagination in the patristic and medieval periods. At the forefront of research into this aspect of medieval intellectual history has been Jeffrey B. Russell, whose numerous books and articles have opened important new paths in the field. To mark his retirement 17 established and emerging scholars from Europe and North America - historians of art, the church, religions, and ideas - have contributed papers on the many areas which Russell has influenced. Topics dealt with include elves, the Christians apocrypha, mysticism, sexuality, heresies and heresiologies, apocalyptic tracts, astrology, hell, and other Christian encounters with non-believers.

The study of the Visigoths continues to be one of the most actively researched topics in Late Antique Studies. As might be expected the vast majority of the work has been carried out in Europe and especially by scholars from the Iberian Peninsula. There has always been a need, however, to make much of this research accessible to English language specialists and the wider academic community in Late Antiquity Studies. Too often Late Antiquity Studies tend to ignore or marginalize the Iberian Peninsula and this may be due in part to the lack of access to this scholarship in the English language.This volume of essays has as one of its goals to ameliorate such a deficiency. The scholars who participated in this volume are both from Europe and North America. They also represent scholars who are well known and those who are establishing distinguished scholarly reputations. Although thematically the essays do not exhaust the broad nature of Visigothic studies, they do nevertheless offer an impressive array of topics. Coverage includes research on Visigothic identity in Gaul, regional studies on Galicia and Lusitania, anti-Semitism in Visigothic law, the political grammar of Ildephonsus of Toledo, monasticism and liturgy, numismatics, Roman-Visigothic pottery in Baetica, urban and rural archaeology, and Gothic consciousness among Mozarab communities.