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The Life of Dante Alighieri: A Medieval Poet and Author
Dante Alighieri's life, the structure of the Divine Comedy, and the Florentine party politics that sent him into permanent exile around 1302.
Life and Learning
Poets and Authors
Writers of the medieval world and those who shaped how it is remembered.
The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Malory
Who was Sir Thomas Malory? The uncertain identity of the author of Le Morte d Arthur, his fifteenth-century world, and his lasting effect on Arthurian tales.
The Life and Times of Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott was a nineteenth-century novelist, not a medieval author. See how Ivanhoe and his other romances shaped the popular image of the Middle Ages.
The Life of Christine de Pizan: A Medieval Author and Feminist
Christine de Pizan, born in Venice and raised at the French court, supported her family by writing. Learn her life, her major books and why 'feminist' needs care.
The Life of Dante Alighieri: A Study of the Father of Italian Literature
Why is Dante called the father of Italian literature? A look at his choice of the Italian vernacular over Latin, and what that claim does and does not mean.
The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Medieval Poet and Author
Geoffrey Chaucer was a courtier, diplomat and civil servant as well as a poet. See how his working life under three kings fed the Canterbury Tales.
The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Study of the Father of English Literature
Is Chaucer really the father of English literature? How Middle English became a literary language in the 1300s, and what the title does and does not mean.
The Life of King Arthur: Fact and Fiction
What the earliest sources actually say about a possible post-Roman war leader named Arthur, and how romance writers built the king of Camelot much later.
The Life of Sebastian Brant: A Medieval Poet and Author
Meet Sebastian Brant, the Strasbourg lawyer and humanist whose satire Ship of Fools, printed in 1494, mocked everyday vices at the close of the Middle Ages.
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More in life and learning
Learning and Science Schools, universities, stars and maps. Food and Drink What people ate and drank, from peasant pottage to noble feasts. Dress, Festivals and Folklore Clothing, holy days, customs and legends. Literature and Legends Poems, sagas and tales told across the Middle Ages. Music and Entertainment Songs, dance, jesters and court amusements. Science and Technology Alchemy, astronomy, ships and the tools that changed work. Women in Medieval Society Work, law, family and religious life for medieval women. Medieval Lives Typical lives of a peasant, a knight and a monk. Courtly Love and Ideals Love, chastity and etiquette in noble circles. Elements, Humors and Senses Medieval theories of matter, the body and perception. Medieval Worldview How medieval people thought about time, seasons, life stages and fate. Universities, Oxford and Cambridge How universities arose and how Oxford and Cambridge took shape. Everyday Life Details Homes, hygiene, childhood, marriage and death in ordinary medieval lives.