Since its founding in 1943, Medievalia et Humanistica has won worldwide recognition as the first scholarly publication in America to devote itself entirely to medieval and Renaissance studies. Since 1970, a new series, sponsored by the Modern Language Association of America and edited by an international board of distinguished scholars and critics, has published interdisciplinary articles. In yearly hardcover volumes, the new series publishes significant scholarship, criticism, and reviews treating all facets of medieval and Renaissance culture: history, art, literature, music, science, law, economics, and philosophy.

Volume 42 showcases the interdisciplinary nature of the series with articles on late fifteenth century travel literature (Hans von Waltheym), the fourteenth century reception of a pagan tragedy (Chaucer's Alexander the Great and the Monk's Tale), the individuality of the heroes in the Middle English romance Amis and Amiloun, and the emergence of religious language in the Reformation period (Ulrich von Hutten). Volume 42 also includes nine review notices that illustrate the journal's interdisciplinary scope.