This book provides 3,000 detailed and concise articles on all aspects of the period from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries. It explores art, architecture, religion, law, science, language, philosophy, and theology, as well as cultural, intellectual, social, and political history. There are biographical entries of monarchs, bishops, and major intellectual figures. While the book's focus is on Europe and Christendom, it also covers the rise of Islam as well as other cultures with whom Europeans came into contact. Representing the collaborative effort of more than 600 scholars, The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages provides both a magisterial overview and a fresh approach to the subject. Entries include: * Adam and Eve * Adultery * Ball, John * Banquet * Basileus * Book * Burgundy * Cairo * Catherine of Siena * Chronicles * Dragon * Duchy * Easter * Eckhart, Meister * Education of Children * Epidemics * Ethiopia * Fable * Francis of Assisi * Funeral * Garden * Genghis Khan * Geomancy * Hell * Heloise * Heresy, Heretic * Hospital, Hospice * Iceland * Iconoclasm * Irene, Empress * Islam * Jerusalem * Judges, Book of * Laity * Liturgical Year * Love * Mamluk * Medicine * Misericord * Neume * Nicholas I, Pope * Normans in Italy * Oath * Optics * Ossuary * Paradise * Paris * Peasant * Relics * Roads * Rurikids * Sagas * Schools * Sequence * Sforza * Shi'ism * Theft * Throne * Tournament * Town Planning * Unicorn * Ursery * Vassalage * Venice * Vices and Virtues * Violence * Wenceslas I of Bohemia * Will * Yiddish * Zakat * Zodiac * And many more.