Thomas F. X. Noble

Teaching Company

James A. W. Heffernan

Elizabeth Vandiver

Ronald B. Herzman

Susan Sage Heinzelman

This series presents some of the finest teachers in America, lecturing on some of the greatest literature ever written.

Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition

William Robert Cook

The Medieval World View presents the presuppositions of medieval society by integrating brief selections from primary texts and photographs into a narrative of the medieval world and its foundations. Part One presents the classical and biblical antecedents of medieval culture, Part Two deals with the early middle ages, and Part Three, the high middle ages and beyond.

An Introduction

The Medieval World View

Richard Kenneth Emmerson

During the Middle Ages, the Apocalypse, or Book of Revelation, was believed to contain both the grand design of sacred history and the disguised history of the Present and future. In The Apocalyptic Imagination in Medieval Literature, Richard K. Emmerson and Ronald B. Herzman explore die pervasiveness of apocalypticism in medieval literature through close readings of a group of major texts not generally considered from an apocalyptic perspective. Emmerson and Herzman present a new reading of Bonaventure's Major Life of Francis of Assisi, a key document in the Franciscan tradition. In their examination of the Romance of the Rose, they argue that allegorical romance takes a surprising turn toward contemporary social criticism, a criticism informed by a sophisticated and subtle use of the apocalyptic tradition. The authors also contend that while the apocalyptic language of the Divine Comedy is more obvious, its significance has not been systematically studied, and that The Canterbury Tales, all but ignored from an apocalyptic perspective, are infused with significant apocalyptic dimensions. The Apocalyptic Imagination in Medieval Literature offers a broad and comparative focus, and it should be of value not simply to students of medieval literature but to the broader audience of those interested in medieval intellectual history, art history, and religious history as well.

The Apocalyptic Imagination in Medieval Literature

William R. Cook

The Medieval World View, Third Edition, presents the presuppositions of medieval society in a systematic fashion by integrating brief, self-contained selections from primary texts and carefully captioned photographs into a narrative of the medieval world and its foundations.

Ronald B. Herzman

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