The Jew in the Medieval Book: English Antisemitisms, 1350-1500
- Author / Editor
- Bale, Anthony.
The Jew in the Medieval Book: English Antisemitisms, 1350-1500
- Published
- Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
- Physical Description
- xiv, 266 pp.
- Series
- Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature
- Description
- A study of the "reiteration, instability and changing valence of the Jewish image as inscribed in medieval English books," focusing on four generic narratives: the Jew of Tewkesbury, the Marian miracle of the boy singer, the cult of Robert of Bury St. Edmunds, and the "literary and decorative scheme" of the Arma Christi. Bale explores philosemitism as well as antisemitism to see how attitudes toward Jews constitute one of the defining myths or legends of the Middle Ages. Discusses PrT in light of analogous narratives, including fifteenth-century "reactions" to the Tale found in manuscript anthologies, which convey pious sentiment and diminish Chaucer's satire of the Prioress.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Prioress and Her Tale.
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.