A comprehensive introduction to the sources, methods, and theories most often used by historians of the western middle ages, this book explores the origins of the idea of the ‘middle ages' and its development in Renaissance and modern European historical discourse, the problem of periodisation and the principal themes of modern historiography. Describing the sources of medieval history in detail, it also features chapters on history-writing in the middle ages, administrative and legal documents, coinage and the evidence of archaeology.

Professor Delogu examines the materials of medieval history and the historical circumstances of their production and use, alongside accounts of the methods of analysis and interpretation employed by medievalists. There are extensive and up-to-date bibliographies for the key areas of medieval studies to enable readers- from undergraduates to research students in medieval history, to approach the written and material cultures of the period directly.

Paolo Delogu is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Rome 'La Sapienza'. He is the author of numerous articles and books on the economic and political history of medieval Italy.

Matthew Moran is an early medievalist at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, and the University of Delaware, London. He is co-editor of England and the Continent in the Middle Ages.