Medieval European Stage, 500–1550

This volume brings together a wide selection of primary source materials from the theatrical history of the Middle Ages. The focus is on Western Europe between the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of markedly Renaissance forms in Italy. Early sections of the volume are devoted to the survival of Classical tradition and the development of the liturgical drama of the Roman Catholic Church, but the main concentration is on the genesis and growth of popular religious drama in the vernacular. Each of the major medieval regions is featured, while a final section covers the pastimes and customs of the people, a record of whose traditional activities often only survives in the margins of official recognition. The documents are compiled by a team of leading scholars in the field and the over 700 documents are all presented in modern English translation.

""Tydeman... his collaborators, and Cambridge University Press have performed a great service to theater historians. Not since A.M. Nagler's edited volume Sources of Theatrical History (1952) has anyone assembled such a comprehensive body of primary source materials...Libraries at all levels should buy and cherish this book." Choice, " The Medieval European Stage provides an excellent introduction to sources from across western Europe..." Renaissance Quaterly, "...this volume appears to be an essential reference work which contains translations of documents from the whole range of European drama through the middle of the sixteenth century...the book is a fine addition to work on the medieval European stage." The Early Drama, Art, and Music Review, "There can be no doubt that the general introductions to regions are phenomenalistic and superficial, while the documentary evidence is fascinating and makes good reading." Fifteenth-Century Studies,/i>