Reference Reviews

Reference for Students

Atlas of the Medieval World. By Rosamund McKitterick. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005. 1 vol. 256 p. $45. ISBN 0-19-522158-3.

Unlike typical medieval resources, this one covers the whole world, not just Europe.

Walk the medieval world through this historical atlas covering a millennium. Its full-color maps, photographs of art and architecture, and illustrations move through the Arab invasions of Europe, Charlemagne's empire and his successors, the Crusades, the Viking and Mongol invasions, the Tang Dynasty, the Kingdoms of Central and Eastern Europe, the Delhi Sultanate and Vijayanagara Inda, the Songhai and Mali in Africa, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Ottoman Expansion, and two Japanese Shogunates: Kamakura and Muramachi. Many buildings, town walls and other sites still survive and the pictures of them will help students better understand this period of time. The center of the book shows the castle at Trakai, south-west of Vilnius, the present capital of Lithuania. Having visited this many times, this reviewer can confirm its beauty as well as its place in the history of that region. Your art and history teachers will want to see this book. A seven-page glossary with fewer terms but longer explanations and a two-page bibliography are provided at the end of the volume. The most important feature of this book is that it covers the world not just Europe and the Crusades. Highly recommended.