Monodies and On the Relics of Saints: The Autobiography and a Manifesto of a French Monk from theTime of the Crusades

The first Western autobiography since Augustine's Confessions, the Monodies is set against the backdrop of the First Crusade and offers stunning insights into medieval society. As Guibert of Nogent intimately recounts his early years, monastic life, and the bloody uprising at Laon in 1112, we witness a world-and a mind-populated by royals, heretics, nuns, witches, and devils, and come to understand just how fervently he was preoccupied with sin, sexuality, the afterlife, and the dark arts. Exotic, disquieting, and illuminating, the Monodies is a work in which the dreams, fears, and superstitions of one man illuminate the psychology of an entire people. It is joined in this volume by On the Relics of Saints, a theological manifesto that has never appeared in English until now.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author: Guibert Of Nogent
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 09/27/2011
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.59lbs
Size: 7.75h x 5.09w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780143106302

About the Author
Guibert of Nogent (c. 1060-c. 1125) was a French monk who has emerged as one of the most original thinkers of the twelfth century.

Joseph McAlhany is a professor of classics and great ideas at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Jay Rubenstein, a MacArthur Fellow and Rhodes scholar, is a professor of history and the director of the Center for the Premodern World at the University of Southern California and the author of the first comprehensive study of Guibert's life and thought in over a century.