Professor Emeritus William J. Courtenay has published a new book on religious life at the medieval University of Paris. The book is titled Rituals for the Dead: Religion and Community in the Medieval University of Paris (University of Notre Dame Press, 2018). According to John Van Engen, Andrew V. Tackes Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the University of Notre Dame, “William Courtenay has long been the finest American scholar of medieval universities. With this book he opens up a whole new vista on the communal and religious lives of students and masters as integrally interwoven with their academic tasks, especially for instance in remembering their dead. Along the way he delves into theology, seals, statutes, processions, and much more, and explores too for the first time the presence of women among these all-male establishments and the growing place of the Virgin Mary in representing their collective identity. It is a grand achievement, providing rich new texture to our standard ways of talking about medieval universities.”
More information on “Rituals for the Dead“.