THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAJ\' KINGDOMS 1200-Wars of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Over
the whole of the period, the book is arranged around the
reigns of the main participants, whose diplomatic manoeuver-
ings and complex range of political interests are carefully
analysed.
David Abulafia has published extensively on the history of
the Mediterranean world from the eleventh to the sixteenth
centuries. Well known for his recent life of the Emperor Fred-
erick II of Hohenstaufen, he here brings together in access-
ible form the results of his extensive research and writings
on numerous aspects of the Mediterranean world. Particu-
larly impressive is his capacity to move assuredly around the
complex linguistic and cultural and religious worlds of both
medieval and modern Mediterraneans and that economic
developments, especially large-scale changes, are placed in
context of wider political developments. This book is an
exceptionally welcome addition to the Medieval World Series
because it takes on a large and complex subject on which
there is no modern equivalent treatment, and because, in
doing so, it casts light on a great range of the subjects which
preoccupy political historians of the Later Middle Ages.
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