Acknowledgments
I would like to thank all the readers, many anonymous, who made suggestions for
improving earlier editions of A Short History of the Middle Ages. While I hope I will
be forgiven for not naming everyone—a full list of names would begin to sound like a
roll call of medievalists, both American and European—I want to single out those
who were of special help: Eduardo Aubert, Monique Bourin, Elizabeth A.R. Brown,
Leslie Brubaker, D.B. van Espelo, Dominique Iogna-Prat, Herbert Kessler, Maureen
C. Miller, Eduard Mühle, David Petts, Faith Wallis, Anders Winroth, and Ian Wood.
Piotr Górecki supplied me with detailed notes and bibliography and generously
critiqued my attempts to write about the history of East Central Europe. Elina
Gertsman was a never-ending font of knowledge and inspiration for all matters
artistic. Kiril Petkov was a constant and generous resource for matters Bulgarian.
Although Riccardo Cristiani was hired simply to check facts, his work for me became
a true collaboration. He wrote the questions and answers for the website of this book,
compiled the index, and not only corrected many obscurities, infelicities, and errors
but also suggested welcome changes and additions. (The mistakes that remain are, to
be sure, mine alone.) The people with whom I worked at the University of Toronto
Press were unfailingly helpful and efficacious: Judith Earnshaw and Natalie
Fingerhut, with whom I was in constant touch, as well as Martin Boyne, Liz Broes,
Anna Del Col, Michael Harrison, Matthew Jubb, Beate Schwirtlich, Zack Taylor, and
Daiva Villa. I am grateful to the librarians of Loyola University Chicago’s Cudahy
library—especially Frederick Barnhart, Jennifer Jacobs, Linda Lotton, the late Bonnie
McNamara, Jeannette Pierce, David Schmidt, Ursula Scholz, and Jennifer Stegen—
who cheerfully fed my voracious hunger for books. Finally, I thank my family, and I
dedicate this book to its youngest member, my granddaughter Sophie, born in 2011.
May she find much in the Middle Ages to wonder at and enjoy.
