Adam J. Davis

In The Medieval Economy of Salvation, Adam Davis explores how the growing profit/credit economy of western Europe in the High Middle Ages, coupled with shifting ideas among lay Christians about faith, salvation, and actions, combined to create a surge in the foundation and maintenance of hospitals. He focuses in particular on the Champagne region in the 12th and 13th centuries, mining their surviving archives for a wealth of socio-economic detail. Davis' prose is clear and should be accessible to an undergraduate audience, making this ideal for use in an upper-level college classroom. It's a pity in that respect that his publishers didn't choose to support the text—which pays a lot of attention to issues of space in towns like Troyes and Provins—with more maps. I'm familiar with at least their modern layouts and can visualize rough proximities in my mind; most readers obviously won't be able to do that.… (plus d'informations)