Lexington Books
Pages: 384
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅛
978-1-7936-0823-9 • Hardback • April 2023 • $125.00 • (£96.00)
978-1-7936-0824-6 • eBook • April 2023 • $50.00 • (£38.00)
John A. Dempsey is professor of history at Westfield State University.
Chapter 1 The Broad Historical Landscape
Chapter 2 Bonizo of Sutri: A Biographical Outline to 1085-1086
Chapter 3 The Liber ad amicum: Historical and Literary Contexts
Chapter 4 Back to the Future: The Meaning of the Liber ad amicum
Chapter 5 The Pataria’s Armed Kulturkampf
Chapter 6 Bishop Bonizo of Piacenza
Chapter 7 A Patarene in Winter
Chapter 8 The Liber de vita christiana: Canonical treatise as a Patarene Regula Pastoralis
Chapter 9 The Liber de vita christiana: Canonical Treatise as Ecclesio-Political Polemic
Conclusion
Epilogue
Appendix The Minor Works
The book Bonizo of Sutri: Portrait in Landscape, by John A. Dempsey, is more than what the title said, “a portrait in landscape.” It is also a fine historical analysis of the religious, social, and political problems affecting the central centuries of the Middle Ages. The book revolves around the enigmatic and to some extent pragmatic figure of Bishop Bonizo of Sutri; by studying his life, deeds, literary production, and thoughts, Dempsey takes the reader to a detailed journey into the Italian (and European) religious and political history of the tenth and eleventh centuries... [Dempsey’s] book is a good attempt to write serious historical research without however losing a narrative tone; the author was indeed able to combine fine historical analysis with a witty narrative of facts and events.
— Catholic Historical Review