1 Introduction.- 2 Proofs of Age: The What and the Why.- 3 The Theater of Baptism: A Drama of Many Acts.- 4 Life in the Village: Good News and Bad.- 5 More Scenes from Village Life.- 6 Life Beyond the Village.- 7 Memory Is A Strange Country.

This concise and unique volume explores the vital relationship between testimony, memory, and the community in medieval society. Joel T. Rosenthal assembles various categories of testimonies to illuminate how "ordinary" Late Medieval people saw themselves as units of their community, their awareness of the issues surrounding the theater of birth, their interest in the world of and beyond the village, and what aspects of the ubiquitous mother Church were worth recalling. Supported by primary sources and by modern scholarly focus on such issues as social memory, village life, rumor and gossip, and demography, this book provides both a wealth of source material and insightful discussion on how historians can chart the role of memory and community in its shaping of medieval identity and society.

Joel T. Rosenthal is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at Stony Brook University, USA.