Norman Cantor

“Is historical writing to be addressed to a small group of academics or is it to be communicated to the educated world at large? I stand with the latter proposition, that history books are communicable to and accessible by the educated public at large. The ultimate task and obligation of a historian is to bring this kind of illumination to as wide an audience as possible.”

“Whatever the {{w|Black Death|plague}} was—or continues to be—it still remains with us in its original form. Since the advent of {{w|antibiotic}}s in the 1940s bubonic plague is very rare in the U.S.A., although there are still substantial outbreaks in eastern Asia, especially India. But in the 1980s there were three documented cases in the hill country of eastern California. One woman came down with the bubonic plague after she ran over a squirrel with a power mower. It is likely that the disease entered California at some port on a {{w|rodent}} traveling on a ship from eastern Asia.”

“The {{w|Assizes|assize actions}} in property disputes moved slowly if that was the wish, as it often was, of the {{w|defendant}}. He was allowed three formal (always accepted) {{w|essoin}}s, excuses why he could not appear before his case was declared forfeit.”

“Despite its {{w|emperor}}s and popes and kings, tenth-century Europe had a patrimonial, nucleated society based on the domination by great aristocratic families over everything (even the church) within their own territorial domains. Bastard sons and younger brothers of the local lords became {{w|bishop}}s or {{w|abbot}}s of local churches and {{w|Monastery|monasteries}}. Religion, as well as government and economy and law, was dominated by the great families. Everything belonged to the lords, who became more greedy and aggressive—particularly on their own estates—as the years went by.”

“In 1302 Dante left {{w|Florence}} in exile, accused of graft, embezzlement, opposition to the pope, and disturbance of the peace of Florence.Dante's two greatest works, {{w|Monarchia|De Monarchia}} and the Divine Comedy, were both written during his exile. The shock of expulsion from his native city and his bitterness and disappointment forced Dante to reconsider his views on the individual and society, and these two works exhibit a maturity and profundity that is lacking in his early lyric poetry.”