Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. But his delicate mission is overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey where extraordinary things are happening under the cover of night.

In The Canterbury Tales , Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce. This version of the text has been translated into modern English by Nevill Coghill.

Tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known; of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect - a man divided in his soul; and of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame.

Composed towards the end of the first millennium of our era, the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf is a Northern epic and a classic of European literature. In this new translation, Seamus Heaney has produced a work that is true, line by line, to the original poem.

'Crispin' is set during the Peasants Revolt.

Describing Dante's descent into Hell midway through his life with Virgil as a guide, this work depicts a cruel underworld in which desperate figures are condemned to eternal damnation for committing one or more of seven deadly sins. Led by leering demons, the poet must ultimately journey with Virgil to the deepest level of all.

Arguably the greatest biomedical disaster in history, the Black Death of the 14th century wiped out 40 per cent of Europe's population, rocking the foundations of medieval civilisation. The author penetrates a haze of myths to offer the reader a social history, not just of collapse but of rebirth.

It is April 1204, and Constantinople, the splendid capital of the Byzantine Empire, is being sacked and burned by the knights of the Fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage and confusion, one Baudolino saves a Byzantine historian and high court official from certain death at the hands of the crusading warriors, and proceeds to tell his own story.

This work begins with the birth of Arthur and the establishment of his kingdom and the fellowship of knights. It describes courtly society which is outwardly secure and successful, but which is, in reality, torn by dissent and ultimately treachery.

This narrative tells how Irish monks and scribes saved classical and religious heritage by copying the manuscripts of writers such as Homer and Aristotle, while libraries on the continent were lost forever.

Recasts the storytelling heritage of the ancient and medieval worlds into perennial forms that inspired writers including Chaucer and Shakespeare. This book hovers between the fading glories of an aristocratic past - the Crusades, the Angevins, the courts of France, the legendary East - and the squalor of contemporary life.

A green knight on a green horse rudely interrupts the Round Table festivities one Yuletide, casting a pall of unease over the company and challenging one of their number to a wager. The virtuous Gawain accepts, and decapitates the intruder with his own axe.

On 15 August 778, Charlemagne's army was returning from a successful expedition against Saracen Spain when its rearguard was ambushed in a Pyrenean pass. Written by an unknown poet, this book tells of Charlemagne's warrior nephew, Lord of Breton Marches, who valiantly leads his men into battle against the Saracens, but dies defiant to the end.

In the year 1327, four children slip away from the cathedral city of Kingsbridge. In the forest they see two men killed. As adults, their lives will be braided together by love, greed and revenge. They will see prosperity and famine, plague and war. And they will live under the shadow of the unexplained killing they had witnessed.

Jean le Viste, a newly wealthy member of the French court, commissions the tapestries to hang in his chateau. Nicolas, his chosen designer, meets le Viste's wife Genevieve and his daughter Claude, both of whom take a keen interest in the tapestries. This novel is written by the author of Girl with a Pearl Earring and Falling Angels .

In the year 1000 the world was one of people who feared an apocalypse and who had no idea what year it was or what lay beyond the nearest valley. Narrated through the progression of the seasons, this book presents a recreation of English life at the end of the first millennium AD.

A translation of the complete correspondence of Abelard and Heloise, this volume also includes a translation of The Calamities of Abelard , of the letters of Heloise and Peter the Venerable, and of selected songs, hymns, and laments of Abelard. It also includes a chronology, map, and index.

Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine was one of the leading personalities of the Middle Ages, and also one of the most controversial. Having inherited a vast feudal domain stretching from the Loire to the Pyrenees, she was one of the greatest heiresses in history. This biography offers a perspective on this woman.