 | The Consolation of Philosophy (Penguin Classics) by Ancius Boethius
Buy used from: £4.98 Translated by Alfred the Great, Chaucer and Elisabeth I. This is the book that medieval thinkers turned to again and again.
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 | The Art of Courtly Love (Records of Western Civilization Series) by A Capellanus
Buy new: £16.15 / Used from: £1.22 Never know how seriously to take this book, but it is our primary source on what 'Courtly love' was supposed to be in the middle ages.
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 | Peterborough Chronicle by H. Candidus
Difficult to find in modern English, Peterborough Chronicle is one of the post 1066 continuations of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. Grim stuff, especially in Stephen's reign.
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 | Ancrene Wisse: Guide for Anchoresses (Penguin Classics)
Buy used from: £11.85 A very different picture of medieval spirituality in this guide written for three Anchorite nuns. Some beautiful stuff here that will not be forgotten.
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 | The Politics (Classics) by Aristotle
Buy new: £5.98 / Used from: £0.95 The medieval church was guided as much by Aristotle as by the Bible.
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 | The City of God (Penguin Classics) by Saint Augustine
Buy used from: £2.48 Augustine is the most (hand-)copied writer in the period. Every old library has an Augustine MS.
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| Ormulum
By way of contrast, this must be the least copied. Written on odd scraps of manuscript, as if they were cast offs. Madness or genius? Noone knows.
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 | Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: WITH Pearl and Sir Orfeo
Buy new: £4.76 / Used from: £1.94 For a complete change of pace, the three finest non-Chaucerian poems, here translated by JRR Tolkien.
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 | The Decameron (Oxford World's Classics) by Giovanni Boccaccio
Buy new: £9.89 / Used from: £0.95 The Decameron is one of the great source books of story for the middle ages.Essential stuff.
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