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The Medieval Church · c. 1181–1193
Courtiers' Trifles
De Nugis Curialium
Walter Map · c. 1130–c. 1210
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What it is
Gossip, ghost stories, monastic satire, and complaints about court life from a royal clerk who compared the court to hell and admitted he could not leave it.
Why it lasted
The wittiest Latin prose of the twelfth century, and an unusually sceptical voice about Cistercians, Waldensians, and holy men generally.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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