Home and Homelessness in the Medieval and Renaissance World

The idea of `home' means much more than a pile of bricks and mortar but the archaeological evidence of physical structures provides valuable information about how people in the past have used the space in their houses. Similarly documentary evidence tells us much about the dispossessed. This study collects five essays which approach `home and homelessness' from a range of perspectives, using both archaeological and documentary sources. Contributors discuss the house of 16th-century Venice, Morisco houses in 16th-century Spain, povery and vagrancy in Spain and early colonial Peru, homelessness in early medieval Iceland and its sagas, and Anglo-Saxon England. Introduction / Nicholas Howe -- Not One But Many Separate Cities : Housing Diversity In Sixteenth-century Venice / Patricia Fortini Brown -- Space Of Resistance, Site Of Betrayal : Morisco Homes In Sixteenth-century Spain / Mary Elizabeth Perry -- Social Conscience And Social Practice : Poverty And Vagrancy In Spain And Early Colonial Peru / Sabine Maccormack -- Home And Homelessness In The Middle Of Nowhere / William Ian Miller -- Looking For Home In Anglo-saxon England / Nicholas Howe. Edited By Nicholas Howe. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This collection of essays serves as a set of case studies for exploring the ways in which people experienced home and homelessness between the eighth and sixteenth centuries. These essays serve as a set of case studies for exploring the ways in which people experienced home and homelessness between the eighth and sixteenth centuries. What traces are left behind by home?