🐯 Princeton Medieval Studies unofficial reading list 2026
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Sophomore level
The Byzantine Empire MED 205 (fa26)
- ✔️ Byzantium: A Very Short Intro. by Peter Sarris
- The Social History of Byzantium by John Haldon
- A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities: Strange Tales & Surprising Facts from History’s Most Orthodox Empire by Anthony Kaldellis
- Secret History by Procopius
- Alexiad by Anna Komnene
- Three Byzantine Military Treatises by George T. Dennis
- Accounts of Medieval Constantinople: The Patria by Albrecht Berger
- Digenis Akritis: The Grottaferrata and Escorial Versions by Elizabeth Jeffreys
Europe from Antiquity to 1700 MED 211 (fa26)
- The West: A New History by Grafton & Bell
- Confessions by Augustine
- On the Freedom of a Christian by Martin Luther
- ✔️ The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (my highlights)
- Letters of Abelard and Heloise
- The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf
Judaism, Christianity & Islam: Their Emergence in Antiquity MED 246 (fa26)
- The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha
- The Qur’an
The New Testament & Christian Origins MED 251 (fa26)
- The Jewish Annotated New Testament by Levine & Brettler
- Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers by Louth & Staniforth
- The New Testament: A Historical Intro. to the Early Christian Writings by Ehrman & Méndez
Junior level
The Nature of Old English: Select Old English Literature MED 315 (fa26)
- A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse by Richard Hamer
- The Unstill Ones by Miller Oberman
- The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English by Hana Videen
- Intro. to Old English by Peter S. Baker
Graduate level
Middle High German Literature: An Intro. MED 508 (fa26)
- Erec by Hartmann Von Aue
- Nibelungenlied
- Middle High German Verbs by Scott Shay
- An Introduction to Middle High German by Jones & Jones