John Wesley Baldwin

His research centers on the decades surrounding the year 1200 in northern France. In that area he has worked with Latin theological writings to explore the transition of the schools into the university of Paris, the emergence of casuistry, moral and social thinking among the clergy, as well as the formation of ecclesistical institutions and culture. By editing the registers of Philip Augustus, the first of the French monarchy, he has studied the creation of political and administrative institutions that enabled the Capetian kings to dominate medieval France. By reading and interpreting contemporary romances written in the vernacular for the entertainment of the aristocracy, he has sought to interprete the life and mentality of the laity, including their perceptions of sexuality. He is presently editing and studying the land-book of Pierre du Thillay, a lesser member of the knightly class, in an effort to assess the economic position of the lower nobility and their relations with the peasant classes.