Urban Carnival: Festive Culture in the Hanseatic Cities of the Eastern Baltic, 1350-1550

Mänd's 2000 doctoral dissertation in Medieval studies for the Central European University in Budapest was published in its original Estonian by Brepols Publishers in 2004 as Pidustused keskaegse Liivimaa linnades 1350-1550. For the English edition, she has dropped some of the explanation of Western customs, and added background information on the region called Livonia, roughly modern Estonia and Latvia. She explores the festivals celebrated there during the two centuries by the upper and middle layers of society, in particular by merchants' associations such as the Great Guilds, the Brotherhoods of the Black Heads, and city councils. Most of her study is devoted to the four main annual festivals of the merchant associations--Christmas, Carnival, the popinjay shoot, and the elections of the May Count--and other recurrent festivals and feast days. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)