Akademik

I owe an important debt of gratitude to the contributors whose expertise helped put this book together. They are listed individually at the end of the volume, but I must specifically acknowledge the work of Albrecht Classen of the University of Arizona and Elisa Narin van Court of Colby College, who gladly contributed a significant number of entries each. I also want to thank the three editorial assistants who helped with the editing of the manuscript and contributed a number of entries themselves: Malene A. Little at Northern State University and Leslie Johnston and Michelle Palmer at the University of Central Arkansas.

I also want to express my gratitude to the University Research Council at the University of Central Arkansas, chaired by Elaine McNiece, for their generous grant that enabled me to hire two of my editorial assistants.

Finally, I want to thank Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., for permission to quote extensively from German and Italian Lyrics of the Middle Ages and from The Lyrics of the Troubadours and Trouvères, two excellent 1973 anthologies translated by Frederick Goldin.

Conway, Arkansas

November 2004