There is perhaps no other more lively area for study in medieval history than medieval military history, with its attendant and complementary field, the history of medieval military technology. In the past twenty years, it seems that more major scholarly inroads have been made in this field than in any other historical genre of medieval studies or chronological period of military history. What this has meant is that it is now more difficult to keep up with all of the trends and sources in the field than ever before. Hence the need for a reference work which covers what has previously been written and which, in turn, can assist the scholar, both the more experienced academic and the beginner, to improve his or her work in medieval military history or the history of medieval military technology.
Utilizing library catalogues, bibliographies, and footnotes, this bibliography has compiled the most complete list of secondary references to works in medieval military history and the history of military technology. It keeps fairly strictly to a geography which centers on conventional medieval boundaries-Europe, Byzantium, and the Middle East. However, the chronology does differ from the conventional medieval dates. Because of its influence on the early Middle Ages, references to Late Antiquity, especially to the military history and technology of the third- and fourth-century Roman Empire have been included. For the opposite reason, the influence of the Middle Ages on the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, references to military history and technology up to 1648 have been included as well. This is especially important in the study of the Ottoman Turkish Wars and Arms and Armor, where the end of the fifteenth century as a chronological terminus makes little sense.