This volume addresses the widespread medieval phenomenon of transgression as both a result of
and the cause for the exclusion and persecution of those who were considered different. It is
widely accepted that the essence of a manuscript cannot be fully grasped without studying its
marginalia. Glosses sit on the margins of the text and clarify it adding a whole new dimension
to it and becoming an inextricable part of its content. Similarly no society can be fully
understood without knowledge of what lies on its margins for the outliers of any given culture
provide us with just as much information as its alleged foundational principles. In a time when
the Western world ponders building walls up against perceived threats and frightening
differences this multidisciplinary collection of essays based on original and innovative
pieces of research shows that it was mostly through tearing down walls that we learned our way
forward.
