Who were the troubadours of God? What was the Charge of the Three Kings? What is St. Vitus' Dance? Why did Simon Stylites spend the last 37 years of his life atop a column? Why is St. Columbanus the patron saint of motorcyclists? Can we trace the origins of the European Union back to the Middle Ages? A fresh perspective to try to understand the essence of one of the most fascinating periods of our past.

This book moves away from the pejorative and stereotypical image we have of the Middle Ages as a long period characterized by obscurantism and barbarism, in order to rescue and value the great contributions that feudal Europe bequeathed to us, contributions that have not always been fairly recognized. We will reject the view that tends to magnify the achievements of other (equally remarkable) cultures while simultaneously looking down upon what happened in Europe for almost a thousand years, because it was in this era and on this Old Continent, now mired in a rampant moral crisis, that the first steps were taken to understand who we truly are, our beliefs, and many of the elements that define us both materially and spiritually.

In *That Wasn't in My Medieval History Book*, we will embark on a journey that will take us to evocative towns, imposing monasteries, and magnificent castles; we will analyze the periods of decline, but also the achievements upon which the pillars of Western civilization were built, because it was in these centuries that Christian humanism, parliamentarianism, the university, the rise of commerce, urban life, and the spread of books all took place. Nor will we forget the world of magic, of witches and wizards, of cursed books, of hidden treasures still waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves, of sacred relics with supernatural powers, and of those legendary knights who traveled the world to perform feats that have been etched in the collective imagination.