For the past few decades, modern scholars of mediaeval studies have no longer enquired merely into "what it was really like" when interpreting sources, but have tried to get a closer insight into the images, perceptions and ideas of people in the Middle Ages. This volume on the one hand elaborates on exemplary contempory notions - partly on an historiographical basis - and on the other scrutinizes modern perceptions of medieaval people and developments with the help of contemporary sources.