Vitus Huber, Romedio Schmitz-Esser, Maria Weber (eds.), The Bright Side of Night. Nocturnal Activities in Medieval and Early Modern Times. Firenze: Micrologus Library, SISMEL - Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2024.

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This interdisciplinary volume explores the potential of the night as an enabler of nocturnal activities in medieval and early modern times. Combining diverse methodological approaches and drawing on a wide range of empirical evidence – from early medieval monastic manuscripts, saintly relics, nocturnal prayer, and astronomy to Renaissance artworks, early modern medical ideas and practices about healthy sleep, eighteenth-century lighting technologies, and nocturnal upheavals on Caribbean sugar plantations – the book presents new interpretations of the ‘bright side of night’. By analyzing the distinctive social, cultural, legal, religious, and medical frameworks of the premodern night, the essays not only bridge scholarly traditions but also move beyond the simplistic master narrative of the dark medieval versus the enlightened early modern night.