"The sheer number of surviving badges and the diverse and wide-ranging contexts both religious and secular that they evoke suggest that badges were ubiquitous, woven tightly into the fabric of ordinary, late medieval life. Who made badges and out of what materials? Who bought, gifted, and wore badges, and why? Most intriguing of all, what might they have meant, and what can they tell about thought, belief, and practice in the late medieval world? This book seeks answers to those questions"--