Centres of Learning deals with the relation between learning and the locations in which that learning is carried out. It is the editors' belief that the character (and, in part, the content) of a particular aspect of learning is determined - or at least influenced - by the circumstances in which the learning process takes place.

The contributions in this book deal with various aspects of learning, in a broad historical and geographical perspective, which ranges from Ancient Babylon, via classical Greece and Rome, and the Middle East (both Christian and Islamic), through to the Latin and vernacular cultures of the Christian West in the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance.