It is a great pleasure to see the launch of Spicilegium, the first online journal of the Japan Society for Medieval European Studies, in response not only to the wish of the members and supporters of our Society but also to a widespread demand from international sphere to see the Japanese academic arena opened to whomever interested in various aspects of European medieval society and culture. We are very happy to produce the first issue of Spicilegium with three good articles all of which, without exception, were submitted to meticulous and strict review.
I would like to thank here all the anonymous reviewers for their selfless task in raising the academic level of the journal, and also to Professor Shigeto Kikuchi for his service as the assistant to the editor-in-chief. Dr. Kôji Murata contributed greatly with his knowledge of classical languages for the proofreading of digitalized texts. Finally, I should like to express my gratitude again to Mr. Toshinobu Nagata for his wonderful job in constructing a superb website for Spicilegium.