In the book “Empires of the Middle Ages”, edited by the famous medievalist historian Sylvain Guggenheim, for the first time under one cover, works are collected that describe the formation and development of 16 empires in different parts of the world. The purpose of this collection is to cover with a single glance similar political formations within the framework of an extended chronological period on a planetary scale. The structure of the presentation of the material is determined by the division of empires proposed by Guggenheim into three groups: empires-universums (such as the Carolingian Empire, Byzantium, Mongolian and Chinese Empires, etc.), empires isolated in a certain geographical space (Bulgarian, Serbian, Japanese, Latin Empire Constantinople, solar empires of Latin America), as well as empires with dispersed territories (German Ottonian Empire, Norman Empire, Plantagenet Empire, thalassocratic empires of Venice and Srivijaya). Articles by the authors, including both eminent scientists and bright young researchers, are distinguished by their originality of approaches , are full of facts and conclusions that are of undoubted interest not only for specialists, but also for a wide range of history buffs.