Chiara Frugoni (1940–2022)

Slightly disappointing in that there was very little in the way of technical detail - what factors made the inventions possible, how did they develop as they came into more general use, that sort of thing - it was rather btter on the social impact. It was also rather let down by a scattergun approach - diverting in its way but also irritating. I rather got the feeling that it was written without particular thought to structure and then shoehorned into chapters with more regard to chapter show more length than coherent, discrete content. Towards the end that seemed to get sorted, suggesting that author or editor had similar thoughts.
Overall, not bad - but not really what I'd hoped for though I probabl will return to it atsome point. show less

This book focuses on Italy -- unsurprisingly, since the authors came from there -- and relies heavily on art to tell the story. Almost every page is illustrated with pictures of one or more paintings from the period. I enjoyed it, and I got a good sense of the atmosphere of the Italian cities with their crowding and chaos. The book is necessarily superficial, however, and to get a really detailed examination of medieval cities (especially non-Italian ones) you will have to look elsewhere.

A Day in a Medieval City was first published in Italian in 1997 under a different title and translated into English in 2005. It is a touching tribute by a daughter to her father Arsenio Frugoni, an Italian Medieval scholar who died in a car accident in his early 50s. Before he died he wrote a short lively essay describing a typical day in an Italian medieval city between the 11th and 15th centuries. This forms the Introduction of the book. Chiara picks up from there relying mostly on show more pictures from the period to describe life in an Italian city - the big events such as birth, marriage, death - but also the mundane such as bathing, eating, reading, sleeping, etc..which in some ways are the most fascinating aspects since they are so familiar to us. The writing is a little encyclopedic but never boring, even though its a short book (177 pages of main text) it it not a fast read. The interpretation of medieval paintings is always fascinating since they are so loaded with iconography and the way stories flow through them, it's a visual story and this book provides the key to understanding some well known Gothic paintings. Only once did I see a mistake, regarding a rag held on a book to protect it from greasy fingers (pg.150) - this is actually something called a "Girdle book" (Wikipedia has more). There are pictures on almost every page. For this type of book, it is very good quality and has long often rewarding footnotes. I'd recommend it for anyone wanting to learn more about Medieval history at the ground level.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd show less

One of the most beautiful books I have. And, well written and informative.