Medieval People

Largely a dry, textbook-like social history, the author strives greatly and often succeeds in bringing to life working, medieval (West) Europeans (English, really) by detailing the lives and routines of specific individuals drawn from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, etc. These are a peasant, weaver (business with many looms, really), abbess, etc.

These are genuinely endearing stories of individuals of medieval Europe who were not royalty or aristocracy. Power gleans details of the lives of these people from numerous sources, and, at least in the case of the peasant, Bodo, uses these sources to create a composite character, due to the lack of sufficient historical information about any one historical person.

Powers describes the lives, homes, general living conditions and practices, the towns and villages, and the working and leasure time of her subjects. With varying degrees of success, Powers is able to bring three-dimensional figures to life, and at the end of this work, one feels like one is leaving new friends.

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys cultural history or show more simply wants a better idea of medieval life.

Os. show less

Taking a completely novel approach for it's time, this book profiled the everyday lives of normal people in the middle ages. It does include Marco Polo, but he's the only person of any note in the book. I was bowled when I read it 40 years ago to learn that history could be about something other than the lives of kings and who was fighting who. I think even today's readers, for whom this approach to history is normal, would find these portraits interesting.

Just couldn't get into it so I quit. Too dry.

2/7/23

history, mediaeval, historiography

“Anche il popolo nel suo complesso, le masse anonime e indistinte del popolo che ora dormono in tombe sconosciute hanno avuto infine il loro riconoscimento”: così scrive Eileen Power, e in questo libro descrive la vita di sei personaggi medievali, individui comuni (ma rappresentativi) realmente esistiti, basandosi su documenti e testimonianze dell'epoca. Due sono famosi (Marco Polo e Madama Eglentyne, che è un personaggio letterario, ma sembra vero); gli altri quattro fanno parte della schiera dei comuni esseri umani che vivono e muoiono quasi senza lasciare tracce, minuscole increspature inosservate nel mare, a volte tempestoso, della storia. Vivace e spigliato, ben tradotto e di lettura assai piacevole, un piccolo classico di show more divulgazione storica. show less