What Life Was Like in the Age of Chivalry

A volume of stunning images of medieval people and places. Enlargements of figures from manuscripts, art reproductions, and photographs of artifacts and buildings are arranged on pages that alternate from ivory to parchment backgrounds. The text presents an overview of life in the Middle Ages through descriptions of noble and notable individuals such as Charlemagne, Heloise and Abelard, Thomas Becket, and William Marshal. A typical life story is charted for Abrahil the peasant, and the letters of the Italian townsman Francesco Datini and his wife Margherita reveal life within the rising middle class. The female sex receives attention in the well-known persons Hildegard von Bingen, Christine de Pisan, and Joan of Arc as well as in the section on childbirth and children. The book is divided into four chapters that center on the people of the church, the knightly class, peasants and rural landowners, and town dwellers. The coverage, while interesting and comprehensive, is traditional in its scope and is focused on the areas of England, France, and Italy. An excellent bibliography of scholarly and classic titles is included. The arrangement of topics and pictures invites leisurely perusal rather than reference searches for reports. A handsomely designed, admirably balanced blend of pictures and text.