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The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
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You Are Here: Books About Antiques > Collector Encyclopedias > Item 469 of 556
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$4.99
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Available from Amazon
Price Last Updated : 7-30-2008
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Features
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult June 1, 1999
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0670100110
ISBN-13: 978-0670100118
Product Dimensions:
10.5 x 8.3 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
Product Review
As greater numbers of naysayers look forward to the collapse of civilization, perhaps it's best to see what happened last time. It turns out the Dark Ages weren't so bad--in fact, after reading through The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, you might find yourself pining for the good old days before the Renaissance. Historian Norman F. Cantor has assembled a crack team of experts to unleash their copious knowledge on our modern world; better still, Viking Press has enlisted excellent designers to present the information efficiently and even beautifully. You'll find yourself irresistibly drawn from one entry to the next (there are over 600, so leave time for browsing) as the story of the Council of Nicaea leads on to explorations of medieval Christianity and much more. Twenty longer essays on general topics provide the foundation for the rest of the Encyclopedia and make great reading on their own, but the meat of the book is in the details. Lavishly illustrated in both color and black-and-white, including artworks, maps, and timetables, this reference work looks as good on the shelf as it does on the coffee table. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
From the world's most distinguished medievalist comes a lively and vivid account of the lords and ladies, saints and scholars, kings and peasants who shaped the history and culture of one of the richest and most misunderstood periods in history. In this full-color, landmark reference, Cantor and a team of scholars and experts explore the entire medieval world--from the British Isles to the Far East, and the great figures--Dante, Chaucer, Aquinas, who defined the period. >From the Crusades to the Vikings, The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages contains 600 individual entries and over 200 illustrations from world-famous collections, including the British Museum and the Morgan Library. Twenty major essays portraying the lives of Medieval luminaries, and original maps charting military campaigns and developing nations, make this the indispensable home reference for scholars and students.
Reader Reviews
A visually stunning, but often peculiar, work that captures the tone, texture, and ideological obsessions of that distant era. Perfect for browsing and well-written, this collective effort details the major families, saints, and great cities of the Middle Ages. The concise, yet detailed, entries provide excellent thumbnail sketches. Yet there are some peculiar features to this ambitious and beautiful encyclopedia. First, there are the baffling typos like listing Pope John XXIII as condemning heretics in the 13th century (p.174... didn't somebody remember the soon to be sainted 20th century Pope John XXIII? Perhaps it was supposed to be John XXII.) Yet, like some other reader-critics, I found the discussion of Jews to be, well, peculiar. The descriptions sound more medieval than modern. Persecutions are de-emphasized, explained, and almost justified. Consider the following paragraph, under Jews, on p.260: "It is also significant that in the first generation of Dominican inquisitors there were a number of Jewish converts. So the attack of the papal inquisition on the Jews in the 13th century France in part represented a split among the intellectuals of the Jewish community. The same internal culture conflict occurred in the days of the Spanish Inquisition around 1500." Is the author blaming the converted Jews for the torturing and burning of thousands of devout Jews? Is he implying that the inquisition might have been, well, unchristian, and that's because of the converted Jews? What is this nonsense? Likewise, the four page entry on Jews, single spaced without illustrations, concludes on p.261 with same highly unorthodox assertions about the size and dimensions of the Spanish Inquisition. Mainstream historians estimate the number of murdered Jews between 50,000 -100,000 and forced exile of several hundred thousand. The encyclopedia - without giving sources - says, "the impact has been ridiculously exaggerated. In the whole history of Catholic inquisitions from early 13th century France to early 17th century Spain and Portugal, not more than 5,000 Jewish families suffered capital and less severe punish at the hands of the Church courts." Perhaps the author wants to count families, instead of people, to reduce the number of innocent victims. Or perhaps the author means to shift blame to crazed mobs that burned entire neighborhoods with the blessing of Church authorities... and outside court procedures. Yet murder is murder. I'm grateful that I bought and read several sections of this important work. It reveals, to me, the danger of excessive romantic imagination and entering the very narrow, often-fanatic mindset of medieval religious authorities. On the other hand, it's a bit disturbing that intellectuals can be so casual in justifying and explaining brutal intolerance in the early 21st.
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The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
by Norman Cantor and Harold Rabinowitz
Available from Amazon
Price: $4.99
on 7-30-2008
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