This collection of illuminations and excerpts from medieval texts splendidly evokes the experience of reading a medieval manuscript without requiring the reader to understand a different language or gain access to a university library's special collection. It offers texts on a variety of aspects of life in the Middle Ages, from birth to death to love and sex, the changes of seasons, spirituality, warfare, medicine, travel, leisure, labor and much more.
The text sources include chronicles, legal documents, private communications, epitaphs and romances. Each excerpt is accompanied by appropriate illuminations, incidental decorations, or both. The result is very like medieval texts, which often benefited from a scribe's creative flair. The effect is enhanced by the choice of parchment-like paper and distinctive type style which, together with the rich red cloth binding and gold-lettered title, provide the modern version of medieval elegance.
There is a wealth of medieval wisdom in these pages, but although there is a table of contents there is no detailed index. Nor are the excerpts presented in any particular order; so get out your post-it notes if you'd like to remember your favorite passages. However, although A Medieval Miscellany has its uses as reference, this is really a book for browsing and enjoying at your leisure.
No one who appreciates the voices of the past or the art of the scribe will be able to resist this fabulous work. Buy it for your favorite medieval history buff, or put it on your wish list if that history buff is you.
The text excerpts were selected by Judith Herrin; the manuscript selection and book design were by Linda & Michael Falter; the introduction is by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie.
