Medieval Civilization 400 – 1500 1st Edition by Jacques Le Goff (PDF)

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This one thousand year history of the civilization of western Europe has already been recognized in France as a scholarly contribution of the highest order and as a popular classic. Jacques Le Goff has written a book which will not only be read by generations of students and historians, but which will delight and inform all those interested in the history of medieval Europe. Part one, Historical Evolution , is a narrative account of the entire period, from the barbarian settlement of Roman Europe in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries to the war-torn crises of Christian Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Part two, Medieval Civilization , is analytical, concerned with the origins of early medieval ideas of culture and religion, the constraints of time and space in a pre-industrial world and the reconstruction of the lives and sensibilities of the people during this long period. Medieval Civilization combines the narrative and descriptive power characteristic of Anglo-Saxon scholarship with the sensitivity and insight of the French historical tradition.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review ‘Jacques Le Goff is one of the most distinguised of the French medieval historians of his generation, a generation in which the French have consistently set the pace for medieval studies.’ Maurice Keen, New York Review of Books “The richness, imaginativeness and sheer learning of Le Goff’s work cannot be summarized and demands to be experienced.” Times Literary Supplement ‘…Stimulating and impressive. It was high time that it should be translated into English’ Douglas Johnson, The Observer “Covering 1000 years of civilazation in Western Europe and illustrated with a wide range of magnificant photographs, this popular and well-established French classic will both delight and inform.” Publsihing News “Combines illuminating generalizations with appealing nuggets of fact.” Jasper Griffin A rich portrait of the medieval world which historians will admire and any general reader can read with enjoyment.” The Independent “Le Goff has taken the whole of Western Europe as a temporal sequence and he has asked what are the conceptual schemes which give it coherence. It is the structuralist scheme which makes this book stimulating and impressive. It was high time that it should be translated into English.” The Observer From the Inside Flap This one thousand year history of the civilization of western Europe has already been recognized in France as a scholarly contribution of the highest order and as a popular classic. Jacques Le Goff has written a book which will not only be read by generations of students and historians, but which will delight and inform all those interested in the history of medieval Europe. Part one, Historical Evolution , is a narrative account of the entire period, from the barbarian settlement of Roman Europe in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries to the war-torn crises of Christian Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Part two, Medieval Civilization , is analytical, concerned with the origins of early medieval ideas of culture and religion, the constraints of time and space in a pre-industrial world and the reconstruction of the lives and sensibilities of the people during this long period. Medieval Civilization combines the narrative and descriptive power characteristic of Anglo-Saxon scholarship with the sensitivity and insight of the French historical tradition. From the Back Cover This one thousand year history of the civilization of western Europe has already been recognized in France as a scholarly contribution of the highest order and as a popular classic. Jacques Le Goff has written a book which will not only be read by generations of students and historians, but which will delight and inform all those interested in the history of medieval Europe. Part one, Historical Evolution , is a narrative account of the entire period, from the barbarian settlement of Roman Europe in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries to the war-torn crises of Christian Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Part two, Medieval Civilization , is analytical, concerned with the origins of early medieval ideas of culture and religion, the constraints of time and space in a pre-industrial world and the reconstruction of the lives and sensibilities of the people during this long period. Medieval Civilization combines the narrative and descriptive power characteristic of Anglo-Saxon scholarship with the sensitivity and insight of the French historical tradition. About the Author Jacques Le Goff was born in 1924 at Toulon. He taught in a lycee at Amiens in 1950-1 and then held research studentships at Lincoln College, Oxford and the Ecole francaise de Rome. Since then he has taught at the Ecole practique des hautes etudes, rising to the position of president of the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales 1975-7. He is director of the prestigious journal Annales. He has published many books; best known to English readers are Pour un autre Moyen Age (Paris 1977), translated as Time, Work and Culture in the Middle Ages (Chicago, 1980) and La naisssance du purgatoire (Paris 1981), translated as The Borth of Purgatory (Chicago 1984). Julia Barrow, a medievalist with a special interest in church history, took her MA in St Andrews in 1978 and her D.Phil in Oxford in 1983. At present she holds a British Academy Post-doctoral fellowship at Birmingham University. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Good quality and service

⭐My grandson loves it. That’s all I know.

⭐Loved it !

⭐My wife and I read through this text together during a somewhat lengthy trip to Paris back in 2004. Knowing that LeGoff is both a prodigious writer and well-esteemed scholar of the period, we selected the book in spite of reservations of tackling a text translated from French to English. We were so pleased that we did. LeGoff’s narrative, even with the translation, reads smoothly and meaningfully, and one has the feeling of being immersed into a medieval world with every page.As other reviewers have pointed out, there is certainly a difference in the writing style of Europeans and Americans. European writing, and particularly French (and perhaps, Dutch, as well) can often produce exceptionally long, and seemingly divergent, sentences that can seem to twist the limits of comprehension. This, of course, is simply because the typical American is not used to such verbal discourse; Americans generally speak in short, didactic, and punctuated sentences. When an American with no previous background in lexical differences produced by continental Europeans comes across translated works possessing such characteristics, there can be a tendency, however innocent, to be critical of such works, regardless of the parochial nature displayed by such knee-jerk criticisms – and yet, over time, these limitations can be overcome and eventually be valued as a different type of communication form holding intricacies and multi-faceted expositions in classical narrative style. Yes, if you can follow that sentence, that’s what it can be like. But LeGoff’s work is simply a masterpiece of scholarship which I can truly say (in spite of the ironic sense of contradiction) is truly fascinating and enjoyable to read.LeGoff’s work is truly immersive in nature. One does not get the sense that we are reading ABOUT medieval Europe, but rather that we are reading IN medieval Europe. Large portions of the book diverge from typical factual expositions of the period and explicate the sensory world of the period, including medieval thought, beliefs, and worldview. We also witness the growth of the medieval church, and the church’s connection with emergent governments as the nation-states of Europe (France and Germany in particular) begin to take nascent form after the Treaty of Verdun in 843AD. This is a story too complex and variegated in detail to be completely covered in so short a text, but LeGoff does a masterful job of informing us of the particulars to support the narrative of the work. We are also introduced to the notion of “work” as a medieval construct, and how the commoner lived his life to support himself and his family. Feudalism, of course, plays a central role in any such story, in spite of the protests concerning use of the term, and so we are introduced to most every major theme present in the period.In summary, LeGoff’s work is a standard read for medieval history, and should not be overlooked even when more recent works have been released on the same subject. (And to see the immense amount of work LeGoff has put into other works on the same period, simply do a search in Amazon on his name, or click the link for his name directly under the title of this book at the top of the page.) Highly recommended.

⭐This is a remarkable book. It’s relatively short but manages to cover every significant aspect of Medieval civilization in quite a bit of detail. It is not, strictly speaking, a history of the Middle Ages. Rather it is an exceptionally penetrating analysis of Medieval thought, attitudes, religion, art, literature, politics, and economic life. Amazingly, Le Goff does an impressive job discussing in considerable detail writings from the period that illustrate his insights. Truly, if there is a scholar of Medieval society who is more knowledgeable or who writes more beautifully, I’d like to know. Le Goff blew me away with his scholarship. He seems to have read everything, literally, produced during the Middle Ages and everything written about the Middle Ages. But he’s done more than read. He has managed to imaginatively put himself into this era and to understand it in depth. I read some comments about the writing style, and have to confess I don’t understand the criticisms. Le Goff writes beautifully, with a lucid style and vivid imagery. I’ve read many excellent books about the Middle Ages; none of them compares to Le Goff’s book. It’s not for beginners, though. But, if you have a basic understanding of the history of this period, you will be able to comprehend Le Goff’s astonishing insights with little difficulty.

⭐Medieval Civilization is not an introductory history of the Middle Ages. The author assumes prior knowledge of many details. For those of us who are not up-to-speed, frequent use of an online encyclopedia is a must. Ever hear of the “Chanson de Geste”? How about the “Carolingian dynasty”? Le Goff doesn’t tell you what these actually are — but Wikipedia does.If you already have a grounding in medieval history, or if you are willing to go the extra mile, Le Goff’s work is engaging and quite readable. The author does not proceed chronologically, but rather sweeps up and down the time period, highlighting important trends and big-picture concepts. It is in this erudite generalization that the real strength of the work emerges. For example, Le Goff observes that in medieval epistemology, to understand something was to name it. The symbol itself was the essence of an object or the mechanics of a process. Thus, grammar and language were the most studied of all subjects, the most fundamental tools for knowing creation.By making chronology subservient to theme, Le Goff is able to provide an illuminating snapshot of the Middle Ages as a whole. The downside of doing this is that the reader is left with more of a gestalt comprehension rather than a precisely located sense of time and place. That the downside is only minor is a testament to the interest and appeal of Le Goff’s ideas.

⭐This is by far the best concise history of the Medieaval Europe ever written, and written so well too.

⭐Great book. The maps are not as good because they are hard to read and are separated as pages are separated.

⭐Interesting and readable for an overview of the period and way of thinking

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