Life in a Medieval City

I didnt know what exactly to expect as i went into this book. All i really aimed for was getting an insightful account on how living in a medieval city would be and had no idea how an author would go about presenting this. Having mentioned that, "Life in a Medieval City" exceeded my expectations and then some! It's a brilliant and carefully detailed book on how the every day routine rolled around the 11th century in the city of Troyes in France. The authors touch basically all aspects of life in a medieval city: commercial, religious, every day tasks, challenges and difficulties, education, military defense, you name it. It's definetely not overwhelming as some reviewers claimed because the authors do not bore tzhe reader with the unnecessaryas the delve into the various sectors of medieval life. The style is very direct, very modern and very comprehensive. The bits of information to be obtained from it are absolutely remarkable and i finished this book pleased that i had a fresh set of questions about medieval life based on the knowledge i acquired by reading it. This is anyway the value standard a good book should be measured by. Easily one of the most pertinent books on the subject.

First of all, the authors set out to simply enlighten the modern reader as to the daily life of a Medieval city-dweller. They had no hidden agenda, just the report of the facts, as best as they could determine from existing documents and sources. Their work represents a fairly accurate representation of what life might have been like for the average city dweller during the Middle Ages.Second, they focus on one, particular city, namely Troyes. But, what they discuss can be generalized to other cities. Also, they compare Troyes to other cities of similar size and time periods, as examples of how standard, or not, Troyes was.Thirdly, they use easy to understand language without talking down to the reader. They don't try to make their historical personages talk to the reader, but, instead, let the occasional quote do their talking for them. They speculate only a little bit about what the people might have been thinking, focusing instead on what they actually did.All in all, a very enjoyable book. I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the whys and hows of life in early cities.

I have been researching the Middle Ages for a number of years and this is one of the most even -handed books I have come across. The authors are researchers par excellence, and have presented their findings in an imminently readable form. If I were not already a student of the Middle Ages, however, I might have found the wealth of detail somewhat overwhelming and some of the terms and references obscure. This is a book for people who really want to know.

I read this book out of curiosity and I am glad I picked it up. The book's description of Troyes is quite detailed, complete and at times truly engrossing. The authors cover most aspects of life in the middle-ages and provide some insight in the developments during that time, as well as their significance (although this isn't the book to read if you are mostly interested in detaileed, scholarly historical analyses of the time). To sum up, a very pleasant book to read, full of interesting information about everyday life in another era. Recommended!