Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error

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This book is for those who enjoy reading serious historical and anthropological studies; for those who delight in asking how did our predecessors live? Sometimes we wonder when travelling in Europe how was life in those medieval villages? We can spot them everywhere, with a bunch of little houses below, slowly climbing up a hill, and a large feudal mansion on top. If this has happened to you, this book is not only essential but it will be a very pleasant adventure. The details we learn about daily life in Montaillou, the people's beliefs, their gestures, their sexual life, their culture and commerce, all can only be so precise thanks to an obsessive preoccupation of Inquisition's guardian Jacques Fournier, Bishop of Pamiers and later on Pope at Avignon, known as Benedict XII. We owe our pleasure also to the masterly data intrepretation and selection of Fournier's archaic texts to Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, a fine scholar. Fournier, a dedicated religious man was interested in documenting the practice of Catharism -- a heretic sect -- in Languedoc, France. This way he left for future generations rich material about the habits and ways of living of the time. Ladurie guides us through this data and give us a dynamic view of life in the first two decades of the 14th c. It is seductive. It is worth the effort to lose ourselves among these villagers, from lice-picking to the priest's amorous adventures, from a shepherd's life to the punishments for heresies. Do not miss this book. It is time-travelling. Although this is not a novel, I recommend after this book the reading of Iian Pears, The Dream of Scipio.

In my historiography classes this book has been lauded and used as an example of a new form of history-writing: a complete discription of a village and all it's aspects: religion, sex, food, families, houses etc. It is definitely not a boring book about one particular subject but covers wide aspects of the Pyrennee Village of Montaillou. Besides being interesting to read it also might open your eyes about certain ideas we might have had about religion and society in the 14th century. We read now that everyone slept with everyone, including the priest, the greatest fornicator of them all. Homosexuality is normal and people cried a lot sooner than now. Read it and be amazed about 14th century France, it's different than you always though

This book is a true "first". Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie has, for the first time, presented a page of history from medieval times that is seldom seen outside the confines of academia. Mr. Ladurie has sifted through the detailed records of the Catholic Church and brought to life the ordinary folk of the the late thirteenth century and early fourteenth. The book does not focus on the religious aspect of the Cathars but on the social life of people who have never before been spoken for. It is easy to study the lives of kings, princes and popes, but the ordinary citizens of this age have never had a voice before. The book is in French and translations into English are not easy to find but well worth the effort and expense.

I can't compare this book to anything I read before. The author made something extraordinatu. He showed us one specific village, how it existed 700 years ago and I cannot think this is history. i read about people living there as if they 'd still be living. The reconstruction is magnificent. We learn about specific families, their loves, gossips, joys and problems. We even know what they ate and when they were making love. This is like feature from modern small town. But over the people of Montaillou there is a cloud - they are - mostly - heretics - and Inquisition is preparing the forces.... Well what more can I say. I even visited Montaillou after reading the book. And the ancestors of these families are still living there. After so many years... Read it!