A history of medieval Europe from Constantine to St. Louis (review)

Abstract

Reviews 179 Robin Cormack's Byzantine eye is a valuable collection of studies drawn from relatively obscure sources. These studies also herald a new direction in Byzantine art history. A. D. Grishin Department of Art History Australian National University Davis, R. H. C, A history of medieval Europe from Constantine to St. Louis, 2nd ed., London, Longman, 1988; paperback; pp. xv, 408; 5 plates, 9 maps; R. R. P. AUS$29.95. The covers of this paperback state that it is a 'Second Edition ... the first fullscale revision of the text since its initial appearance in 1957', in which 'Professor Davis has added important new postscripts to all those chapters which he would now tackle differendy were he writing the book from scratch'. In fact two of the postscripts to chapters in the book are virtually unchanged appendices to the 1970 edition. This leavesfivenew postscripts among seventeen chapters. Otherwise the text of the book is Uttle changed, although references and reading tists have been updated. This is a pity, because a second edition offered an opportunity to fiU in gaps. Most notably, one suspects that this is a history of medieval Europe defined as excluding the British Isles, which enter only infrequently in general or comparative contexts. Spain and eastern Europe don't receive much attention either. A worldwide audience for a textbook such as this deserves better. Also, there is not one sentence reflecting new perspectives on w o m e n in history, even though, within the minimalist policy of change governing the edition, the postscript on demography would have provided a suitable context. In the absence of Longman's long-awaited book on the early Middle Ages, this clear and sensible book will have to do. However, Robert S. Lopez's The Birth ofEurope (sadly out of print) is a more interesting and more balanced treatment with a conceptually sounder tide. Lynette Olson Department of History University of Sydney Rossiaud, J., Medieval prostitution, trans. L. G. Cochrane, Oxford, Basil BlackweU, 1988; cloth; pp. ix, 213; R. R. P. £22.50. Rossiaud's Medieval prostitution is an easy book to read and enjoy. It has an easily definable subject matter: the limited activity of prostitution in a clearly defined geographical area, namely the network of towns and cities of south-east France, from Burgundy to Provence, between 1440 and 1490. One might quibble that the later fifteenth century is hardly the Middle Ages but Rossiaud relies on earlier sources for his theoretical discussion of the status of ...