Europe: the Middle Ages

Abstract

Denys Hay, The Medieval Centuries (Methuen, 2nd edn, cl and pb, 1964) is very short but is a good and inexpensive introduction to the period. R. H. C. Davis, A History of Medieval Europe:, from Constantine to St Louis (Longman, 1957) and its companion, Daniel Waley, Later Medieval Europe: from St Louis to Luther (Longman, 1964) are excellent general books for non-specialists. The best one-volume systematic outlines of the whole period written in English are by American scholars, and of these Robert S. Hoyt, Europe in the Middle Ages (Hart-Davis, n.d.) and J. R. Strayer and D. C. Munro, The Middle Ages, 395-1500 (Bell, 1959) are particularly good. Robert S. Lopez, The Birth of Europe (Phoenix, 1967) is a well-illustrated essay on a grand scale. L. Genicot, Contours of the Middle Ages (Routledge, 1967) is not illustrated, but it is furnished with exceptionally good notes which serve as a very helpful guide to the specialized literature. Volume 3 of Maurice Crouzet's Histoire générale des civilisations is an authoritative and stimulating survey that covers Asia as well as Europe. It is entitled Le moyen age: l'expansion de l'Orient et la naissance de la civilisation occidentale (Paris, PUF, 4th edn 1965) and is by Edouard Perroy and others. R. W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages (Hutchinson, rev. edn, cl and pb, 1967) is a work of great originality and importance dealing primarily with the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Overlapping with this is Friedrich Heer, The Medieval World: Europe, 1100-1350 (Weidenfeld, cl and pb 1962). The most up-to-date survey of Europe in the Late Middle Ages is edited by J. R. Hale and others (Faber, 1965). The most comprehensive treatment of the period in English is the Cambridge Medieval History (Camb., 8 vols, vols 1-3, 5-8, 1911-36, vol. 4, 2 pts, 2nd edn 1967), ed. J. R. Tanner and others ; but as with any such co-operative enterprise, the quality of the contributions varies greatly. Methuen's History of Europe is on a much smaller scale, with four volumes devoted to this period: they are by Margaret Deanesly, 476-911 (n.i. cl and pb, 1969), Z. N. Brooke, 911-1198 (n. edn, cl and 870pb, 1969), C. W. Previté-Orton, 1198-1378 (3rd edn 1951) and W. T. Waugh, 1378-1494 (3rd edn 1949). Three of the five medieval volumes in Longman's General History of Europe have so far appeared, A. H. M. Jones, The Decline of the Ancient World (1966), Christopher Brooke, Europe in the Central Middle Ages, 962-1154 (1964) and Denys Hay, Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (1966). The best multi-volume medieval history is still the Histoire du moyen age in G. Glotz's Histoire générale (Paris, PUF, 10 vols, 1928-45). Attention should also be drawn to two other French series, 'Peuples et civilisations' (Paris, Alcan, now PUF) with three medieval volumes, L. Halphen, Les Barbares (5th edn 1948), his L'essor de l'Europe, XIe-XIHe siècles (3rd edn 1948) and La fin du moyen âge by H. Pirenne and others (1931). The second series is still in progress, 'Nouvelle Clio' Paris, PUF), and it so far includes Léopold Genicot, Le XIIIe siècle (1968), Jacques Heers, L'Occident aux XIVe et XVe siècles: aspects économiques et sociaux (1963) and Pierre Chaunu, L'expansion européenne du XIIIe au XVe siècle (1969) as well as works by Lucien Musset and Robert Mantran mentioned below. The Dark Ages, ed. David Talbot Rice and The Flowering of the Middle Ages, ed. Joan Evans (Thames & H., 1965, 1966) are lavishly illustrated collections of essays. Two books by Georges Duby are even more beautifully illustrated, The Europe of the Cathedrals, 1140-1280 and Foundations of a New Humanism, 1280-1440 (Skira: Zwemmer, 1966).