Medieval Worlds: A Sourcebook edited by Roberta Anderson and Dominic Aidan Bellenger (review)

Abstract

Reviews ROBERrA Anderson and Dominic AiDAN bellenger, eds., Medieval Worlds: A Sourcebook. London: Routledge, 2003. Pp. xx, 328. isbn:o-415-25309-8 (pbk). $29.95. This anthology contains a variety ofexcerpts from medieval sources, ranging from charters and monastic documents to literary texts and travel narratives. The editors' objectives are to provide 'an introduction to the period which goes far beyond conventional medieval history'(Preface) and to 'convey the depth of the medieval achievement: its faith, its structures, its ideas, its magnificence and folly, the lives of its people' (2). Anderson is a lecturer in the School ofHistorical and Cultural Studies at Bath Spa University College; Bellenger, also an historian, is Prior of Downside Abbey in Somerset. The book is the product of a team-taught medieval history course at BSUC. The collection is sorted into twelve major divisions, each representing a particular aspect of the Middle Ages: The first section, 'Introduction to medieval worlds,' is followed by 'The monastic world,' 'The world of the papacy,' 'The world of the Crusades,' 'The world of the feudal kingdom,' 'The English political world,' 'The world of the outsider,' 'The world ofwomen,' 'The world ofthe mind,' 'The world ofthe countryside,' 'The world ofthe town,' and 'The medieval world self-observed.' Each ofthese divisions concludes with a brieflist ofsuggestions for 'Further reading.' In addition to the documents themselves and the standard apparatus (contents, bibliography, and index), the volume also features a useful glossary of medieval terms, with 78 entries from 'Abbot' to 'Villein,' thirty illustrations, a handsome photographic sequence of Wells Cathedral. The discursive matter is minimal, consisting in a three-paragraph Preface, a two-page Introduction, brief contextualizing head-matter for each of the larger divisions, and even briefer commentary preceding the documents themselves. As the collection clearly targets undergraduate history students (and their instructors), it is not surprising that only eight of approximately 160 excerpts are taken from literary sources: Langland, the Chanson de Roland, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Malory, Chaucer, Gower, Christine de Pizan, and Boccaccio. The literary selections range in length from a generous dollop of Langland (the first 230 lines ofPiers) to a mere squib ofChaucer, the thirteen-line portrait ofthe plowman from the General Prologue. Excerpts from Malory appear in two different sections. At first glance, the volume would seem—with its inclusion of major rubrics for town and country and its two chapters on marginalized populations (women and 'the outsider')— to fulfill the editorial promise of cultural multivalence. Despite these gestures, however, the anthology is actually rather conservative in its ARTHURIANA ?4.4 (2??4) 75 76ARTHURIANA representation of the European Middle Ages, even a tad retrograde: the dominant voice throughout is that of the patriarch and the churchman. All but two of the eleven selections in the introductory section, for example, arc connected in some way to matters Christian and theological: even the excerpt from Malory, the narrative of Galahad's Grail experience (Caxton 17, clxxi-cxcvii), reflects this thematic. And parsing the contents, one cannot help but observe that the first three ofthe 'worlds' are those of the monastery, the papacy, and the Crusades. Nowhere is this spin more evident than in the chapters on marginalized groups. The only secular entry amongst twelve pieces in 'The world ofwomen' is an excerpt from Christine's Citédes dames. Additionally, Christine is one ofonly three women represented in this section (the other two non-patriarchal documents arc 'The Testament ofSt. Clare' and Radegund's 'Letter of Foundation). For the remainder, the usual suspects are assembled: Jerome, Anselm, Augustine, and Abelard amongst them. The section begins with the Biblical account of Eve's fall, and the Virgin Mary figures prominently thereafter. Similarly, only two of the thirteen 'outsider' excerpts are ofsecular provenance. Three documents represent what Christians have to say about the Jews, particularly their causal connection to the Black Death, but no Jewish voice is heard. Lepers and witches comprise the other two 'outsider' groups here—the Islamic Other is not even mentioned, surely a necessary antidote to the casual demonization of 'Saracens' in other sections of the anthology. (The only Islamic voice in the entire collection is that ofUsmah ibn Munquidh, ironically 'An...