Synopses & Reviews
Review
Fourteen different French historians trace this triumph [of individualism] in richly illustrated chapters surveying the terrain of privacy by a variety of procedures...The book is a feast for the eye; it is fascinating, often compelling in its exquisite detail. Maureen Quilligan
Review
Profusely and intelligently illustrated, generously margined, and wisely and clearly written...[this volume] invites a profound reconsideration of our notions about much of the past and suggests new ways of looking at it...We ought to be inspired to think about our own notion and practice of private life. New York Times Book Review
Review
The material in this second anthology...is personally involving and profoundly informative...This immense work of imaginative history lifts us out of our own constructed walls. It reveals to us not only the shapes and colors of another time, but of our own. Edward Peters - The Nation
Review
This volume offers a very full, richly variegated picture of the life, in different places and at different periods, of the Middle Ages. The lavish and well-chosen illustrations match the text. Paul Kafka - Bloomsbury Review
Review
Like its predecessor in the same series, [this book] makes full use of the whole range of evidence and, most strikingly, the visual...This thoughtful, handsome book would be a fine addition to any library. Maurice Keen - New York Review of Books
Synopsis
All the mystery, earthiness and romance of the Middle Ages are captured in this panorama of everyday life. The evolving concepts of intimacy are explored--from the semi-obscure eleventh century through the first stirrings of the Renaissance world in the fifteenth century. Color and black-and-white illustrations.
Synopsis
The second volume of A History of Private Life is a treasure trove of rich and colorful detail culled from an astounding variety of sources. This absorbing "secret epic" constructs a vivid picture of peasant and patrician life in the eleventh to fifteenth centuries.
About the Author
Georges Duby, a member of the Académie Française, is Professor of Medieval History at the Collège de France.Arthur Goldhammer received the French-American Translation Prize in 1990 for his translation of A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution.
Table of Contents
Preface
by Georges Duby 1. Introduction
by Georges Duby
Private Power, Public Power
2. Portraits
by Georges Duby, Dominique Barthélemy, Charles de La Roncière
The Aristocratic Households of Feudal France
Communal Living
Kinship
Tuscan Notables on the Eve of the Renaissance
3. Imagining the Self
by Danielle Régnier-Bohler
Exploring Literature
4. The Use of Private Space
by Dominique Barthélemy, Philippe Contamine
Civilizing the Fortress: Eleventh to Thirteenth Century
Peasant Hearth to Papal Palace: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
5. The Emergence of the Individual
by Georges Duby, Philippe Braunstein
Solitude: Eleventh to Thirteenth Century
Toward Intimacy: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
Bibliography
Credits
Index