This exciting new collection of documents from across Europe gives a fresh perspective and sharp taste of everyday life in a medieval town. The sources range from the standard chronicles and charters to the less often viewed accounts of marriage disputes, urban women, families, the environment, the dangers of town life, and civic ritual. Deliberately wide-ranging, these sources acknowledge the contributions of other disciplines-such as archaeology, architecture, demography, law, and environmental studies-to our understanding of urban life in the Middle Ages. Towns from Spain to Germany to Russia are covered, while the focus is on the more urbanized regions of medieval Europe, particularly Italy, the Low Countries, France, and England. In all, 150 primary sources are included, 35 of which are translated for this volume from Latin, Old French, Anglo-Norman, Franco-Venetian, medieval Danish, and other languages.

Medieval Towns will become a standard sourcebook. The sources chosen are representative of their type, well edited, and introduced by brief commentary that positions the text and guides the reader. The selections range widely, covering politics, economics, social life, and culture more generally, and treating all regions of western Europe. Many of the sources have not previously been available in English, and never have so many been collected in so accessible and intelligently edited a volume. -- Martha Howell, Miriam Champion Professor of History, Columbia University This imaginatively arranged, geographically balanced, and interdisciplinary book should be on the shelves of all students of pre-modern urbanization. The illustrations and discussion questions make it especially suited to class use, but scholars and non-academic readers can also benefit from it. It includes chronicles and descriptions, which are found in most source readers, but goes far beyond them by incorporating tax records, accounts, statutes, court cases, archaeological data, charters, inventories, market regulations, rentals, tolls, commercial correspondence, wills, and poetry of social comment: documents that encapsulate the very essence of the daily experiences of men and women, elite and commoner alike in medieval cities. -- David Nicholas, Professor Emeritus of History, Clemson University

About the Author
Maryanne Kowaleski is Joseph Fitzpatrick S.J. Distinguished Professor of Social Science and History and Director of the Center for Medieval Studies at Fordham University in New York. She is also the author of Local Markets and Regional Trade in Medieval Exeter (Cambridge University Press, 1995), editor of The Local Customs Accounts of the Port of Exeter, 1266-1322 (Devon & Cornwall Record Society, 1993), and co-editor of Gendering the Master Narrative: Women and Power in the Middle Ages (Cornell University Press, 2003).

Reviews

If you teach a course on medieval towns, you will want to assign it. If you have students interested in projects connected with medieval cities, you will want to recommend it. And if you simply want to learn more about the lives of townspeople in the Middle Ages, you will want to pick it up and browse through it. But be forewarned; once you start reading, you may find that the range and vitality of the material in this volume makes it difficult to put down.

-- The Medieval Review



Book Information
ISBN 9781442600911
Author Maryanne Kowaleski
Format Paperback
Page Count 406
Imprint University of Toronto Press
Publisher University of Toronto Press
Weight(grams) 560g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 25mm