The Medieval Reader [Paperback]

Norman F. Cantor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 1995

The Middle Ages comes to life in this fascinating history of the period told through the letters, essays, poems, and ballads of those who lived it.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Norman F. Cantor is Emeritus Professor of History, Sociology, and Comparative Literature at New York University. His academic honors include appointments as a Rhodes Scholar, Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellow at Princeton University, and Fulbright Professor at Tel Aviv University. His previous books include Inventing the Middle Ages, nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and The Civilization of the Middle Ages, the most widely read narrative of the Middle Ages in the English language. He lives in southern Florida.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Collins Reference (June 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062720554
• ISBN-13: 978-0062720559
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #544,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating reader..., May 22, 2004

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Medieval Reader (Paperback)

Norman Cantor's book is a fascinating collection of a very diverse and pivotal period in history. The Middle Ages, for Cantor, extend from the year 312 (the advent of the first Christian Roman Emperor, signaling in many respects the end of the Classical Age) to the year 1517, the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation, another key paradigm shift in the world. This is reader largely of pieces contemporary for the Middle Ages - there is some commentary provided, but the bulk of the task of presenting the Middle Ages rests upon the texts themselves, most translated anew into English by Cantor and other scholars.

This is also a Western civilisation reader - the Middle Ages is of a time as a well as of a place. The geography is Western Europe, from Ireland to Germany, from Scotland and Scandanavia to Italy and Spain. This was the land of Latin Catholicism, pollinated occasionally by Islamic culture from the south and Byzantine Christianity from the east, but largely undisturbed in its development. This culture represents a system of ideas political, religious and otherwise that formed much of the basis for modern Western culture, whose dominance in the world today is, for better or worse, unmistakable.

Cantor's anthology of 100 key texts is meant to simply the task of determining what is worthwhile reading from this period. Primary texts from the Middle Ages, so defined as comprising more than a thousand years, would include literally thousands of volumes - the output of writers such as Augustine alone could take a lifetime to read. Cantor arranges key texts topically, according to certain classifications - Nobility (including the primary families of the period, a sort of Social Register of royal and landed persons who controlled most of what would be considered state power), Church (the hierarchy and the overall institution), and the Middle Class (yes, there was a Middle Class, both urban and rural, that included knights, gentry, artisans and the like). Taking these classifications, Cantor arranges first texts that show them in as isolated a form as possible, then looks at the ways they interact with each other. The final portions of the text include works that look at problems and crises, and ends with documents of resolution, pacification and incorporation.

This is no mere chronology of texts - the emphasis here is on developing the patterns of society over time in the different strata. Literary works utilised include Beowulf, the Song of Roland, El Cid, the works of Dante, Chaucer, and Malory. Church writers from Augustine, Anselm, Bernard and Aquinas are combined with political writings from those such as Petrarch, Erasmus, and various anonymous documents and letters.

There are some real stunning pieces here - Bernard Gui's Inquisitor's Manual, Maimonides' reflections on Christianity (and one of his radical followers trying to explain why Jewish sex is preferable to Christian sex - something that must be read to be believed!), an account of the murder of Thomas Becket, and more.

Take and read!

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reading in the Middle Ages, February 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Medieval Reader (Paperback)

When I first purchased this book through a mail order book club I was very dubious about ever reading it. It looked very uninteresting. But like the saying goes you can't judge a book by it's cover! And it's true this book has introduced me to so many other medieval authors that it's impossible to count them all. If it had not been for Norman Cantor I would have lost out on a lot of good Medeival reading! Thanks Mr. Cantor.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, concise, and organized overview of Medieval History., March 14, 2008

By 

Barbara (Colorado) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Medieval Reader (Paperback)

Wonderfully and entertainingly written history of ideas based on personalities and events of the Middle Ages. Amazing parallels with the world condition today, may be drawn. Read it.