Customer Reviews

Stories of the Rose: The Making of the Rosary in the Middle Ages

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I got more than I bargained for in this book. As the public was being isolated more and more by clerical power the rosary offered the common folk a way to participate in the liturgy. The author addresses, especially, the plight of women & how the rosary enabled them to participate in the male dominant religious & government structure of the time. Primarily this is done through the rosary confraternities. Quite a grassroots effort for its day. This particular empowerment is nicely laid out throughout the book, without falling over the Feminist cliff. The book is heavily footnoted but since it is finely targeted to Germany most of the references are in German.

I highly recommend this book for those wanting to get a historical perspective of this powerful prayer & the controversies that always swirled around it.

This is a book about the history of the Rosary, and how its practice changed from the earliest cycles of prayers, to the Rosary we know today. If you are looking for inspirational reading, or a book to help you in your Rosary devotions, I suggest you try Caryll Houselander's "The Essential Rosary" instead.

"Stories of the Rose" discusses various possible ancestors of the modern Rosary, as well as having amptly documented references to early writings about the Rosary. Included in this book is a wide ranging discussion of the reasons why the Rosary gained in poularity at specific times in history.

A well documented book, especially on the politics and religious upheavals that surrounded the development of the Rosary, it is none the less a bit on the dry side, and would have benefitted from a better narrative format. It can be difficult to follow unless you are passingly familiar with Catholic Church history.

Recommended especially for those with an interest in history, or for those re-enactors who might really want to know what form of prayer beads were in use in the 15th century.

The single best source on rosary history in English. The author is a professor of German at Southern Illinois University, and it shows: her research is meticulous, she cites all her sources so you can check them out for yourself, and her presentation is lively and readable.

Other books on rosary history deal mostly with the prayers, and are written to inspire people to pray. This book is actually a history of the practice of praying the rosary, including where and when it originated, how it spread, and how it fitted into the everyday lives of medieval people.

This book goes into impressive depth on devotional history, rosary and rosary-related literature, and the origin and growth of rosary guilds. My only disappointment is a mild one: it doesn't say much of anything about the actual beads -- what they are made of, where they came from, how people made or acquired their rosaries or paternosters. But that wasn't the author's purpose, nor is it her area of expertise, so it's quite forgivable. Maybe someone else will write THAT book someday.

As you will see if you go to the Paternoster-Row website and Paternosters blog, this book is my first recommendation to anyone interested in the history of rosary and paternoster beads -- there is an immense amount of valuable information here.

This book is a wonderful, well written literary documentation on the history and development of the Rosary. This beautiful devotion of the Catholic Church has had a long, colorful and somewhat complicated cultural evolution. It didn't always exist as it does today. The author, Anne Winston-Allen, has done an excellent scholarly investigation into the history and development of the Rosary. The book is easy to read and understand and I recommend it very highly to anyone who is interested in learning about this lovely, holy devotion.