Tuscan Countess: The Life and Extraordinary Times of Matilda of Canossa (Mark Magowan Books) [Hardcover]

Michele K. Spike (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mark Magowan Books | Publication Date: September 28, 2004

This is a fast-paced and colorful exploration of the life of Matilda of Canossa (c. 1046-1115), the woman who loved a pope and was loved by him, successfully defied the Holy Roman Emperor, and changed the map of Europe. A new kind of history, this biography also carries the flavor of present-day Italy.

Matilda of Canossa, the "Great Countess," was a remarkable woman. Her personal power was so extraordinary that even centuries after her death she became the first woman to be interred in St. Peter's Basilica. She is best remembered for her role in the conflict between the papacy and the Holy Roman emperor, the climax of which took place at her castle of Canossa.

This unique biography is also a journal of the author's travels through contemporary Tuscany as she explores the palaces where Matilda held court, the blood-stained plains on which her soldiers battled, the churches and cathedrals she endowed, and the fortified aeries where she sought refuge. Readers will be swept along on this engrossing journey retracing the steps of a courageous and brilliant woman. AUTHOR BIO: Michèle K. Spike is a lawyer and historian who has lived in Florence since 1989. She has collaborated with her husband, John Spike, on numerous books on Italian painters, including Mattia Preti and Caravaggio.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The dramatic life of Matilda of Canossa (1046-1115) could easily be the plot of a Pirandello play: there are papal intrigues, warring medieval factions and even an ill-fated marriage to a hunchback that ends in murder. Spike's marvelous biography of the countess takes on all of these events, and also explains how Matilda became an ardent defender of the lands in the Po Valley, which she considered her birthright. Spike deftly conjures the world of pre-Renaissance Italy, where a woman "passed through her life from father to brother, to husband, to son, as each in his turn acted for her welfare." Many of the men in Matilda's life, however, failed to act in her best interests, and under such conditions, the remarkable young woman flouted the traditions of her male-dominated world and managed to defend her small portion of Italy from Henry IV. Using a staggering amount of new research, Spike peels back layer upon layer of previous myth to render a startling new portrait of the countess. (The author also displays a novelist's talent for detail, exploring the unusual alliance between Matilda and Pope Gregory VII, her ally and lover.) Spike's first-person account of her exhaustive research is one of the book's unexpected pleasures; the modern-day characters she encountered during her hunt provide this engrossing historical chronicle with a richly personal subtext. While the occasionally academic tone may put off some readers, Spike's absorbing work should appeal to highbrow Italo-philes and those interested in papal history. 40 b/w illus.
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From Booklist

There is no doubt that the Tuscan countess Matilda of Canossa (1046-1115) played a role in some of the key events of her age, including the Investiture Controversy that pitted the great reforming pope Gregory VII against the German king Henry IV. But what if you are an author trying to reconstruct a life on the basis of sparse and unreliable records? You write about yourself, looking for traces of Matilda in present-day Italy. You go into detail about convoluted medieval and papal politics. And you engage in speculation. Spike's thesis is that Gregory and Matilda carried on a love affair that shaped the modern church, and to support this view she sometimes veers close to the stuff of romantic novels. Gregory is referred to time and again as the man Matilda loved; his piercing eyes looked "into the deep blue sea of her loneliness"; his vision of an imperial papacy is a dream they shared. Perhaps. Whatever the truth, this is a serious study, the personal travelogue and the occasional romantic embellishment notwithstanding. Mary Ellen Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Vendome Press; 1st edition (September 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865652422
• ISBN-13: 978-0865652422
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Matillda, Who???, November 10, 2004

By 

James H. Kauffman (Florence, Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tuscan Countess: The Life and Extraordinary Times of Matilda of Canossa (Mark Magowan Books) (Hardcover)

After reading this book, I had to ask myself, 'how is it that a woman who had such an impact on the church and western culture, has been unknown to me for all these years...and I consider myself a fairly bright and knowledgeable person. Where I've been?...Or more, WHERE HAS MATILDA BEEN???

A great read... I'd recommend to anyone (who wants to be "in the know")!

Jim Kauffman

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wimpy Title, Powerful Book, November 5, 2004

By 

Pierre Whalon (Paris, France) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tuscan Countess: The Life and Extraordinary Times of Matilda of Canossa (Mark Magowan Books) (Hardcover)

Victorious warrior, careful scholar, profound believer, linguist, devoted lover, ruthless ruler and gentle nurse of battlefield wounded, the Matilda Michele Spike presents to us is a complex person, whose internal contradictions are as it were writ large across the history of Italy. She and her man Hildebrand, the adulteress and the unchaste pope, enforced clerical celibacy. The reforms by a Jew's descendant brought about the persecution of that people. They who so ardently desired to enshrine the power and glory of Rome caused its devastation. Together Gregory VII and the Tuscan countess were a formidable team, yet undone. But in the end, one woman's love triumphed, and the world has never been the same since. No wonder that another, much later pope ordered her body stolen and enshrined in St. Peter's, Rome, in a gorgeous sarcophagus by Bernini surmounted by his vision of Matilda, Athena-like in her power and grace.

The bishops of Rome certainly owe Matilda. It took her very formidable biographer to uncover just how much.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, March 27, 2005

By 

Gil Cohen "reader-in-italy" (Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tuscan Countess: The Life and Extraordinary Times of Matilda of Canossa (Mark Magowan Books) (Hardcover)

I've just finished reading this compelling book about a woman who has shaped history. A history I had known very little about, and now understand what it means to us in today's world. I read the book as though I were reading an adventure story. Matlida's world stayed with me in my daily life as I walk and live in places she has been. I highly reccomend this book