Customer Reviews

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

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4 star:		(1)
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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

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.

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

Matilda of Canossa was one of medieval Europe's most iconoclastic characters. Her life and events are not widely known in America, but she was as much responsible as anyone for the political environment that engendered the Italian Renaisance. Matilda not only was involved in most of the great conflicts of her day, and was allied with or against men like Pope Gregory VII, Duke Robert of Normandy, and Henry IV of Germany; she also, by reason of these conflicts and alliances, came to influence the institutions these men represented. Certainly unusual for a woman, this was unheard of for a woman without a strong power base, a legitimate inheritance, or even significant military influence.

Michele Spike's treatment of Matilda is scholarly, but not pedantic. An attorney on sabbatical, Ms. Spike brings a quite skillful sense of drama as well as verissimilitude in relating events from the various sources purporting to recount Matilda's struggles, and manages to retain the readers' interest without making amateurish attempts at historical reconstruction. Spike is especially skilled at conveying the events of Matilda's life within the larger tapestry of Northern Italian politics.

Phenomenally well researched, extraordinary story of an extraordinary woman who held her ground against the might of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and unwittingly laid the seeds which would flourish into the Renaissance centuries later. GREAT READ!

excellent book about a tuscan countess. Kept my interest - very well written and informative

Combination of history and travel makes good reading and covers more than you ever thought of knowing about this fascinating Matilda. A lot of detail about conflicts between papal factions and the (un)holy Roman emperors and how this smart woman was involved.

Thank you for having the book I was looking for and for getting it to me so quickly. The condition was great, I'd use this vendor again. Thanks