Customer Reviews

The Wandering Scholars of the Middle Ages

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When I bought this book, I had some misgivings, because it was dated 1927, and I am always nervous about reading old books in unfamiliar areas - there might be some important discovery that completely changes the picture, and of which they are unaware. But I felt I needed it, because it covered a grievous gap in my own knowledge of one of my subjects - the state of culture, and its social organization, in the middle ages. And by the time I was turning the first page, I knew I'd struck gold. Gold? Diamonds! This is the sort of book that never grows old, because it is built on a most extraordinary knowledge of the relevant material - again and again, she quotes unpublished manuscripts and material in obscure German and Italian publications - joined with immense sympathy for people. a broad vision that sweeps over several centuries, an eye for the significant detail, and a delicious and humane sense of humour; it is a classic like Gibbon. I wonder whether GK Chesterton ever read it? He would have loved it. It is a wonderfully insightful picture of the intellectual life of the West over seven centuries (400-1200 AD), drawn entirely from contemporary documents. Therefore the view it presents may be modified by further discoveries, but cannot be disproved or contradicted, because it grows from the soil of real people's experience. I can't praise it enough.

Wandering Scholars of the Middle Ages is the acclaimed study of a noted scholar which records the makers and singers of medieval Latin poetry and their traditions. Waddell's classic appears in a fine affordable edition which will appeal to holders of collections strong in Medieval studies.

What had been intended as an account of the traveling scholar-clerics of medieval times outgrew its original purpose to become a history of the preservation of the poetic impulse, from the decay of antiquity up to the eve of the Renaissance. "The Wandering Scholars" is not only a significant contribution to scholarly knowledge, but is itself a work of pure poetry, made all the more poignant in our own day by knowledge of the tragic fate that awaited the author. The buyer should be warned, however: although the book created a publishing sensation when it appeared in 1927, finding enthusiastic admirers ranging from the ranks of the University to the inmates of His Majesty's prisons, the steady decline of educational standards may render the book difficult for the general reader of today, and even the best-prepared could spend a lifetime exploring the many levels of meaning and allusion in Miss Waddell's pioneering work of genius.

first read this book almost 50 years ago and was amazed by the author's erudition. read it again, recently, after having encountered and perused most of the texts discussed. the result: am amazed by the author's erudition. To this one should add style and insight. the book remains as valuable as ever.