Customer Reviews

The Waning of the Middle Ages

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In this venerable if somewhat dated work, Huizinga examines the social and cultural life in France and the Low Countries during the late Middle Ages (14th and 15th centuries). Court chronicles, legal documents, religious treatises and orations as well as works of poetry and art are scrutinized for their abiliy to shed light on the codes of behavior that ruled people's lives. Literary sources from the Roman de la Rose to the ballads of François Villon to simple folk tales and proverbs are searched for clues to medieval thought and conduct. Predictably, these sources reveal more about the aristocracy and church hierarchy than about the common man; and in the case of court historians, allowance must be made for hyperbole and embellishment.

Keeping all this in mind, Huizinga discerns a gradual rigidification of all manifestations of life: faith degenerates into superstition, love of beauty into ostentatious display, models of conduct deteriorate into empty formalism. Once-vital expressions of love, piety, courage and honor become so stylized that they lose all meaning. Profanation of the sacred, blasphemy and idolatry abound. Itinerant preachers whip up mass hysteria; witch hunts and prosecution of heretics are the predictable result. In the arts, excessive and repetitive use of imagery and allegory stifles creative impulses. Huizinga sees the best of the late-medieval spirit preserved in the visual arts, especially Flemish painting, rather than in the literary forms, which he pronounces "tiring and boring". The reader is inclined to agree.
While the "gods of antiquity" were never completely lost in the Middle Ages - only forced underground - a "new tone of life" had to emerge before the Renaissance could take hold.

For budding medievalists and Renaissance scholars, this book is still an indispensable study guide, mainly because of its abundant source material; but it requires patience and perseverance on the part of the reader. The translation is sometimes a little murky and contains some inaccuracies, especially in the copious Latin and French quotations. This detracts only slightly from the Herculean effort of rendering an older canonical work into fluent English.

Though this book is absolutely excellent (though the style takes a little getting used to), it shouldn't be the first book you read on the Middle Ages.

I say that not so much because the book is difficult, as because it's elliptical. The book has a lot of discussion about themes prevalent in the art and literature of the later Middle Ages, but it's not a "history": it doesn't tell you what happened.

For example, to make a point about fastidious medieval protocol, Huizinga relates an anecdote about the battle of Crecy. But he never explains what the battle was, who fought in it, or why it was important. He assumes you already know that stuff, so don't come to this book looking for a more straightforward history. This is more a discussion of the major themes and movements of the age, divided by chapter.

Another thing you should know: the lion's share of the discussion in the book has to do with the low countries.

I first read this book 25 years ago in college. At the time, it was one of those book I just wanted to get through for a grade, but there were details of it I remembered, such as the common practice of sllicing apples into thirds to represent the Trinity.

Well, picking up this book to re-read while living in Europe turned out to be a far greater pleasure than I imagined. Huizinga offers an elegant portrait of an entire era, the Late Middle Ages, in both visual and intellectual detail. You learn about codes of honor, the different ways in which life was perceived, and the practices of love. It is beautifully written and vivid.

There are limitation to the approach, of course. It is not about economics or living standards. It does not function as a survey, and hence the reader must have solid knowledge of medieval history before starting the book. You will have to get these elsewhere. But if you come to this book with the right expectations, it is fascinating and wonderful from cover to cover.

Warmly recommended.

First, I must admit that I am not a Middle Ages scholar, and this book is the first one I have read about Middle Ages culture. Having said that, I thouroughly enjoyed Huizinga's book about life in France and Holland during the 15th Century. I am glad that I put the effort into reading this book. I say effort, because Huizinga's analysis is not light reading. No, it is a detailed analysis of Late Middle Ages culture - art, literature, religion, and lifestyles are all covered at great length. Much of it is fascinating when viewed in contrast with the way we live today.

This translation of the book seems solid. It includes a lot of text from original documents, many in French, or Latin, but includes English translations in the footnotes section. A few parts of the book were more difficult to work through than others, but in the end I felt like I had gained a new insight into European history. I particularly think that Huizinga's thoughts about the Christian church in this era leading to the reformation make for fascinating reading.

If you are interested in what life in the late middle ages may have been like then I highly recommend this book. Keep in mind that it is a historical exposition about this era, not a textbook treatment full of facts. Personally, it has kindled enough interest in this subject for me to warrant further study- hopefully it will do the same for you.

Undoubtably, this translation will convince those of us that were unable to read Huizinga in the original, that he is one of this century's greatest historians. His eye for detail and the ability to unfold latent meanings in art and literature parallels only to that of S. Liberman in his work on Hellenism. A must read.

Huizinga's quintessential work of medieval history was, in effect, reborn with this new translation. Ideas long thought outmoded were given new color, in subtler shades, by this word-for-word translation from the original Dutch. Huizinga's true thesis is now made available to the English speaking public, which had heretofore only had access to the truncated, and much simplified, prior English edition. But the rich anecdotal details remain, the poetry, art, and prayer still ring true. And the dirty ripeness of the later middle ages is laid before your eyes with each chapter.

I thoroughly enjoyed one of the older, standard translations of this classic... but this translation is a work of art. Rodney Payton and Ulrich Mammitzsch have transformed Huizinga's lucid work into something highly literate. I'd put this effort among the fine translations of Richard Lattimore and Arthur Goldhammer. This book has become the darling of my bookshelf. Bravo to all concerned!

This book is an exercise in the intellectual and social history of a bygone era. Huizinga proposes that one can extract information about the 14th and 15th Centuries in the Low Countries and France from sources other than the wars, the politics of the elite, and elite Church sources that illuminate significant truths about the era. This is not to say that all of these do not appear in the pages of this magisterial effort. They do, but primarily the author looks to other sources for information in an attempt to recreate the context of life during this period. One reader refers to this as the "most hellish book I have ever read," I will assume he is talking about content and not quality. This is a hard book. Most of us are unused to reading intellectual and social histories of bygone eras. It is difficult for us to understand because it demands a mental transition on the part of the reader into a world that does not conform to our experiences and values. This type of history also require a great deal from the historian. However, to denigrate this work as speculative is to miss the point. All historical writing is speculative. The farther the subject is removed from us in time and cultural affinity the more speculative the work may seem. The question ought to be, does this book help enlighten us as to the past and add to our understanding of the era in question? Arcane, old fashioned and rigorous as it may be, Huizinga's book accomplishes its mission with distinction. It remains the greatest source of information on the topic extant in English. Maybe Barbara Tuchman was right, she never said that "A Distant Mirror" was history.

A true improvement on previous translations. Payton and Mammitzsch are quite clearly excellent scholars of Huizinga.

In his histroiograhical tour of middle ages scholarship, Norman F. Cantor puts Huiznga in his "outriders" section at the back of the book. While he candidly acknowledges the populairty of the "waning of the middle ages" among undergraduates, he takes issue with Huizinga's scholarship.

I think Cantor does Huzinga a disservice, for I found "Autumn" to be eye opening both for its adept analysis and its innovative method. Huzingia is a fore runner of later developments in social history, both in France and the United States. He anticipates the field of "Cultural Studies" in his blend of source materials and thematic chapter arrangement.

It's hard not to think of Foucault as one meanders through three hundred pages of tossed off analysis if how people thought about allegories five hundred years ago in northern france. As Cantor says, Huzingia wrote this book with sources available in any "second tier library". Pretty much any criticism one might have of Foucault's scholarship one might apply here.

It is the speculative nature of Huzingia's scholarship that is both the greatest strength and weakness of "Autumn".

This book is heavy treading. The quotations are printed in their original language, with a footnote at the bottom. The translators have added end notes to explain the more obscure cultural references, but they are END notes, so of little use during the reading. This is not really a "read on the go" type of book. I found I had to focus on reading 20-30 pages a night for a couple of weeks.