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Medieval Children Paperback – January 11, 2003

by Nicholas Orme (Author)

11 customer reviews

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'Nicholas Orme knows more about medieval childhood than anyone living, and this substantial, hugely enjoyable book is the capstone on thirty years of scholarship.' The Independent 'charming and erudite' The Times 'a triumph of judicious scholarship and common sense ... Orme's is one of the most beautifully and intelligently illustrated academic works I've encountered ... a model of accessible scholarly history.' Atlantic Monthly 'This is one of those pleasingly, absorbingly digressive books ... a book whose subject is of inexhaustible interest.' Financial Times 'Orme's fascinating study reveals medieval society through a keen look at its youngest inhabitants. Meticulous detail and luscious illustrations ... make this an elegant and definitive study.' Publishers Weekly 'informative and entertaining ... this book is a treasure trove, full of gems, even for the non-medievalist.' Literary Review 'What the book identifies again and again in medieval England is an attentiveness to children ... Orme is a clear and persuasive guide to the period.' The Guardian 'a treasure-house of everything to do with medieval children' The Economist Nicholas Orme was professor of history at Exeter University and the author of numerous works on medieval history.

Medieval Children

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Product Details

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press (January 11, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0300097549
ISBN-13: 978-0300097542
Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 0.8 x 9.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #559,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #360 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Children's Studies
- #1097 in Books > History > Europe > Great Britain > England
- #18825 in Books > History > World

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Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars

5 star		55%
4 star		27%
3 star		18%
2 star		0%
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful

The nice side of the middle ages.

By pnotley@hotmail.com on January 2, 2003

Format: Hardcover

A couple of years ago Steven Osment published a book called "Ancestors," which sought to criticize the views of Philippe Aries that people in the past had treated their children incredibly callously. Unforuntately, Osment's book was brief and somewhat superficial, even though he was basically right. This book is one that Osment should have written, except that Osment is a historian of Reformation Germany and Orme is a historian of medieval England. Contra Aries, Orme and his fellow scholars "have gathered copious evidence to show that adults regarded childhood as a distinct phase or phases of life, that parents treated children like children as well as like adults, that they did so with care and sympathy, and that children had cultural activities and possessions of their own." They book is lavishly illustrated and based on all sorts of information, from archival studies, to records of the royal family (the family most studied), to an abundance of visual evidence (Pieter Brugel's "Children's Games" is used to special effect). Orme has also found archealogical evidence of toys and school books that children have scribled on.
Orme starts off with conception: "Medieval Christians came to believe that God put the soul into the foetus when it took human shape, at about forty-six days for a male, and ninety for a female; until that point, the embryo was not human and had neither human life nor human soul." This view was held by Innocent III and Thomas Aquinas. We discuss the ceremonies of baptism, the responsibilities of godparents, and the naming of children. We discuss the relative rarity (though not absence) of birthdays. We learn about cradles and swadling, about weaning and day and night time activities.Read more ›

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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful

Exhaustive and well-written.

By The Strife of Love in a Dream VINE VOICE on August 16, 2002

Format: Hardcover

I've never seen such a thorough treatment of the subject. It is, to say the least, exhaustive, as well as thoroughly footnoted.
Chapters cover all aspects of childhood, from pregnancy and birth to upbringing, the child's place in religion, how children entertained themselves, and how they were educated. There was quite a bit here that I had never seen before, dispelling many commonly-held misconceptions of how children were treated and viewed in the period.
The book is large, with good pictures and photos. The writing is extremely good, very readable, and free of overly high-blown language. I especially appreciated the information on education and recreation -- I had never seen medieval spellers or hornbooks, and never knew what kinds of games children actually played. Another chapter covered how children were treated by the Church -- how they were entered into its service, and even quite a bit about the Feast of Innocents, where children took the place of the bishop and priests and had a service!
Overall, I found the book to be absolutely a good addition to my history library, and suggest that others interested in the subject may find it so as well. It's $$$, but such a good value doesn't come along often.

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9 of 13 people found the following review helpful

A Wealth of Information

By J. Bryant on June 19, 2002

Format: Hardcover

This book has so much information, you will wonder why you did not get this book sooner. This book will answer so many of your questions that you may ask concerning life in the middle ages from birth to adult. If you are interested in life in the meddle ages, then I recomend this book to you. The table of Contents:1. Arriving2. Family Life3. Danger and Death4. Words, Rhymes, and Songs5. Play6. Church7. Learning to Read8. Reading for Pleasure9. Growing Up.To give you an idea of just how much information you can find in this bok. I will discuss the first chapter "Arriving" with you. You will see how much one chapter can answer all your question, and this book has 9 chapters.The chapter, Arriving starts our discussing birth, the understanging of churches ideas of birth, time a women was pregnant in te middle agesm 8-10 months. The use of a relic to help in a good birthing. Widwife is discussed, How in royal and noble births, the queen or countess was allowed to choose the chamber where she would give birth. The other subtopic of arriving was Baptism:The Institution, :The Ceremony, Names, Birthdays and Records. The Family Life gets it the family size and shapes in the middle ages, the care given to babies in the middle ages. It discusses that medieval children were weaned as long as 2-3 years and why. Discusses how more aspects of life was done in the daylight, than at night. It goes onto discussing parents and children, giving examples of a confrontation with a irritated father. It discusses the Poor: Talking about how prenant women in need, or neey women with small children, were chiefly thrown on the mercy of teir family, if they had one, or onprivate charaty. It goes into how Parliamentary made laws to deal with the poor. There is just so much information, you can't pass up this book.

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11 of 16 people found the following review helpful

Lavishly presented and formatted, but is lacking...

By Elizabeth Singh on May 27, 2003

Format: Hardcover

One can tell that Nicholas Orme has done extensive research on this book, digging up any and all facts about medieval children, and I applaud him for making the effort for what promised to be interesting subject matter. However, the fact remains that children were NOT extensively documented then, like they are today, and Orme digresses (distractingly often) into the realm of personal conjecture and an almost constant apology for the lack of sources. What I found most irritating was that about half of his sources date from Tudor England, which is better categorized as Renaissance rather than Medieval, and NONE of his sources predate ~AD 1,000. But the illustrations are heavenly, the hardback editon is a joy to handle, and I did learn quite a lot, but overall, the project was rather more ambitious than the material he had to work with.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Four Stars

Some fascinating material.

Published 9 months ago by Edward Gallagher

This book will open your eyes to the life of medieval children.

This should be considered a text.
The information is very detailed.
Pictures are great too.
I purchased this as a text, so, I love it.

Published 10 months ago by Alice Pinder

This book is fascinating and it answers all those questions ...

This book is fascinating and it answers all those questions about Medieval life you had as a child. The illustrations are reason enough to buy this book. Read more

Published 14 months ago by cataract

Interesting pictures, weakly written

I really expected more about medieval childhood, class differences in play, but the author has a bent to use only historical snippets to extemporize on. Read more

Published 21 months ago by Mark Richard Beaulieu

Medieval Children

Medieval Children

Excellent; highly recommend. Nicholas Orme describes in detail different aspects of childhood during the Middle Ages, and much of the information is... Read more

Published on December 12, 2011 by May Gamgee

A Must for Anyone Interested in Medieval History

An in depth look at how children in the middle ages were brought up, schooled and treated, the intricacies of baptisms and godparenting and what it meant to grow up in the "dark... Read more

Published on June 1, 2008 by K. E. Multop

Lots of information.

Everything you ever wanted to know about medieval childhood but didn't know who to ask. And some beautiful illustrations as well. Read more

Published on December 2, 2002

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