- 1995 edition. 224 pages.
- Published by BBC Books / BBC Worldwide Publishing, London
- Hardcover with dust jacket. Yellow Boards.
- Very good condition. Minor dust jacket wear. Minor wear to edge of boards.
Accompanies the Major TV Series. Illustrated. Indexed. Maps and Appendices included.
For too long, the European Middle Ages have been treated as 'the middle time' between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance, a time of darkness and barbarism which preceded enlightenment. Yet the Middle Ages were far more than just a benighted hyphen in history: they represented a flowering of spirituality and culture which has never since been equalled.
In this book Christopher Frayling speculates on our enduring fascination with the Middle Ages in a brilliantly wide-ranging introduction, before examining some of the great thinkers and creators of the period and the events in which they took part.
He tells of the migration of the faithful om pilgrimage and of the cult of relics which led to the building of magnificent cathedrals and churches; of Abbot Suer of St Denis who - with his obsession with light and colour - almost single-handedly started the 'new style' later to be known as the Gothic.
The growth of unorthodox sects and the spread of 'heresies' challenged the burgeoning authority of Popes. Frayling contrasts two groups - the Cathars of southern France and the young visionary Francis of Assisi and his disciples - and describes how the Church establishment reacted to them.
One of the great confrontations of the Middle Ages - between the mystic Bernard of Clairvaux and the philospher Peter Abelard - is vividly re-created, as is the tragic love affair between Heloise and Abelard which ended in his castration and their seperation.
Finally we read about Dante's action-packed adventure, The Divine Comedy, and interspersed with it is the story of Dante's own life.
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