Frances Gies > Quotes

“Theoretically, the curriculum consists of the “seven liberal arts.”2 But schools rarely teach all seven of the arts, and the emphasis is very unequal. These “arts” are “liberal” because their purpose is not moneymaking and because they are worthy of a free man. There are seven mainly because people are fond of the number seven, one of the keys to a numerologically ordered universe.”
― Frances Gies, Life in a Medieval City

“He may leave a prescription of herbs and drugs, and recommend diet—perhaps chicken broth, the milk of pulverized almonds, or barley water mixed with figs, honey, and licorice.”
― Frances Gies, Life in a Medieval City

“Scutage was an aspect of two fundamental historic trends in twelfth-century Europe that profoundly affected the knights. The first was the increasing concentration of power in the hands of a few kings and great princes that gradually professionalized warfare. The second was the economic upturn from the depressed state of the ninth and tenth centuries to the Commercial Revolution of the eleventh and twelfth centuries that raised living standards and inflated prices.”
― Frances Gies, The Knight in History

“I am a good lawyer,” said Renard. “Often I’ve made right out of wrong and wrong out of right, as it suited me.” —ROMAN DE RENARD”
― Frances Gies, Life in a Medieval City

“If you have a good voice, sing boldly. In the company of people who ask you, and by yourself for your own pleasure, sing; but do not abuse their patience, so that people will say, as they sometimes do, “Good singers are often a bore.”
― Frances Gies, Life in a Medieval City

“The most impressive documentation of Europe’s rising creative powers may be found in the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519). During their successive rediscoveries in modern times, these astonishing collections were mistakenly perceived as sketches of original inventions, products of an individual “Renaissance” genius. The misconception was due in part to the aesthetic quality of the drawings, and in part to a prevailing notion of the character of invention, an exaggeration of the contribution of the individual “inventor” and an underappreciation of the social nature of technical innovation.”
― Frances Gies, Cathedral, Forge & Waterwheel: Technology & Invention in the Middle Ages

“If you unfortunately visit a patient and find him dead, and they ask you why you came, say you knew he would die that night, but want to know at what hour he died.”
― Frances Gies, Life in a Medieval City

“With the growth of proletarian discontent many towns are taking care to restrict the privilege of arms to the wealthy. In Troyes only those citizens possessing vingt livres vaillant (“twenty pounds’ worth of property”) are authorized to own a crossbow and fifty bolts.”
― Frances Gies, Life in a Medieval City

“Popular spite attributes a proverb to the medical profession: “Take while the patient is in pain.”
― Frances Gies, Life in a Medieval City

“Wrath makes the heart pound, impels us against our nearest relations, drives the tongue to curses, creates havoc with the mind, generates hatred of our dearest, and dissolves the covenant of friendship.”
― Frances Gies, Women in the Middle Ages: The Lives of Real Women in a Vibrant Age of Transition

“The numerals (actually Indian in origin) are spreading through the Italian business community. The key to the Hindu-Arabic system is the zero, which permits the position of the digit to indicate its value as unit, ten, hundred, or thousand. Rapid and accurate computation can be done, something difficult with clumsy Roman numbers. The”
― Frances Gies, Life in a Medieval City