The Middle Ages: The Illustrated History of the Medieval World

by Anita Baker

The popular portrayal of the medieval era as one of endless famine, war, and ignorance is itself ignorant—overlooking brilliant advances in science, art, and literature. This beautifully illustrated collection illuminates the dark ages, telling the story of the period and such key figures as Joan of Arc, Marco Polo, and Saladin. Some 15 facsimile documents include the authorization of the use of torture issued by Pope Innocent IV in 1250, pages from the Gutenberg Bible, medieval maps, and illuminated manuscripts.

 

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Reference, Art, Medieval

96 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2012

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations are gorgeous and the removable facsimiles are fun and interesting. The book suffers a little from not being detailed enough for a real history and not being cursory enough for a simple picture book. Good for YA readers looking for a quick primer on the middle ages.

[Chuck Neumann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book "The Middle Ages: The Illustrated History of the Medieval World". As the title suggests, illustrations were a key element of the book. Also, facsimile documents of historical importance were found throughout the book. While both were nice, I really enjoyed the text more. While it couldn't go into a lot of detail as it was covering a thousand year period of the "known" world, I learned a lot about the period. It gives a good overview of the formation of the nation states, the daily life of people, the church and the major role religion played in the daily lives of the people, how feudalism worked, women's roles, food, science and technology (many inventions during this period refute the idea of a dark age), medicine (don't get sick) and the plagues, weather changes (yes, they had major climate changes during this time - including the little ice age), music, literature (of course it was hard to have a best seller then when every book had to be copied by hand -the printing press was invented towards the end of the period), the many wars (a lot) and crusades (not all against the Muslims). While the book covers the non European world to some degree, the main focus is on Europe. That is smart, trying to cover too much would be a mistake. Again, nothing is covered in great depth, but it gives a good overview. The memorabilia items (copies of documents, drawings, pages from books) were interesting but really didn't impress me that much. One thing bothered me, the text kept referring to the "High Middle Ages" but no where could I find a definition of what that was. Oh well, a minor point. I enjoyed the book a lot. A good overview of the time.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

SIMPLE OVERVIEW. NICE PICTURES. FEATURE IS COPIES OF SOME FAMOUS DOCUMENTS. GOOD SOURCE OF IDEAS FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION. EASY TO READ AND WELL ORGANIZED.

3.5 / 5.0