Gateway to the Middle Ages: Italy

by Eleanor Shipley Duckett

Records of 5th and 6th century Europe present a picture of unending siege, battle, famine and murder. During this era the Roman Empire, still surviving in the East, attempted valiantly to defend Italian lands. But in the end both Roman and Goth were forced to yield to yet another wave from the north. And with Gregory the Great the Papacy of the Middle Ages arose. As his days drew to a close Europe had already passed through the gateway to the medieval spirit and mind. Nearly all that is common to the Middle Ages and even beyond the Renaissance are found to emerge in the 6th century. Eleanor Duckett sheds new light on an important and much neglected era in European history.

Genres: History

238 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1938

About the author

Eleanor Shipley Duckett was an English-born philologist and medieval historian who taught at Smith College.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short volume really brought to life Italy in the 6th century, with all of its colorful characters and momentous upheavals - the times of the Goths and the Romans, the Byzantines and the Vandals, captained by Theodoric the Great and Belisarius, rhapsodized by Cassiodorus and Boethius. That century stood between the twilight of the Romans and the dawn of the Lombards in the West, and at the height of Byzantine political influence under Justinian in the East. I am certainly looking forward to reading the other two volumes in Duckett's 6th century "Gateway" series - France & Britain and Monasticism.