A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance; Portrait of an Age, by William Manchester. Back Bay Books, 1993

This history book is a fast and easy read, but I noticed some problems with it. One, the author states that he did no primary research- he didn’t do any digging into old manuscripts from monasteries, or find letters from 500 years ago. He *did*, however, bring a lot of it together into an engaging and accessible book. But there are more problems.

He shows only the bad side of the Middle Ages; in fact, he disparages it in some odd ways. One of his statements is “In the Medieval mind, there was no conception of time”- really? The monasteries certainly kept good calendars, the peasants knew when to plant for their crops to ripen in time, they knew how long it took for babies to be born, and when the saint’s special days were. No, they did not have clocks other than sundials or water clocks, but they certainly knew about the passage of time. He just about calls the people who lived in the medieval era a bunch of idiots that didn’t learn a thing for a thousand years. It’s true; the world was grim and brutal in those days, but it was not without learning.

He gets more enthusiastic when the Renaissance bursts on the scene and people start making long exploratory voyages- the entire back third of the book is about Magellan. He is also enthusiastic about the blossoming of protests against the Catholic Church- he delights in telling tales about Pope Alexander VI’s sexual antics and the selling of offices (he doesn’t have one good thing to say about the Catholic Church).

While I enjoyed the book, the fact that I found untruths in it made me wonder how many other untruths he was writing that I’m not enough of a history buff to catch. I means I cannot really trust anything he writes in this book. To explain the whole Medieval period and the beginnings of the Renaissance is a huge chore; even if he did the research he should have done, it would have been really difficult to explain it all in three hundred pages. I give it two stars, because it kept me entertained.

A Medieval Book of Seasons, by Marie Collins & Virginia Davis. HarperCollins, 1992

This is a lovely book – over size but fairly thin. The authors take us through the seasons as described from writings and shown in art from the medieval period. It starts, appropriately enough, with spring, and works its way through the year. Every page has illustrations, all from the era (no modern drawings of what someone *thought* folks did back then).

Life was very different back then; except for the upper class, pretty much everyone engaged in manual labor, all year round. People worked when sunlight was available, and then probably dropped into sleep as soon as they hit the … well, what passed for beds. Spring was pretty much a celebration of having survived winter (a celebration with lots of hard work, but, still, it was a happy time).

The illustrations are beautiful; most come from Books of Hours and illuminated manuscripts. This is not a scholarly book, but one aimed to interest people in the period. The authors touch on a multitude of areas: food, agriculture, health ideas and treatments, leisure, and more. The illustrations also show what type of clothing was worn by the various classes.

Autumn Princess, Dragon Child: The Tale of Shikanoko, Book 2, by Lian Hearn. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2016

 

This is the second book in a four volume fantasy epic, and I think I made a big mistake by not reading the first one. I found this on the ‘new books’ shelf and went “Hmmm.. fantasy set in feudal Japan.. I’ll take that!” But the author jumps right into the story with no bringing us up to speed, which left me utterly baffled, even with the cast of characters in the front of the book. Who were these people and why were they doing these things to each other? Because of this, I never managed to care about the characters and the story bored me- even though there were magical. There is some cool stuff going on- half demon children born of one woman and five fathers, some very intelligent horses, magical swords, a lot of magic, and a child emperor hiding with a troop of performing monkeys (and probably having the best time of his life). I liked the writing and the style; I just couldn’t connect. So, I think this series is probably brilliant, but don’t even try to read this book without reading the first one beforehand! 

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Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen, by Mary Sharrett. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2012

When Hildegard was eight, her mother gave her to a church to be bricked into a chamber in a monastery wall as involuntary handmaiden and student to an ascetic teenaged girl of noble birth, Jutta von Sponheim. Hildegard had visions, and was thus unmarriageable. Giving her daughter over to this purpose not only disposed of her honorably, but bought the favor of Jutta’s rich mother, enabling Hildegard’s sisters to meet wealthy mates. As Jutta slowly killed herself with anorexia and self punishment, Hildegard and the two other girls that joined them in their dark hell longed for sunlight and freedom for over thirty years before Jutta finally died and Hildegard demanded their freedom. Her time in that dark prison wasn’t wasted, though; a kindly monk brought her books from the monastery library and plants for her to grow in the tiny courtyard. By the time Jutta died, Hildegard was very educated, an able healer and a brilliant composer. She went on to found her own abbey and criticize the corruption of the church. She was an incredibly accomplished woman in a time when women were thought of as little more than breeding machines or servants.

‘Illuminations’ is the prefect title for this novel; illumination fills the story. The great illuminated texts that Hildegard learns from, the great visions of light that fill her, her illumination of the corruption in the church; light fills Hildegard’s life even at its darkest points. This is a triumphant story told in lyrical prose that brings the era and monastery life into brilliant, colorful focus. But it’s not a one sided glorification of Hildegard; she’s a living, breathing woman with the faults all humans share. It’s not a religious book at all; it’s a story of people and spirit. Whether you’re Catholic or not, or even Christian or not, Hildegard von Bingen was a fascinating woman. Sharratt’s writing held me suspended in Hildegard’s life throughout the novel, and it left me wishing the book was twice as long.