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The Bright Ages : A New History Of Medieval Europe
Paperback Edition: 1
A lively and magisterial popular history that refutes common misperceptions of the European Middle Ages, showing the beauty and communion that flourished alongside the dark brutalitya brilliant reflection of humanity itself.
The word medieval conjures images of the Dark Agescenturies of ignorance, superstition, stasis, savagery, and poor hygiene. But the myth of darkness obscures the truth; this was a remarkable period in human history. The Bright Ages recasts the European Middle Ages for what it was, capturing this 1,000-year era in all its complexity and fundamental humanity, bringing to light both its beauty and its horrors.
The Bright Ages takes us through ten centuries and crisscrosses Europe and the Mediterranean, Asia and Africa, revisiting familiar people and events with new light cast upon them. We look with fresh eyes on the Fall of Rome, Charlemagne, the Vikings, the Crusades, and the Black Death, but also to the multi-religious experience of Iberia, the rise of Byzantium, and the genius of Hildegard and the power of queens. We begin under a blanket of golden stars constructed by an empress with Germanic, Roman, Spanish, Byzantine, and Christian bloodlines and end nearly 1,000 years later with the poet Danteinspired by that same twinkling celestial canopywriting an epic saga of heaven and hell that endures as a masterpiece of literature today.
Pages : 336
Publisher : Harper Collins
Publication date : 2023-06-15
Subjects: Non-fiction, Humanities, History, European History, Medieval History