January HistoryCAT: The Middle Ages

The Three Wise Men - early 6th century mosaic, Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna

Europe

The Middle Ages are often defined as the years between the fall of Rome in 476 CE and the start of the Renaissance in the late fifteenth century.

476 Fall of Western Roman Empire

711 Moors occupy Spain - an African army, led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad invades the Iberian peninsula
793 Earliest recorded Viking raids

1066 Norman Conquest of England
1095 First Crusade
1291 Fall of Acre - loss of the last Crusader stronghold in Jerusalem
1346 Beubonic Plague
1453 Fall of Constantinople

Africa and the Middle East

c570 Birth of Mohammed; death 632
c527 646 CE The Byzantine Empire controls Egypt.
646 The Arab Muslims conquer Egypt under Caliph Umar.
6th - 13th Centuries The Ghana Empire (West Africa)
969 Cairo (Al-Qahira) founded by the Fatimid dynasty
1240-1645 The Mali Empire (West Africa)

Asia

China
Sui Dynasty (581-618)
Tang Dynasty (618-906)
Song Dynasty (960-1279)
Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368)
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
The Dynasties That Ruled China

Cambodia

1113 to 1150 Angkor Wat is built

India

South America

600–900 CE Peak of Mayan culture. Construction of Tikal, hieroglyphic writing, flowering of Mayan art.
1345 The Aztecs settle in what is now Mexico City

Bayeux Tapestry

Fiction

The Book of Saladin by Tariq Ali
The Conquering Family by Thomas B. Costain
The iron King by Maurice Druon
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
A Tale of False Fortunes by Fumiko Enchi
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
The Siege by Ismael Kadare
Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Katherine by Anya Seton
Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
The Once and Future King by T. H. White

Written during the Middle Ages

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
Beowulf
The Book of Margery Kempe
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Song of Roland by Turoldus
The Tales of the 1001 Nights

Alhambra, Granada. Spain

Non-fiction

The Conquering Family by Thomas B. Costain
African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa by Michael Gomez
A History of Egypt in the Middle Ages by Stanley Lane-Poole
The Crusades through Arab Eyes by Amin Malouf
A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich
The Kingdom of Rus' by Christian Raffensperger
A History of the Crusades by Steven Runciman
A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman

Web Sites

Articles on Medieval History - The Conversation
India - Medieval History
The Dynasties That Ruled China
15 Things You Did Not Know about the Moors of Spain
Medievalists.net
Tikal (Britannica)
General History of Africa (UNESCO)
History of Africa TV series (BBC) It's on YouTube.

I volunteered to host the Middle Ages because I knew nothing, but wanted to. Ever since seeing the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and the mosaics in Ravenna, I've wanted to know about Byzantium. You used to have to choose between Science and Humanities pretty early on in your education in Australian schools, so history stopped with Australia and, perhaps surprisingly, the Communist Revolution and WWII in China.

I remember being taught in primary school that nothing much happened in the Middle Ages, but a little research has shown that this is completely untrue! What to include? Suggestions are very welcome.

Africa
Not finding a lot about Africa. Was there was a flourishing scientific culture during the middle ages, as there was in Moorish Spain? UNESCO is sponsoring The General History of Africa, written from African perspectives. The BBC produced a TV series based on it, Mother Africa. It's on YouTube.

I'm setting aside The Poor in the Middle Ages: An Essay in Social History by Michel Mollat; translated by Arthur Goldhammer to read for this challenge. I found it while recataloging some books this semester. I put it on my desk at work to read during lunch breaks in January. Some other non-fiction medieval books on my TBR list that I might get around to reading include:
Joseph and Frances Gies / Life in a Medieval City
Barbara A. Hanawalt / The Ties that Bind: Peasant Families in Medieval England
Frances and Joseph Gies / Life in a Medieval Village
Frances and Joseph Gies / Women in the Middle Ages

I also downloaded Thomas Costain's Plantagenet series recently (good Kindle deal) and may read The Conquering Family from that quartet. I think his works count as historical fiction.

Somehow, post >1 pamelad: copied itself here.

I am planning to read A History of the Crusades by Steven Runciman and A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich.

I've got a Brother Cadfael mystery, The Potter's Field, all queued up and ready to go!

I also love Sharon Kay Penman for great medieval historical fiction; I think her Welsh trilogy is my favorite. There's also Katherine by Anya Seton, in which Chaucer plays a supporting role!

For nonfiction, I liked David Howarth's 1066: The Year of the Conquest. I also have The Medieval Scene by G. G. Coulton on my shelves but haven't read it yet...it's short, so maybe I'll get to that as well!

I've set aside Les poisons de la couronne, the third book in Maurice Druon's series, for this challenge. I read the first two this year and really liked them!

Thanks for those websites!

I think I'm going to have a 2nd try at Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf, historical fiction about Hassan ibn Muhammad Al-Wazzan Al-Fasi, or, as he is known in the West, Giovanni Leo Africanus. (1494-1564)

I may also try an upper gradeschool/middle school book by Patricia McKissack, The royal kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and Songhay: life in medieval Africa.

My choice for this one is going to be Ten For Dying by M. E. Mayer set in the Byzantine Empire in 548. I may also read Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin set in 15th century Russia.

>10 markon: I just read that. A little dry in places but fascinating all the same

Wrong thread. Thanks Robert.

Thank you for the detailed intro! I have added quite a few titles to my TBR, but I think I'll start with The Byzantine economy. It jumped out at me from today's list of birthdays and deaths and I thought this sounds interesting, so... And my library has it!

>5 pamelad: And I was going to comment on the amount of research you've put into this! Wow. Now I know why. :-) Thank you!

I have quite a few options for this. Most likely will be this one, though:
Lady in Medieval England / Peter R. Coss.

>15 LibraryCin: Thanks! I'm keen on learning more about the Renaissance later, too.

Oh, fun! This challenge is a good excuse to dig out the uncatalogued works from my stacks and see what I have at home.

Although my favorite topics are Medieval artists, folklore, and weddings, most of the reading material I have might be on weapons and military history. I'm not sure....

I will be reading Life in a Medieval Village by Frances Gies. This book was given to me as a Christmas gift by the chair of the history department at a local university several years ago. Time to read it now!

Both Maurice Druon and Sharon Kay Penman write very good Middle Age Historical Fiction (but so close to the actual history that I think the only item added was the conversations). Another prof told me Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen by Mary Sharratt was also very good--featuring a woman!

>19 Tess_W: Both Maurice Druon and Sharon Kay Penman write very good Middle Age Historical Fiction

A Sharon Kay Penman was an option for me, but it's long... LOL! And, right now, the one I've chosen is a bit more appealing at the moment.

I am going to choose either Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World or else Wolf of the Plains which is a historical novel about Genghis Khan.

I've got Penman's The sunne in splendour and Iggulden's Wolf of the plains and I also found Cornwell's The last kingdom which is about England in the 9th and 10th centuries. Hard to choose.

As the Reading Through Time theme for January is Shakespeare's Children (books based on Shakespeare's writings), I am going to be reading Enter Three Witches by Caroline Cooney which is based on Macbeth.

I will be reading The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour.

>22 h-mb: The Sunne in Splendour is long, but wonderful. One of the things I like about Penman is she lets the reader know exactly what was added or changed to the known history. It's usually not much.

>20 LibraryCin: Penman's The Queen's Man is shorter, and the first book in a mystery series set in the reign of John.

>24 SilverWolf28: oh, that's a good one.

>1 pamelad: Thank you for this fascinating introduction. I'm looking forward to this because, at first glance, I have a lot to choose from.

>25 fuzzi: I enjoyed The Queen's Man and right away bought the second in the series Cruel as the Grave, which is still on the shelf waiting. That will be on my list of first options.

>26 VivienneR: and then there are two more in that series!

I'll be re-reading a NF book (I originally read it at least fifteen years, ago), In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death & the World It Made (by Norman F. Cantor). It's about the 14-century sweep of the bubonic plague as it swept through Europe. I do not remember much except that it also included material about the Plantagenets, Kings Richard and John in particular (which were 13th-century regents, but I'm sure their contextual relevancy will be made clear this time around.)

I also plan on re-reading King John (by William Shakespeare) as the first of the Bard's histories that I have stacked for 2021. I'm reading the histories in action order (as opposed to the order in which they were published). As Shakespeare often drifted a bit from historical accuracy, I'm counting this as historical fiction of a medieval king.

I'm hoping to kill 2 CATs with one book, aiming to read Queens of the Conquest, a non-fiction book about the queens in the first century after the Normal invasion.

I just finished The Siege Winter by Ariana Franklin (completed by her daughter after her death), set in England during the conflict between Matilda and Stephen for the throne. I thought it was really well done. The kind of historical fiction that just completely absorbs the reader into the time period and setting.

I'd suggest Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, about William Shakespeare's family, but it's over a century too late. It is excellent, though.

Will have to think about this one. I've got a few set in the following centuries, but I'll have to scour the shelves for something that fits.

I have two nonfiction reads planned, The Secret History of the Mongol Queens and Mysteries of the Middle Ages.

I am currently reading Die fremde Königin by Rebecca Gablé, a German historic novel about Otto the Great which would have been perfect for this challenge! But I will finish today or tomorrow, so I won't be able to count it in.
As it is quite a huge tome, I don't think I feel like reading another work of fiction about this period so soon (it seems they are mostly really long, at least the ones I have). So I will probably read some nonfiction. I have several unread works from the field of medieval studies and I will probably choose one of those. Medieval studies was my favorite at uni, so I kept on buying books after I graduated. This is a chance to finally pick one of them up again!

I also love all the books mentioned in this thread and will add several of them to my list!

>1 pamelad: Thank you for the great selection of links! The youtube series sounds really interesting!

I read Life in a Medieval Village by Frances Gies. 272 pages, 3 stars. I was hoping for more!

>34 Tess_W: I hope I enjoy it more. I discovered the one I thought I owned is in a wish list. I'll wait until I'm back at the library to retrieve a non-fiction book. I am not sure how quickly that will be. Our governor is encouraging employers to allow working from home until after MLK Day, but since nothing has been sent to us yet, I assume we won't be given that option. With no students on campus for a few days, it won't be terribly bad, but I would enjoy the company of my furry co-workers for a few days.

Furry coworkers are great, though mine gets a bit antsy at times.

Byzantium: The Early Centuries by John Julius Norwich

This volume starts in 306 and ends in 802. Norwich has an engaging writing style, and covers the ground smoothly. There are a lot of people to keep track of, and at times I felt I was drowning in blood, but that's Byzantium.

This is the first of three volumes. The next is Byzantium: The Apogee

I received a SantaThing book that will fit: The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey

I've got two historical fiction books lined up--the next in Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael Mysteries and the first in Thomas B. Costain's Plantagenet series. I've also got The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England lined up, and I'm pretty sure I left another non-fiction history book atop my desk to read, but I don't remember which it was. Several colleagues in our work book club are Medievalists in their respective fields so I've learned to appreciate the field. I even follow a medieval British Facebook group.

I decided to read some nonfiction for this challenge because I had just read a long novel set in the Middle Ages in December and I didn't feel like another one so soon.
So I read Altenglisches Elementarbuch by Martin Lehnert, an introduction to Old English that was very interesting to read but also has its downsides. I think I have enough of old academic books like this for the time being.

The Middle Ages in Britain and the linguistic background still fascinate me, though, and I definitely want to learn more about this in the future. The book I read brought back many things I once learned. My final oral exam in English Studies was about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and I had to read a part of it aloud in alliterative metre, which was probably my nerdiest university moment ever! ;-)

>39 thornton37814: The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England has been added to my wish list!

>41 Tess_W: I'm really enjoying it so far! If it continues as it is, it will garner a high rating!

I'm currently reading, In the Wake of the Plague (by Norman F. Cantor which takes a look at the three outbreaks of The Black Death in the 1300's and, the impact it had and; King John (by William Shakespeare)-- The first in Shakespeare's History play (action sequence/order of reign) which is set in 13th century England and what we now know as "France".

>43 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I recognize the author's name from some of my graduate history courses. We had to read his co-authored How to Study History. I think I would enjoy his book on the plague.

>43 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Ironically, I first read this one about twenty years ago as part of my (uncompleted) graduate studies (also in history!) but it's been so long that it's all new-to-me again!

I've started reading Revelations: The Medieval World by James Harpur.

(The touchstone failed on first save. What about now?)

The Lady in Medieval England, 1000-1500 / Peter Coss
2.5 stars

This is a nonfiction history of “ladies” in medieval England. Ladies - not just meaning women - but upper class nobility “ladies”. It covered things like inheritance, heraldry (coats of arms, usually from the father or husband, used in women’s seals), kidnapping (aka “ravishing”!), marriage, romance…

Too academic for my liking. There were some interesting nuggets, but also a lot of big words, long paragraphs, and quotes in Middle English. When I’m bored by a book, I don’t put it down, but I tend to skim. I definitely skimmed (or just skipped) anything in Middle English, and a bit more. Otherwise, bits and pieces caught my attention, but not enough to even say it was “ok” (in my rating system). The interesting bits gave it the .5 stars above not liking it, as a whole.

I'm currently reading France in the World (edited by Patrick Boucheron) - When I saw this offering a couple years ago from Other Press, I knew I had to get it! The book is a collection of essays organized historically. Each essay covers a year in French history and I'm currently reading the section, "Feudal Order and Triumphs" which covers the years 842-1143 CE. You can read the essays in order, or you can follow a recommended thread at the end of each essay. For instance, at the end of the essay, "882: A Viking in the Carolingian Family?", you can read the related articles about the years 800, 1051, 1066 and 1550-- or just go on to the next essay which is, "910: A Network of Monasteries". I'm reading sections that correspond to this challenge's time periods (with a little bit of overlap) so I should have this one wrapped up by the end of April :-)

>48 Tanya-dogearedcopy:
You had me worried for a moment there. I thought you meant each year had its own essay and that you were reading 300 of them.

Ooh. I have lots of options from my own shelves as medieval Iberian Peninsula is a hobby interest of mine, and I collect books rather faster than I read them (who doesn't?).

Thanks for the great opening roundup, especially including more than just Europe. Would it be appropriate to include stuff relating to the Americas during this period?

But for myself, I will aim to read at least one of the following this month:
The Ornament of the World
Moorish Spain
Early Medieval Spain

I'm currently reading #15 in the Brother Cadfael series The Confession of Brother Haluin by Ellis Peters, should finish tonight or tomorrow.

I've completed Monk's Hood by Ellis Peters (fiction) and The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval History by Ian Mortimer (non-fiction) so far.

I've started reading When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman. This is the first in her Plantagenet series and describes the fight for power between Stephen of Blois and Empress Mathilda (mother of Henry II), after Henry I's death. I'm enjoying it so far, though there are a lot of battles to work through!

>53 mathgirl40: oh, that's a wonderful one!

I have completed my read of Enter Three Witches by Caroline Cooney. This YA retelling of Macbeth is definitely meant for the younger crowd, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

>53 mathgirl40: I'm in book 3 of that series and I'm loving it; although it is the 2nd Plantanget series I've read, with Maurice Druon's being the first.

>54 fuzzi: >56 Tess_W: I'm glad to see the positive comments about this series. I have every intention of continuing it after I finish this first book. I loved reading Jean Plaidy's Plantagenet series when I was younger and I was quite the fangirl of Eleanor of Aquitaine when I was a teen.

>55 DeltaQueen50: I'm a sucker for Macbeth-themed books so I'll have to add this to my list.

I read Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf. Al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Fasi (1494-1554) was born in Grenada shortly before it fell to the Castillians and Hasan's family moved to Fez rather than convert to Christianity. This is a novelization of his life, including travels and diplomatic missions around North Africa and to Cairo. Traveling home from Cairo he was taken captive and presented to the Pope in Rome where he was given the name Leo Africanus.

I enjoyed the meditative pace of the novel, and the unemotional prose telling about what Hasan/Leo did and where he traveled and things that happened totally out of his control. It also paints a glimpse of a picture of North Africa in the 13th/14th century when the Ottoman Empire was rising and older Muslim empires were collapsing.

I have the ususal questions about how much a novel featuring an actual person actually follows a person's life and can describe a person's thoughts. Was Harun a real person? He seemed to me the person who Hasan/Leo was most emotionally connected to over time. It was interesting to me that he didn't seem to miss his family when he was away from them, and that he felt strong attachments to his wives (except his cousin) while he was with them, but didn't dwell on them when he was somewhere else. Or perhaps Maloof was more interested in exploring the outward aspects of his life rather than his thoughts and emotions.

Completed Queens of the Conquest, Alison Weir. A valliant attempt to tell the history of the English Queens after the Norman Conquest. Unfortunately, it gets rather bogged down in the first civil war.

I'm reading Lady Macbeth: a novel by Susan Fraser King : hard life in Scotland in the 11th century. Picts, Scotts and Vikings made it a rough political life.

>60 h-mb: I've noted this one down on my Scotland wishlist! Thanks for sharing, I hadn't heard of it!

I just finished two titles for this month's HistoryCAT:

In the Wake of the Plague (by Norman F. Cantor) - This is a look at the Black Death as it swept through Europe, more specifically as it hit England in the fourteenth century and again in the seventeenth century. The author's "accessible" language sometimes veers into being a bit cavalier (casually calling King John a "manic-depressive") but it was very interesting and relevant especially in context of the coronavirus pandemic. One thing that struck me as ironic is that in the book, Cantor repeatedly asserts that the lack of scientific method in the 14th century was a hindrance to successfully fighting off the pandemic then and, in future waves (there were three waves of The Black Death in the 1300s):

Essentially it had only nonbiomedical responses to devastation of a breakdown in societal health-- pray very hard, quarantine the sick, run away , or find a scapegoat to blame for the terror.

The "it" in the quote refers to Medieval Europe, "run away" to escaping to the countryside and; "a scapegoat to blame for the terror" to the Jews (accused of poisoning the water reservoirs and wells). Substituting the Jews for the Chinese in the current pandemic, makes you realize, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

King John (by William Shakespeare) - This play is more about Richard Plantagenet, the purportedly illegitimate son of Richard the Lion-Hearted than it is about King John! Set in early 13th-century England and its French territories, it covers the crises of succession: Who should reign over England: The Late King Richard's nephew, Arthur? Or his youngest brother, John? And how does the Pope figure into the hierarchy of everything? And Louis the Dauphin and his father, King Philip?

This one I'm counting as "historical fiction". I'm pretty sure King John et al did not speak Early Modern English, much less in iambic pentameter! And too, the added character of "Hubert" takes it out of NF territory. Shakespeare also put int some 16th-century rhetoric about obeisance to the Crown vs the Pope, notwithstanding that the Church of England (under Queen Elizabeth I) used King John as an exemplar in its, "An Homily against disobedience and willful rebellion".

While I do not know of anyone who claims that King John is their favorite play, I find that with every re-reading, I like it more! I just a copy of Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare and am looking forward to his take on the play :-)

01/14/2021: EDIT: I just found out the Hubert in "King John" was actually a historical figure, but that Richard Plantagenet (the "Bastard" son of Richard I was (not! So, still historical fiction-- even more so since the Richard Plantagenet of the play had more lines than anyone else!

>2 pamelad: I love The Conquering Family by Costain! However, it is non-fiction not fiction. Still, I would recommend it to those who normally shy away from history books as it is very readable.

I borrowed this book from my boyfriend at the time's mother so I don't have a copy but maybe I will see if I can find this in my library for a reread...

>63 leslie.98: Thanks. I've moved it.

But then I checked, and the publisher, Penguin, says it's fiction. So I've put it in both fiction and non-fiction. Is it fictionalised history, perhaps, where historical characters have conversations and thoughts that aren't from the historical record?

I have finished Krieger und Bauern which was written in 1969 and feels dated in many aspects.

>64 pamelad: Costain keeps history as history, but does add based upon history when the history is silent.

His Conquering family books are not historical novels, they are very close to history.

British History Online, a digital collection of sources for the history of Medieval to 1800 CE Britain and Ireland, is making all research content free to individual users until 30 April 2021.

https://blog.history.ac.uk/2020/03/british-history-online-makes-all-research-con...

This might be useful if something in related reading inspires a hunt for more information.

I read Cruel as the Grave by Sharon Kay Penman. I enjoyed the first one in this mystery series, but this one was disappointing.

So I did end up rereading The Conquering Family, which was marvelous. Costain writes like a fiction writer but I didn't notice him 'fictionalizing' - when he did give a conversation, he was always very careful to say something like, 'who knows, perhaps X said 'such and such' to Y' or to cite a source for the information.

I read The Western Wind. It's set in a backwater English village in 1491 as the English Renaissance was getting underway. This sets up some of the tensions addressed in the book. The narrative is nonlinear, telling the story backwards and also in a sense circularly.

I finished a third book that fits the category: The Conquering Family by Thomas B. Costain.

I posted the first two to the wiki--one non-fiction and one fiction. Is there a limit to the number we should post to the wiki? Should I add this one or not?

>71 thornton37814: No limit. I'd go ahead and add it!

>71 thornton37814: Feel free to decide where you'd like to put them. I don't think we need to be purists about defining fiction and non-fiction and, depending on where you look, you'll see both classifications. >72 LibraryCin: I agree. No limit. More is better, so people can check the wiki for recommendations.

I have finished another non-fiction book, Die Ritter, about knights in Germany, France and England mostly, focusing on the way they appear in medieval literature, so lots of Arthurian romances mentioned. This could be a year-long reading project. Arrgh. Too many plans.

I read The Wizard by Gene Wolfe. While set in a fantastic 7-tiered world, Wolfe draws heavily on Norse, Arthurian, and Christian mythologies of the Middle Ages.

I finished When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman. It certainly has lived up to the praise that everyone had given it, and I plan to continue the series later on.

>76 mathgirl40: it's quite a bit to digest, isn't it?

I just read that Sharon Kay Penman has passed away. What a terrible loss.

>78 fuzzi: I saw that in a British medievalists group FB post.

>78 fuzzi: What a great historical fictionalist.

>76 mathgirl40: I haven't read that one. I read The Queen's Man and Cruel as the Grave and enjoyed them both.

>78 fuzzi: Sorry to hear that the author has passed away.

I've started Ornament of the World but not sure I'll finish it by the end of the month. I might just, since it's a pretty lightweight read and not that large. But it's lower on the reading list compared to 1-2 others I got going right now.

I have finished Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 1 which is set ~1422-1431 A.D. (my best guess on the ending date as Joan of Arc has been ordered to the stake towards the end of the play).

I finished Medieval People by Eileen Powers, and it was really good. Review is on my thread.

>78 fuzzi: I too just saw that Sharon Kay Penman has passed away. Very sad indeed.

And I have finished The Byzantine Economy which gives a concise overview from the fourth century to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, with lots of footnotes and suggestiuons for further reading.

>85 MissWatson: Would you recommend it?

>86 justchris: It depends on how deeply you want to get into the matter, because it is very short. As a first entrypoint to the topic it is very good, as she doesn't overload the reader with minor details. You can look up changes in the coinage with this book, and she concentrates on agriculture, pottery, glass and textiles to compare industries across time. Which is partly due to lack of source material, apparently. I was surprised to read again and again about the paucity of sources. And she very usefully points out where scholars disagree among themselves.

>87 MissWatson: Sounds like a good resource for my own research. TBR it is! And I'll pass the rec along to other people I know who have a particular interest in Byzantine. Thanks!

I've been listening to The Divine Comedy in a recent English poetry translation by Clive James that incorporates into the text a lot of the political context that usually gets relegated to footnotes. I love the translation, I love the performance, but I'm finding myself getting lost in the flow of beautiful words and not tracking much actual story. (Also, it's long.) I'm going to give it to the end of the month and see where I'm at, but I'll probably not continue much beyond that.

I finished Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages by Francis and Joseph Gies, which discusses changing attitudes and situations throughout the period in Europe and the driving factors of many of the changes. There are a lot of generalities, of course, but also a number of specific examples. It's an older book and not as chatty as many more recent nonfiction books, but I found it interesting.

>89 pammab: I read that as a ebook last year and struggled through trying to keep the threads of the plot together. I think perhaps I should reread in audio form and listen to it for the beauty rather than the content.

This afternoon, I found a short (46 pages) about The Black Plague on my e-reader and decided to read it before heading into Edward III (by William Shakespeare) who historically reigned during this first pandemic of the bubonic plague in Europe. It's a primer meant to act as a catalyst for further study and, as such, did the trick! It lead me to a couple of essays about the Plague in France and fromm there, to an online article about Flemish textile makers... Anyway, the title is The Black Death: A History From Beginning to End (Pandemic History Book 1; by Hourly History). My only quibble was that the image rights were apparently not extended so I could not see the one specific figure they referred to and; there wasn't enough information provided for me to track it down online. But it really wasn't hard to imagine what they were taking about, so relatively moot. There also was one typo ("except" instead of "expect") but overall, it is well-edited, clear and, concise.

My last book for this CAT is Einladung ins Mittelalter, a collection of essays and articles written by a historian for a non-professional audience.

I haven't quite finished Ornament of the World but will do so today or tomorrow. I am enjoying it as a lightweight, accessible history book.

I read Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu. A surprisingly good read during quarantine!