Court and Civic Society in the Burgundian Low Countries C.1420-1520 (Manchester Medieval Sources) (Manchester Medieval Sources) - Softcover

Andrew Brown; Graeme Small

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719056209 ISBN 13: 9780719056208

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2007

Synopsis

This volume examines the ceremonies and spectacles of society in the Low Countries. It is the first ever attempt to unite and translate some of the key texts which informed Johan Huizinga s famous study of the Burgundian court in The Waning of the Middle Ages, a work which has never gone out of print. However, it also combines these texts with sources that Huizinga did not consider, those that illuminate the wider civic world that the Burgundian court inhabited, and the dynamic interaction between court and city. By extending the chronological range into the period of Hapsburg rule after 1477, where Huizinga ended, it crosses the conventional divide between medieval and renaissance or early modern periods. Through these sources, and an introduction offering new perspectives on recent historiography, the book tests whether Huizinga s controversial vision of the period still stands. The book covers a wide range of ceremonial events: the spectacles and gargantuan banquets, like the Feast of the Pheasant in 1454, that made the Burgundian dukes the talk of Europe; the workings of the court, from its ideals to some of its sordid realities; the Order of the Golden Fleece within an urban context; the Entries of prince into town, ceremonies rich in symbolic meaning; the social and religious festivities of the towns jousting, archery and rhetoric competitions, processions and guilds.The book will appeal to students of late medieval and early modern Europe and to those with wider interests in court culture, ritual and ceremony.

About this title

Synopsis:

This is the first ever book to unite and translate some of the key texts which informed Johan Huizinga's famous study of the Burgundian court in "The Waning of the Middle Ages", a work which has never gone out of print, and is taught on many History courses throughout Europe and the USA. It offers an up-to-date discussion of recent historiography and new perspectives on the subject. It challenges the conventional divide between 'medieval' and 'Renaissance' or 'early modern' periods. It appeals not just to students of the late medieval and early modern Europe but also to readers with wider interests in court culture, ritual and ceremony.

About the Author:

Graeme Small is Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Glasgow

About this edition

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0719056209
• ISBN 13: 9780719056208
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296