Books, Banks, Buttons and Other Inventions from the Middle Ages

Frugoni, Chiara

ISBN 10: 0231128126 / ISBN 13: 9780231128124

Published by Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 2003

About this Item

266 pp. Tightly bound. Text is free of markings. Very good dust jacket. Owner's name / blind stamp front end paper. PLEASE NOTE: The reason for the lower "acceptable to good" rating is because the top corners are bumped. This copy is smyth sewn. Smyth sewing is a method of bookbinding where groups of folded pages (referred to as signatures) are stitched together using binder thread. Each folded signature is sewn together individually with multiple stitches and then joined with other signatures to create the complete book block. This is the traditional and best method of bookbinding.

Seller Inventory # 087385

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Books, Banks, Buttons and Other Inventions from the Middle Ages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press, New York, NY
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0231128126
• ISBN 13: 9780231128124
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Acceptable to Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good Dust Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Scholarly 2

About this title

Synopsis

Once regarded by historians as a period of intellectual stagnation, the Middle Ages were actually a time of extraordinary cultural and technological innovation. This entertaining romp through the inventions of the period tells the story of the first appearance of dozens of items and ideas of lasting significance.

From this misunderstood age we get our buttons, our underwear, and our trousers; we entertain ourselves with medieval playing cards, tarot cards, and chess. It was during the Middle Ages that domesticated cats first found their way into our houses, along with glazed windows, dining tables and chairs, and fireplaces. Numerous labor-saving devices originated then as well, including the wheelbarrow, the windmill and watermill, and the effective use of the horse. War became more deadly with the introduction of gunpowder, while travel over water became less so thanks to the compass and the rudder. Time itself emerged into recognizably modern form, with the advent of clocks -- based on the escapement mechanism -- that measured hours of equal length independent of the changing seasons. More cosmic notions of time developed as well, as the new realm of purgatory broke the traditional dichotomy of heaven and hell. Even Santa Claus first captured the imagination of children during the Middle Ages.

Ranging from the invention of eyeglasses (by a now-forgotten layperson who sought to keep his methods secret, the better to profit from them) to the creation of the fork (at first regarded as an instrument of diabolical perversion but embraced when it helped people handle another invention of the age, pasta), this beautifully illustrated volume is a fitting tribute to an era from which we still benefit today.

About the Author

Chiara Frugoni is professor of medieval history at the University of Rome II, a frequent contributor to La Repubblica and the Manifesto, and the author of many books, including Francis of Assisi: A Life, A Distant City: Images of Urban Experience in the Medieval World, and A Day in the Life of a Medieval City (forthcoming). William McCuaig is a translator living in Toronto.