Private Life in the Fifteenth Century: Illustrated Letters of the Paston Family

4to; original black boards, lettered in silver gilt on spine; laminated pictorial dustwrapper; endpaper facsimiles; pp. 288, incl. index; profusely illustrated in monochrome and full colour. Free and pastedown rear endpapers adhering (aboriginal fault). Near fine condition. "On the one hand, the private correspondence of the Pastons gives us an astonishingly intimate picture of everyday life in the fifteenth century - a family saga of rifts and reconciliations, a record of births, elopements, marriages and deaths. On the other hand, it portrays a family on the fringes of great events. Throughout the pages of the letters strut the makers of history: the rebel Jack Cade, for example, Warwick the Kingmaker and a succession of five English monarchs. First-hand accounts range from battles in the Wars of the Roses to preparations for the defence of the realm against the invasion by the French. In this fresh selection, made by the medieval historian Dr Roger Virgoe, the letters are newly edited into accessible English and are illustrated to give the reader a window on the world of the fifteenth century.".…