Urban Life in the Middle Ages 1000-1450 (review)

244 Reviews Parergon 20.1 (2003) Lilley, Keith D., Urban Life in the Middle Ages 1000-1450 (European Culture and Society), Basingstoke/New York, Palgrave, 2002; paper; pp. xvi, 295; 18 b/w figures, 5 b/w plates; RRP US$19.95; ISBN 0333712498. Keith D. Lilley writes of the dialectical relationship between medieval towns and society. Using evidence from documentary charters, archaeological investigations, and also from the medieval buildings and streets which survive in Europe today, Lilley stresses that the medieval built environment was influenced by social and power relations and, equally, that human relations were influenced by the urban environment. The book opens with a reflection on the contested nature of the past. A medieval survey book which begins its opening chapter by referring to Le Corbusier’s ‘anti-medieval’ urban stance, the political reasons why medieval urban history in Poland has been rewritten since 1945, and the sense of (antiEnglish ) national identity that Viking urban discoveries in Dublin have given to the Irish is one which quite clearly argues that medieval history is ‘invented’ by the present. This self-conscious air is a welcome addition to a studentfocussed text, and the ways in which Lilley refers to the ongoing creation of medieval history (e.g., through archaeological digs) should help students in Australia and New Zealand to appreciate that the medieval world is still there (for all of us) for the taking and the re-interpreting. The subsequent chapters follow a path more or less from written theory to lived practice. The main focus is on England and France, although Germany, Italy, and the crusader states also gain decent attention. In Chapter Two the machinery of urban government is discussed, with case studies from Norwich, Cologne, Toulouse, and Florence demonstrating how internal power structures changed over time. Although there were basic patterns common to all medieval towns (particularly with borough charters), there were also individual peculiarities. Next, in Chapter Three, we read how urban laws and privileges enabled lords to extend their control over lands and peoples. The examples here are the Norman lords, the German lords moving into central and eastern Europe, and the crusaders and Venetians in the crusader states. Here the points about political regimes gaining power through colonisation of new towns (e.g., the Anglo-Norman presence in Wales and Ireland) will help students realise that there were social and political consequences behind the seemingly benign incorporation charters that appear so regularly in primary document readers. Reviews 245 Parergon 20.1 (2003) Chapter Four examines lordship and urbanisation, arguing that town chartering was never simply a top-down affair. Instead, social interactions and cooperation were integral parts of the urbanisation process. The bastides in Gascony provide the best examples here. Lilley demonstrates the partnerships that lesser lords would enter into in order to found towns in this disputed territory, and he stresses the social protection that such a consortium could provide to its members. In central and eastern Europe, the locators also highlight the web of social relations inherent in the urbanisation process. Although details of individual locators are rare, the actions of these middlemen indicate just how much negotiation was involved in the establishment of towns and, hence, just how inaccurate it would be to assume that towns were solely the products of the lords producing the charters. Chapter Five turns to the urban landscape. Three types of landscape are described: the institutional, dominated by a castle or abbey; the commercial, typified by a long central street and markets; and the formal, characterised by regular grids). Contrary to some claims, Lilley argues that town formations were usually controlled rather than spontaneous, organic creations. Following this comes a fascinating section on theories of geometry, and how some medieval streets (especially in Italy) were planned according to the classic proportion of 1:√2. Perfect geometrical forms, which in many instances could not even be noticed at ground level, indicate both that medieval town spaces were highly planned by trained architects and also that there was a greater cosmological meaning to the earthly town. Chapter Six focuses on urban property and landholding, showing how lords used landholding to maintain their social and political presence in...