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Reviews 135 Appendix I contains some interesting contracts for illumination. Peter Rolfe Monks TownsvUle Barber, Malcolm, The two cities: medieval Europe 1050-1320, rpt, London and N.Y., Routledge, 1992; cloth and paper, pp. xvi, 581; 14 plates, 11 maps, 19 tables, 2 figures; R.R.P. A U S $ 140.00 (cloth), $38.95 (paper) [distributed in Australia by The L a w Book Company Limited]. The time frame covered by this volume is realistic because there is a coherent unity to the civilization which emerged during these three centuries. A good synthetic survey of this period has long been needed. The organizing principle which Malcolm Barber has chosen for his survey is taken directiy from one of the period's most distinguished historians: Otto of Freising. Whtie not transmitting precisely the same Augustinian vision of theterrestrialand heavenly cities as Otto, Barber does see the history of the High Middle Ages as one of 'creative conflict' between material pressures and spiritual idealism. The opening section of the book, a vivid and perceptive presentation of the role of the physical environment, as well as of social structure and economic development, is excellent. Too few textbooks of medieval history pay serious attention to the very real impact of soil,rivers,and mountains on the people who drew sustenance and protection in one way or another from nature. Barber also makes very effective use of examples from a wide range of contemporary chronicles and other sources to illustrate assumptions about social structure. Rather than make bland generalizations about medieval society, he allows the reader to enjoy the vividness and immediacy of his chosentexts,as a way of understanding central themes of medieval society. The only disappointment is that this presentation of the physical, social, and economic parameters of the High Middle Ages is not carried through in the rest of the book. The initial section on the 'city of the world' is followed be a second section on the other kind of city, the Church, very competent and clear in its own terms, but not explained directiy in terms of those physical, social, and economic forces which have initially been talked about. Thus the ecclesiastical reforms of the late eleventh century are presented from the top down. Barber wisely avoids that 136 Reviews anachronistic expression, 'the Gregorian Reforms', to describe a process visible long before the papacy of Gregory V n . The reforms are presented, however, as coming from the Popes. Thefirstmajor ecclesiastical issue dealt with is one of high politics, the conflict between Pope and Emperor. N o attempt is made to understand the social and economic crisis of the eleventh century which created the dissatisfaction with ecclesiastical structures, above all in the expanding urban cities of Europe. The sequence of the four chapters of this section on the Church, the Papacy, the Crusades, monasticism and the friars, and popular religion and heresy, reflect a top down vision. It might have been more helpful to look at the demand for authentic spiritual leaders within urban communities in the eleventh century, before understanding the divergent responses of ecclesiastical authority to this situation. This said, individual chapters are presented with verve, clarity, and an eye forteUingdetail. The single largest section of the book is taken up with tracing political developments in different regions of Europe. Barber's exposition of individual situations, such asrivalclaims to the Emphe, is excellent. There are useful chapters on the Iberian kingdoms and the states of eastern and northern Europe, often neglected in standard textbooks. While there is nothing to complain about in these sections, the relative absence of discussion of the role of social and economic changes in shaping political development in these chapters is a little disappointing. The ambitions and difficulties of the Hohenstaufens in northern Italy surely cannot be treated separately from the economic developments which provided a sense of selfsufficiency to those Italian towns. In the fourth andfinalsection, Barber shifts gear to discuss 'perceptions of the world', touching lightly on that spiritual city of which Otto of Freising spoke. There is no connection between his closing remarks in the previous section on the fall of Acre in 1291 and the rather jejune statement which opens...

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