Medieval Europe, 400-1500 (review)

Reviews 131 But this is dl part of the 'discussion' which Kaeuper, in his introduction, hopes to 'provoke' by this bold and imaginative study. Unfortunately, one cannot be very optimistic about the Australian prospects of such a debate when the locd price-tag is $135.00. Nicholas Wright Department of History Umversity of Adeldde Koenigsberger, H.G., Medieval Europe, 400-1500, London, Longman, 1987; pp.xiii, 401; 50 plates, 23 maps; paperback, R.R.P. A U S $31.95. The unquenchable flow of research papers and monographs on so wide a range of medievd topics has made the task of the synthesiser at once more necessary and more daunting. Those of us who from time to time teach a umversity course at First Year level introducing Australian students to an unfamiliar world face a consistent problem: how to induce good practices of historicd enquiry through a diversity of reading while at the same time ensuring that the shape of the woodlands and the forests can be discerned amid dl the trees. Professor Koenigsberger and Lord Briggs have planned a three-volume gdde to the forests of European history from the fdl of R o m e up to 1980. Professor Koenigsberger isresponsiblefor the two earlier volumes, covering 400 to 1500 and 1500 to 1789, Lord Briggs for the find volume. Koenigsberger is already well known to users of Longman histories through his co-authorship of Europe in the Sixteenth Century. His excursion into the Middle Ages does nothing to enhance his reputation. There are a few simple criteria for a successful general textbook: a clear and intelligible narrative, succinct discussion of possible interpretations, guidance encouraging the beginner towards significant further reading and, not least wellconceived maps and illustrations skilfully extending comprehension. The narrative in this 388-page book is the least unsatisfactory part Koenigsberger writes clearly though ponderously in short sections and sub-sections highlighted withtitlesin bold face. When, however, the Arab conquest of Spdn or France and the Hundred Years W a r are dlowed only 1 1/2 pages each and royd government in the thirteenth century just over one page, there is great need for brilliant encapsulation of major issues. There is no pithiness to match the brevity. Nor is there the consistent awareness of recent scholarship which one expects from a Longman history. There are far too may tired old platitudes, from Arianism to the Black Death, and too many inaccurate simplifications (e.g. over the Sutton Hoo artefacts). Even more worrying, there are no guide-posts to 132 Reviews other reading. There are 68 reference-notes in the book. Thirteen of these are to Koenigsberger's 1500-1789 volume in this series and the rest are a curious assemblage, principally of source materid in collections of readings and general secondary books. There is no way in which the reader could become systematicdly better informed about m o d e m specidist scholarship from these references and no other bibliographicd gddance is given. The 23 maps supplied are dso disappointing. To judge by the list of acknowledgements, they were not drawn specificdly for this book. N o care for consistency is evident The reader who compares maps 3.1 (p.153) and 3.2 (p.156), both purporting to show France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, will be surprised and confused to see that entirely different intemd divisions of France are shown. Other maps such as 2.1, showing, without chronologicd gddance, the spread of Christianity, attempt too much inadequate cartography. The photographs are reasonably well reproduced on the art paper which makes the paperback so unexpectedly heavy, but the captions are careless (e.g. 3.3, p.154, where the reading of the Bayeaux Tapestry gives 'Gyr' for Gyr6\ a significant piece of evidence for the English manufacture of the embroidery of which a point is made in the text on p. 153). It is dso distressing to see the cross-page from the Lindisfarne Gospels upside-down on p. 132. This is not the single-volume history of medievd Europe for which there is certainly a market R. Ian Jack Department of History University of Sydney Kratzmann, G. and J. Simpson, eds...