The survival of Roman antiquities in the Middle Ages (review)

146 Reviews Greenhalgh, M., The survival of Roman antiquities in the Middle Ages, London, Duckworth, 1989; cloth; pp. viii, 288; R. R. P. AUS$115.50 (distributed in AustraUa by Cambridge University Press). Ancient ruins were often nasty places in the Middle Ages, overgrown, undermined and inhabited by the more dangerous forms of animal and human life. The question of precisely what ancient objects were avadable at that time has proved equally unpleasant for historians. In his latest work Michael Greenhalgh ventures bravely into dangerous territory and tackles the thorny questions of the survival, availability and use of classical buddings and art in the centuries between the fall of ancient civdisation and the Renaissance. His description of the book as an 'interpretative 'biography' of various classes of antiquities during the Middle Ages' does not do it complete justice. H e comes nearer when he describes it as 'a book of the type of Roberto Weiss's The Renaissance discovery of classical antiquity'. Greenhalgh combines an impressive array of contemporary sources, archaeology, and current research into what is in effect a series of critical essays reviewing and assessing current scholarship. He covers a wide range of topics from the survival and re-shaping of ancient landscapes and towns to the use, and re-use, of ancient buildings, funerary art, relief sculpture, mosaics, ivories, gems and even pottery. Bibliographical references are included in the text in abbreviated form and the book could be used as an annotated bibliography, a vade me cum to a subject made difficult by both the quantity of the evidence and its limitations. Throughout, Greenhalgh develops the intriguing hypothesis that the population explosion and consequent urban expansion of the later Middle Ages was directiy responsible for the destruction of some classical antiquities and the rediscovery of others. In the late eleventh and the twelfth centuries a pressing need for budding materials, in particular marble, led to the wholesale plundering of ancient remains. At the same time, demoUtion of ancient city walls to al'ow for urban growth and excavations for new construction are likely to have brought to light a significant amount of ancient sculpture and possibly many other antiquities as weU. In which case the twelfth century would have seen a vast increase in the quantity of classical art available, an increase that might well have been comparable to that of thefifteenthcentury. Good books often raise as many questions as they answer and this one is no exception. Should we perhaps be more inclined to think of medieval sculptors as having direct access to ancient art instead of ascribing classicizing styles and motifs to 'tradition'? Did the medieval communes which proudly displayed their antiquities feel differendy about them from the Renaissance city states? Is the medieval appreciation of classical antiquities really so different from that of the Renaissance? Reviews 147 Many readers wiU long for pictures. There aren't any. Nor are there any footnotes and the abbreviated references in the text can present problems. For instance a reference (p. 202) to 'Wdson 1983' turns out to offer a choice between N. G. Wilson, Scholars of Byzantium, and R. J. A. WUson, Piazza Armerinal And then there are a few annoying misprints. However, even without pictures, this is an exciting book. It is likely to become both a standard reference and a starting point for further work in the field. AUson Holcroft Classics Department University of Canterbury Guy, J., Tudor England, Oxford, O. U. P., 1988; paperback; pp. xiv, 582; 34 Ulustrations; R. R. P. AUS$55.00. The study of Tudor and Stuart England is firmly entrenched in N e w Zealand, both at school and university levels. As a university lecturer, teaching early modern English history to both undergraduates and postgraduates, and having been extensively involved in senior schools examinations in which this subject is a compulsory topic, I have read and assessed Dr. Guy's Tudor England with one very practical consideration in mind. For w h o m is it intended and to whom would I recommend it? I have not yet found an answer to either question. Certainly he states his intention clearly enough: 'to write a clear narrative account of the...