Childhood in the Middle Ages (review)

180 Reviews Georgijevica' (1911). Briefly, the prophecy tells of the Turkish conquest of Rome which will be followed after twelve years by Turkish defeat and retreat The 'Red Apple' was initially associated with the conquest of Constantinople, the 'second Rome'. According to Georgievicz, the Turks identified the 'Red Apple' with Urum Papa-si, id est, rubrumpomum, sive graecum sacerdotem vel patriarcham. Setton explains that: 'obviously Urum Papa-si might mean not only Greek priest or patriarch (Romaion papas), but also pope of R o m e (Romaion papas). Among the Turks R o m e was easily and inevitably equated with the Red Apple' (pp. 34-35). Thus, once it could no longer serve its purpose following the Turkish conquest of the second Rome, it was automatically transferred to the 'first Rome'. For, as Setton makes clear, 'prophecies are almost immortal; once bom, they refuse to die. When time and cirumstance render them obsolete, they come to life again like the phoenix, with new plumage' (p. 35). It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the prophecy of the 'Red Apple' proved immensely popular. According to Clarence D. Rouillard, The Turks in French history, thought, and literature (15207660X1938 ), pp. 272-73, Georgievicz's work, published and republished in various editions, translations, and pirated versions, 'attained a phenomenal European popularity which continued through the seventeenth century'. It is almost too much to believe Setton that 'in his own day he was almost as widely read as Luther' (p. 30). Setton ends his book with a short chapter on the Western translation of the Koran and the increasing tolerance of Islam in Western, though not in Eastern, Europe. The two books are thus a fitting coda to a lifework of explaining Western interactions with the Orient initially Byzantine, later Ottoman. In his Venice, Austria, and the Turks Setton returned to Venice, the place symbolizing this interaction, the city that 'held the gorgeous east in fee', as Wordsworth put it. Setton's books are like the stately Venetian galleons, an imperial squadron, finally returned safely home. Tanto operi nullum par elogium. Zdenko Zlatar Department of History The University of Sydney Shahar, Shulamith, Childhood in the Middle Ages, London, Routledge, 1990 (cloth), 1992 (paper); pp. xii, 342; R.R.P. A U S $ 105.00 (cloth), ? (paper) [distributed in Australia by the Law Book Company]. All who now write about children in the pre-industrial west labour under the shadow of Phillipe Aries and the essay which hefirstpublished in 1960 and which achieved an astonishing influence under its English title: Centuries of childhood. Indeed, the notion that there was 'no such thing' as childhood prior to its invention in the nineteenth century remains an obstinate part of folk Reviews 181 scholarship. This is despite over thirty years of determined assault on the Aries thesis and his reliance on iconographic evidence; although, it must be noted that Aries was concerned not so much with historical children as their representation infiguralart Aries essentially pessimistic view of medieval children is addressed by Shahar in the first pages of this attractive book and she provides a useful guide to the critique of Aries by medieval historians such as Demaitre, Hanawalt, Wilson, and Schmitt In agreement with these authors, Shahar argues that childhood was perceived as a distinct stage in the life cycle and that medieval educationalists, sermon writers, and a host of other authorities were more than ready to address the special needs of this group. The intellectual tradition was, Shahar argues, matched by medieval practice, and she gives copious illustrations of the care and loving affection lavished by the people of the medieval west on their children. As has been pointed out by many critics of Aries, high infant mortality does not imply that parents do not care for their children or mourn their loss. Shahar is well known for her immensely useful and readable monograph on medieval women: The Fourth Estate. The qualities of that book, its elegant style, accessible scholarship and capacity to summarize large bodies of disparate sources, are all visible in Childhood. The book is organized thematically with chapters devoted to topics such as birth, nursing and abandonment, infanticide and accidents. Over half...