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The Waxing of the Middle Ages

Revisiting Late Medieval France

Tracy Adams editor Charles-Louis Morand-Métivier editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Delaware Press

Published:14th Apr '23

Should be back in stock very soon

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The Waxing of the Middle Ages cover

Johan Huizinga’s much-loved and much-contested Autumn of the Middle Ages, first published in 1919, encouraged an image of the Late French Middle Ages as a flamboyant but empty period of decline and nostalgia. Many studies, particularly literary studies, have challenged Huizinga’s perceptions of individual works or genres. Still, the vision of the Late French and Burgundian Middle Ages as a sad transitional phase between the High Middle Ages and the Renaissance persists. Yet, a series of exceptionally significant cultural developments mark the period.

The Waxing of the Middle Ages sets out to provide a rich, complex, and diverse study of these developments and to reassert that late medieval France is crucial in its own right. The collection argues for an approach that views the late medieval period not as an afterthought, or a blind spot, but as a period that is key in understanding the fluidity of time, traditions, culture, and history. Each essay explores some “cultural form,” to borrow Huizinga’s expression, to expose the false divide that has dominated modern scholarship. 

ISBN: 9781644532904

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 10mm

Weight: 64g

290 pages