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Solving Some Enigmas of the Middle Ages: The Historian as a Detective
Author(s): George T. Beech (Author)
- Publisher: Edwin Mellen Press Ltd
- Publication Date: 1 Mar. 2011
- Language: English
- Print length: 440 pages
- ISBN-10: 9780773415386
- ISBN-13: 0773415386
Book Description
This work examines historical problems encountered on topics from eleventh-century France, England, and the Crusader East, and to a lesser degree from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These topics include works of art – the Eleanor of Aquitaine vase, the celebrated Bayeux Tapestry, a sixteenth century poem and painting – to inquiries about individual people, such as the first troubadour poet. Lack of contemporary evidence about the subjects described in this book, commonplace for the medieval period hundreds of years ago, limits the ability of the historian today to fully understand them. For instance, uncertainty still hovers over the questions as to who commissioned the Bayeux Tapestry, why, and where was it made. The author’s approach to this study closely resembles that of a modern detective investigating a crime committed by an unknown criminal: a search for clues making it possible to identify the culprit. After the introduction to the subject in general, a brief commentary precedes each of the articles themselves, and in conclusion, becomes a summary with emphasis on the author’s degree of success in solving the problems.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
George T. Beech is professor emeritus of medieval history at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, where he taught from 1960-1992. He received his Ph.D. in French medieval history from Johns Hopkins University.
