Reviews for A medieval book of seasons

The average rating for A medieval book of seasons based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-12-07 00:00:00 Thomas Staples This is a lovely book - over size but fairly thin. The authors take us through the seasons as described from writings and shown in art from the medieval period. It starts, appropriately enough, with spring, and works its way through the year. Every page has illustrations, all from the era (no modern drawings of what someone *thought* folks did back then). Life was very different back then; except for the upper class, pretty much everyone engaged in manual labor, all year round. People worked when sunlight was available, and then probably dropped into sleep as soon as they hit the … well, what passed for beds. Spring was pretty much a celebration of having survived winter (a celebration with lots of hard work, but, still, it was a happy time). The illustrations are beautiful; most come from Books of Hours and illuminated manuscripts. This is not a scholarly book, but one aimed to interest people in the period. The authors touch on a multitude of areas: food, agriculture, health ideas and treatments, leisure, and more. The illustrations also show what type of clothing was worn by the various classes.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-04-16 00:00:00 Michael Perlman About the cycle of the year in medieval times. Opens with a discussion of measuring time in the era, and some other aspects of medieval life, and then four sections on spring, summer, fall, and winter. Includes a lot of illustrations for Books of Hours, which were heavily conventionalized -- from England to Italy, despite the differences in climate, the activities were usually the same and seldom even shifted by month -- but a good source of information. Discusses agriculture, animal husbandry, games, and more. Popular rather than scholarly.