You don’t come across popular history quite like this very often. Frances and Joseph Gies produced some of the most popular medieval history of the mid-20th century, and reading it now I can see why. I have previously read their book Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel which was about medieval technology and quite enjoyed that - the scholarship is a little dated in places but it’s a good overview of the subject. I had meant to pick up another one of their books but never quite got around to it until now. I saw a copy of Life in a Medieval City in my local library and took it as a sign. I’m glad I did because this is a great introductory history and I’d definitely recommend it.
From the outset Life in a Medieval City makes a very intelligent decision. Rather than trying to somehow cram an entire millennium and continent’s worth of urban history into one short book the authors decided to take a more focused approach. The book centers on the city of Troyes in northern France in the year 1250 and describes the state of that city at that moment in time. The book is not without some wider, it ventures out to neighbouring territories at times and mentions events that happened a generation or two before and a generation after 1250. Overall, though, the narration focuses on Troyes in the mid-thirteenth century.
The book then walks you through all the important aspects of Troyes during this time - from the layout of the city, to the people who live there and the key features of their day to day life. Understandably given the available evidence it focuses more on the burghers and wealthier members of the city and only gives some glimpses of what life would have been like for the poor people living in the slums. However, overall it provides an excellent insight into the everyday lives of medieval people, far better than pretty much anything else I have read. It also assumes very little in the way of preexisting knowledge, which I found very refreshing. While I’m obviously well versed in aspects of medieval history, urban life wouldn’t be my specialty and sometimes it’s nice for a book to explain things to me in a simple and clear but not patronising manner.
Some caveats must be added, this book was first published in the 1960s and that makes it very old in the scope of modern historical writing. There have definitely been advances in our understanding of medieval lives in that time. That said, I didn’t see many glaring errors - beyond the troubling use of “Moslem” and “Saracen” when the narrative ventures further east or into Iberia - and I think its narrow focus helps to prevent the worst flaws of its age. It’s far from the most up to date work on medieval urban society but it does hold up well as an introduction to the subject - much better than most older histories I have read.
Overall, I was very impressed with Life in a Medieval City and it makes me want to make time to finally read its companion books on medieval villages and castles. This is an excellent work of popular history that’s engaging and well written, well worth a read if its topic interests you.