The Waning of the Middle Ages
Published on 26. April 2001
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-0-14-139061-1 (ISBN)
Description
This study of life, thought and art in France and the Netherlands in the 14th and 15th centuries remains a classic historical work. In it, Johan Huizinga challenges the prevailing notion that the Middle Ages were just a prelude to the Renaissance. Examining in detail the work of the brothers Van Eyck, he goes on to demonstrate his belief that the actions of princes and statesmen, the chivalry of knights, and the outpourings of theologians, artists, poets and chroniclers were the final and perfect flowering of an older style of life. He ends his work by concluding that in an age of violent contrasts and impressive forms there was a tone of passion in everyday life that helped produce that "perpetual oscillation between despair and distracted joy, between cruelty and pious tenderness, which characterize life in the Middle Ages".
More details
Series
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
372 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-139061-1 (9780141390611)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Johan Huizinga is one of the most imporatant historians of the twentieth century. He was Professor of General History at the University of Leyden. While he is best-known for this book, his biography, ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM, is unsurpassed.
Content
The violent tenor of life; pessimism and the ideal of the sublime life; the hierarchic conception of society; the idea of chivalry; the dream of heroism and of love; orders of chivalry and vows; the political and military value of chivalrous ideas; love formalized; the conventions of love; the idyllic vision of life; the vision of death; religious thought crystallizing into images; types of religious life; religious sensibility and religious imagination; symbolism in its decline; the effects of realism; religious thought beyond the limits of imagination; the forms of thought and practical life; art and life; the aesthetic sentiment; verbal and plastic expression compared - 1; verbal and plastic expression compared - 2; the advent of the new form.