Secret Middle Ages: Discovering the Real Medieval World

This book is an enjoyable, controversial and completely fresh view of the medieval world seen through its rare and amazing artefacts. Using the wealth of medieval art, much of it unseen or ignored by museums and art historians, Malcolm Jones paints a compelling picture of the visual environment of the great mass of ordinary people between 1200 and 1500. The picture that emerges is of a civilisation that is both like and unlike our own, one that teems with the richness of life and its contradictions. Unlike most studies of the period it does not concern itself with the aristocracy, but rather offers an insight into the everyday men and women, who made up the tapestry of the medieval world. This book offers a major reassessment of the high medieval period and as such is not only important to specialists, but has much appeal to the general reader. It is essential for medievalists and those interested in the history of language and customs.