Rating: 
Summary: 1000 of History
Review: 'The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages', edited by Robert Cantor (Rhodes Scholar, Fulbright Fellow, &c.) is a good reference work, an encyclopedic dictionary, covering the roughly 1000 years from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance. In addition the usual definition-explanation entries, it has three types of sidebar essays: Illuminations, which focus on sources, Life in the Middle Ages, which talks about common life details, and Legend and Lore, which explores imaginative concepts which informed medieval life.There are maps, literally hundreds of photographs and illustrations, a layout that is inviting for study, reference, or general reading. It is 'easy on the eyes', much more so that a usual encyclopedia. The scope of this work is also broader than most medieval reference texts. 'Despite what students of medieval history are accustomed to reading, life did exist outside of Europe in the Middle Ages.' That having been said, this is still a very euro-centric book. This book gives a great deal of attention to science, medicine, and other topics often ignored or pushed to the periphery of a more politically-oriented textual treatment. There is an introductory essay that is well worth reading even if this is meant to be an on-the-shelf-for-reference-only sort of book. In talking about the influence on popular culture of the Middle Ages (everything from The Name of the Rose to the medieval garb, feudal structure and apprenticeship-education framework of Star Wars), Cantor says: 'In order to recognise [this Middle Ages influence] one has to have at some time known, and this has been the job of historians, who today painfully append to Santayana's famous saying (about those forgetting the past being condemned to repeat it) the observation that one cannot forget a history one did not know in the first place.' Cantor describes twentieth century medievalists as being on a quest for 'wellsprings of a romantic and idealistic consciousness that would inspire a vibrant counterculture.' There is some of that in this book, but largely being encyclopedic rather than analytical and critical in nature, the reader/researcher can use the information contained herein for his own evaluations. From the Abbadid and Abbasid Dynasties to Yaroslave the Wise and Yugoslavia, from Boethius to Wycliffe, this book has hidden treats and interesting articles for all.
Rating:
Summary: 1000 of History
Review: 'The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages', edited by Robert Cantor (Rhodes Scholar, Fulbright Fellow, &c.) is a good reference work, an encyclopedic dictionary, covering the roughly 1000 years from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance. In addition the usual definition-explanation entries, it has three types of sidebar essays: Illuminations, which focus on sources, Life in the Middle Ages, which talks about common life details, and Legend and Lore, which explores imaginative concepts which informed medieval life. There are maps, literally hundreds of photographs and illustrations, a layout that is inviting for study, reference, or general reading. It is 'easy on the eyes', much more so that a usual encyclopedia. The scope of this work is also broader than most medieval reference texts. 'Despite what students of medieval history are accustomed to reading, life did exist outside of Europe in the Middle Ages.' That having been said, this is still a very euro-centric book. This book gives a great deal of attention to science, medicine, and other topics often ignored or pushed to the periphery of a more politically-oriented textual treatment. There is an introductory essay that is well worth reading even if this is meant to be an on-the-shelf-for-reference-only sort of book. In talking about the influence on popular culture of the Middle Ages (everything from The Name of the Rose to the medieval garb, feudal structure and apprenticeship-education framework of Star Wars), Cantor says: 'In order to recognise [this Middle Ages influence] one has to have at some time known, and this has been the job of historians, who today painfully append to Santayana's famous saying (about those forgetting the past being condemned to repeat it) the observation that one cannot forget a history one did not know in the first place.' Cantor describes twentieth century medievalists as being on a quest for 'wellsprings of a romantic and idealistic consciousness that would inspire a vibrant counterculture.' There is some of that in this book, but largely being encyclopedic rather than analytical and critical in nature, the reader/researcher can use the information contained herein for his own evaluations. From the Abbadid and Abbasid Dynasties to Yaroslave the Wise and Yugoslavia, from Boethius to Wycliffe, this book has hidden treats and interesting articles for all.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful, seductive, and flawed
Review: A visually stunning, but often peculiar, work that captures the tone, texture, and ideological obsessions of that distant era. Perfect for browsing and well-written, this collective effort details the major families, saints, and great cities of the Middle Ages. The concise, yet detailed, entries provide excellent thumbnail sketches. Yet there are some peculiar features to this ambitious and beautiful encyclopedia. First, there are the baffling typos like listing Pope John XXIII as condemning heretics in the 13th century (p.174... didn't somebody remember the soon to be sainted 20th century Pope John XXIII? Perhaps it was supposed to be John XXII.) Yet, like some other reader-critics, I found the discussion of Jews to be, well, peculiar. The descriptions sound more medieval than modern. Persecutions are de-emphasized, explained, and almost justified. Consider the following paragraph, under Jews, on p.260: "It is also significant that in the first generation of Dominican inquisitors there were a number of Jewish converts. So the attack of the papal inquisition on the Jews in the 13th century France in part represented a split among the intellectuals of the Jewish community. The same internal culture conflict occurred in the days of the Spanish Inquisition around 1500." Is the author blaming the converted Jews for the torturing and burning of thousands of devout Jews? Is he implying that the inquisition might have been, well, unchristian, and that's because of the converted Jews? What is this nonsense? Likewise, the four page entry on Jews, single spaced without illustrations, concludes on p.261 with same highly unorthodox assertions about the size and dimensions of the Spanish Inquisition. Mainstream historians estimate the number of murdered Jews between 50,000 -100,000 and forced exile of several hundred thousand. The encyclopedia - without giving sources - says, "the impact has been ridiculously exaggerated. In the whole history of Catholic inquisitions from early 13th century France to early 17th century Spain and Portugal, not more than 5,000 Jewish families suffered capital and less severe punish at the hands of the Church courts." Perhaps the author wants to count families, instead of people, to reduce the number of innocent victims. Or perhaps the author means to shift blame to crazed mobs that burned entire neighborhoods with the blessing of Church authorities... and outside court procedures. Yet murder is murder. I'm grateful that I bought and read several sections of this important work. It reveals, to me, the danger of excessive romantic imagination and entering the very narrow, often-fanatic mindset of medieval religious authorities. On the other hand, it's a bit disturbing that intellectuals can be so casual in justifying and explaining brutal intolerance in the early 21st.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, seductive, and flawed
Review: A visually stunning, but often peculiar, work that captures the tone, texture, and ideological obsessions of that distant era. Perfect for browsing and well-written, this collective effort details the major families, saints, and great cities of the Middle Ages. The concise, yet detailed, entries provide excellent thumbnail sketches. Yet there are some peculiar features to this ambitious and beautiful encyclopedia. First, there are the baffling typos like listing Pope John XXIII as condemning heretics in the 13th century (p.174... didn't somebody remember the soon to be sainted 20th century Pope John XXIII? Perhaps it was supposed to be John XXII.) Yet, like some other reader-critics, I found the discussion of Jews to be, well, peculiar. The descriptions sound more medieval than modern. Persecutions are de-emphasized, explained, and almost justified. Consider the following paragraph, under Jews, on p.260: "It is also significant that in the first generation of Dominican inquisitors there were a number of Jewish converts. So the attack of the papal inquisition on the Jews in the 13th century France in part represented a split among the intellectuals of the Jewish community. The same internal culture conflict occurred in the days of the Spanish Inquisition around 1500." Is the author blaming the converted Jews for the torturing and burning of thousands of devout Jews? Is he implying that the inquisition might have been, well, unchristian, and that's because of the converted Jews? What is this nonsense? Likewise, the four page entry on Jews, single spaced without illustrations, concludes on p.261 with same highly unorthodox assertions about the size and dimensions of the Spanish Inquisition. Mainstream historians estimate the number of murdered Jews between 50,000 -100,000 and forced exile of several hundred thousand. The encyclopedia - without giving sources - says, "the impact has been ridiculously exaggerated. In the whole history of Catholic inquisitions from early 13th century France to early 17th century Spain and Portugal, not more than 5,000 Jewish families suffered capital and less severe punish at the hands of the Church courts." Perhaps the author wants to count families, instead of people, to reduce the number of innocent victims. Or perhaps the author means to shift blame to crazed mobs that burned entire neighborhoods with the blessing of Church authorities... and outside court procedures. Yet murder is murder. I'm grateful that I bought and read several sections of this important work. It reveals, to me, the danger of excessive romantic imagination and entering the very narrow, often-fanatic mindset of medieval religious authorities. On the other hand, it's a bit disturbing that intellectuals can be so casual in justifying and explaining brutal intolerance in the early 21st.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fine Reference for the General Reader
Review: Cantor's work provides brief synopses of the main figures and events of the middle ages, but it is not without its flaws. The most serious one in our opinion is the lack of any bibliographies. The illustrations were quite good and the work is certainly appropriate for the non-specialist, but one must look elsewhere to do further and more extensive research. All in all, a good reference work, but it could have been profoundly better.
Rating:
Summary: A good effort, but somewhat disappointing.
Review: Cantor's work provides brief synopses of the main figures and events of the middle ages, but it is not without its flaws. The most serious one in our opinion is the lack of any bibliographies. The illustrations were quite good and the work is certainly appropriate for the non-specialist, but one must look elsewhere to do further and more extensive research. All in all, a good reference work, but it could have been profoundly better.
Rating:
Summary: The Editor was Selective with the Facts
Review: I agree with an earlier reviewer that this book is not very even-handed in its coverage. For example, it devotes over a page of text to the topic "Serbia", and also has topics such as "Yugoslavia", "Bosnia" and the "Battle of Kosovo", but hardly mentions the Croats. The Albanians were apparently considered insignificant, despite the fact that their habitation of the Balkans pre-dates that of the Slavic peoples. According to the linguist, Mario Pei, the Albanians are probably descended from the people known to the Ancient Romans as the Illyrians. Surely, the editor could have made some mention of their Medieval history, since he covers the Serbs so thoroughly.
Rating:
Summary: Good Subject Reference
Review: If you want a quick summary of selected subjects this is a good book. On the bright side at least this time Mr Cantor (or one of the contributing experts ensured historical veracity) noted that Marco Polo came from Venice. In his previous first edition hardcover book, The Civilization of the Middle Ages, it was printed that Polo was Florentine. Still if that type of serious error happened once, it does make one unsure of all the information in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Re: John XXIII (not a review)
Review: In Eric Roth's review of this book, he wonders if listing John XXIII as a pope in the 15th century is a typo. It's not. There was a schismatic pope of that time named John XXIII. (At one point there were three popes!) Since he wasn't universally recognized, he didn't count when John XXIII in the 1960s took the same name.
Rating:
Summary: A Fine Reference for the General Reader
Review: Pleasantly illustrated and well-written, this book will be attractive to the general reader rather than the serious student. A telling indication of the book's cheerful informality is the artful, approximate way in which the maps are rendered; they're clearly meant to convey whimsy rather than geographical exactitude. This is not to say that the book is superficial, however. My impression is that the editor and the contributors successfully achieved a proper balance between readability and depth. On top of that, each entry leaves the reader primed for more reading (quite a feat for any historian, really). I'll give you an example. I was happily surprised to find that the article on banking and commerce, a subject which ordinarily would not seem a likely candidate for compelling reading, was clearly and eloquently discussed. I came away from it feeling impressed by the sophistication of medieval bankers and tradesmen, and curious to find more specialized titles on the subject. One last thought: I have found this book to be an excellent supplement to Norman Cantor's "The Civilization of the Middle Ages".
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