History Book Review: Paris, 1200 by John Baldwin

Pros: a lot of detailed information, a good amount of images

Cons: would have liked more information regarding festivities

The book focuses on the events in and around Paris around the year 1200. Since there aren’t a lot of documents detailing that specific year, the author pulls information from the decades before and afterwards. After the prologue there are 6 chapters and an epilogue. The chapters are: The City and its Bourgeoisie; The face of Pierre the Chanter and Philip Augustus and the Hidden Visages of Women; King Philip and his Government; The Church, Clergy and Religious Life; The Schools; and Delight and Pain.

I found the first two chapters a little boring, being very detailed explanations of the various important nobles and churchmen of the day. I did enjoy the section on women, though due to a paucity of source material it’s less about actual women and more about sculptures depicting allegorical women (like Ecclesia and Synagoga). The government chapter was hit and miss with regards to my personal interest though if you’re researching bureaucracy in the middle ages, it’s an excellent chapter. The later chapters were very interesting for me, particularly the sections on how mass was performed and the seating arrangement in the choir at Notre-Dame de Paris. For most of the book the author fudged the year, bringing in information from as early as the 1180s and ending around 1215, with the fourth Laterin council. I was a little disappointed that the author stuck to the single year when talking about holidays and festivals, as the city was under papal interdict for most of the year and so wasn’t allowed to celebrate Easter, weddings or other major festivities. Christmas celebrations got a minor explanation but again, I’d have liked more.

There’s a handful of black and white images, including some nice panels from a Bible Moralisée made around that time, and some stained glass and sculpture photographs.

Paris is a fascinating city and it’s cool reading a book dedicated to a single year in it. There’s a wealth of minor details regarding life at the time (like the debate over whether prostitutes should be allowed to donate a window in the cathedral), and at the end of the book I felt like I had a fair grasp on what life was like there.

If you like the middle ages and want more detailed information about city life, universities, and government, it’s a good book.