Chiara Frugoni INVENTIONS OF THE MIDDLE AGES Folio Society Sealed
roll over the image to zoom in
Chiara Frugoni INVENTIONS OF THE MIDDLE AGES Folio Society Sealed
Sealed Folio edition slipcased hardback of INVENTIONS OF THE MIDDLE AGES by Chiara Frugoni. Foreword by Adam Hart-Davis. Translated by William McCuaig. Published by the Folio Society, London. Illustrations by Neil Gower.
The book is in brand new unread condition. Still sealed in the publisher's celophane. (Quarter-bound in cloth with Modigliani paper sides printed with a design and gilt lettering on spine). In its original red slipcase. Set in Photina with Colmcille display.
"The middle ages have often been depicted as a period in which life had few comforts. Diet and health were poor, learning was preserved only for the select few through the monasteries and even the nobility had to do without. Nonsense, says the great medieval scholar Chiara Frugoni, in this delightful examination of the many inventions we owe to the Middle Ages. This ‘backward’ period gave us printed books, spectacles, anaesthetics, pets, chequebooks, glazed windows, clocks, underwear, playing cards, the fireplace, universities and the wheelbarrow – inventions, items and ideas without which our lives would be poorer, more painful and definitely less healthy.
The evidence is provided by a rich seam of medieval art and letters. Eyeglasses, for example, turn up regularly on the noses of devotional figures in the corners of illuminated manuscripts, and a mechanical clock chimes sweetly in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Frugoni reveals charming, remarkable stories of how each innovation began. The fork, considered an instrument of sin by 12th-century churchmen, found its salvation as a means of dealing with that hot and slippery Italian foodstuff – pasta, also invented at this time. From a father upbraiding his student son for playing at dice and visiting ‘the most disreputable places’, to the way gunpowder enabled men ‘of base extraction and modest physical prowess’ to render years of training in the chivalric arts meaningless, what is revealed here is the unique character of the Middle Ages itself."
Book size: 81/2" x 6-1/2". 200 pages with 83 colour and black & white illustrations.
ISBN: n/a
PAYMENT CAN BE MADE BY CREDIT CARD VIA NOCHEX (SECURE PAYMENT PROCESSOR FOR UK & INTERNATIONAL BUYERS - NO FEES) WE ALSO ACCEPT CHEQUES OR POSTAL ORDERS IN BRITISH POUNDS AS WELL AS BANK DRAFTS ALSO IN BRITISH POUNDS
Please refer to the statement of delivery below:
Items are sent promptly and well packed
Please do check our other listings
* Combined postage if more than one item is purchased
Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.
£0.00
£17.99
Earn51
reward points
reward points
Send this to a friend
Chiara Frugoni INVENTIONS OF THE MIDDLE AGES Folio Society Sealed