The autumn of the Middle Ages

This classic study of art, life, and thought in France and the Netherlands during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries ranks as one of the most perceptive analyses of the medieval period. A brilliantly creative work that established the reputation of Dutch historian John Huizinga (1872-1945), the book argues that the era of diminishing chivalry reflected the spirit of an age and that its figures and events were neither a prelude to the Renaissance nor harbingers of a coming culture, but a consummation of the old.Among other topics, the author examines the violent tenor of medieval life, the idea of chivalry, the conventions of love, religious life, the vision of death, the symbolism that pervaded medieval life, and aesthetic sentiment. We view the late Middle Ages through the psychology and thought of artists, theologians, poets, court chroniclers, princes, and statesmen of the period, witnessing the splendor and simplicity of medieval life, its courtesy and cruelty, its idyllic vision of life, despair and mysticism, religious, artistic, and practical life, and much more. Long regarded as a landmark of historical scholarship, The Waning of the Middle Ages is also a remarkable work of literature. Of its author, the New York Times said, ""Professor Huizinga has dressed his imposing and variegated assemblage of facts in the colourful garments characteristic of novels, and he parades them from his first page to the last in a vivid style.""An international success following its original publication in 1919 and subsequently translated into several languages, The Waning of the Middle Ages will not only serve as an invaluable reference for students and scholars of medieval history but will also appeal to general readers and anyone fascinated by life during the Middle Ages.… (more)

Media reviews

NRC Boeken

De twee eeuwen rond het jaar 1400 in de delen van Frankrijk en Nederland die toen Boergondië vormden, zijn het onderwerp van deze historie. Het is geen politieke geschiedenis, ook geen sociale of economische geschiedenis, maar een mentaliteitsgeschiedenis: hoe dachten en deden die late

Middeleeuwen in onze buurt? Bij mijn derde lezing geef ik me gewonnen. Het gaat hier om een meesterwerk. En als ik straks tegen het monument ga schoppen, dan is dat omdat een artikel met louter lof niet prettig lezen is.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member yoursources

"To the world when it was half a thousand years younger," [the author] begins, "the outline of all things seemed more clearly marked than to us." Life seemed to consist in extremes – a fierce religious asceticism and an unrestrained licentiousness, ferocious judicial punishments and great popular

waves of pity and mercy, the most horrible crimes and the most extravagant acts of saintliness – and everywhere a sea of tears, for men have never wept so unrestrainedly as in those centuries.

This brilliant portrait of the life, thought, and art in France and the Netherlands in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is our most trenchant study of that crucial moment in history when the Middle Ages gave way to the great energy of the Renaissance. From an analysis of the dominating ideas of the times – those that held the medieval world together, supported its religion and informed its art and literature – emerges the style of a whole culture at the extreme limit of its development.

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LibraryThing member baswood

This wonderful book has kept me enthralled over the last four days. This is a translation from a Dutch edition published in 1921, made in 1996 by Payton and Hammitzsch. Huizinga takes a critical look at the history of fourteenth and fifteenth century France and the Low Countries with a view to

understanding why people acted the way they did at this period in History.

The writing/translation flows magnificently as Huizinga covers topics such as: the passionate intensity of life, the static social structure, failure of knighthood, the preoccupation of death and fear of life, power of religious imagery, the dualism of piety and worldliness, a failure of imagination and art and literature. Huizinga takes a bleak view of the period and says at the end of the first chapter:

"It is an evil world. The fires of hatred and violence burn fiercely. Evil is powerful, the devil covers a darkened earth with his black wings. And soon the end of the world is expected. But mankind does not repent, the church struggles, and the preachers and poets warn and lament in vain."

Huizinga warns us that to understand the culture the reader should transpose his/her thoughts into the minds of the the medievals' and no matter how incomprehensible they are to us we must accept them. The real strength of the book is the attempt to see the world through the eyes of the participants in the history. We learn that they are intensely passionate, cruel aggressive but easily reduced to tears, a belief that God made the world good but man's sinfulness has made it miserable, a mind stuffed with religious imagery and proverbs preventing critical thought and a propensity to take every thought and argument to the highest level (God)

This book has given me an insight to books that I have recently read on this period I have a better understanding of why King Edward III was so intent on securing his French territories and why Chaucer wrote the way he did.

The book was first published in 1919 and academic study of the late middle ages has moved on since then. This is no reason to ignore this marvellous book which gives a view of the period that still has plenty to offer.

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LibraryThing member antiquary

I read the old translation (The Waning of the Middle Ages) many years ago and found it vivid. I understand this new translation is considered better and conveys a more positive image of the late middle ages.

LibraryThing member BenjaminHahn

I studied this book in undergrad as part of my focus on European cultural history with Professor Peyton at WWU. It acts as a major underpinning for me in regards to my understanding of the Middle Ages. There is so much to be learned about the human experience in this unique text. It deserves

another read and I shall give it one soon.

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LibraryThing member muir

Changing ideas about health and death.

LibraryThing member gregdehler

The Waning of the Middle Ages was groundbreaking cultural study when it was published in 1924. He drops a lot of names, assuming that readers automatically know who he is talking about. For example, he mentions Emerson, but does not identify as Ralph Waldo Emerson. He relies on texts from the

period and Froissart, Denis the Carthusian, and the Chastellain are frequently referred to by Huizanga. He paints the late Middle Ages as a dark,violent, and melancholy time of contradictions. He argues that the dominant thoughts of the period that governed norms and behaviors literally ran into a dead end leading to new ideas and a new era.

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LibraryThing member chwiggy

This book took me 10 months to finish, which usually means it failed to pull me along, and I needed to rely on my completionism to pull me through. Yes this is a seminal wok of (art) history, and i can see why, but the views it espouses on the way are just utterly outdated. From normative and

hierarchical views of artistic "progress" to Huizinga's Calvinism tainting his views of medieval catholicism there's a lot in this book that just made me(ahistorically) think what a prick.
I don't think I would recommend reading this book even to art history students (unless to quote mine it, I guess). There are better books out there making good cohesive and readable arguments about the late middle ages (and they'll likely boil down Huizinga's main point more succinctly than he ever did).

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