Medieval Households

by David Herlihy

Book Overview

How should the medieval family be characterized? Who formed the household and what were the ties of kinship, law, and affection that bound the members together? David Herlihy explores these questions from ancient Greece to the households of fifteenth-century Tuscany, to provide a broad new interpretation of family life. In a series of bold hypotheses, he presents his ideas about the emergence of a distinctive medieval household and its transformation...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067456376X
• ISBN13: 9780674563766
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent overview, but a bit narrow

Herlihy has done a masterful job of detaling the daily life of most Europeans during the middle ages, exploring gender roles and the various "chores" a household had to tend to as the seasons changed. It provides an outstanding overview of the complex and labor intensive work of survival during this period of time. However, I found it a bit narrow in terms of the time period it covered. The "middle ages" last over 1000 years - from around 500 AD (the "early middle ages") to the "late middle ages" (ending around 1450). In the course of such a long period of time, even in the middle ages, tasks, roles and habits change. This is not fully addressed, as the majority of the book discusses households in the "high" (800 - 1200) middle ages. Nonetheless, an excellent introduction to the subject.