{"product_id":"2940014565301","title":"Manners, Custom \u0026 Dress During The Middle Ages \u0026 During The Renaissance Period","description":"Preface.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe several successive editions of \"The Arts of the Middle Ages and Period\u003cbr\u003eof the Renaissance\" sufficiently testify to its appreciation by the\u003cbr\u003epublic. The object of that work was to introduce the reader to a branch of\u003cbr\u003elearning to which access had hitherto appeared only permitted to the\u003cbr\u003escientific. That attempt, which was a bold one, succeeded too well not to\u003cbr\u003einduce us to push our researches further. In fact, art alone cannot\u003cbr\u003eacquaint us entirely with an epoch. \"The arts, considered in their\u003cbr\u003egenerality, are the true expressions of society. They tell us its tastes,\u003cbr\u003eits ideas, and its character.\" We thus spoke in the preface to our first\u003cbr\u003ework, and we find nothing to modify in this opinion. Art must be the\u003cbr\u003efaithful expression of a society, since it represents it by its works as\u003cbr\u003eit has created them--undeniable witnesses of its spirit and manners for\u003cbr\u003efuture generations. But it must be acknowledged that art is only the\u003cbr\u003econsequence of the ideas which it expresses; it is the fruit of\u003cbr\u003ecivilisation, not its origin. To understand the Middle Ages and the\u003cbr\u003eRenaissance, it is necessary to go back to the source of its art, and to\u003cbr\u003eknow the life of our fathers; these are two inseparable things, which\u003cbr\u003eentwine one another, and become complete one by the other.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Manners and Customs of the Middle Ages:--this subject is of the\u003cbr\u003egreatest interest, not only to the man of science, but to the man of the\u003cbr\u003eworld also. In it, too, \"we retrace not only one single period, but two\u003cbr\u003eperiods quite distinct one from the other.\" In the first, the public and\u003cbr\u003eprivate customs offer a curious mixture of barbarism and civilisation. We\u003cbr\u003efind barbarian, Roman, and Christian customs and character in presence of\u003cbr\u003eeach other, mixed up in the same society, and very often in the same\u003cbr\u003eindividuals. Everywhere the most adverse and opposite tendencies display\u003cbr\u003ethemselves. What an ardent struggle during that long period! and how full,\u003cbr\u003etoo, of emotion is its picture! Society tends to reconstitute itself in\u003cbr\u003eevery aspect. She wants to create, so to say, from every side, property,\u003cbr\u003eauthority, justice, \u0026amp;c., \u0026amp;c., in a word, everything which can establish\u003cbr\u003ethe basis of public life; and this new order of things must be established\u003cbr\u003eby means of the elements supplied at once by the barbarian, Roman, and\u003cbr\u003eChristian world--a prodigious creation, the working of which occupied the\u003cbr\u003ewhole of the Middle Ages. Hardly does modern society, civilised by\u003cbr\u003eChristianity, reach the fullness of its power, than it divides itself to\u003cbr\u003efollow different paths. Ancient art and literature resuscitates because\u003cbr\u003ecustom _insensibly_ takes that direction. Under that influence, everything\u003cbr\u003eis modified both in private and public life. The history of the human race\u003cbr\u003edoes not present a subject more vast or more interesting. It is a subject\u003cbr\u003ewe have chosen to succeed our first book, and which will be followed by a\u003cbr\u003esimilar study on the various aspects of Religious and Military Life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis work, devoted to the vivid and faithful description of the Manners\u003cbr\u003eand Customs of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, answers fully to the\u003cbr\u003erequirements of contemporary times. We are, in fact, no longer content\u003cbr\u003ewith the chronological narration and simple nomenclatures which formerly\u003cbr\u003ewere considered sufficient for education. We no longer imagine that the\u003cbr\u003ehistory of our institutions has less interest than that of our wars, nor\u003cbr\u003ethat the annals of the humbler classes are irrelevant to those of the\u003cbr\u003eprivileged orders. We go further still. What is above all sought for in\u003cbr\u003ehistorical works nowadays is the physiognomy, the inmost character of past\u003cbr\u003egenerations. \"How did our fathers live?\" is a daily question. \"What\u003cbr\u003einstitutions had they? What were their political rights? Can you not\u003cbr\u003eplace before us their pastimes, their hunting parties, their meals, and\u003cbr\u003eall sorts of scenes, sad or gay, which composed their home life? We should\u003cbr\u003elike to follow them in public and private occupations, and to know their\u003cbr\u003emanner of living hourly, as we know our own.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a high order of ideas, what great facts serve as a foundation to our\u003cbr\u003ehistory and that of the modern world! We have first royalty, which, weak\u003cbr\u003eand debased under the Merovingians, rises and establishes itself\u003cbr\u003eenergetically under Pépin and Charlemagne, to degenerate under Louis le\u003cbr\u003eDébonnaire and Charles le Chauve. After having dared a second time to\u003cbr\u003efound the Empire of the Caesars, it quickly sees its sovereignty replaced\u003cbr\u003eby feudal rights, and all its rights usurped by the nobles, and has to\u003cbr\u003estruggle for many centuries to recover its rights one by one.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47074056143088,"sku":"2940014565301","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014565301_p0.jpg?v=1763620157","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014565301","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}