Amy Livingstone

Amy Livingstone's Medieval Lives uses the lives of one aristocratic family in west-central France—the lords and ladies of Beaugency—to provide an introduction to some of the major events and themes of life in western Europe between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. While the Beaugency weren't a particularly prominent family, their very ordinariness (at least as far as aristocratic families go) makes them an ideal focus for this kind of book. Livingstone uses the town where they lived to explore social and economic history for instance, and some of the abbeys which they patronised to look at monastic life and church reform. I could see this working really well as a core text in an introductory course on the High Middle Ages. Livingstone writes clearly and accessibly, and the wide selection of documents in translation at the end of the book are a real boon for use in the classroom.… (más)

This is a really great, ambitious exploration of the family lives of aristocratic families in the medieval Loire. Amy Livingstone draws primarily on the archival records of Benedictine houses in the region, using charter evidence to push back against the Duby argument that medieval society was overwhelmingly patriarchal and patrilineal and that women were entirely powerless. Livingstone's view of the eleventh and twelfth centuries is a much more nuanced one—women could act with power and authority, and were recognised by their contemporaries as able to act with skill in these areas; the medieval family was inclusive and stressed breadth and practicality. There are some really great pieces of evidence to work with here, including charters in which we see women acting as domina, vicedomina and legedocta.

There are places, however, where I might quibble with some of her interpretation of the evidence—or at least, of presenting as certain interpretations that are merely probable, if not possible. In other words: I agree with much of what she has to say about inheritance patterns and familial networks, but I'm a lot less certain about what she has to say about the existence of emotional bonds. I also wished that Cornell—for I'm sure this was at the press's insistence—had allowed for fuller notes, including more citation of the Latin from the actual documents. Since most of them are unpublished, or exist only in hopelessly obscure published editions, it's really difficult for the reader to weigh the evidence themselves.… (más)