Simone Roux

This is quite a readable history of Paris from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. Roux begins her account with the construction of the great enceinte, or wall, constructed around Paris by Philip Augustus which demarcated urban from rural. She then discusses the alteration of the landscape by the growing population, public and private architecture, work and apprenticeships, the problems of urban life, and living space. Pitched at a level accessible to the interested lay reader or the undergraduate student, Paris in the Middle Ages has much to recommend it and is clearly the kind of book which can only be written by someone who's spent a lifetime immersing themselves in the archives.

However, I felt that the book would have been much strengthened had Roux engaged with things outside the archives—if she had not just broadened the range of documentary evidence which she considered, but made better use of the surviving archaeological evidence. The almost total absence of archaeological sources is a little baffling in a book which aims to deal with material culture. The lack of maps and illustrations likewise—if one is not very familiar with the streetscape of medieval Paris, envisioning the world Roux tries to conjure up is difficult.… (mehr)

This is a fairly dry history of Paris during the latter middle ages. The book simply does not live up to the Amazon review. It does very little, in fact, to permit you to peer into the everyday lives of Parisians during this period. Indeed, Roux concedes that there is simply not that much information out there, leading historians to speculate from sporadic glimpses afforded by court trials, arrest records, and wills. Roux does provide an excellent structural framework for understanding life in Paris; however, it is all generalized. The book disappointed me.… (mehr)