Medieval Towns.

Jones, S. Rees

John Schofield and Alan Vince, (London: Leicester University Press, 1994). xii + z43 pp.; numerous figures. ISBN 0-7185-1294-4, 40.00 [pounds sterling] (hard covers); ISBN 0-7185-1971-X, 14.99 [pounds sterling] (p/b).

Barbara A. Hanawalt and Kathryn L. Reyerson's stimulating collection of a dozen essays adds a new dimension to the debate about the nature of the medieval city in Europe. The essays in the volume concentrate on the role and function of public ceremonial and ritual in cities from Northern and Southern Europe, and include within their scope royal entries and ecclesiastical rituals as well as the ceremonial of civic communities. By concentrating largely on public ceremonial most of the essays thus deal with the issues of power and authority in the city.

Brigitte Bedos-Rezak's analysis of the function of official civic writing provides a key to the whole collection which largely depends on the more abundant records of the late Middle Ages. Other authors tackle the older debate as to whether civic ceremonial promoted social harmony. Benjamin R. McCree and Sheila Lindenbaum in particular conclude that, on the contrary, ceremonial was but one weapon through which factionalism and oppressive hierarchies could be perpetuated. Lindenbaum's article on London's Midsummer Watch is also a good example of interdisciplinary scholarship which adopts a critical approach both to historical interpretations of oligarchical government and to literary approaches to the significance of ritual drama. Such an interdisciplinary approach is typical of the volume, which includes contributions from scholars in art history, history and literature. Many of the papers, notably that by Lawrence M. Bryant on the entries of Henry VI into London and Paris, are concerned to test the application of different theoretical models, particularly those of social anthropologists. Together with McCree and Kempers, Bryant concludes that we need to be more sensitive to the essential fluidity and multiple meanings of much ceremonial which defies the rigidity of meaning imposed by some theoretical models. It is difficult to identify one single direction in which this collection of essays points. Together they confirm and celebrate a continuing interest in cultural history, which in David Nicholas's essay on the `Burgundian theater state' is firmly anchored to economics, and in Lorraine Attreed's article on civic receptions for royalty is just as firmly located in high politics and constitutional history. Indeed, it is the very diversity of materials and approaches, together with the editors invigorating introduction outlining further opportunities for research, that makes the volume so rewarding for all scholars of medieval civic life.

Aside from Kempers's consideration of the use of space in Siena Cathedral, the most striking absence from the City and Spectacle collection is the lack of any consideration of the physical context of civic spectacles. Indeed, the essays are almost entirely cerebral in their approach in seeking to understand the intellectual, political and occasionally popular imaginations at work in the creation of ceremonies and in the minds of their audiences. By contrast, John Schofield and Alan Vince's Medieval Towns seeks to summarize the results of thirty years of rescue archaeology in British towns, and so concentrates exclusively on describing the physical characteristics of towns. Even chapters with titles that indicate a process rather thin an object tend to be approached through sub-headings which immediately objectify their topic. Thus the chapter on `Trade and commerce' is immediately reduced to the sub-topics of `Coins', `Tokens and jettons', `Guilds' (primarily their halls), `Churches', `Shops', and so on. This is not intended as hostile criticism. Indeed, the volume serves the extremely important function of making the results of urban excavations accessible to a non-specialist audience, using clear English, when so many archaeological site-reports are either published in technical publications or never published at all. This is a real achievement. The clarity of their writing could be recommended to some social anthropologists, whose use of jargon sometimes seems designed to confuse rather than promote understanding. Medieval Towns also provides a critical guide to how field archaeologists think, and a clear agenda for future improvements in archaeological technique. This is as useful as the summary it gives of the rich and still only partially digested results of the massive urban-excavation programmes of recent decades.

It is, however, very striking that two important books which both enlarge our understanding of medieval towns with so much new material, could be published in the same year and yet show such complete ignorance of each other's approaches and resources. It could be said that they function as `companion' volumes. But if so, it is the reader who has to work hard to find the companionship there. The challenge remains for somebody to integrate the `material culture' of the medieval town with the rest of its cultural history. Perhaps they will start with the one objective for future research which the authors of both these volumes have in common: namely, the desire to move firmly on from the public world of high culture to establish 'the archaeology of the ordinary' and the ceremonial world of the poor. If so, then the two volumes here will provide ample inspiration as to where to look for both materials and methodology.