Les Niveaux de vie au moyen age: mesures, perception et representations. Actes du Colloque international de Spa 21-25 Octobre 1998.(Review)

Les Niveaux de vie au moyen age: mesures, perception et representations. Actes du Colloque international de Spa 21-25 Octobre 1998, ed. Jean-Pierre Sosson, Claude Thiry, Sandrine Thonon, and Tania van Hemelryck (Louvain-la-Neuve: Academia-Bruylant, 1999). viii + 462 pp. ISBN 2-87209-537-5. B. Fr. 15,880.00/F. Fr. 264.00. The colloquium papers published here follow on from those of three earlier colloquia -- Le Travail au moyen age, Les Metiers au moyen age: aspects economiques et sociaux, and La Vie materielle au moyen age.' l'apport des sources litteraires, normatives, et de la pratique. The introductory chapter by Jean-Pierre Sosson analyses the nature of the sources for the study of the various levels of standards of living, and gives a very useful bibliography of recent work in this area. The following papers provide splendid examples of the advantages and disadvantages of different types of sources. (i) A mixture of sources, literary and non-literary: Francoise Autrand, `Le Duc de Berry, un maitre qui paie bien?'; Katharina Simon-Muscheid, `Don, vol, ou salaire? Domestiques et compagnons dans les villes du Haut-Rhin (XVe-XVIe siecles)'. (ii) The lexicology of rich and poor is explored through literary sources by a historian, Emmanuelle Rassart-Eeckhout, `L'Expression des concepts "riche" et "pauvre" en moyen francais: le mateiriau lexical d'origine litteraire au service de l'historien'. (iii) Literary sources: Susanna Bliggenstorfer, `Les Poemes de supplication d'Eustache Deschamps', which distinguishes between the simpler form of poemes de supplication in which the poet asks for promises for particular wages to be fulfilled, and the more elaborate style of the poems with an element of satire, where a straight historical interpretation of the concrete details given might well be misleading; Gerard Gros, `La Vieille Femme dans le Testament Villon: etude sur un caractere', which examines two old women afflicted by poverty, the Vieille associated with `La Ballade pour prier Notre Dame', and the Belle Heaulmiere, in relation to their literary context and to contemporary reality; Jelle Koopmans, `Les Demunis mis en scenes: satire ou utopie, repression ou contestation', which studies the poor as presented in late medieval plays; Danielle Queruel, `Mariage: promotion ou ...