CITIES AND TOWN The medieval city.pdf
CITIES AND TOWN The medieval city.pdf
CITIES AND TOWN The medieval city.pdf
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Preface xxix<br />
cooking were done over an open fire; thus, domestic fires were frequent,<br />
sometimes leading to widespread conflagrations. Disease also spread rapidly<br />
through the congested urban homes. Mortality was great, higher by<br />
far than that normally experienced in rural areas. One is left asking why<br />
people were so ready to desert the country for the town. <strong>The</strong> answer must<br />
lie in the greater rewards the latter had to offer. <strong>The</strong>re was wealth to be<br />
had from trade. Not all who migrated to a town made a fortune or even<br />
a modest living, but there was always the chance of doing so, and most<br />
people are by nature gamblers.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>city</strong> was a continent-wide institution, and this book seeks to give<br />
some attention to most parts of Europe. <strong>The</strong> writer claims some firsthand<br />
knowledge of most of the significant towns in almost every country and<br />
has explored their streets and alleys, their public and private buildings<br />
during well over half a century. But his deepest familiarity is with the<br />
cities and towns of England. <strong>The</strong> documentary sources he has used over<br />
this long period have been English. This is reflected in the choice of illustrative<br />
examples and documentary sources. If it is complained that<br />
there is no mention of <strong>medieval</strong> towns in Slovakia or Norway or Portugal,<br />
it can only be replied that the towns found in those parts generally<br />
conformed with the model presented in the preceding text and that lack<br />
of space prevents any particular examination of them.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se paragraphs have sketched a model of the <strong>medieval</strong> <strong>city</strong>, one to<br />
which all in a greater or lesser degree conformed. <strong>The</strong> following eight<br />
chapters explore this model and conclude with a discussion of the place<br />
of the <strong>medieval</strong> <strong>city</strong> in the history of western culture and its contribution<br />
to the society of the present.<br />
This book has been written between bouts of illness, and the writer is<br />
deeply grateful to Professor Jane Chance, editor of this series, for her<br />
kindness and forbearance. He is also indebted to Liz Wetton who has<br />
read much of it with the hawk-like eye of an experienced editor and has<br />
corrected many blemishes in style and judgment. He is also grateful to<br />
Cambridge University Library, not only for the use over a long lifetime<br />
of its superb collections, but also for making copies of the engravings by<br />
Schedel and Braun and Hogenberg, copies of which it holds. All artwork<br />
has been prepared by the author.