Illustrated History of the Middle Ages

"The Suffering Middle Ages", a time of darkness and superstition, illuminated only by the light of Inquisition bonfires, has long since become a standard for historical literature.

However, the Middle Ages were not only wars, plague, crusades, and famine: it was during this period that more inventions were made in Europe than in the previous thousand years. A true revolution in education took place: in the XIV and XV centuries, universities opened across Europe. Leonardo da Vinci, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Rabelais, Chaucer - their genius was also nurtured by the Middle Ages.

The book by Konstantin Alexeyevich Ivanov (1858-1919) - a historian and poet, director of the gymnasium in Tsarskoye Selo and teacher of the children of Nicholas II - will open up the true Middle Ages for you. You will stroll through city streets, visit a castle and a monastery, shop at trading stalls and workshops, peek into the homes of noblemen and simple peasants, witness weddings, festivals, and knightly tournaments - in a word, immerse yourself in the atmosphere of that distant and mysterious time.