Children in the Middle Ages: Fifth-fifteenth Centuries

What can we know of the children of the Middle Ages? It is commonly thought that children were of little interest to medieval adults for documentation on childhood is supposedly rare and fragmentary. Daniele Alexandre-Bidon and Didier Lett challenge this assumption in this learned and lively book. Drawing from a wide range of sources -- from archaeological finds to romances from miracle accounts to law codes -- they bring together many glimpses of children in order to form a composite picture.

By examining the existence of children in various contexts -- wars, epidemics, the famines that mark both the beginning and end of the Middle Ages -- the authors trace an evolution in the perception of childhood. Children in the Middle Ages offers a multifaceted image of medieval childhood in all the countries of present-day Europe and within all levels of medieval society, from the peasant girl who longed to read to the apprentice scribe doodling pictures on the margins of the manuscript he copied to the young duke of berry, whose bedroom was redecorated each year at Easter, going from red to green, the color of spring. The authors consider children not only within the context the family life, but within the supporting structures of the society -- in school, in business, in the monastery, in extened or foster families. They further demonstrate that despite often difficult living conditions, the great majority of children were surrounded with affection.