Jacques Le Goff 
The Birth of Europe 

In this ground-breaking new study, Jacques Le Goff, arguably the leading medievalist of his generation, presents his view of the primacy of the Middle Ages in the development of European history.

* ‘[A] superb and necessary book. This provocative assessment from a lifetime of scholarship might help us to place ourselves, not just territorially, but in that other precious element of history: time.’
–The Guardian

* ‘A book that never fails to be informative, readable and provocative. Le Goff… has been the bravest and best of champions for medieval history. This book… is in every sense an inspiration.’
–BBC History Magazine

* Praised by prominent figures in Europe and history including: Rt Hon Christopher Patten, CH, Former Member of the European Commission, and Neil Kinnock, Vice-President, European Commission.

Table of Content

Series Editor’s Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

Maps xii

Introduction 1

Preludes: Before the Middle Ages 6

1 The Conception of Europe (Fourth to Eighth Centuries) 14

2 An Aborted Europe: The Carolingian World (Eighth to Tenth Centuries) 29

3 A Dream of Europe and the Potential Europe of the Year 1000 40

4 Feudal Europe (Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries) 49

5 The ”Fine” Europe of Towns and Universities (Thirteenth Century) 99

6 The Autumn of the Middle Ages or the Spring of a New Age? 154

Conclusion 194

Chronology 202

A Selective Thematic Bibliography 211

Index 252

About the author

Jacques Le Goff is Professor of History at L’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is among France’s ‘great’ historians, and is considered internationally to be one of the foremost scholars of his generation. He has written widely on medieval history, and his books include Medieval Civilization (Blackwell, 1990), Intellectuals and the Middle Ages (Blackwell, 1993), and The Medieval World (1997).