Royal Books and Holy Bones

Essays in Medieval Christianity

By: Eamon Duffy

Narrated by: Eamon Duffy

Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Bloomsbury presents Royal Books and Holy Bones by Eamon Duffy, read by Eamon Duffy.

In these vivid and approachable essays, Eamon Duffy engages with some of the central aspects of Western religion in the thousand years between the decline of pagan Rome and the rise of the Protestant Reformation. In the process, he opens windows on the vibrant and multifaceted beliefs and practices by which medieval people made sense of their world: the fear of death and the impact of devastating pandemic, holy war against Islam and the invention of the blood libel against the Jews, provision for the afterlife and the continuing power of the dead over the living, the meaning of pilgrimage and the evolution of Christian music. Duffy unpicks the stories of the Golden Legend and Yale University’s mysterious Voynich manuscript, discusses the cult of ‘St’ Henry VI and explores childhood in the Middle Ages. In this thoroughly enjoyable collection, Eamon Duffy once more challenges existing scholarly narratives and sheds new light on the religion of Britain and Europe before and during the Reformation.

Please note: this audiobook was recorded remotely by the author during the pandemic and, as such, the sound of the final production is not studio quality.

©2018 Eamon Duffy (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

"It is 26 years since Eamon Duffy changed the way that readers of history looked at England on the eve of the Reformation, through his The Stripping of the Altars. Many of the essays here also challenge easy assumptions. All of them are written with a clarity and fluency, humour and humanity that make reading them a pleasure." (Christopher Howse, Daily Telegraph)

"Erudite but never unapproachable and laced with a dry wit, [Duffy's] essays are essential reading for those with an interest in how people in the past expressed their faith." (Sunday Times)

"Tremendous… This is a book for the general reader, spiced throughout with Duffy’s profound scholarly understanding of the giant subjects with which each essay grapples." (Church Times)

Few slices of medieval history

This book is a series of essays on a variety of topics in medieval history: The Voynich "Roger Bacon" Cipher Manuscript, medieval libraries, the crusades / just war, Jewish blood libel, family life / childhood, iconoclasm and Protestant art, cults of the saints / miracles, and the Justinian plague. Most amount to critical literature reviews of recent scholarship on the topics.

To give one example for illustration: In the essay on family life / childhood, he talks about how there was a time in recent scholarship when medieval families were presented as cold, relentlessly public communes where children were treated as miniature adults, put to work as soon as they were able and for whom their parents had no emotional bond or investment. A series of books later argued against this stereotype, showing that family life and childhood is not a social construct, but a human constant, even in the Middle Ages. Duffy largely embraces this conclusion, but makes qualifying remarks about the books that have argued for the thesis, noting several defects in their argument that limit the scope of the conclusion that can be drawn.

Duffy is widely respected as one of the greatest contemporary historians of medieval England. He reads the book himself, which is, in my view, a plus. He has a very pleasant voice and pronounces everything how he himself intended it to be pronounced. The Audible description says the audio quality isn't good, but I beg to differ. There were one or two times where I could hear him turning the page, but I'd say it was better audio quality and narration than many of the books I've listened to on Audible.