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Lead book review

The forgotten flowering of the medieval mind

Johannes Fried’s newly translated history proves that the Middle Ages were not an ideas-free zone

24 January 2015

9:00 AM

24 January 2015

9:00 AM

The Middle Ages Johannes Fried (translated by Peter Lewis)

Belknap Press, pp.580, £25

For those who imagine the medieval period along the lines of Monty Python and the Holy Grail — knights, castles, fair maidens, filthy peasants and buckets of blood and gore (you know, all the fun stuff) — Johannes Fried’s version may come as something of an aesthetic shock. His interests lie in the more rarefied world of theologians, lawyers and philosophers.

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