An Urban History of Paris in the Middle Ages
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Simone Roux. Paris in the Middle Ages. Translated by Jo Ann McNamara. Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. Map, table. xvi + 249 pp. $29.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8122-4159-4. Reviewed by David Spear Published on H-Urban (October, 2009) Commissioned by Alexander Vari (Marywood University) It is hard to imagine a city that has exerted a this English version sums up her observations more constant influence on Western history than both for scholars and for the educated public. The Paris. Rome, perhaps--but Rome's ancient legacy translator, Jo Ann McNamara was professor of and clerical culture made it difficult, if not impos‐ history emerita at Hunter College, City University sible, to emulate. Paris--the medieval reinvention of New York, until her recent death (on May 20, of the Roman city of Lutetia--was an urban suc‐ 2009, according to the Catholic Historical Review cess and served as a model for others. Paris, un‐ 95 [2009], p. 656), and a well-known medieval his‐ like London and many other medieval cities, nev‐ torian in her own right. She had previously trans‐ er had a Charter of Liberties. But the intersection lated Pierre Riché's Daily Life in the World of of the French monarchy, the frst university, an Charlemagne (1978) for the same series in which elite bourgeoisie, artisans, day laborers, and even the book under review here appeared. marginalized segments of the population coa‐ Countless books have been written about lesced to give Paris a unique identity, admired by Paris, but there are few in English about the histo‐ many, and certainly worth study for those who ry of medieval Paris. There are, of course, numer‐ want to know how this urban phenomenon came ous works that detail aspects of the medieval city, to be. such as the rise of its university, or surviving its Simone Roux, professor of history emerita at poverty, or daily life on its famous bridges;[1] the University of Paris-X, Nanterre, is the author while, from another angle, myriad books cover of Paris in the Middle Ages. Among her many pub‐ the rise of the monarchy, which, of course, over‐ lications, Roux has written one book, La rive laps considerably with the growth and develop‐ gauche des escholiers, (XV siècle) (1992), and sev‐ ment of Paris.[2] Yet other studies trace the rise of eral articles, specifically on medieval Paris. Origi‐ Paris as a microcosm of medieval civilization,[3] nally published in 2003 as Paris au Moyen Age, H-Net Reviews but few books are straightforward histories of the make way for houses, reminders of which are still city itself, written by qualified historians. found in modern toponyms, such as Clos Bruneau, Roux covers the period from c.1200 to c.1500, Clos de Laas, and Clos Mauvoisin. Roux describes beginning with the walling of the city by King the king and seigneurial lords dividing and subdi‐ Philip Augustus (reigned 1180-1223), and seeing viding their properties into housing units, ever Paris through to a period of consolidation after vigilant to maintain control over their real estate. the ravages of the Black Death and the Hundred In a similar fashion, Philip Augustus recognized Years War. The walled city of medieval Paris the importance of clean streets, and so ordered seems quite small today, completely swallowed up residents to pave them. Not all landowners were by the modern megalopolis. The thirteenth-centu‐ willing to bend to the royal command, but the ry city's circumference was approximately a cir‐ king's voyers (supervisors) were placed in charge cle with the midpoint near today's metro station of enforcing street surfacing. Just as turning felds "Cité." The circle's radius was only about one-half into houses took decades, so did street paving. mile (eight hundred meters) and would include Roux's study of the process of urbanization sug‐ the Pantheon at the outer limit of the Left Bank gests that newer houses were cheaper than older and the Church of St.-Eustache at the outer limit ones, with the result that streets and neighbor‐ of the Right Bank. The Louvre, the Temple, the hoods became socially mixed. This conclusion Place des Vosges, St.-Germain-des-Prés, and the modifies the prevailing belief that guilds and oc‐ Luxembourg Gardens would all have been out‐ cupations more than anything else dictated living side the medieval walls. By 1500, though, the patterns. Right Bank's ramparts had been extended by an‐ As for Parisians themselves, they seem to other half mile, running along a circumference have emigrated primarily from northern France, touching today's Place de la Concorde to the Place the Low Countries, England, and Germany. Be‐ de la République to the Place de la Bastille. cause so few residents arrived from Mediter‐ Roux's approach is to focus on Paris strictly as ranean regions, "Paris remained a northern city" an urban entity. The book is organized in a clear (p. 47). Roux subscribes to the viewpoint that the and easy-to-follow fashion. Part 1, in the words of population of Paris in c.1325 was more than two the author, "examines the overall Parisian space, hundred thousand. And as this seething mixture encircled by the walls of the enceinte and orga‐ of human populations coalesced, Paris took on in nized by the diverse authorities who governed it. some ways a very modern identity--not yet per‐ We trace its more detailed aspects in the city haps the City of Light--of emancipation ("town air streets, and seek to understand how this space makes free"); of a constant stream of outsiders was peopled, whence Parisians came, and how who eventually adopted the identity of Parisians; they were transformed into city dwellers who and of a mixing of bureaucrats, shopkeepers, and sometimes thought of themselves as a people su‐ students. (Were there also tourists? If so, Roux is perior to all others" (pp. 2-3). mum about them.) It is not generally appreciated that Paris was In part 2, Roux "looks at the ruling elements almost willed into existence by Philip Augustus. of medieval society in three hierarchies that He took a second-rank town and elevated it. The checked, complemented, and sometimes over‐ royal palace was already located there, but by ex‐ lapped one another" (p. 3). These were hierarchies tending the walls in a planned fashion, large pas‐ of wealth, political power, and the Church. In the‐ toral and agricultural areas were urbanized. Roux ory, these categories were strictly delineated, but calls attention to vineyards that were uprooted to in Paris a fair bit of intermingling took place. For 2 H-Net Reviews example, the great bourgeoisie imitated and in‐ processions that wound their way through the deed often married into the landed nobility. One streets on festival days. example cited by Roux is the des Essarts family, Part 3 investigates daily life. In Paris, as in which originally came from the bourgeoisie of most medieval towns, houses were not just lodg‐ Rouen, but further prospered in Paris. Pierre des ing but often included workshops, storage, and Essarts served as fnance minister in the king's even retail space. Over a hundred different crafts household and shortly thereafter found himself flourished in medieval Paris, most ordered into raised up to the nobility. "Like many other great the hierarchy of masters, apprentices, journey‐ personages ... (Pierre) amassed honors and privi‐ men, and valets. Sometimes these guild arrange‐ leges in two classes: bourgeois of Paris and enno‐ ments made for surrogate families, and this might bled" (p. 69). Other French cities had rich bour‐ partly explain Roux's observation that "the family geoisie, but only in Paris were they so near to the had largely shed its extensions and come to be de‐ king, unquestionably the summit of political pow‐ fined as a couple and their children" (p. 144). In er. addition to the artisans, records show a large ar‐ For their part, nobles of the sword played vir‐ ray of jobs for domestics and unskilled laborers. tually no role in the power structure of Paris, but One document from 1297 suggests that the most could hardly afford to absent themselves from common occupations for taxpaying women were proximity to the king, who now resided perma‐ grocers, chambermaids, headdress makers, dress‐ nently in Paris. One solution was to build a vast makers, and washerwomen. Confraternities, too, second home right in Paris, as did the dukes of could act as extended family. It would be surpris‐ Burgundy in their Hotel de Bourbon adjacent to ing if a French author who covered daily life did the Louvre. As regards the Church, doubtless the not include a discussion of food, and Roux does most powerful presences in Paris were the vener‐ not disappoint. Relying heavily on the Mesnagier able monasteries of St.-Germain-des-Prés and Ste.- de Paris, a well-known late fourteenth-century Geneviève, which had impressive seigneuries text, Roux notes that, like today, "The Parisian both inside and outside the walls of the city. In ad‐ market offered all sorts of commodities in abun‐ dition, the bishop of Paris surrounded by his dance" (p. 177). Clothing could also be found in cathedral clergy, the monasteries and their nu‐ many styles, depending on one's social status. merous monks, the mendicant houses and their Roux observes that contrary to clichés about the friars, and the university with its thousands of Middle Ages, people took baths in tubs in their scholars all contributed a strong clerical favor to houses, and that "all things considered, bodily hy‐ the city.