Court and Civic Society in the Burgundian Low Countries c. 1420-1520

This book is the first ever attempt to unite and translate some of the key texts which informed Johan Huizinga's famous study of the Burgundian court in The Waning of the Middle Ages, a work which has never gone out of print. It combines these texts with sources that Huizinga did not consider, those that illuminate the wider civic world that the Burgundian court inhabited, and the dynamic interaction between court and city. Through these sources, and an introduction offering new perspectives on recent historiography, the book tests whether Huizinga's controversial vision of the period still stands. Covering subjects including ceremonial events, such as the spectacles and gargantuan banquets that made the Burgundian dukes the talk of Europe, the workings of the court, and jousting, archery and rhetoric competitions, the book will appeal to students of late medieval and early modern Europe and to those with wider interests in court culture, ritual and ceremony.

Andrew Brown is Senior Lecturer in the School of History and Classics at the University of Edinburgh.Graeme Small is Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Glasgow.