Johan Huizinga
Autumntide of the Middle Ages A study of forms of life and thought of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in France and the Low Countries This new English translation of Huizinga’s Autumntide of the Middle Ages (Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen) celebrates the centenary of a book that still ranks as one of the most perceptive and influential analyses of the late medieval period. Its wide-ranging discussion of fourteenth and fifteenth century France and the Low Countries makes it a classic study of life, culture, and thought in medieval society. The new and now unabridged translation of the original text captures the impact of Huizinga’s deep scholarship and powerful language. The translation is based on the Dutch edition of 1941 – the last edition Huizinga worked on. It features English renderings of the Middle French poems and other contemporary sources, and its colour illustrations include over three hundred paintings and prints, illuminated manuscripts, and miniatures pertinent to Huizinga’s discourse. A complete bibliography of Huizinga’s sources will facilitate further research, while an epilogue addresses the meaning and enduring importance of this classic work. The translator has captured the poetic qualities of Huizinga’s authorial voice without sacrificing the readability of the text. (…) The result is a version of the text that captures Huizinga’s original voice better than either of the two previous English editions. − Benjamin Kaplan, the low countries. Translated from Dutch by Diane Webb Edited by Anton van der Lem and Graeme Small
HISTORY Publication date May 2020 NUR 680, 684 ISBN 9789087283131 Language English Price € 62.50 £ 55.00 $ 69.50 Format Hardback, illustrated 215 x 270 mm Page extent 616 Cover design Suzan Beijer Imprint LUP General
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HISTORY
Johan Huizinga (1872-1945), one of the founders of cultural history, ranks among the most influential Dutch thinkers of the twentieth century. He produced a body of writing on subjects that range from medieval art to the mechanization of modern America. The publication of Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen in 1919 brought him international renown, and contributed to the multiple nominations he received later in his career for the Nobel Prize in Literature, a rare accolade for a professor of history. Among his other important works are Erasmus (1924), In the Shadow of Tomorrow (1935) and Homo Ludens (1938). He died in internal exile, a few months before the liberation of the Netherlands.
