Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages, and During theRenaissance Period.

Preface.

he several successive editions of "The Arts of the Middle Ages and Periodof the Renaissance" sufficiently testify to its appreciation by thepublic. The object of that work was to introduce the reader to a branch oflearning to which access had hitherto appeared only permitted to thescientific. That attempt, which was a bold one, succeeded too well not toinduce us to push our researches further. In fact, art alone cannotacquaint us entirely with an epoch. "The arts, considered in theirgenerality, are the true expressions of society. They tell us its tastes,its ideas, and its character." We thus spoke in the preface to our firstwork, and we find nothing to modify in this opinion. Art must be thefaithful expression of a society, since it represents it by its works asit has created them--undeniable witnesses of its spirit and manners forfuture generations. But it must be acknowledged that art is only theconsequence of the ideas which it expresses; it is the fruit ofcivilisation, not its origin. To understand the Middle Ages and theRenaissance, it is necessary to go back to the source of its art, and toknow the life of our fathers; these are two inseparable things, whichentwine one another, and become complete one by the other.

The Manners and Customs of the Middle Ages:--this subject is of thegreatest interest, not only to the man of science, but to the man of theworld also. In it, too, "we retrace not only one single period, but twoperiods quite distinct one from the other." In the first, the public andprivate customs offer a curious mixture of barbarism and civilisation. Wefind barbarian, Roman, and Christian customs and character in presence ofeach other, mixed up in the same society, and very often in the sameindividuals. Everywhere the most adverse and opposite tendencies displaythemselves. What an ardent struggle during that long period! and how full,too, of emotion is its picture! Society tends to reconstitute itself inevery aspect. She wants to create, so to say, from every side, property,authority, justice, &c., &c., in a word, everything which can establishthe basis of public life; and this new order of things must be establishedby means of the elements supplied at once by the barbarian, Roman, andChristian world--a prodigious creation, the working of which occupied thewhole of the Middle Ages. Hardly does modern society, civilised byChristianity, reach the fullness of its power, than it divides itself tofollow different paths. Ancient art and literature resuscitates becausecustom insensibly takes that direction. Under that influence, everythingis modified both in private and public life. The history of the human racedoes not present a subject more vast or more interesting. It is a subjectwe have chosen to succeed our first book, and which will be followed by asimilar study on the various aspects of Religious and Military Life.

This work, devoted to the vivid and faithful description of the Mannersand Customs of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, answers fully to therequirements of contemporary times. We are, in fact, no longer contentwith the chronological narration and simple nomenclatures which formerlywere considered sufficient for education. We no longer imagine that thehistory of our institutions has less interest than that of our wars, northat the annals of the humbler classes are irrelevant to those of theprivileged orders. We go further still. What is above all sought for inhistorical works nowadays is the physiognomy, the inmost character of pastgenerations. "How did our fathers live?" is a daily question. "Whatinstitutions had they? What were their political rights? Can you notplace before us their pastimes, their hunting parties, their meals, and