
“This is an effort to see the 14th and 15th centuries, not as a prelude to the Renaissance, but as the conclusion of the Middle Ages; an effort to see medieval culture in the last stage of its life, as a tree whose fruit is overripe — fully revealed, having reached the peak of its development. The overgrowth of a vital core by stiffened, cerebral forms; a rich culture drying up and hardening — that is the subject of these pages. When I wrote this book, it was as if I gazed into the depth of the evening sky; but it was blood-red, heavy, deserted, covered in ominous leaden holes and shining with a false, copper glint.”
preface to the first edition of Autumn (18)
(Conclusion. Continued from part 2.)
But now, we leave behind the silly troubles of our age, the clouds gathered over our nonexistent future, the self-parodic incompleteness and defectiveness of our lives. We follow Huizinga into the stern, majestic world of medieval Europe. Continue reading →