Peter Spufford is an Emeritus Professor in Cambridge, and has been the leading authority on medieval monetary history for a generation; but this book is a labour of love as well as of scholarship. It has a wealth of beautiful illustrations and the text is full of information, much of it new to me.
The Preface is different from most. Instead of merely paying tribute to those who helped, it tells us about the author's trials and tribulations, experienced during the many journeys he made by way of research, during a period of some 30 years. This introductory section is written in a delightfully engaging and personal way, which makes it clear that Spufford sacrificed many family holidays, except that for him it was clearly no sacrifice at all.
The journeys were his library; and during that time, Spufford learned to `read' all over again, not just by looking at places, but by studying the background detail in paintings, to discover the economic realities behind what the artist was commissioned to paint. It is this deep understanding which gives the book such power and authority.
It may even cause the reader to alter his view of medieval Europe. Traditionally, we were taught that England and France became the most powerful and progressive countries of the early modern age because they were politically united in the High Middle Ages. By comparison, Italy and Germany were `late developers'; but if we switch the focus of attention from politics to economics and commerce, as this book does, Italy and Germany emerge as the dominant powers of the Late Middle Ages, long before they were politically united.
