Hey Folks. I was wondering if anyone has purchased or heard of "The Medieval World an Illustrated Atlas" offered by National Geographic. I received a pamphlet in the mail about this book. It looks like it might be pretty interesting. Feature: 384 pages 9 1/8 X 10 7/8 in pages, 50 maps, 250 illustrations, rare antique paintings and manuscripts, time lines, and "fascinating" artifacts and portraits. Just wanted to bring this up to either find out more or inform others of this book. Thanks all.

Looked it up on Amazon, it's not available until October 19th. Thanks for posting about it though, I'll definately pick it up when it's available.

I have the book, and my fortunate wife got the "free fleece scarf" (a $1.25 value!) and no, I didn't spring for the simulated leather-bound version. It's a quality book of course, but I was a bit disappointed with it's focus. When they say "Medieval World" they really mean "world." I must admit I learned something right off the bat, which is; apparently the term "Medieval" does not just apply to European history (sounds stupid, I know.) I really thought the word had a very particular connotation to it beyond just a span of time.

That being said, the book skips around in time and place one century at a time, which helps to provide a very sweeping overview of the period, but makes me feel like I have A.D.D. or something. "In 1265 Dante Aligheri is born in Florence, Italy...Oh LOOK!! CHINA!!!"

Still, it has all those intriguing little factoids that Nat Geo does so well, and I ultimately thought the book worth keeping. I do like these kinds of books on my nightstand for when I'm between novels and just feel like picking up a book, opening it to any page and learning some random stuff before I fall asleep. (Not recommended if you're really drowsy, you do NOT want this book hitting you in the nose! Now that I think about it, maybe I should have sprung for the leather-bound edition, hmm!)

I'm not going to go into a full-blown review but if you have any questions about the book, I'll be happy to try answering them!