It's been a long time since i posted something. Ok well here is my question. I was wondering if there are any good sites or books that delve deeply into medieval houses, cities, and other types of buildings from western europe. And also have lots of pictures included.

Hello all!

Mike,

There's one book I'm aware of, Journey's Into Medieval England by Michael Jenner, that presents an overview of some interesting medieval buildings still standing in England. It doesn't go into detail about construction and use, and obviously covers the homes of the "great" as opposed to homes of the common folk. It covers England region-by-region, and gives a brief description and location of each site. There are many nice colour and black and white photos, including some nice architectural details (like a bagpiper from Beverley Minster, Yorkshire, and a miniature knight carved on the tomb of Aymer de Valence in Westminster Abbey). It doesn't talk just about castles and cathedrals; the book has a photo of a fourteenth century stone bridge at Stopham in Sussex, the fortified manor of Ightham Mote in Kent, a medieval street scene and the half-timbered guildhall at Lavenham in Suffolk, and the Great Coxwell barn of limestone and oak. This book might not delve as deeply as you would like, but it's full of photos.

If you're looking for an interesting book about medieval military architecture, The Medieval Fortress: Castles, Forts and Walled Cities of the Middle Ages by J. E. Kaufmann and H. W. Kaufmann has quite a bit of information. It talks about the general features of medieval military architecture, the history of medieval fortifications, and medieval castles and fortresses found throughout Europe. The Kaufmann's covered areas not often covered by other authors, such as the timber fortresses of Dark Age Eastern Europe, and the castles of Central and Eastern Europe. Plans and drawings or photos are included in the section about individual castles.

I hope this information was helpful in your search!

Stay safe!

Thanks a lot I'll check into that 1st book. I already have that 2nd book ( I love it and look at it almost every day.)

Ha. I just found that first book on half.com and bought it. Got it for $5

Hey Mike,

There's another outstanding book that I'm aware of called A Day in a Medieval City by Chiara Frugoni. It's emphasis is more about the infrastructure of medieval towns and cities and what society was mostly like. This book could complement the ones that Richard mentioned.

I'll check this one out to

The Museum of London has books in there physical shop on timber framing and archeological digs of town homes from London starting from the Roman era to the Middle Ages. I bought several while in London in October. I will dig them out and give you titles and ISBN numbers later this week.

Mike,
I don't know if this will be of any use as I don't know if this has ever been translated to english, but Viollet-le-Duc deals at length with construction in his Encyclopedie Medievale. He was an architect and was at the forefront of the medieval revival in the XIX th century in France. He was instrumental in saving Carcassonne, the greatest walled city in the south of France , from falling apart, and rebuilding the parts that had been badly damaged . His work is full of drawings which show the construction techniques and they are worth seeing even if you don't read french.

well I barely scraped a passing in my french class but I'm pretty sure the pictures would be of good use

Life in a Medieval City, by Joseph and Frances Ges, includes a chapter called "A Burgher's Home" (As opposed to the Home of the Whopper...sorry bad joke!). It's light on the illustrations but there may be some info of use to you in there (I have the book but haven't read it yet).

Hello all!

Shawn Shaw wrote:

Life in a Medieval City, by Joseph and Frances Ges, includes a chapter called "A Burgher's Home" (As opposed to the Home of the Whopper...sorry bad joke!). It's light on the illustrations but there may be some info of use to you in there (I have the book but haven't read it yet).

Shawn's suggestion also brought to mind Life in a Medieval Village by Joseph and Frances Gies. This has some photos of reconstructed iron-age and Anglo-Saxon peasants' houses, as well as a couple of basic floor plans for typical medieval villagers' homes. It also includes a description of the buildings in a medieval English village, as well as the villagers themselves. I read it, it's pretty informative! ;)

Read Life in a Medieval City and Life in a Medieval Castle, too! They are all pretty decent and readable social histories. There is some talk of the architecture of castles in Life in a Medieval Castle, and a map of medieval Troyes in Life in a Medieval City.

I believe all three may be available in a combined book.

Stay safe!

And check out some books and websites about Wharram Percy.

You might also want to check into some magazines that focus on specific regions of Europe, covering their history and present day culture. When I was over in Normandy, for example, there was a magazine on the Norman region that had a an article about surviving 12th and 13th century houses in Rouen. I know it's not always easy to find these sorts of magazines, but they could be quite rewarding.

Sorry for the late reply that I promised. Here are the books I got at the MOL:

Roman and Medieval Townhouses on the London Waterfront - Excavations at the Governor's House, City of London

ISBN 1-901992-21-7

Timber Building Techniques in London C.900-1400

ISBN 0-903290-41-3