Overview

Full Product Details

9780226514796

Table of Contents

Reviews

A keen interest in time and chronology characterizes the long Middle Ages, but it is by no means confined to calendars and computus. This brilliant and provocative book shows how concepts of time permeated everyday life in the fifteenth-century Low Countries. It welds together such seemingly disparate topics as altar painting, manuscript illuminations, ducal entries, bells, biblical history, music, and chronology into a coherent and illuminating whole. Each chapter gives rise to thought-provoking connections with other topics that might not have occurred to the reader before, such as the liturgical measurement of civic processions and the intertwining of art and music. Audible, visual, and emotional time intersect in a harmonious polyphony of time. --Bonnie J. Blackburn, Wolfson College, Oxford This is a wonderfully written book, presenting a highly nuanced and multi-layered analysis. Jacques Le Goff famously pointed to a move from 'Church time' to 'Merchant time' in the Middle Ages; Matthew Champion shows us many further layers of complexity beyond those binary poles. Time is here explored liturgically, civically, historiographically, musically, and visually, and we see throughout how the sacred and the secular entwine, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes pulling against each other. The fullness of time lies not only in its multiple contexts and rhythms, but in its affective reach, as something experienced emotionally, devotionally, and as a core part of how human subjects are made. A stunning work of cultural history, based upon a deep knowledge of the sources combined with considerable theoretical sophistication. --John H. Arnold, King's College, Cambridge Champion's focus is primarily on how the liturgical intersected with the secular in the fifteenth-century Low Countries, but his work bears far broader implications for the analysis of medieval Augustinianisms, and provides a fundamental analysis for study into the shift towards a secularized, mechanical sense of time. --Parergon This text pushes against the concept of a smooth break between medieval time, punctuated by the liturgical reenactment of cosmic events collapsed from the past, present, and future, and newer, more modern temporalities shaped by rational science and mercantilism. . . . Well researched and very well written. . . . Champion does an excellent job of balancing the daunting bibliography of an interdisciplinary approach on a complex conceptual topic with the restraint necessary to produce a readable volume . . . . The end result is a book that is accessible to scholars from across the disciplinary spectrum and appropriate for both scholarly research and a wide variety of upper-division undergraduate topics. --The Medieval Review Champion argues that, in contrast to standard perceptions of 'timelessness, ' the fifteenth-century Low Countries . . . practiced a complex and multi-layered approach to time that has been little recognized. His purpose is to unpack this 'fullness' of time, to explore how time is made manifest in both social life and cultural production. . . . An absolutely fascinating read . . . . If you're up for a challenge and open to the curiosity of exploration, this book will reward you tenfold. Highly recommended. --Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians In this stunningly original and meticulously researched account of time in medieval culture, Matthew Champion extends an august scholarly tradition by virtue of the extraordinarily rich and diverse sources he brings to bear on excavating the experience and philosophy of time in the Low Countries. Drawing on a variety of witnesses from the painted altarpiece, to the urban procession, to the toll of city bells, to the inner voices of the prayerful, to the rumination of the theologian, Champion offers readings that are insightful and moreover virtuosic in the ease with which they move between disciplinary discourses. In particular, The Fullness of Time offers a profound meditation on the role of sound in shaping the tempos of medieval life, the likes of which has rarely been undertaken before in the fields of history or musicology. Generously documented and beautifully written, it will surely be read and admired for many years to come. --Emma Dillon, King's College London

A keen interest in time and chronology characterizes the long Middle Ages, but it is by no means confined to calendars and computus. This brilliant and provocative book shows how concepts of time permeated everyday life in the fifteenth-century Low Countries. It welds together such seemingly disparate topics as altar painting, manuscript illuminations, ducal entries, bells, biblical history, music, and chronology into a coherent and illuminating whole. Each chapter gives rise to thought-provoking connections with other topics that might not have occurred to the reader before, such as the liturgical measurement of civic processions and the intertwining of art and music. Audible, visual, and emotional time intersect in a harmonious polyphony of time. --Bonnie J. Blackburn, Wolfson College, Oxford This is a wonderfully written book, presenting a highly nuanced and multi-layered analysis. Jacques Le Goff famously pointed to a move from 'Church time' to 'Merchant time' in the Middle Ages; Matthew Champion shows us many further layers of complexity beyond those binary poles. Time is here explored liturgically, civically, historiographically, musically, and visually, and we see throughout how the sacred and the secular entwine, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes pulling against each other. The fullness of time lies not only in its multiple contexts and rhythms, but in its affective reach, as something experienced emotionally, devotionally, and as a core part of how human subjects are made. A stunning work of cultural history, based upon a deep knowledge of the sources combined with considerable theoretical sophistication. --John H. Arnold, King's College, Cambridge Champion's focus is primarily on how the liturgical intersected with the secular in the fifteenth-century Low Countries, but his work bears far broader implications for the analysis of medieval Augustinianisms, and provides a fundamental analysis for study into the shift towards a secularized, mechanical sense of time. --Parergon How do we reconcile eternity with the human perception of time? This is a primary question that Matthew S. Champion explores in The Fullness of Time: Temporalities in the Fifteenth-Century Low Countries, a thoroughly engaging account of the ways various temporal systems - the everyday rhythms of workers, political history, and devotio moderna's innovations in liturgical and devotional practices - overlay each other in fifteenth-century Leuven, Ghent, and Cambrai. . . . The Fullness of Time provides its readers with a fascinating overview of myriad ways time operates in a particular region at a particular time. --Dennis Austin Britton, University of New Hampshire Postmedieval This text pushes against the concept of a smooth break between medieval time, punctuated by the liturgical reenactment of cosmic events collapsed from the past, present, and future, and newer, more modern temporalities shaped by rational science and mercantilism. . . . Well researched and very well written. . . . Champion does an excellent job of balancing the daunting bibliography of an interdisciplinary approach on a complex conceptual topic with the restraint necessary to produce a readable volume . . . . The end result is a book that is accessible to scholars from across the disciplinary spectrum and appropriate for both scholarly research and a wide variety of upper-division undergraduate topics. --The Medieval Review Champion argues that, in contrast to standard perceptions of 'timelessness, ' the fifteenth-century Low Countries . . . practiced a complex and multi-layered approach to time that has been little recognized. His purpose is to unpack this 'fullness' of time, to explore how time is made manifest in both social life and cultural production. . . . An absolutely fascinating read . . . . If you're up for a challenge and open to the curiosity of exploration, this book will reward you tenfold. Highly recommended. --Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians In this stunningly original and meticulously researched account of time in medieval culture, Matthew Champion extends an august scholarly tradition by virtue of the extraordinarily rich and diverse sources he brings to bear on excavating the experience and philosophy of time in the Low Countries. Drawing on a variety of witnesses from the painted altarpiece, to the urban procession, to the toll of city bells, to the inner voices of the prayerful, to the rumination of the theologian, Champion offers readings that are insightful and moreover virtuosic in the ease with which they move between disciplinary discourses. In particular, The Fullness of Time offers a profound meditation on the role of sound in shaping the tempos of medieval life, the likes of which has rarely been undertaken before in the fields of history or musicology. Generously documented and beautifully written, it will surely be read and admired for many years to come. --Emma Dillon, King's College London

A keen interest in time and chronology characterizes the long Middle Ages, but it is by no means confined to calendars and computus. This brilliant and provocative book shows how concepts of time permeated everyday life in the fifteenth-century Low Countries. It welds together such seemingly disparate topics as altar painting, manuscript illuminations, ducal entries, bells, biblical history, music, and chronology into a coherent and illuminating whole. Each chapter gives rise to thought-provoking connections with other topics that might not have occurred to the reader before, such as the liturgical measurement of civic processions and the intertwining of art and music. Audible, visual, and emotional time intersect in a harmonious polyphony of time. --Bonnie J. Blackburn, Wolfson College, Oxford This is a wonderfully written book, presenting a highly nuanced and multi-layered analysis. Jacques Le Goff famously pointed to a move from 'Church time' to 'Merchant time' in the Middle Ages; Matthew Champion shows us many further layers of complexity beyond those binary poles. Time is here explored liturgically, civically, historiographically, musically, and visually, and we see throughout how the sacred and the secular entwine, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes pulling against each other. The fullness of time lies not only in its multiple contexts and rhythms, but in its affective reach, as something experienced emotionally, devotionally, and as a core part of how human subjects are made. A stunning work of cultural history, based upon a deep knowledge of the sources combined with considerable theoretical sophistication. --John H. Arnold, King's College, Cambridge In this stunningly original and meticulously researched account of time in medieval culture, Matthew Champion extends an august scholarly tradition by virtue of the extraordinarily rich and diverse sources he brings to bear on excavating the experience and philosophy of time in the Low Countries. Drawing on a variety of witnesses from the painted altarpiece, to the urban procession, to the toll of city bells, to the inner voices of the prayerful, to the rumination of the theologian, Champion offers readings that are insightful and moreover virtuosic in the ease with which they move between disciplinary discourses. In particular, The Fullness of Time offers a profound meditation on the role of sound in shaping the tempos of medieval life, the likes of which has rarely been undertaken before in the fields of history or musicology. Generously documented and beautifully written, it will surely be read and admired for many years to come. --Emma Dillon, King's College London

A keen interest in time and chronology characterizes the long Middle Ages, but it is by no means confined to calendars and computus. This brilliant and provocative book shows how concepts of time permeated everyday life in the fifteenth-century Low Countries. It welds together such seemingly disparate topics as altar painting, manuscript illuminations, ducal entries, bells, biblical history, music, and chronology into a coherent and illuminating whole. Each chapter gives rise to thought-provoking connections with other topics that might not have occurred to the reader before, such as the liturgical measurement of civic processions and the intertwining of art and music. Audible, visual, and emotional time intersect in a harmonious polyphony of time. --Bonnie J. Blackburn, Wolfson College, Oxford This is a wonderfully written book, presenting a highly nuanced and multi-layered analysis. Jacques Le Goff famously pointed to a move from 'Church time' to 'Merchant time' in the Middle Ages; Matthew Champion shows us many further layers of complexity beyond those binary poles. Time is here explored liturgically, civically, historiographically, musically, and visually, and we see throughout how the sacred and the secular entwine, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes pulling against each other. The fullness of time lies not only in its multiple contexts and rhythms, but in its affective reach, as something experienced emotionally, devotionally, and as a core part of how human subjects are made. A stunning work of cultural history, based upon a deep knowledge of the sources combined with considerable theoretical sophistication. --John H. Arnold, King's College, Cambridge This text pushes against the concept of a smooth break between medieval time, punctuated by the liturgical reenactment of cosmic events collapsed from the past, present, and future, and newer, more modern temporalities shaped by rational science and mercantilism. . . . Well researched and very well written. . . . Champion does an excellent job of balancing the daunting bibliography of an interdisciplinary approach on a complex conceptual topic with the restraint necessary to produce a readable volume . . . . The end result is a book that is accessible to scholars from across the disciplinary spectrum and appropriate for both scholarly research and a wide variety of upper-division undergraduate topics. --The Medieval Review Champion argues that, in contrast to standard perceptions of 'timelessness, ' the fifteenth-century Low Countries . . . practiced a complex and multi-layered approach to time that has been little recognized. His purpose is to unpack this 'fullness' of time, to explore how time is made manifest in both social life and cultural production. . . . An absolutely fascinating read . . . . If you're up for a challenge and open to the curiosity of exploration, this book will reward you tenfold. Highly recommended. --Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians In this stunningly original and meticulously researched account of time in medieval culture, Matthew Champion extends an august scholarly tradition by virtue of the extraordinarily rich and diverse sources he brings to bear on excavating the experience and philosophy of time in the Low Countries. Drawing on a variety of witnesses from the painted altarpiece, to the urban procession, to the toll of city bells, to the inner voices of the prayerful, to the rumination of the theologian, Champion offers readings that are insightful and moreover virtuosic in the ease with which they move between disciplinary discourses. In particular, The Fullness of Time offers a profound meditation on the role of sound in shaping the tempos of medieval life, the likes of which has rarely been undertaken before in the fields of history or musicology. Generously documented and beautifully written, it will surely be read and admired for many years to come. --Emma Dillon, King's College London

Author Information

Matthew Champion is a lecturer in medieval history at Birkbeck, University of London.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available