Guest Author - Helen B. Wharton

A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age by William Manchester.
1992 ISBN 0-316-54531-7 (HC)
1993 ISBN 0-316-5456-2 (PB) $15.99
Little, Brown and Company

The book starts with a List of Illustrations, a List of Maps, a Chronology and an Author's Note. For someone who reads a book the way I do, these being at the beginning are invaluable. When I start to read a new book I like to read all the dates and publishing information on the front page first, then I scan the contents and look at the photos and illustrations. Next I read the introduction and peruse the index. After all that I start to read the book.

Each illustration is listed with the name of the subject, the source and the page number. The illustrations help to put a face to all the names so frequently associated with the Renaissance, Savonarola, Erasmus, Macchiavelli, Copernicus, Martin Luther and Anne Boleyn to name a few.

The maps are detailed and fascinating. One map shows the political division of Europe and North West Asia during the Middle Ages, another portrays the political division of Europe at the height of the Renaissance, including the city-states of Italy and the many territories comprising the Holy Roman Empire.

One of the most helpful parts of the book, in terms of quick reference, is the Chronology, which starts with the fall of Rome in 410 and goes to 1536, on just two pages.

The book is divided into three sections but not individual chapters. This is a problem for me, because the book is full of interesting information but the only way to find specific information is to check the index. This seems like a small issue in such a good book, but it made reading the book somewhat confusing. That being said, I still recommend the book, highly, to anyone who is looking for detailed information on how the Renaissance came to be.

The book explains life and conditions for the powerful and peasants during the Medieval Period and how they thought and viewed their world. This is important to understand how everything changed during the Renaissance.

Religion was such an all encompassing part of life during the Middle Ages. But the changes in thinking which started the Renaissance were, in large part, brought about by the invention of the printing press and the development of Protestantism. This is a major thrust of the book and the story is told in great detail.

Finally, the third section is devoted to Magellan and his ship's first circumnavigation of the world. In Manchester's opinion, Magellan is an example of his age and the entire book leads up to this section. It is a fascinating book and well worth the read for all students of the Renaissance.