A Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock, c. 1295-1344

I really don’t know what I like or don’t like about this bug because I haven’t read it yet. It’ll be interesting to see what it’s about. It’s for a class

Just as described

This book was recommended summer reading for Advanced Placement European History. I think it will give the students an excellent understanding of Medieval Life for the majority of the population. It was not however an easy read. The organization is by theme rather than chronological and the author references many other texts that high school students and many teachers are not going to have read.

Did you know we only have good accounts of about five peasants in all of the Medieval period? Much higher chances of princely records to be preserved. This book is thorough, easy to read, and I am so glad my Professor requested it for her class. Definitely a keeper.

WOW! Great Information!

In addition the utter failure to make the text interesting by centering on a character who we have hardly any information about, the writing is horrendously repetitive. Each section will focus on a different aspect of medieval lifestyle but the same information is often restated in a different context. The actual writing is full of repetition and needless filler as well. With more concise writing and efficient organization of information this book, at only 138 pages which seemed to drag on longer than the entire Harry Potter series, could've been shortened to a single chapter in a regular textbook.

Most medieval history was written by "those who pray" about themselves or "those who fight", so we know very little about peasant life. This book helps to flesh out what we do know, using the life of Cecilia Penifader, a singlewoman of Brigstock manor. Through court and manor records, Judith Bennett reconstructs how she lived and what she thought. Because the chapters are organized by topic, rather than chronologically, this gives a certain repetition as topics are examined from different points of view. The author takes pains to emphasize that peasant life varied greatly, but that this is one example.Like other reviewers, I find the high textbook price to be irritating.

I recently read this book for a history class and have to say that the book is very enjoyable. It's brevity and clarity make it a great introduction to medieval history. Cecilia Penifader was a well-to-do peasant woman living in Brigstock, England in the early 14th century. Bennett uses Cecilia to introduce the reader to all aspects of peasant life in this time period. There are in-depth studies of economics, religion, living conditions, and gender roles, as well as other interesting facets of peasant life. Bennett also makes sure to include some interesting little tidbits, such as the role of contraception during this period.One of the best things to be said about this book is how Bennett highlights terms that the reader is most likely to not be familiar with. These words are listed in a handy glossary in the back of the book. Most people aren't familiar with terms such as heliot, so this addition to the book is very helpful. As mentioned above, the brevity and clarity of the book go a long way to making the text more enjoyable. The book foregoes footnotes and endnotes, which would certainly help the non-scholars who can't stand wading through tons of citations. There are also some nice diagrams that help the reader visualize various aspects of peasant life.The lack of footnotes and endnotes is a problem for the historian and student, such as myself. I wouldn't go so far as the other reviewer here and pan the entire book, but that reviewer certainly has a point. Bennett also relies on inference more than she probably should. Although her deductions seem sound, her conclusions, backed up with more evidence and properly cited, would have been much appreciated.I think this is an excellent survey text that would make a nice addition to any library. After reading the book, the reader can readily picture Cecilia and feel as if they almost know her, and any book that can accomplish that is always worth a read.

This book documents what can be known of the life of Cecilia Penifader, who lived in the vill of Brigstock from about 1295 until her death in 1344. Cecilia's life is able to be largely reconstructed because of the great number of court rolls and other documents that exist still today and which document much of what went on in Brigstock and the surrounding area over a long period of time. The Penifader family of Brigstock were a quite well-off family for the area, and Cecilia, her father, mother, brothers and sisters were documented throughout their lives in court cases, births, deaths, marriages and associated transactions of land, fines, officeholdings (although that concerned men only, not women). From that information which exists, the author has extrapolated to what life may have been like for Cecilia, her family and their kin, and the wider Brigstock community.This is a highly interesting book; it brings to life what can often be dry, uninteresting factual accounts of peasant life in the medieval period. While obviously facts about Cecilia's life are not sufficient to draw a day by day narrative, much is known and much can be drawn from what is extant. It helps to put an individual's life into perspective amongst so much information, to make a life personal and to put some personality into a period of time that is so alien to all of us today. Definitely a great read, and of interest to anyone wanting to understand more of the times, and of the lives lived.

This book gives a succint insight into the life and times of a peasant in medieval England. It shows how the manorial system really worked.

I agree whole-heartedly with the reviewer who wrote "Excellent Introductory Book...". Crystal, I think, has missed the point; she would be better satisfied by others of the author's books, with their citations and bibliographies.Having already done more extensive reading, I was concerned that the book's brevity and lack of citations would leave me dissatisfied. But I trusted Bennet and got the book anyway. I'm very glad I did.Perhaps I'm just too old to absorb a lot of material and properly synthesize it. It any case, I found that this book pulled together strands from many areas about which I'd read (religion, singlewomen, settlement patterns, social and family relationships, life stages, etc.) and wove a single, simple,coherent picture.A further criticism was that Bennet "attempted to give her subject a personality without any basis in fact". Bennet did not manufacture a personality; she did, however, use Cecilia as a sort of Everywoman and outlined her life as it almost certainly would have been, based, I'm sure, on many sources not specific to Cecilia.(Similarly, one knows that a woman who grew up in 1980's North America most likely went to elementary school and had played outside with her friends at recess, even if there is no surviving documentation of this; one may not be able to state it as fact about an individual, but one can present it as part of an Everywoman story.)As has been mentioned, a short list of further reading is provided at the end of each chapter; these books are the academically rigorous ones, with full source citations and bibliographies.As for the $28 - this is a short book, but concise and covering a lot of ground,an excellent jumping-off point.