This first real entry in the category “Sourcery” is dedicated to a series of books that we won’t be able to pin to any specific supplement*), because they’re kind of basic reference and inspiration to us: The works of Frances and Joseph Gies.
So far, I read the following three books:
• Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages (1994), where the authors delineate technological advance from A.D. 500 to 1500, from the heavy plow to movable types;
• Life in a Medieval City (1969), where they describe what was it like to live in a medieval city in 1250, taking today’s French city of Troyes as an example;
• Life in a Medieval Village (1990), where they describe everyday life in an English village (uh, and which I got only half through before having to return it to the library, not the book's fault…).
Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel, we loved most (Heiko read it, too), because we’re always interested on the topic of “tech level” in fantasy gaming: Do people have clocks? Mirrors? Where do they wash their hands? How’s their laundry done and who’s doing it?
We’re thinking carefully on these things when building our locations. And, when writing about characters, I just love to drop details of their daily life and work.
The Gieses’ books are full of such details on daily living and outstanding achievement. Sometimes surprising: Would you’ve thought that there was a mechanical clock in 1090? (In Khaifeng, during “Sung Dynasty” – I always underestimate the tech level of a given period); and sometimes outright funny, for example when they mention that coverlets and clothes were folded so tightly in a chest that fleas would suffocate. (Which means, that your PCs “just doing a quick search for any valuables inside this chest” will have hell of a time to get all the linens back and the lid closed, if they don’t know how to efficiently fold bedclothes.) I read this detail in “Life in a Medieval City” on p. 45 (“A Burgher’s Home”) and what’s even better: I dimly remembered reading it and found it again today looking up the index under “fleas” -> Great Book!)
If doing so (folding tightly) was a widespread and successful practice… I don’t know, and there’s no reference to corroborate this tidbit of cultural history. But as a writer of fantasy game aids I don’t care so much, as long as it’s such a funny and atmospheric detail.
Searching the web, I found astonishingly few entries about this married couple researching and working together for apparently all their lives. Wiki tells us, that Frances Gies (born 1915) and Jospeh Gies (1916-2006) wrote (not always together) 14 books on the Middle Ages (and lists them, of course).
There are lots of positive reviews to be found, though; here is an elaborate one on Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel. In Blogs you read sentences like “Before you do anything, though, go to the library to borrow, or buy all…” or “one of my all time favorite resources”, which I'd perfectly agree with. Finally, I found a lengthy entry on Google answers attesting to the Gieses’ credibility (and sounding very credible to me;-) The anonymous author puts it well: “If you are a serious historian, you may want to seek more ‘scholarly’ works and since history is an evolving topic, you may want to find more recent works as well. But if you are just beginning your studies, nowhere will you find a more comprehensive, detailed, and accessible general introduction to the topic of medieval daily life. We all have to start somewhere, and I recommend the Gies highly.”
Yes, me too:)
*) with "specific supplement" I mean our floor plans yet to come - somewhat later as planned;-)
these sound like awsome books. thanks for the pointer!