Josef Fleckenstein

The book serves as a good synthesis of scholarship on the topic of knighthood, mainly as it played out in medieval Germany and to a lesser extent in parts of Italy. In this regard the title is somewhat misleading. Despite being a collection of papers, there seems to be a logical progression of argument throughout the book and a continuity of theme. Fleckenstein seems to avoid contextualizing the development of knighthood in Germany to what was happening elsewhere in Europe. This makes it difficult, at times, to distinguish whether or not, the particularities he is discussing are peculiar to Germany or common to all of Europe. As it is a work of synthesis, there is probably nothing new or groundbreaking revealed here, but serves as a good starting point to examine knighthood in medieval Germany.… (mais)