Nuremberg in the sixteenth century: city politics and life between Middle Ages and modern times

By Gerald Strauss

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253341507
• ISBN13: 9780253341501
• Release Date: January 1976
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

chapter 5 is the best part

A book should be judged by whether it achieves it's apparent purpose. The purpose of this book is to give a detailed account of life in Germany in the 1500's, and Strauss does so with meticulous detail. His writing is academic, but not wasteful. He makes his points with skill and precision and provides numerous examples. For this, he receives 5 stars. That said, the book is extremely dull. I read it as research on 1600th century life, and I am glad that I did, but it is not what I would call "entertaining." The long descriptions of the town's political system, council meetings, attitudes of the burgers, etc. were great sleepy-time material. Most of the text is strictly reference/ research quality writing (which, to be fair, is exactly what the book purports to be).One exception is Chapter 5, "Daily Life and Work." If you read no other section of the book, read this one. Aside from the morbidly fascinating descriptions of public executions and torture, this part contains surprising details about the cleanliness of a 16th century German town. Not only the city streets, but the citizens themselves were very clean. Public bathes provided the equivalent of a steam, scrub, and message, and nearly every ordinary citizen received this treatment at least once a week. Workers usually received not only their wages, but something called "bath money" expressly for this purpose, and the Council manipulated the system to keep the price low and within reach of all but the very poorest. Other details of housing and upkeep of public property also surprised me. The whole book was worth reading for that one chapter.