Black death. Crusades. Poverty. Famine. Cold. The Middle Ages, ladies and gentlemen.
The Middle Ages are so far from us that when we hear the mention of this period of time, we continue to draw in our heads the picture that we once saw in a few bad movies. But were the Middle Ages really so terrible? Historian Stefaniia Demchuk claims that no, the Middle Ages were neither dark nor wild. In her book, the author tells how everything happened in reality: what people ate and drank, how they raised children, what they feared, and how they celebrated.
Who called the Middle Ages the dark ages? Did children really drink alcohol and what were the educational treatises of that time about? What did people confess at confession? What was the treatment and what did depilation look like at that time?
All this, as well as diets, the educational process in schools, and even fights between students and townspeople, is described by the historian in her book. Stefania brings the people of the Middle Ages to life, telling about this time without myths and taboos.
Stefaniia Demchuk is a historian, Ph.D., and assistant at the Department of Art History of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University.
Co-founder of the scientific and educational project "Symbolon. The Center of Medieval and Early Modern Studies", which started the popularization of medieval studies and early novelistics (history of the 16th century) in Ukraine. The author of the book "From a Beaver to a Pheasant. Food of the Western European Middle Ages".
