Giving and receiving gifts is always a difficult and complex social
affair. The eminent social historian Zemon Davis shows that this is
nothing new as in this book she takes us through a time when the
gift game in many guises, sometimes pious charity, sometimes
obligation, sometimes bribe. The book, from the author of The
Return of Martin Guerre, analyzes the full spectrum of givers and
receivers from the nobility and the High Church down through the
layers of lesser gentry to the merchants and peasants, highlighting
the way in which the gift, whilst still being held in high
Christian esteem, changed in nature and adopted the moral
'dubiousness' which will be more familiar to the givers and
receivers of our time. Davis draws attention to the role of women
in the gift process, at a time when they were legally and socially
powerless and, in many cases, used as 'gifts' themselves. This is
not a book for the lay historian but a carefully researched
analysis based on a wealth of prime source material. (Kirkus UK)
In this gem of a book, Natalie Zemon Davis explores the role of
gifts in Renaissance France. From the King's bounty to the beggar's
alms, from the lavish feasting and display of civic dignitaries to
the humble tokens exchanged by peasant bride and groom, the giving
and receiving of gifts - then, as now - held tremendous
significance. Full of vignettes which illuminate life and belief in
the sixteenth century, The Gift examines how the giving of presents
functioned at all levels of society. As they do today, people
evaluated gifts all the time - their own gifts and those of others
- deciding what was at stake, and judging whether it was a good
gift, a bad gift, or even a gift at all. Sometimes gifts brought
peace and amity; sometimes they led to bitter quarrels and
accusations of corruption. The Reformation and its liturgy were in
part a quarrel between Protestants and Catholics about whether
humans can give gifts to god, and what gifts we owe each other.
Natalie Zemon Davis here deploys her own gift for the retelling of
sometimes poignant personal stories to offer both telling cultural
detail and a true historical perspective on the turbulent era of
the Renaissance and Reformation.
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