This play is a two-sided coin. His sources include chronicles, such as the Chronicle of Eberhard Windecke the so-called Bern chronicle and the chronicle of Enguerrand de Monstrelet. Given the absence of archival resources, E. At the same time, E. Perhaps the most striking example is when E. The book consists of ten chapters which diverge considerably both in their length and worth. They do have at least one thing in common. Namely, they all present new information concerning the history of the mentality, culture, and literature of the time and place under discussion.
Just to cite two examples, one might think of the publication by A. The best parts of the texts are the passages in which E. His descriptions become very evocative and he does not digress or mention less pertinent associations, for instance in his description of the reception in Siena pp. It is certainly worth noting that the array of appendices which meet high scholarly standards is impressive and praiseworthy. It would also have been useful to have a proper index in order to make the work more easily accessible, though perhaps this would have made it too long.
Following a description of the arrival, the reader is given a glimpse into everyday life in Siena. How much did things cost? Who slept where, and on what? What did they eat? How did they pass the time? What did an average day consist of for a king? How much did the revels in Siena cost? Certainly literary historians will find a great many things of interest in this book, for which one can only be grateful.
The other topic which comes up regularly is the financial circumstances of the various people in Siena, the conflicts that were caused by financial concerns, and the ways in which these conflicts were addressed. The reader learns, for example, that since the soldiers received only modest wages, they were not able to go to brothels often enough.
The locals, however, nonetheless watched the successful courtships of the foreigners with envy. Just to mention a few examples, I do not think E. These examples, which are intended to serve as illustrative parallels, do little more than distract the reader.
