Burgund

A feast for all senses – the glorious history of Burgundy

Burgundy is a wonder. The powerful realm that stretched between Germany and France in the 14th and 15th centuries united late medieval high culture with a flourishing of Renaissance and Humanism. Bart Van Loo narrates the story of the kingdom from antiquity to its sudden downfall around 1500 in such an engaging way that the world of knightly tournaments and books of hours, of dukes and trading cities, the world of Jan van Eyck and François Villon becomes unforgettable for the reader.

Bart Van Loo presents the history of Burgundy as an ever-tightening drama over 1111 years and one day: The "forgotten millennium" spanned from the ancient Kingdom of Burgundy to the medieval duchy, which radiated far beyond its borders through its castles and monasteries – not least Cluny and Cîteaux. In the "Burgundian century," a magnificent empire emerged from Dijon in the south to Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam in the north, which almost became a kingdom in a "fateful decade" before its decline. With the last Burgundian duke Charles, a new era began: As Emperor Charles V, he made the Habsburgs a great power and ruled an empire. Bart Van Loo's masterful new history of Burgundy is a significant achievement that inevitably brings to mind Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror."

"Great cinema: The history of the Burgundian realm."

Thomas Ribi, Neue Zürcher Zeitung

• Now available in paperback

• Bruges and Ghent, Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, books of hours and poetry – art experienced a golden age in Burgundy

• "History book, historical novel, art guide, and travel guide all in one, … gripping and detailed like a medieval page-turner." Freundin.