Time and Governance in Fifteenth-Century Perpignan

Late medieval townspeople reconceptualized time even more radically than contemporary Renaissance humanists did, causing greater everyday and practical consequences.

This book examines how and why late medieval townspeople reconceptualized time and applied their new understanding of it to politics and economics. It is for students and scholars of late medieval history, particularly those interested in the state and its growth, trade, production, social conflict, and the Black Death.In the fifteenth century, Renaissance humanists were not the only ones to think about time differently from previous generations. Time and Governance examines how and why late medieval townspeople – those who bought, sold, and manufactured for a living – reconceptualized time and applied their new understanding of it to politics and to economics. In doing so, this book reconstructs and analyses a place and time both unexpectedly familiar and deeply alien. Blending institutional history with the history of mentalities, Philip Daileader engages with issues of state building, finance, production, social conflict, national identity, and demography. He addresses the question of whether late medieval Europe deserves its often-grim reputation by recapturing and prioritizing the life experiences, thoughts, and opinions of those who lived then and there.