Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/390

 340 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE have come down to us from as early as the twelfth or thir- teenth centuries, yet the towns did not alter tion of the greatly in their general appearance and charac- SpecTof ter unt ^ a ^ ter t ^ ie g reat industrial revolution of European the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Since then the old has been rapidly swept away and even the picturesque walls have been leveled and replaced by monotonous and dusty " boulevards." But in many cities there are still a few old houses left, though their exact age is often uncertain ; and some towns, like San Gemignano in Italy, Dinan in Brittany, Schaffhausen in Switzerland, and Rothenburg on the Tauber in Germany, still preserve a great deal of their medieval atmosphere and charm. Larger cities like Rouen and Niirnberg are fast losing it before the increasing inroads of modern business, factories, and truck automobiles, although it is hard to get rid of the old, narrow, crooked, and hilly streets. EXERCISES AND READINGS Contemporary Accounts of the Rise of the Towns. Robinson, Readings in European History, vol. I, selections 118 and 121. 1. When were these accounts written and to what towns do they apply? 2. Which is favorable and which is hostile to the towns? 3. Can this be accounted for in both cases by the authorship? 4. Which passage is the more informing? Secondary Accounts of the Rise of the Towns. Blok, History of the People of the Netherlands (English translation, 1898), vol. I, pp. 215-51, or especially pp. 215-27 and 244-50, on the rise of towns in general and of those of the Netherlands in particular. See the readings at the close of the two following chapters for fur- ther selections, most of which have reference to the rise of towns in some one country. The Gilds: Source Material. G. Jones, The Trades of Paris, vol. 11, no. 9, of European History Studies, F. M. Fling, editor, Lincoln, Nebraska. The pamphlet contains eight passages with questions upon each. Robinson, Readings in European History, vol. 1, selections 164 and 165. The Gilds: Secondary Accounts. 44 Industry in Pisa in the Early Fourteenth Century," in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. xxvm (1913-14), pp. 341-59. Villari, First Two Centuries of Florentine History, chap, vi on "The Greater Gilds," especially pp. 310-40.