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English University Life in the Middle Ages

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English University Life in the Middle Ages

By: Alan Cobban
Narrated by: Ed Altman
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About this listen

This work presents a composite view of medieval English university life. The author offers detailed insights into the social and economic conditions of the lives of students, their teaching masters and fellows. The experiences of college benefactors, women and university servants are also examined, demonstrating the vibrancy they brought to university life. The second half of the book is concerned with the complex methods of teaching and learning, the regime of studies taught, the relationship between the universities in Oxford and Cambridge, as well as the relationship between “town” and “gown”.

The book is published by The Ohio State University Press.

©1999 Alan B. Cobban (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks Europe Great Britain Medieval Middle Ages England

Critic reviews

“This is a volume which, like the university, offers both instruction and entertainment.” (The Lecturer)
“Triumphantly successful.” (Urban History)
All stars
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I must start by saying that I found this audiobook very interested. But having been associated with three old Oxbridge colleges in different capacities, I probably have more interest than most -- I have always wondered what life was like there in medieval times. And the listener has to be genuinely interested to pursue this audiobook. First the reading -- dreadful! Surely a precursor to reading this book is to learn how to pronounce the names of the Oxford and Cambridge colleges.......any tricky ones were mispronounced. I managed to let this flow over me but it was quite distracting. For the content -- really this is a book for specialists. It is rather rambling and fails to make any link with modern Oxford and Cambridge Universities. For example there is a lot of discussion of The King's Hall. Using wikipedia I discovered that this later formed part of Trinity College but it is not mentioned in the book. And I was very disappointed that there was no final chapter discussing later developments. But many aspects were fascinating, e.g. the way in which college based teaching came to dominate university teaching. So I recommend this audiobook, but not to the casual listener.

Only For The Genuinely Interested

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This book does not lend itself to a performance. It is not a bad book per se, but it is a book of historical reference rather than popular history. It is heavy on the details of the historical evidence and doesn't put it across in a way that is engaging or informative to the average layman. If it is a subject that seriously interests you, then the book is best read in print. I struggled to complete it as I only had a casual interest in the subject.
The performance was appalling. It was read in a steady monotone and is not recommended whilst driving. The pronunciation is awful with names, colleges, and places and even ordinary words all mangled with equal verve.

Esoteric, dry and difficult to listen to

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