Worthy Effforts and the medieval economy

Worthy Effforts is a book that transcends many boundaries. Its discussion of attitudes to work and workers combines social and economic history with the history of ideas, incorporates knowledge and insights from an enormous body of literature based on a wide variety of sources (from theological and philosophical treatises via ordinances and ego-documents to paintings and other visual representations), and crosses geographical borders between European regions with ease. Last but not least, the book covers an unusually long period – 2,500 years, to be precise – and thus bridges the traditional distinctions between Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the early modern era. This book embodies the culmination of decades of historical research by the authors and offfers its readers a tremendous wealth of historical detail and stimulating ideas. When four years ago Catharina Lis, together with Josef Ehmer, published an edited volume on perceptions of work, the objective was primarily to open new vistas and stimulate discussion. 1 Worthy Effforts is more ambitious: Lis and Soly make a courageous attempt to identify, and explain, long-term patterns of continuity and change in attitudes to work and workers. This ties up with the idea, gaining ground over the last decade or so, that many of the structural and institutional transformations that shaped Europe’s development after 1500 have older roots. While this will appeal to those scholars – and I am one of them – who feel the need to include the Middle Ages in studies of the long-term social and economic development of Europe, it also poses a new challenge, for Lis and Soly suggest that we may have to look back further than the year 1000 to fij ind these roots. They forcefully reject the standard historical account holding that attitudes to work and workers changed fundamentally with the arrival of Christianity, emphasizing continuity for aspects such as the value attached to labour as conducive to virtue and happiness, the notion that work should serve