Our common image of the Middle Ages, constructed partly from the popular accounts by Tuchman and Huizinga, is a period in European history when cultural activity was in decay. Van Oostrom's Court and Culture convincingly challenges this accepted notion by presenting for the first time evidence of a lively medieval court culture in the northern Netherlands. The first full-length study of Dutch aristocratic literature, Court and Culture explores both that literature's own remarkable identity and its many interrelations with the culture of other European courts, in effect putting Dutch aristocratic literature on the map of international medieval court culture. Thus, Van Oostrom not only writes a new chapter of Dutch literary and cultural history but also provides a new perspective on the larger court culture of medieval Europe. A ground-breaking study of Dutch court culture in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, this book also interweaves dynastic history, documentary evidence, art, architecture, and literature to produce a unique and persuasive analysis of the formative moments of that court. Van Oostrom takes examples of literature usually studied only in the context of individual genres and considers them together in light of the contemporary Dutch court life. At the same time, he integrates literary historiography with the history of society, culture, and mentality. An exemplary work of cultural history that expands and redefines our knowledge of the period, Court and Culture confronts as well the more fundamental questions of how cultures shape themselves and how we can effectively reconstruct and define our past. Van Oostrom's sensitive, skillful interpretations produce a book that is a pleasure to read and is sure to be considered one of the pivotal studies on the courtly life of the Middle Ages.