The Medieval Review 03.05.19 Vale, Malcolm. The Princely Court: Medieval Courts and Culture in North-West Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. xviii, 422. $45.00. ISBN: 0-19-820529-5. Reviewed by: Carol Symes University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign symes@uiuc.edu In July of 1915, the curator of the departmental archives of the Pas-de-Calais, housed in Arras, made an heroic contribution to Malcolm Vale's study of the princely court. Desperate to save the region's documentary heritage from the German bombardment that would eventually destroy his town, he rushed into the burning stacks and began to throw bundles of parchment out of the window. He began, indeed, where French archival practice had long decreed that archivists should begin: with the letter A, denoting the records of the local secular authority which, in the thirteenth century, was the county of Artois. Happily, an extraordinary trove of comital charters and registers survives as a result, albeit at the expense of otherlayettes now lost to researchers, notably the ecclesiastical records of the diocese of Arras and those of the region's many ancient and powerful monasteries, filed respectively under the unlucky letters "G" and "H." From this reconstituted archive, Vale can show that the princely court of Robert II of Artois (b. 1250; r. 1266-1302) exercised "a formative influence upon the other courts" of medieval Europe, including that of England (8). This detailed survey of the practical workings of the medieval court, and its day-to-day expenditures, movements, protocols, and pastimes, will be of enormous importance to all scholars studying the artifacts that were produced in courtly circles -- among them poetry, romance, music, books, buildings, and luxury goods. It also contributes to the histories of accountancy and accountability, domestic economy, warfare, and material culture, and will be useful to anyone who seeks to understand the intricate network of affinities and exchanges within which princely courts operated. Vale knows this territory well, perhaps better than anyone, and his book resembles one of the muniment chests that would have accompanied an itinerant court on its journeys; it is a treasure- trove of information, on the hoof. It is divided into two main parts. The first, entitled "The Material Foundations of Court Life," describes the inner workings of "The Court and the Household," outlines its "Organization and Structures," looks closely at "Consumption and Expenditure," and reveals the logistics behind the constant mobility of "The Traveling Court." This is where the real meat of the book is to be found. Part Two is called "Culture" and consists of two unwieldy chapters: "Court Life and Court Culture," which includes discussions of leisure activities (gaming, hunting, tournaments), display, and ceremony; and "Art at Court: Investment in Culture?" This deals with the visual arts and courtly patronage on the one hand (painting, architecture, book production) and, on the other, with the consolidation of "a Francophone culture." It is in this latter half of the book that Vale seems out of his depth. In some ways, though, this is of little moment, since there are many other scholars equipped to re-read and re-assess the artistic record, and they now have The Princely Court as their guide.