This book is a real find. Written by Fordham professor James J. Walsh in

1907, it makes the argument, in a collection of loosely-connected essays,

that the 13th century was the best of the lot, at any rate so far as the

post-Classical world is concerned. Parliament… Gothic cathedrals…

Literature (Dante, Arthurian romances, the Cid, Nibelungen, Romance of the

Rose)… St Francis… Aquinas… Frederick II & Louis IX… law, hymns,

painting, universities, hospitals… You end up thinking: Yes, this was

some century. Having never thought that before.

This may be one of those Derb’s-the-last-to-know deals, as a couple of my

Catholic-educated American friends know the book. If you don’t, though,

it’s well worth a look.