What Was Life Like In Medieval Paris?

Paris, the summer of 1268. There are no clocks in the city, so a thirteen-year-old boy named Jehan lies awake in the dark, waiting for the church bells. His father is a stationer, which sounds like a job about pens and paper. In medieval Paris it was one of the most protected jobs a common man could hold. So how did a crowd of teachers and students become powerful enough that a shopkeeper answered to them instead of the king? This animated history documentary follows one ordinary family through daily life in medieval Paris, the largest city in Latin Christendom. You’ll see breakfast with watered wine (because the Seine was full of tanners’ waste), Étienne Boileau’s Book of Trades, and the three cities of Paris: the Cité with Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle, the merchants’ right bank, and the left bank where students sat on straw at the rue du Fouarre. Then the secret of the stationer: the pecia system, which split one approved master copy into rented pieces so dozens of students could copy a book at once. Along the way: how parchment was made on the rue de la Parcheminerie, the tiny Paris pocket Bibles, why your Bible’s chapter numbers come from this era, and Jehan’s sister Agnès, an illuminator who could decorate the books but never study them. Then the blood. Peter Abelard and Héloïse, the tavern brawl of 1200, the carnival killings of 1229, the two-year strike that shut the university down, and the papal charter of 1231. That’s why a shaved tonsure could keep a student from the gallows. Finally, the road north to the Lendit fair, where Jehan meets his cousin Thibaut, a serf of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Two sisters, one choice, and two very different lives, which leave one question: in medieval Paris, who did you belong to? 🕰️ CHAPTERS 00:00 Paris, 1268: a city without clocks 00:22 Jehan and the rue Saint-Jacques 00:40 What is a stationer? 00:53 A medieval Paris breakfast 01:08 Why kids drank wine 01:35 Étienne Boileau’s Book of Trades 02:00 Medieval Paris was three cities 02:06 The Cité, Sainte-Chapelle and the Crown of Thorns 02:26 Notre-Dame 02:32 The right bank: Les Halles and the water merchants 02:45 The boat on the coat of arms of Paris 02:52 The left bank: the city of schools 02:58 The wall of Philip Augustus 03:10 Students on Straw Street 03:27 The tonsure 03:37 The secret of the stationer: renting books in pieces 04:18 Answering to the university, not the king 04:44 Guilds and their patron saints 04:58 How parchment was made 05:21 Pocket Bibles and chapter numbers 05:43 Agnès the illuminator 06:12 How students took power in Paris 06:23 Peter Abelard and Héloïse 07:05 The tavern brawl of 1200 07:24 The carnival killings of 1229 07:38 The great university strike 07:53 The charter of 1231 08:09 Why a haircut could save your neck 08:25 Jehan’s dream of the gown 08:43 Student rents, boycotts and the Sorbonne 09:06 Where the schools led 09:27 The Lendit fair at Saint-Denis 09:56 The road north 10:04 Cousin Thibaut 10:26 Those who pray, fight and work 10:43 A free townsman and a serf 11:17 Life under the abbey 11:25 Buying freedom 11:36 The king who said every man should be free 11:49 Who do I belong to? 📚 Historians still debate parts of this story, including the population of Paris in the 1200s (estimates range widely, and 200,000 is the high end), the exact date of Boileau’s Book of Trades, and how much of the modern chapter system goes back to Stephen Langton in Paris. Jehan and his family are illustrative characters based on the records of the period. If you enjoy stories where one ordinary person opens into a whole civilization, subscribe for more animated history. #MedievalParis #MedievalHistory #Paris #History #MiddleAges #HistoryDocumentary #AnimatedHistory #MedievalLife #UniversityOfParis #Sorbonne #NotreDame #France #FrenchHistory #HistoryExplained #HistoryFacts medieval Paris, what was life like in medieval Paris, life in medieval Paris, daily life in the middle ages, medieval France, Paris 1268, University of Paris, Sorbonne history, Robert de Sorbon, Peter Abelard, Heloise and Abelard, medieval students, tonsure, medieval stationer, pecia system, parchment making, medieval guilds, Book of Trades Etienne Boileau, Sainte-Chapelle, Notre-Dame history, Louis IX, serfdom, medieval peasants, animated history documentary