Epurescu-Pascovici makes strong arguments about individual human agency in medieval France and Italy but does not neglect Providence. He deploys five case studies based on different types of sources classified as ego-documents—self-narratives (autobiographies), cartularies (charters), livres de raison (personal cartularies), Tuscan ricordi and ricordanze (memoires, and account books), and vernacular advice manuals. Some well-studied texts also appear, like the ricordanze of the Florentine Giovanni di Pagolo Morelli and the advice book Le Ménagier de Paris, as well as the unpublished charters of an obscure lordship in France. Choosing these sources and not others reflects the author’s effort to expand “agency” beyond the elites and past politics. Other types of sources, like wills (classic ego-documents), or acts, like suicide (self-agency), would have brought women more directly into this account of human agency, but the case studies are admirable in their range—given the practical limitations.
Epurescu-Pascovici takes a sophisticated methodological approach...