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[Illustration: PAGE FROM AN ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT]




  AN INTRODUCTION TO THE

  HISTORY OF WESTERN EUROPE


  BY

  JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON

  PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY


  _History is no easy science;
  its subject, human society,
  is infinitely complex._

  FUSTEL DE COULANGES


  GINN & COMPANY

  BOSTON · NEW YORK · CHICAGO · LONDON




  ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL

  COPYRIGHT, 1902, 1903
  BY JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
  612.1


  The Athenæum Press

  GINN & COMPANY · PROPRIETORS ·
  BOSTON · U.S.A.




PREFACE


In introducing the stud