The Otherness of Non-Christians in the Early Middle Ages

Non-Christian ‘others’ were crucial to the definition of early medieval Christendom. Many groups certainly found it important to generate a sense of belonging through shared practice, history and ideals. But the history of Christianity was a story of conflict, which from the very beginning saw a community of believers struggling against Jews and ‘pagan’ Romans. At the end, too, Christ warned there would be ‘false prophets’ and tribulations, and John of Patmos saw the ravages of Gog and Magog against the faithful. When many early medieval Christians looked at ‘religious others’, they saw not so much ‘members of religions’, as they did people defined by typologies and narratives designed to express the nature and trajectory of Christendom itself. This has been a recurring theme in scholarship which has sought to understand Christian views of pagans, Muslims and Jews in the period, but the effect and purpose of such rhetoric is not always fully appreciated.

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Poet of the Medieval Modern

10.1093/oso/9780198860136.001.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Francesca Brooks

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Material Culture ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Far Right ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

History Of ◽

Catholic History ◽

In Parenthesis ◽

Stone Sculpture

The early Middle Ages provided twentieth-century poets with the material to reimagine and rework local, religious, and national identities in their writing. Poet of the Medieval Modern focuses on a key figure within this tradition, the Anglo-Welsh poet and artist David Jones (1895–1974), and represents the first extended study of the influence of early medieval culture and history from England on Jones and his novel-length late modernist poem The Anathemata (1952). The Anathemata, the second major poetic project after In Parenthesis (1937), fuses Jones’s visual and verbal arts to write a Catholic history of Britain as told through the history of man-as-artist. Drawing on unpublished archival material including manuscripts, sketches, correspondence, and, most significantly, the marginalia from David Jones’s Library, Poet of the Medieval Modern reads with Jones in order to trouble the distinction we make between poetry and scholarship. Placing this underappreciated figure firmly at the centre of new developments in modernist and medieval studies, Poet of the Medieval Modern brings the two fields into dialogue and argues that Jones uses the textual and material culture of the early Middle Ages—including Old English prose and poetry, Anglo-Latin hagiography, early medieval stone sculpture, manuscripts, and historiography—to re-envision British Catholic identity in the twentieth-century long poem. In The Anathemata Jones returned to the English record to seek out those moments where the histories of the Welsh had been elided or erased. At a time when the Middle Ages are increasingly weaponized in far-right and nationalist political discourse, the book offers a timely discussion of how the early medieval past has been resourced to both shore up and challenge English hegemonies across modern British culture.

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The diaconiae of Early Medieval Rome: From “Greek” to “Roman”, from “Private” to “Papal”?

Endowment Studies ◽

10.1163/24685968-00302001 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 90-132

Author(s):

Philipp Winterhager

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Roman History ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

Charitable Foundations ◽

History Of ◽

The City ◽

Secular State

Abstract Traditionally, scholarship has seen the history of the diaconiae, charitable foundations in the city of Rome, in line with the alleged general trends in Roman history in the early Middle Ages, i.e. the gradual “Romanization” of formerly “Greek” elements of Byzantine origin, and the “papalization” of secular (state and private) initiatives, both taking place primarily in the mid-8th century. Although the diaconiae had come under papal control as late as the 9th and eventually the 10th centuries, this paper argues that this development took place not as an abandonment of private forms of endowments prominent in Byzantine Rome, but namely through the appropriation of “post-Byzantine” aristocratic endowment practice by the popes around the turn of the 9th century.

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Introduction

10.1093/oso/9780198860136.003.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-34

Author(s):

Francesca Brooks

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Late Modernism ◽

Anglo Saxon ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

History Of ◽

Central Argument ◽

Century Poetry ◽

Changing Attitudes

The Introduction situates David Jones’s work as a poet–artist within the broader currents of high and late modernism, particularly within the context of a tradition of medievalism in twentieth-century poetry. It draws on Alexander Nagel’s conception of the medieval modern to show how Jones approaches the culture and history of the early Middle Ages as a form of live material open to play and adaptation. The Introduction also reframes our understanding of David Jones’s perception of himself as Anglo-Welsh in relation to changing attitudes to early medieval Welsh (Celtic) and English (Anglo-Saxon/Teutonic) history over the course of his lifetime. This discussion introduces the monograph’s central argument: as a poet of the medieval modern, Jones plays with and reworks early medieval English histories, narratives, and artefacts in order to challenge the singularity and exceptionalism of an ‘Anglo-Saxon’ canon.

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The Church and the Law in the Early Middle Ages

Studies in Church History ◽

10.1017/stc.2019.2 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 56 ◽

pp. 7-35

Author(s):

Rosamond McKitterick

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Canon Law ◽

Procedural Knowledge ◽

Eighth Century ◽

Historical Narrative ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

Medieval Manuscript ◽

History Of ◽

And Function

Two case studies from eighth-century Rome, recorded in the early medieval history of the popes known as the Liber pontificalis, serve to introduce both the problems of the relations between secular or public and ecclesiastical or canon law in early medieval Rome and the development of early medieval canon law more generally. The Synod of Rome in 769 was convened by Pope Stephen III some months after his election in order to justify the deposition of his immediate predecessor, Pope Constantine II (767–8). Stephen's successor, Pope Hadrian, subsequently presided over a murder investigation involving Stephen's supporters. The murders and the legal process they precipitated form the bulk of the discussion. The article explores the immediate implications of both the murders and the convening of the Synod of Rome, together with the references to law-making and decree-giving by the pope embedded in the historical narrative of the Liber pontificalis, as well as the possible role of the Liber pontificalis itself in bolstering the imaginative and historical understanding of papal and synodal authority. The wider legal or procedural knowledge invoked and the development of both canon law and papal authority in the early Middle Ages are addressed. The general categories within which most scholars have been working hitherto mask the questions about the complicated and still insufficiently understood status and function of early medieval manuscript compilations of secular and canon law, and about the authority and applicability of the texts they contain.

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CHRONICLING THE MEROVINGIANS IN HEBREW: THE EARLY MEDIEVAL CHAPTERS OF YOSEF HA-KOHEN'S DIVREI HAYAMIM

Traditio ◽

10.1017/tdo.2019.5 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 74 ◽

pp. 423-447

Author(s):

YANIV FOX

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Early Modern ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Medieval History ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

Late Medieval ◽

Italian Physician ◽

History Of ◽

Long Chain

Yosef Ha-Kohen (1496–ca. 1575) was a Jewish Italian physician and intellectual who in 1554 published a chronicle in Hebrew titled Sefer Divrei Hayamim lemalkei Tzarfat ulemalkei Beit Otoman haTogar, or The Book of Histories of the Kings of France and of the Kings of Ottoman Turkey. It was, as its name suggests, a history told from the perspective of two nations, the French and the Turks. Ha-Kohen begins his narrative with a discussion of the legendary origins of the Franks and the history of their first royal dynasty, the Merovingians. This composition is unique among late medieval and early modern Jewish works of historiography for its universal scope, and even more so for its treatment of early medieval history. For this part of the work, Ha-Kohen relied extensively on non-Jewish works, which themselves relied on still earlier chronicles composed throughout the early Middle Ages. Ha-Kohen thus became a unique link in a long chain of chroniclers who worked and adopted Merovingian material to suit their authorial agendas. This article considers how the telling of Merovingian history was transformed in the process, especially as it was adapted for a sixteenth-century Jewish audience.

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Early Medieval Missionary Activity: A Comparative Study of Eastern and Western Methods

Church History ◽

10.2307/3161180 ◽

1954 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 17-35 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Richard E. Sullivan

Keyword(s):

Roman Empire ◽

Comparative Study ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Petroglyphes of the Early Medieval Age in the Territory of Mongolia: the Main Stages And Results of Research

Teoriya i praktika arkheologicheskikh issledovaniy ◽

10.14258/tpai(2021)33(1).-09 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 144-161

Author(s):

Mukhareva A. N.,. A. ◽

◽

Seregin N. ◽

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Large Scale ◽

Field Research ◽

Basic Research ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

History Of ◽

Scientific Project ◽

The Great Migration ◽

The 19Th Century

the territory of Mongolia. The process of accumulation and diverse interpretation of information about rock paintings, as well as images on “memorial” objects dating back to the second half of the 1st millennium AD is characterized. The analysis of the main results of the study of the petroglyphs of the early medieval nomads of the region allowed the authors to identify several key stages in the history of their study. The first stage, within which the initial formation of the source base took place, is associated with the discovery and fixation at the end of the 19th century of stylized images of goats, carried out as a rule in the study of epigraphic sites. The beginning of the second stage coincides with the large-scale archaeological research that took place in Mongolia in the middle of the 20th century. The third stage, which began in the mid-1970s, marked the expansion of scientists’ ideas about the rock art of the population of Mongolia in the second half of the 1st millennium AD, as well as the identification of various pictorial layers in it. Within the framework of the modern period (since the mid-1990s), approaches to the study of early medieval petroglyphs are being improved, new sites are being discovered, as well as a more detailed study of already known complexes. The article contains images recorded during the field research of the authors as part of the Buyant Russian-Mongolian archaeological expedition. Keywords: Mongolia, petroglyphs, early Middle Ages, history of research, periodization Acknowledgements: The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Ministry of Culture, Education, Science and Sports of Mongolia in the framework of the scientific project No. 19–59–44013 “Historical, Cultural and Ethnogenetic Processes in Mongolia during the Great Migration and the Early Middle Ages: an Interdisciplinary Analysis of Archaeological and Written Sources”.

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Early medieval religious-memorial monuments of gadabay region of Azerbaijan

Науково-теоретичний альманах Грані ◽

10.15421/172087 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 23 (9) ◽

pp. 92-103

Author(s):

Eldar Mehdiyev

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Medieval Period ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

Early Medieval Period ◽

Historical Monuments ◽

History Of ◽

Private Collections ◽

Comparative Manner

Gadabay situated at the western part of Azerbaijan Republic. There are many early medieval Christian temples, churches and monasteries which concern to Caucasian Albania in Gadabay region. This article is dedicated to early medieval temples and religious monuments of Caucasian Albania in Gadabay. It was researched Gadabay temple, Chaldash, Chanakhchi, Girdiman (Pir Javanshir), Agh kilse (White church), Ayrivang temples and Hamshivang monastery in last decade. These historical monuments established during early medieval period of Caucasian Albania. Early medievalreligious situation of the country was largely studied by Azerbaijani Albanian scholars. As it is known from the sources, in the early Middle Ages the religious situation in Albania as a whole was extremely complicated. Thus, idolatry persisted, and Christianity and Zoroastrianism struggled to spread. There was a fierce struggle between their ideologues and supporters. The defense of Zoroastrianism by the Sassanids and Christianity by the Romans and then the Byzantines by all means that the inter-religious struggle went beyond the borders of the country.When thinking about the structure of the society that existed in the Gadabay region in the early Middle Ages, it would be more correct to refer directly to sources on the history of Albania. The study of early medieval archeological monuments of Gadabay region used ancient and medieval sources, materials of historical, archeological and ethnographic researches carried out in various monuments, samples of material culture kept in museums, funds and private collections. As it is known, the works of Strabo, Plolemy, Kirokos Ganjali and especially the Albanian historian M. Kalankatuklu provide very valuable information about the history of Albania. Of course, the study of all this in relation to archeological materials and in a comparative manner is great scientific importance.M. Kalankatuklu states that during the reign of the Albanian Tsar Arsvagen and Prince Khurs of Girdiman, "there are still pagans left in Girdiman". At that time, Christianity was already widespread in the country.

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The History Of The Early Medieval Sugd Court (Based On The Mug Mountain Archive)

The American Journal of Social Science and Education Innovations ◽

10.37547/tajssei/volume02issue12-49 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 02 (12) ◽

pp. 281-286

Author(s):

Khalikulov Azizbek Yorqulovich ◽

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

The State ◽

State Court ◽

Processing Trade ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

Economic Relations ◽

Archival Documents ◽

History Of ◽

Economic Income

The article provides information on the state court and economic relations in Sughd in the early Middle Ages, the procedure for conducting and processing trade documents, certificates and receipts. Opinions were analyzed on the basis of Mug Mountain documents, ie correspondence between rulers and courtiers, reports of certificates of economic income and expenditure, archival documents on receipts.

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DOMIŠLJANJE KONTINUITETA. PROBLEM NAJSTARIJEGA TROGIRSKOG MEMORIJALNOG TEKSTA

Miscellanea Hadriatica et Mediterranea ◽

10.15291/misc.3172 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ivan Basić

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

16Th Century ◽

Historical Narratives ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

Written Text ◽

15Th Century ◽

High Middle Ages ◽

History Of ◽

The Church

The oldest recorded history of the hexaconch rotunda of St. Mary de Platea in Trogir is associated with the memorial text preserved in two versions (Daniele Farlati, Petar Lučić). The written note provides information on the builder (restorer) of the church at the beginning of the 8th century, a relative of Severus the Great – the leader of the citizens of Salona who settled in Split in the 7th century. The author evaluates the validity of this note: he discusses the directions of previous research, transmission of the text, historiographical interpretations, and the archaeological, typological and stylistic context of the church. Through analysis he concludes that the memorial text is not of early medieval provenance; instead he gives a new proposal for its origin: it belongs to the artificial tradition shaped by the older historical narratives within the communal elite of Trogir in the 15th century, which was turned into a written text in the 16th century. He also defines the rotunda of St. Mary as an early medieval building from the beginning of the 9th century (without older phases) which was transformed into a communal church (ecclesia communis) of Trogir in the high Middle Ages. The author attributes to the text the function of creating the illusion of communal patronage of the church in continuity since the early Middle Ages.

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