Closer to the essence of the early Middle Ages. A reply

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-159
Author(s):  
Frans Theuws
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Study Groups ◽  
European Science Foundation ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Separate Spheres ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Foundation Programme ◽  
Production Distribution ◽  
European Science ◽  
The Relationship

Ideas do not develop in a vacuum, they are stimulated by debate. The European Science Foundation programme on the ‘Transformation of the Roman world’, in which I participated, was a magnificent opportunity for the rekindling of this debate. The project entailed the creation of different study groups around such topics as economy, rituals and power, and culture. As a consequence, the realization dawned that the organizational separation into these social spheres generated just as many new perspectives as it hid from view. Once the separate spheres had been scrutinized, our perception of the relationship between rituals, economy and culture remained a key objective of research. It is most fortunate that Richard Hodges and John Moreland, representatives of the ‘production, distribution and demand group’, have now joined the debate because their contributions lead to further refinements, thus bringing us closer to the ‘essence of the early Middle Ages’.

Bastard Feudalism and the Framing of Thirteenth-Century England

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Coss
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Great Work ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

In the introduction to his great work of 2005, Framing the Early Middle Ages, Chris Wickham urged not only the necessity of carefully framing our studies at the outset but also the importance of closely defining the words and concepts that we employ, the avoidance ‘cultural sollipsism’ wherever possible and the need to pay particular attention to continuities and discontinuities. Chris has, of course, followed these precepts on a vast scale. My aim in this chapter is a modest one. I aim to review the framing of thirteenth-century England in terms of two only of Chris’s themes: the aristocracy and the state—and even then primarily in terms of the relationship between the two. By the thirteenth century I mean a long thirteenth century stretching from the period of the Angevin reforms of the later twelfth century on the one hand to the early to mid-fourteenth on the other; the reasons for taking this span will, I hope, become clearer during the course of the chapter, but few would doubt that it has a validity.

The cosmology of the early medieval emporia?

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Hodges
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Imaginary World ◽  
Central Places ◽  
The Relationship

This characteristically thoughtful essay by Frans Theuws illustrates how far our analysis of central places in the early Middle Ages has advanced. Like his study of Maastricht (2001), it reveals a close reading of the archaeological and historical sources. Indeed, as Michael McCormick's encyclopaedic volume (2001) on the origins of the medieval economy shows with stunning authority, as archaeologists we have taken huge strides since Philip Grierson quipped, ‘It has been said that the spade cannot lie, but it owes this merit in part to the fact that it cannot speak’ (1959, 129). Hence it comes as no surprise that Theuws is exploring the ‘relationship between forms of exchange and the imaginary world from which “value” is derived’ (p. 121).

Exchange, religion, identity and central places in the early Middle Ages

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frans Theuws
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Imaginary World ◽  
Central Places ◽  
Prestige Goods ◽  
Political Perspective ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractExchange in the early Middle Ages has traditionally been studied from a ‘technological’, ‘economic’ or ‘socio-political’ perspective, and has examined such issues as transport practices, supply and demand, or the ways in which exchange helps to maintain and reproduce the socio-political order. A particular focus of research has been the significance of the exchange of prestige goods for the power of the king and the aristocracy. There has been almost no analysis to date of the complexity of the exchange system as a whole, which – together with the exchange of commodities and gifts – includes the keeping of objects. Nor have archaeologists paid much attention to the relationship between forms of exchange (and the norms and values associated with them) and the imaginary world from which ‘value’ is derived in exchange. In the early medieval Frankish world there seems to have been a close relationship between exchange and the imaginary Christian world. In this contribution, I will attempt to examine the relationship between exchange and the imaginary world in the early Middle Ages, and to demonstrate how the results can modify the picture we have of central places like Maastricht (an old centre) and Dorestad (one of the new emporia).

scholarly journals ESF Programme on Functional Genomics 1st European Conference: Functional Genomics and Disease 2003

2003 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 549-557
Author(s):  
Jo Wixon ◽  
Joan Marsh
Keyword(s):  
Functional Genomics ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
European Science Foundation ◽  
European Conference ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Foundation Programme ◽  
European Science ◽  
The Many ◽  
Disease Analysis

In this report from the 1st European Conference of the European Science Foundation Programme on Functional Genomics, we provide coverage of the high-profile plenary talks and a cross-section of the many presentations in the disease analysis symposia and functional genomics technologies workshops.

The Mission to Constantinople in 968 and Liudprand of Cremona

Traditio ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 55-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon N. Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Detailed Record ◽  
East West

Of the documents that concern the relationship between Byzantium and Western Europe in the early Middle Ages, none is more famous or more frequently read than Relatio de Legatione Constantinopolitana, Liudprand of Cremona's description of his mission to Constantinople in 968 for Otto I. Much has been learned from his vivid if acid narrative about the Byzantine court of Nicephorus II Phocas and about East-West relations in the tenth century. Over the last forty years research has reached beneath the vivid prose in search of the true significance of that mission. But since Liudprand's is the only first-hand, detailed record of an embassy to Constantinople of that era, some scholars have given it more contemporary importance than it actually had, and, by extension, they have turned Liudprand's thoughts into subtle expressions of official Western policy. The danger in these inquiries has been to divorce the mind and moods of the creator from his creation and bestow on Relatio undeserved exaltation. The problem is to keep the document in its perspective while draining every sentence of its implications.

scholarly journals Dungal and Macrobius: On the Perception of Ancient Texts by Medieval Authors

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
М.С. Петрова
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Previous Knowledge ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
General Picture ◽  
Medieval Science ◽  
European Science

В статье обсуждается проблема рецепции античного (натурфилософского) знания за-падноевропейской наукой раннего Средневековья. Отмечается возможность ее решения посредством текстуальных исследований компаративного характера, цель которых состоит не только в формировании общей «картины» усвоения предшествующего знания средневековой наукой, но и в накоплении сведений о разнообразных способах и методах его трансформации и использования. Автор анализирует текст ответного письма (811 г.) ирландского монаха Дунгала (fl. 811-828) Карлу Великому о природе солнечных затмений, основанного на античных источниках – «Естественной истории» Плиния Старшего (I в.) и «Комментария на ‘Сон Сципиона’» Макробия (V в.). Выявляются цели изложения Дунгала при составлении ответа Карлу; обсуждается порядок планетарных сфер; отмечается знание Дунгалом основ античной натурфилософии; показано, как он (в зависимости от источника – Плиния или Макробия) перестраивает и перерабатывает исходный текст. Сделан вывод о попытке Дунгала ответить на вопрос Карла о солнечных затмениях и полученном результате. The paper discusses the importance of the problem of perception of ancient (natural-philosophical) knowledge by Western European science of the early Middle Ages. The possibility of its solution by means of textual comparative studies is noted. The purpose of such studies is not only the gradual and detailed formation of a general “picture” of the assimilation of previous knowledge by medieval science, but also the accumulation of information about various ways of using it. The text of the reply letter (811) of the Irish monk Dungal (fl. 811–828) to Charlemagne on the nature of solar eclipses, based on ancient sources (“Natural History” by Pliny the Elder [1st c.] and “Commentary on the ‘Dream of Scipio’ ” by Macrobius [V c.]), is under consideration. The explicit and hidden goals of the Dungal’s text are revealed; the order of the planetary spheres is discussed; Dungal's knowledge of the foundations of ancient natural philosophy is noted; it is shown how Dungal (depending on his source — Pliny or Macrobius) rebuilds and processes the original text. The conclusion is made about Dungal’s attempt to answer Charlemagne’s question and the result obtained.

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