scholarly journals THE CITY SPEAKS: CITIES, CITIZENS, AND CIVIC DISCOURSE IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

Traditio ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
MEGAN WELTON
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Civic Discourse ◽  
Ultimate Fate ◽  
The City

This article investigates how civic discourse connects the virtue of citizens and the fortunes of cities in a variety of late antique and early medieval sources in the post-Roman west. It reveals how cities assume human qualities through the rhetorical technique of personification and, crucially, the ways in which individuals and communities likewise are described with civic terminology. It also analyzes the ways in which the city and the civic community are made to speak to one another at times of crisis and celebration. By examining a diverse range of sources including epideictic poetry, chronicles, hagiographies, and epigraphic inscriptions, this article addresses multiple modes of late antique and early medieval thought that utilize civic discourse. It first explores how late antique and early medieval authors employed civic discourse in non-urban contexts, including how they conceptualized the interior construction of an individual's mind and soul as a fortified citadel, how they praised ecclesiastical and secular leaders as city structures, and how they extended civic terminology to the preeminently non-urban space of the monastery. The article then examines how personified cities spoke to their citizens and how citizens could join their cities in song through urban procession. Civic encomia and invective further illustrate how medieval authors sought to unify the virtuous conduct of citizens with the ultimate fate of the city's security. The article concludes with a historical and epigraphic case study of two programs of mural construction in ninth-century Rome. Ultimately, this article argues that the repeated and emphatic exhortations to civic virtue provide access to how late antique and early medieval authors sought to intertwine the fate of the city with the conduct of her citizens, in order to persuade their audiences to act in accordance with the precepts of virtue.

Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Machado
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Elite ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

This book analyses the physical, social, and cultural history of Rome in late antiquity. Between AD 270 and 535, the former capital of the Roman empire experienced a series of dramatic transformations in its size, appearance, political standing, and identity, as emperors moved to other cities and the Christian church slowly became its dominating institution. Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome provides a new picture of these developments, focusing on the extraordinary role played by members of the traditional elite, the senatorial aristocracy, in the redefinition of the city, its institutions, and spaces. During this period, Roman senators and their families became increasingly involved in the management of the city and its population, in building works, and in the performance of secular and religious ceremonies and rituals. As this study shows, for approximately three hundred years the houses of the Roman elite competed with imperial palaces and churches in shaping the political map and the social life of the city. Making use of modern theories of urban space, the book considers a vast array of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic documents to show how the former centre of the Mediterranean world was progressively redefined and controlled by its own elite.

scholarly journals TO THE QUESTION OF SPACE ORGANIZATION OF BOOK ILLUMINATION OF LATE ANTIQUITY AND EARLY MIDDLE AGES (IV – VII CENTURY)

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-48
Author(s):  
Mikhail S. Bankov
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Manuscripts ◽  
Space Organization ◽  
Miniature Painting

The article focuses on peculiarities of spatial organization of book miniature paintings of late antique and early medieval manuscripts (IV – VII centuries). The author analyses the problem of conveying illusion of depth in illustration in context of gradual transmission from roll to codex, which took place in antique book culture between the II and the V centuries. By analyzing survived fragments of illuminated rolls author displays characteristic features of their spatial organization and observes influence which had tradition of roll illustration on the development of codex. Nevertheless, precisely the miniatures of the codices that have come down to our time are in focus of the author’s attention. The stages of development of the text page, the peculiarities of interaction of text and images in codices are compared with the principles of space organization in miniatures. The article makes an attempt, relying on the monuments that have survived to our time, to consider the development of spatial constructions in the period of late Antiquity and early Middle Ages as a continuous process of evolution of the language of book painting. The author assumes that the development of spatial constructions in miniature painting does not imply sharp breaks or regression. Each new stage of the evolution arises from the previous one and makes it possible to expand the arsenal of artistic means which are necessary for solving artistic problems of the time. In accordance with this approach, the article concentrates not only on compositions in which a spatial illusion is created, but also miniatures that are in character more plane. As a result, the author reveals the main types of spatial constructions, considering all surviving monuments of miniature painting of that time. For each type of space organization, the author identifies the basic principles and artistic techniques that allow the artist to convey a sense of depth on the plane of page. The author pays special attention to the comparison of illusionistic tendencies in the late antique book miniature and “reverse perspective”, features of which are present in the monuments of the era. The author casts doubt on the need for a sharp contrast between these two approaches to space organization in the monuments of book miniatures of the era. He analyzes the reasons for the appearance of such features of space organization in miniature paintings of late antique and early medieval manuscripts, which are so important for the formation of artistic language of medieval book illumination.

The Contribution of Regional Survey to the Late Antiquity Debate: Greece in its Mediterranean Context

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. BINTLIFF
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
State Control ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Regional Survey ◽  
Central Greece ◽  
Strong State ◽  
The Mediterranean

The fall of the Roman Empire remains a mystery. Archaeological and historical concerns today are less metaphysical and more intellectually challenging at the level of reconstructing the processes at work before, during and long after the official sack of Rome, and are as much focused on the succeeding transition to the medieval world as on the build-up to imperial decay and collapse. This chapter presents a grassroots case-study examination of the transformation of society in town and country in central Greece, founded on a regional survey project that has been running for 25 years. From the arrival of Roman control, through Late Antiquity and into the resurgence of strong state control emanating out of Byzantium in the eighth-nineth centuries AD, this chapter tries to set the patterns, provisional interpretations and questions which have arisen from the sequence in this region into wider debates around the Mediterranean concerning the contribution of regional archaeological surveys to the late antique-early medieval transition.

Reuse of Roman Artefacts in Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval West

2020 ◽  
pp. 425-446
Author(s):  
Ellen Swift
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Ferrous Metal ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Silver Plate ◽  
Metal Artefacts ◽  
Wide Range

In Late Antiquity, reuse and recycling has mainly been considered in relation to spolia and to precious metal artefacts such as silver plate and coins. Yet there is much evidence for reuse behaviour across a wide range of artefact types in more everyday materials. Some of this is connected to ordinary habits of reuse and recycling found throughout the Roman and late antique periods, although it is in part also a response to prevailing economic and social conditions. Since these may vary from one place to another or across different social groups, interpretations must take account of the particular contexts within which objects were used. This chapter addresses reuse behaviour from the late antique and early medieval periods in the West, with a case study drawn from the author’s detailed studies of particular non-ferrous metal objects from Britain, including objects newly produced in the fifth century.

Graphic Signs of Authority in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, 300-900

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildar Garipzanov
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Medieval Europe

This book presents a cultural history of graphic signs such as the sign of the cross, christograms, monograms, and other graphic devices, examining how they were employed to relate to and interact with the supernatural world, and to represent and communicate secular and divine authority in the late antique Mediterranean and early medieval Europe. It analyses its graphic visual material with reference to specific historical contexts and to relevant late antique and early medieval texts as a complementary way of looking at the cultural, religious, and socio-political transition from the late Graeco-Roman world to that of medieval Europe. This monograph treats such graphic signs as typologically similar forms of visual communication, reliant on the visual-spatial ability of human cognition to process object-like graphic forms as proxies for concepts and abstract notions—an ability that is commonly discussed in modern visual studies with reference to categories such as visual thinking, graphic visualization, and graphicacy. Thanks to this human ability, the aforementioned graphic signs were actively employed in religious and socio-political communication in the first millennium ad. This approach allows for a synthetic study of graphic visual evidence from a wide range of material media that have rarely been studied collectively, including various mass-produced items and unique objects of art, architectural monuments, and epigraphic inscriptions, as well as manuscripts and charters. As such, this book will serve as a timely reference tool for historians, art historians, archaeologists, epigraphists, manuscript scholars, and numismatists as well as the informed general public.

SOME ASPECTS OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE ROMAN DOMUS BETWEEN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Polci
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Type ◽  
Late Roman

This essay concerns some aspects of the transformation of the Late Roman domus into the Early Medieval house and focuses on the spaces designed for reception and entertainment. First, I will consider the use and the development of the reception areas of wealthy houses, and their relationship with the growth in private patronage in Late Antiquity. Second, I will examine the transformation of this late antique model of elite housing into the new type of upper-class dwellings that emerged in Early Medieval Italy. In particular, I will focus on the transferral of reception halls and banqueting chambers to the upper story, and on the social and architectonic implications of this feature.

"Once Mistress of the World :" Rome, St. Peter, and female devotion in the early Middle Ages

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Autumn Dolan
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
The West ◽  
The World ◽  
Papal Authority ◽  
The City

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] I reassess the reception of Rome in the early medieval west from the historiographical background of women's history. Women's conception of Rome as a cult center, an intervening ally, and a devotional adviser between 300-900 CE proved crucial in a coming-of-age period for the papacy, whose spiritual authority had begun to resonate from the Mediterranean northward as the vicar of St. Peter. My consideration of women through the lens of Petrine devotion and Roman networks stands out from previous studies that cite papal legitimacy and Roman influence in the political and rhetorical debates among the pope, bishops, and rulers. Through examinations of women's devotional practices involving Rome, it is possible to see the significance of the city and its representatives in the devotional lives of western Christians along with women's vital part in maintaining and extending papal authority and Roman cults in the first millennium. This study draws from hagiographical, epistolary, and literary sources in addition to the use of material evidence such as inscriptions, devotional objects, and architecture. None of these sources are new to early medievalists, but when read for the Roman affiliations within female devotion, they bring us to expand our impressions of Rome's reception in the west and redefine our expectations of women's religious practices. In order to capture the breadth of early medieval women's associations with Rome, this study takes a broad geographic and social approach. The geographic focus for this study spans from Rome to include Francia and Anglo-Saxon England in order to emphasize the extent of Rome's appeal, and also to demonstrate women's involvement in the widespread travel networks that culminated at the city. Although elite women dominate sources for early medieval women, it is nevertheless possible to tease out from evaluations of cult worship the devotional trends of popular religion, and with them the deeds of the poor or middling ranks in society. This broad examination of devotion in terms of geography and social rank contributes to a dynamic image of the late antique and early medieval worlds, providing further caution against assumptions that the local predominated in the worldview of those living in the centuries following the political fall of Rome. As we continue to gradually reinsert Rome into the narrative of the early medieval west, women should figure in our discussions of the developments in papal authority, the success of the cults of Roman saints, and the facilitation of pilgrimage and exchange routes that extended from Rome through Francia and across the English Channel. The continuity of women's roles in domestic devotion between late antique and early medieval culture grounds the survey of Rome and its reception in the west, even as we struggle with the real changes in its political and economic structures. Although early medieval men and women witnessed a localization of thought and exchange following the withdrawal of the Roman Empire, they were no less aware of the enduring ties between their region and that of Rome, the city that was once “Mistress of the World.

scholarly journals Death and Veneration: Treatment of a Martyr Death by Severus, Patriarch of Antioch (512–518)

Scrinium ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Pauline Allen
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
John Chrysostom ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

Among the homiletic corpora of late antiquity the 125 surviving homilies of Severus, patriarch of Antioch (512–518), provide us with a rich lode of works on martyrs. This is not surprising, given that Antioch was second only to Rome in the number of martyrs and saints it venerated. Previously I have examined Severus’ treatment of the deaths of two local martyrs, Barlaam/Barlaha and Romanus (in Martyrdom and Persecution in Late Antique Christianity. Festschrift Boudewijn Dehandschutter, ed. J. Leemans, Leuven – Paris – Walpole, MA, 2010, pp. 1–14) and of four martyrs foreign to Antioch, Drosis/Drosina, Julian, Dometius, and Leontius ( Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 5 [2009], pp. 9–20), an examination that proved the quality of the sources which the patriarch used in his preaching. In this paper I intend to carry the discussion further by concentrating on Severus’ treatment of the death of St Babylas in one homily and two hymns, particularly in relation to the treatment accorded to the martyr in John Chrysostom, in order to situate Severus’ homily in the martyrial homiletic tradition and to trace the history of the veneration of this saint in the city of Antioch.


Ildar Garipzanov, Caroline Goodson, and Henry Maguire, ed., Graphic Signs of Identity, Faith, and Power in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Cursor Mundi, 27, Turnhout: Brepols, 2017, xviii, 392 p., 141 ill.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 377-379
Author(s):  
Kriszta Kotsis
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Visual Communication ◽  
Group Identity ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Third ◽  
Cursor Mundi ◽  
Definition Of

Late antique and early medieval graphic signs have traditionally been studied by narrowly focused specialists leading to the fragmentation and decontextualization of this important body of material. Therefore, the volume aims “to deepen interdisciplinary research on graphic signs” (7) of the third through tenth centuries, with contributions from archaeologists, historians, art historians, a philologist, and a paleographer. Ildar Garipzanov’s introduction defines the central terms (sign, symbol, graphicacy), calls for supplanting the text-image binary with “the concept of the visual-written continuum” (15), and argues that graphicacy was central to visual communication in this period. He emphasizes the agency of graphic signs and notes that their study can amplify our understanding of the definition of personal and group identity, the articulation of power, authority, and religious affiliation, and communication with the supernatural sphere.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document