Brepols

Les sociétés politiques du haut Moyen Âge sont caractérisées par une forte centralité royale, que l'historiographie a étudiée sous de multiples aspects comme les rituels et les formes de communication, la parenté et les alliances entre groupes aristocratiques, la compétition pour le trône ou la faveur du souverain etc. Le présent volume replace l'attention sur les fondements économiques des pouvoirs des pouvoirs des rois, ducs et princes en une période où l'imposition directe d'origine tardoantique s'est étiolée au profit de la rente. Que s'est-il passé entre l'épuisement de l'impôt foncier direct aux vi e-vii e siècles et la diffusion à large échelle des pouvoirs seigneuriaux, aux xi e-xii e siècles ? De quelles ressources foncières disposait le roi et quels étaient ses rapports avec l'exercice du pouvoir au niveau central et local ? Quels étaient les modes de redistribution de la terre publique, de quelle manière était-elle h économique des pouvoirs du souverain ? Historiens et archéologues s'efforcent de répondre à ces questions pour la plupart des régions de l'Europe occidentale.

Les études médiévales ont connu une expansion extraordinaire après la seconde guerre mondiale. Depuis trente ans, nos collègues américains organisent chaque année un congrès annuel pour faire le point concernant les progrès réalisés dans les divers domaines concernés. Une expérience similaire n'avait jamais eu lieu en Europe. La F.I.D.E.M. a donc pris l'initiative d'organiser tous les cinq ans un congrès européen permettant de faire le point à propos de nos disciples.

Les bilans contenus dans cet ouvrage sont l'oeuvre des meilleurs spécialistes actuels en la matière. Ils appârtiennent aux différents pays européens, ce qui a permis de dresser un bilan à propos des recherches menées dans notre continent. Ces rencontres perpetten également de montrer aux jeunes chercheurs les perspective d'avenir dans chaque domaine.

L'Europe actuelle doit au moyen âge une grande partie de son patrimoine culturel. Ces congrès sont donc l'occasion de retrouver nos racines communes et de proposer de nouveaux sujets de recherce à explorer.

In the 4th century B.C., philosophers began to write not only philosophical texts, but also biographical ones. As biographers, they often presented members of their own schools as the epitome of their ideals, or tried to prove that the followers of others lived in ways inconsistent with their own doctrines. The papers collected in this volume explore the many ways in which philosophy was incorporated into such texts, as well as how the genre was used as a means of philosophical instruction, discussion and polemics.

This volume contains the first modern commentary to Boethius’s last logical monograph entitled De topicis differentiis, his most original work written around 522 A.D., just before the incarceration and death of the Roman philosopher. His textbook aims at providing a method for the discovery of arguments, that is an art that teaches how to solve any kind of question through the use of the topics, litteraly places of our mind able to produce arguments subsequently developed into argumentations. Boethius inherited this teaching from two different traditions, the Greek and Latin. In light of the differences found in them, the Roman scholar undertook the writing of the De topicis differentiis precisely in order to show the possible way of reconciling these two philosophical traditions. In this way Boethius was able to disseminate a unified vision of this matter to the Latin world, restoring the centrality that the Topics had in the Aristotelian Logic and restoring their noblest function, that of being instruments at the service of the search for Truth. Finally, he also provided the list of the rhetorical topics by showing the differences with dialectical topics. This study provides a full reconstruction of the structure of the Boethian work, retraces and evaluates the sources, investigates the implications, and explains why the De topicis differentiis remains a foundational work for anyone who wants to understand the development of European Logic through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

This book is a text-based study on social dynamics of early Christian communities. By combining modern social-scientific theories with careful exegesis, it investigates the tensions, especially intra-communal tensions that confronted early communities of Jesus-followers. It contributes to both biblical studies and the understanding of the early church by showing that two early Christian compositions, the letter of James and the Didache reflect similar discords among early Christians, and they show similar concerns for community solidarity. It also offers an analysis of their community maintenance strategies with the frameworks of social identity theory and conflict theories.

Through observing both similarities and differences between James and the Didache, this book highlights the different perspectives and attitudes of the two compositions on group conflicts and their resolution, and provides new insights into the significance of these two writings for the early church as well as for the Christian communities today.

This book provides a series of studies concerning unique medieval texts that can be defined as ‘books of knowledge’, such as medieval chronicles, bestiaries, or catechetic handbooks. Thus far, scholarship of intellectual history has focused on concepts of knowledge to describe a specific community, or to delimit intellectuals in society. However, the specific textual tool for the transmission of knowledge has been missing. Besides oral tradition, books and other written texts were the only sources of knowledge, and they were thus invaluable in efforts to receive or transfer knowledge. That is one reason why texts that proclaim to introduce a specific field of expertise or promise to present a summary of wisdom were so popular. These texts discussed cosmology, theology, philosophy, the natural sciences, history, and other fields. They often did so in an accessible way to maintain the potential to also attract a non-specialised public. The basic form was usually a narrative, chronologically or thematically structured, and clearly ordered to appeal to readers. Books of this kind could be disseminated in dozens or even hundreds of copies, and were often available (by translation or adaptation) in various languages, including the vernacular.

In exploring these widely-disseminated and highly popular texts that offered a precise segment of knowledge that could be accessed by readers outside the intellectual and social elite, this volume intends to introduce books of knowledge as a new category within the study of medieval literacy.

This collection addresses an audience of early medievalists with an interest in material culture and its use in building ethnic boundaries. The traditional concept of frontier is a subject of current debate by historians and archaeologists alike, but sometimes without reference to each other. For instance, the social and cultural construction of (political) frontiers remains outside the current focus of post-processualist archaeology, despite the significance of borders for the representation of power, one of the most popular topics with archaeologists interested in symbols and ideology. Similarly, historians of the early Middle Ages have only recently developed an interest in the political manipulation of cultural difference across state frontiers. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this new direction of research is the emphasis on political frontiers as crucial for the creation, rather than separation, of ethnic configurations. Recent work on the relation between monastic communities and political frontiers has shown the potential for a study of frontier symbolism. The idea of the present volume grew out of the realization that there was a great deal of new work being done in this direction which deserved a wider audience. This was true both of studies of late antique frontiers and of more recent research on medieval frontier societies. In addition, several authors address the issue of religious identities and their relations with ethnicity and state ideology. In that respect, the book is directed to a large audience, particularly because of its wide geographical range, from Iberia and the Balkans to Cilicia and Iran.

Throughout his distinguished career at Vanderbilt and Yale, Paul H. Freedman has established a reputation for pushing against and crossing perceived boundaries within history and within the historical discipline. His numerous works have consistently ventured into uncharted waters: from studies uncovering the hidden workings of papal bureaucracy and elite understandings of subaltern peasants, to changing perceptions of exotic products and the world beyond Europe, to the role modern American restaurants have played in taking cuisine in exciting new directions.

The fifteen essays collected in this volume have been written by Paul Freedman’s former students and closest colleagues to both honour his extraordinary achievements and to explore some of their implications for medieval and post-medieval European society and historical study. Together, these studies assess and explore a range of different boundaries, both tangible and theoretical: boundaries relating to law, religion, peasants, historiography, and food, medicine, and the exotic. While drawing important conclusions about their subjects, the collected essays identify historical quandaries and possibilities to guide future research and study.