Brepols Online Books Medieval Miscellanea Collection 2022 - bob2022mime

The contributions of this special issue - proceedings of the conference on royal nunneries that took place in Prague in July 2020 - focus on the monasteries connected to the ruling houses, which were endowed with special privileges and enriched by royal and aristocratic donations, often serving as instrumenta regni. They are introduced as active cultural hubs, stages for royal and courtly promotion, and places of personal and dynastic self-representation. This includes female monasteries, the agency of female élites in medieval society and their role as patrons and addressees of works of art.

Henry of Rheinfelden, a Dominican from Basel, spent the last decade of the fourteenth century at the University of Vienna studying theology. During this time he took notes on the academic activities of the first rectors of the university and deans of the Faculties of Arts and Theology. This volume explores Rheinfelden’s contribution to our understanding of the doctrinal, curricular, administrative, and prosopographical history of the early University of Vienna. Deciphering Rheinfelden’s surviving notebooks in the Universitätsbibliothek Basel sheds new light on the rise of an academic elite in Vienna. His manuscripts reveal a network of scholars sharing a passion for knowledge and supply a gallery of intellectual profiles, starting with the mentors of the group, Henry of Langenstein and Henry Totting of Oyta, and continuing with the lesser-known figures Stephen of Enzersdorf, Gerhard Vischpekch of Osnabrück, Paul (Fabri) of Geldern, Andreas of Langenstein, Rutger Dole of Roermond, Nicholas of Hönhartzkirchen, Nicholas of Dinkelsbühl, John Berwart of Villingen, John Stadel of Russbach, Peter de Treysa, Michael Suchenschatz of Hausleiten, Peter Schad of Walse, Thomas of Cleves, and Leonhard of Dorffen. The papers gathered in this volume highlight the intricate relationship between a commitment to administrative duty and an appetite for the creation of a doctrinal tradition via debating, forging arguments, defending and attacking positions, commenting on authorities, and adopting and adapting academic practices imported from Paris, since the majority of the authors in our gallery were educated in Paris and built their careers in Vienna. Through Rheinfelden’s notebooks, this volume provides access to unique and previously unknown texts that together offer a new image of the medieval University of Vienna.

This book offers new and innovative perspectives on long-distance trade between Europe, the Mediterranean area, the Middle East, Africa, India and China during the Early Medieval period. The archaeological data and historical insights presented in this volume are without exception of great interest, often exciting, and more than once astonishing. The goods which travelled between the continents in the timespan under discussion (ca. 6th to 12th centuries) include pottery in all shapes and forms, textiles, coins, metal, lava millstones, glass, marble columns, rock-crystal beads, and also plants used for incense. The scope of the contributions includes the wide-ranging economic contacts of a Viking community, the changing patterns of long-distance trade in the Byzantine Empire, the spread of Chinese pottery to Africa, the Near East and Europe, the information on maritime routes provided by shipwrecks in the Java Sea, the reconstruction of an incense trade network, and the production and distribution of textiles as well as stone objects in the Middle East and beyond. The varied approaches in this volume underline that the movement of objects in Early Medieval times over vast distances not only reflect mechanisms of exchange, but also imply social networks and the transfer of ideas. Thus, Riches Beyond the Horizon sheds compelling light on a world which was much more complex and much more interconnected than has often been assumed.