Social history (c. 500-1500)
More general subjects:
Legitimation of the Elites in High Medieval Poland and Norway
Comparative Studies
Between the years 1000 and 1300 the two developing polities of Norway and Poland often followed similar trends. Both realms were located on what was considered the periphery of Europe both joined Latin Christendom — and with it the wider sphere of European cultural influence — at the turn of the first millennium and both by the end of the thirteenth century had largely coalesced as stable kingdoms. Yet while the histories of these two countries have long been studied along national lines it remains rarer for them to be considered outside of their traditional geographical context and studied via comparison with events elsewhere.
This innovative volume seeks to explore the means and uses of symbolic power that were employed by religiopolitical elites in order to assert their legitimacy and dominance by taking an explicitly comparative approach and dual perspective on these two polities. What stories did elites tell themselves and others about their deservedness to rule what spaces and objects did they utilize in order to project their elevated status and how did struggle and rivalry form part of their societal dominance? Formed from chapters co-written by experts in Polish and Norwegian history this unique volume not only reflects on the similarities and differences between events in these two polities but also more broadly offers conceptual tools and comparative frameworks that can enhance our wider understanding of the conditions and factors that shaped religiopolitical behaviour on the peripheries.
Cultivating the Earth, Nurturing the Body and Soul: Daily Life in Early Medieval England
Essays in Honour of Debby Banham
How did food impact social relationships in early medieval England? What cultivation practices were followed to produce the best possible food supplies? What was the cultural significance of bread? How was the human body nourished? When sickness inevitably occurred where did one go and who was consulted for healing? And how was spiritual health also protected? The essays gathered together in this exciting volume draw on a range of different disciplines from early medieval economic and social history to experimental archaeology and medieval medicine to offer a unique overview into day-to-day life in England nearly two millennia ago.Taking as their starting point the broad research interests of the volume’s honorand Dr Debby Banham contributors here offer new insights into the reproduction and ritual use of vernacular charms examine the collation and translation of medieval medicine elucidate monastic economies and production and uncover the circumstances behind the production and transmission of medical manuscripts in early medieval England. Presenting new insights into agricultural practices and animal husbandry monastic sign language and materia medica plant knowledge and medical practices the chapters within this volume not only offer a fitting tribute to Banham’s own groundbreaking work but also shed new light on what it meant to nurture both body and soul in early medieval England.
Accountability in Late Medieval Europe
Households, Communities, and Institutions
This volume brings together studies of late medieval accountability in both the domestic and the public realms. It traces practices of accountability across the social spectrum from households to small businesses to communal and regnal administrations highlighting the intersections between competing conceptions of personal and institutional responsibility. Focusing on France and Italy from the thirteenth to the early sixteenth centuries the case studies follow territorial officers consular agents and town notables co-opted into local governance from Avignon and Marseille to Tuscany and the Venetian and Genoese overseas territories. The studies explore both personal and institutional accounting registers as well as records of a textual nature such as rulebooks and inquests in an effort to reflect the range of records and procedures relied on to achieve a measure of accountability in late medieval Europe.
Medieval Livonia
History, Society and Economy of a Territory on the Baltic Frontier
The territory known as Livonia on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea emerged as a result of the Baltic Crusades in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It was a region of multiple nations languages and cultures and the scene of their mutual interaction connected to the Holy Roman Empire the papal curia Scandinavia and Lithuania and mediating the Hanseatic trade with Russia. This book is a significant new study of the multiple facets of Baltic history taking in social history urban and rural culture peasant economy and literacy with novel perspectives on crusading political history and the chief agents of power notably the Teutonic Order. This first comprehensive treatment of Livonian history in English will serve as a valuable source of information for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as a resource for studying the Baltic Crusades and crusader territories in general.