Networks
and Neighbours 2015
Symposium III - Leeds
3 – 4
July 2015
M.
Sadler Building, Grant Room, 3rd fl.
School
of History
University
of Leeds, UK
Welcome all to the third
annual Networks and Neighbours Symposium. This year’s limited-space
event will be centred on intensive research dialogue with an intimate collection
of fellow scholars of earlier medieval history. To this end, each of the speakers
will have their own extended discussion time and the number of participants
will be limited. We hope that this will provide a fruitful exercise for
everyone involved and we encourage all speakers to consider turning their
respective talks into papers for publication.
Networks and Neighbours would
like to express our especial gratitude to the School of History at the University of Leeds for their continued funding and
support for our annual symposia and for making this event possible.
N&N 2015 Symposium Program
Day 1 (3rd July)
9:00am-9:30am:
Registration, Coffee and Opening Remarks
9:30am-10:45am: Cultural
Memory I
Ioannis
Papadopoulos, University of Leeds, UK
‘Future
Perfect: Late Roman Attempts of Utopian Establishments’
Chair: Alaric Hall, University of Leeds, UK
10:45am-11:00am:
Coffee
11:00am-12:15pm: Cultural
Memory II
Catalin
Taranu, University of Leeds, UK
‘True
Franks and Teutons: The Social Life of Germanic Heroic Poetry in Carolingian
Francia’
Chair: Alaric Hall
12:15pm-1:45pm:
Lunch
1:45pm-3:00pm: Western
Knowledge of the East I
Tamar
Rotman, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
‘Between
Hagiography and Practice: Eastern martyrs in the hagiographical corpus of
Gregory of Tours’
Chair:
Erin Dailey, Independent Scholar, Leeds
3:00pm-3:15pm:
Coffee
3:15pm-4:30pm: Western
Knowledge of the East II
Tom
MacMaster, University of Edinburgh, UK
‘Justinian’s
mistress, Anaulf’s wife: Eastern gossip and knowledge in the Chronicle of
Fredegar’
Chair:
Erin Dailey
4:30pm-4:45pm:
Wine
4:45pm-6:00pm: Keynote
Paper
Professor
Ian Wood, University of Leeds, UK
‘The
Transformation of Late Antiquity, 1971-2015’
Chair:
Richard Broome, University of Leeds, UK
7pm: Dinner
Day Two (4th July)
9:30am-10:00am:
Coffee
10:00am-11:15am: Non-Human
Agents I
Andrea Maraschi, University of Iceland
‘Signs in
the early Medieval skies. Why, what…and who?’
Chair: Aleks Pluskowski,
University of Reading, UK
11:15am-11:30am:
Coffee
11:30am-12:45pm: Non-Human Agents II
Muriel Araujo Lima, University of
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Chair:
Aleks Pluskowski
12:45pm-2:15pm:
Lunch
2:15pm-3:30pm: Circulation
and Renewal I
Bruna
Bengozi, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
‘Reform and Renewal in Rodulfus Glaber’s Histories:
some remarks’
Chair: Ainoa Castro, University of Toronto, Canada
3:30pm-3:45pm: Coffee
3:45pm-5:00pm: Circulation and Renewal II
Francisco
Alvarez Lopez, King’s College London, UK
‘Circulation
and Use of Iberian Texts in Anglo-Saxon England’
Chair: Ainoa Castro
5:00pm: Concluding
Remarks
Michael J. Kelly, University of
Leeds, UK
---------------
2013 N&N Symposium, Leeds, U.K.
Get the program in pdf here
Networks and
Neighbours
A
Symposium on Early Medieval Correlations
27-28 June 2013
ORGANISED BY
Jason R. Berg, Michael J. Kelly, Richard
Broome, Tim Barnwell
The Organisers wish to express their gratitude to the following people for their help and support:
Ian N. Wood, Emily
Abbey, Casey Baldacchino, Renan Birro, Tommaso Leso,
N. Kıvılcım Yavuz & Otávio Luiz Vieira Pinto
N. Kıvılcım Yavuz & Otávio Luiz Vieira Pinto
Generously supported by: HERA: Cultural Memory and the Resources of the
Past & The Royal
Historical Society
N&N:
A Symposium on Early Medieval Correlations
A
message from the organisers:
Welcome
to the Networks and Neighbours Symposium! We are extremely happy and excited to
have such a varied and exciting group of scholars here in Leeds. We have been
genuinely surprised by the overwhelming support and excitement for the project
that has been generated in all corners of the globe and we have you to thank
for that. We hope that you enjoy your time in Leeds and that the unique format
of this symposium will not only be beneficial to you as presenters but will
also foster more open and frank discussion on the study of the Early Middle
Ages.
As
we have said before, the aim of this event is to promote not only the study of
how people and communities interacted within and without their own world and
localities in the Early Middle Ages, but also to promote the study of Early
Medieval networks by an international, multilingual collaboration of scholars.
With that in mind, this symposium is also the ribbon-cutting event of a new
Open Access Journal conveniently titled ‘Networks and Neighbours’, which
published its first volume just last night. We would like to take this
opportunity to thank some of the participants here who have already published
their research via the N&N journal and openly invite all participants of
this symposium to consider publishing expanded versions of these papers in the
journal.
Finally,
N&N seeks to build upon the excellent work and successes of series
such as the ‘Transformation of the Roman World’, ‘HERA: Cultural Memory and the
Resources of the Past’ and ‘Texts and Identities’, however, we hope to forge,
with your help and input, novel methodologies and critically informed histories
of Early Medieval Europe.
-Networks
and Neighbours Organizing Committee
N&N:
A Symposium on Early Medieval Correlations
27th June
9:00-10:00 – Coffee and Registration
10:00-10:15 – Opening Remarks
10:15-12:15 – Panel 1 ‘Letters’
12:15-1:15 – Lunch
1:15-3:15 – Panel 2 ‘Authority’
3:15-3:45 – Coffee
3:45-5:45 – Panel 3 ‘Stories, and Stories?’
6:30 – Symposium dinner at Veritas
28th June
10:00-10:15 Coffee
10:15-12:15 – Panel 4 ‘Sanctifying, or, Truth Harvesting’
1:15-3:15 – Panel 5 ‘Networks and Neighbours’
3:15-3:30 – Concluding Remarks by Professor Ian Wood
3:30-5:00 Wine Reception
N&N:
A Symposium on Early Medieval Correlations
Program
Thursday,
27th June
Leeds
University Business School, Maurice Keyworth Building SR (1.32)9:00-10:00: Coffee and Registration Parkinson SR 1.08
10:00-10:15: Opening Remarks – ‘Networks and Neighbours: What does it actually mean?’
10:15-12:15: Panel 1 ‘Letters’
Moderator: Jamie Wood, University of Lincoln, UK
André Szczawlinska Muceniecks, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
The Tenth and Eleventh Centuries as a Source for Medieval Scandinavian Historians: Methodological and Theoretical Considerations About the Study of Viking Age Rus´
Paulo Duarte Silva, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Bishops and Preaching in Fifth-Century Gaul: The Sermons Ad Episcopos of Caesarius of Arles
Cătălin Ţăranu, University of Leeds, UK
The Elusive Nature of Germanic Heroic Poetry: A Rhizomatic Model
12:15-1:15: LUNCH
1:15-3:15: Panel 2 ‘Authority’
Moderator: Luis Garcia Moreno, Universidad de Alcalá, Spain
Sandro Teixeira Moita, Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Building the Kingship: Roman Generals, Warrior Nobility, and the Rise of the Gothic Kings
Paulo Henrique de Carvalho Pachá, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Icariá, Brazil
Relations of Personal Dependence: Social Totality and Historical Dynamic in the Iberian Early Middle Ages
Koen Vanhuele, Universiteit Gent, Belgium
(Re-)Forming a Reformer: The Influence of Abbatial Networks on Monastic Reforms in the Early Eleventh Century
3:15-3:45: COFFEE
3:45-5:45: Panel 3 ‘Stories, and Stories?
Moderator: Meritxell Pérez Martinez, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain
Tamar Rotman, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva, Israel
The Martyrdom of Agathonice and the Transmission of Her Story
Guy Ron-Gilboa, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Brigand Stories in Medieval Arabic Historiography
Javier Martínez Jiménez, Oxford University, UK
The lack of engineers in post-Roman Spain
6:30: DINNER AT VERITAS
Friday,
28th June
10:00-10:15: COFFEE
10:15-12:15: Panel 4 ‘Sanctifying, or, Truth Harvesting’
Moderator: Helena Carr, University of Sheffield, UK
Muriel Araujo Lima Garcia, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
English Bestiaries and their Medieval Precedents
Lucy O’Connor, University of Exeter, UK
The Gathering of Devout Pilgrims throughout the Early Medieval Holy Land
Asya Bereznyak, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Knowledge of their Own: Transmission, Transformation, and Appropriation of Christian Ideas in the Early Middle Ages
12:15-1:15: LUNCH
1:15-3:15: Panel 5 ‘Networks and Neighbours’
Moderator: Yaniv Fox, Cambridge University, UK
Dmitri Tarat, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva, Israel
Continuity and Change: The Community of Hamburg-Bremen, c. 831-1076
Hervin Fernández-Aceves, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
Networks and Networking in the Royal Court as Seen by Hugo Falcandus
Philipp Dörler, Universität Wien, Austria
The Liber Historiae Francorum – A Model for a New Frankish Self-Confidence
Rodrigo Rainha, Universidade Estácio de Sá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Education Outside of School in the Visigothic Kingdom
3:15-3:30: Concluding Remarks by Professor Ian Wood, University of Leeds, UK
3:30-5:00: Wine Reception
N&N:
A Symposium on Early Medieval Correlations
Abstracts
Panel 1 ‘Letters’
Moderator: Jamie Wood, University of Lincoln, UK
André Szczawlinska Muceniecks, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
The Tenth and Eleventh Centuries as a Source for Medieval Scandinavian Historians: Methodological and Theoretical Considerations About the Study of Viking Age Rus´
The
primary objective of this paper is to discuss some theoretical and
methodological questions involved in the studies encompassing Scandinavian
sources dealing with the East in the Middle Ages. Between several possible
approaches, we selected the difficulties more closely related to the
historian’s work, particularly in the field of Theory of History.
We
start our discussion presenting the terminology - a subject that, by itself,
would generate a separate dissertation. Following that, we think about some
dualities presented in the question, particularly the temporal duality
presented in the Scandinavian sources that,
although written in thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, discusses and narrates
events occurred in previous centuries, mainly ninth to eleventh.
Another
duality it is generated by the last one. The concentration of traditional,
written sources in thirteenth to fourteenth centuries followed by the
predominant archaeological research dealing with the ninth to eleventh
tantalisingly induces the researcher to a simplistic distinction between ´what really
happened´, studied by archaeology, and ´what was written about this´, studied
by history.
We
will avoid entering in a more detailed
way in the proper discussion of the meanings of East, the formation of Rus´ and
such contextual questions, focusing instead in the methodological and
theoretical spheres. We hope not to incur naively in this discussion, leaving
to the reader the conclusion whether we treated satisfactorily the question.
Paulo Duarte Silva, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Bishops and Preaching in Fifth-Century Gaul: The Sermons Ad Episcopos of Caesarius of Arles
From
the fourth-century onwards, as an effect and an expression of the so called
Constantinian Revolution, bishops started to conduct not only the major ecclesiastical
issues but also the civic affairs. In the West, these affairs included embassy
missions, care of the poor and captive, solving judicial contention and even
coinage. Apart from the first decades of settlement and from some eventual
conflict with the Germanic rulers, one can affirm that the process continued on
the early Middle Ages. Some well-known bishops, such as Ambrose, Augustine and
Leo of Rome engaged in preaching in order to enhance their civic and religious
leadership upon minor clerics and mostly the laymen. Among them is Caesarius,
Bishop of Arles in the first half of the fifth-century.
During
his bishopric, the city of Arles and its surroundings were occupied in turn by
Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Franks, and Caesarius had also to confront some
internal clerical dissent. Among many other activities, preaching and promoting
sermon collections occupied a significant part of his pastoral program.
Caesarius did so not only to reaffirm his leadership but also to try to extend
his influence to the rural parishes as well as to other dioceses in southern
Gaul and in the West.
In
this paper, we examine especially the ad episcopos sermons, those in
which the preacher addressed mainly to the bishops or in which the bishop
consecration was the main subject. Our main goal is to consider how Caesarius
conceives the Episcopal power, as well as its relations with minor clerics and
laymen. To this, we will confront the selected sermons (1, 230) with other
documents produced by the Bishop of Arles, such as his letters and the records
of the councils presided by him.
The Elusive Nature of Germanic Heroic Poetry: A Rhizomatic Model
One
of the great issues in the study of what is conveniently - albeit perhaps
uncritically - known as ‘Germanic heroic poetry’ has always been the pretextual
evolution of the various narratives belonging to the genre. The main problem is
that this requires a complex understanding of 'Germanic heroic' texts as
simultaneously belonging to two worlds - the culturally and socially
prestigious one of (Latinate) literacy, drawing on Classical models, and the
world of (vernacular) orality, rooted in a poetics of anonymous memorial
tradition. My paper argues for the relativisation of this sharp dichotomy which
is to be replaced by the model of a large spectrum of textual variation. More
concretely, I will discuss the earliest attestations of the
Sigurd/Siegfried-Brunhilda story, from the historical events related by Gregory
of Tours, to the thirteenth-century Nibelungenlied and Völsungasaga.
Previous understandings of the evolution of 'Germanic heroic' texts in time
have been based on reconstructing various stages of development, from short
action-driven lays to lengthy dialogue- and drama-laden epics.
My
paper will argue that rather than seeing these narratives as a series of more
recent textual variants deriving in linear fashion from the earlier ones, it
would be more helpful to envision the nature of Germanic heroic poetry as
rhizomatic, consisting of a flux of narratives in a variety of forms
(classifiable as ‘heroic lay’, ‘folk-tale’, ‘historical morality tale’, etc.)
which interact with one another and with the cultural traditions into which
they are adapted. The different narrative strands emerging in different milieus
and shaped by them were never separate, reified objects, but rather expressions
of these different cultural worlds which continuously communicated with one
another. Thus, rather than attempting to reconstruct these different stages,
one would gain more by looking at the forces of change - vectors for the flux
of narratives and also at the interactions between the texts as such and the
different cultural and social encodings of narrative and historical truth.
Panel 2 ‘Authority’
Moderator: Luis Garcia Moreno, Universidad de Alcalá, Spain
Sandro Teixeira Moita, Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Building the Kingship: Roman Generals, Warrior Nobility, and the Rise of the Gothic Kings
This
presentation intends to contribute to the debate on the formation process of
Gothic kingship during the years 382-418, at the time of the Great Migration of
the Visigoths. The emergence of figures like Alaric I, Athawulf, Sigeric and Valia represents the validation of such a process in which a
network of relationships between Gothic leaders and Roman generals was crucial
to the rise of Gothic kingship, including Goth chieftains and princes at
military service of the Roman Empire, which achieved high commands and ranks in
the Roman Army. Drawing from theoretical considerations from the fields of Military
History and Anthropology, the presentation analyses the transformations which
were responsible for important changes concerning the figure of the king which
occurred during the period in question. At this moment, the figure of the king
changed from a purely military nature to a political one, reaching the most
prominent position at the top of the Gothic society. As a result of this
process, the king acquired the authority to lead the Visigoths in their search
for a place, a new “Gothia” like the one of years before the Second Gothic War
(376-382). This quest came to a successful ending with the foundation of the
Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse, thanks to the advantages of the imperial
settlement of 418 in Gaul.
Paulo Henrique de Carvalho Pachá, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Icariá, Brazil
Relations of Personal Dependence: Social Totality and Historical Dynamic in the Iberian Early Middle Ages
This
research proposes to address the emergence of a society founded on the
centrality of the structural relations of personal dependence, in a context of
spreading and rooting of new hegemonic relations of production forms - and,
therefore, the exercise of power and resistance opposed to it - in the Iberian
Peninsula, between the fourth and seventh centuries. Hence this presentation
will focus on the phenomena and structures of social relations connected by
relations of personal dependence. This strategy seeks to point out the
centrality of these relations and its progressive setting as the core social relation
during the early Iberian Middle Ages, which means it plays the major role as
the relation that functions as the framework of the social totality and
establishes the limits and possibilities of a specific historical dynamics.
Taking
into consideration this historically specific social form - the result of the
process of synthesis between the roman imperial structure and the Germanic
tribal organisation - our central hypothesis is that relations of personal
dependence are the core social relations in the process of structuring
early-medieval society as a totality. In this context, gift-exchanging system
was established as a key point in connecting and expanded reproduction of
relations of dependence, combining and joining extremely diverse phenomena such
as the Visigothic state organisation, the process of Christianisation in the
Peninsula and the development of forms of exchange.
Our
paper focuses on this last element, developing a characterisation of the main forms
of early medieval exchange (gift-exchange and commerce) through an analysis
that frames them as relationships that emerges from a social structure
determined by the relations of personal dependence. It is, therefore, an
investigation that has as its main objective the analysis of medieval society
as a totality.
Koen Vanhuele, Universiteit Gent, Belgium
(Re-)Forming a Reformer: The Influence of Abbatial
Networks on Monastic Reforms in the Early Eleventh Century
By
the end of the early Middle Ages, Benedictine monasticism in Western Europe
went through a series of (trans)formations under the influence of large reform
centres such as Gorze and Cluny and their networks of reformed institutions.
However, in the margins of these movements developed smaller and more
regional-oriented reform movements. One such example is the network of
institutions led by Poppo of Stavelot (†1048), a descendant of lower Flemish
nobility, who converted to monastic life in his adult years and worked in close
conjunction with the German emperors to reform a large number of monasteries on
their territories.
Although
primary evidence is scarce, several scholars have attempted to construct a
cohesive account of his life and accomplishments, focusing either on his role
as a political player within the context of the ‘imperial church system’, or on
his significance as a proponent of the so-called ‘Lotharingian mixed
observance’. However, by largely ignoring his own agency as a reformer and the
way in which his own networks played a determinant role in the methodology and
outcomes of the reforms, none of these works succeeded in explaining the
atypical evolution of his career.
This
paper will fill some of this lacuna by proposing an alternative reading of
Poppo, focusing on his embeddedness in several complex, constantly changing and
often conflicting aristocratic and ecclesiastical networks. Particular
attention will be paid to the degree to which these interrelated local and
regional networks (re-)formed Poppo as a reformer and to what extent Poppo
increasingly succeeded in utilizing his accumulating network-capital to pursue
his own goals as a monastic leader. Finally, it will investigate his efforts of
creating a network between institutions and try to answer the question whether links
between them became institutionalised, or rather stayed personal and ephemeral.
Panel 3 ‘Stories, and Stories?
Moderator: Meritxell Pérez Martinez, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain
Tamar Rotman, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er-Sheva, Israel
The Martyrdom of Agathonice and the Transmission of Her
Story
In
this paper I intend to examine the transmission of the martyrdom of Carpus,
Papylus and Agathonice which appears in two accounts: one written in Latin and
another written in Greek. Although the transmission of the story hardly changed
the description of the martyrdom of Carpus and Papylus, one difference may be
noted in the story of Agathonice. According to the Latin account, Agathonice
was tried and executed just after Carpus and Papylus. However, in the Greek
account she stands in the crowd, and as she watches Carpus and Papylus being
burnt to death, she decides to end her life in the same way and become a
martyr, and so jumps into the burning flames.
Although
modern scholars tend to see the Latin account as more reliable, in my paper I
will show that, in fact, it is the Greek version that proves to be more
credible. In order to do so I will focus on a small phenomenon known as
‘voluntary martyrdom’. Through examination of similar martyrdom accounts and
the writings of early church fathers, such as Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria
and Cyprian, I will explain this phenomenon and the attitude of the early
Church towards it. Understanding why the Greek account is the reliable one will
hopefully explain why the Latin writer (or translator) chose to change
Agathonice's story, but more importantly it may give us inkling into of the
relationships between different Christian communities in different areas of the
Roman Empire.
Guy Ron-Gilboa, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Brigand Stories in Medieval Arabic Historiography
Tales
of bandits, robbers, and brigands appear common in many literary traditions:
consider for example the medieval English ballads on Robin Hood and his Merry
Men; the Russian folksongs on Stenka Razin; and tales of the American Wild West
(Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy) to name but a few. The taste for these tales of
suspense and high adventure is indeed shared by many, and medieval Arab authors
are no exception.
Early
Arab authors showed a keen interest in the poetry and exploits of Bedouin
brigands, especially those of pre-Islamic times, as part of their general
interest in Arabian antiquity, tribal genealogies, pre-Islamic poetry and lore,
etc. These early authors constructed the notion of the Ǧāhiliyya
- the usual Islamic term for the pre-Islamic period, meaning ‘the age of
barbarity/savageness’, or the ‘age of ignorance’ - as an ideal past from which
virtues such as virility, generosity and courage should be learned, not merely
as a savage age of idolatry. In this respect, they held pre-Islamic Arabic
poetry (including the poetry composed by the above mentioned brigands) in the
highest esteem, seeing that it represented the ideal form of classical Arabic
as well as expressing the best virtues of the Ǧāhiliyya, and they
sought making it a basis for the shared cultural heritage of the forming
Islamic civilisation.
Javier Martínez Jiménez, Oxford University, UK
The lack of engineers in post-Roman Spain
Amidst the debate around the end of
the Roman world, in which "decline" and "collapse" are
rather seen as "transformation" and "adaptation", Spanish archaeology
has been recently confronted a debate of its own, in which most of the churches
traditionally considered by art historians as "Visigothic" are being
proposed by archaeologists as ninth-century constructions. Without tackling
this issue directly, this paper will address the archaeological evidence which
surrounds the evolution of Roman public infrastructure (paying particular to
aqueducts) in the Visigothic period, paying particular attention to sites such
as Barcelona, Tarragona, Seville, Córdoba, and above all, Mérida and
Reccopolis, the new sixth-century urban foundation. From the evidence presented
it will be clear that even if there does not seem to be much evidence to
suggest the continuity of skilled engineers in Spain, there were wider networks
of skilled builders available.
Moderator: Helena Carr, University of Sheffield, UK
Muriel Araujo Lima Garcia, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
English Bestiaries and their Medieval Precedents
The
Physiologus is a Christian book of animal lore that was probably first
compiled in Alexandria, Egypt, between the second and fifth centuries.
Originally in Greek, it was later translated into many languages, including
Latin, and became one of the sources of the bestiaries produced in England in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The
influence of Physiologus’ text on English bestiaries is well-known, but
little has been said about its iconography and its effects on later manuscript
production.
If
the Physiologus’ text became one of the most important sources for
bestiaries, did the same happen to its images? That is, to what extent - if at
all - was its iconographic program reused and transformed by a later tradition?
We will try to investigate possible points of change and continuity -
image-wise - as makers of bestiaries relied on previous content to fashion a
new kind of book.
The
focus will be on the ninth-century Bern, Burgerbibliothek Cod. 318, the first
illustrated Latin Physiologus, but we will also draw some comparisons
from Brussels, Bibl.Roy. MS 10074 which, being from the eleventh century
closely predates English bestiaries. The search for possible common traits - as
well as differences - between the icnography of Physiologus manuscripts
and bestiaries may shed light on how the transmission of knowledge took place.
Lucy O’Connor, University of Exeter, UK
The Gathering of Devout Pilgrims throughout the Early Medieval Holy Land
Christian
pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Palestine had developed into a phenomenal
religious movement by the end of the sixth century. Pilgrims longed to see,
touch and worship at the sacred sites described in the Bible. They were
also drawn to places of natural wonder, cult-centres commemorating the bodies
of local saints, holy men and women, as well as hermits. Vast numbers of
pilgrims from all parts of the Christian world gathered together at the holy
sites. One contemporary commentator, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, described the array
of Nationalities drawn to Symeon Stylites the Elder: ‘Not only the inhabitants
of our part of the world flock together, but also Ishmaelites, Persians,
Armenians subject to them, Iberians, Homerites and men even more distant than
these; and there came many inhabitants of the extreme west, Spaniards, Britons,
and the Gauls. And of Italy it is superfluous to speak’. The coming
together of such a grouping of people must surely have given the opportunity
for communication, interaction and the sharing of knowledge amongst them.
Yet, it is a subject that has long been ignored and neglected.
This
paper will offer new analysis and interpretation surrounding the identities of
the early medieval pilgrims: who they were in terms of their social ranking and
where exactly they had travelled from. However, this paper ultimately
seeks to question whether they communicated and interacted with one another
throughout the unfamiliar Holy Land and whether facilities and amenities were
available to them to help develop such an interaction.
Asya Bereznyak, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Knowledge of their Own: Transmission, Transformation, and Appropriation of Christian Ideas in the Early Middle Ages
‘The
instruction we gather from books is like fire,’ Voltaire noted, and went on to
describe the significance of the instruction found in books and its
transmission to and from neighbours. Yet although it is not hard to point out
the book that shaped the culture of medieval Europe in a long, often forced -
and sometimes devastating - process of Christianisation, direct instruction
from books was hardly available to the vast majority of medieval Europeans. It
is from and to neighbours that ideas were transmitted; and it is only by
tracing the evolution and formation of these ideas as they passed from
neighbour to neighbour, from people to people, that we can aspire to account for
their local shape and impact.
This
paper aims to provide a comparative perspective on the transmission,
transformation and appropriation of Christian ideas across Europe during its
Christianisation. It will be shown that ideas were not merely transmitted as is
- much as it happens when ideas are passed between individuals, so also when
ideas are passed between peoples - they are being constantly moulded, re-shaped
and absorb new cultural meanings. Thus, to unravel the overlapping layers of
meaning those ideas accumulated as they passed through several intermediaries,
it is essential to consider not only the role of the agent and the reaction of
the converted people, but also the unique form the interactions between them
assumed in each locality. A careful re-examination of such interactions will
show that several distinct strategies of self definition were adopted as a
reaction to forced Christianisation and that a better understanding of these
strategies can account for the character Christianity assumed in each region.
Panel 5 ‘Networks and Neighbours’
Moderator: Yaniv Fox, Cambridge University, UK
Dmitri Tarat, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva, Israel
Continuity and Change: The Community of Hamburg-Bremen, c. 831-1076
This
paper will try to define what exactly the community of Hamburg–Bremen was in
the times of Anskar and Rimbert and that of the time of Adam of Bremen and will
try to compare between the two. In order to do so, I will use the following
model, according to which the discussion will be arranged;
1. Local saints and
universal saints.
2. Definition of local
community.
3. The neighbours and
the fields of missionary work; the perception and the practice.
Hervin Fernández-Aceves, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
Networks and Networking in
the Royal Court as Seen by Hugo Falcandus
The
Liber de Regno Sicilie, attributed to ‘Hugo Falcandus’
(pseudo-Falcandus) became, for better or worse, a pillar for the understanding
of the Norman kingdom of Sicily in the second half of the twelfth century. The
encounters, agreements, bargaining, gossiping, manoeuvring, and plotting
described in the Liber’s narrative seem to tell us a story on how
friendship and conflict affected the King’s government and, hence, his Kingdom.
But to what extent the practice of plotting and manipulating relationships
define the personal and social perspective on a medieval royal court?
My
study on pseudo-Falcandus’ account is focused on the role of coalitions and
interactions as developed through systems of social relations present in the
text. Hence, my starting hypothesis is that the relationships of the historical
actors are the means by which political action is described in a historical
narrative. The two main questions that I expect to answer are: How can we
extract and project a system of social relations from a medieval text? And,
what does the projected system tell us about the role and flow of secrets in
the text’s description of conspiracy and plotting in the royal court?
The
first problem to address is the description of Hugo Falcandus’ account in terms
of characters and coalitions, and then constructs a map of actors. After that,
I shall identify a system of interactions between those actors, connected by
events that either oppose or unite them. The central idea of this
methodological attempt is that the meaning of individuals and communities in a
narrative is conditional on their position in a system of social relation
constructed by the author. Hence, a central problem when dealing with the
correlation between secrecy and political activity as described by a text is
framing and organising the author’s depiction of social and political
interactions.
Philipp Dörler, Universität Wien, Austria
The Liber Historiae Francorum – A Model for a New Frankish Self-Confidence
For
many historians, such as R. Gerberding, the mostly neglected Liber historiae
Francorum (LHF) is a text fundamentally influenced by Germanic
traditions. But reducing the LHF to only one tradition is too
short-sighted; the text was influenced by a multitude of different traditions.
In my paper, I pursue two arguments: first, I believe that the author of
the LHF makes use of different long-standing traditions. He does not
only manage to juxtapose and balance these different traditions with ease, but
slightly transforms them for his own purposes. This may be seen particularly in
two examples, both somewhat neglected in previous research: The author’s use of
the legend of Troy - which is different from other post-Roman authors as
Jordanes or the so-called Fredegar - and his use of the Bible; the text’s
language and narrative structure as well as its typological comparisons
indicate the author consciously harks back to the Bible - but in a different
way from Gregory of Tours, one of the main sources of the text. The author
skilfully combines these traditions to a new identity model for the Frankish
people, which results in the author creating something new: the LHF
presents us with a new Frankish self-conception in which the Franks have
utterly emancipated themselves from the Romans. It defines the Franci
not anymore just as one gens among many, but rather conceives them as a populus.
They are God’s Chosen People and thus superior to the Romans. Second, by doing
so, the text does not only intercommunicate and respond to other texts within a
network, but to a certain extent it also represents a competing model of a
Frankish identity. These insights present the LHF in a different light.
Rodrigo Rainha, Universidade Estácio de Sá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Education Outside of School in the Visigothic Kingdom
The
aim of this paper will be to challenge received wisdom about education in the
Visigothic kingdom. In the pedagogical texts, as well as in
ecclesiastical epistles, we can see grand claims of the revival and importance
of education in the kingdom. From this surface reading, traditional
historiography has developed the view that there was a wider movement for
education. To the contrary, I will argue that the reality of education
was a very individual, hierarchical form of learning that was meant to sustain
social-political differences and not expand education in the broader sense.
To
develop this argument, I will study four bishops: Isidore of Seville, Braulio
of Zaragoza, Eugenius II of Toledo and Taio of Zaragoza. These men,
linked through the continuous exchange of letters and the exercising of
episcopal duties, all relied on their predecessors as teacher, using this
acquired education to reinforce their positions on the episcopate.
We
understand that in the midst of the socio-political gap faced by the Visigoths
in the seventh century bishop, who was seen wrapped in political disputes, the
question that the church was in the background, some prominent members of the
episcopate sought to strengthen the specific discourses of space. Isidore of
Seville in particular stressed the master-student/disciple relationship and
this type of personal education as a way to regulate and indicate the clergy
from society by establishing legitimacy through clear hierarchies of authority.
In
turn, the former student of Isidore, Braulio, along with Eugenius (a potential
former student of Isidore) and Taio followed the personal tutorship style of
Isidore as a way to build authorship for clerical/episcopal leadership.
Thus the legacy of the master/disciple education structure carried on
throughout the seventh century and the Visigothic kingdom and in so doing
maintained a limited space for learning and educative, contrary to the rhetoric
of the pedagogical texts and epistles.
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