The Long Morning of Medieval Europe: New Directions in Early Medieval StudiesRecent advances in research show that the distinctive features of high medieval civilization began developing centuries earlier than previously thought. The era once dismissed as a "Dark Age" now turns out to have been the long morning of the medieval millennium: the centuries from AD 500 to 1000 witnessed the dawn of developments that were to shape Europe for centuries to come. In 2004, historians, art historians, archaeologists, and literary specialists from Europe and North America convened at Harvard University for an interdisciplinary conference exploring new directions in the study of that long morning of medieval Europe, the early Middle Ages. Invited to think about what seemed to each the most exciting new ways of investigating the early development of western European civilization, this impressive group of international scholars produced a wide-ranging discussion of innovative types of research that define tomorrow's field today. The contributors, many of whom rarely publish in English, test approaches extending from using ancient DNA to deducing cultural patterns signified by thousands of medieval manuscripts of saints' lives. They examine the archaeology of slave labor, economic systems, disease history, transformations of piety, the experience of power and property, exquisite literary sophistication, and the construction of the meaning of palace spaces or images of the divinity. The book illustrates in an approachable style the vitality of research into the early Middle Ages, and the signal contributions of that era to the future development of western civilization. The chapters cluster around new approaches to five key themes: the early medieval economy; early medieval holiness; representation and reality in early medieval literary art; practices of power in an early medieval empire; and the intellectuality of early medieval art and architecture. Michael McCormick's brief introductions open each part of the volume; synthetic essays by accomplished specialists conclude them. The editors summarize the whole in a synoptic introduction. All Latin terms and citations and other foreign-language quotations are translated, making this work accessible even to undergraduates. The Long Morning of Medieval Europe: New Directions in Early Medieval Studies presents innovative research across the wide spectrum of study of the early Middle Ages. It exemplifies the promising questions and methodologies at play in the field today, and the directions that beckon tomorrow. |
Contents
Strong Rulers Weak Economy? Rome the Carolingians and the Archaeology | |
The Beginnings of Hilltop Villages in Early Medieval Tuscany | |
Early Medieval Economic History in the TwentyFirst | |
Data Production Exchange and Demand | |
The Early Medieval Transformation of Piety | |
On the Logic of TypeScenes in Late Antique and Early | |
Representations and Reality in Early Medieval Literature | |
Charlemagne and Empire | |
Charlemagnes Delegation of Judicial Responsibilities | |
Practices of Property in the Carolingian Empire | |
The Cunning of Institutions | |
The Solarium in NinthCentury Narratives | |
Michael McCormick | |
Gift and Countergift in the Early Medieval Liturgy | |
Christs Dual Nature and the Crisis of Early Medieval | |
Matter and Meaning in the Carolingian World | |
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Common terms and phrases
Aachen ancient archaeological aristocratic armor bishop blood bloody rain byrnie Byzantine Cambridge capitularies Carolingian castelli Chapter Charlemagne Chris Wickham Christ Christian Church context counts cultural Dhuoda documents early Middle Ages ecclesiastical eighth century Einhard elite empire estates evidence example exchange Figure Francia François-Louis Ganshof Frankish Gaul gifts Gregory of Tours hagiographical Hanover historians holy Ibid images iron shackles Italy Joachim Henning judicial Karl king land late antique late Roman Latin Liber Pontificalis literary literature Louis the Pious Mainz manuscripts martyrs Masses material medievale medioevo Merovingian Michael McCormick missi Mittelalter monasteries monastic Moyen ninth century Notker offer Oxford palace Paris Passions peasant penance penitentials Perrecy Philippart political post-Roman prayer production Riccardo Francovich Rome royal ruler rural saints settlement shield siècle slave social Society solarium spiritual structures studies surviving texts trans translation type-scene village Vita Waltharius Wamba weather written sources