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This thesis examines the relationship between politics and the writing of institutional history (cartularies and gesta) after the end of the Carolingian Empire (888) from the perspective of Folcuin of St-Bertin and Lobbes (fl. 948-90). After the empire collapsed, long-form narrative histories were mainly written about other centres of power than the royal court, such as religious institutions, and reflected local historical horizons as institutional identities became stronger nodes around which to write history in response to political fragmentation. This thesis nuances this view by placing Folcuin and his histories in as broad a context as possible for the first time. Chapters I and II explore how the politics of Folcuin’s oblation to the Flemish abbey of St-Bertin related to the writing of what many consider to be the first cartulary-chronicle, the Gesta abbatum Sithiensium. Folcuin’s partisanship in a hitherto unknown conflict between certain Baldwinid counts and their Unruoching relatives for power in St-Bertin and Flanders permeated the text, thus challenging the view that the earliest west Frankish cartularies necessarily created shared institutional identities in relation to reform. Chapters III and IV examine how the politics of Folcuin’s promotion to the abbacy of Lobbes and Ottonian rule in Lower Lotharingia related to the composition of the Gesta abbatum Lobiensium. Folcuin’s argument in favour of members of the Ottonian dynasty against their (pro-)Reginarid rivals for power over the abbey and region shaped his representation of monastic history, thus challenging the view that he initially wrote in response to his relations with Rather of Verona. Institutional history could offer contemporaries a means to situate themselves and their communities in a changed political landscape, not by re-establishing their identities around shared institutional pasts, but by aligning them with members of rival families, competing relatives, and still-inchoate political orders in the turbulent world of post-Carolingian politics.

Events characterised as ���natural disasters��� now had an impact on early medieval Europe (c. AD 476-1054), but previous attempts to measure said impact have been hindered by ambiguous terminology. This study reviews the modern mainstream concept of ���natural disaster,��� defined most broadly by The Asian Natural Disaster Reduction Center, and redefines it to fit within a medieval setting. Since the only clearly discernible impact of early medieval natural disasters appears to be exploitative political responses, it emphasises their cultural rather than environmental impact. A brief review of a selection of written sources suggests two particularly high-profile links between disasters and exploitative raids by the Scandinavian raiders now known as Vikings: the first on Lindisfarne, Northumbria, in AD 793 and the second on Dorestad, Frisia, in AD 834. The two disasters, a famine and a flood, would have weakened each populace physically, but would have also weakened their resolve and capacity for defence. Informed by the emphasis of later military strategists, the focus of this study becomes the possible exploitation of disaster-induced weaknesses by these warbands. A range of medieval written sources is then examined, but because only annals provided by Continental Europe���s contemporary Carolingian Empire provide the necessary extended run of precise data within a clear timeframe, the geographic focus is pinpointed upon the Empire. As the volume and detail of relevant data is at its peak before the Treaty of St. Claire-sur-Epte, when Charles the Simple granted the Viking leader Rollo of Normandy and that expanded to become the duchy of Normandy, the focus was further refined to the period before AD 911. By extracting, collating, coding, and then charting annalistic data for disasters and raids, and by using deaths of politically significant individuals and Frankish aggressions as controls, a methodology is devised to investigate the disaster/raid correlation. As the relative severity of these disasters remains unclear, corroboration is sought from non-narrative sources. While dendrochronology, (the science of tree rings), is used to help establish the broad climatic background, it does not allow for precise assessment of disaster severity. The embedded nature of Christian symbolism within Carolingian culture, however, allows for a subjective but more secure interpretation of severity through intertextual comparison of annalistic descriptions of disasters with the language of the Bible. The charted data is then revisited to find potential links between disasters and attacks, leading to the identification and presentation of four extensive case studies. The geographical, political, and climatic situation are all assessed along with the disaster���s likely severity, then the attack is modelled in light of military theory to assess whether the disaster created an exploitable weakness. In all four examples this is found to be the case. Thus, the thesis confirms that one of the most visible impacts of natural disasters in Early Medieval Europe was their potential for exploitation for political gain. By then investigating the geopolitical significance of these exploited disasters, the study then points to a possible loosely coordinated military strategy against the Carolingian Empire, challenging current theories on the origins of the Viking Age in Continental Europe. Further studies into the exploitation of natural disasters would therefore provide a path into understanding political developments in early medieval Europe and especially the Viking Age.

Chapters in this volume discuss the significance of the early medieval period for scholarly and public discourses in the Western Balkans and Central Europe, and the transfer of knowledge between local scholarship and macro- narratives of Mediterranean and Western history. Other essays explore the ways local communities around the Adriatic (Istria, Dalmatia, Dalmatian hinterland, southern Pannonia) established and maintained social networks and integrated foreign cultural templates into their existing cultural habitus. Contributors are Mladen Ančić, Ivan Basić, Goran Bilogrivić, Neven Budak, Florin Curta, Danijel Dzino, Krešimir Filipec, Richard Hodges, Nikola Jakšić, Miljenko Jurković, Ante Milošević, Marko Petrak, Peter Štih, Trpimir Vedriš.

Francia, Bd. 44 (2017)

Departing from the history of reception of early medieval Croatia in international scholarship (as detected in a series of recent studies and monographs) I propose to analyze the destiny of the Croatian project “The Croats and the Carolingians”. The highpoint of the project was the exhibition which took place in Split (20 December 2000 – 31 July 2001) and Brescia (9 September 2001 – January 6 2002) as a part of the international project Charlemagne – The Creation of Europe. Participation of a large number of Croatian scholars who contributed to a series of publications connected to the exhibition lead to organizers' expectations that the project will make visible impact on international academic community. However, although it has been praised as “bringing new historiographic perspective” promising to change the historiography of Eastern Adriatic in the early middle ages (G.P.Brogiolo), this re-discovery or “invention” of rich Carolingian heritage does not seem to have had affect on international scholarship. The failure of particular agendas connected to the project opens a series of questions about the problems in communication between the local/regional/national scholarly communities and the international scholarly audiences. Part of the problems that have plagued relations between European East and West for decades seems to have been replaced by a series of new issues connected to political and social changes in the 1990s. While previous period saw sometimes radical estrangement of the two „blocs“, the new possibilities – all positive developments notwithstanding – seem not to have always lead to expected successful interactions between the two scholarly camps. In an attempt to detect particular problems underlining these issues, I propose to examine both the problems connected to local scholarly communities, but also particular elements of what I would dare to term “subtle academic colonialism”. The presentation will, therefore, examine the relations between national scholarly community often identifying itself as „custodians of the local knowledge“ and representatives of the international scholarly community who often see themselves as correctors called to „shape the proper discourses“ on the particular regional histories.

Is language a tool of empire or is empire a tool of language? This thesis examines the cultivation of Carolingian hegemony on a pan-European scale; one defined by a renewed interest in the study of language and its relationship to Carolingian eagerness for moral and spiritual authority. Intended to complement previous work on Carolingian cultural politics, this thesis reiterates the emergence of active philosophical speculation during the late eighth and early ninth centuries. Prior research has ignored the centrality of linguistic hermeneutics in the Carolingian literate programme. This thesis addresses this lacuna, demonstrating the symbiotic relationship between spirituality, language, and politics within the Carolingian world.The work appropriates prior investigations into the connection of semiotics and Christian philosophy and proposes the development of a renewed interest into ontology and epistemology by Carolingian scholars, notably Alcuin of York and Theodulf of Orléans. The correlation between linguistic philosophy and spiritual authority is confirmed by the 794 Synod of Frankfurt, at which accusations towards both the Adoptionist movement of northern Spain and the repeal of Byzantine Iconoclasm were based on the dangers of linguistic misinterpretation. The thesis also explores the manifestation of this emergent philosophy of language within the manuscript evidence, witnessed by the biblical pandects produced by Alcuin and Theodulf. Desire for the emendation of texts, not to mention the formation of a uniform script (Caroline Minuscule), abetted the larger goal of both infusing a text with authority (both secular and divine) and allowing for broader spiritual and intellectual understanding of a text. Increasing engagement with classical philosophy and rhetoric, the nature of Carolingian biblical revision, and the cultural politics as seen at the Synod of Frankfurt depict the primacy of language to the Carolingians, not only as a tool of imperialism, but the axis of their intellectual and spiritual world.

Is language a tool of empire or is empire a tool of language? This thesis examines the cultivation of Carolingian hegemony on a pan-European scale; one defined by a renewed interest in the study of language and its relationship to Carolingian eagerness for moral and spiritual authority. Intended to complement previous work on Carolingian cultural politics, this thesis reiterates the emergence of active philosophical speculation during the late eighth and early ninth centuries. Prior research has ignored the centrality of linguistic hermeneutics in the Carolingian literate programme. This thesis addresses this lacuna, demonstrating the symbiotic relationship between spirituality, language, and politics within the Carolingian world.The work appropriates prior investigations into the connection of semiotics and Christian philosophy and proposes the development of a renewed interest into ontology and epistemology by Carolingian scholars, notably Alcuin of York and Theodulf of Orléans. The correlation between linguistic philosophy and spiritual authority is confirmed by the 794 Synod of Frankfurt, at which accusations towards both the Adoptionist movement of northern Spain and the repeal of Byzantine Iconoclasm were based on the dangers of linguistic misinterpretation. The thesis also explores the manifestation of this emergent philosophy of language within the manuscript evidence, witnessed by the biblical pandects produced by Alcuin and Theodulf. Desire for the emendation of texts, not to mention the formation of a uniform script (Caroline Minuscule), abetted the larger goal of both infusing a text with authority (both secular and divine) and allowing for broader spiritual and intellectual understanding of a text. Increasing engagement with classical philosophy and rhetoric, the nature of Carolingian biblical revision, and the cultural politics as seen at the Synod of Frankfurt depict the primacy of language to the Carolingians, not only as a tool of imperialism, but the axis of their intellectual and spiritual world.

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The blinding of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VI in Constantinople in August 797 and his overthrow by his mother Eirene, who then ruled as the first female »emperor« of the Eastern Roman Empire until 802, was used as legitimation for the coronation of the Frankish king Charlemagne as emperor of the Romans on 25 December 800, by contemporaries in Western Europe. Some observers in the West may have even interpreted the downfall of the Eastern Roman emperor and his replacement by a woman as sign of an impending collapse of the Roman Empire and the entire world order, as already expected (based on chiliastic calculations). We equally find indications of apocalyptic expectations in Constantinople, where Constantineʹs blinding was linked with a spectacular celestial manifestation of divine disapproval – a darkening of the sun for 17 days. In this paper, this obfuscation of the sun is compared with the description of other atmospheric and climatic phenomena in the 8th and 9th centuries, as well as before and after this period. In addition, natural scientific data is used to disprove earlier hypotheses on the physical background to this event and to present a more probable scenario (i.e., the impacts of one or more volcanic eruptions) for the darkening of 797 and other phenomena, which provided a peculiar »atmospheric« framework for the interpretation of the events between the downfall of Constantine VI and the coronation of Charlemagne by contemporaries.

Catalogues of the names and writings of religious authors and authorities were one of the most enduring forms of biographical collection in the Middle Ages, with rich and varied traditions surviving in both Christian and Islamic contexts. In the Christian world, Jerome’s De viris illustribus (On Illustrious Men) was foundational. Written in 392/393, Jerome’s catalogue of authorities was frequently read and used as a source of information for over a millennium; furthermore, its list of authors was variously expanded and continued. In this chapter, we focus on two moments in the long history of Jerome’s De viris illustribus: the Late Roman Empire and the Carolingian world respectively. More specifically, we examine two particular instances of this reception: Gennadius of Marseille’s late 5th-century continuation of Jerome’s original list of ›illustrious men‹ provides the first case study; the Carolingian historian Frechulf of Lisieux, who was critical reader of Jerome’s catalogue, is the subject of the second case study. In each of these case studies, we analyse – individually and then comparatively – the reworkings and reinterpretations of Jerome’s bio-bibliographic compendium in order to gain to a better understanding of the thematic structure, the authorial choices and the genre-related methodological problems presented in the texts of Gennadius and Frechulf. We examine the tensions that are inherent to such continuations and reworkings, between the thematic foci and agenda introduced by different author-continuators and between groups represented within the texts and the specific authors and audiences writing and reading them.

This article takes a fresh look at the composition of the Gesta sanctorum Rotonensium (Deeds of the Saints of Redon), a late 9th-century monastic narrative which tells of the foundation of Redon, in the south-east of present-day Brittany. This story is exceptional because not just the abbot but the entire first generation of monks is lauded for their sanctity and their contribution towards building a community. I will argue that the author, rather than presenting these lives as examples for subsequent generation of monks to follow, intended for these vignettes to serve as a confirmation of the sanctity of the community as a whole. The series of biographies that form the first part of the GSR show that Redon, in the eyes of the author of the GSR, was a place where an individual’s holiness could come to full fruition – not because that was a given, but because of the fact that members of the community always helped their brethren become the best version of themselves, both during their lifetime and especially in the close examination of their lives after death.

Between the eighth and ninth centuries many kings, dukes and counts in Carolingian Europe promoted the collection of relics in cathedrals and/or urban foundations both to centralize their power and to increase their prestige. Their ventures were part of a wider framework in which the mobility of the saints’ bodies, which was strictly defined by the Carolingian authorities, put various political and social agents in a relationship, often competitive, with each other. This paper considers two cases of the translation of saints’ bodies at the peripheries of the Carolingian Empire: the furta sacra of St Mark (from Alexandria, Egypt to Venice, 828) and St Bartholomew (from the island of Lipari to Benevento, 838-839). Both the hagiographical traditions narrate the theft and transport of the relics from the Islamic world to the Italian peninsula by boat. These two cases are also both related to a conscious and ambitious plan to strengthen local public authorities. The paper examines the underlying political strategies that led to the mobility of two of the most important relics in the Mediterranean context and the circulation of cultural models from the Carolingian worlds, which relocated the saints’ bodies in order to redefine the political balance.

The north-eastern region of the Iberian Peninsula, which later became medieval Catalonia, and the adjacent French region, then called Septimania, formed an intermediary zone of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, social, political, and religious transition and brokerage between the Mediterranean and central European worlds, interfacing with the Christian north and Muslim south. Consequently, the double region Septimania/Catalonia is an ideal subject for a comparative view of transformation processes in the Carolingian Empire. My paper – giving an interim report on ongoing research – analyses how this still-underestimated periphery of the Carolingian Empire transformed into a central region of Latin Christian Europe between the late ninth and the middle of the eleventh century, through exploring its imported and autochthonous manuscript production and its position as a border society. In doing so, I show that the societal and religious circumstances of this intermediary zone favoured the concerted selection, introduction and implementation of the core results of the Carolingian Church reform, as well as its well-balanced adaptation to a post-Roman, post-Visigothic and post-Carolingian society under reconstruction. My reflections allow us to assess the quality of »Carolingian« culture as an imperial, i.e. overarching, eclectic and flexible concept of amalgamation of cultural and political semantics, from a peripheral rather than a central European perspective.

Rabanus Maurus conegut com el primer praeceptor Germania composà el seu De Institutione Clericorum l’any 819. Tot i que en la literatura moderna es menciona com una mena d’Enciclopèdia d’Arts Liberals, la veritat és que es tracta més d’un manual concebut per a l’educació dels joves clergues que es preparen per al priorat. La influència de Rabanus fou gran a l’Imperi Carolingi almenys com mostren algunes parts de la Glosa Ordinaria que semblen procedir directa o indirectament d’ell. En aquest article estudiem la dispersió d’aquest text prestant especial atenció als manuscrits conservats i tractant de descobrir les rutes i mecanismes mitjançant els quals el text s’expandeix a través de l’Imperi Carolingi., Rabanus Maurus, known as primus praeceptor Germania, composed his De institutione clericorum in AD 819. Although in modern literature is mentioned as a sort of Liberal Arts encyclopedia, the truth is that it is rather a handbook conceived for the education of young clerics preparing for the priesthood. Rabanus’ influence was wide and deep in the Carolingian Empire, as at least some parts of the Glossa ordinaria seem to come from him directly or indirectly. In this article we study the dissemination of this text, giving special attention to the preserved manuscripts and trying to discover the routes and mechanisms by which the text spread across the Carolingian Empire., Rabanus Maurus, conocido como el primer praeceptor Germania compuso su De Institutione Clericorum en el año 819. Aunque en la literatura moderna se menciona como una especie de Enciclopedia de Artes Liberales, la verdad es que es más un manual concebido para la educación de los jóvenes clérigos que se preparan para el priorato. La influencia de Rabanus fue profunda en el Imperio Carolingio almenos como muestran algunas partes de la Glosa Ordinaria que parecen proceder de él directa o indirectamente. En este artículo estudiamos la diseminación de este texto prestando especial atención a los manuscritos conservados y tratando de descubrir las rutas y mecanismos mediante los cuales el texto se expande a través del Imperio Carolingio.

The north-eastern region of the Iberian Peninsula, which later became medieval Catalonia, and the adjacent French region, then called Septimania, formed an intermediary zone of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, social, political, and religious transition and brokerage between the Mediterranean and central European worlds, interfacing with the Christian north and Muslim south. Consequently, the double region Septimania/Catalonia is an ideal subject for a comparative view of transformation processes in the Carolingian Empire. My paper – giving an interim report on ongoing research – analyses how this still-underestimated periphery of the Carolingian Empire transformed into a central region of Latin Christian Europe between the late ninth and the middle of the eleventh century, through exploring its imported and autochthonous manuscript production and its position as a border society. In doing so, I show that the societal and religious circumstances of this intermediary zone favoured the concerted selection, introduction and implementation of the core results of the Carolingian Church reform, as well as its well-balanced adaptation to a post-Roman, post-Visigothic and post-Carolingian society under reconstruction. My reflections allow us to assess the quality of »Carolingian« culture as an imperial, i.e. overarching, eclectic and flexible concept of amalgamation of cultural and political semantics, from a peripheral rather than a central European perspective.

In 870, Anastasius, former (and later once again) librarian of the papal bibliotheca and chancellery, well-known erudite and former anti-pope, reached the pinnacle of his career as a diplomat. While exiled from Rome for a crime committed by his cousin, he was an important member of a mission sent to Constantinople by the Carolingian emperor and lord of Italy Louis II. He was sent there to negotiate a marriage alliance between Louis’s daughter and only surviving child Ermengard and a son of the upstart Byzantine emperor Basil I, which was ultimately to serve to bind the two empires together in the fight against the Saracens, southern Italy and Sicily. While there, Anastasius also joined the papal delegation at the Eighth Ecumenical Council, which was there in the pope’s stead to formally depose Patriarch Photius and negotiate the case of Bulgaria. We thus see Anastasius as a diplomat and cultural broker between Latin and Greek ecclesiastic and lay culture and between three courts. He composed a letter about his dealings in the East for Pope Hadrian II in 870, and thus we have an invaluable first-hand eyewitness account. While most negotiations started in 869 and 870 between the East and the West ultimately failed or were rendered pointless by political change, Anastasius shows us that 870 was a great chance for all sides. And while most parties involved lost something by the failure of the exchanges, Anastasius himself regained and kept a powerful position in the papal administration once again.

This paper examines the potency of the concept of ›empire‹ in Carolingian history, arguing against the still recent trend in medieval studies of seeing the Carolingian empire as having been in a constant state of decay. An initial historiographical overview of medievalist’s perceptions of ›empire‹ over the past century is followed by a discussion of how Carolingian authors themselves constructed, perceived and were influenced by notions of ›empire‹. Biblical scholars like Hraban Maur initiated an authoritative discourse on imperium, which in turn, after the 840s, heavily influenced later authors, perhaps most interestingly Paschasius Radbertus in his Epitaphium Arsenii. While the writings of these authors who looked back at Louis’s reign have often been interpreted as revealing a decline of imperial ideals, they must rather be seen as testifying to a long-lasting concern for a universal Carolingian empire.

When the two Carolingian intellectuals Alcuin of Tours and Theodulf of Orleans engaged in a dispute over the fate of a criminal who had sought asylum in the church of Saint Martin in Tours, their conflict quickly turned into a heated political debate that reached the highest level of the Frankish Empire. As evidenced by the letters written during this altercation, this seemingly simple matter of church asylum brought up intractable questions of who should arbitrate on matters such as these, what it would mean if bishops interfered in church matters outside their own diocese, and how this matter affected the essential unity of the Carolingian church. From appeals to personal responsibility to the institutionalisation of the Empire, the debate between Alcuin, Theodulf and Charlemagne was ultimately about everybody’s place in the greater scheme of things, and the question of who should play by the rules, and who would be exempt.

This thesis examines the relationships between royal convents and rulers in Saxony from 852 to 1024. The spate of female monasteries founded in Saxony in the ninth and tenth centuries, alongside the close relationships of major convents to the Ottonian dynasty, has led to Saxon female monasticism being described as unique. As such, Saxony’s apparently peculiar experience has been used to make comparisons with other regions about the nature of female monasticism, commemoration and the role of women in early medieval societies. This thesis interrogates these ideas by tracking the development of two major royal convents: Gandersheim and Quedlinburg. By reassessing the origins of these convents, and their later rewriting in sources produced by these monasteries, we can consider how their relationships with the rulers of Saxony developed over time, and how their identity and function as royal monasteries evolved as the tenth century progressed. In doing so, this thesis challenges the dominant understanding of these convents as homes of the Ottonian memoria and provides a detailed view of how these institutions became so prominent in Saxony. The thesis is divided into four sections. After introducing the historiographical importance of this topic in the first chapter, in chapter two I assess the origins of the convent of Gandersheim in Carolingian Saxony. Chapter three turns to the rewriting of these origins by Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim in the 970s. Chapter four reconsiders the early history of the convent of Quedlinburg from 936 to 966. Chapter five tracks how the origins of Quedlinburg evolved into a new narrative across the tenth century, culminating in the version provided by the Quedlinburg Annals in 1008. Finally, the concluding section outlines the significance of this thesis for our understanding of early medieval female monasticism and the history of the Ottonian Empire. Power and Institutions in Medieval Islam and Christendom (PIMIC-ITN) Marie Curie Innovative Training Network, Grant Agreement Number 316732

Il contributo mette in rilievo le affinità che ci sono tra un provvedimento preso dell'imperatore Niceforo I e taluni capitolari carolingi concernenti il servizio militare. In entrambi i tipi di atti si tratta di accrescere il numero di coloro che servono nell'esercito suddividendo l'onere finanziario del reclutamento tra un consorzio di proprietari di frazioni di possesso fondiario. Si sottolinea l'affinità del contenuto delle due legislazioni, bizantina e carolingia, con il modello di reclutamento fornito dai una legge di Valente del 375 e ci si interroga sui i motivi di questo parallelismo in tema di servizio militare.

This article discusses the marriages of four Anglo-Saxon princesses to Continental kings and princes between the years 917 and 930. These are often interpreted as acts of diplomacy, sealing alliances across the Channel and indicating the dominant position of King Athelstan in early tenth-century Europe. I reinterpret the motivations of the princes by reading the marriages as acts of symbolic communication driven by the uncertainty over the West Frankish royal succession in the 920s and framed by a competition to access a version of Carolingian dynastic legitimacy. This in turn allows us to reflect on the decay of the Carolingian Empire after 888. Because Carolingian-ness was no longer a hegemonic political discourse, I argue that these events belong emphatically to a post-imperial political landscape.

In the last twenty years European medieval historians have produced significant results in the study of the Carolingian period. In doing so, not only were some of the past, often stereotypical, views overcome, but entirely new methodological models with refreshing ideas were also created, thus making an important shift away from the field of political history. The intention of this paper is to address one of these new methodological models which refers to the process of the transformation of gentes into regna and the idea of aemulatio imperii. The idea has been elaborated by Evangelos Chrysos (Regna and Gentes, volume 13 of the series Transformation of the Roman World), who viewed the shaping of early medieval regna as having three phases, each closely connected with the Roman Empire. Although his idea refers to the period of the late Roman Empire, I will explore the possibility of applying its determining characteristics to the position of the “peoples” on the southeastern frontier of the Carolingian Empire, especially after the collapse of the Avar Khaganate during the 790s, and the possible impact the Treaty of Aachen had on the process of aemulatio imperii. The Treaty of Aachen will be considered from two aspects: its importance for Charlemagne, and its cultural/political significance for the areas on the southeastern frontiers of the Carolingian Empire, especially in respect to the Carolingian world. These two aspects will be linked to the prevailing historiographical views about the meaning of the Treaty of Aachen for the Croatian historical regions.

This paper examines the potency of the concept of ›empire‹ in Carolingian history, arguing against the still recent trend in medieval studies of seeing the Carolingian empire as having been in a constant state of decay. An initial historiographical overview of medievalist’s perceptions of ›empire‹ over the past century is followed by a discussion of how Carolingian authors themselves constructed, perceived and were influenced by notions of ›empire‹. Biblical scholars like Hraban Maur initiated an authoritative discourse on imperium, which in turn, after the 840s, heavily influenced later authors, perhaps most interestingly Paschasius Radbertus in his Epitaphium Arsenii. While the writings of these authors who looked back at Louis’s reign have often been interpreted as revealing a decline of imperial ideals, they must rather be seen as testifying to a long-lasting concern for a universal Carolingian empire.

Using textual and archaeological evidence to examine patterns of interaction and relationship between Francia and Scandinavia from 700-840 this dissertation demonstrates that the Viking attacks of the ninth century were not a sudden rupture of relations between Scandinavia and the wider world, nor a demonstration of unbridled violence. Rather, the attacks were part of an ongoing narrative of commerce, diplomacy, and strife between the Frankish Empire and its northern neighbors which began long before the Viking Age. Coin finds and excavations, accounts of merchants bearing luxury goods between trade sites, and stories of Frankish slaves taken from their homes connect Francia and Scandinavia across the North Sea. Chapter One of this dissertation focuses on these long lasting commercial links. At the heart of this trade lay Frisia, home of the emporium of Dorestad. Dorestad's location as the cross roads between the North Sea and the heart of the Frankish Empire allowed Frankish, Frisian, and Scandinavian merchants to carry goods back and forth across the North Sea while at the same time facilitating the movement of ideas and cultural exchange. Annalists gathered information from these merchants, kings used them for diplomatic communication, and missionaries traveled with them. The steady growth of economic activity facilitated contact and communication between Franks and Scandinavians of all stations over several centuries. Chapter Two describes the political, diplomatic and military relationship between Scandinavia and Frankia until the death of Charlemagne in 814. It examines the first Frankish contacts with the North, the growing influence and impact that this contact had on Scandinavia and the North Sea area, and the ways in which these two peoples forged new diplomatic and political relationships. By the end of Charlemagne's life, the Danes had moved from a shadowy people on the margins of Frankish consciousness to key players in the works of Frankish historians and poets. Both Frankish sources and archaeological evidence from Scandinavia demonstrate that Danish leaders, in large part due to increased contact with their powerful southern neighbors, became intent not only on wielding wider power in Scandinavia but on challenging Carolingian supremacy over the North Sea area at large.Beginning with the death of Charlemagne, Chapter Three examines the heightened intensity of relations between Francia and Scandinavia until the death of Louis the Pious in 840. In an effort to cement Frankish hegemony over northern Europe Louis attempted to bring Scandinavia firmly under Frankish control through diplomacy and missionary work. These efforts created new opportunities for interaction and engagement as Franks, Danes, and Swedes travelled back and forth across the North Sea. Though Louis' work failed to last beyond his death, the raids and later interactions between Franks and Scandinavians were directly shaped by the policies of Louis and Charlemagne. When we look at the networks of trade forming across the North Sea in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, and at the growth of political and social meetings on the borders of Frisia, Saxony, and the Jutland Peninsula, we come away with a narrative of communication and contact that is far more vibrant and complex than our primary sources reveal at first glance. The relationship between Scandinavia and Francia during this time actively informs the conflict that follows. During the raids and strife of the ninth century, the conquering Franks became victims; in their quest for the wealth and power of their southern neighbors, the disparate and diverse Scandinavian tribes became, for lack of a better word, Vikings.

Ankara : The Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent Univ., 1999. Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 1999. Includes bibliographical references leaves 102-105. All biblical references are to Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989) which includes most of the biblical quotations found in Carolingian Fiirstenspiegel as well as other passages of the Bible which are not included in most English translations. In the translation of sources in Latin, I used Murray, Chambers, Latin-English Dictionary (Edinburgh: Chambers, 1933), Blaise, Albert, Dictionnaire Latin-Français des Auteurs du Moyen-Age (Turnholt, 1975), and Niermeyer, J. F., Mediae latinitatis lexikon minus (Leiden, 1984). In the translation of the Greek works I used Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon 7th edn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889; 1996), ‘the Middle Liddell’. 1 intend to offer my gratitude to Prof Halil İnalcık for his continuous encouragement of my studying Byzantine History, and to Dr Cadoc Leighton and Dr Paul Latimer for their insistence on this topic for my dissertation thesis. I am in immense debt to rriy advisors Dr Eugenia Kermeli and Dr David E. Thornton who had been most patient with my many mistakes and meanders in the completion of this study; Dr Kermeli also offered help with the Greek translations and Dr Thornton with spelling and grammar and the last touches. Special thanks go to Özlem Çaykent for her remarkable help in translations from German. And finally cordial thanks to Axel, Pırıl, and Mert for their companionship in both the difficult and the not-so-difficult stages of the work. Akalın, Kutlu M.A.

International audience

This chapter explores the role of Carolingian and Ottonian royal women in the royal liturgy, and particularly in the litanies and laudes regiae present in extant sacramentaries, graduals, tropers, and other liturgical manuscripts surviving from the late eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries. It describes a central tension between the manuscript evidence and the historical narratives, between the hope for a cosmic harmony and the reality of discord, disease, and war. As the Carolingian Queen Fastrada organized litanies within Saxony to ensure the success of Charlemagne’s campaign against the Avars, Ottonian queens and empresses also utilized this liturgical form to avert disaster in troublesome times. Liturgy structured the world as harmony; yet the performance of liturgical rites could be triggered by discord. The chapter examines the tension through queens and empresses who appear inconsistently in the liturgical manuscripts, but who consistently work within the wider political community at specific historical moments to oversee the important liturgical rites.

Funding: HERA JRP After Empire: Using and Not Using the Past in the Crisis of the Carolingian Empire. Regino of Prüm’s Chronicle (907/908) is one of the most important works of contemporary history written in the era of the Carolingian Empire. In this article we consider Regino’s numerous stories about good and bad royal marriages drawn from the deep past of the Franks, and we show how the historian adapted his source material to late Carolingian sensibilities. We then argue that Regino’s interest in royal marriage can best be interpreted as a reflection of his anxiety about the marital status of the reigning East Frankish king Louis IV »the Child« (900-911). Regino dedicated his work to the king’s godfather and counsellor Adalbero of Augsburg, and he apparently hoped to influence the king and his inner circle in the urgent task of selecting an appropriate royal bride. Regino’s accounts of past rulers and their marital histories therefore give us an insight into how he perceived the political order of his own day and his fears about the future of the Carolingian dynasty. Publisher PDF

The musical notation of the northern Italian Benedictine abbey of St Sylvester in Nonantola has hitherto been neglected by most scholarship on early music scripts, mainly because of the paucity of surviving music manuscripts and their limited geographical diffusion. A new study was needed in order to develop a full understanding of the abbey’s role and importance in the first phases of development of the writing of music in the early Middle Ages. A Lombard foundation, Nonantola acquired much of its prestige from the links with the Carolingian court as early as the late eighth century. From the first decades after its foundation, the Po Valley abbey also benefited from an active scriptorium; this shaped a local type of text script that endured until after the fall of the Carolingian empire, when the abbey, including most of its library, was destroyed by the Hungarian invasion in 899 (§1). The study of the earliest surviving notated liturgical manuscripts revealed that, by the late ninth century, Nonantola already developed an institutional type of musical notation, making it the earliest known music script ever to be written in the Italic peninsula and, thus, among the earliest in Carolingian Europe (§§2–3). The unique design and use of musical signs showed that this northern Italic notation developed, for the most part, independently from a basic repertory of graphs derived from grammatical accents (§4). Finally, observations of the influences of the central Italic nota romana, which this study only began to explore, opened up the possibility that Nonantolan notation may preserve the oldest traces of graphic conventions for the representation of sound that can be associated with the city of Rome (§5). Placed between the northern and southern fringes of the Carolingian empire, the Benedictine abbey of Nonantola played an important role in the early history of music writing, and this study contributes to the breaking of new ground for further explorations., University of Cambridge, St John’s College, Cambridge - Research Grant - Cambridge Home (UK) and European Scholarship Scheme (CHESS) - Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) - Doctoral Scholarship

Horizon 2020 DMP (Initial) - Petrifying Wealth. The Southern European Shift to Collective Investment in Masonry as Identity , c.1050-1300.-- Name of the project: Petrifying Wealth. The Southern European Shift to Collective Investment in Masonry as Identity , c.1050-1300.-- http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/204880_en.html .-- Principal Investigator / Researcher: Ana Rodríguez. Este documento está sujeto a una licencia CC BY-NC 4.0, Plan Description: Between the years 1050 and 1300 the European landscape turned to stone. It was a structural transformation that led to the birth of a new, long-lasting panorama and helped in the creation of individual, collective and regional identities: a landscape epitomising the way we see the space and territory of Europe. The project Petrifying Wealth seeks to rewrite the social history of the central Middle Ages, emphasizing the need to reassess from an untried perspective an element that has always been present in our vision of the period—the sudden ubiquity of masonry construction—but which has hardly been given the opportunity to provide in-depth explanations for complex social dynamics. The project seeks to offer novel explanations to previously unasked questions about wealth, building, and collective identity. The speed, extent, and systematization of the construction of churches, towers, castle walls, palaces, and houses within castles and cities provide evidence of an underlying, if unaddressed, issue. That is, it is precisely in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that the structural link can most clearly be seen between both private and collective wealth, and the investment in stone structures built to last. The study of the shift involving new institutional dynamics, but also unprecedented social practices, as well as ideological concepts radically different from those that had prevailed until then, aims to break down assumptions that have naturalized this truly astonishing process while using as case studies the undervalued regions of southern Europe to explore the larger questions. By inverting the standard approach that sees the heart of the former Carolingian empire (present-day France and Germany) as the wellspring from which other “peripheral” territories drank, Dr. Ana Rodríguez and Dr. Sandro Carocci will undertake to bring new light to probe the greater meaning behind the process of masonry building as an investment in social identity in the central Middle Ages.

Paul the Deacon wrote at a time when the Regnum Langobardorum was on the cusp of downfall and attachment to the Carolingian empire. Paul’s narratives (the Historia Langobardorum in particular) have become vital sources for Italian medieval history and a window on the world of the eighth century in the West. Recent approaches to Paul have projected modern perceptions onto his works in the quest to identify his politico-ethnic viewpoint. Consequently his personal ‘voice’ has been lost in modern treatments. The narrative structure of his work, and analysis of the kind of dramatic events that interested him, are areas that have hitherto been largely ignored by scholars.This thesis seeks to provide the context for both Paul’s Life and Works and to present an analysis of what it was that Paul actually said rather than trying to conjure an analysis from what he did not say. It will demonstrate that there is not only a ‘multi-vocality’ within the works of Paul, but links, connections, even contradictions that in themselves serve to present and show Paul’s singularity as both a writer and an individual in challenging times for both him personally and for Italy generally. Yet analysing Paul by using Paul alone is a teleological cul-de-sac and thus this thesis will seek to compare his narrative approach with that of other early medieval authors. Paul the Deacon wrote at a time when the Regnum Langobardorum was on the cusp of downfall and attachment to the Carolingian empire. Paul’s narratives (the Historia Langobardorum in particular) have become vital sources for Italian medieval history and a window on the world of the eighth century in the West. Recent approaches to Paul have projected modern perceptions onto his works in the quest to identify his politico-ethnic viewpoint. Consequently his personal ‘voice’ has been lost in modern treatments. The narrative structure of his work, and analysis of the kind of dramatic events that interested him, are areas that have hitherto been largely ignored by scholars.This thesis seeks to provide the context for both Paul’s Life and Works and to present an analysis of what it was that Paul actually said rather than trying to conjure an analysis from what he did not say. It will demonstrate that there is not only a ‘multi-vocality’ within the works of Paul, but links, connections, even contradictions that in themselves serve to present and show Paul’s singularity as both a writer and an individual in challenging times for both him personally and for Italy generally. Yet analysing Paul by using Paul alone is a teleological cul-de-sac and thus this thesis will seek to compare his narrative approach with that of other early medieval authors.

This dissertation is set within the reign of Louis the Pious, emperor of the Carolingian empire from 814 to 840, and focusses specifically on the understudied period of 834 to 840, after the empire had to endure serious rebellions in 830-833. Traditionally, historians of the Carolingian period have seen the rebellions and the subsequent public penance of the emperor in 833 as the turning point in the unity of the empire, after which everything went downhill, the emperor had lost his authority and the Carolingian empire was destined to break apart. Because they have given much weight to the rebellions, scholars have often neglected the period after these tumultuous events. Therefore, through the contextualization, analysis and application of a treatise on the sacrosanctity of church property, the De rebus ecclesiasticis non invadendis, written in 836 by Bishop Jonas of Orléans, this dissertation tries to shed light on this understudied period of 834 to 840, and focusses on the question whether the rebellions of the 830s had indeed any impact on the political discourse on the stability of the political order. By analyzing the mode of argument in the De Rebus, it argues for continuity, rather than discontinuity with regard to this political discourse, and shows that the issues discussed in and the purpose of the De Rebus are in direct line with those of the Church synods of the 820s, before the rebellions. Moreover, it argues that the destination of the De Rebus shows that the bishops in 836 still considered the Carolingian empire as a unified realm, instead of cracking down after the tumultuous events of the early 830s, as is traditionally argued.

International audience

The urban development of European cities is linked to the emergence of monasteries. During the Middle Ages, religious orders spread occupying not only the territory, but especially the city. In central Europe, in what is now Germany, monasteries developed significantly. Cities such as Cologne or Aachen had more than 60 and 30 monastic buildings, respectively. Aachen stands out as not only the second monastery town in North Rhine-Westphalia but also as other important facts. It was the capital of the Carolingian Empire, one of the points on the Pilgrim's Way to Santiago de Compostela, and later as a border town of the Holy Roman Empire. The monasteries in the city are not only religious facilities, but also educational, health and even inns. The centrality of Aachen, together with the general lack of a public school, hospital, or hospice system, meant that these functions were taken over by the religious orders in the monastic buildings. The main objective is the morphological study of the city of Aachen through its monastic buildings. The GIS has been used as the main methodological tool, allowing the graphical representation of data and georeferencing of the buildings in the city. Among the main results, the conventual surface represent the 9% of the urban area. Furthermore, a differentiation has been made between buildings inside and outside of the walls, which is key to urban development. The importance of religion lies not only in faith and prayer, but also in its capacity to generate new buildings and typologies for the city, which favour its urban development. Monasteries and convents are not only a reflection of urban importance, but also mark future urban growth. The city of Aachen is shown to be a remarkable example of monastic development in the European city.

Pertenece al proyecto: Petrifying Wealth https://digital.csic.es/cris/project/pj00207, Plan Description: Between the years 1050 and 1300 the European landscape turned to stone. It was a structural transformation that led to the birth of a new, long-lasting panorama and helped in the creation of individual, collective and regional identities: a landscape epitomising the way we see the space and territory of Europe. The project Petrifying Wealth seeks to rewrite the social history of the central Middle Ages, emphasizing the need to reassess from an untried perspective an element that has always been present in our vision of the period—the sudden ubiquity of masonry construction—but which has hardly been given the opportunity to provide in-depth explanations for complex social dynamics. The project seeks to offer novel explanations to previously unasked questions about wealth, building, and collective identity. The speed, extent, and systematization of the construction of churches, towers, castle walls, palaces, and houses within castles and cities provide evidence of an underlying, if unaddressed, issue. That is, it is precisely in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that the structural link can most clearly be seen between both private and collective wealth, and the investment in stone structures built to last. The study of the shift involving new institutional dynamics, but also unprecedented social practices, as well as ideological concepts radically different from those that had prevailed until then, aims to break down assumptions that have naturalized this truly astonishing process while using as case studies the undervalued regions of southern Europe to explore the larger questions. By inverting the standard approach that sees the heart of the former Carolingian empire (present-day France and Germany) as the wellspring from which other “peripheral” territories drank, Dr. Ana Rodríguez and Dr. Sandro Carocci will undertake to bring new light to probe the greater meaning behind the process of masonry building as an investment in social identity in the central Middle Ages., Grant number: ERC-ADG-2015 - ERC Advanced Grant 695515.

The Heliand, written shortly after the conquest and conversion of the Saxons at the hands of Charlemagne, maintains a vexed place in the study of medieval European Christianity(ies). Some argue that the Heliand’s overarching intent was pastoral, meant to ease the fears and calm the rage of the defeated Saxons, while others posit that the Heliand reflects a “dissident gospel,” aimed at subverting the official theological outlook of the Carolingian empire. This study argues that while both theories capture something of the Heliand’s ingenious contextual impact, they underestimate one of its key themes: the role of wurd (fate) and its co-identification with the “power of God,” which drives Jesus to the cross and scaffolds his submission to the violence of the divine will. Thus, the Heliand presents compliant victimization as the proper “fate” of those who submit to God’s purposes, promising a heavenly reward and countermanding the Saxon ethos of resistance.

International audience; The collapse of the Carolingian Empire in 888 dramatically changed the political and ideological landscape of Western Europe. For the first time since 751, in the kingdoms that formerly formed the Frankish Empire power was taken by non-Carolingian kings, who effectively broke the monopoly on kingship held by the descendants of Pepin the Short. However, the end of the Empire did not mean the end of the royal family itself: after 888, there were still kings who perceived themselves as members of Carolingian stirps regia. This article deals with three of the post-888 rulers, Berengar of Italy, Louis of Provence and Charles the Simple, who aspired to present themselves as the true heirs to the Carolingian tradition. Nonetheless, their not-so-self-evident adherence to the former royal family clearly demonstrates that the crisis of 888 did not only leave its mark on the political shape of the post-Carolingian Europe, but more importantly it touched the very idea of Carolingian familial identity.

Flodoard of Rheims is one of the most important authors of tenth-century Europe, and the only contemporary historian to document the momentous struggles between kings and nobles in Francia in the wake of the demise of the Carolingian Empire. Flodoard’s era stands at the center of major historiographical debates concerning the nature of political and social change and the origins of European institutions. Yet, despite his singularity, his substantial histories have received little attention from scholars examining the profound transformations of the period. Exploring this discrepancy, this article offers an overview of Flodoard’s career and reviews how his histories have been invoked in some of the great scholarly debates about tenth-century Europe. It further proposes to recontextualize Flodoard and to reread his histories from the bottom up in order to gain a subtler understanding of how one contemporary perceived and represented the dramatic events and changes taking place around him.