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The article discusses the nature of forest management during a period of high economic growth in the Champagne Province in medieval France. It is argued that a favorable economic climate led to a switch in the primary focus of woodland management from pastoralism to intensive small wood production. Particular attention is paid to the French state's role in forest exploitation and the transformation of sylviculture to a managed, market-oriented system between the late Medieval and the early modern period. It is observed that the introduction of such practices as coppicing, short cycle cutting, and tree regeneration was a response to market opportunities and demands.

Despite the distance between their different communities and the difficulties of medieval travel, the Jews of northern Europe developed typical common legal and communal traditions. Rabbinic students traveled hundreds of kilometers to study with famous rabbis, rabbis themselves often relocated from one community to another, and questions were regularly sent to faraway rabbinic authorities and were quickly answered. This article sheds light on the movement and communication patterns of medieval Jewish scholars as a social group. It includes three sections; the first focuses on the movement patterns of prominent rabbis, the second on their forms of communication, and the third on the way these practices were reflected in the organization of larger communal structures. Overall, the article highlights the major role that networks of movement and communication played in the intellectual culture of the rabbinic elite (and other Jews as well) in high medieval northern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1950s, the papal collegiate church of Saint-Urbain at Troyes has been viewed as the product of two visually distinct building campaigns headed by different architects, the first exemplifying mid-thirteenth-century French Rayonnant architecture and the second embodying or presaging late medieval Flamboyant aesthetics. The present article challenges this narrative of linear progression by reexamining the architecture of the building's little-studied west front and exploiting largely unpublished archival testimony. It attempts to demonstrate that matching specific sets of forms to (undocumented) individual architects is not as straightforward as hitherto thought, and that the choice of visual language was ultimately predicated as much on funding as on patronal intentions. In so doing, it updates the narrative of Saint-Urbain's creation to comply with current scholarly conceptions about the material imprint of the artistic personalities of medieval architects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The earliest archaeological evidence of wine making in Southern France is dated 425 bce. Viticulture was present along the Mediterranean coast of France when the Romans arrived (second century bce) and flourished everywhere by the time they left (fifth century ce). For several centuries, long-distance trade virtually disappeared and the infrastructure fell apart. Profitable viticulture remained mostly local and was concentrated in the hands of the wealthy nobility and the Church. After the turn of the first Millennium, towns became cities and a middle-class emerged. In the twelfth century, the wine trade with England gained importance. Wines were shipped from Rouen, Nantes, La Rochelle, and later Bordeaux. Monastic orders controlled the most fertile land, especially in Champagne and Burgundy. In the thirteenth century, the Languedoc became a part of France. During the Avignon papacy, new vineyards were planted, in particular Châteauneuf-du-Pape. After the Renaissance, scientific studies gradually improved viticulture and wine-making. Ultimately, fermentation was understood. The Dutch greatly expanded the wine trade. Then, the first intentionally bubbly wines, distilled wines, and noble-rot wines were made. Informal rankings of Bordeaux wines led to the famous 1855 classification. In the late nineteenth century, nature-made catastrophes, especially phylloxera, transformed France into the largest wine-importing country in the world. Sub-standard and blended wines became common, hurting the reputation of all French wines. The two world wars, the Great Depression and Prohibition shrunk the market for wines. The way out involved strict quality-control measures and hard work. The next problem could well be global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces and contextualizes the artistic patronage of Petrus de Angeriacus (d. 1313), the powerful yet controversial treasurer of the pilgrimage church of San Nicola in Bari, Italy. It begins by assessing the life and activities of the treasurer within the dramatic political, religious, and social setting of the Kingdom of Sicily during the reign of Charles II. It proceeds to evaluate Petrus's commissions for San Nicola, four lost candlesticks described in inventories from 1326 and 1362. It then probes in detail a work intended to travel beyond San Nicola—a seal impression previously concealed within a protective sac—and reconstructs its genesis within European currents of art production. Both the seal and candlesticks are placed in conversation with Charles II's political and artistic initiatives and contested endeavors to expand royal jurisdiction. Ultimately, the treasurer's commissions materialize networks of authority that have not previously registered in our understanding of Bari or southern Italy around the year 1300. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys current trends in sigillography and the display of seals in the public sphere. A look at recent exhibitions, together with their catalogues, shows that seals can play an effective role in visualizing historical subject matter to the public. The growing number of sigillographic studies, especially since the 1990s, reveals the increased interest seals have come to enjoy in the academic community, particularly in France and in Anglophone regions. At the same time, there is a need for more catalogues to provide researchers with the visual material necessary to pursue their studies. In terms of content, seals are increasingly seen not only as objects not of legal history, but also of social, cultural, religious and economic history. More recently, they have been the subject of interdisciplinary studies: The involvement of art historians has led to a more interdisciplinary approach, while that of natural scientists such as forensic experts has led to an increased interest in the process of sealing. Both of these trends, together with a growing tendency to look beyond the seals of elites and consider those from other social strata, communes and institutions are part of a larger interest in 'decoding' the mechanisms of the practice of sealing. This is further aided by endeavours to establish a theoretical foundation for the subject of sigillography. The establishment of a network of (young) researchers as well as continued interest in the subject, not least by early-career researchers, mean that there is cause for optimism, for seals do indeed have a future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Captured outside Latakia in 1203, the Fourth Crusader Renard II de Dampierre was imprisoned in Aleppo for 30 years. The families of captured crusaders lost contact with their imprisoned sons, husbands and fathers for years, even decades, at a time. Such prolonged absences presented significant challenges, and life was delayed for both the imprisoned and their families. The landholdings of captured crusaders could not be alienated or mortgaged, marriages could not be made, nor could inheritances be divided without their permission. This state of affairs became less feasible the longer imprisonment continued. Eventually titles were apportioned between the rightful heirs, wives remarried and families moved on. Although Renard’s case is often cited as an extreme example, it also furnishes extensive evidence of the impact of captivity on a crusading family, the trials they endured in the prolonged absence of their patriarch and the strategies they used to overcome them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Crusaders' wives, who took over the regency while their husbands or sons were fighting for Christ in the Holy Land, were a quite common phenomenon in medieval France. They not only differed from 'regular' female regents due to the fact that their husbands or adult sons, for whom they ruled in absentia, were still alive. Moreover some of them even had papal privileges that guaranteed the safety of the property and family the crusaders had left behind. Furthermore the absence of crusaders was long-term and could overlap with their wives' widowhood, so that the once temporary regency of crusaders' Wives could continue for decades. Crusading research has so far not paid enough attention to the ruling women at home, so that the picture of a fragile, liminal interim in crusading times still prevails. Following up on this discussion the main aim of this paper is to understand how two Crusaders' wives, Maria and Blancha of Champagne, wanted to be seen as lords, and to analyze how they communicated and visualized their status and power in this situation. On the basis of the countesses' seals and the tombs of their husbands as traces or reflections of their political performance, this article shows a broad range of practices the crusaders' wives used in order to legitimize and demonstrate their powerful status as regents of the county of Champagne. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affixed at the bottom of deeds, seals represent their owners' authority by the means of a circular legend and a central image. They offer a strong ambivalence: a "seal" is a unique object--a matrix--but also the numerous identical imprints created by this matrix. This ambivalence takes on a philosophical and theological dimension around the question of the tupos. Furthermore, choices of images are not dictated by a written rule but by proprieties related to the seal owner's status, so they may answer to precise strategies and necessities. Then the adoption of an image reveals spiritual or temporal ambitions. The recent evolution of sigillography leads to a global approach of this subject, including researchers of various special fields. The iconographic dimension of seals is less and less confined to illustrate an article or a book: it tends to become a subject of its own of visual culture studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'longer' will of St Remigius of Reims, as preserved in the mid-tenth-century Historia Remensis ecclesiae of Flodoard of Reims, is widely agreed to be a forgery. But despite the fact that it is known almost exclusively from Flodoard's work, historians have never suggested that this document was produced in his day. This article contends that the longer will was indeed an original component of the Historia. Read in this context, the will can throw new light on the Historia itself, the career of Flodoard and the tumultuous history of the church of Reims in the first half of the tenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A case study is presented that examines the late French Count Hugh of Troyes in the French county of Champagne. It discusses Hugh's role in the establishment of a territorial principality and argues that Hugh emerged as a significant actor in the history of the county of Champagne. The article examines the charters of the county to determine the nature of Hugh's authority, and views Hugh's contribution in the context of European history and national narratives.