L'Agenda des Médiévistes

Ideology remains one of the most used yet rarely defined concepts in Byzantine and Medieval Serbian Studies. Focusing on the decades following the Crusaders’ conquest of Byzantine lands, this book bridges modern theory and interpretation of medieval texts to redefine ideology as a practice of performative storytelling. Vukašinović rereads overlooked narratives from Nicaea, Epiros and Serbia—from court orations and hagiographies to monastic donations and juridical opinions—not as mere representations of events, but as social acts that shaped the world. Developing a model of how humans become subjects and produce space, the study reveals how emperors, bishops, monks, and peasants alike acted as storytellers, heroes and agents of history. It argues for diverse forms of social and political agency, challenging conventional notions of Byzantine fragmentation and Serbian independence.

Milan Vukašinović is a Historian and Researcher in Greek and Byzantine Studies at the Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Table des matières :

List of Tables
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments

Introduction: A Byzantine Narrative – How (Not) to Do Things with Ideology

Part I: Narrative Subjectivity
1. Putting the ‘I’ into Ideology? Theoretical Framework
2. Doing Rhetoric, Making Emperors: Choniates and Mesarites
3. Blurring the Lines of Power: Akropolites and Jacob of Bulgaria
4. The Centre of the Circle: Laskaris and Blemmydes
5. Political Collectivity: Epirot Rulers and Bishops
6. Legal Collectivity: Epirot Subjects and Judges
7. In a Single Voice: Anatolian Peasants
8. Getting the Father Out of Serbia: The Lives of Simeon
9. Independence or Integration? The Life of Sava

Part II: Narrative Spatiality
10. Storytelling and the Production of Space: Theoretical Framework
11. Bodies Unbound: Travelling Practices of Mesarites, Blemmydes and Domentijan
12. Epistolary Nodes: Framing the Space in Hagiography
13. The Making of Chilandar I: Narrative Foundations
14. The Making of Chilandar II: Narrative Colonies
15. Producing the Rural: Narrative, Archives and Space around Lembiotissa
16. Narrating Urbanity, Inside and Out: Laskaris, Apokaukos and Chomatenos
Beyond the Commonplace: Making the Byzantine Worlds

Bibliography

Informations pratiques :

Milan Vukašinović, Subjects and Space in Roman and Serbian Lands. Ideology and Worldmaking in the Thirteenth Century, Édimbourg, Edinburgh University Press, 2026 ; 1 vol., 296 p. (Edinburgh Byzantine Studies). ISBN : 978-1-39950-720-2. Prix : GBP 95,00.

Source : Edinburgh University Press

Drakkar terrifiant, insolite casque à cornes, pirates sanguinaires buvant dans le crâne de leurs ennemis, guerrières farouches : l’imaginaire viking déborde de clichés. Pourtant, la réalité historique est bien plus complexe et souvent plus fascinante.

Cet ouvrage propose de déconstruire le mythe pour (re)découvrir les voyageurs et voyageuses audacieux, qui sillonnèrent les mers et les fleuves de Scandinavie, d’Europe occidentale et orientale, jusqu’en Méditerranée et même aux portes du continent américain, en passant par l’Islande et le Groenland. Découvertes archéologiques et relecture des textes permettent de mieux cerner le phénomène viking, entre la fin du VIII^e et le milieu du XI^e siècle, dans un monde en pleine mutation, entre affrontements et échanges, méconnaissance de l’autre et adaptation. Les vikings ont pleinement participé aux mélanges culturels et ethniques, à l’origine d’une grande diversité de profils.

Au-delà des ruines, des cendres et des massacres que nous léguèrent les auteurs chrétiens médiévaux, les vikings incarnent aussi l’inventivité et l’audace, la curiosité et l’absence de limites.

Informations pratiques :

Lucie Malbos, Les Vikings, Paris, PUF, 2026 ; 1 vol., 256 p. ISBN : 978-2-1308-8588-7. Prix : € 16,00.

Source : Carnets du CESCM

Preserved between the covers of books, textiles offer a remarkable glimpse into how the local production of books was connected to vibrant global trade networks from late antiquity through the early modern period. Textiles appear in manuscripts in many forms: as a delicate overlay used to adorn or protect a precious painted illumination; as silk robes wrapping sacred texts; as the sturdy fabric that supports an intricately sewn binding; as a repurposed bit of cloth, taken from a liturgical vestment, concealed within the volume to convey sacrality. This volume brings together a range of experts to unpack the vivid and surprising history of textiles in manuscripts, ranging from practical uses to the ornamental and beyond. The historical account they offer is both local and global: local, in that each chapter is tightly focused on a single tradition, or even a single book; global, in that together these chapters illuminate the rich web of interconnections that link the cultural and craft centers of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

• New research on Syriac, Armenian, Byzantine, Ethiopian, Chinese, Mongolian, Islamic, and Hebrew manuscripts from late antiquity through the early modern period
• Production, trade, and exchange of books in a global perspective
• With contributions of book historians, textile scholars, conservators, art historians, and codicologists

Contributing authors: Hagos Abrha Abay, Carolina Almenara-Melis, Katherine Beaty, Jody Beenk, Kalzang Dorjee Bhutia, Rachel Bissonnette, Georgios Boudalis, Joy Boutrup, Aaron M. Butts, James Canary, Rosemary Crill, Eyob Derillo, Sarah Fee, Michael Gervers, Paul Hepworth, River Hobel, Bryan C. Keene, Hrair Hawk Khatcherian, Sylvie L. Merian, Alison Ohta, Kristen Pearson, Karin Scheper, Noam Sienna, Thelma K. Thomas, Nancy K. Turner, Michelle C. Wang

Melissa Moreton is a codicologist and scholar of the history of the book, who is particularly interested in material culture and the development and exchange of manuscript technologies across Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas. She has published on a range of book history topics relating to medieval scribal practice, codicology, and traditional care practices for books. Moreton is a Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and works on projects relating to global book history (1000–1700) and Indigenous language and cultural revitalization.

Table des matières : ici

Informations pratiques :

Textiles in Manuscripts: A Local and Global History of the Book, éd. Melissa Moreton, Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Boston–Berlin, De Gruyter, 2026 ; 1 vol., 320 p. ISBN : 978-3-68924-117-9. Prix : € 79,00

Source : De Gruyter

Au cours des XIIe-XIIIe siècles, la Champagne connaît un important et décisif rayonnement. À la faveur des croisades ou de successions prestigieuses, les comtes et leurs barons accèdent à la royauté, à Jérusalem ou en Navarre, à la tête de l’Empire latin de Constantinople ou du comté de Flandre. Les foires, structurées autour d’un cycle annuel, assurent au comté une place sans équivalent au cœur des échanges de l’économie-monde de l’Occident médiéval, propice à la circulation des hommes et des idées. Des ordres religieux naissent ou s’épanouissent sur ce domaine à la faveur de la protection comtale et d’une conjonction intellectuelle inédite. À Troyes, Provins et Estella, les Thibaudiens, rois-comtes, tiennent une cour littéraire où brillent Chrétien de Troyes, le comte Thibaud IV lui-même et des seigneurs de Champagne qui s’érigent, à travers leurs chroniques, en témoins privilégiés des événements de leur temps. En 1284, le mariage de Jeanne de Navarre, la dernière comtesse, avec l’héritier du trône de France scelle l’union à la Couronne.

En réunissant de nouveau à Troyes près de trois cents œuvres témoins de cette période faste, l’exposition Passavant le meilleur ! La Champagne au temps des comtes et son catalogue offrent un temps d’arrêt et une synthèse de la recherche pour s’approcher de cette cour, de son administration, du quotidien des populations et de la mémoire de cette histoire en grande partie perdue mais dont l’inconscient collectif conserve la trace.

Table des matières : ici

Informations pratiques :

Passavant le meilleur ! La Champagne au temps des comtes, éd. Arnaud Baudin, Thomas Lacomme, Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana Editoriale, 2026 ; 1 vol., 576 p. ISBN : 978-8-83666-316-3. Prix : € 35,00.

Source : Silvana Editoriale

From the bestselling author of FEMINA, a brilliant reappraisal of the medieval women whose lives have been exploited for political, nation-building ends.

From Joan of Arc to Lady Godiva, Isabella of Castile to Catherine of Siena, famous medieval women have become national icons, their legends burnished and celebrated. But over the centuries their lives have been exploited, their stories twisted and weaponised. Searching for the real women behind the legends, bestselling historian Janina Ramirez reveals how history is often hijacked to serve the ideological and political agendas of the present.

Dr Janina Ramirez is a presenter, lecturer and researcher, specialising in interpreting symbols and examining art works within their historical context. She is Course Director for the Undergraduate Certificate and Diploma in History of Art at the Department for Continuing Education, Oxford University. She has published widely on medieval art and literature, and has taught and researched across a broad chronological sweep, covering everything from the sculptures of antiquity to post-modern architecture.

Informations pratiques :

Janina Ramirez, Legenda. The Real Women Behind the Myths That Shaped Europe, Londres, Penguin Books, 2026 ; 1 vol., 480 p. ISBN : 978-0-75356-043-3. Prix : GBP 12,99.

Source : Penguin Books