A path-breaking reassessment of the potential of charter evidence in early medieval history, by thirteen scholars full of new insights.
Although historical work on the early Middle Ages relies to an enormous extent on the evidence provided by charters and other such documents, the paradigms within which such documents are interpreted have changed relatively slowly and unevenly. The critical turn, the increasing availability of digital tools and corpora for study, and the acceptance among charter specialists that their discipline can inform a wider field all encourage rethinking. From 2006 to 2011 a series of sessions at the Leeds International Medieval Congress addressed this by applying new critiques and technologies to early medieval diplomatic material from all over Europe. This volume collects some of the best of these papers by new and young scholars and adds related work from another session. The subjects range from reinterpretations of Carolingian or Anglo-Saxon political history, through the production and use of charters by all ranks of society and their subsequent preservation from Spain to Germany and England to Italy, to explorations of new media leading to new kinds of results from such evidence. The result is an array of new perspectives which makes an important contribution to recent reconsiderations of charter studies. It will inform a wide audience from all walks of medieval historical studies.
Table of Contents:
Jonathan Jarrett – Introduction: Problems and Possibilities of Early Medieval Charters
Martin J. Ryan – ‘Charters in Plenty, If Only they Were Good for Anything’: The Problem of Bookland and Folkland in Pre-Viking England
Allan Scott McKinley – Strategies of Alienating Land to the Church in Eighth-Century Alsace
Erik Niblaeus – Cistercian Charters and the Import of a Political Culture into Medieval Sweden
Charles West – Meaning and Context: Moringus the Lay Scribe and Charter Formulation in Late Carolingian Burgundy
Jonathan Jarrett – Comparing the Earliest Documentary Culture in Carolingian Catalonia
Arkady Hodge – When Is a Charter Not a Charter? Documents in Non-Conventional Contexts in Early Medieval Europe
Antonio Sennis – Destroying Documents in the Early Middle Ages
Charles Insley – Looking for Charters that Aren’t There: Lost Anglo-Saxon Charters and Archival Footprints
Shigeto Kikuchi – Representations of Monarchical ‘Highness’ in Carolingian Royal Charters
Morn Capper – Titles and Troubles: Conceptions of Mercian Royal Authority in Eighth- and Ninth-Century Charters
Elina Screen – Lothar I in Italy, 834–40: Charters and Authority
Alaric Trousdale – The Charter Evidence for the Reign of King Edmund (939–46)
Julie A. Hofmann – Changes in Patronage at Fulda: A Re‑Evaluation
Practical information:
J. Jarrett, A. S. McKinley (eds.), Problems and Possibilities of Early Medieval Charters, Turnhout, Brepols, 2013 (International Medieval Research, 19). X+301 p., 156 x 234 mm. ISBN: 978-2-503-54830-2. Price: EUR 80,00 excl. tax.
Source: Brepols
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