L'Agenda des Médiévistes

There is ample evidence, from the earliest periods onwards, that mankind has sought to measure and organize temporal movement by means of intellectual theories about historical sequences and the contours of peoples’ lives, as well as by practical literary instruments such as calendars, almanacs, and a variety of physical timekeeping devices such as sundials, astrolabes, flame-clocks, hour-glasses and water-clocks. But in the late thirteenth century and early fourteenth century, because of developments in physics and mechanics, it became possible to develop mechanical clocks, timekeeping machines independent of natural phenomena like the sun, moon and stars, daylight and darkness.

The making of mechanical clocks was a skill that spread rapidly throughout Europe. Originally made by metalworkers, such as blacksmiths and locksmiths, early clocks, monastic or civic, were large, elaborate and showy, but inaccurate and not particularly reliable, designed principally for outdoor public spaces. But, as clock-making became the province of specialists, more accurate smaller domestic clocks, watches and personalized timekeepers were developed. This book seeks to describe the impact of these instruments on the theological, philosophical, political, social, moral and personal thinking of the period from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, and the way that this thinking was expressed, mainly in English texts, but in other linguistic cultures too.

John Scattergood is emeritus professor of medieval and Renaissance English literature in TCD. He is the author of many books, most recently Trinity College Library Dublin: a descriptive catalogue of manuscripts containing Middle English and Some Old English (Dublin, 2021), compiled with the assistance of Niamh Pattwell and Emma Williams. He is a life member of the Royal Irish Academy.

Informations pratiques :

John Scattergood, Time’s Subjects. Horology and Literature in the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance, Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2022 ; 1 vol., 224 p. ISBN : 978-1-80151-020-2. Prix : € 49,50.

Source : Four Courts Press

The articles in this volume explore the ways in which different types of religious community organised their economy and controlled their finances. These topics were acknowledged already by Cassian and they are mentioned in the rule of St. Benedict. Attitudes to religious poverty and to wealth were largely determined by two parameters. The first was the impressive variety of forms of religious life with its development of different attitudes to poverty and wealth and to a multitude of forms of economic activity. The second parameter was set by other factors, the economic, political and geological environment which determined the requirements of each religious community. These parameters caused a strain between the religious ideals on the one hand and outside pressures which could affect individual communities or religious orders. This is explored in nine articles dealing with the traditional Benedictines, the military orders as well as the mendicants in different parts of Europe.

Informations pratiques :

Monastic Finance. Klösterliche Finanzverwaltung Studies on the Economy of Benedictines, Military Orders, and Mendicants. Studien zur Wirtschaftsführung der Benediktiner, Ritterorden und Bettelorden, dir. Jens Röhrkasten, Jürgen Sarnowsky, Münster, LIT Verlag, 2022 ; 1 vol., 272 p. (Vita regularis – Ordnungen und Deutungen religiosen Lebens im Mittelalter. Abhandlungen, 81). ISBN : 978-3-643-15149-0. Prix : € 44,90.

Source : LIT Verlag

La surdité au Moyen Âge est marquée par l’absence d’une étude d’ampleur, ce qui facilite la diffusion de stéréotypes dépeignant des sourds stigmatisés et des sociétés intolérantes. L’objectif de cet ouvrage est de répondre à cette carence, de déconstruire les visions fantasmées et de nourrir les réflexions sur un sujet encore méconnu. Quels sont les causes et les remèdes attribués à la surdité ? Comment les sourds sont-ils perçus et quels comportements sont entretenus à leur égard ? De quels droits bénéficient-ils et à quels interdits doivent-ils faire face ? Par l’étude des discours médicaux, religieux et juridiques, l’ouvrage explore les représentations et les réalités des sourds afin d’évaluer leur intégration dans les sociétés occidentales de la fin du Moyen Âge.

Préface de Martine Clouzot

Étudiant à l’université de Bourgogne et professeur d’histoire-géographie, Thomas Rodot est diplômé d’un master recherche en histoire médiévale.

Informations pratiques :

Thomas Rodot, Un regard pour entendre. Sourds et surdité dans l’Occident du bas Moyen Âge (XIIIe-XVe siècles), Paris, L’Harmattan, 2022 ; 1 vol., 242 p. (Historiques. Travaux). ISBN : 978-2-14-028450-2. Prix : € 27,50.

Source : L’Harmattan

Textile industries were one of the driving forces of the urbanisation process in medieval Northwest Europe, and nowhere was their impact so profound as in Flanders, where almost all larger and smaller cities were involved in manufacturing woollens from the 12th to the 16th century. Ypres, the third city in the county, was perhaps the most important concentration of industrial labour and capital in this period. In their heyday in the 13th and 14th centuries Ypres woollens were exported all over Europe and Ypres entrepreneurs and textile workers were able to adapt in very flexible ways to changes in demand. This book investigates not only what the impact of cloth manufacture was on urban society, it also tries to unravel the social mechanisms of industrial development in late medieval cities. It focuses on social inequalities and on the often difficult relationship between the various stakeholders in the urban cloth industry: merchants, entrepreneurs, guild masters and skilled and unskilled workers. Through the analysis work practices, wage levels, investment strategies, gender issues and political aspirations, it unravels how urban industries in the pre-industrial era shaped social relations in the city, how they moulded the urban fabric.

Peter Stabel teaches medieval and urban history at the University of Antwerp’s History Department. He is chair of the Centre for Urban History at the University of Antwerp and president of the European Association for Urban History. He publishes widely on the social history of towns in the medieval Low Countries, more specific on guild life, economic organization, social inequality and gender. He is currently preparing a synthesis on city life in medieval Latin Europe, the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic World.

Informations pratiques :

Peter Stabel, The Fabric of the City. A Social History of Cloth Manufacture in Medieval Ypres, Turnhout, Brepols, 2022 ; 1 vol., 278 p. (Studies in European Urban History, 59). ISBN : 978-2-503-60051-2. Prix : € 94,00.

Source : Brepols

Les formes de violence exercées au Moyen Âge contre les femmes composent un catalogue impressionnant : graves sévices infligés au nom du droit du mari à « corriger » sa femme, du droit du père à assujettir et punir sa fille, du droit du maître à battre sa servante ; injures liées au comportement féminin ; viols, ségrégations, homicides au nom de l’honneur trahi ; spoliation de biens, à commencer par les héritages et les dots ; mariages et prises de voile forcés ; manipulations des consciences et violences inquisitoriales ; mauvais traitements, prévarication et discrimination sur le lieu de travail. Cet ouvrage, qui se concentre surtout sur le bas Moyen Âge italien, raconte comment se sont codifiés les comportements violents contre les femmes sans d’ailleurs omettre les cas de violences de femmes contre d’autres femmes ou la réponse violente de certaines d’entre elles à qui les menaçait et les agressait.

Traduit par Marie-Ange Beaugrand

Anna Esposito, Franco Franceschi et Gabriella Piccinni sont professeurs en histoire médiévale dans diverses universités d’Italie. Ils coordonnent ici les essais de 17 enseignants et chercheurs italiens spécialistes de l’histoire médiévale.

Marie-Ange Beaugrand a été professeur de lettres classiques et a traduit de nombreux titres italiens, notamment sur le Moyen Âge.

Informations pratiques :

Violences faites aux femmes. Un regard sur le Moyen Âge, éd. Anna Esposito, Franco Franceschi, Gabriella Piccinni, Grenoble, UGA Éditions, 2022 ; 1 vol., 414 p. (Italie Plurielle). ISBN : 978-2-37747-311-3. Prix : € 28,00.

Source : UGA Éditions

For many, Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible into German has come to define the spirit of the Protestant Reformation. But there existed a host of devotional and mystical writings translated into the vernacular that had more profound impacts upon lay religious practices and experiences well into the seventeenth century. Steven Rozenski explores this devotional and mystical literature in his focused study of English translations and adaptations of the works of Henry Suso, Catherine of Siena, and Thomas à Kempis, and the common devotional culture manifested in the work of Richard Rolle.

In Wisdom’s Journey, Rozenski examines the forms and strategies of late medieval translation, of early modern engagement with Continental medieval devotion, and of the latter’s literary afterlives in English-speaking communities. Suso’s Rhineland mysticism, the book shows, found initial widespread influence, translation, and adaptation followed by a gradual decline; Catherine of Siena’s Italian spirituality saw continued use and retranslation in post-Reformation recusant communities paralleled by vehement denunciation by English Protestants; and Thomas à Kempis’s Imitation of Christ attained a remarkably consistent expansion of popularity, translation, and acceptance among both Catholic and Protestant readers well into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Wisdom’s Journey traces this path as it reshapes our understanding of English devotional and mystical literature from the 1400s to the 1600s, illuminating its wider European context before and after the Reformations of the sixteenth century. Written primarily for scholars in medieval mysticism, Reformation studies, and translation studies, the book will also appeal to readers interested in medieval studies and English literature more broadly.

Steven Rozenski is an assistant professor of English at the University of Rochester. He is co-editor of Devotional Interaction in Medieval England and Its Afterlives.

Informations pratiques :

Steven Rozenski, Wisdom’s Journey. Continental Mysticism and Popular Devotion in England, 1350–1650, Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press, 2022 ; 1 vol., 344 p. ISBN : 9780268202767. Prix : USD 125,00.

Source : University of Notre Dame Press