Books in the Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series series

This study examines the historical context of Cassiodorus' Variae as a collection, rather than as an assemblage of individual case studies on sixth-century Italy. It reveals the author's motives in preparing the epistolary collection and, in doing so, sheds new light on early medieval political, ecclesiastical, fiscal and legal affairs.

This book explores a key economic institution, the medieval tithe, as a social and political phenomenon in eleventh-century Germany and Italy. It views episcopal churches and their possessions as social networks, revealing how bishops used the ecclesiastical tithe to manage ties of loyalty and dependence within their dioceses.

This first study of Roger Bacon in English for sixty years sets his thought within the religious and intellectual context of the Franciscan order. Amanda Power's provocative new reading argues that his most famous works were intended to defend, renew and promulgate the faith within Christendom and beyond.

The union of Normandy and England in 1066 recast the political map of north-western Europe. This book explores the nature of the new relationships and exchanges between Flanders and the Anglo-Norman realm, from knightly tournaments, cross-Channel commerce, the mechanics of medieval immigration and the oldest surviving English treaties.

Looking beyond the notion of a 'Feudal Revolution' in Europe between 800 and 1100, this book reveals that the profound socio-economic changes that took place in the transition from Carolingian to post-Carolingian Europe were a continuation of processes unleashed by Carolingian reform, rather than a result of political failure.

This book provides a narrative of the rise of the French state, showing that the crown's centralising judicial administration co-existed with large-scale aristocratic violence. Royal power grew as much through efforts to negotiate and settle these conflicts as it did through efforts to suppress them.

This book charts the influence of Christian ideas about social responsibility on the legal, fiscal and operational policies of the Merovingian government, which consistently depended upon the collaboration of kings and elites to succeed, and it shows how a set of stories transformed the political playing field in early medieval Gaul. Contemporary thinkers encouraged this development by writing political arguments in the form of hagiography, more to redefine the rules and resources of elite culture than to promote saints' cults. Jamie Kreiner explores how hagiographers were able to do this effectively, by layering their arguments with different rhetorical and cognitive strategies while keeping the surface narratives entertaining. The result was a subtle and captivating literature that gives us new ways of thinking about how ideas and institutions can change, and how the vibrancy of Merovingian culture inspired subsequent Carolingian developments.

The thirteenth century was a crucial period of reform in the English church, especially for the pastoral care of laypeople. With this holistic study of the English church's activities, William H. Campbell demonstrates how the medieval clergy raised the religious aspirations and expectations of their congregations through preaching, sacraments and confession.

This book explores the ways in which theologians at the early University of Paris promoted the development of this new centre of education into a prominent institution within late medieval society. Drawing upon a range of evidence, including many theological texts available only in manuscripts, Spencer E. Young uncovers a vibrant intellectual community engaged in debates on such issues as the viability of Aristotle's natural philosophy for Christian theology, the implications of the popular framework of the seven deadly sins for spiritual and academic life, the social and religious obligations of educated masters, and poor relief. Integrating the intellectual and institutional histories of the Faculty of Theology, Young demonstrates the historical significance of these discussions for both the university and the thirteenth-century church. He also reveals the critical role played by many of the early university's lesser-known members in one of the most transformative periods in the history of higher education.

This is the first thorough investigation of the activities of the Columbanian congregation and their role in the development of Western monasticism. It discusses the tremendous influence Columbanian monasteries had on the formation of the Merovingian elites and on the ways piety and power were expressed in Frankish society.

This highly original study explores the religious life of early medieval Germany through its ritual books. Interdisciplinary in perspective, it sheds light on the histories of important manuscripts from the city of Mainz, challenging long-held assumptions about the ritual traditions and political dynamics of the Ottonian Church.

This comprehensive overview of early medieval ideas about dreams and visions explores their important roles within the learned cultures of the period. It is a major contribution to discussions about the intellectual place of dreams and visions, and underlines the creative nature of early medieval engagement with authoritative texts.

This pioneering study explores early medieval Frankish identity as a window into the formation of a distinct Western conception of ethnicity. It offers a new basis for comparing the history of collective and ethnic identity in the Christian West with other contexts, especially the Islamic and Byzantine worlds.

An important study of episcopal office and clerical identity in a socially and culturally dynamic region of medieval Europe. Focusing on the archdiocese of Reims during the sometimes turbulent century from 1050 to 1150, John S. Ott sheds light on the construction and representation of episcopal power and authority.

Focusing on the Catalonian city of Manresa, this book offers one of the first long-term studies of an Iberian town during the late medieval crisis. Drawing together original sources and surveys, Jeff Fynn-Paul places the city's social, political and economic development within the broader context of late medieval urban decline.

The political integration and Christianization of Saxony has long been counted among Charlemagne's failures. This accessible account of the conquest re-evaluates this view and shows how the success of this transformation has important implications for how we view governance, the institutional church, and Christian communities in the early Middle Ages.

Jonathan Rubin explores the intellectual activities and intercultural exchanges that occurred in the city of Acre during the Crusades, drawing on the complete body of evidence from the city. The result is an unprecedentedly rich portrait of a hitherto neglected intellectual centre on the Eastern shores of the medieval Mediterranean.

Using a range of evidence, Chandler addresses the political development of the Carolingian Spanish March as part of the Carolingian 'experiment'. Tracing the region's relationship with the monarchy over two centuries, he revises traditional views of ethnic motivations for action and prior interpretations of the constitutional birth of Catalonia.

This interdisciplinary study explores how classical ideals of generosity influenced the writing and practice of gift giving in medieval Europe. Focusing on classical texts, such as those by Seneca the Younger and Cicero, Lars Kjaer reveals how historians have underestimated the influence of classical literature and philosophy on medieval culture.

The first critical study of Jeanne de Penthievre (c.1326-1384), duchess of Brittany and an important political player of the early Hundred Years' War, sheds light on status, gender, and cooperation as crucial components of late medieval power structures.

Despite the growing centralisation of medieval papal government, this study argues that twelfth-century papal councils - a critical mechanism for contemporary papal government - relied on input from local clerics to formulate the conciliar decrees and, later, ensure their dissemination, thereby limiting the influence of the papacy.

This in-depth and accessible analysis of the rhetoric of dissidents, outsiders and truth-tellers challenges preconceptions about free speech and political criticism in the early Middle Ages, revealing that there was room for political dissent in this period, as long as critics employed the right rhetoric and adhered to scripted roles.

Flodoard of Rheims (893/4-966) is one of the tenth century's most intriguing but neglected historians, who wrote in the tumultuous decades that followed the collapse of the pan-European Carolingian empire. This important re-appraisal of his life and work casts new light on the political and cultural history of tenth-century Europe.

Did the Crusades trigger significant intellectual activity? To what extent and in what ways did the Latin residents of the Crusader States acquire knowledge from Muslims and Eastern Christians? And how were the Crusader states influenced by the intellectual developments which characterized the West in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries? This book is the first to examine these questions systematically using the complete body of evidence from one major urban centre: Acre. This reveals that Acre contained a significant number of people who engaged in learned activities, as well as the existence of study centres housed within the city. This volume also seeks to reconstruct the discourse that flowed across four major fields of learning: language and translation, jurisprudence, the study of Islam, and theological exchanges with Eastern Christians. The result is an unprecedentedly rich portrait of a hitherto neglected intellectual centre on the Eastern shores of the medieval Mediterranean.

Original and engaging, this substantial contribution to the study of the Rus Primary Chronicle, the most important piece of evidence for the history of the Rus in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, includes the first English-language translations of key Slavonic sources.