This paper investigates Hrotsvit of Gandersheim’s knowledge of Greek. It proceeds from three questions. First, what resources for learning Greek were available in tenth-century Germany? Second, were there any figures in her ambit from whom she could have learned? (I suggest two: sisters Hadwig of Swabia and Gerberga II of Gandersheim.) And third, what evidence exists in Hrotsvit’s works that could indicate Greek competency? Taking her use of dynamis and energia as a test case, I conclude, based on the preponderance of the evidence, fundamental competence in Greek for Hrotsvit should be considered highly likely.
{"title":"Per dynamin – per energian: Hrotsvit of Gandersheim’s knowledge of Greek","authors":"Graham Robert Johnson","doi":"10.1111/emed.12763","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12763","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper investigates Hrotsvit of Gandersheim’s knowledge of Greek. It proceeds from three questions. First, what resources for learning Greek were available in tenth-century Germany? Second, were there any figures in her ambit from whom she could have learned? (I suggest two: sisters Hadwig of Swabia and Gerberga II of Gandersheim.) And third, what evidence exists in Hrotsvit’s works that could indicate Greek competency? Taking her use of <i>dynamis</i> and <i>energia</i> as a test case, I conclude, based on the preponderance of the evidence, fundamental competence in Greek for Hrotsvit should be considered highly likely.</p>","PeriodicalId":44508,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval Europe","volume":"33 2","pages":"220-243"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/emed.12763","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143852707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In c.738, St Boniface distributed a circular letter to a broad audience of ecclesiastics in England. One response to that letter survives, written by Torhthelm, bishop of the Middle Angles (737–64). The letter is written in an allusive style and borrows heavily from its main source, Pope Vitalian’s letter to Oswiu, king of Northumbria. This essay offers a comprehensive study of Torhthelm’s letter and provides new insights into the culture of letter-writing in early medieval Mercia. The analysis also deepens our understanding of the relationship between that kingdom and the Continental mission during Æthelbald’s reign.
{"title":"Bishop Torhthelm’s letter to Boniface","authors":"Peter Darby","doi":"10.1111/emed.12764","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12764","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In <i>c</i>.738, St Boniface distributed a circular letter to a broad audience of ecclesiastics in England. One response to that letter survives, written by Torhthelm, bishop of the Middle Angles (737–64). The letter is written in an allusive style and borrows heavily from its main source, Pope Vitalian’s letter to Oswiu, king of Northumbria. This essay offers a comprehensive study of Torhthelm’s letter and provides new insights into the culture of letter-writing in early medieval Mercia. The analysis also deepens our understanding of the relationship between that kingdom and the Continental mission during Æthelbald’s reign.</p>","PeriodicalId":44508,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval Europe","volume":"33 2","pages":"244-273"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/emed.12764","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143852708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Between Prophecy and Apocalypse: The Burden of Sacred Time and the Making of History in Early Medieval Europe. By Matthew Gabriele. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 2024. viii + 145 pp. $45. ISBN 9780199642557.","authors":"Justin Lake","doi":"10.1111/emed.12765","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12765","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44508,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval Europe","volume":"33 3","pages":"436-438"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144573636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Entourages played a central role in Carolingian politics and military organization. Yet historians have neglected the important question of how kings and magnates supplied their retinues. This article investigates that topic by examining an overlooked genre of evidence: tractoriae or royal letters of requisition. Louis the Pious revived the use of these late Roman and Merovingian documents to authorize magnates to collect supplies for their followers and horses. The provisions enumerated in tractoriae give us rare insight into the composition and scale of ninth-century retinues and armies. Their disappearance during the reign of Charles the Bald was bound up with larger transformations of late Carolingian politics.
{"title":"Tractoriae and the logistics of Carolingian entourages","authors":"Eric J. Goldberg","doi":"10.1111/emed.12761","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12761","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Entourages played a central role in Carolingian politics and military organization. Yet historians have neglected the important question of how kings and magnates supplied their retinues. This article investigates that topic by examining an overlooked genre of evidence: <i>tractoriae</i> or royal letters of requisition. Louis the Pious revived the use of these late Roman and Merovingian documents to authorize magnates to collect supplies for their followers and horses. The provisions enumerated in <i>tractoriae</i> give us rare insight into the composition and scale of ninth-century retinues and armies. Their disappearance during the reign of Charles the Bald was bound up with larger transformations of late Carolingian politics.</p>","PeriodicalId":44508,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval Europe","volume":"33 2","pages":"158-182"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/emed.12761","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143852896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Donkey and the Boat: Reinterpreting the Mediterranean Economy, 950–1180. By Chris Wickham. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 2023. xl + 795 pp. £40/$55. ISBN 978 0 19 885648 1.","authors":"Jonathan P. Conant","doi":"10.1111/emed.12758","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12758","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44508,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval Europe","volume":"33 2","pages":"303-306"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143852693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
<p>There are at least three reasons why the present review is not typical for <i>Early Medieval Europe</i>: the volume under review has relatively little to say about Europe (one chapter alone is devoted to it), it is not a work of original research but a synthesis, and having been published in 2020 it is not a very recent book. But there are good reasons for it to appear here nevertheless. Although this is a book about global history its contributors frequently place the global in conversation with regional histories. This approach offers helpful methodological lessons for Europeanists asking ‘what can the global do for me’? Likewise, the Europeanist who always wanted to know more about faraway places but was too afraid to ask will benefit from the synthetic orientation of the chapters with their up-to-date bibliographies. These are useful gateways for further research. But the book can be used also as a teaching resource, and the present review will assess it as such, based on two years of trial and error in the classroom (also my only legitimate excuse for the delay in completing the review). I am grateful to the brave students of University College Dublin who took HIS33010 ‘Global History in the First Millennium <span>ad</span>’ and whose feedback informs the observations below.</p><p>This multi-authored volume consists of nineteen chapters, fifteen of which concentrate on specific regions: from Africa and Eurasia with their geographical subdivisions (by Mark Horton, Kenneth Hall, John Whitmore, Michael Drompp, Khodadad Rezakhani, George Hatke, Sonja Magnavita, Jennifer Davies), through Oceania (Glenn Summerhayes) and Mesoamerica (Heather McKillop), to regions defined politically or ethnically like China (Tineke D'Haeseleer), Tibet (Lewis Doney), Japan (Ross Bender), Korea (Richard McBride II), and Byzantium (Michael Decker). Australia as well as South America and North America are excluded. The remaining four chapters are thematic, exploring staple themes of global history: trade (by Richard Smith), migration (Johannes Preiser-Kapeller), climate and disease (Peter Sarris), and intellectual connectivity (Erik Hermans). There is no concluding chapter to provide an overarching perspective or tease out common and comparable threads.</p><p>The introduction defines the book's chronological limits as extending roughly from the seventh to the ninth centuries. It acknowledges however that not all places included in the book display the same patterns of political, social, and economic changes, nor were they all interconnected in a way that would uphold a self-evident or an unproblematic periodization. But the book's strength lies neither in establishing a secure rationale for periodization nor in putting forward a compelling case for global connectivity (it admits also weak forms of connectivity and this is fine). Rather, <i>A Companion to the Global Early Middle Ages</i> is at its most engaging on a chapter-by-chapter basis, allowing readers to creat
至少有三个原因导致本书评不是典型的《中世纪早期欧洲》：本书评对欧洲的论述相对较少（仅有一章专门论述欧洲），它不是一部原创性研究著作，而是一部综合著作，而且它出版于 2020 年，并不是一部非常新的著作。不过，它还是有充分的理由出现在这里。虽然这是一本关于全球历史的书，但其作者经常将全球历史与地区历史相提并论。这种方法为提出 "全球能为我做什么 "这一问题的欧洲学家提供了有益的方法论启示。同样，对于那些总是想了解更多遥远地方的情况但又不敢问的欧洲史学者来说，本书各章节的综合导向以及最新的参考书目也会让他们受益匪浅。这些都是进一步研究的有用途径。不过，本书也可用作教学资源，本书评将根据两年来在课堂上的尝试和错误（这也是我延迟完成书评的唯一正当理由）对其进行评估。我非常感谢都柏林大学学院那些勇敢的学生，他们选修了 HIS33010 "第一个千年广告中的全球历史"，他们的反馈意见为以下意见提供了参考。本卷由多位作者合著，共十九章，其中十五章集中于特定地区：从非洲和欧亚大陆及其地理分区（作者：Mark Horton、Kenneth Hall、John Whitmore、Michael Drompp、Khodadad Rezakhani、George Hatke、Sonja Magnavita、Jennifer Davies）、从大洋洲（Glenn Summerhayes）和中美洲（Heather McKillop），到中国（Tineke D'Haeseleer）、西藏（Lewis Doney）、日本（Ross Bender）、韩国（Richard McBride II）和拜占庭（Michael Decker）等政治或种族界定的地区。澳大利亚以及南美洲和北美洲不包括在内。其余四章为专题章节，探讨了全球历史的主要专题：贸易（理查德-史密斯著）、移民（约翰内斯-普雷泽-卡佩勒著）、气候与疾病（彼得-萨里斯著）以及知识的连通性（埃里克-赫尔曼斯著）。导言将本书的时间范围大致界定为从七世纪到九世纪。不过，该书也承认，并非所有收录的地方都展现了相同的政治、社会和经济变迁模式，它们之间的相互联系也并非都能支持一种不言自明或没有问题的时期划分。但是，该书的优势既不在于为时期划分建立可靠的理论依据，也不在于为全球连通性提出令人信服的理由（该书也承认连通性的薄弱形式，这也没有问题）。相反，《A Companion to the Global Early Middle Ages》最吸引人的地方在于以章节为基础，允许读者根据自己的选择在不同地方建立自己的联系，而不一定要认同全球（商业、知识或其他方面）联系的论点。不过，每章的 "连通性 "确实很好，大多数章节都采用了类似的模式，即在每一地区的介绍性文章中加入对该地区与邻近或遥远地区的连通方式的观察。约翰内斯-普莱泽-卡佩勒（Johannes Preiser-Kapeller）的文章仅以 "迁徙 "为题，在没有总结性文章的情况下，对其他章节的主要主题进行了方便的（尽管是无意的）复述。通过 "精英和帝国流动"、"宗教流动和移民"、"商业流动和移民 "以及 "难民、被驱逐者和奴隶 "等小标题，该文捕捉到了重要的跨地区政治、宗教和经济现象，这些现象的影响如果局限于特定地区，总是无法得到充分理解。这些现象包括：新移民统治集团在欧亚大陆已经定居的社会顶层的植入、构成政府上层及其相应贵族阶层的精英之间的相互联系（有时是有意，有时是无意）、佛教和基督教的传播、种族身份的构建和认知，以及无数因战争、经济需要或奴役而被迫离开故土的无声个体的命运。中国、伊斯兰文化和穆斯林世界、语言知识和传播、宗教实践和游牧民族等其他地方和主题在书中反复出现，并在书中占据主导地位。
{"title":"A Companion to the Global Early Middle Ages. Edited by Erik Hermans. Arc Humanities Press Companions. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 2020. x + 563 pp. €189. ISBN 978 1 942 40175 9.","authors":"Roy Flechner","doi":"10.1111/emed.12759","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12759","url":null,"abstract":"<p>There are at least three reasons why the present review is not typical for <i>Early Medieval Europe</i>: the volume under review has relatively little to say about Europe (one chapter alone is devoted to it), it is not a work of original research but a synthesis, and having been published in 2020 it is not a very recent book. But there are good reasons for it to appear here nevertheless. Although this is a book about global history its contributors frequently place the global in conversation with regional histories. This approach offers helpful methodological lessons for Europeanists asking ‘what can the global do for me’? Likewise, the Europeanist who always wanted to know more about faraway places but was too afraid to ask will benefit from the synthetic orientation of the chapters with their up-to-date bibliographies. These are useful gateways for further research. But the book can be used also as a teaching resource, and the present review will assess it as such, based on two years of trial and error in the classroom (also my only legitimate excuse for the delay in completing the review). I am grateful to the brave students of University College Dublin who took HIS33010 ‘Global History in the First Millennium <span>ad</span>’ and whose feedback informs the observations below.</p><p>This multi-authored volume consists of nineteen chapters, fifteen of which concentrate on specific regions: from Africa and Eurasia with their geographical subdivisions (by Mark Horton, Kenneth Hall, John Whitmore, Michael Drompp, Khodadad Rezakhani, George Hatke, Sonja Magnavita, Jennifer Davies), through Oceania (Glenn Summerhayes) and Mesoamerica (Heather McKillop), to regions defined politically or ethnically like China (Tineke D'Haeseleer), Tibet (Lewis Doney), Japan (Ross Bender), Korea (Richard McBride II), and Byzantium (Michael Decker). Australia as well as South America and North America are excluded. The remaining four chapters are thematic, exploring staple themes of global history: trade (by Richard Smith), migration (Johannes Preiser-Kapeller), climate and disease (Peter Sarris), and intellectual connectivity (Erik Hermans). There is no concluding chapter to provide an overarching perspective or tease out common and comparable threads.</p><p>The introduction defines the book's chronological limits as extending roughly from the seventh to the ninth centuries. It acknowledges however that not all places included in the book display the same patterns of political, social, and economic changes, nor were they all interconnected in a way that would uphold a self-evident or an unproblematic periodization. But the book's strength lies neither in establishing a secure rationale for periodization nor in putting forward a compelling case for global connectivity (it admits also weak forms of connectivity and this is fine). Rather, <i>A Companion to the Global Early Middle Ages</i> is at its most engaging on a chapter-by-chapter basis, allowing readers to creat","PeriodicalId":44508,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval Europe","volume":"33 2","pages":"297-299"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/emed.12759","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143852994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Monasticism in Ireland, ad 900–1250. By Edel Bhreathnach. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2024. xx + 450 pp. €50. ISBN 9781801511179.","authors":"Clare Downham","doi":"10.1111/emed.12760","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12760","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44508,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval Europe","volume":"33 2","pages":"300-302"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143852993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Le mariage des prêtres, une hérésie? Genèse du nicolaïsme (Ier–XIe siècle). By Isabelle Rosé. Paris: Presses universitaires de France. 2023. 409 pp. €28. ISBN 978 2 13 085326 8.","authors":"Fiona J. Griffiths","doi":"10.1111/emed.12756","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12756","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44508,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval Europe","volume":"33 2","pages":"291-293"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143852808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rutilius Namatianus’ poem De reditu suo was written a few years after the devastation of Rome in 410. It has been read as nostalgia for Rome’s past greatness written in a climate of senatorial escapism. This article revises this reading, instead analysing the poem as the literary expression of resilience on the part of the traditional western aristocracies. The collective strategy of conservative western Roman elites was to face the crisis by rebuilding the beatitudo temporum of urban structures and consolidating the ideology of the Urbs aeterna. By contrast, the increasing importance of ascetic movements can be seen as an alternative coping strategy adopted by the Christian aristocracy, overcoming the trauma of 410 through religious renewal.
{"title":"Ordo renascendi est crescere posse malis (Rutilius Namatianus I.140): the sack of Rome and the resilience of western Roman aristocracies","authors":"Sophie Kultzen","doi":"10.1111/emed.12755","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12755","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Rutilius Namatianus’ poem <i>De reditu suo</i> was written a few years after the devastation of Rome in 410. It has been read as nostalgia for Rome’s past greatness written in a climate of senatorial escapism. This article revises this reading, instead analysing the poem as the literary expression of resilience on the part of the traditional western aristocracies. The collective strategy of conservative western Roman elites was to face the crisis by rebuilding the <i>beatitudo temporum</i> of urban structures and consolidating the ideology of the <i>Urbs aeterna</i>. By contrast, the increasing importance of ascetic movements can be seen as an alternative coping strategy adopted by the Christian aristocracy, overcoming the trauma of 410 through religious renewal.</p>","PeriodicalId":44508,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval Europe","volume":"33 2","pages":"139-157"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/emed.12755","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143852726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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