From Digital Prosopography to Social Network Analysis: Medieval People in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

This article traces the history of digital prosopography and its application to the medieval past, from the 1990s to the present. The principal outcome of this period of intense research has been the evolution of prosopography from static ‘facts’ on the printed page to an interactive model which allows historians to engage with ‘factoids’ that seek to represent the social relations and contexts involved in medieval lives. The ‘factoid model’ of digital prosopography, developed by John Bradley of King’s College London, has been applied to major databases dealing with medieval England, Scotland, France and Byzantium. The methods and concepts of Social Network Analysis, developed by social scientists and mathematicians over the course of the twentieth century, are increasingly being applied to digital prosopography and medieval studies more generally. This article discusses three recent medieval case studies, from France, the Holy Roman Empire, and Scotland, shining a light on potentially exciting new avenues of research on medieval people.