Carolingian Period Research Articles

Catalan Sigillography and Beyond: Iconic Behaviors in Medieval Breaking Seals

The author analyzes various cases of breaking seal matrices in medieval Catalonia and other regions in this text. The manuscript notes of the Catalan sigillographer Ferran de Sagarra guide the exploration of the mechanisms of signification associated with an essential medieval political theology. Beyond the materiality of the sigillary matrix and the printed seal, one can decipher a series of iconic behaviors that allow the author to propose a method for understanding European cultural history through anachronistic narrative forms akin to those of Aby Warburg, Walter Benjamin, or, more recently, Georges Didi-Huberman. It is possible to demonstrate the historical validity of seals in the service of a cultural history and thought that transcends political or religious narratives, opening new horizons in the understanding of the Latin West from the Carolingian period to the apex of international Gothic.

Finding Patristic Authorities in the Carolingian Period

This article investigates how and for what reasons Carolingian scholars sought and found works by the so-called church fathers. It begins by discussing the use of late antique bibliographical guides to learn about patristic titles and their orthodoxy. It looks at how Carolingian scholars went about acquiring copies of interesting works through their networks, and the peculiarities particular to the search for patristic texts. It closes by looking at examples of how some of the works of Augustine of Hippo were 'edited' by Carolingian scholars, arguing that such active engagement with these texts took place more often than sometimes thought.

The exploitation of silver deposits in early medieval Europe: some documentary, economic and social problems

Abstract Focusing on Southern Europe, this article sheds light on the mining landscape of the early Middle Ages. Based on the current state of historical and archaeological knowledge, the article raises a number of questions that can be extended to other European regions. The documentary problem shows that the scarcity of sources is due to a less developed mining historiography of the early Middle Ages. The few references show that it was not a question of ignorance, nor of the terrain, nor of the potential, nor of the techniques, taking into account the work in Melle and in the Harz. The study of production from the angle of an economic problem forms the basis of a hypotheses for selective and centralized exploitation during the Carolingian period and of an unbridled mining boom from the early 11th century. Even with the current paucity of documentary evidence, it is reasonable to assume that early medieval societies did not choose to exploit all the resources available to them. Finally, there is the social question. Who was behind the work and trade in ingots? The model of elite dirigisme will be discussed and it will be suggested that the role of the elite be reduced in favour of other actors such as entrepreneurs. Finally, the article argues for the extension of archaeological research to production areas in order to date operations, establish reference systems for ores and read archaeological remains from a social perspective.

Агиографические источники, связанные с культом святых Медарда и Гильдарда

Introduction. Four hagiographical texts about St. Medard of Soissons, two about Eleutherius of Tournai, and one each about Gildard of Rouen, Evodius of Rouen, Bandarid of Soissons, and Laud of Coutances have survived. All of them are connected with the cult of Sts. Medard and Gildard, who, in later tradition, came to be erroneously called brothers. Methods and materials. The study was carried out on the basis of critical, historicalgenetic and biographical methods. Analysis. The results of the critical analysis of the mentioned monuments allowed us to conclude that all of them differ in the time of their creation and the value of the information reflected in them, describing the life and activity of these holy bishops of the Merovingian era. Several texts were already created at the turn of the 6th – 7th centuries by the famous hagiographer Venantius Fortunatus. They can be important sources both for the reconstruction of the real biography of St. Medard and for the study of the history of the Merovingian period. The other texts were created later (in the Carolingian period and during the Classical Middle Ages), and the information about Medard and his time, added by their authors to the facts already known from Merovingian hagiography, does not represent historical value for the 6th century. Results. On the example of these monuments, it is possible to trace a characteristic change in the function of hagiography, when the Merovingian texts, compiled to glorify the cult of the saint, are replaced by hagiographies, the creation of which is connected with the confirmation of the land claims of the church in the 9th century, with the struggle around the united church of Noyon and Tournai, unfolding in the 11th – 12th centuries, as well as with the development of the myth about the kinship of Medard and Gildard, and so on. The mentioned phenomenon reflects some peculiarities of the appeal to the cults of Merovingian saints in different epochs, in particular the change of the purposes of creating their hagiographies in accordance with the requirements of the time.

Leading the Way to Heaven: Pastoral Care and Salvation in the Carolingian Period by Carine van Rhijn (review)

Leading the Way to Heaven: Pastoral Care and Salvation in the Carolingian Period by Carine van Rhijn (review)

RÉÉCRITURE AND THE CULTUS OF SAINT GALLUS, CA. 680–850: A FIDELISSIMIS TESTIBUS INDICATA

The figure of Saint Gallus, ostensibly the eponymous founder of Saint-Gallen, was the subject of much hagiographical treatment in the late Merovingian and early Carolingian periods. No fewer than four hagiographical texts were produced by individuals ensconced in communities that commemorated him. This process, called recently réécriture, permitted authors in iteration to employ the same basic narrative to a variety of ends. The anonymous Vita vetustissima (before 771), Wetti’s Vita Galli (before 824), Wahalfrid’s Vita Galli (833/34), and the anonymous Vita metrica Galli (between 833/34 and 837) each preserved accounts of Gallus’ career and posthumous events attributed to his intercession. Reading in parallel four episodes shared between these four texts allows us to see the various ways authors chose to frame their subject and allows us to imagine the authorial ambition of their composers. This chain of custody for the Gallus materials responded to concerns about institutional integrity, facilities, and ecclesiology by occasioning new compositions at key moments, such as moments of investment, license, and donation. It also reveals the generic conventions used by its authors to achieve their authorial ambition. The Vita vetustissima treats Gallus as a conventional late antique holy man; Wetti’s text was intended for lectionary purposes; Walahfrid’s text was encyclopedic in nature; and the Vita metrica, an ‘institutional Aeneid,’ advances Gallus as a holy hero suited to secular letters. Principally, Abbot Gozbert (r. 816–37) stewarded this process as an exercise in community-building.

The Carolingian cocio: on the vocabulary of the early medieval petty merchant

The word cocio (i.e. petty merchant or broker in classical Latin) was a rare term that after a long absence in written Latin reappeared in several Carolingian texts. Scholars have posited a medieval semantic shift from ‘merchant’ to ‘vagabond’. But this article argues that this consensus is erroneous. The Carolingian cocio continued to refer to petty commercial agents, that is, to small merchants. Furthermore, the term’s appearance in capitularies and its subsequent medieval vernacular afterlife together suggest that the term was borrowed from (unattested) proto‐Romance usage. A corrected history of the early medieval use of cocio illuminates the relationship between spoken and written Latin as well as aspects of social, religious, and economic history in the Carolingian period, and speaks to the promise of language to shed light on economic realities.

Tithes in the Long 10th Century

Abstract This article explores the question of how tithing rights in the dioceses of Freising and Mâcon developed between the ninth and eleventh centuries. I argue contrary to previous research that in these two dioceses, the tithes at local churches did not fall into the hands of the laity already in the Carolingian period, based on ideas of ‘Eigenkirchenrecht’. Instead, we can observe how, from the later ninth century onwards, bishops themselves detached tithing rights from baptismal churches and allocated them to other, minor churches, to foster them economically. In the course of the tenth century, bishops then also gave tithing rights – without any church – to laymen, in Freising at first usually in the context of exchanges. In the second half of the eleventh century, in documents from the diocese of Mâcon, tithes in lay hands were usually presented as a sinful result of alienation; they were ‘returned’ to the cathedral ( or bought back by the bishops ). In the course of this, however, tithing rights that actually had been allocated to baptismal churches in the ninth century, now passed into the hands of the cathedral chapter or the bishop.

Pellet bells from the Avar and the Carolingian period in the Keszthely region (Hungary): function - sounds - alloys - adhering textiles

The collections of the Balaton Museum in Keszthely and of the Hungarian National Museum contain around 50 pellet bells from the Great Migration period from the Keszthely Region. All originate from cemeteries and were analysed concerning their find position, function, sounds, psychoacoustic parameters, and chemical compositions. Additionally, adhering textiles were investigated. Primarily children wore pellet bells hanging from their tunic. Pellet bell served as amulets and the idea that their sounds and metals protect are still popular today.

Remembering Ebroin, Mayor of the Palace, in the Carolingian Period and Beyond

Remembering Ebroin, Mayor of the Palace, in the Carolingian Period and Beyond

Roman bells and Avar pellet bells cast in copper alloys : the materials' influence on acoustic and psychoacoustic

76 Roman bells and 91 pellet bells from the Early Medieval Avar and Carolingian periods from Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia cast in various copper alloys were investigated. They were classified into archaeological types and chemical analyses were carried out to get knowledge about their alloys' compositions. Since the material, among other parameters, influences timbre and sound perception, one Roman bell and one Avar pellet bell were reproduced in six different copper alloys, to examine the influence of the materials. Additionally, six bars were cast, and five plates were forged. All objects were recorded and analysed (psycho-)acoustically for a multitude of parameters to find out which are rather influenced by material and which are mainly altered by other parameters, such as shape or weight.

Romedio Schmitz-Esser, The Corpse in the Middle Ages: Embalming, Cremating, and the Cultural Construction of the Dead Body, trans. Albrecht Classen and Carolin Radtke. London and Turnhout: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2020, 780pp.

Originally published in 2014, Romedio Schmitz-Esser’s magnum opus Der Leichnam im Mittelalter: Einbalsamierung, Verbrennung und die kulturelle Konstruktion des toten Körpers remains a landmark in the history of death rituals and the cultural history of dead bodies in northern Europe from the Carolingian period to the later Middle Ages. This translation by Albrecht Classen and Carolin Radtke makes this important work available to an Anglophone audience for the first time. Schmitz-Esser taps a rich vein of source materials to examine the many ways that medieval people understood and interacted with the dead bodies in their midst. Drawing deftly from a palette of diverse genres – from medical treatises and miracles collections to legal texts and artistic representations – the author presents an interdisciplinary cultural history of the human corpse with an emphasis on the tension between written norms and lived practice. The fruit of this exploration is a massive volume almost 800 pages in length. The sheer size of the book brought to mind the words of John Fleming about the danger of reading large manuscripts in bed: “Falling asleep … might well prove fatal beneath the heavy blanket of its vast vellum folios.” This book merits the risk.

Vorscholastik: The contribution of the Carolingian monk Paschasius Radbertus of Corbie (c. 790–860) to early medieval philosophy

This article reconsiders the historical–philosophical significance of the monk and abbot of Corbie Abbey (est. 657), Paschasius Radbertus (c. 790–860). Radbert is contextualised within the cultural and academic setting of the Carolingian period of the eighth and ninth centuries while taking into account the diverse scholarly accomplishments of his contemporaries such as Alcuin of York (c. 740–804), Rabanus Maurus (c. 780–856), Walafrid Strabo (c. 809–849) and John Scottus Eriugena (815–877). The characteristic absence of contributions regarding Radbert in otherwise comprehensive introductions and editorial works in medieval philosophy is subsequently surveyed. It is shown that only a few introductory works of note contain references to Radbert, while the current specialised research is also relatively limited. Reconsidering depictions of Radbert in several older commentaries, notably Martin Grabmann’s (1875–1949) Die Geschichte der Scholastischen Methode I ( 1957 ), it is suggested that Radbert’s philosophical importance could be traced to Vorscholastik or the earliest development of scholasticism, as presented in his extensive commentary Expositio in Matheo Libri XII – without diminishing the ecclesiastical weight of his dispute with Ratramnus (d.c. 868) regarding their interpretation of the Eucharist in their similarly titled but disparate treatises De corpore et sanguine Domini , for which Radbert is generally better known and accordingly reflected in studies of early medieval intellectual history. Contribution: This article contributes to scholarship in early medieval philosophy by reassessing the philosophical influence of Paschasius Radbertus, based on the most recent specialised analyses and older modern receptions of his texts De corpore et sanguine Domini and Expositio in Matheo Libri XII .

The Slaves of the Churches: A History by Mary E. Sommar

Reviewed by: The Slaves of the Churches: A History by Mary E. Sommar William Chester Jordan The Slaves of the Churches: A History. By Mary E. Sommar. (New York: Oxford University Press. 2020. Pp. [viii], 268. $38.95. ISBN 9780190073268.) This book addresses the way the Church treated the issue of slavery from the time of Jesus until the late medieval commencement of the Atlantic intercontinental slave trade, but it goes into detail only through the mid-thirteenth century, the period of the classical canon law. Indeed, the principal texts that the author marshals are canonistic, but for the earliest period, she looks at other writings of both the Church Fathers and subsequent leading clerical figures. The author’s characterization of her work as an “analysis” appears several times in the text, but I found it difficult to justify this description. For, to the extent that the book has value, it is in its referencing passages from letters, conciliar collections, etc. that in one way or another touch on churchmen’s ideas about slavery. More particularly, she indicates those parts of certain texts that address the naturalness or unnaturalness of slavery, the various processes of manumission, and the legal doctrine of the inalienability of church property and its relation to the slaves owned by individual churches and churchmen. It is useful to have all of these passages noted and summarized, but this does not constitute analysis (see especially, pp. 68–72). Imprecision is a characteristic feature of the author’s remarks. A favorite locution is “a lot of” (for example, pp. 59, 60, 99, 115, and 227), but other phrases and words, like “pretty much” (p. 102) and “often” (p. 116), weaken the prose. “Abolition” and variants of the term are also favorites (pp. 18–19, 28, 35, 56, 66, 99–100, 101, 153, etc.). For the author is on a quest to find abolitionism in the past. When she cannot find it, she laments the inhumanity of churchmen who owned slaves or who refused to manumit them or who manumitted only with conditions in line with the inalienability of church property. When she finds a normative statement that appears to be in favor of abolition, she refuses to believe it. Writing of Gregory of Nyssa’s Fourth Homily on Ecclesiastes, she acknowledges that his discourse “certainly does sound a lot like abolitionist thinking” (p. 99). However, she immediately adds, “he never actually called for a change in the economic practice of using slave labor.” Later (p. 101), she repeats that Gregory “was not an abolitionist. [He] lived in a world where the idea of abolishing slavery was not something that could have even been imagined.” If so, then why search for it and tediously remind one’s readers that X was not an abolitionist, Y was not an abolitionist, and on and on? Let us assume for the moment that the author’s clerical actors were genuinely unable to think abolitionist thoughts. It is nevertheless the case that, as Professor [End Page 779] Sommar documents, several of them admonished their flock to treat their slaves with kindness. Now, the normative moral principles underlying such admonitions do not mean that the slave owners to whom they were addressed followed the advice. Nor does it preclude the possibility that the churchmen were hypocrites and treated their slaves poorly. However, it is a far cry from conceding these possibilities and writing a statement, in this case with regard to the Carolingian period, that churches, as “the owners of vast agricultural estates that employed thousands of unfree laborers . . . behaved no differently toward their servile personnel than did the secular owners of similarly large establishments” (p. 244). The author marshals no proof to establish the accuracy of this statement, which is really an accusation. It is an accusation grounded in the belief that free-born Romans had “contempt” for slaves in the ancient world and that this negative attitude persisted among the Catholic clergy for more than a thousand years, that is, until more than a millennium after the decline of the Western Empire. “Contempt” is a strong term. What is the evidence? “A late Carolingian preacher,” the author informs her readers, “exhorted his...

The Political Dimension of Liturgical Prayers of Remembrance: Lists of Rulers in the Confraternity Books of the Carolingian Period

The confraternity books (Libri vitae) of the Early Middle Ages record the names of individuals to be remembered in liturgical prayer. Since the middle of the 20th century, they have come more sharply into focus as historical source material. The records of rulers were of particular interest even then. In order to understand the lists of rulers in the Liber Vitae, the first subject of study is the development of prayers of remembrance for the living and the dead, and the subsequent emergence and shaping of liturgical commemoration of the ruler from late antiquity to the Carolingian period. These diverse developments merge with those of the liturgical Memoria in the confraternity books, indicating that the monasteries, in particular, were important keepers of monarchical Memoria. Taking as examples the Salzburg Liber Vitae (783) and the Reichenau Confraternity Book (824), the steps and methods are followed through and the lists of rulers interpreted in their historical context. The two confraternity books prove to be a source for the legitimisation of Carolingian sovereignty, particularly in terms of substantiating it historically and securing it liturgically. The regional perspective of each monastic community plays a major role here. Complex reference and interpretative systems are exposed in the confraternity books, whose orderliness, structure and prayer also served as a counterbalance to the disorder and crisis prevalent in the world.

Saint Étienne ou sainte Marie ? Un vieux débat à refermer : « Le vocable de la cathédrale de Paris à l’époque franque »

In 1925 Léon Levillain published a study on “The dedication of the cathedral of Paris in the Frankish period”, where he concluded that “Saint Stephen was the original patron of the Parisian church” - a dedication attested in the Merovingian period. He rejected the conclusions of Victor Mortet, who maintained in his Étude historique et archéologique sur la cathédrale et le palais épiscopal de Paris du VIe au XIIe siècle, published in 1888, that Sainte Marie had always been the main patron of the cathedral of Paris - a dedication unknown before the last third of the 8th century. The thesis of L. Levillain is nowadays commonly accepted. Nevertheless, a reexamination of texts from the 6th-9th century cited in the debate and a deconstruction of the argument of L. Levillain lead to a dismissal of his conclusions and a return to those of V. Mortet on the continual preeminence of Sainte Marie in the dedication of the cathedral of Paris, from the moment when the dedication is first known, and during the Carolingian period.

Carine van Rhijn, Leading the Way to Heaven: Pastoral Care and Salvation in the Carolingian Period. London and New York: Routledge, 2022, xii, 274 pp.

Abstract Early medieval manuscripts give up their secrets in this excellent monograph by Carine van Rhijn, who studies the books that enabled parish priests to perform their duties in the Carolingian countryside. Recognizing that the lineaments of the pastoral project outlined in royal normative texts issued by Charlemagne and his advisors were expressive of “ideals and intentions” (5), she argues convincingly that the practical challenges of implementing this project of expanding and deepening the knowledge that Christians required to assure their salvation fell increasingly to local priests in the Carolingian period. By the eighth century, a fundamental reorganization of the secular clergy resulted in priests being assigned to specific churches, where they lived, preached, and administered the sacraments in small communities for the rest of their lives.

Sous le charme de l’écriture : les Scholia Turonensia et le scriptorium de Corbie

The most detailed study ever devoted to the scholia of a rather famous Carolingian book, ms. 165 in Bern Burgerbibliothek, appeared under the signature of J. J. Savage in 1925. The information given there has never been reconsidered, and no effort has been made to improve our knowledge in the matter. This article provides a new examination of the manuscript, concentrating on the notes that refer to the Bucolics and Georgics. Four scribes are discerned as well as the source that nourished the work of one of them : a manuscript from Corbie that has not survived, where the work of Servius was accompanied by additions of a different origin. This book, which was made in response to a request from the abbey of Tours, made known the commentary that was highly esteemed and coveted by most scholars and readers in the Carolingian period.

The Medieval Armenian Symbol of Eternity in the Art of the Twelfth-Century Italian Sculptor Nicholaus

Abstract The medieval Armenian symbol of eternity – a whirl sign – is engraved in the forehead of five bull sculptures dated to the first half of the twelfth century, attributable to the workshop of the Italian sculptor Nicholaus. The whirl is an ancient sacred symbol associated with eternal life, not specific to any religion or culture, that has persisted for millennia. The following carvings display a closely resembling geometric whirl engravure: in the apse frieze of Koenigslutter Kaiserdom (Lower Saxony), in the pulpit of Sacra di Carpi (Modena), in the “Creation of animals” panel of S. Zeno Basilica (Verona), in the Verona Cathedral porch, and in the Ferrara Cathedral narthex. This symbol, generally ignored by Western Christian art after the Carolingian period, was revisited by the Nicholaus workshop. We argue that the small, hitherto overlooked whirl engraving made by these artists in the bull head of Koenigslutter, Carpi, Ferrara and Verona was a veiled ornamental performance displaying the symbol of eternity to signify the concept of life in the hereafter. Here the immediate inspiration source was likely Armenian, because in the early twelfth century the geometric whirl symbol of eternity was foreign to Italian religious decorations while it was deeply rooted in Armenian Christian art. Nicholaus and his atelier were familiar with the leaved cross and the whirl – traditional Armenian motifs symbolizing life in the hereafter – and were inspired by them in some of their works. In the decorative reliefs of S. Zeno Basilica façade, Verona Cathedral porch and Koenigslutter Kaiserdom frieze, various examples of the geometric whirl metamorphosis into naturalistic foliate whirl are extant, witnessing the Nicholaus atelier’s versatile sculptural performance in conceptualizing everlasting life.

‘Because their patron never dies’: ecclesiastical freedmen, socio‐religious interaction, and group formation under the aegis of ‘church property’ in the early medieval west (sixth to eleventh centuries)

In the early medieval west, patronate, as adapted from Roman law, was a fundamental category in determining the legal status of freedmen. In many cases it entailed a basic set of obligations. In an increasing number of situations, however, the patron became an ecclesiastical institution, since slaves and freed persons were often given to churches and monasteries. As ecclesiastical institutions regarded their patronal rights over freed persons as part of inalienable church property, the patronal relationship became permanent and inheritable. In Eastern Francia (the Rhineland and beyond) this transformed ecclesiastical freedmen into religiously defined social groups with potentially distinct aims, religious tasks, and organizational structures, and a shared notion of freedom. From the Carolingian period onward, it even became attractive to enter voluntarily into this status. It is argued here that with its underlying network of socio‐religious relations, patronate over ecclesiastical freedmen and censuales can be better understood when considered as an element of a ‘temple society’.