Eleventh Thirteenth Centuries Research Articles

Readjustments of a sinuous river during the last 6000 years in northwestern Europe (Cher River, France): from an active meandering river to a stable river course under human forcing

Palaeomeanders are characteristic features of meandering river floodplains. Some were abandoned several millennia ago and can be used as evidence for past fluvial patterns. Despite many observations of changes undergone by meandering rivers, little is known about long-term morphological adjustment of meanders. This paper reports on investigations conducted in two reaches located in the middle valley of the Cher River (northwestern Europe, France) to examine the readjustments of lowland meanders during the second half of the Holocene. The aim of our study was to provide new insights into the complex dynamics that control low-energy meandering rivers. LiDAR DEM spatial analyses coupled with geophysical surveys and observations of sediments enabled the identification and dating of thirteen palaeomeanders embedded in coarse sediments (sand and gravel) while the whole floodplain is covered by silty overbank deposits. Sedimentological, geochemical and pollen analyses combined with radiocarbon and OSL dating allowed us to reconstruct the chronology of the cutoff and the filling of palaeochannels. No palaeochannels older than ca 6000 yr cal. BP, and no palaeochannels younger than the eleventh–thirteenth centuries cal. AD were identified. This allowed us to distinguish two periods of meandering processes. (1) Our observations demonstrate the multi-millennia persistence of an active meandering pattern in a context of land use changes (ca 6000 yr cal. BP-eleventh–thirteenth centuries cal. AD). The preserved mobility of the river can be mainly interpreted as the result of the low cohesiveness of the bank material. Too few fine sediments were delivered during the proto-historical and historical periods to help stabilize the river course. (2) Following the eleventh–thirteenth centuries cal. AD, the fluvial system underwent a laterally stable phase. The many medieval and modern hydraulic engineering works reduced the specific stream power and prevented lateral erosion. The drastic decrease in the river's capacity to generate new meanders resulted in the disappearance of floodplain lakes and loss of habitat diversity.

Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary and Poland c.900--c.1300

1. Introduction 2. The history of the region and the question of origins 3. The formation of polities and Christianization 4. Political life and government c.1050-c.1200 5. Society and the economy, eleventh-twelfth centuries 6. Ecclesiastical history, eleventh-thirteenth centuries 7. New developments of the thirteenth century Select bibliography.

The Development of Feudal Relations in a Post-Conquest Reality: The Experience of the Mozarab Community of Toledo (Eleventh–Thirteenth Centuries)

The conquest of Toledo by Alfonso VI (r. 1065–1109) in 1085 opened a period of transformation and restructure in the traditional patterns that had organised the former taifa. While some scholars state that, in the early years of the Christian conquest, the traditional features of the Muslim civilisation endured, it is the aim of this article to discuss to what extent it is possible to admit a real continuity in everyday practices, taking as a prism the experience of the Mozarab community of the city. Our hypothesis is that, under the apparent continuities, a process of transformation began, through which new feudal relations managed to infiltrate the previous forms of organisation of land, taxes and religion in order to undermine their basis and make them conform to northern patterns, applying policies of segregation and cooptation.

I trovatori nel Veneto e a Venezia. Atti del Convegno internazionale - Venezia, 28-31 ottobre 2004 (review)

Reviewed by: I trovatori nel Veneto e a Venezia. Atti del Convegno internazionale - Venezia, 28-31 ottobre 2004 Wendy Pfeffer Lachin, Giosuè, ed. I trovatori nel Veneto e a Venezia. Atti del Convegno internazionale - Venezia, 28-31 ottobre 2004. Medioevo e Rinascimento Veneto 3. Roma/Padova: Editrice Antenore. 2008. ISBN: 978-88-8455-623-3. I Trovatori nel Veneto includes most of the presentations given at the conference organized under the auspices of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, with support from the Società Italiana di filologia romanza and the Association internationale d'études occitanes. The premise of the 2004 meeting was to summarize research of the last thirty years or so and to share current work of the scholars involved, with a particular focus on the area of Venice and its surroundings. Given the importance of the northeastern region of Italy as a venue for troubadour performance and for the preservation of medieval Occitan texts, there was no shortage of content. The volume opens with a long essay by Giosuè Lachin labeled "Introduzione" (xiii-cv), though the essay is anything but. Lachin uses this opportunity to showcase his current work with troubadour manuscript D, offering readers a very careful description of that volume and an interpretation of the logic of its composition. Lachin hypothesizes that D and the Liber Alberici represent a primitive phase of the development of a troubadour canon of authors (lxxvi). Lachin emphasizes the role of scribes trained at the university (e.g., Padua, lxxxviii) as an important factor in understanding the composition of D; he sees the volume as an example of pecia construction1 (xciv). Daniela Rando considers the question, What is a court? in "I luoghi della cultura nella Marca del duecento" (3-25) and offers a coherent response, not only to the question itself but also how the setting for culture evolved in the eleventh-thirteenth centuries in Italy. In this retelling, the passage from vagrant court to castle to city seems almost ineluctable. The next essay, "Alla corte dei Tempesta: trovatori e magistri nel castelle di Noale (sec. XIII-XIV)" by Raffaele Roncato (27-38) is a bonus, for the presentation was not on the original conference program (xii). Roncato emphasizes the importance of the castle and court at Noale as a stopping point for troubadour and Occitan culture. [End Page 69] Francesca Flores d'Arcais reminds the reader, in "Letteratura cavalleresca e arti figurative nel Veneto dal XIII al XIV secolo," (39-46) of the role of figurative art in this region, though most of the examples illustrate Old French rather than Occitan texts. The author suggests two frescos may refer to the themes of Occitan lyric, one in Bassano portraying a lover (45) and a second in Trento, which portrays a courtly scene, a distant echo of troubadour poetry (46). Continuing the theme of pictorial arts, Giordana Canova Mariani addresses "Il poeta e la sua immagine: il contributo della miniatura alla localizzazione e alla datazione dei canzonieri provenzali AIK e N" (47-76). Here an art historian uses the methods of that discipline to date four chansonniers. The author suggests that A can be dated to shortly after 1273-75 (61), that I and K can be dated to the 1290's (67), that N dates from the 1260's–1270's (75).2 The arguments mustered depend almost entirely on comparing the art in these four manuscripts (portraits and flourishes) with dated manuscripts from scriptoria in the Veneto. Historian Michel Roquebert offers "L'Emigration languedocienne en Italie padane au cours du XIIIe siècle" (77-95), based largely on Inquisition documents relating to four heretic travelers. Roquebert establishes a geography and a sociology of exile; the documents he examined allow him also to consider the material and social conditions of exile. In "Sur quelques troubadours qui franchirent les Alpes du temps de la Croisade contre les Albigeois," (97-133), Gérard Gouiran extends Roquebert's discussion to specific troubadours, notably Folquet de Romans. Gouiran's essay is, in truth, a description of the lifestyle of troubadours and joglars who flourished in thirteenth-century Italy. Saverio Guida's contribution, "Esperienza trobadorica e realtá veneta" (135-170) complements Gouiran's essay nicely...

The Foundations of Primatial Claims in the Western Church (Eleventh–Thirteenth Centuries)

From the eleventh to the thirteenth century, many archbishops in the western Church turned to the papacy to obtain confirmation of supra-metropolitan prerogatives in harmony with the hierarchical principles of the Gregorian Reform. The study of the proofs produced by these primates makes it possible to identify distinct, contrasting encounters between local ecclesiastical structures and the False Decretals, a canonical collection (c. 836–8/c. 847–52) which was widely disseminated in the central Middle Ages. This process reveals the opposition between two types of territorial primacies, based, on the one hand, on kingdoms searching for unity or, on the other, on the civil provinces of the late Roman Empire.