Frankish Kingdom Research Articles

ENTRUSTING WESTERN EUROPE TO THE CHURCH, 400–750

ABSTRACTAlthough there had been substantial donations to the church in the course of the last two centuries of the Roman Empire, the amount of property transferred to the episcopal church and to monasteries in the following two and a half centuries would seem to have been immense. Probably rather more than 30 per cent of the Frankish kingdom was given to ecclesiastical institutions; although the Anglo-Saxon church was only established after 597, it also acquired huge amounts of land, as did the churches of Spain and Italy, although the extent conveyed in the two peninsulas is harder to estimate. The scale of endowments helps explain the occasional criticisms of the extent of church property, and also the secularisations and reallocation of church land, and indeed suggest that the transfer of property out of the control of the church in Francia and England in the eighth century may have been greater than is often assumed. The transfer of land should probably also be seen as something other than a simple change of ownership. Church property provided the economic basis for cult, for the maintenance of clergy, who were unquestionably numerous, and for the poor. In social and economic, as well as religious terms, this marked a major break with the Classical World.

The Politics of Memory and Identity in Carolingian Royal Diplomas: The West Frankish Kingdom (840–987) by Geoffrey Koziol (review)

The Politics of Memory and Identity in Carolingian Royal Diplomas: The West Frankish Kingdom (840–987) by Geoffrey Koziol (review)

The Politics of Memory and Identity in Carolingian Royal Diplomas: The West Frankish Kingdom (840–987) by Geoffrey Koziol (review)

Reviewed by: The Politics of Memory and Identity in Carolingian Royal Diplomas: The West Frankish Kingdom (840–987) by Geoffrey Koziol Stephanie L. Hathaway Koziol, Geoffrey, The Politics of Memory and Identity in Carolingian Royal Diplomas: The West Frankish Kingdom (840–987) (Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 19), Turnhout, Brepols, 2012; hardback; pp. 680; 10 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. €100.00; ISBN 9782503535951. At a time when scholars are redefining the way historiography treats the Middle Ages, Geoffrey Koziol’s dense volume follows along the traditions of historians such as Janet Nelson and Chris Wickham in addressing some complex questions surrounding the drafting, function, and implications of diplomas in the politics of the Carolingian dynasty. Covering the time from the death of Louis the Pious to the reign of his last descendants, succeeded by Hugh Capet, the time frame of this book spans almost two hundred years during which political power play dominated the policy-making of the West Frankish kingdom. Perhaps in the same way Wickham referred to archaeologists as being able to see more clearly the sharper changes in history, Koziol equates his volume to a ‘semantic excavation’ (p. 3), examining Carolingian royal diplomas as representations of royal presence and ideologies in a political performance – a public memorial of alteration in a political regime and its alliances. The book is organized in two parts, the first consisting of seven chapters devoted to the ‘performative’ aspects of diplomas in major political events: accessions, successions, conveyances, and alliances during the Carolingian dynasty, and fencing with the issues of forgery and the tenth-century monastic reform. Koziol uses the first chapter to lay down the framework for the views he puts forward throughout the book: the ways that diplomas have been analysed by historians and how he will treat them here as ‘the medium by which past politics were remembered and redeployed for present purposes’ (p. 15). [End Page 252] That some of his conclusions might seem bold, the author is well aware, and, indeed, he challenges historians at every opening to see charters from a different perspective than has been established. Koziol engages with topics surrounding the study of charters, such as ritual, memory, lineage, and the establishment of legitimacy, as well as touching on Carolingian diplomatics. In the chapter ‘Politics and the Palace’, Koziol challenges the view that the decline in the number of diplomas after the death of Charles the Bald was the result of less writing or a loss in royal authority. More convincing is his argument that the monastic reformers and churches refashioned political diplomas and their public reception, some in order to present physical evidence of previously granted royal titles. The treatment of forgery follows smoothly from the topic of monastic reform, but might seem precarious within the author’s framework of the Germanic-ness of Carolingian culture: the expression of triuwe and its relation to the medieval idea of truth and fidelity. It remains unclear whether the author is asserting his understanding of German Carolingian scholarship or if he again wishes to forge new perspectives in the treatment of diplomas and politics. In the second part, consisting of Chapters 8–10 and an elided epilogue, the author attempts to derive an image of individuals and their personalities, applying his theory of ‘performative’ to the lives and reigns of Charles the Simple and Robert of Nuestria. Several discussions surround these figures, including some proposals for how the term ‘simple’ was used to describe Charles and the Judgement of Soissons, and how Robert’s personal intentions and principles might be seen in his attempt to justify his military actions in his only surviving diploma, the vexilla of Saint-Denis. The complex volume is drawn together agreeably with the discussion on Charles’s establishment of relations with the church of Saint-Corneille, the burial of kings at Compiègne, and Hugh Capet’s council of bishops there. Though the topics covered might seem disparate, the author does well in discussing them under the theme of his theory of royal diplomas as objects of performance in political power play. However, despite the author’s assertion that passing details are important to the understanding of these diplomas...

En marge des invasions vikings : Actard de Nantes et les translations d'évêques propter infestationem paganorum

This paper examines the transfer of bishops in the Frankish kingdom due to the Viking invasions during the second half of the ninth century. The most comprehensive case – that of Actard of Nantes – provides sufficient information on the situation of the prelate and especially how it was presented by the secular and ecclesiastical authorities of the time. The change in the position of Hincmar Archbishop of Rheims on this issue, in 872, reveals the political and canonical stakes that could dress such cases. In light of this and other examples known at the end of the ninth century one can wonder whether infestatio paganorum was not primarily an argument to justify transfers that intervened on partisan grounds.

Human intestinal parasites in crusader Acre: Evidence for migration with disease in the medieval period

The aim of this research is to highlight the role of ancient parasites as evidence for human migration in past populations. The material analysed was soil sediment from the excavation of a medieval cesspool in the city of Acre, in Israel. Archaeological stratigraphy and radiocarbon dating of a fragment of animal bone from the cesspool confirm its use in the 13th century CE, during the crusader period. At that time Acre was located in the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem. Soil samples from the cesspool were analysed and eggs of the roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides) and fish tapeworm (Diphyllobothrium latum) were identified. The fish tapeworm has only been found in the mainland Near East once before, in a latrine of the crusader Order of St. John (Knights Hospitaller). It has been absent in all earlier cesspools, latrines and coprolites so far studied in the region. In contrast to its rarity in the Levant, the fish tapeworm was common in northern Europe during the medieval period. The presence of fish tapeworm eggs in a crusader period cesspool in Acre suggests its use by crusaders or pilgrims from northern Europe who travelled to the Levant carrying these parasites in their intestines.

Recent recordings of plainchant

Last year (2005, no. 6), we greeted a recording that seemed to be directed in a special way to chant scholars. Two more discs of similar interest have arrived, the newest one an interpretation of the conflict, shall we call it, between Roman and Frankish cantors during the introduction of Roman chant into the Frankish kingdom (no. 1 in the list below). The chants were chosen for specific characteristics of Old Roman and Gallican style, but the stage is set by beginning with ‘Gregorius praesul’. Most of the selections have been recorded only rarely, and the Old Roman offertory ‘Deus enim firmavit’ (from Bodmer 74) with its verses is new to records. Benjamin Bagby accompanies himself on the lute in ‘A solis ortu’, the lament for Charlemagne, the choice of verses (neither version is complete) partly different from Alfred Deller's recording, 237 in my discography (1992, no. 19 on CD). The disc concludes with two familiar pieces, the Palm Sunday processional responsory ‘Collegerunt’ and the laudes regiae ‘Christus vincit’. The last (from Paris, BNF lat. 13159, a source not cited by Bukofzer in ‘The Music of the Laudes’) is the most imaginative performance on disc, the only one known to me that interjects the acclamations more fluidly than the familiar editions indicate.

The Slavs of the mid-Danube basin and the Bulgarian expansion in the first half of the 9th century

The Annals of the Frankish kingdom, under the year 818, contain a description of the arrival of legations of certain Abodrits, Guduskans and Timotans at the Frankish court in Heristal. This paper is devoted to an attempt at the further identification of these tribes and their habitats. It mainly discusses the possibility that the Timotans and Abodrits should be recognized as two of the so-called Seven Slavic tribes, over whom the Bulgarians imposed their power in 680/681. The final part of the paper is dedicated to an overview of the question of the expansion of Bulgarian authority in the area of the Morava River valley.

L’Église impériale dans la tradition franque. Le temps des Ottoniens et des premiers Saliens

The image of an «imperial church system» of the Ottonians and Salians, created by Otto the Great after the failed rebolt by his son Liudolf (953-954) in order to serve as a counterweight to the lay nobility, is now judged out of date. Contemporary historians prefer to talk of the ‘policy’ rather than of the ‘system’ of the imperial church of the Ottonians and Salians. From the 10th century, the church of the German kingdom obtained more and more secular rights; even counties were conferred on it. The monarch expected the church to use and manage them more effectively than the lay nobility did. In doing this, the Ottonians did not create a new system, but followed a development which had begun in the western Frankish kingdom, where church prelates had succeeded much earlier in securing secular rights. Given that in Germany, bishops were mainly recruted from the high aristocracy, they were never an effective counterweight to the lay nobility. Even when the king could influence the nomination of bishops and abbots, and had the right to invest them, he often had to take local power configurations into account. It was only Henry II, crowned king in 1002, who placed the entire church under his control. Subsequently, the church obtained ever more secular rights, and in return had to render more services to the Empire. Consequently, during the first half of the 11th century, the structure of the Empire was based on a close community of interests between the king and the church. Since it was contrary to the principles of the Gregorian reform, this relationship ultimately made the conflict between Gregory VII and Henry IV inevitable.

Transportation, Communication, and the Movement of Peoples in the Frankish Kingdom, ca. 500–900 C.E

AbstractAs historians and archeologists continue to debate the volume of commercial traffic in Western Europe following the disappearance of Roman imperial rule, it has become increasingly clear that an infrastructure of transportation and communication continued to facilitate travel and the movement of people in this period. This is particularly apparent in the Frankish Kingdom between the sixth and tenth centuries. Relying to a substantial degree on technology and routes inherited from the Roman past, the Franks employed this communication infrastructure for purposes dictated by entirely contemporary concerns. Recent scholarship has demonstrated conclusively that commerce was far from the only motivation for travel in the Frankish Kingdom, and that the diversity of means and motives for communication is indicative of a mobile society.

La royauté des premiers Capétiens : « Un mélange de misère et de grandeur » ?

The monarchy of the early Capetians is commonly regarded as weak. Reduced to the royal domain, their power was often less than that of princes. But this gloomy picture is being revised by French medievalists. Re-evaluation seems all the more justified if the Capetian monarchy is compared to that of the Eastern Frankish kingdom, the future Germany. The Ottonians were also limited to central areas and saw themselves confronted by powerful princes, such as the Dukes of Bavaria and Swabia. It was only Henri II who, after the year 1,000, achieved royal authority over the whole regnum. The Salians followed his example. But this policy was opposed by the nobility. The German monarchy lost its power of integration and went into crisis during the last years of Henri III. On the other hand, the policy of the early Capetians, who did not break the princes’ power, was promising. Against this background, the idea of a pitiful French monarchy is no longer as well-founded.

Frankish military duty and the fate of Roman taxation

Frankish kings exacted unpaid military service from their subjects in both Merovingian and Carolingian times. The basis for this right has long been uncertain. A study of the term ‘manse’ as a Carolingian measure of assets brings to light the ostensibly hidden property on whose basis Franks went to war. This military duty reached back to the origins of the Frankish kingdom, when a large share of Roman taxes was awarded in individual allotments to soldiers obligated to serve, otherwise unpaid, when summoned, and heavily fined if they did not. Both demesne and tributary manses – contributory units – were the main part of state resources applied to military costs. They cannot be simply envisaged as components of an agricultural scheme (grand domaine). A tax-like military obligation was one among several institutions actively surviving from the fifth century to the ninth, and it suggests that Frankish government was more law-based and administrative than is often allowed.

Influences of the European Kingdoms of Late Antiquity on the Basque Country

The Aldaieta cemetery (6th–7th century AD, Basque Country) provides an excellent opportunity for analysing the relationships between biology and culture. Culturally it presents material features whose origins lie in the Northern Pyrenean Frankish kingdom, while genetically it reveals greater affinity to the present‐day populations of the northern Iberian Peninsula. This raises the question of the degree of influence exerted by the large European kingdoms that emerged after the fall of the Roman Empire over the populations located on the fringes of their expansion. An analysis of the genetic constitution, both patrilineal (Y‐chromosome) and matrilineal (mitochondrial DNA), of the individuals buried in the cemetery, together with demographic and cultural data, points to a stratified or hierarchical society in which certain lineages were linked to family groups of higher social and/or economic status. This higher status, which seems to have been transmitted through family members, may have been attained by i...

Recent recordings of plainchant

Last year (2005, no. 6), we greeted a recording that seemed to be directed in a special way to chant scholars. Two more discs of similar interest have arrived, the newest one an interpretation of the conflict, shall we call it, between Roman and Frankish cantors during the introduction of Roman chant into the Frankish kingdom (no. 1 in the list below). The chants were chosen for specific characteristics of Old Roman and Gallican style, but the stage is set by beginning with ‘Gregorius praesul’. Most of the selections have been recorded only rarely, and the Old Roman offertory ‘Deus enim firmavit’ (from Bodmer 74) with its verses is new to records. Benjamin Bagby accompanies himself on the lute in ‘A solis ortu’, the lament for Charlemagne, the choice of verses (neither version is complete) partly different from Alfred Deller's recording, 237 in my discography (1992, no. 19 on CD). The disc concludes with two familiar pieces, the Palm Sunday processional responsory ‘Collegerunt’ and the laudes regiae ‘Christus vincit’. The last (from Paris, BNF lat. 13159, a source not cited by Bukofzer in ‘The Music of the Laudes’) is the most imaginative performance on disc, the only one known to me that interjects the acclamations more fluidly than the familiar editions indicate.

Fantasy, Identity and Misrecognition in Medieval French Narrative by James R. Simpson (review)

MLR, 99.2, 2004 485 Fantasy, Identity and Misrecognition in Medieval French Narrative. By James R. Simpson. Oxford and New York: Peter Lang. 2000. vii + 290 pp. ?51.80. ISBN 3-906766-16-0. A casual search through the MLA bibliography gives ample evidence of diverse applications of Lacanian theory to literature from all historical periods and to con? temporary media. For medievalists recent years have seen the publication of two complementary books: Sarah Kay's Courtly Contradictions (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001), which focuses on representations of courtly love, and the pre? sent volume by James Simpson, which draws on both Lacan and Zizek, to investigate the construction of individual, communal, and historical identity in three chansons de geste, the Ovide moralise, and Trubert. The author justifies his cross-generic ap? proach, pointing out how all five texts address threats to established identities and the denial of enjoyment. A helpful glossary of terms commonly used in Lacanian theory is included along with synopses of four of the five medieval primary sources. The firsttwo chapters examine the Paris Roland and two sequels: Gaydon and Ansei's de Carthage. In the Roland and Gaydon the crisis facing the Frankish kingdom, fol? lowing the defeat at Roncevaux, provokes an examination of communal identity in theological, ideological, and political terms. Charles, Aude, and Gaydon are, Simpson argues, all stuck in the 'delusive fixityof the Imaginary' (p. 18) in their attitudes to the dead and the future of their community, while Ganelon and his clan exhibit a vital energy absent from the loyal Franks. The reconquest of Spain, which provides the historical background forAnsei's de Carthage, extends the debate on the responsibilities of kingship. Simpson casts the three central male characters?Ansei's, Charles, and Ysore?as the points of the relationship triangle between the subject, the father, and the Pere-jouissance (p. 90), with still more father figures for Ansei's appearing in the functions of the Nom-du-Pere and the Imaginary Father (pp. 93-94). Issues of enjoyment and the safeguarding of Christian identity contributed to the problematic reception of Ovid in the Middle Ages. Simpson's reading of the Ovide moralise em? phasizes how the loss ofvocalization in many of the metamorphoses endangers human identity and how the text attempts to preserve the rational part ofthe voice from corporeal threats. The body and the bodily are also analysed in the moralizer's attitude to Ovidian sexuality, in which Simpson detects a plus-de-jouir (p. 158). The body is of course a key element to any appraisal of Trubert, whose multiple disguises deny any fixed identity. Simpson's portrayal of Trubert as a contaminant of society who causes breaks in reason and whose disguises reflectthe growth of the money economy could equally well be applied to that other protean trickster Till Eulenspiegel. As in his previous book Animal Body, Literary Corpus: The Old French 'Roman de Renart' (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996), Simpson cites an impressive and entertaining collection of sources, that is not confined to the Middle Ages and modern psychoanalysis, but takes in such diverse authorities as classical texts and the creature(s) from the Alien series of films. The book would have benefited from more careful proof-reading as there are several errors, ranging from trivial typographical slips and omissions (e.g. 'those of found', p. 58, 'arn',p. 116), to more serious lacunae which obscure the sense, such as that in the sentence 'Although the battle [. . .] a range of biblical examples' on p. 6. Nevertheless, this is a challenging and stimulating book for those interested in medieval texts, modern theory, and the interaction between the two. University of Wales Swansea Alison Williams ...

St Willibrord in Recent Historiography

In contrast to his fellow-countryman Boniface, Willibrord did not leave any correspondence or other writings. As a matter of fact, the only thing known to us is a small private note, consisting of a few lines. This note was written when he was seventy years old and is part of the liturgical calendar which he carried with him on his missionary travels. Here Willibrord, speaking about himself in the third person, mentions two events from his eventful life: first, that he came across the sea to the Frankish Kingdom in 690, secondly, that he was consecrated bishop by Pope Sergius in Rome five years later. These are the only things he says about himself.

"More Devoted to the Equipment of Battle Than the Splendor of Banquets": Frontier Kingship, Military Ritual, and Early Knighthood at the Court of Louis the German

'More Devoted to Equipment of Battle Than Splendor of Banquets': Frontier Kingship, Military Ritual, and Early Knighthood at Court of Louis German. This article explores role of political symbolism and ritual in creation of a medieval frontier kingdom. The study focuses on reign of Carolingian king Louis the (840-876), founder of east Frankish kingdom that later evolved into kingdom of Germany. Reflecting endemic warfare along his kingdom's Slavic frontiers, Louis cultivated a highly militarized courtly ceremonial and triumphal royal ideology rooted in emerging Frankish culture of knighthood, exemplified especially by king's devotion to relics of True Cross, which became holy talisman of east Frankish army in its annual campaigns against pagan barbarian Slavs. Through militaristic rituals of knighthood and a triumphal devotion to True Cross, Louis German and his magnates proclaimed independent existence of their n...

Un état des comptes du royaume de Chypre en 1412-1413

A Venetian copy of the balance-sheet drawn up by the Comptroller of the kingdom of Cyprus for the year 1412-1413 shows the ability of the these last Lusignans to react to the crises of the 14th c. The statement, in spite of numerous lacunae, makes it clear that Janus, following the example of Jaques I, intensified the direct exploitation of the crowns domain, taxed the serfs and introduced extraordinary levies (royal tithe, salt tax). Thus, during the second decade of the 15th c, the Frankish kingdom received considerable revenues comparable to those of other States in the medieval West. Janus's reign, at least until 1424, is not therefore to be identified with the period of decline so often described.

The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume II: C. 700-c. 900 ed. by Rosamond McKitterick

302BOOK REVIEWS and R. L. Storey analyzes the relationship between anticlericaUsm and the maUcious indictment of clergy. Rosalind HUl offers a brief narrative on Bishop Sutton 's estabUshment of a chantry. The volume is handsome, weU bound and printed, but the too-frequent typographical errors tarnish the whole sUghtly and demonstrate a laxity Ui editorial vigUance that contrasts with the quaUty of the contributions themselves. It is unfortunate to find in Harper-BUl's very fine essay that Celestine II responded to the appeal of the 'minks' of Norwich (p. 100). The coUection is prefaced by three brief and informative reflections on Dorothy Owen's career and contributions at Lincoln, Lambeth, and Cambridge. These, together with the essays and bibUography, constitute for the current academic community a fitting tribute to a respected archivist, scholar, and teacher, and for the new student an informative introduction to a Uvely area of research. Timothy S. Haskett University of Victoria The New Cambridge Medieval History,Volume II: C. 700-c.900. Edited by Rosamond McKitterick. (NewYork: Cambridge University Press. 1995. Pp. xxxi, 1082. $95.00.) Constituting the middle one ofthree volumes that wUl eventuaUy replaceVolumes II and III of the "old" CMH (published Ui 1913 and 1922), this massive work represents the efforts of twenty-seven currently active scholars with academic attachments Ui ten dUferent countries (six from the United States). In her prefatory remarks Rosamond McKitterick, the editor of the volume, makes it clear that the work is intended to be "new" not only in chronological terms but also conceptuaUy, methodologicaUy and substantively.This aspect of"newness" wUl result from the distinctive features of the work: an interdisciplinary approach , a pan-European rather than nationaUst perspective, a reconfigured approach to the poUtical dimension of the human enterprise, and an emphasis on social and cultural history. A proper review should assess how weU these objectives are realized, but the space avaUable here precludes such a pursuit. Only a brief description of the volume's organization and content is possible, intended to serve as an invitation to readers. Part I (14 chapters; 380 pages) is devoted to "PoUtical Developments."After an opening chapter discussing the problems surrounding the sources and new approaches to their decoding,this segment ofthe book presents summaries ofpoUtical activities in the major "states" of eighth- and ninth-century Europe: the British Isles (including separate sections on England, Ireland-Scotiand-Wales, and England and the Continent); the Frankish kingdom (three chapters); Scandinavia ; the Balkan Slavs and Bulgars;the Muslims Ui SicUy, south Italy, and Spain; Christian Spam and the Basques; Lombard and Carolingian Italy; and Byzantine BOOK REVIEWS303 Italy Interspersed are chapters on the Vikings in Francia and England, on the Carolingianymes imperii, and on Byzantium and theWest. WhUe the diversity of approaches to poUtical affairs taken by the authors of these chapters may confuse the average reader seeking the "new" way of understanding the poUtical order, these chapters provide a reliable, readable picture of what happened to all of Europe's poUtical entities between 700 and 900. Offsetting this bounty is a troublesome lack of cohesion. Readers wiU find themselves asking whether there was a center around which political developments in the eighth and ninth centuries gravitated and,U so,where and/or what it was. Perhaps there was none, but that admission raises a question about treating the two centuries from 700 to 900 as a discrete historical era. Some traditionalists may insist that a more coherent picture of Europe's poUtical development during this period would have emerged had the discussion been organized in a fashion that aUowed readers to move outward from a Frankish "center" to the "peripheral" political entities whose histories are told so thoroughly . Perhaps such an approach could have been given new dimensions by bringing to bear on political history told this way the new conceptual and methodological approaches that Uluminate the way power was utilized and how it affected people. One suspects that the main barrier to such an approach was a predetermination to avoid "the emphasis ofthe old history ... on the creation and maintenance of imperial domination" (p. xviii).The avoidance of that "preoccupation with empire" (p. xviii) very likely also led to...

Central Politics: Kings, Their Allies and Opponents

For over a decade, early medieval historians have eagerly awaited Ian Wood's detailed synthesis of Merovingian history. Since the death of Michael Wallace-Hadrill in 1985, Wood has been the leading British historian of Francia and has written over two dozen finely tuned articles on late antique and early medieval Gaul. Unlike his compatriot Edward James,' whose point of departure is the archaeological record, Wood has concentrated on the written sources of the period, particularly on narrative, epistolary, and legal texts. Wood's Vorstudien have distinguished him from most North American, British, and Continental historians of the period in two ways. First, unlike the vast majority, who take the seductive histories of Gregory of Tours as their primary point of reference in approaching Merovingian history, Wood cut his teeth on a dissertation focusing on Avitus of Vienne and the Burgundian region.2 As a result he is able to present, particularly for the late fifth and early sixth centuries, an image of the crucial first generation of the Frankish kingdom not primarily derived from the very late and highly constructed versions of Gregory. Second, most of his early studies have been precise, text-critical examinations of the circumstances within which the rare Merovingian narrative texts were composed, relating their contents to the specific contexts of their composition. The result often is to cast into doubt not only the facile conclusions of previous historians but the very possi-

Recueil des actes de Louis VI, roi de France (1108-1137) ed. by Robert-Henri Bautier

BOOK REVIEWS 539 Recueil des actes de Louis VI, roi de France (1108-1137). Publié sous la direction de Robert-Henri Bautier par Jean Dufour. 4 vols. [Chartes et diplômes relatifs à l'histoire de France.] (Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et BellesLettres . Distributed by Boccard. 1992-1994. Pp. xxvii, 497; 497; 233, plates 5; 193.) In 1894, the "Commission des chartes et diplômes" of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres resolved to provide historians with comprehensive critical editions of French royal charters issued between 840 (accession of Charles the Bald to the West Frankish kingdom) and 1223 (death of King Philip Augustus). In the course ofthe twentieth century, all Carolingian and Robertian diplomas were edited, along with the Capetian charters ofPhilip 1(1060- 1 108) and Philip Augustus (1 180-1223).Jean Dufour,who has already contributed the respected Recueil des actes de Robert I" et de Raoul, rois de France 926-936 (Paris, 1978), now expands the corpus of Capetian diplomaties with his new meticulous and scholarly edition of all known acts issued in the name of Louis VI as king-designate and as king, and ofhis queen and dowager,Adelaide ofMaurienne . Faithful to the exacting rules of traditional diplomatics but also utilizing the resources of computerized textual processing, Dufour provides analysis, stemma, text or clue, and critical apparatus for some 500 Latin documents, ordered chronologically. This corpus, gathered by means of an extensive quest which has uncovered thirty-two unpublished items and yielded ninety-six original documents and twenty forgeries, consists primarily of authentic copies or references to acts now lost. Framing this rich material are graphic illustrations, valuable appendices and indexes, and an erudite introduction in which Dufour addresses the modes and significance of scribal production, chancery practice, and diplomatic discourse. Louis VTs diplomatic production was far more extensive than that of his father , King Philip I (180 articles), and introduced new rhetorical forms and validating procedure. Dufour relates these innovations in part to the personal influence of Guillaume de Champeaux and of Suger, who may themselves have penned some royal diplomas and to the scriptorial activity of their respective abbeys of St. Victor and St. Denis. Louis' diplomatics was fundamentally shaped by the literate culture of churchmen, as had been the case with royal documentary practices since Carolingian times. The chancellor responsible for the royal seal and for documentary validation continued to head the royal chapel and the chancery with both units being staffed by the same clerics who neither prepared all royal charters nor filed them in a royal archive. As the principal recipients of the king's generosity, ecclesiastical establishments also drafted, and preserved, the records of those gifts and decisions made in their favor by Louis VI. Indeed, the great majority of Louis' charters involved religious institutions, particularly Benedictine monasteries and communities of canons regular, mainly located within the royal domain and the Ile-de-France; neither the Cistercian nor the Prémontré abbeys appear to have been much favored. 540 BOOK REVIEWS Irrespective of whether they were the products of the court or of ecclesiastical scriptoria,these royal charters express the king's will, utilizing peremptory signs (seal, monogram) and tone, yet also suffused with a sense of accountability to God. Generally concerned with the conveyance of lands for salvific purposes , they begin with symbolic and verbal Trinitarian invocations, proceed to the royal subscription containing the devotional formula "rex gratia Dei" or "divina ordinanteProvidentia," are addressed to "all the faithful in Christ,"continue with a preamble (arenga) often composed of excerpts from the Scriptures which Dufour has conveniently identified and gathered in an appendix, and, after describing the pious motifs prompting the gift and its recording, close with spiritual maledictions. As early twelfth-centuryWestern society evolved its new dependency on the written word, manifestations of royal power in writing came to be endowed with a new format and significance. The charter production of King Louis VI, now readily accessible in this reliable and outstanding edition by Jean Dufour, will permit historians to chart the cultural divergence between script and scripture , between writing as inscription of divine order and the written as vehicle for administrative development. Brigitte Bedos-Rezak...