XIth Century Research Articles

L'autel portatif de la comtesse Gertrude de Brunswick (vers 1040). Tradition royale de Bourgogne et conscience aristocratique dans l'Empire des Saliens

The portable altar of the Countess Gertrude of Brunswick, conserved in the Museum of Cleveland amongst a number of other treasures of the Welf family, has never been closely studied from a historical point of view in spite of its artistic quality and remarkable iconography. It was commissioned by Gertrude Ist (f 1077), wife of count Liudolf of Brunswick (f 1038), an important member of a family related to the Ottonians, for the collegiate church of Saint-Blaise at Brunswick which she had founded. One aspect of its iconography is particularly original. On one of its side faces, four monarchs, Sigismund, Constantine, Helen and Adelaide, are grouped around the Cross. If the central theme, which underlines the growing importance of the cult of the Holy Cross for the imperial family during the XIth century, reveals Byzantine influence, the choice of the Burgundian monarchs Sigismund and Adelaide duely reflects the historical importance of the fusion of the Kingdom of Burgundy with the Empire in 1032. The Brunswick family, through the mariage of Liudolf's father, Bruno, with Giselle of Swabia, was descended from the Welf kings of Burgundy, just like the Salian dynasty through Giselle's third mariage with the emperor Conrad II (1024-1039). The portable altar, which probably dates from about 1040, highlights the political ambitions of a powerful family which had not given up its royal pretensions.

Aux origines du grand portail à figures : les précédents picturaux

Si on admet que le décor des porches de Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe et de San Pietro al Monte sopra Civate date du dernier tiers du XIe s., on reconnaîtra dans leurs deux tympans intérieurs, autour desquels s'articule l'ensemble du programme, les antécédents les plus proches des grands portails romans du XIIe s. Ils en ont les dimensions — près de 4 m pour Saint-Savin ; plus de 6 m pour Civate — et ils sont l'un et l'autre dominés par une immense figure du Christ, représenté de face, immobile au centre d'une composition agitée. L'exemple de Saint-Savin et de Civate, de même que celui de Saint Isidore de Leon traité par S. Moralejo, laissent présumer que l'iconographie des portails romans pourrait être une synthèse, une transposition sculptée, de celle des porches et des antéglises décorés de peintures des IXe-XIe s. En ce sens, la disposition du décor sculpté du Portique de la Gloire à Saint- Jacques de Compostelle refléterait encore, à la fin du XIIe s., les usages des IX-XIe s.

Les façades des églises romanes de Provence

The influence of the triumphal arch of Antiquity on the organisation of Romanesque façades in Provence has often been overrated. The three doorway type, like that at Saint-Gilles, is actually quite exceptionnal. The façade of Saint-Trophime at Arles reduces this outrageous composition to one doorway. The only scheme really inspired by a triumphal arch, is the small, entirely architectural and modest façade of the priory of Val des Nymphes at La Garde Adhémar. More general references to an antique heritage are to be found in the use of friezes (cathedral of Nîmes), although these are not notably reserved for western façades, as in the use of doorways flanked by columns and surmounted by gables (Le Thor). This type of doorway can either stand out from a very sober wall (Aix), or be incorporated into a more complex composition (Saint-Gabriel). The façades are all the more simple in so far as they rarely have a porch (Notre-Dame-des-Doms at Avignon). Indeed the principal doorway is often to be found on the south side of the building (Tarascon, Saint-Restitut). On the Eastern border of Provence, a lean-too porch comprised of an arch set between half arches and against buttresses is preferred (cathedrals of Sisteron and Digne). In fact, many different formulae are used in the conception of Romanesque in façades of Provence. Very little sculpture is employed. Differences in treatment can sometimes be explained by the history of a monument itself. The plain façade of the cathédral of Cavaillon, for example, is quite simply a fragment of the XIth century building. The short narthex of Saint-Trophime at Arles is the result of similar circumstances.

Renaissance et privilèges d'une abbaye angevine au XIe s. : étude sur quelques «faux» de Saint-Florent de Saumur

John XVIII's papal bull confîrming the privileges of the abbey of St. Florent on april 1004, may be considered as authentic, except two series of later interpolations. This papal precept does not protect in anything the abbey from destruction, but St. Florent of Saumur is recovering rapidly and getting important privileges from earls and lords ; the exempt area of St. Florent gets even a statute of general, spiritual as well as temporal immunity. False acts, made during the second half of the XIth century, facilitated the fîrst stages of this renewal.

Un mémoire anonyme sur saint Barnabé (BHG 226e). Édition et traduction

Critical edition, with French translation, of an anonymous memoir on St Barnabas the Apostle (BHG 226e), based on the only witness known to date, the ms. Vat. gr. 1989. The text, dating, apparently, from the xith century, is somewhat uneven, the author having made use of sources of unequal value, including Symeon Metaphrastes, the Acts of the Apostles and some various Byzantine historians.

Le Sahara libyen médiéval

It is interesting to determine how far the medieval Libyan Sahara participated in the history of North Africa, why it separated from the Mediterranean world and what wrought its decay. The extremely high level of the jizya and the unbearable conditions accompanying it caused numerous conversions to the invaders’ religion among the Berbers, and this only led to an increase of the tax on the converted populations. Not being able to fight against Islam, the Berbers chose to make use of Islam by joining the kharijï movement. Thanks to their knowledge of the desert and their position at the ends of the Südan routes, the Berbers initiated the transsaharan gold and slave trade; Fazzan was of course favoured by its rich track network and all its oases became important caravan relay stations and commercial centres. Contrary to what has been asserted for almost a hundred years, the so-called “invasion” of the already declining North Africa by the Hilal and Sulaym tribes in the XIth century brought about no changes whatsoever in Libyan commercial and agricultural activities. The disaster struck in the XIIth and XIIIth centuries with the conflicts on Libyan soil involving the Spanish Almoravids and Qaraqüsh a Turco-Egyptian adventurer, on the one hand, and the North African Almohads on the other; these ruined the country, jeopardised the Südan routes and forced the Kanimi ruler to intervene and annex the whole Libyan Sahara, which thus dropped out of the Mediterranean orbit.

Saint-Riquier : une restitution nouvelle de la Basilique d'Angilbert

The previous restitution of the Carolingian church of Saint-Riquier's dates back to 1912. Proposed by W. Effmann, it was founded on the testimony of two Latin sources : Angilbert's Institutio (IXth century) and Hariulphe's Chronicle (XIth century) enriched with comparisons with the surviving westwerk (late IXth century) of the Corvey Abbey (Westphalia). Nowadays, and given the latest 1988 discoveries, we are able to propose a renewed vision of this important monument, actual «model monastic facility», which served as a prototype for many religious buildings all over the Carlovingian Empire. Relying on archaeological excavations carried out on Saint-Riquier's site since 1959, enlightened by M. Heitz's liturgical study published in 1963, with due mention of unpublished comparisons with many mediaeval buildings displaying similar features, a new reading of W. Effmann's sources leads us to the following restitution : two bulky buildings built along a centered plan (eight- and sixteen- sided concentric polygons), one on the western side (the Saviour's Tower), connected by a system of naves, completed on the eastern side by what definitely looks like a martyrium girded by the corridor of a crypt reworked and widened in the XIth century. This remarkable basilica has the same dimensions as the present day abbey-church built along the same structures. It was bounded on its southern side, as early as the VIIIth century, by a wide rectangular area -which will become the mediaeval cloister- along which the claustral buildings are articulated.

Les églises rurales du premier âge roman dans le Rouergue méridional

In the Middle Ages, the South of the Aveyron department belonged to the ancient Rouergue county, the history of which soon came to be connected with that of the Toulouse county. In the Southern part of the province, the viscounts of Millau and Albi soon freed themselves from this domination ; in the XIth century, their matrimonial policy took them awayfrom this région. The twelve investigated buildings, which belonged to the Rodez diocese at the time, have a very different status : old private churches, parish churches, priories. Analysis of the charters has shown that in the XIth century, their number was much higher. The architectural investigation shows a fondness of solutions inherited from the past, particularly from the preromanesque period : layout with a single nave and a quadrangular apse, with in two cases, low transept, rustic bond, narrow Windows, horseshoe arches, poor sculpture... Nevertheless, a certain evolution concernig the shapes and building techniques can be seen. Some characteristic features of Rouergue are to be noticed: narrow windows placed under the roofs, windows arranged in a triangle pattern with point downwards on the eastern wall ofthe apse, rounded angles of the whole building outside. Thus southern Rouergue has no knowledge whatsoever about the building techniques of « the first southern roman art » largely used in the Mediterranean regions. On the contrary, it chooses to remain true to other models, native ones, and widely used throughout the Christian West. This model, so well adapted to the needs of the rural populations, perhaps originates from the funeral basilica.

Passages muraux et escaliers : premières expériences dans l'architecture du XIe s.

Apart from wall passages which have been studied by J. Bony and P. Héliot, the problem of circulation in the upper parts of Romanesque churches has received little attention. It seems that a crucial stage in this field came about in the middle of the XIth century with the apparition and rapid generalisation of stairs giving access uniquely to roof spaces. These stairways posed new problems for architects. Were they to be hidden in the mass of the masonry or shown off in turrets which underlined the massing of the different parts of the building ? Leaving aside a few early and exceptional experiments (Saint-Bénigne de Dijon), it was only in the last third of the XIth century that, notably in Normandy but occasionally elsewhere (Cluny), stairs were fînally linked together by real circulatory networks. The vaulting of the entire churches, however, set certain limits to these experiments, often inspired by Roman architecture, before the development of more formal outer skin design in wall thickening processes during the XIIth century.

Les débuts de la ville de la Rochelle

La Rochelle only appears in the texts at the end of the Xth century as a place of sait-pans and fishing. The fall of Châtelaillon in 1132 made it the centre of the Aunis. There was then a considerable growth in the population. The Gluniacs, who established themselves in the Ile d'Aix during the XIth century, successively founded three parishes, while a fourth belonged to the abbey of Déols. Already before 1139 the Templers had settled in la Rochelle. A rampart protected the new town during the third quarter of the century. During the seigniorial revolt of 1173/74 the Rochelais remained faithful to Henry II, who in 1175 granted them the first communal charter of the region. Hospitaliers and Fontevrists established themselves in the town at the end of the century. From this time onwards la Rochelle's wine trade expanded considerably, from Britanny to Flanders and the British Isles. In 1224 Louis VIII captured the town, and so gave to his kingdom its flrst port on the Atlantic.

Essai pour une typologie de la cloche tibétaine dril-bu

The ritual sceptre rdo-rje and the handbell dril-bu — with an internal clapper and a handle in the shape of half a rdo-rje — are indispensable accessories for the ritual celebration of Tibetan Buddhism. They appear among the attributes which iconography gives to a number of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, protective deities and spiritual teachers. Since the beginning of the XIth century, numerous canonical and extra -canonical texts have described precisely the characteristics of the rdo-rje and dril-bu, and simultaneously explained the symbolical value which could be attributed to each part of the two objects. A comparison between the textual prescriptions and a sample of some fifty bells kept in various museums and monasteries has showed how faithful was the treatment of the ritual bells till the contemporary period. This allows to put forward a typology of the Tibetan dril-bu which takes into consideration the criteria offered by the Tibetan tradition itself. Two tables — one concerning the handle of the bell, the other the various symbolical decorations of the skirt of the bell - show the various correlations which have laid to the available types of bells.

Water level fluctuations of the lake of Paladru (Isère, France) in the Xth and XIth centuries AD

Palaecological investigations undertaken on the medieval lake-shore village of Colletière clearly demonstrated water level fluctuations of the Lake of Paladru about the year one thousand AD.

Survie et extinction du régime esclavagiste dans l'Occident du haut moyen âge (IVe-XIe s.)

Slavery survived the fall of the Roman Empire. Assimilated to livestock, slaves remained numerous in Europe from the VIth to the VlIIth centuries. Canon Law justified slavery which was meticulously regulated by the "Barbarous Laws". Its late extinction was the result of various factors which were partly religious and technical but mainly economic and social, and only came about at the end of a series of evermore serious crisises which extended from the middle of the IIIrd to the beginning of the XIth century.

Valenciennes : première évaluation du patrimoine archéologique urbain

The purpose of this study is to propose a tentative assessment of Valenciennes'urban archaeological inheritance, now studied and renovated according to a carefully planned urbanisation program. We shall hint at the origins of Valenciennes (portus Valencianis, at the confluence of the Rhônelle and Scheldt rivers) and the construction of the castrum in the second half of the Xth century. It is just outside the castrum and in the near vicinity of the ancient Carlovingian Portus, that the original economic centre grew in the first half of the XIth century : the Great Borough. The continuous progress experienced in a XIIth century marked by the development of housing, is at the origin of the erection of new and wider surrounding walls, protected by ditches. At the end of the XIIth century, Valenciennes has thus assumed the aspect it was to keep until our present time. The study offers an inventory of the major urban archaeological sites, classified under diverse headings (walls, religioux monuments, housing, river and bridges, dockside). It is completed by an archaeological map and a few illustrations about historical topography.

Croissance urbaine et société rurale à Valence au début de l'époque des royaumes de Taifas (XIe siècle)

This passage from Ibn Hayyân, the great xith century historian, deals with the administration of the two « slave » rulers of the first taifa kingdom in Valencia between 1010 and 1017 A.D. It was handed down to us by Ibn Bassâm in the Dahïra (éd. Ihsân 'Abbâs, 3d part, t III, p. 13-21) then, with a few variants, by Ibn Idâri (Bayàn, t III). Its main interest lies in the fact that Ibn Hayyân, who lived at the time when the events he describes occurred, relies on the evidence given by eyewitnesses. Appart from factual datas which have already been noticed, this text offers interesting indications on the social and economic life of the eastern part of al-Andalus in the early years of the xith century, about the formation of a specific system of great estates with detriment to free peasantry in the valendan rural area in particular.

Quelques remarques sur les paysages agraires byzantins (VI ème siècle-milieu XI ème siècle)

The study of the Byzantine agricultural landscapes down to the XIth century is, given the absence of any recorded document, first of all a problem of sources ; thus we have to rely on the narrative and judicial texts and on the iconography. Inhabitation seems to be dominated by the type of grouped-population villages, sometimes perched. The village is surrounded by gardens, often planted with trees, where one even finds cereals. Then comes the zone of culture where the open-field seems the dominant feature ; there again the presence of trees is frequent. Further on one finds the cattle-breeding zone, situated at the periphery of the villages, in most cases wooded, and sometimes completed by pastures. The climate often makes irrigation necessary and on the canals small but numerous mills are working.

The cultivated and wild plants from the XIth century granaries on the cathedral‐island in Wroclaw

Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen GesellschaftVolume 91, Issue 1 p. 121-127 The cultivated and wild plants from the XIth century granaries on the cathedral-island in Wroclaw Romuald Kosina, Corresponding Author Romuald Kosina Department of General Botany, Institute of Botany, University of WroclawDepartment of General Botany University of Wroclaw Kanonia 6/8 PL-50–328 WroclawSearch for more papers by this author Romuald Kosina, Corresponding Author Romuald Kosina Department of General Botany, Institute of Botany, University of WroclawDepartment of General Botany University of Wroclaw Kanonia 6/8 PL-50–328 WroclawSearch for more papers by this author First published: October 1978 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1438-8677.1978.tb03638.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume91, Issue1October 1978Pages 121-127 RelatedInformation

Cambrai et le Cambrésis au XVe siècle

H. Platelle, Cambrai and the Cambrai region in the XVth century. This study, written on the occasion of the five hundredth anniversary of the death of the famous Cambrai musician Guillaume du Fay, aims at providing a concrete and precise picture of Cambrai and its region in the XVth century. The first part - the places - deals with the natural and architectural environment in wich men lived. From the natural and historical region (which counted about a hundred villages in the XVth century) the reader is led into the city itself whose maximum extension seems to have been reached as early as the XIth century. The Cambrai house, the parish churches, the chapter houses and monasteries, the cathedral - a half-Gothic architectural jewel - the civil monuments are successively described. The town yet is deprived of a belfry and of a municipal bell, because of an imperial decision of 1226. The second part - the powers - tries to disentangle the network of authorities which govern the lives of men and city. In principale the bishop is endowed with the sovereignty over the city under the theoritical dependence of the Emperor, and the law of the city is entirely in his hands ; but the actual situation is thoroughly different. The bischop musy stand the competition with the cathedral chapter ans the Magistrate, whereas, at a higher level, the principality is tossed between the adverse influences of the dukes of Burgundy and of the King of France. The third part focuses especially on the men of that period full of brightness and faith, of sound and fury. Two famous "Cambrésiens" may symbolize the two opposite tendencies of the time : the chronicler MONSTRELET whose chronicles (1400-1453) reflect a "heroical and brutal" world, and the musician Guillaume du FAY who lets us hear in his works the song of Botticelli's angels.

The Eastern Schism. A Study of the Papacy and the Eastern Churches During the XIth and XIIth Centuries.

The Eastern Schism. A Study of the Papacy and the Eastern Churches During the XIth and XIIth Centuries.

The Eastern Schism: A Study of the Papacy and the Eastern Churches During the XIth and XIIth Centuries. By Steven Runciman. (New York: Oxford University Press. 1955. Pp. vii, 189. $3.40.)

The Eastern Schism: A Study of the Papacy and the Eastern Churches During the XIth and XIIth Centuries. By Steven Runciman. (New York: Oxford University Press. 1955. Pp. vii, 189. $3.40.)