With its distinct natural resources, its openness to the outside world, and the hierarchical society it fostered, the period before the Viking era counts among the most poorly known periods in Scandinavian history. It must be reinterpreted from the standpoint of a broader history of the first millennium CE.
“Fixers”, or dragomans, are vital intermediaries and interpreters for both journalists and soldiers in hostile terrain, and play a central role in a network of relationships and transfers. In the Middle Ages they embodied the need for otherness, and continue to do so today.
Contrary to popular belief, the Middle Ages did not discard Epicurus. Several thinkers were in constant dialogue with Epicureanism, even as they condemned it. And many quietly rehabilitated it.
Anna Grzymala-Busse, a political scientist, argues that the medieval church played an important role in the foundation of the modern state. Yet this revival of an old argument runs into a number of obstacles.
To understand the Anthropocene, historian Sylvain Piron invites us to explore the Middle Ages. Disconcerting in how it multiplies avenues of research, his book’s strength and originality lies in the critical mobilization of the economy of the Scholastics
For the first time, the Pléiade collection is publishing the work of a contemporary historian. This event celebrates the centennial of the birth of this great mediaevalist, a historian of mentalities who found a way to make historical knowledge accessible to a wider audience. Felipe Brandi, an expert on Duby, edited and annotated the book.
Ambrose of Milan, fourth-century theologian, administrator, bishop and eventually saint Father of the Church, left his mark in the history of the Church and beyond. Patrick Boucheron explores his life and afterlives, in a dialogue between then and now, writing a history to live by.
Despite what some people now imagine, the Middle Ages was no more inclined to torture than other periods. Through a study of the archives of the Paris Parlement, Faustine Harang demonstrates that the medieval judicial system used this practice in a way that was limited and—most importantly—highly controlled.
How to assess a value to things when money is lacking? Historian Laurent Feller shows that during the Middle Ages, commercial exhanges were structured by the social value of the persons they involved and the relationships of clientele or dependency they created. Thus valuing practices were necessarily informed by the social contexts in which they occurred.
In pre-industrial Europe, in which the economy of specificity and the habit of exchanging gifts prevailed, putting the buying process under the scrutiny of the community, through auctions or the market place, was an essential step in reducing the inherent uncertainty of fixing prices through face to face encounters.
By situating the birth of France’s national colors at the point where a prince meets a pig, Michel Pastoureau manages to reconcile cultural history and narrative history. As with any genealogical study, his hypothesis should be considered with a degree of caution.
In his last published essay, Jacques Le Goff, who recently passed away, examines the problem of historical periodization. He defends the idea of a “long Middle Ages” and refuses to see the Renaissance as a distinct period in its own right. His book is a reflection on our chronological frameworks.
Between the start of the Franco-Prussian War and the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, art historians in Germany and France were studying the Italian Renaissance and the Gothic monuments of the Middle Ages. Passini’s recent book analyses the role of French and German nationalism in the shaping of art history.
Jocelyne Dakhlia has addressed clichés about oriental despotism and Islam’s incompatibility with democracy through an historical examination of the form and logic of power in Muslim societies. Her prolific oeuvre, which spans Islamic history from the sultanate courts of the Middle Ages to contemporary Tunisia, redefines the boundaries of the Mediterranean and challenges us to think of European history in different terms.
“The last shall be first.” In the Middle Ages, having political power was understood as providing a service: effectively forestalling revolt. In the twelfth century, certain experiences in religious communities ran counter to the hierarchy that was felt to be natural. Should this be seen as something that was displaying democratic potential?
