Roman Barbarians: The Royal Court and Culture in the Early Medieval West

227 Pages·2007·1.424 MB·English

by  Yitzhak Hen (auth.)

Roman Barbarians
MedievalCultureandSociety
GeneralEditor:MiriRubin
Advisors:JeanDunbabinandRobertStacey
Medieval Culture and Society provides a frame work for the study of an array of
themes in the history of medieval Europe, including some which are looked
at comparatively, and approaches them in the light of the new theoretical
reflections.
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Publishedtitles
JeanDunbabin
CAPTIVITYANDIMPRISONMENTINMEDIEVALEUROPE,1000–1300
YitzhakHen
ROMANBARBARIANS
TheRoyalCourtandCultureintheEarlyMedievalWest
ElisabethvanHouts
MEMORYANDGENDERINMEDIEVALEUROPE
PhillipSchofield
PEASANTANDCOMMUNITYINMEDIEVALENGLAND,1200–1500
MedievalCultureandSocietySeries
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Roman Barbarians
The Royal Court and Culture in the Early
Medieval West
Yitzhak Hen
©YitzhakHen2007
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-0-333-78665-9
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Hen,Yitzhak.
Romanbarbarians:theroyalcourtandcultureintheearlyMedieval
West/YitzhakHen.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1. Courtsandcourtiers“Intellectuallife“Europe“History“To1500.
2. Franks“Kingsandrulers“History. 3. Franks“Nobility“History.
4. Civilization,Medieval. 5. Europe“History“392(cid:3)814. I. Title.
GT3520.H462007
940.1“dc22 2007023135
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07
To Nadav
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Contents
ListofMaps ix
Preface x
ListofAbbreviations xii
1 Introduction:ASeriesofUnfortunateEvents 1
Thedimviewofearlymedievalculture 3
The survival of early medieval culture in modern
historiography 16
Awordonthepatronageofculture 21
Anotherwordontheconcept‘culture’ 24
2 Adaptation:TheOstrogothicCourtofTheoderic
theGreat 27
Theodericusilliteratus 33
Ostrogothicpast,Romanpresent 39
Romanpast,Gothicpresent 53
3 OutofAfrica:TheVandalCourtofThrasamund 59
TheculturalheritageofRomanNorthAfrica 67
KingThrasamundandthe‘VandalRenaissance’ 74
TheAnthologiaLatina 78
Dracontius 83
ThepeculiarcaseofFulgentiusofRuspe 87
RomanVandals 92
4 BeforeandAfter:TheFrankishCourtofChlotharIIand
DagobertI 94
KingsandcultureinMerovingianGaul 97
Courtandcultureinseventh-centuryFrancia 100
TheMerovingiancourtschool 101
Cultureandmonasticism 106
Flirtingwithliturgy 111
vii
viii Contents
5 MusicoftheHeart:TheUnusualCaseofKingSisebut 124
KingSisebut,virsapienset(cid:2)(cid:2)(cid:2)pietateplenissimus 128
Visigothicpoliticalideologyandthe‘IsidorianRenaissance’ 141
IsidoreofSevilleandthecultureofhistime 143
KingSisebut’s‘IsidorianRenaissance’ 149
6 PostcardsfromtheEdges:APreludetotheCarolingian
Renaissance 153
Charlemagne’sLombardfather-in-law 153
ThedefiantcousinfromBavaria 159
ThesplendourofByzantium 166
Exorientelux? 172
7 Conclusion 177
SelectBibliography 181
Index 205
List of Maps
1 TheRomanEmpirec.300 2
2 Italyc.500 28
3 RavennainthetimeofTheoderictheGreat 34
4 VandalNorthAfrica 60
5 TheFrankishKingdomandneighbouringterritories 95
6 VisigothicSpain 125
ix