European Transformations: The Long Twelfth Century

by Thomas Noble (Editor), John Van Engen (Editor)

Overview

The "long twelfth century"—1050 to 1215—embraces one of the transformative moments in European history: the point, for some, at which Europe first truly became "Europe." Historians have used the terms "renaissance,""reformation,"and "revolution" to account for the dynamism of intellectual, religious, and structural renewal manifest across schools, monasteries, courts, and churches. Complicating the story, more recent historical work has highlighted manifestations of social crisis and oppression. In European Transformations: The Long Twelfth Century, nineteen accomplished medievalists examine this pivotal era under the rubric of "transformation": a time of epoch-making change both good and ill, a release of social and cultural energies that proved innovative and yet continuous with the past.

Their collective reappraisal, although acknowledging insights gained from over a century of scholarship, fruitfully adjusts the questions and alters the accents. In addition to covering such standard regions as England and France, and such standard topics as feudalism and investiture, the contributors also address Scandinavia, Iberia, and Eastern Europe, women's roles in medieval society, Jewish and Muslim communities, law and politics, and the complexities of urban and rural situations. With their diverse and challenging contributions, the authors offer a new point of departure for students and scholars attempting to grasp the dynamic puzzle of twelfth-century Europe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268036102
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	01/30/2012
Series:	Notre Dame Conferences in Medieval Studies
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	574
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

John Van Engen is the Andrew V. Tackes Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame.

Thomas F. X. Noble is professor of history at the University of Notre Dame.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction Thomas F. X. Noble 1

1 The Twelfth Century: Reading, Reason, and Revolt in a World of Custom John Van Engen 17

2 A Historian of the Twelfth-Century Renaissance and the Transformation of English Society, 1066-ca. 1200 John Gillingham 45

3 Chivalric One-Upmanship in France, ca. 1100 Dominique Barthélemy 75

4 Reconquest, Renaissance, and the Histories of Iberia, ca. 1000-1200 Adam J. Kosto 93

5 Italy in the Long Twelfth Century: Ecclesiastical Reform and the Legitimization of a New Political Order, 1059-1183 Maureen C. Miller 117

6 Sutri 1046—Canossa 1077—Rome 1111: Problems of Communication and the Perception of Neighbors Hanna Vollrath 132

7 The Europeanization of Europe: The Case of Scandinavia Sverre Bagge 171

8 Ambiguous Beginnings: East Central Europe in the Making, 950-1200 Piotr Górecki 194

9 Lords, Markets, and Communities: The Urban Revolution of the Twelfth Century David Nicholas 229

10 Peasants, the Seigneurial Regime, and Serfdom in the Eleventh to Thirteenth Centuries Paul Freedman 259

11 Clothing, Iron, and Timber: The Growth of Christian Anxiety about Islam in the Long Twelfth Century Olivia Remie Constable 279

12 Continuity and Change in Twelfth-Century Christian-Jewish Relations Anna Sapir Abulafia 314

13 The Legal Revolution of the Twelfth Century Anders Winroth 338

14 Liminalities: Literate Women in the Long Twelfth Century Barbara Newman 354

15 Philosophy and Theology John Marenbon 403

16 Semiotic Anthropology: The Twelfth-Century Approach Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezak 426

17 Three-in-One: Making God in Twelfth-Century Liturgy, Theology, and Devotion Rachel Fulton Brown 468

18 John of Salisbury, a Philosopher of the Long Eleventh Century C. Stephen Jaeger 499

List of Contributors 521

Index 524

Editorial Reviews

"The long twelfth century whose many transformations are explored in this energetic volume is no longer exclusively that of the lettered and devotional elites that dominate and define most previous accounts of the period. Its subject is a geographically larger and vastly more diversified Europe, a Europe that developed a far greater number of distinctive institutional features and forms of communication than earlier surveys have usually allowed for. Learning, letters, and devotion are certainly here, but they are situated in a dense world of princely courts and cities, competing social orders and interests, men and (at last!) women, and a sharper and harsher recognition of the non-Christian, in which the past and custom confront a sharp and legal-minded present, not always in conflict. The twelfth century, both short and long, has merited and occasioned great scholarship. This audacious volume easily takes pride of place within it." —Edward Peters, University of Pennsylvania

"In European Transformations: The Long Twelfth Century, Thomas F. X. Noble and John Van Engen have assembled an impressive array of distinguished medievalists to explore geographical regions and a variety of themes to expose the best current thinking about what was and what was not distinctive about the twelfth century. Their collective efforts will be much cited for the innovative and well-argued contributions in this volume." —Paul Hyams, Cornell University

“For many years now, historians have regarded the twelfth century in Europe as a watershed period of great revolutions in philosophy, theology, law, and the political landscape. . . . The essayists, from a variety of disciplines and universities, are preeminent authorities of the topics and the times. They discuss historians, Christian relations with Muslims and Jews, the changing nature of serfdom, and other topics that span the intellectual and social history of the period, and they cover all of Europe, from Scandinavia through England to Spain and back into Eastern Europe.” —Catholic Library World

“Noble and Van Engen have assembled a remarkably distinguished team of contributors and the quality of the eighteen chapters is uniformly high. Almost all should be at or pretty near the top of any introductory reading list on their topics, as well as providing succinct and stimulating updates for those already in the game, who will also find the exhaustive notes an invaluable bibliographical resource.” —The Medieval Review

“This volume of essays contributes much to the discussion about the twelfth century, revealing the complexity and diversity of the period. . . . Graduate students and professors alike will learn much from the essays, and the volume should find its way onto many bookshelves.” —Comitatus

“. . . a great majority of mediaevalists will undoubtedly profit much from these studies.” —Mediaevistik

From the Publisher

"The long twelfth century whose many transformations are explored in this energetic volume is no longer exclusively that of the lettered and devotional elites that dominate and define most previous accounts of the period. Its subject is a geographically larger and vastly more diversified Europe, a Europe that developed a far greater number of distinctive institutional features and forms of communication than earlier surveys have usually allowed for. Learning, letters, and devotion are certainly here, but they are situated in a dense world of princely courts and cities, competing social orders and interests, men and (at last!) women, and a sharper and harsher recognition of the non-Christian, in which the past and custom confront a sharp and legal-minded present, not always in conflict. The twelfth century, both short and long, has merited and occasioned great scholarship. This audacious volume easily takes pride of place within it."

Edward Peters