European Transformations

by Noble, Thomas F. X.; Van Engen, John

• ISBN13: 9780268036102
• ISBN10: 0268036101
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-01-30
• Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr

Summary

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. "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

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
The Twelfth Century: Reading, Reason, and Revolt in a World of Custom	p. 17
A Historian of the Twelfth-Century Renaissance and the Transformation of English Society, 1066-ca. 1200	p. 45
Chivalric One-Upmanship in France, ca. 1100	p. 75
Reconquest, Renaissance, and the Histories of Iberia, ca. 1000-1200	p. 93
Italy in the Long Twelfth Century: Ecclesiastical Reform and the Legitimization of a New Political Order, 1059-1183	p. 117
Sutri 1046ùCanossa 1077ùRome 1111: Problems of Communication and the Perception of Neighbors	p. 132
The Europeanization of Europe: The Case of Scandinavia	p. 171
Ambiguous Beginnings: East Central Europe in the Making, 950-1200	p. 194
Lords, Markets, and Communities: The Urban Revolution of the Twelfth Century	p. 229
Peasants, the Seigneurial Regime, and Serfdom in the Eleventh to Thirteenth Centuries	p. 259
Clothing, Iron, and Timber: The Growth of Christian Anxiety about Islam in the Long Twelfth Century	p. 279
Continuity and Change in Twelfth-Century Christian-Jewish Relations	p. 314
The Legal Revolution of the Twelfth Century	p. 338
Liminalities: Literate Women in the Long Twelfth Century	p. 354
Philosophy and Theology	p. 403
Semiotic Anthropology: The Twelfth-Century Approach	p. 426
Three-in-One: Making God in Twelfth-Century Liturgy, Theology, and Devotion	p. 468
John of Salisbury, a Philosopher of the Long Eleventh Century	p. 499
List of Contributors	p. 521
Index	p. 524
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