Rosa Quetglas Munar

CENTRO DE CIENCIAS HUMANAS Y SOCIALES – CSIC
C/ Albasanz 26-28, 28037 MADRID
Jueves, 7 de marzo de 2019; 12:00 h.
Sala “Juan Cabré” (2D7/21)
Acceso libre hasta completar aforo

Rosa Quetglas presents some aspects of her ongoing research on the early medieval County of Urgell, with a discussion of the involvement of local actors and supralocal elites in the foundations and consecration of local churches in this region

The past few decades have witnessed great change in the study of the early Middle Ages in the Northern Iberian Peninsula. Spanish and Portuguese historiographies have moved away from older grand narratives such as ‘Reconquest and Repopulation’, which traced a centuries-long process encompassing the ultimate victory of Christianity over Islam and the construction of distinct nations or national societies. The basic tenets of these and other essentialist approaches to a period traditionally seen as the cradle of Spain and Portugal have been questioned and now superseded by a clearer awareness of the territorial diversity characterising the 8th to 11th centuries. Yet the ballast of both nationalism and regionalism has obstructed meaningful comparison amongst the Iberian regions to date. Drawing on the work of the research group EarlyMedIberia, this article argues for a new trans-regional approach to Northern Iberia, looking beyond political and geographical boundaries to consider the whole in a comparative light, and stressing the commonalities between regional and local societies. It does so by providing an overview of the extant charter material from before 1100 (indicating the principal editions) and by reviewing the major historiography. The conclusion proposes a closer assessment of the differences and similarities amongst regional historiographies, based on a more nuanced understanding of how they have been moulded by the specificities of the charter corpus in each region, as the first step towards a more integrated, contextualised, and rigorously comparative approach to the early Middle Ages in Northern Iberia.

Introducción al monográfico titulado "Diálogos articuladores del poder en los reinos cristianos medievales" de la revista Territorio, Sociedad y Poder (nº 15). El tema y las aportaciones incluidas en el número se corresponden con una parte de las dos sesiones presentadas en el International Medieval Meeting Lleida 2017.