Medieval France

This book explores the notebooks of S. Belle, an astrologer who lived in late fifteenth-century France, as a case study of late medieval astrological practice. These notebooks combine astrological doctrine, a large collection of horoscopes, an almanac, and three complete judgements of nativities. By studying Belle’s methods, processes of learning, and practices, this book contributes to a better understanding of the internal architecture of astrology in the pre-modern world; this includes its techniques, methodologies, goals, transmission, and development throughout history. It offers an internalist view of the practice of astrology, as a counterpart to the existing research into astrology’s social and cultural impact.

Le succès rapide que connut la facture traditionnelle de Robert Boyvin dans les années 1490 et son adaptation difficile au contexte des années 1510, marquées par l’adoption croissante du goût à l’antique, font de lui un témoin privilégié de la période hybride que constitue le règne de Louis XII pour les arts de la couleur en France. Sans vouloir faire de Robert Boyvin l’artiste original qu’il n’était pas, je souhaite revenir sur la carrière de cet enlumineur fécond pour mieux saisir la nature de la production rouennaise vers 1500.

À cette fin, j’interrogerai pour chaque décennie de son activité reconnue, de 1480 à 1520 environ, l’évolution de sa situation par la répartition de sa production entre œuvres d’étal et commandes, l’identité de ses collaborateurs réguliers et ponctuels et l’ouverture de son art aux milieux rouennais, tourangeau et parisien. Cette étude offre également l’occasion d’introduire vingt-trois manuscrits inédits, méconnus ou apparus depuis 1995, qui font de la production de Robert Boyvin l’une des plus importantes de son temps, avec au moins quatre-vingts manuscrits conservés.

Actes du colloque international organisé à Genève les 28 et 29 avril 2017.

Rollo, the viking who captured Rouen over 1100 years ago and is ancestral to the Normandy Dukes and Norman Kings of England, was not the son of Rognvaldr, Jarl of More in Norway as has been popularly believed.  His true origin was nevertheless preserved in the sagas.  His placement among the Norwegian nobility and identity as Gongu-Hrolfr are now established with certitude.  The discovery of his true family origin, his assumed identities and the etymology of his name will fascinate and thrill scholar and layman alike.

CU Boulder - FREN1200
Offered FA2014, FA2015, FA2016
Course Description: The popularity of George RR Martin's fantasy saga A Song of Ice and Fire and its Emmy-winning HBO adaptation Game of Thrones shows us that major themes from medieval stories still resonate with audiences a thousand years after their composition. This course will examine major epic and romance texts of the Middle Ages such as Beowulf, The Song of Roland, and The Death of King Arthur. We will aim to understand the rich literary tradition that has led to our modern interest in dragons, knights, heroes and magic. We will also look at how representations of medieval culture in contemporary series such as Game of Thrones influence our conceptions (and misconceptions) of the Middle Ages. Much like Sansa, we will find that the stories do not necessarily reflect the reality.

Le monument mis au jour en 1976 dans la cour du palais de justice de Rouen est le plus important vestige archéologique de la présence juive médiévale sur le territoire de la France actuelle. C’est la « butte témoin » d’une présence millénaire que les expulsions médiévales vont presque réduire à néant. En effet, la France, dans un mouvement de rejet qui a touché la plupart des pays de l’Europe occidentale, a banni les juifs au Moyen Âge. Dans le domaine royal, ces expulsions seront le fait de Philippe Auguste en 1182, de Philippe le Bel en 1306 et de Charles VI en
1394. Échappent à ce processus quelques enclaves régionales comme le Comtat Venaissin (alors sous l’autorité du pape) et l’Alsace (rattachée à la France en 1648). En Angleterre, les juifs arrivés avec Guillaume le Conquérant sont expulsés en 1290 par Édouard Ier. En Espagne, la dernière des expulsions est concomitante de la prise de Grenade en 1492, qui clôt le processus de la Reconquista. Dans le comté de Provence, rattaché au royaume de France en 1487, l’expulsion a finalement lieu en 1501. Cette présence juive a laissé des traces innombrables dans la toponymie, mais aussi
dans les archives écrites, tant latines qu’hébraïques. Pour autant, comme fait de civilisation, le judaïsme serait presque oublié en France sans les découvertes régulières de vestiges archéologiques qui se sont multipliées depuis les années 1990 avec le développement de l’archéologie préventive.

Under the influence of the royal court, the dukes of Burgundy laid the foundations for their own magnificent court. The court ceremonial was developed at its peak in the second half of the fifteenth century, a period which scholars consider to be a time of great development. Numerous sources are dedicated to this period, including one that is unique because it was written by a lady of the court. Using the notes of Éléonore de Poitiers (1444/1446-1509), the article examines the ceremonial customs at the court of the dukes of Burgundy, especially those of the women, as well as the irregularities that frequently occurred. Thanks to Éléonore's surviving testimony, it becomes clear to us that ceremonial norms in the French court at the dawn of the Modern Age were quite fluid, and that the Burgundian court remained invariably linked to the court of the French king.

I wrote this review of E Jane Burns' seminal work on reflective practice in the use of feminist and embodiment approaches to the reading of medieval texts about bodies, when I was an honours graduate, having just completed my thesis on the medieval French Fabliaux.

HUNGARIAN FLORINS FROM THE MONASTERY OF SANT PERE DE RODES
Data of Numismatics Connected to the Catalan Relationships of Hungary in the Middle Ages
In 1989, during the renovation of a Catalan Benedictine monastery (Sant Pere de Rodes), in the Abbot’s House, a hoard of coins of outstanding significance was discovered. The discovery of this late mediaeval and early modern treasure was published in 1999. Out of the 658 coins hidden in the 1520s 348 pieces were golden. The forty-five Hungarian florin among them come from the period starting with the rule of Sigismund of Luxembourg (1387–1437) and terminated with the reign of Vladislaus II (1490–1516), the latest date on them is 1512. This discovery is not the only occurrence of the Hungarian florin on the Iberian Peninsula since a publication in Spanish pointed it out as early as the 1930s, though Lajos Huszár did not demonstrate the presence of the Hungarian golden coin in the area of the Iberian Peninsula (that is in present day Spain and Portugal) when processing the data of findings. The inner proportions of the Hungarian golden coins in the findings correspond to the proportions of financial transactions in contemporary Hungary. This fact unambiguously suggests that Hungarian florin got out of Hungary in the 1510s, probably together in total. Maybe a Sephardic Jew of Buda wanted to help some relatives in Catalonia, or just did some business with them; however, it can equally be possible that a member of Queen Anne of Foix’s household coming from the South of France sent some money home for some relatives from the funds in hand accumulated in Hungary, or maybe – returning home – he/she took home the funds in hand obtained in Buda. The way how the Hungarian coins got to the Benedictines in Catalonia is not known. According to the last date of the Hungarian florins in the findings the assumed act might have occurred after 1512 but obviously still during the reign of Vladislaus II since none of the florins of Louis II (1516–1526) is included in the findings. The forty-five Hungarian florins found in the Monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes are the relics of this Hungarian and Catalan/Sephardic/Southern-French relationship whose detailed description and assessment is shared through this paper.

Dans le cadre du XXVIe Colloque de l’association des étudiants diplômés du département d’histoire de l’Université de Montréal (AÉDDHUM), nous proposons de traiter dans cet article de l’émergence des tensions entre juifs et chrétiens au XIIIe siècle au sud de la France, à travers l’analyse de responsa (hébr. shéelot ou-téshouvot). Ces lettres témoignent d’une crainte de la part des autorités juives dans les contacts de plus en plus étroits entre juifs et chrétiens. De cette inquiétude émane l’instauration draconienne de mesures restrictives alimentaires et, par le fait même, sociales. Ces interdits marginaliseront ainsi de plus en plus les juifs de la population chrétienne, d’autant plus que l’Église établira, dès le début du XIIIe siècle, tout un système de contre-interdits alimentaires.

Se nourrir est une nécessité biologique qui se double au Moyen Age de valeurs symboliques particulières dans la culture chrétienne. Le christianisme a, en effet, placé au cœur de ses pratiques rituelles la commémoration d’un repas, la Cène. L’Eglise a également élaboré des normes de comportement alimentaire très précises, allant de l’invention du péché de gourmandise à la mise en place d’un calendrier établissant de façon rigoureuse les périodes de jeûne. Quels aliments peuvent être consommés pendant ces jours de restriction ?
Toute la création divine est même rassemblée par les philosophes médiévaux dans une «grande chaîne de l’être» qui ordonne hiérarchiquement les plantes et les animaux. Existe-t-il une correspondance entre l’échelle sociale des hommes et les aliments qu’ils consomment ?
Le XIIIe siècle marque un tournant dans les pratiques alimentaires médiévales. Le qualitatif prend le pas sur le quantitatif à la table des seigneurs. Comment s’exprime ce nouveau raffinement de la table noble ?
A cette même époque, les recettes de cuisine sont mises par écrit. Parmi ces ouvrages, le Du fait de cuisine – commandé en 1420 par le duc Amédée VIII de Savoie à son cuisinier Maître Chiquart – est tout à fait original parce qu’il présente la manière de réaliser un banquet. Quels sont les moyens mis en œuvre pour éblouir les convives et comment se décline un festin médiéval ?
Amédée VIII séjourne au château de Chillon en 1436 et 1442. Au-delà d’être une demeure seigneuriale, la place forte est, dès 1150, le siège d’un péage par lequel transitent de nombreuses denrées. Le châtelain savoyard y réside également. A ce titre, il perçoit des redevances en nature pour son seigneur. Il veille également aux vignes domaniales de la région.
Autant de raisons qui font du château de Chillon un écrin de choix pour accueillir l’exposition temporaire L’eau à la bouche-Boire et manger au Moyen Age du 14 septembre 2018 au 28 avril 2019.

The rise of the Capetian dynasty across the long thirteenth century, which rested in part on the family's perceived sanctity, is a story most often told through the actions of male figures, from Louis IX's metamorphosis into "Saint Louis" to Philip IV's attacks on Pope Boniface VIII. In Courting Sanctity, Sean L. Field argues that, in fact, holy women were central to the Capetian's self-presentation as being uniquely favored by God. Tracing the shifting relationship between holy women and the French royal court, he shows that the roles and influence of these women were questioned and reshaped under Philip III and increasingly assumed to pose physical, spiritual, and political threats by the time of Philip IV's death.

Field's narrative highlights six holy women. The saintly reputations of Isabelle of France and Douceline of Digne helped to crystalize the Capetians' claims of divine favor by 1260. In the 1270s, the French court faced a crisis that centered on the testimony of Elizabeth of Spalbeek, a visionary holy woman from the Low Countries. After 1300, the arrests and interrogations of Paupertas of Metz, Margueronne of Bellevillette, and Marguerite Porete served to bolster Philip IV's crusades against the dangers supposedly threatening the kingdom of France. Courting Sanctity thus reassesses key turning points in the ascent of the "most Christian" Capetian court through examinations of the lives and images of the holy women that the court sanctified or defamed.

The Jacquerie of 1358 is one of the most famous and mysterious peasant uprisings of the Middle Ages. Beginning in a small village but eventually overrunning most of northern France, the Jacquerie rebels destroyed noble castles and killed dozens of noblemen before being put down in a bloody wave of suppression. The revolt occurred in the wake of the Black Death and during the Hundred Years War, and it was closely connected to a rebellion in Paris against the French crown. This book, the first extended study of the Jacquerie in over a century, resolves long-standing controversies about whether the revolt was just an irrational explosion of peasant hatred or simply an extension of the Parisian revolt. It shows that these apparently contradcitory conclusions are based on the illusory assumption that the revolt was a unified movement with a single goal. In fact, the Jacquerie has to be understood as a constellation of many events that evolved over time. It involved thousands of people, who understood what they were doing in different and changing ways. The story of the Jacquerie is about how individuals and communities navigated their specific political, social, and military dilemmas, how they reacted to events as they unfolded, and how they chose to remember (or to forget) in its aftermath. The Jacquerie Revolt of 1358 re-writes the narrative of this tumultuous period and gives special attention to how violence and social relationships were harnessed to mobilize popular rebellion.

Les notions de « territoires » et de « réseaux » offrent quelque pertinence pour décrire l’implantation des établissements hospitaliers. Il s’agit donc de réfléchir aux territoires tels qu’ils furent appropriés, aménagés et « représentés » par diverses institutions à vocation charitable et cela, à différentes échelles. Existe-t-il ainsi une spécificité hospitalière au regard d’autres institutions ecclésiastiques ? Il ne s’agit pas tant, ici, d’étudier des réseaux humains, mais la manière dont des établissements d’assistance pouvaient fonctionner en réseau sur des bases à la fois matérielles et immatérielles. On tâchera donc de mieux comprendre comment se sont constitués un certain nombre de regroupements hospitaliers. On pense d’abord à l’Hôpital de Saint-Jean dont l’implantation en France centrale a fait l’objet de recherches récentes. Mais on voudrait dépasser le cloisonnement qui sépare trop souvent l’historiographie des ordres militaires et celle des institutions caritatives. Les éléments de convergence entre ordres militaires et hospitaliers sont nombreux et l’objectif de cette rencontre serait notamment de mieux les mettre en évidence. D’autre part, si les institutions hospitalières qui ont connu un essor certain au Moyen Âge – Saint-Esprit, Trinitaires, Antonins… – ont bénéficié de renouvellements récents de la recherche, il n’en va pas de même des groupements plus modestes. En ce sens, l’occasion est offerte de contribuer à la réflexion sur la notion d’ordre appliquée aux institutions régulières. Quelles relations établir entre « réseau » et « ordre » dans la mesure où, par exemple, certaines maisons charitables pouvaient fonctionner en réseau sans être institutionnalisées en ordo ? Travailler sur une chronologie longue permettra de cerner au mieux la dynamique des différents réseaux. En amont, il est fondamental de remonter à l’origine des réseaux, à la chronologie et aux modalités de leur formation. Mais en aval, il n’est pas moins pertinent de réfléchir à l’impact des « mutations » de la fin du Moyen Âge sur ces réseaux hospitaliers : ont-ils connu des difficultés économiques et si oui, quelles en furent les conséquences matérielles et institutionnelles ? À partir du XIVe siècle, la plupart des petits ordres militaires et/ou hospitaliers furent touchés par des logiques centrifuges. Si le phénomène est connu à l’échelle des principales congrégations, il reste à savoir s’il eut une traduction régionale.

En 1240, le duc de Bretagne expulse tous les juifs du duché. Cet épisode peu connu signe la fin de la présence d’une communauté juive en Bretagne au Moyen Âge. Elle s’explique par la conjugaison du fanatisme religieux et la volonté d’effacer les dettes d’aristocrates bretons envers des prêteurs juifs. Cette expulsion faisait suite à des massacres qui auraient coûté la vie à 3 000 juifs, suscitant la réprobation du pape.

The term "dynasty" is reminiscent of the ruling dynasties of bygone times. But to this day, people all over the world strive to pass on possessions, power and status to the next generation. The contributors to this volume examine how actors at different times and in different spaces react to threats to dynastic orders and how they change as a result.
***
Der Begriff "Dynastie" lässt an Herrschergeschlechter vergangener Zeiten denken. Doch bis heute streben Menschen überall in der Welt danach, Besitz, Macht und Status an die nächste Generation weiterzugeben. Die Beiträger dieses Bandes untersuchen, wie Akteure zu verschiedenen Zeiten und in unterschiedlichen Räumen auf Bedrohungen dynastischer Ordnungen reagieren und wie sich diese dadurch wandeln.

The pontificate of Innocent III has often been presented as a turning point in the history of the rise of medieval anti-Judaism: through his virulent anti-Jewish rhetoric and his attempts to restrict Christian-Jewish contact, the pope ushered in an age of growing interreligious tension.  This paper reexamines the anti-Jewish policies and rhetoric of Innocent III through a close analysis of three bulls sent to France between 1205 and 1208.  Through these missives, the pope seeks to enforce the proper hierarchy of Christian superiority over Jews and limit what he sees as the results of Jewish “insolence”: the widespread practice of usury, the employ of Christian servants in Jewish homes, the selling to Christians of products (in particular meat, milk and wine) which Jews deem of insufficient quality for their own use.  Through these three bulls we perceive the first expressions of a fear which will become widespread in the later Middle Ages: contact with Jews (their food, their wine, their milk) represents a danger of pollution or impurity.

'Viking and Medieval Scandinavia' 12 (2016), pp. 103-136. http://www.brepolsonline.net/toc/vms/2016/12/+

Contact author

The island of Noirmoutier lies in the bay of Bourgneuf just south of the mouth of the River Loire, near Nantes in western France. In the early decades of the ninth century Noirmoutier and other nearby islands and coastal areas became primary targets for Scandinavian raids. What was so attractive about this small area for the Northmen? Why did they keep coming back year after year? After examining these early raids in some detail, this paper will highlight the importance of salt production and trade in this part of France in the early medieval period before suggesting the possibility that one of the objectives of the Northmen might well have been salt. The question of how the Northmen might have been able to profit from salt will also be posed and different possibilities explored.

see articles' section below for my two articles in the volume.
Abstract:
""Nicht erst seit dem Einsturz des Historischen Archivs der Stadt Köln sind Archive und ihre Rolle als Träger von Erinnerung, Repräsentation, Wissenskonstruktion und Herrschaftspraxis von Interesse. Die Autorinnen und Autoren beleuchten diese Zusammenhänge mithilfe eines erweiterten Archivbegriffs, der Akten, Sammlungen in Bibliotheken und Museen, aber auch Diskurse umfasst.

15 Beiträge, 11. Abb.
252 Seiten.""

When early medieval sources record the appointment of a new bishop, the authors occasionally provide extra information on the social, geographical, educational or ecclesiastical background of the appointee. These details were not randomly chosen, since they reflected ideas that emerged in the previous centuries and culminated in a disparate corpus of texts commonly referred to as 'canon law'. In this article, I shall take a closer look at the bishops in the church province of Rheims in the 'long' tenth century (between 888 and 1049). In particular, I will zoom in on one feature of the episcopal profile that frequently surfaces in narrative, diplomatic and epistolary sources: the pre-episcopal career. After a brief discussion of canonical prescriptions on the ecclesiastical career, I shall explore the functions the bishops exercised before their promotion to a see, in the secular clergy, in monastic milieus or at the royal court. Despite the traditional emphasis on a tenth-century 'church in the hands of the laity', this analysis demonstrates that canon law on the requirements for episcopal candidates was not necessarily disregarded. The sources representing the career of the studied bishops first and foremost paint a picture of continuity: deeply rooted in Late Antique, Merovingian and Carolingian developments, yet steadily transforming, pressed by local circumstances.

The Influences of the Dominican Order in the Middle Ages
Taylor Institute, Lincoln College, and Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University

September 10-12, 2015

This interdisciplinary conference will explore the influences of the Dominican Order on all aspects of medieval life, encompassing the large-scale influences of the Order and the legacy of its prominent figures, as well as the impact that the Order had on those that came into contact with it.

The keynote paper will be delivered by Mary Rouse, on ‘The Vital Impact of the Dominicans on Books at the University of Paris, 1217-1350’.  The program will feature papers on the Dominican influence in England, Northern Europe, Italy, Eastern Europe, and the Byzantine world; the influence of Friars on other movements and communities; Dominican influence on architecture, art, books, music and liturgy; and influential Dominican philosophers and theologians.

Confirmed speakers are from the UK, the USA, Canada, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.  In addition, the conference will include a walking tour of medieval Oxford, and a concert of music that can be associated with the Dominican Order. 

http://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/influences-dominican-order-middle-ages

This course presents a broad survey of historical forces at work over the past 6,000 years, examining the manners in which human societies have organized themselves along categories of race, ethnicity, class, and gender to meet the challenges of the increasing human population and its demands on natural resources: thus, it examines continuity and change in societies over time, in different places, and among various peoples.

Published in "Fourteenth Century England", vol. VII, ed. M. Ormrod (2012).
This is about the lawyer from Toulouse Ramon Durand who served the king of England-duke of Aquitaine Edward II as lawyer, then as seneschal of Périgord and lieutenant of the seneschal of Gascony. He is more famous as seneschal of the Landes and has been one of the most important support of the king of England in Gascony. In this position he became knight and attempted to buy a lordship in the Basque Country. Sadly, he lost it to a cadet of the Albret family and was killed in the assault of a small town of the Landes in 1333.

This study aims to compare reading habits between Lebanon and France by identifying the reading habits among a sample of both residents in general and the educated populace in particular. A quantitative research approach is adopted relying on a survey questionnaire administered to equal samples of 130 persons, selected conveniently based on their willingness to participate, and belonging to different age categories and sexes. Results show that Lebanon has a lower average of reading time. Furthermore, 62.8% of the Lebanese versus 49.2% of the French dedicate 1 to 4 hours per week of reading time as compared to 3.1% of the Lebanese who dedicate 8 to 11 hours per week of reading time versus 21.5% of the French. Both dedicate below the world figures knowing that India occupied the first place with an average of 10.42 hours of reading per week. Lebanon and France are among the group that includes USA and Portugal where the majority of the people mainly read to get informed, keep updated, research a topic, and to be well developed. Lebanon is among the countries which are suffering from a decline in reading and readers though it occupies as well as France high position among the countries of high reading rates where a Lebanese reads an average of 20 books per year versus 25 by the French, a fact that puts Lebanon's rank better than Spain, USA, Mexico, Portugal and Canada, but less than France; further, an estimated 11.5% of the Lebanese residents and 3.8% of the French do not read when looking at the general reading habits. Outcomes may help add scope and direction to policy makers in the government, to universities and other teaching and learning institutions and the non-government organizations which are concerned.

Toward 1270, a noblewoman wrote to Thomas Aquinas, John Peckham, and an anonymous jurist, seeking their counsel concerning the good government of her subjects and of Jews. Whether the correspondent was a duchess of Brabant or the countess of Flanders has long been a matter of contention, as has the dating of the three replies and the relationship between them. Comparing anew all three texts, this article argues that the correspondent was not seeking advice on how best to govern Jews already dwelling within her lands, but was instead grappling with the possibility of welcoming new Jewish settlement. This rereading firmly establishes the identity of the correspondent as Margaret of Constantinople, Countess of Flanders, and sheds new light on the politics surrounding the Jewish presence in northwestern Europe in the closing decades of the thirteenth century.