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Rulers and Rulership in the Arc of Medieval Europe challenges the
dominant paradigm of what rulership is and who rulers are by
decentering the narrative and providing a broad swath of examples
from throughout medieval Europe. Within that territory, the
prevalent idea of monarchy and kingship is overturned in favor of a
broad definition of rulership. This book will demonstrate to the
reader that the way in which medieval Europe has been constructed
in both the popular and scholarly imaginations is incorrect.
Instead of a king we have multiple rulers, male and female, ruling
concurrently. Instead of an independent church or a church striving
for supremacy under the Gregorian Reform, we have a pope and
ecclesiastical leaders making deals with secular rulers and an
in-depth interconnection between the two. Finally, instead of a
strong centralizing polity growing into statehood we see weak
rulers working hand in glove with weak subordinates to make the
polity as a whole function. Medievalists, Byzantinists, and
Slavists typically operate in isolation from one another. They do
not read each other’s books, or engage with each other’s work.
This book requires engagement from all of them to point out that
the medieval Europe that they work in is one and the same and
demands collaboration to best understand it.
A celebration of Ukraine's rich cultural heritage, drawing on over
100 of the country's most important works of art and architectural
monuments from prehistory to the present. Showcasing more than one
hundred objects and buildings - from Byzantine icons and wooden
churches to gold-domed cathedrals, folk art, and avant-garde
masterpieces - Treasures of Ukraine chronicles the rich arts and
heritage of a country currently facing destruction and devastation.
The significance of the pieces is explained by renowned artists,
curators, and critics, revealing the nation's complex history and
its impact on the present. From the development of ancient cultures
like Trypillia and Scythia to early states such as Kyivan Rus and
the Cossack Hetmanate, to the dawn of Modernism and the striking
contemporary paintings and political artworks being produced today,
Treasures of Ukraine reminds us that art and monuments represent
powerful sources of collective memory and identity. All proceeds
will be donated to PEN Ukraine, to help Ukrainian authors in need
and support museums in Ukraine.
What did medieval authors know about their world? Were they
parochial and focused on just their monastery, town, or kingdom? Or
were they aware of the broader medieval Europe that modern
historians write about? This collection brings the focus back to
medieval authors to see how they described their world. While we
see that each author certainly had their own biases, the vast
majority of them did not view the world as constrained to their
small piece of it. Instead, they talked about the wider world, and
often they had informants or textual sources that informed them
about the world, even if they did not visit it themselves. This
volume shows that they also used similar ideas to create space and
identity - whether talking about the desert, the holy land, or food
practices in their texts. By examining medieval authors and their
own perceptions of their world, this collection offers a framework
for discussions of medieval Europe in the twenty-first century.
What did medieval authors know about their world? Were they
parochial and focused on just their monastery, town, or kingdom? Or
were they aware of the broader medieval Europe that modern
historians write about? This collection brings the focus back to
medieval authors to see how they described their world. While we
see that each author certainly had their own biases, the vast
majority of them did not view the world as constrained to their
small piece of it. Instead, they talked about the wider world, and
often they had informants or textual sources that informed them
about the world, even if they did not visit it themselves. This
volume shows that they also used similar ideas to create space and
identity – whether talking about the desert, the holy land, or
food practices in their texts. By examining medieval authors and
their own perceptions of their world, this collection offers a
framework for discussions of medieval Europe in the twenty-first
century.
The vast majority of studies on rulership in medieval Europe focus
on one kingdom; one type of rule; or one type of ruler. This volume
attempts to break that mold and demonstrate the breadth of medieval
Europe and the various kinds of rulership within it. How Medieval
Europe was Ruled aims to demonstrate the multiplicity of types of
rulers and polities that existed in medieval Europe. The
contributors discuss not just kings or queens, but countesses,
dukes, and town leadership. We see that rulers worked
collaboratively with one another both across political boundaries
and within their own borders in ways that are not evident in most
current studies of kingship, inhibited by too narrow a focus. The
volume also covers the breadth of medieval Europe from Scandinavia
in the north to the Italian peninsula in the south, Iberia and the
Anglo-Normans in the west to Rus, Byzantium and the Khazars in the
east. This book is geared towards a wide audience and thus provides
a broad base of understanding via a clear explanation of concepts
of rule in each of the areas that is covered. The book can be
utilized in the classroom, to enhance the presentation of a
medieval Europe survey or to discuss rulership more specifically
for a region or all of Europe. Beyond the classroom, the book is
accessible to all scholars who are interested in continuing to
learn and expand their horizons.
The vast majority of studies on rulership in medieval Europe focus
on one kingdom; one type of rule; or one type of ruler. This volume
attempts to break that mold and demonstrate the breadth of medieval
Europe and the various kinds of rulership within it. How Medieval
Europe was Ruled aims to demonstrate the multiplicity of types of
rulers and polities that existed in medieval Europe. The
contributors discuss not just kings or queens, but countesses,
dukes, and town leadership. We see that rulers worked
collaboratively with one another both across political boundaries
and within their own borders in ways that are not evident in most
current studies of kingship, inhibited by too narrow a focus. The
volume also covers the breadth of medieval Europe from Scandinavia
in the north to the Italian peninsula in the south, Iberia and the
Anglo-Normans in the west to Rus, Byzantium and the Khazars in the
east. This book is geared towards a wide audience and thus provides
a broad base of understanding via a clear explanation of concepts
of rule in each of the areas that is covered. The book can be
utilized in the classroom, to enhance the presentation of a
medieval Europe survey or to discuss rulership more specifically
for a region or all of Europe. Beyond the classroom, the book is
accessible to all scholars who are interested in continuing to
learn and expand their horizons.
Rulers and Rulership in the Arc of Medieval Europe challenges the
dominant paradigm of what rulership is and who rulers are by
decentering the narrative and providing a broad swath of examples
from throughout medieval Europe. Within that territory, the
prevalent idea of monarchy and kingship is overturned in favor of a
broad definition of rulership. This book will demonstrate to the
reader that the way in which medieval Europe has been constructed
in both the popular and scholarly imaginations is incorrect.
Instead of a king we have multiple rulers, male and female, ruling
concurrently. Instead of an independent church or a church striving
for supremacy under the Gregorian Reform, we have a pope and
ecclesiastical leaders making deals with secular rulers and an
in-depth interconnection between the two. Finally, instead of a
strong centralizing polity growing into statehood we see weak
rulers working hand in glove with weak subordinates to make the
polity as a whole function. Medievalists, Byzantinists, and
Slavists typically operate in isolation from one another. They do
not read each other’s books, or engage with each other’s work.
This book requires engagement from all of them to point out that
the medieval Europe that they work in is one and the same and
demands collaboration to best understand it.
Portraits of Medieval Eastern Europe provides imagined biographies
of twenty different figures from all walks of life living in
Eastern Europe from 900 to 1400. Moving beyond the usual boundaries
of speculative history, the book presents innovative and creative
interpretations of the people, places, and events of medieval
Eastern Europe and provides an insight into medieval life from
Scandinavia to Byzantium. Each chapter explores a different figure
and together they present snapshots of life across a wide range of
different social backgrounds. Among the figures are both imagined
and historical characters, including the Byzantine Princess Anna
Porphyrogenita, a Jewish traveller, a slave, the Mongol general
Subodei, a woman from Novgorod, and a Rus' pilgrim. A range of
different narrative styles are also used throughout the book, from
omniscient third-person narrators to diary entries, letters, and
travel accounts. By using primary sources to construct the lives
of, and give a voice to, the types of people who existed within
medieval European history, Portraits of Medieval Eastern Europe
provides a highly accessible introduction to the period.
Accompanied by a new and interactive companion website, it is the
perfect teaching aid to support and excite students of medieval
Eastern Europe.
Portraits of Medieval Eastern Europe provides imagined biographies
of twenty different figures from all walks of life living in
Eastern Europe from 900 to 1400. Moving beyond the usual boundaries
of speculative history, the book presents innovative and creative
interpretations of the people, places, and events of medieval
Eastern Europe and provides an insight into medieval life from
Scandinavia to Byzantium. Each chapter explores a different figure
and together they present snapshots of life across a wide range of
different social backgrounds. Among the figures are both imagined
and historical characters, including the Byzantine Princess Anna
Porphyrogenita, a Jewish traveller, a slave, the Mongol general
Subodei, a woman from Novgorod, and a Rus' pilgrim. A range of
different narrative styles are also used throughout the book, from
omniscient third-person narrators to diary entries, letters, and
travel accounts. By using primary sources to construct the lives
of, and give a voice to, the types of people who existed within
medieval European history, Portraits of Medieval Eastern Europe
provides a highly accessible introduction to the period.
Accompanied by a new and interactive companion website, it is the
perfect teaching aid to support and excite students of medieval
Eastern Europe.
This is a new history of the region known as Kyivan Rus', a state
in eastern and northern Europe from the late ninth to the
mid-sixteenth century that encompassed a variety of polities and
peoples, including Lithuanian, Polish, Ottoman and others. This
account for the first time focuses on the history of the region via
families, which allows the discussion of a wider region and a
larger group of people than has been possible before. The book
examines the development of Rus, Lithuania, Muscovy and Tver, and
their relations and interconnections with the Mongols, Byzantines
and many other peoples. This readable yet thoroughly scholarly book
will appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of eastern
Europe, a region that is crucial in world politics today.
The warp and weft of political and social relationships among the
medieval elite were formed by marriages made between royal
families. Ties of Kinship establishes a new standard for tracking
the dynastic marriages of the ruling family of Rus-the descendants
of Volodimer (Volodimerovici). Utilizing a modern scholarly
approach and a broad range of primary sources from inside and
outside Rus, Christian Raffensperger has created a fully realized
picture of the Volodimerovici from the tenth through the twelfth
centuries and the first comprehensive, scholarly treatment of the
subject in English. Alongside more than twenty-two genealogical
charts with accompanying bibliographic information, this work
presents an analysis of the Volodimerovici dynastic marriages with
modern interpretations and historical contextualization that
highlights the importance of Rus in a medieval European framework.
This study will be used by Slavists, Byzantinists, and West
European medievalists as the new baseline for research on the
Volodimerovici and their complex web of relationships with the
world beyond.
As scholarship continues to expand the idea of medieval Europe
beyond "the West," the Rus' remain the final frontier relegated to
the European periphery. The Kingdom of Rus' challenges the
perception of Rus' as an eastern "other" - advancing the idea of
the Rus' as a kingdom deeply integrated with medieval Europe,
through an innovative analysis of medieval titles. Examining a wide
range of medieval sources, this book exposes the common practice in
scholarship of referring to Rusian rulers as princes as a relic of
early modern attempts to diminish the Rus'. Not only was Rus' part
and parcel of medieval Europe, but in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries Rus' was the largest kingdom in Christendom.
An overriding assumption has long directed scholarship in both
European and Slavic history: that Kievan Rus' in the tenth through
twelfth centuries was part of a Byzantine commonwealth separate
from Europe. Christian Raffensperger refutes this conception and
offers a new frame for two hundred years of history, one in which
Rus' is understood as part of medieval Europe and East is not so
neatly divided from West. With the aid of Latin sources, the author
brings to light the considerable political, religious, marital, and
economic ties among European kingdoms, including Rus', restoring a
historical record rendered blank by Rusianmonastic chroniclers as
well as modern scholars ideologically motivated to build barriers
between East and West. Further, Raffensperger revises the concept
of a Byzantine Commonwealth that stood in opposition to Europe -
and under which Rus' was subsumed - toward that of a Byzantine
Ideal esteemed and emulated by all the states of Europe. In this
new context, appropriation of Byzantine customs, law, coinage, art,
and architecture in both Rus' and Europe can be understood as an
attempt to gain legitimacy and prestige by association with the
surviving remnant of the Roman Empire. Reimagining Europe initiates
an expansion of history that is sure to challenge ideas of Russian
exceptionalism and influence the course of European medieval
studies.
Radical Traditionalism: The Influence of Walter Kaegi in Late
Antique, Byzantine, and Medieval Studies brings together scholars
from fields and disciplines as diverse as medieval history,
Byzantine history, Roman art history, and early Islamic studies.
These scholars were students of Walter Kaegi, whose work influenced
them greatly. This collection offers thoughtful essays examining
political culture, source criticism and institutional continuity
and discontinuity in a variety of areas, as well as illustrates how
one scholar's influence can reach across disciplinary boundaries to
shape the argumentative structures and methods of both students and
scholars. Any reader interested in the formation of disciplinary
"schools" and how the broad application of a coherent approach to
sources both literary and material will find this book an
innovative approach to the Festschrift genre.
Conflict, Bargaining, and Kinship Networks in Medieval Eastern
Europe takes the familiar view of Eastern Europe, families, and
conflicts and stands it on its head. Instead of a world rife with
civil war and killing, this book presents a relatively structured
environment where conflict is engaged in for the purposes of
advancing one's position, and where death among the royal families
is relatively rare. At the heart of this analysis is the use of
situational kinship networks-relationships created by elites for
the purposes of engaging in conflict with their own kin, but only
for the duration of a particular conflict. A new image of medieval
Eastern Europe, less consumed by civil war and mass death, will
change the perception of medieval Eastern Europe in the minds of
readers. This new perception is essential to not only present the
past more accurately, but also to allow for medieval Eastern
Europe's integration into the larger medieval world as something
other than an aberrant other.
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