This volume presents a series of studies by Jacqueline Caille, acknowledged as the leading expert on medieval Narbonne, which chart the development and history of the city from its Roman origins to its decline in the late Middle Ages. They focus on the period of Narbonne's heyday, from the mid-11th to the mid-14th centuries, and a central place is held by Ermengarde, viscountess for half the 12th century, and celebrated figure in the 'world of the troubadours'. The book opens with an important new introductory survey, in English, setting the context for the detailed studies which follow, several of which also appear in English for the first time, and all being updated with additional notes. These articles cover the physical growth of the great medieval centre, the relations and conflicts between its secular and ecclesiastical lords, its administrative and religious life, and its political and commercial connections with the areas around. Ce volume regroupe une série d'études de Jacqueline Caille, spécialiste reconnue de l'histoire de Narbonne au Moyen Age. L'antique cité y est présentée depuis ses origines romaines jusqu'à la fin du XVe siècle, en insistant particulièrement sur la période la plus brillante des siècles médiévaux, du milieu du XIe au milieu du XIVe siècle. Le recueil s'ouvre par un "long survol historique" inédit, en anglais, brossant le contexte général où s'insèrent les études spécialisées qui suivent, réactualisées par des notes additionnelles. Les principaux thèmes pouvant être dégagés des ces articles concernent le développement topographique de cette "grande ville médiévale", les relations et les conflits entre les seigneurs qui la dirigent (archevêques et vicomtes), la vie administrative et religieuse de l'agglomération ainsi que ses relations politiques et commerciales avec les régions environnantes. Enfin, une place de choix est faite à l'une des éminentes figures du "monde des troubadours", la victomtesse

Before France became France its territories included Occitania, roughly the present-day province of Languedoc. The city of Narbonne was a center of Occitanian commerce and culture during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. For most of the second half of the twelfth century, that city and its environs were ruled by a remarkable woman, Ermengard, who negotiated her city's way through a maze of everchanging dynastic alliances.Fredric L. Cheyette's masterful and beautifully illustrated book is a biography of an extraordinary warrior woman and of a unique, vulnerable, doomed society. Throughout her long reign, viscountess Ermengard roamed Occitania receiving oaths of fidelity, negotiating treaties, settling disputes among the lords of her lands, and camping with her armies before the walls of besieged cities. She was born into a world of politics and warfare, but from the Mediterranean to the North Sea her name echoed in songs that treated the arts of love.The land between the Rhone and the Pyrenees was a delicately balanced world in which honor, dispute, and the fragile communities of loyalty and family held a "stateless" society together. In Cheyette's prose there rises before us a world we had not imagined, in which women were powerful lords, moving back and forth across what we now call Spain, France, and Italy to play the harsh political games essential to the preservation of their realms. But the region was also fertile ground for religious practices deemed heretical by the Church. The attempt to eradicate them would spawn the Albigensian Crusade, which destroyed the cosmopolitan world of Ermengard and the troubadours—the world that lives again in this book.

This work centres on the post-Roman period of Narbonne and its territory, up to its capture by the Arabs in 720, encompassing not only recent archaeological findings but also perspectives of French, Spanish and Catalan historiography that have fashioned distinct national narratives. Seeking to remove Narbonne from any subsequent birth of France, Catalonia and Spain, the book presents a geopolitical region that took shape from the late fifth century, evolving towards the end of the eighth century into an autonomous province of the nascent Carolingian Empire. Capturing this change throughout a 300-year period somewhat lacking in written sources, the book takes us beyond an exclusive depiction of the classical city to an examination of settlement in various forms. Discourses of literary criticism also lie behind aspects of this study, mapped around textual commentaries which highlight a more imaginative biography of a city. Narbonne's role as a point of departure and travel across the Mediterranean is examined through a reading of the correspondence of Paulinus of Nola and the writings of Sulpicius Severus, enabling the reader to gain a fuller picture of the city and its port. The topography of Narbonne in the fifth century is surveyed together with Bishop Rusticus’s church-building programme. Later chapters emphasise the difficulties in presenting a detached image of Narbonne, as sources become mainly Visigothic, defining the city and its region as part of a centralised kingdom. Particular attention is given to the election of Liuva I as king in Narbonne in 568, and to the later division into upper and lower sub-kingdoms shared by Liuva and his brother Leovigild, a duality that persisted throughout the sixth and seventh centuries. The study therefore casts new light on Narbonne and its place within the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo, suggesting that it was the capital of a territory with roots in the post-Roman settlement of barbarian successor states.

Arranged alphabetically, with a brief introduction that clearly defines the scope and purpose of the book. Illustrations include maps, B/W photographs, genealogical tables, and lists of architectural terms.

Fredric L. Cheyette's illustrated book is a biography of an extraordinary warrior woman and of a unique, vulnerable, doomed society. Throughout her long reign, viscountess Ermengard roamed Occitania receiving oaths of fidelity, negotiating treaties, settling disputes among the lords of her lands, and camping with her armies before the walls of besieged cities.

Based upon newly uncovered archival evidence, this book establishes urban musical traditions of over twenty cities in late medieval France.

Medieval Occitania, a geographical and linguistic area often referred to as 'the South of France', 'the South', 'the Midi', or more loosely 'Provence', was politically diverse but culturally coherent. It was here that the troubadours created Courtly Love and a new poetic language, which together were to affect the whole course of European literature and sensibilities. The essays made readily accessible in this collection reflect the author's many-sided interests in the troubadours and the society from which they sprang: the historical and cultural place of the women forming the ostensible objects of their desire, veneration, or anxieties; the extent to which French notions of chivalry penetrated the South; the nature and meaning of various elements of court culture; the precocious development of medical science in this region; its complex responses to the Crusades; and the question of Occitan identity. Mostly complementing her major publications (The World of the Troubadours, collaborative editions of the songs of the troubadour Marcabru, of the epic fragment the Canso d'Antioca, and of the medieval Occitan tensos and partimens), they provide either more detailed material than found its way into those works, or developments from them. 'Occitan literature and the Holy Land' anticipates a new project on responses to the Crusades in Occitan and Old French lyrics.

This collection of essays presents the exciting and innovative work being done in the field of medieval architectural history by scholars affiliated with AVISTA, one of the most active sponsors of such research in the Anglo-American scholarly community. These studies constitute a snapshot of the range of new interpretive strategies being deployed by researchers in the reassessment of previous scholarship and identification of new modes of inquiry. In recent years, the study of medieval architecture has been transformed by the emergence of new critical perspectives and new technologies. The contributors to this book are among those at the forefront of these developments. Several of the essays present dramatic reinterpretations of canonical monuments including the Abbey of Saint-Denis, Beauvais Cathedral and Notre-Dame in Paris. Others consider broader methodological issues such as the applications of geometry, workshop practice, and the shaping of historical narratives. Still others demonstrate how high-tech scanning and visualization methods can enhance our understanding of construction methods and the behavior of buildings. The publication of this collection of pioneering essays should foster further exploration by clarifying the state of research, by establishing specific historical arguments, and by providing models of inquiry to inspire emerging scholars.

"This reference work features over 150 A-Z entries on Jewish civilization between the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 CE) and the discovery of the New World in 1492. Not limited to any one aspect of the Jewish experience, many entries cover topics that have never before been dealt with in Judaic or medieval reference works"--Résumé de l'éd

This book presents an innovative and detailed study of the ports of the Crown of Aragon in the initial stage of the maritime expansion of medieval Catalonia, comparing them to the Tuscan coast and port-city of Pisa in the decades that witnessed the apogee of its power in the Mediterranean, and looking for common, or contrasting, traits and patterns of development. The approach is multilevel and multidisciplinary, stressing geomorphological, geographical, political, and commercial factors, and drawing on archaeological investigations as well as published ad unpublished historical documents.