The Social Life of Hagiography in the Merovingian Kingdom

Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-1-107-65839-4
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 96, 341 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 496 g

Reihe: Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series

This book charts the influence of Christian ideas about social responsibility on the legal, fiscal and operational policies of the Merovingian government, which consistently depended upon the collaboration of kings and elites to succeed, and it shows how a set of stories transformed the political playing field in early medieval Gaul. Contemporary thinkers encouraged this development by writing political arguments in the form of hagiography, more to redefine the rules and resources of elite culture than to promote saints' cults. Jamie Kreiner explores how hagiographers were able to do this effectively, by layering their arguments with different rhetorical and cognitive strategies while keeping the surface narratives entertaining. The result was a subtle and captivating literature that gives us new ways of thinking about how ideas and institutions can change, and how the vibrancy of Merovingian culture inspired subsequent Carolingian developments.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kreiner, Jamie

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Vor- und Frühgeschichte, prähistorische Archäologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction; 1. Hagiographical argument and legal culture; 2. The style and science of persuasion; 3. Double-scope narrative and the economy of government; 4. Property and community beyond the cult; 5. The Carolingian synthesis; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Kreiner, Jamie
Jamie Kreiner is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Georgia where she researches and teaches the history of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.