Description
Book SynopsisThis volume examines how power was framed in Visigothic society and how a diverse population with a complex and often conflicting cultural inheritance was thereby held together as a single kingdom. Indeed, through this dynamic process a new, early medieval society emerged. Understanding this transformation is no simple matter, as it involved the deployment of an array of political and cultural resources: the production of knowledge, the appropriation of Patristic literature, controlling and administering rural populations, reconceptualizing the sacred, capital punishment and exile, controlling the manufacture of currency, and defining Visigothic society in relation to other polities such as the neighbouring Byzantine state. In order to achieve an analysis of these different phenomena, this volume brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines. This interdisciplinary approach therefore expands the available sources and reformulates topics of traditional scholarship in order to engage with a renewal of Visigothic Studies and reformulate the paradigm of study itself. As a result, this volume rethinks frameworks of power in the Peninsula along not only historical and archaeological but also anthropological terms, presenting the reader with a new understanding of Iberian society as a whole.
Trade Review"This volume provides useful snapshots of new approaches and developments across Visigothic studies. Particularly helpful are Tejerizo’s, Martin’s, and Pliego’s chapters that provide tables and background information to aid readers unfamiliar with their particular source sets. These chapters are accessible and beneficial to specialists in Visigothic studies and scholars of other regions and periods alike."
- Erica Buchberger,
The Medieval Review, 21.11.05 (2021)
"The volume certainly contributes to the LAEMI [Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia] series’ goal of increasing integration of Iberian studies within Anglophone Classical studies, compiling an extensive bibliography of Spanish and English-language research material. [...] As for the aims of this volume, collating brief explorations of aspects of power in Visigothic society in order to open a dialogue and lay groundwork for future studies to continue this dialogue,
Framing Power does so successfully, providing an abundance of interesting and well-researched material and frameworks for further research."
- Carolyn T. La Rocco, University of St Andrews,
The Classical Review, 71.1 (2021)
"The edited volume of Eleonora Dell’Elicine and Céline Martin,
Framing Power in Visigothic Society: Discourses, Devices and Artifacts curates seven original essays together with a useful and thoughtful introduction by the editors. [...] There is much food for thought here both for specialists in this particular field but also for those interested in the situation on the ground in the post-Roman Mediterranean."
- Christopher Heath,
Al-Mas.q, Vol. 34, Iss. 1
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Eleonora Dell' Elicine, Céline Martin
Presence of Augustine of Hippo in Isidore of Seville: some provisional remarks
Jacques Elfassi
The Bishop and the Word. Isidore of Seville and the production of meaning
Dolores Castro
Unearthing peasant societies: Historiography and recent contributions in the archaeology of the rural world during Visigothic times
Carlos Tejerizo
Excolentes sacra fontium vel arborum. Pagan cults, kinship and regimes of sacralisation in the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo
Eleonora Dell' Elicine
Ervig and capital penalties: the way of exile
Céline Martin
'Put all your trust in Ansemundus'. A look at distrust in Visigothic-Byzantine diplomatic relations
Margarita Vallejo
Visigothic currency: recent developments and data for its study
Ruth Pliego
List of Illustrations
Index
