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Zusatztext The two absorbing volumes ... provide timely foundations for more integrated studies of the Merovingian Franks within a much broader cultural context ... provides a sound and much-needed first step, and these interventions bode well for the future of early medieval studies. Informationen zum Autor Stefan Esders is Professor of History of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Yitzhak Hen is Professor of Late Antique and Early Medieval History, Department of History at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Director of the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Israel. Pia Lucas is a doctoral candidate and research assistant at the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Tamar Rotman is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of General History at Bar Ilan University and a research assistant in the Israeli Science Foundation project “Through distant eyes: the birth of a Merovingian story, 575-1575”, Israel. Zusammenfassung This book explores the Merovingian kingdoms in Gaul within a broader Mediterranean context. Their politics and culture have mostly been interpreted in the past through a narrow local perspective, but as the papers in this volume clearly demonstrate, the Merovingian kingdoms had complicated and multi-layered political, religious, and socio-cultural relations with their Mediterranean counterparts, from Visigothic Spain in the West to the Byzantine Empire in the East, and from Anglo-Saxon England in the North to North-Africa in the South. The papers collected here provide new insights into the history of the Merovingian kingdoms by examining various relevant issues, ranging from identity formation to the shape and rules of diplomatic relations, cultural transformation, as well as voiced attitudes towards the “other”. Each of the papers begins with a short excerpt from a primary source, which serves as a stimulus for the discussion of broader issues. The various sources’ point of view and their contextualization stand at the heart of the analysis, thus ensuring that discussions are accessible to students and non-specialists, without jeopardizing the high academic standard of the debate. Inhaltsverzeichnis AcknowledgementsList of ContributorsList of AbbreviationsMaps Introduction , Pia Lucas and Tamar Rotman Part 1: The wider world: Setting the context of the post-Roman world 1. History, geography and the notion of mare nostrum in the early medieval WestYitzhak Hen 2. True differences: Gregory of Tours’ account of the Council of Mâcon (585)Helmut Reimitz Part 2: Mediterranean ties and Merovingian diplomacy 3. East and West from a Visigothic perspective: How and why were Frankish brides negotiated in the late sixth century Anna Gehler-Rachunek 4. Friendship and diplomacy in the Histories of Gregory of ToursHope Williard 5. Private records of official diplomacy: The Franco-Byzantine letters in the Austrasian Epistolar CollectionBruno Dumezil 6. The language of sixth-century Frankish diplomacyYaniv Fox Part 3: Bridging the Seas: Law and religion 7. Mediterranean Homesick Blues: Human trafficking in the Merovingian leges Lukas Bothe 8. The Fifth Council of Orléans and the reception of the Three Chapters controversy in Merovingian GaulTill Stüber 9. Reconciling disturbed sacred space: The ordo for “reconciling an altar where a murder has been committed” in the Sacramentary of Gellone in its cultural context.Rob Meens 10. Imitation and rejection of Eastern practices in Merovingian Gaul: Gregory of Tours and Vulfilaic the Stylite of TrierTamar Rotman Part 4: Shifting Perspectives: Emperors, tributes and propaganda 11. Magnus et verus christianus : The portrayal of Emperor Tiberius II in Gregory of Tour...
