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In recent decades, the Merovingian world has become more visible in Anglophone historical studies. The forty-six essays included in this collection highlight the vitality and importance of the Merovingian kingdoms in the fifth through eighth centuries.
List of contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- Map of Merovingian Gaul
- Merovingian Family Tree
- Introduction
- 1. Pushing the Boundaries of the Merovingian World
- Bonnie Effros and Isabel Moreira
- PART I MEROVINGIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE HISTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGY
- 2. From Gaul to Francia: The Impact of the Merovingians
- Paul Fouracre
- 3. Writing the History of Merovingian Gaul: An Historiographical Survey
- Agnès Graceffa
- 4. Two Centuries of Excavating Merovingian-Era Cemeteries in France
- Bonnie Effros
- PART II EXPRESSING IDENTITY
- 5. Transformations of Identities: Barbarians and Romans in the Merovingian Realm
- Magali Coumert
- 6. Migrants and Minorities in Merovingian Gaul
- Wolfram Drews
- 7. Human Remains and What They Can Tell Us about Status and Identity in the Merovingian Period
- Andrea Czermak
- 8. Gender in Merovingian Gaul
- Guy Halsall
- 9. Children's Lives and Deaths in Merovingian Gaul
- Émilie Perez
- PART III STRUCTURES OF POWER
- 10. The Merovingian Polity: A Network of Courts and Courtiers
- Yitzhak Hen
- 11. Elite Women in the Merovingian Period
- Edward James
- 12. The Military and Its Role in Merovingian Society
- Laury Sarti
- 13. Corporate Solidarity and Its Limits within the Gallo-Frankish Episcopate
- Gregory Halfond
- 14. Public Health, Hospitals, and Charity
- Peregrine Horden
- 15. Merovingian Monasticism: Voices of Dissent
- Albrecht Diem
- PART IV MEROVINGIAN GAUL IN A WIDER CONTEXT
- 16. The Merovingians and Byzantium: Diplomatic, Military, and Religious Issues, 500-700
- Stefan Esders
- 17. The Movement of People and Things between Britain and France in the Late- and Post-Roman Periods
- Robin Fleming
- 18. De gente Scottorum monachi: The Irish in Merovingian Settlement Strategy
- Jean-Michel Picard
- 19. "Alors commença la France": Merovingian Expansion South of the Loire, 495-510
- Ralph W. Mathisen
- 20. The Merovingians, the Avars, and the Slavs
- Matthias Hardt
- 21. The Merovingians and Italy: Ostrogoths and Early Lombards
- Jonathan J. Arnold
- PART V MEROVINGIAN WRITTEN CULTURE
- 22. The History of Historiography in the Merovingian Period
- Helmut Reimitz
- 23. Merovingian Legal Cultures
- Alice Rio
- 24. Merovingian Hagiography
- Jamie Kreiner
- 25. Letters and Communication Networks in Merovingian Gaul
- Andrew Gillett
- 26. Merovingian Epigraphy, Frankish Epigraphy, and the Epigraphy of the Merovingian World.
- Mark Handley
- PART VI MEROVINGIAN LANDSCAPES
- 27. The Role of the City in Merovingian Francia
- S. T. Loseby
- 28. The Fate of Small Towns, Hilltop Settlements, and Elite Residences in Merovingian-Period Gaul
- Luc Bourgeois
- 29. The Fate of Late-Roman Villas in Southern Gaul between the Sixth and Seventh Centuries.
- Alexandra Chavarría Arnau
- 30. Merovingian Religious Architecture: Some New Reflections
- Pascale Chevalier
- 31. Rural Life and Work in Northern Gaul during the Early Middle Ages
- Edith Peytremann
- 32. Good and Bad Plants in Merovingian Francia
- Paolo Squatriti
- 33. Livestock and the Early Medieval Diet in Northern Gaul
- Jean-Hervé Yvinec and Maude Barme
- PART VII ECONOMIES, EXCHANGE, AND PRODUCTION
- 34. Maritime and River Traders, Landing Places, and Emporia Ports in the Merovingian Period in and around the Low Countries
- Dries Tys
- 35. The Evidence of Numismatics: "Merovingian" Coinage and the Place of Frankish Gaul and Its Cities in an "Invisible" Roman Empire
- Jürgen Strothmann
- 36. Bead and Garnet Trade between the Merovingian, Mediterranean, and Indian Worlds
- Constantin Pion, Bernard Gratuze, Patrick Périn, and Thomas Calligaro
- 37. Merovingian Gaul and the Mediterranean: Ceramics and Trade
- Michel Bonifay and Dominique Pieri
- 38. Long-Distance Trade and the Rural Population of Northern Gaul
- Frans Theuws
- 39. Belt Buckles and Burials in Southwestern Gaul
- Ralph J. Patrello
- PART VIII THE SUPERNATURAL AND THE AFTERLIFE
- 40. Amulets and Identity in the Merovingian World
- Genevra Kornbluth
- 41. Magic and Divination in the Merovingian World
- William E. Klingshirn
- 42. Visions and the Afterlife
- Isabel Moreira
- 43. Inscribed in the Book of Life: Liturgical Commemoration in Merovingian Gaul
- Els Rose
- 44. Liturgy and the Laity
- Lisa Kaaren Bailey
- 45. The Life of Penance
- Kevin Uhalde
- 46. Merovingian Meditations on Jesus
- Lynda Coon
- Index
About the author
Bonnie Effros, Chaddock Chair of Economic and Social History, University of Liverpool; Isabel Moreira, Distinguished Professor of Medieval History, University of Utah.
Bonnie Effros is the Chaddock Chair of Economic and Social History at the University of Liverpool.
Isabel Moreira is Distinguished Professor of Medieval History at the University of Utah.
Summary
In recent decades, the Merovingian world has become more visible in Anglophone historical studies. The forty-six essays included in this collection highlight the vitality and importance of the Merovingian kingdoms in the fifth through eighth centuries.
Additional text
Editors Bonnie Effros and Isabel Moreira have given us an exceptional reference book with The Oxford Handbook of the Merovingian World. While knowledge of languages other than English is not necessary, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, and Greek scholarship is brought to the attention of the reader, often for the first time in an English publication." Jessica Gauthier, McGill University, Arc - Journal of the School of Religious Studies, McGill University
