Description: From their crystallisation in the late fifth century to their ultimate decline in the eighth, the Merovingian kingdoms were a product of a vibrant Mediterranean society with both a cultural past and a dynamic and ongoing dialogue between the member communities. By bringing together the scholarship of historians, archaeologists, art historians, and manuscript researchers, this volume examines the Merovingian world's Mediterranean connections. The Franks' cultural horizons spanned not only the Latin-speaking world, but also the Byzantine Empire, northern Europe, Sassanid Persia, and, after the seventh century, a quickly ascendant Islamic culture. Traces of a constant movement of people and cultural artefacts through this world are ubiquitous. As simultaneous consumers, adapters, and disseminators of culture, the degree to which the Merovingian kingdoms were thought to engage with their neighbours is re-evaluated as this volume analyses written accounts, archaeological findings and artefacts to provide new perspectives on Merovingian wide-ranging relations.
Brief description: Stefan Esders is professor of late antique and early medieval history at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. He has published books and articles on the transformation of the late Roman world, on Mediterranean connectivity (sixth-ninth century), on Latin and the vernacular and on legal and social history in the early Middle Ages. He is involved in the critical edition of the Carolingian capitularies for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH).
Review Quotes: 'This edited collection of papers would be useful to both the specialist and the generalist ... The nature of each chapter, and its membership of a thematic group, allows a deep dive into key historiographical issues associated with geopolitical and social interactions between East and West without having to go too far beyond the text. Indeed, the footnotes are comprehensive, providing easy access to further reading on the topics considered in each chapter. If the aim of this collection of papers is to study the Merovingian kingdoms of the early Middle Ages in a broader Mediterranean context, as the editors stipulate early in the introduction, then it would be safe to say that they have achieved what they set out to do.' Timothy Scott, Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association