IMC 2008: Sessions

In this session some results of the researches that are currently carried on at the IEMAN Institute at the University of Paderborn will be presented. Different regional examples will illuminate strategies and attitudes of ecclesiastical und urban institutions towards the exploitation of the natural world and of their land, in order to increase their role in society. New results come from central Italy and Germany showing how bishops and abbots tried to gain a prominent position through different strategies between 10th and 12th century. A more European overview is given by the example of the Cistercian city houses in the 13th century, an institution which was able to build a bridge between the rural and urban contest, between the monastic enclosure and the urban society. In the 14th and 15th century the burning and the use of bricks became more and more important for medieval towns to improve their fortifications and to reduce fire hazards within their walls. Soon town authorities only too clearly saw the necessity of having brickworks of one's own to secure both low prices and high quality standards. The history of the town brickwork of the Bavarian city of Erding will give a characteristic example on those facts.