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IMC 2009: Sessions

Session 1005: Political Power and Literacy in the Early Medieval West: The Cultural and Theological Context

Wednesday 15 July 2009, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Universidad CEU San Pablo, Madrid
Organiser:Ana B. Sánchez-Prieto, Facultad de Ciencias de la Documentacion, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Moderator/Chair:Ana B. Sánchez-Prieto, Facultad de Ciencias de la Documentacion, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Paper 1005-aReges litterati: Literacy and Royal Authority in the Early Middle Ages
(Language: English)
Alejandro Rodríguez de la Peña, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Education, Lay Piety, Mentalities, Political Thought
Paper 1005-bLay Patronage, Book Collectors, and Social Status in the Early Middle Ages
(Language: English)
Ana B. Sánchez-Prieto, Facultad de Ciencias de la Documentacion, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Index terms: Education, Lay Piety, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Mentalities
Paper 1005-cThe Baptism of Sigebert III and its Historical Significance: Kingship, Sanctity, and Identity in the Early Middle Ages
(Language: English)
Hans Stegeman, Instituut voor Geschiedenis, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Index terms: Hagiography, Lay Piety, Mentalities, Theology
Abstract

Lay literacy in the Early Middle Ages has often been a question to debate already for a long time. To what extent the ruling lay elites had access to reading and writing and how literacy was used as a means to exercise lay power and at the same time how written culture was used by Church leaders to reshape the mental frame of the war-like feudal aristocracy are some of the issues explored in this session.