IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 212: The Merovingian Kingdoms in Mediterranean Perspective, II: Textual Relations and Relationships in Texts - Reassessing the Evidence

Monday 4 July 2016, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:GIF-Project 'East and West in the Early Middle Ages - The Merovingian Kingdoms in Mediterranean Perspective', Freie Universität Berlin / Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva
Organisers:Pia Bockius, Geschichte der Spätantike und des frühen Mittelalters, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin
Tamar Rotman, Department of General History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva
Moderator/Chair:Stefan Esders, Geschichte der Spätantike und des frühen Mittelalters, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin
Paper 212-aPrivate Records of Official Diplomacy?: The Franco-Byzantine Letters in the Austrasian Epistolar Collection
(Language: English)
Bruno Dumézil, Département d'histoire, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense
Index terms: Manuscripts and Palaeography, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 212-bMerovingian Colors in the Spiritual Meadow
(Language: English)
Jamie Kreiner, Department of History, University of Georgia, Athens
Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Greek, Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 212-cThe Post-Roman West and the Byzantine Dark Ages
(Language: English)
Laury Sarti, Geschichte der Spätantike und des frühen Mittelalters, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Mentalities
Abstract

This session takes a closer look at the sources of Eastern-Western exchange, including the preconditions of their existence and transmission, and thereby sheds new light on the relationship between these two major Mediterranean regions. Bruno Dumézil examines the collection of the so-called Epistolae Austrasiacae, a compilation of Frankish-Byzantine correspondence, and its different use in Carolingian and modern times. Jamie Kreiner then delves into John Moschus’ Spiritual Meadow and points out features this text shares with contemporary hagiography written in Gaul, revealing a common culture. Finally, Laury Sarti examines the relationship between the East and the West. In order to better understand the process of mutual estrangement during the so-called Dark Ages, she discusses the increasingly scanty information in the western and Byzantine source material referring to the respective other.