IMC 2017: Sessions

Session 110: Geographies and Identities in Medieval Europe

Monday 3 July 2017, 11.15-12.45

Moderator/Chair:	Christian Rohr, Abteilung für Wirtschafts-, Sozial- und Umweltgeschichte, Universität Bern
Paper 110-a	The City and the City: Urban Space Infrastructure in the Context of Early Medieval Britain (Language: English) Mateusz Fafinski, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin Index terms: Administration, Economics - Urban, Social History
Paper 110-b	Monastic Recruitment and Migration in Late Medieval England (Language: English) David E. Thornton, Department of History, Bilkent University, Turkey Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Genealogy and Prosopography, Monasticism
Abstract	Paper -a: The problem of use and re-use of urban infrastructure after the gradual disappearance of Roman power in Britain stands out in the study of Early Medieval Britain. The paper will try to examine the ways in which this kind of infrastructure influenced the economic and social life of post-Roman polities. It will also try to offer new approaches and terminologies in placing those urban spaces into the wider context of polity-creation, power structure, and continuity debate in Early Medieval Britain, bringing to the fore the fate of infrastructural remains. Paper -b: This paper will examine recruitment to religious orders in late medieval England, with special reference to the houses of monks and regular canons in the diocese of Worcester for the period 1300-1540. I propose to discuss the possible reasons why an aspiring monk or canon would choose to join a particular religious house: considerations of distance are usually cited by historians but, through a comparison with theories of migration, a variety of other factors influencing individual decisions may be proposed. The paper will draw upon a prosopographical database of c. 16,000 entries.