I11 Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages R.J.H. Collins

3.01 General It might be as well to mention first a number of books of collected articles or conference papers that either approach this period thematically or contain several items of interest, and are therefore best dealt with here rather than under a regional heading. Firstly there is a selection of articles and more substantial reviews written over the last decade in P. Brown, Sociefy and rhe Holy (Faber, f 10.50), which includes reprints of such seminal pieces as 'The rise and function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity'. and the rather more tendentious 'A Dark Age crisis: aspects of the Iconoclastic Controversy' and 'Relics and social status in the Age of Gregory of Tours'. It is hard not to feel that some of the reprinted reviews are only included to give the book its necessary physical bulk, but at the price it is worth buying for the articles alone. There are several items of interest for this period in W. Paravicini and K.F. Werner (eds), Histoire cornparie de I'adrninitrrarion (VI-XVfIf siecle) (Munich: Artemis Verlag, 1980) = Beihefte der Francia ix, notably J. Vezin, 'L'influence des actes des hauts fonctionnaires romains sur les acts de Gaule et d'Espagne au VIIe siecle', P. Richt, 'La formation des scribes dans le monde mtrovingien et carolingien', K.F. Werner, 'Missus - rnarchio - comes: entre I'administration centrale et I'administration locale de I'empire carolingien', R. Kaiser, Tefoneum epitcopi: du tonlieu royal au tonlieu episcopal dans les civitates de la Gaule (VI-XI1 sitcle)', and J. Lafaurie. 'La surveillance des ateliers monktaires au IXe siecle'. Another collection that will greatly interest most early medievalists is the latest of the Spoleteo volumes, the proceedings of the 1980 conference: Cristianirzazione ed organizzazione ecclesiasrica delle Campagne nell' alto rnedioevo: espansione e reisfenze, Sertimane de Studio, xxviii. In the first section there are a number of methodological studies that concentrate on particular forms of evidence, such as artistic, liturgical and hagiographic; there are also three related archaeological contributions. Of special note are two of the pieces: A. Angenendt, 'Die Liturgie und die Organisation des kirchlichen Lebens auf dem Lande', and on a particularly striking manifestation of the art and piety of the Carolingian period. J. and M.-C. Hubert, 'Piit6 chretienne ou paganisme? Les statues-reliquaires de I'Europe carolingienne'. In the second section of regional studies there are many interesting articles, notably W. Hartmann, 'Der rechtliche Zustand der Kirchen auf dem Lande: Die Eigenkirche in der friinkischen Gesetzgebung', that examines the legal evidence relating to the Frankish Eigenkirchen. J. Semmler. 'Mission und Pfarrorganisation in den rheinischen, mosel- und maaslandischen Bistiimern (5.- 10. Jh.)', and W.H.C. Frend. 'Donatist and Catholic: th: organisation of Christian communities in the North African countryside'. Directly pertinent to this period and with something in ii for most tastes is the collection of conference papers Parsagio dal Mondo Anrico a1 Medio Evo: da Theodosio a Sari Gregorio ikfogtio (Arri def Conuegni Lincei. xlv), with articles by S. Mazzarino. E. Saez. F. Paschound, M. Cagiano de Azevedo and many others; though it must be admitted that, as with most of such gatherings, i t has produced little that is really outstanding. Rather better are the proceedings of another conference. held in 1979: Hagiographie. Ciilrures er SociPres (IV-XII siecles) (Paris: Etudes augustiniennes. 1981). which include D. Bullough's important 'Hagiography as patriotism: Alucin's York poem and the early Northumbrian Virae sntrcrorwti'. and a useful overview of the Spanish materials in M.C. Diaz y D i x , 'Passionnires. ICgendiers et compilations hagiogrnphiques dans Ie Haut Moyen Age espanol'. Finally there are some vnluahle

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early medieval items in N. Kamp and J. Wollasch (eds), Tradition uls historische Kraft: interdisziplinare Forschungen zur Ceschichte des friiheren Mittelalters (Berlin: de Gruyter), including H. Wolfram, ‘Die Goten als Gegenstand einer historischen Ethnographie’, E. Ewig, ‘Die Gebetsklausel fur Konig und Reich in den merowingischen Konigsurkunden’, and A. Angenendt, ‘Rex et sacerdos. Zur Genese der Konigssalbung’, all of considerable interest. Unfortunately few of the other items in the volume will be of so much interest to historians, however open to ‘inderdisciplinary’ exchanges.

3.02 Late Roman Empire aod Patristic An old topic is re-explored in L. W. Barnard, ‘Church-State relations AD 313-337’ (J . of Church and State, xxiv). For one of the most outstanding Christian artistic manifestations of the same period see W. Wischmeyer, Die Tafeldeckel der christlichen Sarkophage konstantinischer Zeit in Rorn (Freiburg: Herder) = Romische Quartulschrifr, XI, Suppl. The pagan equivalents to those Christian ascetics so brilliantly depicted by Peter Brown (see previous section) are revealed in G. Fowden, ‘The pagan holy man in late antique society’ (J . Hellenic Studs., cii). One of the most distinctive features of Christian literature, though one with strong Classical roots in its methods but not its subject matter, is Biblical exegesis, which in its Greek manifestation developed in the course of the third and fourth centuries, perhaps reaching its culmination in the work of Gregory of Nyssa. This process is usefully surveyed in B. de Margerie, Introduction a I’histoire de I’exkgese, Vol I: Les peres grecs et orientau (Pans: Cerf, 1980). A future volume should give a similar synoptic view of the Western or Latin tradition. Another valuable way of exchange between Greek and Latin Christendom from the fourth century onwards was that provided by pilgrimage, especially to the Holy Land. The fullest account of such a journey undertaken by a westerner to the Holy Places, and which extended itself into a visit to some of the leading contemporary holy men, principally in Egypt, is found in the description of her travels written by a Spanish lady called Egeria c383 AD. This has been given a new edition in P. Maraval (ed). EgPrie: journal de voyage (Sources chrktiennes, ccxcvi). To this is added in the same volume an edition of the precis of Egeria’s account written by the late seventh-century Spanish hermit Valerius of Bierzo; this part is edited by M.C. Diaz y Diaz. The whole phenomenon of the rise and popularity of such pilgrimages is described and discussed with great lucidity and skill in E.D. Hunt, Holy Land pilgrimage in the lute Roman empire (OUP, f 16.50), an important pioneering study that throws much light on more aspects of the fourth and fifth centuries than its subject alone. A by-product of its author’s researches also appears, in E.D. Hunt, ‘St Stephen in Minorca: an episode in Jewish-Christian relations in the early 5th century’ ( J . Theol. Studr., xxxii), which discusses the forcible conversion of the Minorcan Jews, a direct product of the arrival of relics of St Stephen in the island. There is now a massive study of the role of such relics and their cults in the most volatile and dynamic region of late antique latin Christendom in Y. Duval, Loca sanctorum ufricae: le culte des martyrs en Afriqiie du W e au VIIe siecle, 2 Vols (Ecole FranFais de Rome). This is a subject fundamental to the understanding of the penetration of Christianity in Roman North Africa and the ideosyncratic divisions and controversies, such as Donatism, which it engendered. 3.03 Recent work on the greatest product of African Christianity is helpfully recorded in a new bibliographical survey: T. Miethe, Aiigiisrianion bibliography 1970-1980 (Westport. Conn: Greenwood P.); it also offers some discussion of the direction of current Augustinian research in its appended ‘essays on the fundamentals of Augustinian scholarship’. Another useful compilation is M.M.

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Gorman, 'A survey of the oldest manuscripts of St Augustine's De civitate dei' (J. Theol. Studr., xxxiii). The author's principal interest is in Eugippius, whom he sees as being responsible for the preparations of a recension of Augustine's De genesi and litteram, and possibly also of one of the De trinitate. TO this he turns in greater detail in 'The Manuscript Tradition of Eugippius: Excerpra ex operibus Sancti Augusrini, 1-11' (Rev. btntdictine, xcii). The greatest of the bishops of Vandal Africa and a distinguished intellectual heir of Augustine was Fulgentius of Ruspe, an unduly neglected figure. S.T. Stevens, 'The circle of Bishop Fulgentius' (Traditio, xxxviii), provides too thin a remedy for'this deficiency in an account which hardly touches the surface of what may be gleaned from the Bishop's correspondence. Turning to the relations between Romans and Germans, an area in which Fulgentius also played his part, the recent and controversial study of Hospitalitas by W. Goffart (see Bulletin, Ixvii), is given the benefit of a substantial review article in M. Cesa, 'Hospitalitus o altere "techniques of accommodation"? A propsito di un libro recente' (Arch. Sror. Ital., cxl). The poetry of the Later Roman period is given a synoptic view in J. Fontaine, Naissance de la potsie duns I'occident chrktien (Pans: Etudes Augustiniennes, 1981), to which can be usefully added the same author's volume of collected studies, Etudes sur la poesie latine tardive d'Ausone u Prudence (Pans: Les Belles Lettres, 1980). For recent research on the early fifth century pagan poet Rutilius Nematianus, see F. Corsaro, Studi Rutiliani (Bologna: Patron Editore, 1981). Another almost certainly non-Christian author, but from a century later, is the historian Zosimus, whose unfortuately unfinished or fragmented work is a major source of our knowledge of the later fourth and early fifth centuries. This has been given a new translation, with accompanying commentary, in R.T. Ridley (trans), Zosimus, new history (Canberra: Australian Assoc. for Byzan. Studs., Aus $12) = Byzantina australiensia, ii. This could serve as a useful complement to the new edition (with French translation) of the'text that is in the course of appearing from Editions Bude (see Bulletin, Ixv). 3.04 Turning to the Papacy, one of its most distinguished historians has left us as his final work W. Ullmann, Gelasius I: Das Papsttum an der Wende der Spatatitike zum Minelalter.(Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1981, DM 140) = Pupste und Papsttutn. xviii. It is perhaps not surprising that Professor Ullmann, in view of his general thesis on the nature and development of Papal ideology. articulated by him in so many of his prevlous books and articles, should have turned at last to Gelasius: for no other early Pope was more kindred in spirit to the Reformers of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and his few brief writings provided them with some of their most telling precedents and statements of principle. However. those not already converted to the author's ideosyncratic interpretations are unlikely to be persuaded by this book, which, at the very least, is not an early medievalist's view of Gelasius and the fifth century Papacy. In this as in other ways its author remained closer to the spirit and person of Gregory VII. As a valedictory it will remain a fine statement of its author's tenacious adherence to his principles. The episode that gave the Papacy its first major opportunity to involve itself in the affairs of the Greek Church, and Gelasius' great predecessor, Leo I , a forum in which. albeit with limited success. he was able to expound his views on Papal prerogatives. is usefully re-examined in S.O. Horn, Perrou Kathedra: der Bischof i'oti Rotn wid dic Synoden von Ephesus und Chalcedon (Paderborn: Bonifatius). For the papal see itself at this time a useful complement to theory may be found in art. as examined in J .M. Huskinson. Concordia apostolorurn: Christiati propagritidti ot Rotlie iti t l i e fourth and fifth centuries (Oxford: British Archaeol. Reports, Internat. Ser., cxlviii. flZ). Finally there is monasticism, in A. de VogiiC (ed). Les rPglvs des srrbri.~ pi.r.e~.

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2 Vols (Sources chritiennes. ccxcvii-vii, f23, f 17). various short monastic rules associated with the important South Gallic monastery of Lerins are edited with lengthy and comprehensive commentary and apparatus. Volume one provides us with the fifth-century rules of Ltrins itself, and Volume two with the three sixth- century rules that derive from them. Interestingly, all these rules are pseudonymously ascribed to noted Eastern Mediterranean ascetics; thus they are ‘The Rule of Macanus’, ‘The Rule of Paphnutius’ and so on. C.H. Lawrence, ‘St Benedict and his Rule’ (Hisrory, Ixvii), is the text of ah anniversary address given to the Historical Association. As such it might not have been expected to offer anything new. If so, it has lived up t6 that expectation.

3.05 Italy C. Morton, ’Marius of Avenches, the Excerpta.Vulesiana and the death of Boethius’ (Traditio, xxxviii), seeks by challenging the chronology of Marius and reinterpreting the sense of the order of events given in the Excerpta to re-date the death of Boethius and of Symmachus to 526; the purpose being basically to make these correspond, as was common in older interpretations, with the imprisonment and death of Pope John I. Not everyone will be convinced. The growth in recent years of interest in Boethius’ philosophical work will be further fuelled by J. Shiel, ‘A recent discovery: Boethius’ Note on the Prior Analytics’ (Vivarium, xx). The purposes of the historical writings of a near-contemporary of Boethius, who would certainly not have seen eye to eye with him politically, are examined, though not very originally, in J.J. O’Donnell, ‘The aims of Jordanes’ (Historia, xxxi). The anniversary of the Council held there in 381 has prompted the production of two volumes of papers on subjects related to Aquileia: Atti del colloquio ititernazionale sill Concilio di Aquileia del381 (Udine: Antichira’ Altoadriatiche, xxi), and Aquileia e I’Occidente (ibid, xix); the contents of the latter are devoted mainly to artistic topics, but notice should be given to J. LermariC, ‘La diffusion de I’oeuvre de S Chromace d’Aquilee en Europe occidentale’. To move on in time, Lombard Italy continues to attract well-deserved attention, though much of it is still Frankish-centred, as with M.V. Ary, ‘The politics of the Frankish-Lombard mamage alliance’ (Arch. hist. pontificiae, xix), that reconsiders Frankish involvements in Italy in the period 768-774. For a broader view there is now J.T. Hallenbeck, Puvia and Rome: the Lombard monarchy and the papacy in rhe eighth century (Philadelphia: Trans. Am. Philos. SOC., Ixxii). With only 186 pages this is a fairly brief treatment, but should be considered in tandem with its author’s articles of related interest (see BuNetin, Ixiv, Ixvi). Its main thesis, however, that with few exCep:ions the eighth-century Lombard kings sought to create for themselves a rcgillrm italiae that did not necessarily have to include Rome. may not find many totally committed supporters. Finally, a useful and very well illustrated synoptic account of the principal monuments of Lombard art in Italy has been produced in M. Broui, C. Calderini, and M. and M. Rotili, Les Lombnrds (La Pierre-qui-vire: Zodiaque, 1981). This is a valuable addition to the Zodiaque ’Nuits des Temps’ series, and is in larger format than usual.

3.06 Spain Amongst a number of recent outline series that seek to provide general histories of Spain in several volumes, each written by one or more specialists, particular attention should be given to the Historia de .€sparia, edited by M. Yunon de Lara for Editorial Labor in Barcelona. Its approach to the Middle Ages is in broad chronological sweeps that take the scope of the volumes beyond the range of this review alone. Volume three by R. Arik, Esparia Musulrnona (siglos Vl l l -XV) (Pts 1700). is a useful overall account of Islamic Spain. Wisely it

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eschews a detailed narrative of events in favour of an analytical approach that deals with institutions, social structures, economy, daily life, and religion, each sub- divided chronologically when necessary. Volume two by J.J. Sayas Abengochea and L.A. Garcia Moreno, Romanismo y germanismu. El despertar de 10s pueblos hispanicos (siglos N - X ) , may provoke more than thought; not least in that its second author has added to his incomprehensible belief in moral decadence as a fundamental cause of the fall of the Visigothic kingdom an equally obsessive concern to unearth elements of a so-called, ‘protofeudalism’. This is not a helpful direction for Spanish early medieval history to go. J. Arce, El ultimo siglo de la Esparia Romana (284-409) (Madrid: Alianza, Pts 550), gives a brief account of events and some analysis of Late Roman society in Spain. The all-too-small literary and archaeological evidence relating to one of the principal and best known of the northern centres of the Visigothic kingdom is well marshalled in L. Garcia Inglesias, Zaragoza, Ciudad Visigoda (Zaragoza: Guara. 1979, Pts 300). A probably immediately post-Visigothic text, conceivably written in southern Lusitania in the eighth century, is edited with an introduction in M.C. Diaz y Diaz, ‘La Passio Manrii (BHL 5219), unas consideraciones’ (An. Bol., c). For the same period a model for the development of one of the frontier societies that grew up in northern Spain beyond the fringes of Al-Andalus is advanced in J.A. Garcia de Cortazar and C . Diez Hemera, Formacibn de la sociedad Hispano-Cristiana del Cantabriu a1 Ebro en 10s siglos VIII a XI (Santerander: Estudio, f3.35). The extremely obscure history of the bishopric of Pamplona in these centuries is made as clear as it is ever likely to be in the substantial and scholarly work of the present cathedral archivist: J . Goiii Gaztambide, Historia de 10s Obispos de Pamplona, Vol I: siglos IV-XI11 (Pamplona: Institute Pnncipe de Viana, 1979, Pts 1600). J. Orlandis and D. Ramos-Lisson, Die Synoden auf der Iberischen Halbinsel bis zum Einbruch des Islam (Paderborn: Schoningh, 1981, DM 94). is the first major study of the Councils of the Visigothic Church to approach them chronologically, and to take each in its own context rather than to treat the conciliar acta as if somehow uniformly applicable to the whole period of the history of the kingdom. This is a common sense line of conduct that the author of this review has long advocated, and the book is warmly to be welcomed. Fundamentals and details of its interpretations, however, may be open to question. Still in the Visigothic period, the vanguard of an undertaking of quite gargantuan proportions has broken in upon a long forewarned but possibly sceptical world in the form of J. Andre (ed), Isidore de Siville: Etymologies livre xvii, De I’Agricultre (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1981, Fr 90). That Volume 17 of the proposed 20 volume edition should be the first to appear is not clear. As an authority on the technical vocabulary of Latin horticultural manuals, he provides useful guidance in his footnote commentary to such features in Isidore’s work. But whether his new text is any real advance on that of Lindsay is debatable. He has one manuscript unknown to his predecessor, but in making his selections has ignored or is unaware of important recent work that has suggested that Isidore’s orthography was much less ‘Classical’ than has generally been assumed. Extraordinarily, his edition is given a somewhat critical review, though perhaps not for the right reasons, by one of the joint general editors of the series: J. Fontaine, ‘Chroniques des latinites hispaniques de IV au Xe siecles (1977-1981)’ ( R . el. Augusriniennes. xxviii). Unequivocal praise can be given to another new edition in the form of J. Prelog, Die Ciironik Alforis 111 (Berne: Lang. 1980. f26.60). a surely definitive critical edition of the principal chronicle of the Asturian kingdom and one that presents i t in all four of its versions or adaptions. For the capital of Urnayyad Al-Andolrcs the translations of all pertinent

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texts are now conviently collected together in A. Arjona Castro, Anales de C6rdoba Musulmana (711-1008) (Cordoba: Monte de Piedad, Pts 850). The substantial holdings of original charters of the Cathedral of Leon dating from the ninth and tenth centuries are edited, some for the first time, in G. del Ser Quinjano, Documentacion de fa Catedral de Leon (Salamanca U.P., 1981, Pts 950). Finally, one of the monastic charter collections held in the excellent Cathedral Archive of Seu d’Urgell is published in C. Baraut, ‘Diplomatari del Monestir de Codinet’ (Studia monastics, xxiv). Of its 49 documents, nine are from the ninth century and 30 from the tenth.

3.07 France: Merovingian and Carolingian A useful bibliographical survey that extends well beyond the bounds of this period will be found in J. Elders, Frankreich im Mittelalter: von der Merowingerzeit bis zurn Tode Ludwigs IX: Literaturbericht 1961-79 (Hist. Zeit., Sonderheft, xi). The general impression, that can certainly be substantiated in the case of Trier, of a break in continuity in Rhineland bishoprics in the period c450-550, followed by revival under Frankish royal and aristocratic patronage, is now confirmed for Mainz in K. Heinemeyer, Das Erzbistum Mainz in romischer und frankischer Zeit, Vol I (Marburg: Elwert, 1979, DM 72). The literary, archaeological and place-name evidence relating to the settlements of the early rivals of the Franks, the Alemanni, is considered in D. Geuenich, ‘Zur Landnahme der Alemannen’ (Friihmitt. Stud., xvi). For both Merovingian and Carolingian Gaul a highly readable and informative account, that is particularly valuable in making the most recent fruits of continental scholarship readily available to an English readership, has appeared in the form of E. James, From Clovis ro the Captions: the origins of France, 500-1000 (Macmillan, f14, pbk f4.95). The second section, a narrative account, is probably too abbreviated, but the longer analytical first section is a masterly survey of Frankish society. Also pertinent to both Merovingian and Carolingian Gaul are the first two volumes of a massive catalogue of their surviving works of sculpture: D. Fossard, M. Vieillard Troiekouroff and E. Chatel, Monuments sculpties en France (We-Xe siecles): Paris et son dkpartement (Paris: Bibl. Nat., 1978, Fr 250). and E. Chatel, Monuments sculprkes en France: Isere, Savoie et Haute Savoie (ibid, 1981, Fr 235). The siting of the first Carolingian coronation, with implications for the role played in it by Boniface, is considered by J. Jamut, ‘Wer hat Pippin 751 zum Konig gesalbt?’ (Fruhrnitrelalt. Srud., xui). The origin of one of the picturesque Carolingian royal nicknames is revealed in R. Schieffer, ‘Ludwig “der Fromme”. Zur Entstehung eines karolingischen Herrscherbeinamens’ (ibid). For a reassessment of the relationship between the ruling dynasty and the Church see J . Fried, ‘Der karolingische Herrschaftsverband im 9. Jh. zwischen Kirche und Konigshaus’ (Hist. Zeit., ccxxxv). S . Weinberger, ‘Cours judiciaires, justice et responsibilite sociale dans la Provence medievale: IXe-XIe siecle’ (R. Hist., cclxvii), is both slimmer in size and thinner in content than its subject warrants. R. Gregoire, ‘11 monachismo carolingio dopo Benedetto d’Aniane’ (Srud. Monastica, xxiv). at least raises the question of why should a Frenchman be writing in Italian for a Spanish periodical? The first two chapters of G. Fritz, Kloster Murrhardt irn Friih- und Hochmittelalter (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke), deal with this Swabian monastery’s history in the Carolingian period. A very minor exegetical compilation is edited in E. Jeauneau. ‘Un “dossier” carolingien sur la creation de I’homme (Genese 126-111.24)’ (R. P t Augustiniennes, xxxviii). An unusual but rewarding exercise is performed in G. Sanders. ‘Le remaniement carolingien de la Vira Bnlthildis merovingienne’ (An. Boll.. c). which in contrasting the recast Carolingian version with its Merovingian

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original draws important linguistic conclusions, and demonstrates how the Carolingian redactor developed the Biblical ‘infrastructure’ of the narrative. The generally much neglected field of Carolingian exegesis continues to show its worth in E.A. Matter, ‘The lamentations commentaries of Hrabanus Maurus and Paschasius Radkrtus’ (Trudirio, xxwviii), which compares the two works, the first to be devoted to that particular book of the Bible in the Latin Christian tradition, in order to contrast the particular theological and pastoral concerns of the two authors. For a more rechercht aspect of Hrabanus Maurus’ thought see M. Petrocchi, I1 simbolismo delle Piunte in Rabano Mauro (Rome: Ed. Storia e Letterature). As its sub-title. E altri studi di sroriu mediewale indicates, there is more to the book than just that, and two of the other items may be found slightly more interesting: ‘La personalita di Papa Giovanni IX (899-900)’. and from an earlier period ‘Gli atti di govern0 ecclesiastico di San Gregorio Magno interenti alle diocesi di Umbria, Tusca e Sabina’. Emphasis should be placed upon the ‘slightly’. To turn to something more substantial, the earliest part of B. Bischoff, Kalligraphie in Buyem: Achtes bis zw6!fres Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1981), will be of interest not only to palaeographen, but also to all Carolingian historians with an interest in Bavaria. Attention should be drawn to two important new editions: I.P. Sheldon-Williams (ed), lohunnes Sconus, Periphyseon, Liber IfI (Dublin: Tnst. for Advanced Studs., 1981, DO), continues the interrupted publication of this work, the crowning glory of philosophical writing of the Carolingian age and of the intellectual contribution of the Irish to the learned culture of the Early Middle Ages. It is gratifying to know that despite the death of its editor ten years ago the fourth and fifth volumes of this major edition are to appear in due course; the only cause for regret now is the high level that the price has reached. To turn from philosophy to grammar, one of the principal textbooks of the later Carolingian period is now made available in A. Guerreau-Jalabert, Abbo Floriacensis, Quaestiones Grummaricales (Pans: Les Belles Lettres), produced under the same direction as the slightly less welcome mammoth edition of the Erymologiae discussed above. To Abbo’s text, with French translation, is added a useful and substantial introduction. J.J. Contreni, ‘Codices pseudo-Isidoriuni: the provenance and date of Paris B.N. MS Lat. 9629’ (Viaror, xiii), advances c872-82, and in particular 872-5. as the probable date, and Laon as the provenance, also suggesting the possible use of this manuscript by Hincmar of Laon. M.T. Gibson, ’Boethius in the Carolingian schools’ (T . R. H.S.. xxxii). explores the degree to which he was known and used by the Carolingians. Of some general interest is C. Bruhl, ‘Kronen- und Kronungsbrauch im Friihen und Hohen Mittelalter’ (Hirt. Zeit., ccxxxiv). Finally, R. Hodges, Dark Age economics: the origins of rowns and ircide AD Mx)-fOOO (Duckworth. pbk f8.95). offers a radical reinterpretation of the economy of northern Europe in the later Merovingian and Carolingian periods. Such a replacement for standard but dated works like R. Latouche’s Birth ofthe Western Economy cannot but be welcomed; perhaps all the more so for its challenging and irreverent character. Regretably though, its methods will often fail to convince, and it can prove off-putting to the non-specialist in its occasional tendency to sacrifice readability in the interests of the exposition of often dubious theory. Yet it is an important book nevertheless.

3.08 Byzantium This has been a fairly bleak year for early Byzantine studies. though i t is not always easy to know where to draw the line between ‘Late Roman‘ and ‘Byzantine’. In general it is the peripheral areas of the Byzantine Empire. or those regions beyond the frontiers but subject to varying measures of its cultural

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influence, that are best served at the moment. Thus G. Cavallo, V. von Falkenhausen et al., Z Bizantini in Zralia (Milan: Scheiwiller), gives, in the compass of a massive and pleasantly illustrated book,-a perspective on the whole span of Byzantine dealing with Italy, from Justinian’s Reconquista to the Council of Florence. To move to another, and at times more important peripheral area, B. Croke, ‘Justinian’s Bulgar Victory Celebration’ (Byzantinoslavica, xli), is a brief note on the very beginning of Byzantine-Bulgar relations. The purely martial contacts of the sixth century gave way, not least due to growing imperial military weakness, to cultural penetration and the eventual emergence of medieval Bulgaria as a sub-Byzantine state. The opening phase of this process is studied, albeit briefly, in J.M. Sansterre, ‘Les missionaires latins, grecs, e t orientaux en Bulgarie dans la seconde moitiC du IXe sikcle’ (Byrantion, hi), which deals with a period of rivalry between Greek and Latin Churches in the evangelisation of the Bulgars. More distant from Constantinople, but still subject in some measure to its influence, and to counter currents from the West was Great Moravia, whose history and art were the subject of a recent British Museum exhibition. From this resulted the publication of D. Buckton, Great Moravia: the archaeology of ninth-century Czechoslovakia (Brit. Mus. Pubs.). The problems of the Nestorian and Monophysite Christians in Sassanian Iran, divided from their rulers by their religion and from their co-religionists by a political frontier and .by schism, are well outlined in S.P. Brock, ‘Christians and the Sassanid Empire: a case of divided loyalties’ (Studs. in Church Hist., xviii). The struggle of another Christian frontier people against Persian attempts to subjugate them, and on occasion to impose conversion to Zoroastrianism on them can be followed at first hand in a translated text: the fifth-century Elishe, history of Vardan and the Armenian war. translated by R.W. Thomson (Harvard U.P., f15.50), an exciting read.

3.09 Britain This has been a good year for books, both monographs and collections of articles, dealing with Celtic’and Anglo-Saxon Britain. Amongst the most substantial is the memorial volume for the late Kathleen Hughes: Ireland in Early Medieval Europe edited by D. Whitelock, R. McKitterick and D. Dumville (CUP. f39). Some of the items it contains are of specialist interest only. but amongst the pieces that will appeal more broadly to historians of Early Medieval Britain are M.O. Anderson, ‘Dalriada and the creation of the kingdom of the Scots’. W. Davies. ‘The Latin charter-tradition in western Britain, Brittany and Ireland in the early medieval period‘. P. Sawyer, ‘The Vikings and Ireland’, and E. James. ‘Ireland and western Gaul in the Merovingian period’. Even some of the more forbidding looking items, such as M. Lapidge, ‘The cult of St Indract at Glastonbury’, well repay the reading. It is a worthy tribute to the memory of the foremost historian of early Ireland this side of the Irish sea, though its price may prevent it from receiving the dissemination that it deserves. Similar in theme, but more than twice the size is the collection H. Lowe (ed). Die lren und Eirropn inz friiheren Mittelalter (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta). With nearly 1100 pages only a selection of the contents can be mentioned here. It includes A. Angenendt, ‘Die irische Peregrinatio und ihre Auswirkungen auf dem Kontinent vor dem Jahre 800’. D. Bullough, ‘The missions to the English and Picts and their heritage to ~800’. K. Gamber. ‘Irische Liturgiebucher und ihre Verbreitung auf dem Kontinent’. H. Koller. ‘Die Iren und die Christianisierung der Baiern’, W. Miiller. ‘Der Anteil der h e n an der Christianisierung der Alemannen’, M. Richter, ‘Der irische Hintergrund der angelsachsischen Mission’. K. Schiiferdiek. ‘Columbans Wirken im Frankenreich’. A. Wendrhorst. ‘Die Iren und die Christianisierung Mainfrankens’.

40 Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature LXVIII

J. Autenrieth, ‘Irische Handschrifteniiberlieferung auf der Reichenau’, T.J. Brown, ‘The Irish element in the insular system of scripts to c850’, J. Duft, ‘Irische handschrifteniiberlieferung in St Gallen’, F. Prinz, ‘Die Rolle der Iren beim Aufbau der merowingischen Klosterkultur’, H. Spilling, ‘Irische Handscrifteniiberlieferung in Fulda. Mainz und Wiirzberg’. and much, much more besides. A new institution has given birth to a new publication: the Medieval Academy of Ireland has lauched its periodical Peritia, the first volume of which is devoted to the theme of hagiography. Amongst its contents should be noticed I.N. Wood, ‘The Vita Columbani and Merovingian hagiography’, R. Sharpe, ‘Vitae Sanctae Brigidae: the oldest texts’, K. McCone, ‘Brigit in the seventh century: a saint with three lives’, V. Law, ‘Notes on the dating and attribution of anonymous Latin grammarians of the Early Middle Ages’, and J.M. Picard, ’The purpose of Adomnan’s Vita Columbani‘. V. Law, The insular latin grammarians (Woodbridge: Boydell, f22), provides in a brief compass an authoritative guide to the works of these much neglected grammarians. Their writings are given helpful classification and their debts to their Roman predecessors are explained. Another class of text is conveniently introduced in R.-J. Hesbert, ‘Les antiphonaires monastiques insulaires’ (R. bhztdic., xcii). A Fesfichrifi for the veteran archaeologist C.A. Raleigh Radford, The early Church in western Britain and Ireland, edited by S.M. Pierce (Oxford: Brit. Archaeol. Reports, Brit. Ser., cii), contains several noteworthy items, such as C. Thomas, ‘East and West: Tintagel, Mediterranean imports and the early insular church’, W. Bodwell, ‘From mausoleum to minster: the early development of Wells Cathedral’, and S. Pearce. ‘Estates and church sites in Dorset and Gloucestershire: the emergence of a Christian society’. A shorter collection of essays has initiated the new Studies in the early history of Britian series; this is Lacin and [he vernacular langicages in early medieval Britain, edited by N. Brooks (Leicester U.P., f25), who is also General Editor of the series. As well as W. Davies, ‘Clerics as Rulers: some implications of the terminology of ecclesiastical authority in early medieval Ireland’. this volume contains two brilliant and highly challenging pieces: A.S. Gratwick, ‘Latinitas Britannica: was British latin archaic?’, which challenges with great authority the arguments of K.H. Jackson on the supposedly archaic character of British Latin; and M. Lapidge and R.I. Page, ‘The study of Latin texts in late Anglo-Saxon England’, which takes the first really close and careful look at glosses in the Latin manuscripts of the late Anglo-Saxon period, and in consequence knocks on the head a lot of rather ‘twee’ talk about classbooks. Neither of these articles should be missed, though the price of the book, with a mere 170 pages, is regretable. From the same series, and giving further weight to its launching, comes W. Davies, Wales in the early middle ages (Leicester U.P., 122, pbk €9.50). This is the first major monograph devoted to this subject since the appearance in 1911 of Sir John Lloyd’s classic History, from which it greatly differs in both structure and interpretation. An analytical approach is used, which, intentionally or otherwise, is classically Marxist in proceeding from the ‘substructures’ of land, landscape and environment, and of economy (chapters 1 and 2), to the dependant ‘superstructures’ of social ties and social strata, and secular politics (chapters 3 and 4), ending with such efluvia as Christianity and spirituality (chapter 7). It is regretable that assessment of the evidence is relegated to an appendix; how can we know what weight to give to the many and brilliant interpretations that are advanced in the course of the book, if we are not given criteria with which to evaluate the evidence, very variable in its quality. until the end? The third volume in this series to appear this year is D.W. Rollason, The Mildrith Legend: a srlrdy in early ttiedieval hagiography in Etiglntid (Leicester U . P . .

I11 Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages 41

f22), which looks into the evidence for the cult of St Mildred of Thanet, and prints two unpublished texts related to it. For a quite different Mildred, and continuing its author’s study of Epigramata collections (cf Bulletin, Ixvii), see P. Simms-Williams, ‘Mildred of Worcester’s collection of Latin epigrams and its continental counterparts’ (Anglo-Saxon England, x). What it has to say about the circulation of such poetic manuscripts from England to the Continent is most suggestive and very valuable. 3.10 Bede has as usual generated some literature this year: A.C. Dionisotti, ‘On Bede, grammars and Greek’ (R. bdnddictine, xcii), argues that the De orthographiu was intended as a tool for Biblical criticism. J.F. Kelly, ‘Bede and the Irish exegetical tradition on the Apocalypse’ (ibid), stresses the interrelationship. G. Olsen, ‘Bede as historian: the evidence from his observations on the life of the first Christian community at Jerusalem’ (J. Eccles. Hist., xxxiii), is at least looking in novel places, and for C. Vircillo Franklin and P. Meyvaert, ‘Has Bede’s version of the Passio S Anastasii come down to us in BHL 408?’ (An. Boll., c), the answer seems to be ‘yes’, though they stress this is still work in progress, and that it will require a whole monograph to itself in due course! A. Scharer, Die ungelsuchskche Konigsurkunde im 7. und 8. Juhrhundert (Vienna: Bohlau), is a major study, chronological and historical rather than palaeographical and diplomatic in character, based around the earliest Anglo-Saxon royal charters. When so many of these remain controversial and still in need of modern and critical edition, this may to some extent be jumping the gun. R.H.C. Davis, ‘Alfred and Guthrum’s frontier’ (E.H.R., xcvii), is an attempt to reconstruct the frontier between their respective kingdoms agreed upon by the two monarchs in 878. Lastly, but far from least, there comes J. Campbell (ed), The Anglo-Saxons (Oxford: Phaidon, f16.50), which in three sections, by the editor, P. Wormald and E. John, gives a short but informative and lavishly illustrated account of the whole span of Anglo-Saxon history. Separate ‘picture essays’ by the contributors and other specialists provide accounts of recent work and thought on some of the principal monuments, such as Offa’s Dyke and Sutton Hoo, the coinage, and some of the institutions, such as the Burhs, of the period. As well as the synoptic view, the authors are able to provide many new interpretations and insights, dzspite the brevity of the space alloted to them. It makes an attractive and useful book.