... Florin Curta's excellent survey of the history of Slav archaeology is exactly the kind o... more ... Florin Curta's excellent survey of the history of Slav archaeology is exactly the kind of meta-history that we need in order to monitor historiography and our own place within it. ... 608-09. Florin Curta's model in his Making of the Slavs is different, but not incompatible with my views. ...
This year's summer issue presents articles clustered around two topics: Monasticism and Sacred La... more This year's summer issue presents articles clustered around two topics: Monasticism and Sacred Landscapes and Byzantine Connections. Under the heading Monasticism and Sacred Landscapes we have assembled articles discussing the interaction of monastic institutions with their environment. How did they shape the landscape, both in an economic/ecological sense, and in ritual and symbolic ways? This topic is explored in case studies from Southeast Asia, Byzantium and Western Europe: Cambodia, Greece and Gaul. Monasteries are among the medieval institutions that seem most easily comparable, at least between Christian and Buddhist spheres, as Jesuit missionaries already noted. But we have to be careful that the classification of non-Christian institutions as ›monasteries‹ does not transport any unreflected assumptions into our analysis. The present papers put apparent cross-cultural similarities of monastic communities to the test. They are supplemented by a fairly theoretical essay about the significance of ›asceticism‹ in Christian monasteries but also in modern scholarly discourse, which may encourage further reflection about the topic. An Old Ritual Capital, a New Ritual Landscape uses architectural evidence to trace changes not only in religious practice but also in the interaction between religious and non-religious spaces in the urban environment of Angkor Thom from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries CE. The Monasteries of Athos and Chalkidiki (8th-11th centuries) examines the influence the foundation of monasteries had on the development of an entire region, and focuses thereby on regional conflicts between local agricultural and religious communities in which competition for the control of land seems to have been a driving motive. Pro qualitate loci et instantia laboris undertakes a close reading of the founding myths of late antique monasteries in Gaul, exploring-in combination with archaeological evidence-the interaction between the monks and their human and natural environment in the fourth and fifth centuries CE. The Limitations of Asceticism is based on a critical reading of scholarly language used in the study of religious communities. Three different angles are employed: the roots and history of the terms asceticism, Askese, ascétisme are outlined, the origens of the term askēsis traced in Greek monastic discourse and the transformations of religious ›ascetic‹ practices in a number of Latin hagiographic and normative texts described. The article offers an innovative and challenging approach to traditional ideas about monastic practices. Submissions critically engaging with its argument, or applying it to other macro-regions, would be welcome. The cluster Byzantine Connections addresses the cultural, commercial and diplomatic exchanges of Byzantium with its eastern and western neighbours. Two articles focus on the reception of Byzantine culture in Italian sources: Greeks and »Greek« Writers in the Early Medieval Italian Papyri examines Greek script used in the sixth-and seventh-century papyri documents of Ravenna, whereas Resenting Byzantine Iconoclasm investigates an eighth-century inscription in Lombard Italy providing new aspects of the reception of Byzantine iconoclasm.
Die christliche Dimension ethnischer Identitäten im Frühmittelalter Im Jahr 1962hielt ein jungerT... more Die christliche Dimension ethnischer Identitäten im Frühmittelalter Im Jahr 1962hielt ein jungerTheologeinSalzburgeine Vorlesung unter dem Titel "Die Einheitder Nationen-Eine Vision der Kirchenväter".Sie wurde später auch als Buch publiziert.S ein Namew ar Joseph Ratzinger; er ist später unter dem Namen Benedikt XVI. bekannt geworden.² Das christliche Anliegen, so argumentierte er,war vonAnfang an, die Spaltungder Nationenzuüberwinden. Es ist interessant,wie stark Ratzinger seine Vision christlicher Einheit an den "kosmischen Anspruchd er Pax Romana" anknüpft.³ Wiee ra nA ugustinus zeigt,g ing es darum, "die ungeheure Hingabe, mit der Menschen hier an dem vergänglichen Ziel eines irdischen Staates und irdischer Größe gearbeitet haben, aufd as ewigeZ iel einer Einheit in Christus umzulenken."⁴ Im Epheserbrief,soargumentiert Ratzinger,ist Einheit das Leitmotivdie Sünde erscheint "als ein Mysterium der Trennung",das "Christusmysterium,das die Sünde aufhebt,w ird hier folgerecht als ein Mysterium der Wiedervereinigung verstanden."⁵ AusS icht der Nachkriegszeit ist der Nationalismus, der zum Krieg führte, sicherlich mitgedacht bei der Sünde, die zur Trennungf ührt; Aufgabe der Kirche war es, aufd em Mysterium der Vereinigung zu bestehen. "Das Christusmysterium ist für die Vätera ls solches und ganzese in Mysterium der Einheit",s tellt Ratzinger fest.⁶ Eingeschärftw ird durch die fast schon stereotypeW iederholung dieses Gedankens,dass diese Einheit eben ein Mysterium ist und kaum durch irdische Bemühung,sondern nur in Christus erreichbar ist.Sogedeutet,ersetzt die aufErden in der Kirche Christi verkörperteE inheit aufh öherer Ebene den Zusammenhalt des Imperiums. Die Implikationen für die Geschichte der Spätantikeu nd des Frühmittelalterssind in dem Büchlein nicht ausgeführt.Hier wird nur in sehr subtiler Form ein Gegensatz angesprochen, der aufs elten reflektierteW eise eine Grundkonstanted er Meistererzählungv on der Geschichte des Abendlandes darstellt: der Widerspruch zwischenc hristlichem Universalismus und nationalem Partikularismus, oder überhaupt,zwischenV isionen der Einheit und den immer konfliktträchtigen Einzelinteressen, die den Kontinent geprägt haben. Das ist in der jüngeren deutschen Kirchengeschichtsforschung oft recht zugespitzt formuliert worden. "Dem gentilenS elbstverständnis stand das Christentum radikal Diese Forschungenw urden vomF onds zur wissenschaftlichen Forschungi nÖ sterreich (FWF) im Rahmen des SFB F4 2"VISCOM" gefördert.
Introduction: Ego trouble? "Es ist unmöglich wahrer über sich selbst zu schreiben, als man ist" (... more Introduction: Ego trouble? "Es ist unmöglich wahrer über sich selbst zu schreiben, als man ist" (Ludwig Wittgenstein 1) 'Ego trouble' may seem slightly inappropriate as a title for a volume on early medieval authors. 2 Some may be reminded of psychoanalytical debates or of Judith Butler's feminist classic 'gender trouble', written in the heydays of postmodernism. 3 There were, however, two reasons for chosing it. One is that the debate on medieval 'individualism' has been trapped within, or between, linear master narratives for too long. When was the modern individual 'born', in the 12 th and 13 th , in the 15 th or only in the 18 th century? 4 Did medieval people have to live without a self? To pose the problem in terms of 'the origens of the individual/the self' would already introduce a teleological concept bound to come in the way of a close reading of the evidence. The present title is more open, and spells out that we are not in a position to apply well-defined categories to a clear set of historical sources. We are in methodological trouble indeed. The second reason for choosing the title was that looking for trouble in our evidence is in fact an important and often-ignored methodological tool for the analysis of past individuals, groups and societies. That may be more productive than trying to fit the evidence neatly in simple categories, such as individual/collective, rational/irrational, modern/archaic, or autonomous/ heteronomous. This is not to say that such terms are totally inadequate. They allow, up to a certain point, to establish differences and detect developments. But as research moves on, binary opposites and the respective master narratives tend to become methodological obstacles. Intellectuals of our day may well have a capacity for self-reflection superior to the best medieval minds; but at the present stage, that is not a very interesting conclusion any more, and it easily leads to the simplifying view that the Middle Ages were an archaic society
What was the significance of the gens Gothorum in Isidore's writings, and in the world in which h... more What was the significance of the gens Gothorum in Isidore's writings, and in the world in which he lived? The present article discusses the Historia Gothorum, the Etymologies, the Acts of Toledo III and IV, and in what ways the Goths appear in these texts. Gothic rule, and a political world of gentes, had come to seem natural. Isidore promotes a vision of Catholic unity of Spania and its different peoples under Gothic rule, but maintains the distinctiveness of the Goths as a people. Their victories and their Catholic conversion now legitimize their rule over the entire peninsula, for which they should seek the consensus of the bishops as representatives of the Spanish patria. This vision is not directed at the obliteration of differences between the Goths and the other populi of Spain, but at a balance of interests based on Christian values. Isidore was aware of the problems of Gothic rule in the past, and hoped to contribute to their more responsible conduct in the future. Many scholars underline that Isidore's historical work is "virulently pro-Visigothic", written "to underline Visigothic superiority over their political opponents". 2 Indeed, the impression that Isidore's History of the Goths in particular is an unambiguous "glorification of the Visigoths" 3 , "une apologie de la nation gothique" 4 easily emerges from the text. "Isidore celebrated the Spanish Goths", as Walter Goffart put it; he saw Isidore's History as the earliest of "the first national histories", together with Fredegar, the Origo gentis Langobardorum and Bede's Ecclesiastical History. 5 Marc Reydellet called Isidore's History "le premier monument de l'histoire nationale espagnole". 6 Jacques Fontaine was slightly more subdued about Isidore's praise of the Goths, but still links the author's historiographic project closely with an apology of the Goths as rulers of Spain: "Grâce à Isidore de Séville, voici les Wisigoths solidement installés à leur place, dans l'histoire de l'Espagne par l'Eloge de l'Espagne, dans l'histoire de Rome par le traité 'De l'origene des Goths', comme ils 1 The research leading to these results was conducted in the context of the European Research Council in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-13) under the ERC grant agreement No. 269591 and the Austrian Research Fund (FWF) Project P27804-G16. We are grateful to Molly Lester, Helmut Reimitz and Graeme Ward for corrections and comments.
... Florin Curta's excellent survey of the history of Slav archaeology is exactly the kind o... more ... Florin Curta's excellent survey of the history of Slav archaeology is exactly the kind of meta-history that we need in order to monitor historiography and our own place within it. ... 608-09. Florin Curta's model in his Making of the Slavs is different, but not incompatible with my views. ...
This year's summer issue presents articles clustered around two topics: Monasticism and Sacred La... more This year's summer issue presents articles clustered around two topics: Monasticism and Sacred Landscapes and Byzantine Connections. Under the heading Monasticism and Sacred Landscapes we have assembled articles discussing the interaction of monastic institutions with their environment. How did they shape the landscape, both in an economic/ecological sense, and in ritual and symbolic ways? This topic is explored in case studies from Southeast Asia, Byzantium and Western Europe: Cambodia, Greece and Gaul. Monasteries are among the medieval institutions that seem most easily comparable, at least between Christian and Buddhist spheres, as Jesuit missionaries already noted. But we have to be careful that the classification of non-Christian institutions as ›monasteries‹ does not transport any unreflected assumptions into our analysis. The present papers put apparent cross-cultural similarities of monastic communities to the test. They are supplemented by a fairly theoretical essay about the significance of ›asceticism‹ in Christian monasteries but also in modern scholarly discourse, which may encourage further reflection about the topic. An Old Ritual Capital, a New Ritual Landscape uses architectural evidence to trace changes not only in religious practice but also in the interaction between religious and non-religious spaces in the urban environment of Angkor Thom from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries CE. The Monasteries of Athos and Chalkidiki (8th-11th centuries) examines the influence the foundation of monasteries had on the development of an entire region, and focuses thereby on regional conflicts between local agricultural and religious communities in which competition for the control of land seems to have been a driving motive. Pro qualitate loci et instantia laboris undertakes a close reading of the founding myths of late antique monasteries in Gaul, exploring-in combination with archaeological evidence-the interaction between the monks and their human and natural environment in the fourth and fifth centuries CE. The Limitations of Asceticism is based on a critical reading of scholarly language used in the study of religious communities. Three different angles are employed: the roots and history of the terms asceticism, Askese, ascétisme are outlined, the origens of the term askēsis traced in Greek monastic discourse and the transformations of religious ›ascetic‹ practices in a number of Latin hagiographic and normative texts described. The article offers an innovative and challenging approach to traditional ideas about monastic practices. Submissions critically engaging with its argument, or applying it to other macro-regions, would be welcome. The cluster Byzantine Connections addresses the cultural, commercial and diplomatic exchanges of Byzantium with its eastern and western neighbours. Two articles focus on the reception of Byzantine culture in Italian sources: Greeks and »Greek« Writers in the Early Medieval Italian Papyri examines Greek script used in the sixth-and seventh-century papyri documents of Ravenna, whereas Resenting Byzantine Iconoclasm investigates an eighth-century inscription in Lombard Italy providing new aspects of the reception of Byzantine iconoclasm.
Die christliche Dimension ethnischer Identitäten im Frühmittelalter Im Jahr 1962hielt ein jungerT... more Die christliche Dimension ethnischer Identitäten im Frühmittelalter Im Jahr 1962hielt ein jungerTheologeinSalzburgeine Vorlesung unter dem Titel "Die Einheitder Nationen-Eine Vision der Kirchenväter".Sie wurde später auch als Buch publiziert.S ein Namew ar Joseph Ratzinger; er ist später unter dem Namen Benedikt XVI. bekannt geworden.² Das christliche Anliegen, so argumentierte er,war vonAnfang an, die Spaltungder Nationenzuüberwinden. Es ist interessant,wie stark Ratzinger seine Vision christlicher Einheit an den "kosmischen Anspruchd er Pax Romana" anknüpft.³ Wiee ra nA ugustinus zeigt,g ing es darum, "die ungeheure Hingabe, mit der Menschen hier an dem vergänglichen Ziel eines irdischen Staates und irdischer Größe gearbeitet haben, aufd as ewigeZ iel einer Einheit in Christus umzulenken."⁴ Im Epheserbrief,soargumentiert Ratzinger,ist Einheit das Leitmotivdie Sünde erscheint "als ein Mysterium der Trennung",das "Christusmysterium,das die Sünde aufhebt,w ird hier folgerecht als ein Mysterium der Wiedervereinigung verstanden."⁵ AusS icht der Nachkriegszeit ist der Nationalismus, der zum Krieg führte, sicherlich mitgedacht bei der Sünde, die zur Trennungf ührt; Aufgabe der Kirche war es, aufd em Mysterium der Vereinigung zu bestehen. "Das Christusmysterium ist für die Vätera ls solches und ganzese in Mysterium der Einheit",s tellt Ratzinger fest.⁶ Eingeschärftw ird durch die fast schon stereotypeW iederholung dieses Gedankens,dass diese Einheit eben ein Mysterium ist und kaum durch irdische Bemühung,sondern nur in Christus erreichbar ist.Sogedeutet,ersetzt die aufErden in der Kirche Christi verkörperteE inheit aufh öherer Ebene den Zusammenhalt des Imperiums. Die Implikationen für die Geschichte der Spätantikeu nd des Frühmittelalterssind in dem Büchlein nicht ausgeführt.Hier wird nur in sehr subtiler Form ein Gegensatz angesprochen, der aufs elten reflektierteW eise eine Grundkonstanted er Meistererzählungv on der Geschichte des Abendlandes darstellt: der Widerspruch zwischenc hristlichem Universalismus und nationalem Partikularismus, oder überhaupt,zwischenV isionen der Einheit und den immer konfliktträchtigen Einzelinteressen, die den Kontinent geprägt haben. Das ist in der jüngeren deutschen Kirchengeschichtsforschung oft recht zugespitzt formuliert worden. "Dem gentilenS elbstverständnis stand das Christentum radikal Diese Forschungenw urden vomF onds zur wissenschaftlichen Forschungi nÖ sterreich (FWF) im Rahmen des SFB F4 2"VISCOM" gefördert.
Introduction: Ego trouble? "Es ist unmöglich wahrer über sich selbst zu schreiben, als man ist" (... more Introduction: Ego trouble? "Es ist unmöglich wahrer über sich selbst zu schreiben, als man ist" (Ludwig Wittgenstein 1) 'Ego trouble' may seem slightly inappropriate as a title for a volume on early medieval authors. 2 Some may be reminded of psychoanalytical debates or of Judith Butler's feminist classic 'gender trouble', written in the heydays of postmodernism. 3 There were, however, two reasons for chosing it. One is that the debate on medieval 'individualism' has been trapped within, or between, linear master narratives for too long. When was the modern individual 'born', in the 12 th and 13 th , in the 15 th or only in the 18 th century? 4 Did medieval people have to live without a self? To pose the problem in terms of 'the origens of the individual/the self' would already introduce a teleological concept bound to come in the way of a close reading of the evidence. The present title is more open, and spells out that we are not in a position to apply well-defined categories to a clear set of historical sources. We are in methodological trouble indeed. The second reason for choosing the title was that looking for trouble in our evidence is in fact an important and often-ignored methodological tool for the analysis of past individuals, groups and societies. That may be more productive than trying to fit the evidence neatly in simple categories, such as individual/collective, rational/irrational, modern/archaic, or autonomous/ heteronomous. This is not to say that such terms are totally inadequate. They allow, up to a certain point, to establish differences and detect developments. But as research moves on, binary opposites and the respective master narratives tend to become methodological obstacles. Intellectuals of our day may well have a capacity for self-reflection superior to the best medieval minds; but at the present stage, that is not a very interesting conclusion any more, and it easily leads to the simplifying view that the Middle Ages were an archaic society
What was the significance of the gens Gothorum in Isidore's writings, and in the world in which h... more What was the significance of the gens Gothorum in Isidore's writings, and in the world in which he lived? The present article discusses the Historia Gothorum, the Etymologies, the Acts of Toledo III and IV, and in what ways the Goths appear in these texts. Gothic rule, and a political world of gentes, had come to seem natural. Isidore promotes a vision of Catholic unity of Spania and its different peoples under Gothic rule, but maintains the distinctiveness of the Goths as a people. Their victories and their Catholic conversion now legitimize their rule over the entire peninsula, for which they should seek the consensus of the bishops as representatives of the Spanish patria. This vision is not directed at the obliteration of differences between the Goths and the other populi of Spain, but at a balance of interests based on Christian values. Isidore was aware of the problems of Gothic rule in the past, and hoped to contribute to their more responsible conduct in the future. Many scholars underline that Isidore's historical work is "virulently pro-Visigothic", written "to underline Visigothic superiority over their political opponents". 2 Indeed, the impression that Isidore's History of the Goths in particular is an unambiguous "glorification of the Visigoths" 3 , "une apologie de la nation gothique" 4 easily emerges from the text. "Isidore celebrated the Spanish Goths", as Walter Goffart put it; he saw Isidore's History as the earliest of "the first national histories", together with Fredegar, the Origo gentis Langobardorum and Bede's Ecclesiastical History. 5 Marc Reydellet called Isidore's History "le premier monument de l'histoire nationale espagnole". 6 Jacques Fontaine was slightly more subdued about Isidore's praise of the Goths, but still links the author's historiographic project closely with an apology of the Goths as rulers of Spain: "Grâce à Isidore de Séville, voici les Wisigoths solidement installés à leur place, dans l'histoire de l'Espagne par l'Eloge de l'Espagne, dans l'histoire de Rome par le traité 'De l'origene des Goths', comme ils 1 The research leading to these results was conducted in the context of the European Research Council in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-13) under the ERC grant agreement No. 269591 and the Austrian Research Fund (FWF) Project P27804-G16. We are grateful to Molly Lester, Helmut Reimitz and Graeme Ward for corrections and comments.
Historiography and Identity I: Ancient and Early Christian Narratives of Community, 2019
The six-volume sub-series "Historiography and Identity" unites a wide variety of case studies fro... more The six-volume sub-series "Historiography and Identity" unites a wide variety of case studies from Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages, from the Latin West to the emerging polities in Northern and Eastern Europe, and also incorporates a Eurasian perspective which includes the Islamic World and China. The series aims to develop a critical methodology that harnesses the potential of identity studies to enhance our understanding of the construction and impact of historiography. This first volume in the "Historiography and Identity" sub-series examines the many ways in which historiographical works shaped identities in ancient and medieval societies by focusing on the historians of ancient Greece and the late Roman Empire. It presents in-depth studies about how history writing could create a sense of community, thereby shedding light on the links between authorial strategies, processes of identification, and cultural memory. The contributions explore the importance of regional, ethnic, cultural, and imperial identities to the process of history writing, embedding the works in the changing political landscape.
Uploads
Papers by Walter Pohl
This first volume in the "Historiography and Identity" sub-series examines the many ways in which historiographical works shaped identities in ancient and medieval societies by focusing on the historians of ancient Greece and the late Roman Empire. It presents in-depth studies about how history writing could create a sense of community, thereby shedding light on the links between authorial strategies, processes of identification, and cultural memory. The contributions explore the importance of regional, ethnic, cultural, and imperial identities to the process of history writing, embedding the works in the changing political landscape.