NEW ONLINE JOURNAL FOCUSES ON MEDIEVAL ART
30 January 2009
Arizona State University
With every decade that passes, the subject matter studied by medieval art historians recedes farther into the distant past. But that doesn't stop these scholars from discussing and writing about their passion. Nor does it stop them from publishing.
Corine Schleif, a professor of art history in the Herberger College School of Art, is the editor of the inaugural edition of a new online journal, Different Visions: A Journal of New Perspectives on Medieval Art.
The first edition, titled "Triangulating Our Vision," features Schleif's essay titled "Introduction or Conclusion: Are We Still Being Historical? Exposing the Ehenheim Epitaph Using History and Theory."
"This edition is dedicated to Madeline H. Caviness's triangulatory approach to medieval art," Schleif said. "It aims to rekindle discussions about methodology and the use of critical theory together with considerations of historical context."
So what does this mean to the average person who travels to Europe to gaze at the windows in the Chartres Cathedral, or view other religious works of art, such as Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece?
"The triangulatory approach stresses using not just theoretical insights and not just historical facts and dates, but both -- not one without the other," Schleif said. "It proposes opening up works of art from the Middle Ages not for their own sake but for audiences of today."
In other words, Schleif said, the approach "shows how works of art from the past can be used to discuss the issues that engage us today: e.g. religion, race, the invention of whiteness, the alignment of whiteness with good and darkness or blackness with evil."
An example is the use of whiteness in Medieval stained glass. In her article, "From the Self-Invention of the Whiteman in the Thirteenth Century to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," Caviness explains, "in the later Middle Ages, saints in paradise gleam as white as their garments. By then it had become the norm for glass-painters to use colorless glass instead of flesh tints. A virginal saint might be celebrated in enamels, with a pearly complexion and 'pure' white garment. At some stage, Christians appropriated something of this sanctity by depicting their kind as truly 'white.'"
Did those Medieval artists really mean to imply goodness through whiteness? "We can't go back in time to ask the artists what they meant," Schleif said. "We can only open the works of art through theory, for us today. Only we count."
In her article, Schleif explores the relationships depicted in the Ehenheim Epitaph, a panel measuring 113 by 102 centimeters, which has hung in the parish church of St. Lorenza in Nuremberg since it was painted following the death of vicar general Dr. Johannes von Ehenheim in 1438.
No archival records exist for this work, which shows Saint Lawrence, titular saint of the Nuremberg parish, Empress Cunegond and Emperor Henry II, saints of the Bamberg diocese, advocating for Ehenheim with Christ, portrayed on the right. In this painting, Christ alone stands untouched and untouchable, but clad only in a filmy loincloth.
The inaugural issue of "Different Visions" includes articles from a variety of perspectives and disciplines. "To promote the combined methods of theory and history, we invited well-known art historians, renowned scholars from related disciplines, and young scholars with fresh new ideas," Schleif said.
In helping establish the e-journal, Schleif has learned a great deal about publishing. "The e-journal has advantages and disadvantages," she said. "We can have many images, and it's not as expensive to reproduce them. But the image providers sometimes want to charge even more than for conventional books, and we have to remind them that these works are in the public domain and that non-interpretive photographs are not under copyright.
"The e-journal is free and accessible, and potentially, you can have feedback from other scholars. And, e-books are more work in some ways. More and more, scholars are required to take responsibility for editing and layout," Schleif said. "But considering the status of publishing today, perhaps this increasing responsibility is good for scholars since it allows us to get our work, and get it out faster. As medievalists, they're publishing less and less of our work."
To view "Different Visions: A Journal of New Perspectives on Medieval Art," go to www.differentvisions.org/one.html.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Sacred Beauty: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from the Collection of Robert J. Parsons
Nasher Museum of Art Presents Illuminated Manuscripts
29 January 2009
Duke University
An exhibition of Medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts from France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain will be presented by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. The exhibition, "Sacred Beauty: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from the Collection of Robert J. Parsons," features pages with miniature painted scenes of religious subjects. The exhibition is on view from Jan. 29 through May 10.
The manuscripts are "illuminated" with burnished gold leaf or gold in liquid form that contains ground gold powder applied with a pen or brush. The vellum pages were made from treated calfskin, and are vividly colored with tempera paints made from natural materials and precious gems ground into pigments. All come from religious books, most from the 15th and 16th centuries.
The collection was assembled by Robert J. Parsons (Ph.D. in English, '80), who began collecting while he was a student at Duke. The installation is accompanied by religious works of the 14th to 17th centuries from the Nasher Museum's permanent collection, including stained-glass windows, paintings, sculpture and a complete book of hours.
"These important centuries-old manuscript pages are of an extraordinary quality and make for a jewel box of an installation," said Kimerly Rorschach, Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Director of the Nasher Museum. "I hope visitors will enjoy making connections between the exquisite scenes in the manuscripts and popular works in our permanent collection."
The Nasher Museum of Art is located at 2001 Campus Drive at Anderson Street on the Duke campus. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The museum is closed Mondays.
Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and members of the Duke Alumni Association, $3 for non-Duke students with identification and free for children 16 and younger. Admission is free to all on Thursday nights. Admission is free to Duke students, faculty and staff with Duke Cards. Admission is also free to Nasher Museum members and Durham city residents who present a valid identification with proof of residency.
Additional information is available at www.nasher.duke.edu. Support for the exhibition comes from the Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies at Duke and Duke Divinity School.
29 January 2009
Duke University
An exhibition of Medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts from France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain will be presented by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. The exhibition, "Sacred Beauty: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from the Collection of Robert J. Parsons," features pages with miniature painted scenes of religious subjects. The exhibition is on view from Jan. 29 through May 10.
The manuscripts are "illuminated" with burnished gold leaf or gold in liquid form that contains ground gold powder applied with a pen or brush. The vellum pages were made from treated calfskin, and are vividly colored with tempera paints made from natural materials and precious gems ground into pigments. All come from religious books, most from the 15th and 16th centuries.
The collection was assembled by Robert J. Parsons (Ph.D. in English, '80), who began collecting while he was a student at Duke. The installation is accompanied by religious works of the 14th to 17th centuries from the Nasher Museum's permanent collection, including stained-glass windows, paintings, sculpture and a complete book of hours.
"These important centuries-old manuscript pages are of an extraordinary quality and make for a jewel box of an installation," said Kimerly Rorschach, Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Director of the Nasher Museum. "I hope visitors will enjoy making connections between the exquisite scenes in the manuscripts and popular works in our permanent collection."
The Nasher Museum of Art is located at 2001 Campus Drive at Anderson Street on the Duke campus. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The museum is closed Mondays.
Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and members of the Duke Alumni Association, $3 for non-Duke students with identification and free for children 16 and younger. Admission is free to all on Thursday nights. Admission is free to Duke students, faculty and staff with Duke Cards. Admission is also free to Nasher Museum members and Durham city residents who present a valid identification with proof of residency.
Additional information is available at www.nasher.duke.edu. Support for the exhibition comes from the Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies at Duke and Duke Divinity School.
Obituaries of three Medieval Scholars
We are sad to report the loss of three prominent medieval scholars over the last several weeks:
Alan Everitt - Alan Everitt, who has died aged 82, was a distinguished local historian of the postwar generation who helped to forge a new identity for local history that places it nowadays among the favoured branches of historical study, one that has yielded rich treasures in recent decades. Click here to read his full obituary.
Valerie Flint - was an outstanding scholar of medieval intellectual and cultural history. Her books, especially Ideas in the Medieval West, The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe and The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher Columbus, demonstrate her mastery across several disciplines of a huge range of sources, and an ability to create new and exciting syntheses. A wide range of friends and colleagues on three continents were drawn to her by her incisive mind and by her abiding love of life and her (sometimes outrageous) sense of fun. Click here to read her full obituary.
Dennis Green - Professor Dennis Green was widely known for his leading works in the fields of Germanic philology and medieval German literature. He had secured a reputation as a scholar of immense learning and wide range not only in German departments in Britain but also in German-speaking lands throughout the world. Click here to read his full obituary.
Alan Everitt - Alan Everitt, who has died aged 82, was a distinguished local historian of the postwar generation who helped to forge a new identity for local history that places it nowadays among the favoured branches of historical study, one that has yielded rich treasures in recent decades. Click here to read his full obituary.
Valerie Flint - was an outstanding scholar of medieval intellectual and cultural history. Her books, especially Ideas in the Medieval West, The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe and The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher Columbus, demonstrate her mastery across several disciplines of a huge range of sources, and an ability to create new and exciting syntheses. A wide range of friends and colleagues on three continents were drawn to her by her incisive mind and by her abiding love of life and her (sometimes outrageous) sense of fun. Click here to read her full obituary.
Dennis Green - Professor Dennis Green was widely known for his leading works in the fields of Germanic philology and medieval German literature. He had secured a reputation as a scholar of immense learning and wide range not only in German departments in Britain but also in German-speaking lands throughout the world. Click here to read his full obituary.
Are you descended from Vikings?
Are you descended from Vikings?
30 January 2009
Morpeth Herald
But did the Vikings leave their genes behind as well? Scientists at the world-famous Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester, home of DNA fingerprinting, are beginning a new study to map the extent of Viking ancestry in men who live in the north of England.The study will focus on the Y chromosome, part of our DNA that is passed down from fathers to sons.Previous work from the group, led by Prof Mark Jobling, has shown a high degree of Viking ancestry among men from the Wirral and West Lancashire, and now the aim is to extend the work further afield.One question to be addressed is the relative distribution of Norse Vikings, focused in the west, and Danish Vikings in the east.The researchers want to recruit male volunteers whose father's father was born in Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, North Yorkshire, Durham or Northumberland."As well as analysing the Y chromosomes, we are also interested in the surnames, because they are passed down the generations in the same way," said researcher Dr Turi King. "Surnames help us to make deeper links into the past, and tease out the signal of past Viking presence."Sampling is done by post, and involves simply brushing the inside of the cheek. In return for participating, volunteers will receive a description of their own Y-chromosome type when the work is completed. Men interested in taking part are asked to email Turi King at surnames@le.ac.uk, or telephone 07512 586 493.The project forms part of a recently awarded grant from the Wellcome Trust, 'What's in a name? Applying patrilineal surnames to forensics, population history, and genetic epidemiology'.
30 January 2009
Morpeth Herald
But did the Vikings leave their genes behind as well? Scientists at the world-famous Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester, home of DNA fingerprinting, are beginning a new study to map the extent of Viking ancestry in men who live in the north of England.The study will focus on the Y chromosome, part of our DNA that is passed down from fathers to sons.Previous work from the group, led by Prof Mark Jobling, has shown a high degree of Viking ancestry among men from the Wirral and West Lancashire, and now the aim is to extend the work further afield.One question to be addressed is the relative distribution of Norse Vikings, focused in the west, and Danish Vikings in the east.The researchers want to recruit male volunteers whose father's father was born in Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, North Yorkshire, Durham or Northumberland."As well as analysing the Y chromosomes, we are also interested in the surnames, because they are passed down the generations in the same way," said researcher Dr Turi King. "Surnames help us to make deeper links into the past, and tease out the signal of past Viking presence."Sampling is done by post, and involves simply brushing the inside of the cheek. In return for participating, volunteers will receive a description of their own Y-chromosome type when the work is completed. Men interested in taking part are asked to email Turi King at surnames@le.ac.uk, or telephone 07512 586 493.The project forms part of a recently awarded grant from the Wellcome Trust, 'What's in a name? Applying patrilineal surnames to forensics, population history, and genetic epidemiology'.
Jorvik Viking Festival
Vikings' net invasion
by Peta King
31 January 2009
The Northern Echo
THE Vikings have put aside their swords and battleaxes and are using the internet as they plan their next invasion of Britain.
Tickets for the annual Jorvik Viking Festival, in York, from Wednesday to Sunday, February 18 to 22 are now available, and hundreds of Vikings from as far away as Norway and the US have gone online to book tickets.
The five-day festival is the largest event of its kind in the UK, attracting more than 40,000 visitors. The festival celebrates Viking crafts, song, storytelling, seafaring and battle tactics.
Sarah Maltby, director of attractions at York Archaeological Trust, which organises the festival, says: "There are over 40 different events taking place throughout the city as part of the 2009 Jorvik Viking Festival.Many are free, and for those that offer advance tickets we have opened up online ticket sales."
Festival events bookable online include: a presentation by TV presenter Mick Aston on the making of Time Team (Feb 18, 7.30pm), a behind-the-scenes tour of the Jorvik Viking Centre (Feb 19, 5.30pm), Beowulf, a storytelling and music show at the national Centre for Early Music with master storyteller Hugh Lupton and musician Rick Wilson (Feb 20, 8pm), various children's have-a-go sessions, and the sound and light battle finale on February 21, at 4.45pm taking place on the Eye of York beside Cliffords Tower.
For details of Viking Festival events and to book tickets visit jorvik-viking-centre. co. uk or call 01904-615505.
by Peta King
31 January 2009
The Northern Echo
THE Vikings have put aside their swords and battleaxes and are using the internet as they plan their next invasion of Britain.
Tickets for the annual Jorvik Viking Festival, in York, from Wednesday to Sunday, February 18 to 22 are now available, and hundreds of Vikings from as far away as Norway and the US have gone online to book tickets.
The five-day festival is the largest event of its kind in the UK, attracting more than 40,000 visitors. The festival celebrates Viking crafts, song, storytelling, seafaring and battle tactics.
Sarah Maltby, director of attractions at York Archaeological Trust, which organises the festival, says: "There are over 40 different events taking place throughout the city as part of the 2009 Jorvik Viking Festival.Many are free, and for those that offer advance tickets we have opened up online ticket sales."
Festival events bookable online include: a presentation by TV presenter Mick Aston on the making of Time Team (Feb 18, 7.30pm), a behind-the-scenes tour of the Jorvik Viking Centre (Feb 19, 5.30pm), Beowulf, a storytelling and music show at the national Centre for Early Music with master storyteller Hugh Lupton and musician Rick Wilson (Feb 20, 8pm), various children's have-a-go sessions, and the sound and light battle finale on February 21, at 4.45pm taking place on the Eye of York beside Cliffords Tower.
For details of Viking Festival events and to book tickets visit jorvik-viking-centre. co. uk or call 01904-615505.
Saxon Cemetary discovered near Lewes
PAIR DISCOVER SAXON CEMETERY
3 February 2009
Press Association Regional Newswire - South East
Two men have spoken of "the find of a lifetime" when they uncovered a Saxon cemetery while metal detecting near Lewes.
Bob White and Cliff Smith, members of the Eastbourne District Metal Detecting Club, made the find on farmland outside the town last October and it is believed the remains laid undiscovered for up to 1,500 years.
As soon as they realised the importance of the site they sought advice from the police and local archaeologists who decided to excavate the graves immediately after seeking permission from the landowner.
Three graves were uncovered, one holding the remains of a man and two of a woman.
One of the females was buried with a bronze bowl, which still had a working handle as well as gilded brooches and silver belt decorations.
The male was buried with a spear and shield and this with other artefacts suggested the family was relatively wealthy and of a high status within their local community.
The remains have now been taken to English Heritage laboratories in Portsmouth for analysis and conservation but it is hoped they will eventually go on public display at at the Barbican House Museum in Lewes.
Paul Roberts, English Heritage Inspector of Ancient Monuments, said: "Anglo-Saxon burial grounds are one of our principal sources of evidence about early Anglo-Saxon people and their way of life. The site near Lewes has been protected as a scheduled monument in recognition of its importance and to help preserve it in future.
"Our understanding of the graves is considerably better for the careful and exemplary approach taken by the two local metal-detectorists who discovered the site and its subsequent excavation by county council staff and unpaid local archaeologists."
Under the terms of the Treasure Act the pair may be entitled to a reward, but Mr White said: "Mine and Cliff's name will go down in the history books. To find the unknown is reward enough. That's priceless."
3 February 2009
Press Association Regional Newswire - South East
Two men have spoken of "the find of a lifetime" when they uncovered a Saxon cemetery while metal detecting near Lewes.
Bob White and Cliff Smith, members of the Eastbourne District Metal Detecting Club, made the find on farmland outside the town last October and it is believed the remains laid undiscovered for up to 1,500 years.
As soon as they realised the importance of the site they sought advice from the police and local archaeologists who decided to excavate the graves immediately after seeking permission from the landowner.
Three graves were uncovered, one holding the remains of a man and two of a woman.
One of the females was buried with a bronze bowl, which still had a working handle as well as gilded brooches and silver belt decorations.
The male was buried with a spear and shield and this with other artefacts suggested the family was relatively wealthy and of a high status within their local community.
The remains have now been taken to English Heritage laboratories in Portsmouth for analysis and conservation but it is hoped they will eventually go on public display at at the Barbican House Museum in Lewes.
Paul Roberts, English Heritage Inspector of Ancient Monuments, said: "Anglo-Saxon burial grounds are one of our principal sources of evidence about early Anglo-Saxon people and their way of life. The site near Lewes has been protected as a scheduled monument in recognition of its importance and to help preserve it in future.
"Our understanding of the graves is considerably better for the careful and exemplary approach taken by the two local metal-detectorists who discovered the site and its subsequent excavation by county council staff and unpaid local archaeologists."
Under the terms of the Treasure Act the pair may be entitled to a reward, but Mr White said: "Mine and Cliff's name will go down in the history books. To find the unknown is reward enough. That's priceless."
Syriac Bible seized in Cyprus
Nine arrested over 2,000 year-old Syrian bible
By Simon Bahceli
4 February 2009
Cyprus Mail
A TWO THOUSAND year-old Syrian Orthodox bible, believed to have been smuggled into the island from southeastern Turkey, has become the subject of major police operation in the north that has so far led to the arrest of nine suspects.
The bible, estimated to be worth around 2 million, was seized during a raid at the Famagusta bus terminal last Friday where smugglers were seeking to sell it to buyers in the north. It is thought Turkish Cypriot police had been tipped off about the impending sale.
Although the north’s ‘antiquities department’ refused yesterday to comment on the bible, because it was "the subject of an ongoing inquiry", a statement from police said it was bound in deerskin, written in gold letters in the Syriac language, and believed to be around 2000 years old. The bible may have come from the heartland of the Syrian Orthodox community in southeastern Turkey, where a small community remains, despite often being caught in the crossfire between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish military.
"It is very likely to come from the Tur-Abdin area of Turkey, where there is still a Syriac speaking community," Dr Chalotte Roueche, professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King College, London told Reuters yesterday.
In 1994, the British historian William Dalrymple wrote that the community "could die out within one generation". However, conditions are reported to have improved in recent years with the Turkish government making efforts to protect religious minorities in the country.
Roueche added, however, that it was impossible to say for sure whether the bible was either from that area, or whether it was as old as the Turkish Cypriot police thought.
"The problem about this description is that a Syriac gospel-book could be from the 4th century, but it could date from several centuries after that, well into the middle ages. Indeed, I think that gospel books may still have been being written in Syriac then. Obviously the smugglers will have wanted to date it as ancient as possible," Dr Roueche added.
Police in the north believe that those arrested may have been involved in a wider antiquities smuggling operation after a Christian prayer statue and a carving of Christ were found in the Karpas village home of one of the suspects. Five sticks of dynamite were also found, which police believe were to be used for later excavations by the suspects.
The individual believed to have smuggled the bible onto the island is still being sought. He and one other suspect fled from the scene of Friday’s raid, during which police fired warning shots. All nine suspects are being held in the north on charges of smuggling antiquities, carrying out illegal excavations and possession of explosives.
The smuggling of antiquities from churches and ancient sites in the north has been an ongoing problem since the division of the island in 1974, but questions are being asked why such a valuable item would have been smuggled into the north from Turkey. Some reports said the bible may have been destined for a buyer in the south of the island.
By Simon Bahceli
4 February 2009
Cyprus Mail
A TWO THOUSAND year-old Syrian Orthodox bible, believed to have been smuggled into the island from southeastern Turkey, has become the subject of major police operation in the north that has so far led to the arrest of nine suspects.
The bible, estimated to be worth around 2 million, was seized during a raid at the Famagusta bus terminal last Friday where smugglers were seeking to sell it to buyers in the north. It is thought Turkish Cypriot police had been tipped off about the impending sale.
Although the north’s ‘antiquities department’ refused yesterday to comment on the bible, because it was "the subject of an ongoing inquiry", a statement from police said it was bound in deerskin, written in gold letters in the Syriac language, and believed to be around 2000 years old. The bible may have come from the heartland of the Syrian Orthodox community in southeastern Turkey, where a small community remains, despite often being caught in the crossfire between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish military.
"It is very likely to come from the Tur-Abdin area of Turkey, where there is still a Syriac speaking community," Dr Chalotte Roueche, professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King College, London told Reuters yesterday.
In 1994, the British historian William Dalrymple wrote that the community "could die out within one generation". However, conditions are reported to have improved in recent years with the Turkish government making efforts to protect religious minorities in the country.
Roueche added, however, that it was impossible to say for sure whether the bible was either from that area, or whether it was as old as the Turkish Cypriot police thought.
"The problem about this description is that a Syriac gospel-book could be from the 4th century, but it could date from several centuries after that, well into the middle ages. Indeed, I think that gospel books may still have been being written in Syriac then. Obviously the smugglers will have wanted to date it as ancient as possible," Dr Roueche added.
Police in the north believe that those arrested may have been involved in a wider antiquities smuggling operation after a Christian prayer statue and a carving of Christ were found in the Karpas village home of one of the suspects. Five sticks of dynamite were also found, which police believe were to be used for later excavations by the suspects.
The individual believed to have smuggled the bible onto the island is still being sought. He and one other suspect fled from the scene of Friday’s raid, during which police fired warning shots. All nine suspects are being held in the north on charges of smuggling antiquities, carrying out illegal excavations and possession of explosives.
The smuggling of antiquities from churches and ancient sites in the north has been an ongoing problem since the division of the island in 1974, but questions are being asked why such a valuable item would have been smuggled into the north from Turkey. Some reports said the bible may have been destined for a buyer in the south of the island.
The Inheritance of Rome: a History of Europe from 400 to 1000, by Chris Wickham
Decline and fall of an empire Dominic Sandbrook applauds a rival to Gibbon's masterpiece
By Dominic Sandbrook
31 January 2009
The Daily Telegraph
The Inheritance of Rome: a History of Europe from 400 to 1000
by Chris Wickham
651pp, Allen Lane
The decline and fall of the Roman Empire, wrote Edward Gibbon in the conclusion to his historical masterpiece, was "the greatest, perhaps, and most awful scene, in the history of mankind''. Schoolchildren today know far less about the Romans and their successors than they used to, yet the empire still casts a long shadow. When we fret about barbarians at the gates, or argue about the hubris of the Pax Americana, we are following in the footsteps not only of Gibbon, but of the historical characters who inhabited his work: Alaric leading the Goths through the pillaged streets of Rome; Justinian gazing for the first time on the dome of Hagia Sophia; Mohammed bringing the new message of Islam to the warriors of Arabia; Charlemagne being crowned emperor by the Pope on Christmas Day, 800.
For grandiloquent rhetoric, savage wit and narrative drama there is still nobody to touch Gibbon. But the Oxford professor Chris Wickham's new history of the last years of Rome and the rise of its successors, spanning an impressive six centuries of European history, is a worthy competitor. As a volume in the same series as Tim Blanning's acclaimed history of Europe in the age of Louis XIV and Mozart, it has a lot to live up to (as if Gibbon's shadow were not enough). But it is a tribute to Wickham's awe-inspiring command of his sources, his stunning narrative sweep and his encyclopedic knowledge that it succeeds so masterfully.
The new year may be only a month old, but it is hard to believe that it will produce many more enduring and impressive history books than this.
Perhaps the most obvious difference between this book and Gibbon's masterpiece is that Wickham almost immediately dismisses the idea of decline and fall. The late Roman world was, as he shows, a stable and sophisticated society, bound together by patronage, commerce and, above all, taxation, its citizens often living in bustling cities or country estates. But it did not suddenly fall apart when the Goths and Vandals showed up. Indeed, the people that we still call "barbarians" often adopted Roman models, whether of religion, coinage or language, and there was little sense of the end of an era. In North Africa, Wickham writes, the Vandals even "thought they were being very Roman".
The end of the Western empire was a story of evolution, not overnight collapse - and the deposition of the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, in 476 was one of history's greatest non-events.
In the eastern Mediterranean, in any case, Roman rule continued for centuries. Gibbon had little time for the East Roman empire (which we call Byzantine, although nobody called it that at the time), but Wickham reminds us that for centuries it remained the most sophisticated and powerful state in the Eurasian world. He is a pithy and compelling guide through the narrative complexities of Constantinople politics, from the ruthless Justinian II, the emperor with the golden nose, to the grim Basil the Bulgar-Slayer, but he is happiest when exploring the subterranean shifts of social and economic history, showing how state power waxed and waned, how people made and spent their money, and how they worshipped and thought. Indeed, for anybody who has seen and admired the Byzantium exhibition at the Royal Academy, this book is the ideal companion.
But one of Wickham's great strengths is his vast geographical and comparative range, so that we get a sense not just of one society, but of half a dozen or more. The only state that really compared with the Byzantine Empire for power and complexity was the gigantic Abbasid caliphate ruled from Baghdad, for a while the greatest city in the world. Unlike so many lazy post-September 11, 2001 popular histories, this book gives us little sense of a clash of civilisations; instead, Wickham shows how both empires were the heirs of Rome, and how they confronted strikingly similar economic and ideological dilemmas. And he is no less insightful when explaining the politics of the Merovingians, the "long-haired kings'' of the Franks, with their love of feasting and fighting - or of the Anglo-Saxons, the Lombards, the Carolingians, and a host of other fascinating peoples.
Although it is the grand sweep that really marks this book, Wickham has a sharp eye for a revealing anecdote, illuminating even the murkiest corners of the so-called Dark Ages. I loved, for example, the Irish king's timetable, which dictated that Sunday was for drinking ale, Monday for judgment, Tuesday for board games, Wednesday for hunting, Thursday for sex, and so on.
Almost every page is full of arresting details and insights; even specialists will learn a lot. No review, in fact, can really do this book justice: it is a superlative work of historical scholarship.
By Dominic Sandbrook
31 January 2009
The Daily Telegraph
The Inheritance of Rome: a History of Europe from 400 to 1000
by Chris Wickham
651pp, Allen Lane
The decline and fall of the Roman Empire, wrote Edward Gibbon in the conclusion to his historical masterpiece, was "the greatest, perhaps, and most awful scene, in the history of mankind''. Schoolchildren today know far less about the Romans and their successors than they used to, yet the empire still casts a long shadow. When we fret about barbarians at the gates, or argue about the hubris of the Pax Americana, we are following in the footsteps not only of Gibbon, but of the historical characters who inhabited his work: Alaric leading the Goths through the pillaged streets of Rome; Justinian gazing for the first time on the dome of Hagia Sophia; Mohammed bringing the new message of Islam to the warriors of Arabia; Charlemagne being crowned emperor by the Pope on Christmas Day, 800.
For grandiloquent rhetoric, savage wit and narrative drama there is still nobody to touch Gibbon. But the Oxford professor Chris Wickham's new history of the last years of Rome and the rise of its successors, spanning an impressive six centuries of European history, is a worthy competitor. As a volume in the same series as Tim Blanning's acclaimed history of Europe in the age of Louis XIV and Mozart, it has a lot to live up to (as if Gibbon's shadow were not enough). But it is a tribute to Wickham's awe-inspiring command of his sources, his stunning narrative sweep and his encyclopedic knowledge that it succeeds so masterfully.
The new year may be only a month old, but it is hard to believe that it will produce many more enduring and impressive history books than this.
Perhaps the most obvious difference between this book and Gibbon's masterpiece is that Wickham almost immediately dismisses the idea of decline and fall. The late Roman world was, as he shows, a stable and sophisticated society, bound together by patronage, commerce and, above all, taxation, its citizens often living in bustling cities or country estates. But it did not suddenly fall apart when the Goths and Vandals showed up. Indeed, the people that we still call "barbarians" often adopted Roman models, whether of religion, coinage or language, and there was little sense of the end of an era. In North Africa, Wickham writes, the Vandals even "thought they were being very Roman".
The end of the Western empire was a story of evolution, not overnight collapse - and the deposition of the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, in 476 was one of history's greatest non-events.
In the eastern Mediterranean, in any case, Roman rule continued for centuries. Gibbon had little time for the East Roman empire (which we call Byzantine, although nobody called it that at the time), but Wickham reminds us that for centuries it remained the most sophisticated and powerful state in the Eurasian world. He is a pithy and compelling guide through the narrative complexities of Constantinople politics, from the ruthless Justinian II, the emperor with the golden nose, to the grim Basil the Bulgar-Slayer, but he is happiest when exploring the subterranean shifts of social and economic history, showing how state power waxed and waned, how people made and spent their money, and how they worshipped and thought. Indeed, for anybody who has seen and admired the Byzantium exhibition at the Royal Academy, this book is the ideal companion.
But one of Wickham's great strengths is his vast geographical and comparative range, so that we get a sense not just of one society, but of half a dozen or more. The only state that really compared with the Byzantine Empire for power and complexity was the gigantic Abbasid caliphate ruled from Baghdad, for a while the greatest city in the world. Unlike so many lazy post-September 11, 2001 popular histories, this book gives us little sense of a clash of civilisations; instead, Wickham shows how both empires were the heirs of Rome, and how they confronted strikingly similar economic and ideological dilemmas. And he is no less insightful when explaining the politics of the Merovingians, the "long-haired kings'' of the Franks, with their love of feasting and fighting - or of the Anglo-Saxons, the Lombards, the Carolingians, and a host of other fascinating peoples.
Although it is the grand sweep that really marks this book, Wickham has a sharp eye for a revealing anecdote, illuminating even the murkiest corners of the so-called Dark Ages. I loved, for example, the Irish king's timetable, which dictated that Sunday was for drinking ale, Monday for judgment, Tuesday for board games, Wednesday for hunting, Thursday for sex, and so on.
Almost every page is full of arresting details and insights; even specialists will learn a lot. No review, in fact, can really do this book justice: it is a superlative work of historical scholarship.
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