Institute for Medieval Studies

Session	1014
Title	The Merovingian Kingdoms: Sessions in Honour of Ian N. Wood, I
Date/Time	Wednesday 8 July 2015: 09.00-10.30
Organiser	Tim Barnwell, Kısmet Press, Leeds / School of History, University of Leeds
	Ricky Broome, Leeds Institute for Clinical Trials Research (LICTR), University of Leeds
	N. Kıvılcım Yavuz, Institute for Medieval Studies / School of History, University of Leeds
Moderator/Chair	Yitzhak Hen, Department of History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Respondent	Yitzhak Hen, Department of History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Paper 1014-a	Avitus of Vienne: Onwards and Upwards (Language: English) Danuta Shanzer, Institut für Klassische Philologie, Mittel- und Neulatein, Universität Wien Index Terms: Ecclesiastical History; Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 1014-b	Merovingian Elite in the 7th Century: Competitive and Cooperative Logics (Language: English) Régine Le Jan, Laboratoire de Médiévistique Occidentale de Paris (LaMOP - UMR 8589), Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne Index Terms: Politics and Diplomacy; Social History
Paper 1014-c	Town and Country in Merovingian and Early Carolingian Hagiography (Language: English) Paul Fouracre, Department of History, University of Manchester Index Terms: Hagiography; Monasticism; Religious Life
Abstract	This first session in honour of Ian N. Wood takes its name from his first monograph, The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751 (Longman, 1994). Wood’s book has changed the modern assessments regarding the Merovingians and, after over two decades since its first publication, it still is considered a ground-breaking and influential work on early Frankish history. The three papers in this session will look at different aspects of the Merovingian period. Danuta Shanzer will discuss the aftermath of the first translation of Avitus of Vienne, taking the audience into new areas related to Avitus, including the transmission and reception of his works. Régine Le Jan will focus on the social interactions between kings and elite groups in the 7th century, and taking in account the advances in social sciences, the historical researches about emotions, networks, and competition, will ask how competitive logics combine with yearning for peace and salvation. Finally, Paul Fouracre will examine the development of the concept of wilderness through the descriptions of landscape and townscape in a range of Vitae of Merovingian bishops and will suggest that wilderness was largely conceptual rather than actual.