European University Institute Library

The languages of gift in the early Middle Ages, edited by Wendy Davies and Paul Fouracre

Includes bibliographical references and index

no index present

non fiction

The languages of gift in the early Middle Ages

871058703

edited by Wendy Davies and Paul Fouracre

This pioneering volume illuminates the practice of giving, endowing and exchanging gifts in the early Middle Ages, from Anglo-Saxon England to the Islamic world. Focusing especially on the language associated with medieval gift giving, this important new work examines how people visualized and thought about gift giving and, importantly, how they distinguished between the giving of gifts and other social, economic, political and religious exchanges. The authors demonstrate that gift giving was already complex, distinctive and sometimes contentious before the twelfth century and operated within a broad international context. They draw from the sources a deeper understanding of the early Middle Ages by looking at real cases and real people: peasants, the elderly and women, as well as elites. The culture of medieval gift has often been treated as archaic and exotic; this book, by contrast, reveals people going about their lives as individuals in down-to-earth and sometimes familiar ways --, Provided by Publisher

List of illustrations List of contributors Preface Acknowledgments Abbreviations 1. Introduction Janet L. Nelson 2. Giving to God in the mass: the experience of the Offertory David Ganz 3. Gifts and prayers: the visualization of gift-giving in Byzantium and the mosaics at Hagia Sophia Leslie Brubaker 4. The use of the term 'beneficium' in Frankish sources: a society based on favours? Paul Fouracre 5. The gifts of Wearmouth and Jarrow Ian N. Wood 6. The settings of the gift in the reign of Charlemagne Janet L. Nelson 7. The queen of the Franks offers gifts to the caliph al-Muktafi' Ann Christys 8. Reciprocal gifts on Mount Athos in the tenth and eleventh centuries Rosemary Morris 9. Compulsory gift-exchange in Lombard Italy, 650<U+0127> 1150 Chris Wickham 10. When gift is sale: reciprocities and commodities in tenth-century Christian Iberia Wendy Davies 11. Conclusion Chris Wickham Glossary Bibliography Index