Synopses & Reviews
'A local study of Catalonia with wide implications for the history of medieval Europe.'
Review
"useful overview...This is a valuable and highly recommended study" CHOICE Dec 2001
Review
'\"...remarkable...\" SPECULUM\"...an extensively researched work based upon a thorough knowledge of the available archival sources.\" ComiTATUS\"...impressively researched and profoundly suggestive.\" The Journal of Interdisciplinary History\"An invaluable reference work for all medieval Hispanists.\" Bulletin of Hispanic Studies\"With its thorough and unimpeachable archival grounding, Making Agreements will undoubtedly provide ...historians with a solid foundation on which to base broader studies relating to the development of medieval judicial and administrative regimes both in medieval Catalonia and elsewhere in Latin Christendom.\" The Medieval Review\"Within their stated geographical and chronological bounds, Kosto\'s arguments are both water-tight and convincing....This is a major contribution to Catalan medieval history and to the wider issues of social and legal change in Western Europe in this period.\" English Historical Review\"Kosto offers the first systematic examination of this genre in northeastern Iberia. The region lends itself to such an examination with its remarkably rich archives and its evolution of a particularly complex governmental structure. [... Kosto\'s] study merits careful consideration by institutional historians.\" American Historical Review\"Useful overview...This is a valuable and highly recommended study.\" CHOICE Dec 2001'
Synopsis
This book examines the role of written agreements in eleventh- and twelfth-century Catalonia, and how they determined the social and political order. In addition to offering insights into subjects as diverse as the power of counts and bishops and the organization of rural societies, it addresses several current debates in medieval studies: the question of feudalism, the transformation of the year 1000, medieval literacy, and the nature of Mediterranean societies. It is thus a local study that has wide implications for the history of medieval Europe.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 318-345) and indexes.
Table of Contents
'List of figures; List of tables; Acknowledgements; Notes on citations, dates, and names; List of abbreviations; Map; Introduction: 1. Catalonia and its neighbors; 2. Feudalism in eleventh- and twelfth-century Catalonia; 3. The sources; 4. Historiography of the convenientia; Part I. The First Convenientia: Social and Documentary Change Around the Year 1000: 5. The documentary context; 6. Early Catalan convenientiae, c. 1021 50; 7. Convenientiae and the \'crisis\' of Catalan society; Part II. Making Agreements: 8. Castle tenure and military service; 9. Structures of power in convenientiae; 10. Treaties; 11. Dispute settlement; 12. Exploiting the land; 13. Family settlements; 14. Promises; Part III. Keeping Agreements; 15. Penalty clauses; 16. Sureties; 17. Procedure; 18. Case studies: Pallars and Empúries/Rosselló; 19. Oaths; Part IV. Foundations (The Eleventh Century): 20. Counts; 21. Lay aristocracy; 22. Episcopal castles; 23. Monastic military lordship; Part V. Fortunes (The Twelfth Century): 24. Renewal; 25. Conflict; 26. Change; Part VI. Writing and power: 27. Administration; 28. The Usatges de Barcelona; 29. The Liber feudorum maior; 30. The end of the convenientia; Table of published documents; Works cited; Index of names; Subject index.\n
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