Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Despite common perceptions of the medieval world as mostly land-based or limited to individual courts, we can discover the development of the urbanization process already in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The complexity of the matter requires a fully interdisciplinary approach, including art history, literature, urban geography, womena (TM)s studies, social and economic history, religion, and philosophy. The contributions to this new volume build on extensive research on urban history but develop intriguingly new insight into living space, mental structures, and social conditions within medieval and early-modern cities.
Synopsis
Die neue englischsprachige Reihe zur Mediavistik strebt eine methodisch reflektierte, anspruchsvolle Verbindung von Text- und Kulturwissenschaft an. Sie widmet sich den kulturellen Grundthemen der mittelalterlichen Welt aus der Perspektive der Literatur- und Geschichtswissenschaft. 'Grundthemen' sind die kulturpragenden Denkbilder, Weltanschauungen, Sozialstrukturen und Alltagsbedingungen des mittelalterlichen Lebens, also z. B. Kindheit und Alter, Sexualitat, Religion, Medizin, Rituale, Arbeit, Armut und Reichtum, Aberglauben, Erde und Kosmos, Stadt und Land, Krieg, Emotionen, Kommunikation, Reisen usw. Die Reihe greift wichtige aktuelle Fachdiskussionen auf und stellt ein Forum der interdisziplinaren Mittelalter-Forschung dar.
Fundamentals of MedievalCulture steht Sammelbanden ebenso offen wie Monographien. Intention ist immer, kompendienhafte Werke zu zentralen Fragen der mittelalterlichen Kulturgeschichte vorzulegen, die einen soliden Uberblick uber einen geschlossenen Themenkreis aus der Perspektive verschiedener Fachdisziplinen vermitteln. Im Ganzen bietet die Reihe so eine Enzyklopadie der mittelalterlichen Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte und ihrer Hauptthemen. Es werden ca. zwei Bande pro Jahr erscheinen.
Synopsis
Although the city as a central entity did not simply disappear with the Fall of the Roman Empire, the development of urban space at least since the twelfth century played a major role in the history of medieval and early modern mentality within a social-economic and religious framework. Whereas some poets projected urban space as a new utopia, others simply reflected the new significance of the urban environment as a stage where their characters operate very successfully. As today, the premodern city was the locus where different social groups and classes got together, sometimes peacefully, sometimes in hostile terms. The historical development of the relationship between Christians and Jews, for instance, was deeply determined by the living conditions within a city. By the late Middle Ages, nobility and bourgeoisie began to intermingle within the urban space, which set the stage for dramatic and far-reaching changes in the social and economic make-up of society. Legal-historical aspects also find as much consideration as practical questions concerning water supply and sewer systems. Moreover, the early modern city within the Ottoman and Middle Eastern world likewise finds consideration. Finally, as some contributors observe, the urban space provided considerable opportunities for women to carve out a niche for themselves in economic terms.
Synopsis
The contributors to this new volume explore the wide gamut of characteristic features determining the rise of the city as a central living space since the high Middle Ages, and extend the investigation up to the eighteenth century. Historians, literary historians, and art historians reflect upon the meaning of urban space as it evolved since ca. 1200, offering new case studies, exploring specific approaches by artists and poets, and investigating how the various social classes interacted with each other within the city over time. Gender issues and legal aspects play as important roles as economic, religious, and architectural elements.