Cullen J. Chandler is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Lycoming College, Pennsylvania. He has, with Steven Stofferahn, co-edited a Festschrift in honour of John J. Contreni, and his first article, 'Between Court and Counts', won the Early Medieval Europe-Blackwell Essay Prize.

'To the Franks, Catalonia was the province that got away, while to the Crown of Aragon the area brought cultural and commercial contacts from beyond the Pyrenees and into the Mediterranean. Chandler studies the central influence of the Carolingian rulers on Catalonia, not to illustrate the creation of sovereign nationhood on the advent of the Capetians, but to illuminate the area as a component element of Charlemagne's empire. Recommended.' L. C. Attreed, Choice

• Introduction; 1. Gothic Catalonia and Septimania to 778; 2. Creating the Spanish March, 778–840; 3. March and monarchy, 840–878; 4. Counts, church and kings, 877–947; 5. Learned culture in Carolingian Catalonia; 6. The March toward sovereignty? (947–988); Conclusion: Carolingian Catalonia, 778–988.

Cullen J. Chandler is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Lycoming College, Pennsylvania. He has, with Steven Stofferahn, co-edited a Festschrift in honour of John J. Contreni, and his first article, 'Between Court and Counts', won the Early Medieval Europe-Blackwell Essay Prize.

'To the Franks, Catalonia was the province that got away, while to the Crown of Aragon the area brought cultural and commercial contacts from beyond the Pyrenees and into the Mediterranean. Chandler studies the central influence of the Carolingian rulers on Catalonia, not to illustrate the creation of sovereign nationhood on the advent of the Capetians, but to illuminate the area as a component element of Charlemagne's empire. Recommended.' L. C. Attreed, Choice

• Introduction; 1. Gothic Catalonia and Septimania to 778; 2. Creating the Spanish March, 778–840; 3. March and monarchy, 840–878; 4. Counts, church and kings, 877–947; 5. Learned culture in Carolingian Catalonia; 6. The March toward sovereignty? (947–988); Conclusion: Carolingian Catalonia, 778–988.

Cullen J. Chandler is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Lycoming College, Pennsylvania. He has, with Steven Stofferahn, co-edited a Festschrift in honour of John J. Contreni, and his first article, 'Between Court and Counts', won the Early Medieval Europe-Blackwell Essay Prize.

'To the Franks, Catalonia was the province that got away, while to the Crown of Aragon the area brought cultural and commercial contacts from beyond the Pyrenees and into the Mediterranean. Chandler studies the central influence of the Carolingian rulers on Catalonia, not to illustrate the creation of sovereign nationhood on the advent of the Capetians, but to illuminate the area as a component element of Charlemagne's empire. Recommended.' L. C. Attreed, Choice

• Introduction; 1. Gothic Catalonia and Septimania to 778; 2. Creating the Spanish March, 778–840; 3. March and monarchy, 840–878; 4. Counts, church and kings, 877–947; 5. Learned culture in Carolingian Catalonia; 6. The March toward sovereignty? (947–988); Conclusion: Carolingian Catalonia, 778–988.