Mia Korpiola – författare

This book examines gendered punishments in medieval Nordic laws, ca. 1100–1300. By exploring legislation on violence, sorcery, sexual morality, and theft, it considers whether women were seen as independent legal subjects or as extensions of their families. It identifies various gendered punishments and discriminatory treatments, revealing regional differences and the influence of European legal ideologies. It also uncovers an emphasis on individual culpability for crimes, reflecting a shift from collective to individual responsibility and women’s increasing property rights. This comparative analysis offers a nuanced view of medieval Nordic law, highlighting the complex relationship between gender, law, and society during this transformative period. It explains how criminal law was influenced by canon law and German town law and offers new insights into the legal history of the Nordic region.

The second part analyses the rise of the ownership and production of legal literature – especially legal books meant for laymen – as means for acquiring a degree of legal literacy from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century.

Medievalists reading and writing about and around authority-related themes lack clear definitions of its actual meanings in the medieval context. Authorities in the Middle Ages offers answers to this thorny issue through specialized investigations.This book considers the concept of authority and explores the various practices of creating authority in medieval society. In their studies sixteen scholars investigate the definition, formation, establishment, maintenance, and collapse of what we understand in terms of medieval struggles for authority, influence and power. The interdisciplinary nature of this volume resonates with the multi-faceted field of medieval culture, its social structures, and forms of communication. The fields of expertise include history, legal studies, theology, philosophy, politics, literature and art history. The scope of inquiry extends from late antiquity to the mid-fifteenth century, from the Church Fathers debating with pagans to the rapacious ghosts ruining the life of the living in the Sagas. There is a special emphasis on such exciting but understudied areas as the Balkans, Iceland and the eastern fringes of Scandinavia.

The second part analyses the rise of the ownership and production of legal literature – especially legal books meant for laymen – as means for acquiring a degree of legal literacy from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century.

Swedish medieval marriage formation was a process, written down in the secular laws. However, it started to evolve because of the interaction with the medieval Catholic marriage doctrine, which focused on mutual words of consent. Although first the canon law of marriage, and then Lutheran marriage dogma influenced the Swedish development, the perception of marriage as a process, consisting of several legal acts and accompanied by property transfers, proved remarkably resilient. The pragmatic and rural character of Sweden contributed to this, despite pressure from canon and Roman law and attempts at bringing marriage formation under ecclesiastical control. Marrying by stages was in itself unremarkable in Europe, but the legal foundation and formality make medieval and sixteenth-century Sweden a unique case study.

Much research has been done on medieval marriage in the last decades. However, few books have a pronouncedly comparative approach. This book discusses how much was regional and universal in medieval marriage law and practices in Europe. The sources used range from secular and canon law to court practice and from images to private correspondence. Articles discuss medieval and Reformation Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, and Sweden. Both marriage formation and marital property, two intertwined aspects, are considered in the articles. The book offers fresh evidence on the scope of regional variation tolerated by the Church, regional practices, and European trends.Contributors are James A. Brundage, Cecilia Cristellon, Trevor Dean, Charles Donahue, Jr., Caroline Dunn, Mia Korpiola, Jurgita Kunsmanaitė, Anu Lahtinen, Anthony Musson, Philip L. Reynolds, Kirsi Salonen, Silvana Seidel Menchi, and Monique Vleeschouwers-Van Melkebeek.

The volume Planning for Death: Wills and Death-Related Property Arrangements in Europe, 1200-1600 analyses death-related property transfers in several European regions (England, Poland, Italy, South Tirol, and Sweden). Laws and customary practice provided a legal framework for all post-mortem property devolution. However, personal preference and varied succession strategies meant that individuals could plan for death by various legal means. These individual legal acts could include matrimonial property arrangements (marriage contracts, morning gifts) and legal means of altering heirship by subtracting or adding heirs. Wills and testamentary practice are given special attention, while the volume also discusses the timing of the legal acts, suggesting that while some people made careful and timely arrangements, others only reacted to sudden events.Contributors are Christian Hagen, R.H. Helmholz, Mia Korpiola, Anu Lahtinen, Marko Lamberg, Margareth Lanzinger, Janine Maegraith, Federica Masè, Anthony Musson, Tuula Rantala, Elsa Trolle Önnerfors, and Jakub Wysmułek.