Robert Bartlett – författare

Hur förklarade medeltidens människor fenomen som sol- och månförmörkelser eller landytans och vattnets fördelning på jorden? Vilka skapelser trodde de sig kunna stöta på: änglar, djävlar, häxor, hundhövdade varelser? I denna fascinerande bok granskar Robert Bartlett de sätt på vilka människor under medeltiden kategoriserade världen. Han ägnar särskild uppmärksamhet åt uppdelningen i naturligt och övernaturligt, och visar hur idén om det övernaturliga uppstod under medeltiden. Han visar hur teologer och andra försökte dra gränser mellan det naturliga och det mirakulösa, mellan det förunderliga och det monstruösa, samt pekar på de många begreppsmässiga problem detta ledde till. I det avslutande kapitlet får filosofen Roger Bacons märkliga tankevärld tjäna som ett exempel på hur man kunde handskas med dessa frågeställningar. Genom att väcka medeltida författares och filosofers tänkande till liv väcks också den kritiska frågan om hur vi skall förhålla oss till uppfattningar som vi inte längre delar. Robert Bartlett är professor i medeltidshistoria vid University of St. Andrews. Av hans tidigare publikationer kan nämnas The Making of Europe (1993), England under the Norman and Angevin Kings (2000) och The Hanged Man (2004), varav den sistnämnda också finns på svenska med titeln Den hängde (2004).

Throughout medieval Europe, for hundreds of years, monarchy was the way that politics worked in most countries. This meant power was in the hands of a family - a dynasty; that politics was family politics; and political life was shaped by the births, marriages and deaths of the ruling family. How did the dynastic system cope with female rule, or pretenders to the throne? How did dynasties use names, the numbering of rulers and the visual display of heraldry to express their identity? And why did some royal families survive and thrive, while others did not? Drawing on a rich and memorable body of sources, this engaging and original history of dynastic power in Latin Christendom and Byzantium explores the role played by family dynamics and family consciousness in the politics of the royal and imperial dynasties of Europe. From royal marriages and the birth of sons, to female sovereigns, mistresses and wicked uncles, Robert Bartlett makes enthralling sense of the complex web of internal rivalries and loyalties of the ruling dynasties and casts fresh light on an essential feature of the medieval world.

A wave of internal conquest, settlement and economic growth took place in Europe during the High Middle Ages, which transformed it from a world of small separate communities into a network of powerful kingdoms with distinctive cultures. In this vivid and provocative book Robert Bartlett vividly shows how Europe was itself a product of colonization, as much as it was later a colonizer, and what this did to shape the continent and the world today.

A wave of internal conquest, settlement and economic growth took place in Europe during the High Middle Ages, which transformed it from a world of small separate communities into a network of powerful kingdoms with distinctive cultures. In this vivid and provocative book Robert Bartlett vividly shows how Europe was itself a product of colonization, as much as it was later a colonizer, and what this did to shape the continent and the world today.

This vivid and and comprehensive account of the politics, religion, and culture of England in the century and a half after the Norman Conquest lays bare the patterns of everyday life, and increases our understanding of medieval society at a time when England was more closely tied to Europe than ever before. This was a period in which the ruling dynasty and military aristocracy were deeply enmeshed with the politics and culture of France. The book describes their conflicts and their preoccupations: the sense of honour, the role of violence, and the glitter of tournament, heraldry, and Arthurian romance. The author explores the mechanics of their government, and analyses the part played by the Church at a time of radical developments in religious life and organization. He investigates the role of ordinary men and women: the fundamental importance of the peasant economy, the growing urban and commercial arenas; and also their outlook on the world, including their views on the past; on sexuality; on animals; on death, the undead and the occult. The result is a fascinating and complex account of a period which begins with conquest and ends in assimilation.

This lively and far-reaching account of the politics, religion, and culture of England in the century and a half after the Norman Conquest provides a vivid picture of everyday existence, and increases our understanding of all aspects of medieval society.This was a period in which the ruling dynasty and military aristocracy were deeply enmeshed with the politics and culture of France. Professor Bartlett describes their conflicts, and their preoccupations - the sense of honour, the role of violence, and the glitter of tournament, heraldry, and Arthurian romance. He explores the mechanics of government; assesses the role of the Church at a time of radical developments in religious life and organization; and investigates the peasant economy, the foundation of this society, and the growing urban and commercial activity. There are colourful details of the everyday life of ordinary men and women, with their views on the past, on sexuality, on animals, on death, the undead, and the occult. The result is a fascinating and comprehensive portrayal of a period which begins with conquest and ends in assimilation.

The text edited and translated in this volume recounts the first century of the history of the Augustinian priory of Llanthony in Monmouthshire, from its origin around 1100 as an isolated hermitage, through the introduction of the Augustinian Order and the semi-abandonment of the initial site in favour of a more secure location outside Gloucester, to the later twelfth century. The author of the History is a champion of the original community and compares it favourably with the Gloucester house, as well as giving his reflections on the duties of superiors and subordinates in the monastic life and describing and assessing the individual priors. The editorial introduction describes the manuscript, sets the History in context, and advances a theory about its authorship.

to copywriter: Always list contributorsThis first study of the nature of frontiers and frontier societies in the Middle Ages focuses on those between England and Scotland, Wales and Ireland, Castile and Granada, and on the Elbe. It examines the consequences for frontier societies of being located in areas of cross-cultural contact, and often confrontation. Institutions, expectations and even local family structures are shown to have been products of an environment of long-term and ubiquitous fighting. But, devices also developed in frontier societies for mediation, arbitration, and negotiation. Interaction between different religions, laws, languages, and mores, was often hostile, but could sometimes be flexible - responses which are reflected, for example, in the literature and poetry of the areas involved. This comparative study, by expert contributors, throws new and important light on our thinking about frontiers, and fills a major gap in the history of medieval Europe.Contributors: Geoffrey Barrow, Robert Bartlett, Robert I. Burns, José Enrique López de Coca Castañer, Rees Davies, Robin Frame, Anthony Goodman, Manuel Conzález Jiménez, Paul Knoll, Friedrich Lotter, Angus MacKay, Katherine Simms, Alfred Thomas.

Geoffrey of Burton's Life and Miracles of St Modwenna (BHL 2097) is among the most substantial pieces of twelfth-century English hagiographic writing not previously to have appeared in print. It was produced by the abbot of Burton, where Modwenna's bones supposedly lay, in the period 1118-50, and consists of two parts of unequal length: the vita or Life proper, and the collection of miracle stories. The first part, forming about four-fifths of the total text, was based on an earlier Life by the Irish author Conchubranus, which Geoffrey revised and modified in style and substance. His creative rewriting of the Life throws much light on the Latinity, religious attitudes, and historical consciousness of an early twelfth-century Benedictine author. The second and shorter part of the text is made up of accounts of the miraculous cures and punishments connected with Modwenna's shrine at Burton. Geoffrey composed these stories on the basis of oral traditions and his own experience and they constitute a valuable source for the social and religious history of this part of England in the Norman period.

This vivid and and comprehensive account of the politics, religion, and culture of England in the century and a half after the Norman Conquest lays bare the patterns of everyday life, and increases our understanding of medieval society at a time when England was more closely tied to Europe than ever before. This was a period in which the ruling dynasty and military aristocracy were deeply enmeshed with the politics and culture of France. The book describes their conflicts and their preoccupations: the sense of honour, the role of violence, and the glitter of tournament, heraldry, and Arthurian romance. The author explores the mechanics of their government, and analyses the part played by the Church at a time of radical developments in religious life and organization. He investigates the role of ordinary men and women: the fundamental importance of the peasant economy, the growing urban and commercial arenas; and also their outlook on the world, including their views on the past; on sexuality; on animals; on death, the undead and the occult. The result is a fascinating and complex account of a period which begins with conquest and ends in assimilation.

Gerald of Wales was an ecclesiastic, a servant and critic of the Angevin kings, and a prolific and vitriolic writer. Born in Pembrokeshire of mixed Norman and Welsh blood in the middle years of the twelfth century, he was appointed archdeacon of Brecon in 1175, but that was the highest office he attained, despite his indefatigable efforts in the years 1198-1203 to become not merely bishop, but archbishop, of St Davids. His death was reported in 1223. His Instruction for a Ruler (De principis instructione) is of interest for three main reasons: it provides a detailed and violently partisan account of the last days of Henry II of England; it is full of miscellaneous but valuable stories and anecdotes (such as the account of the discovery of the tomb of Arthur and Guinevere, and the legend of the destruction of the Picts); and it is a monument to the literary culture of a highly educated writer at the heart of the twelfth-century Renaissance.

This lively and far-reaching account of the politics, religion, and culture of England in the century and a half after the Norman Conquest provides a vivid picture of everyday existence, and increases our understanding of all aspects of medieval society.This was a period in which the ruling dynasty and military aristocracy were deeply enmeshed with the politics and culture of France. Professor Bartlett describes their conflicts, and their preoccupations - the sense of honour, the role of violence, and the glitter of tournament, heraldry, and Arthurian romance. He explores the mechanics of government; assesses the role of the Church at a time of radical developments in religious life and organization; and investigates the peasant economy, the foundation of this society, and the growing urban and commercial activity. There are colourful details of the everyday life of ordinary men and women, with their views on the past, on sexuality, on animals, on death, the undead, and the occult. The result is a fascinating and comprehensive portrayal of a period which begins with conquest and ends in assimilation.

The two texts edited here are previously unprinted accounts of the miracles of St Æbba of Coldingham and St Margaret of Scotland. Both saints were Anglo-Saxon royal ladies and both were buried in what was, by the eleventh century, the southern part of the Kingdom of Scots, at Coldingham and Dunfermline respectively. The texts tell of the miracles performed at or in the vicinity of their shrines in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and illuminate the religious and social life of southern Scotland in a period for which the narrative sources are not very rich. Although there are several Lives of Scottish saints in print (including a famous one of St Margaret), hitherto no collection of accounts of their miracles has been published and these unexplored sources reveal many new details, not only about the geographical and social profile of the two cults, but also about everyday life. They provide a reference to a Scottish fiddler; mention what is probably the earliest named Scottish artist; and give a great deal of information on illness, madness, demons, and visions.

'The Medieval World Complete' re-creates one of the great ages of European civilization through a sequence of spectacular images accompanied by a lively, informed commentary. Ingeniously organized by topic and thoroughly cross-referenced, this all-embracing book enables the reader to explore and understand every facet of the Middle Ages, an era of breathtaking artistic achievement and of religious faith in a world where life was often coarse and cruel, cut short by war, famine and disease. Framed by chapters that outline the way the Middle Ages began and ended, the book consists of six sections encompassing religion and the Church, nations and law, daily life, art and architecture, scholarship and philosophy, and the world beyond Christendom. The book is completed by biographies of key personalities, from Charlemagne to Wycliffe, and timelines, maps, a glossary, gazetteer and bibliography.

How did people of the medieval period explain physical phenomena, such as eclipses or the distribution of land and water on the globe? What creatures did they think they might encounter: angels, devils, witches, dogheaded people? This fascinating book explores the ways in which medieval people categorized the world, concentrating on the division between the natural and the supernatural and showing how the idea of the supernatural came to be invented in the Middle Ages. Robert Bartlett examines how theologians and others sought to draw lines between the natural, the miraculous, the marvelous and the monstrous, and the many conceptual problems they encountered as they did so. The final chapter explores the extraordinary thought-world of Roger Bacon as a case study exemplifying these issues. By recovering the mentalities of medieval writers and thinkers the book raises the critical question of how we deal with beliefs we no longer share.

How did people of the medieval period explain physical phenomena, such as eclipses or the distribution of land and water on the globe? What creatures did they think they might encounter: angels, devils, witches, dogheaded people? This fascinating book explores the ways in which medieval people categorized the world, concentrating on the division between the natural and the supernatural and showing how the idea of the supernatural came to be invented in the Middle Ages. Robert Bartlett examines how theologians and others sought to draw lines between the natural, the miraculous, the marvelous and the monstrous, and the many conceptual problems they encountered as they did so. The final chapter explores the extraordinary thought-world of Roger Bacon as a case study exemplifying these issues. By recovering the mentalities of medieval writers and thinkers the book raises the critical question of how we deal with beliefs we no longer share.

Seven hundred years ago, executioners led a Welsh rebel named William Cragh to a wintry hill to be hanged. They placed a noose around his neck, dropped him from the gallows, and later pronounced him dead. But was he dead? While no less than nine eyewitnesses attested to his demise, Cragh later proved to be very much alive, his resurrection attributed to the saintly entreaties of the defunct Bishop Thomas de Cantilupe. The Hanged Man tells the story of this putative miracle--why it happened, what it meant, and how we know about it. The nine eyewitness accounts live on in the transcripts of de Cantilupe's canonization hearings, and these previously unexamined documents contribute not only to an enthralling mystery, but to an unprecedented glimpse into the day-to-day workings of medieval society. While unraveling the haunting tale of the hanged man, Robert Bartlett leads us deeply into the world of lords, rebels, churchmen, papal inquisitors, and other individuals living at the time of conflict and conquest in Wales. In the process, he reconstructs voices that others have failed to find.We hear from the lady of the castle where the hanged man was imprisoned, the laborer who watched the execution, the French bishop charged with investigating the case, and scores of other members of the medieval citizenry. Brimming with the intrigue of a detective novel, The Hanged Man will appeal to both scholars of medieval history and general readers alike.

From its earliest centuries, one of the most notable features of Christianity has been the veneration of the saints--the holy dead. This ambitious history tells the fascinating story of the cult of the saints from its origins in the second-century days of the Christian martyrs to the Protestant Reformation. Robert Bartlett examines all of the most important aspects of the saints--including miracles, relics, pilgrimages, shrines, and the saints' role in the calendar, literature, and art. The book explores the central role played by the bodies and body parts of saints, and the special treatment these relics received. From the routes, dangers, and rewards of pilgrimage, to the saints' impact on everyday life, Bartlett's account is an unmatched examination of an important and intriguing part of the religious life of the past--as well as the present.

Gerald of Wales, Giraldus Cambrensis, Gerald the Welshman, Gerald the Marcher – his many names reflect the long and multi-faceted career of one of the most fascinating figures of the Middle Ages.Descended from Norman Marcher barons and Welsh princes, Gerald was by turns scholar, churchman and reformer, courtier, diplomat and would-be crusader; Marcher propagandist, agent of English kings, champion of the Welsh church, hunted outlaw and cathedral theologian. He was also a naturalist, gossip and indefatigable traveller, but above all a most prolific writer and a tireless self-publicist. From his seventeen surviving books, we know a great deal about this determined, irascible, self-righteous and utterly fearless man; more, in fact, than about any other inhabitant of early medieval Wales.Because Gerald was endlessly curious, and almost obsessively anxious to record for posterity the things he discovered, his books also paint a remarkably detailed and wide-ranging picture of medieval Wales itself. Probably the most revealing is his Journey through Wales, an account of his eventful tour of the country with Archbishop Baldwin in 1188.In this fascinating study of Gerald's attitudes and intellectual outlook, Robert Bartlett discusses Gerald's tortured sense of nationality as a child of Norman society implanted in Wales, and the delicate political path he had to tread between Norman conquerors, native Celtic society and the English Crown. He analyses Gerald's clear voice in the time in which he lives, and portrays him as a vivid example of the medieval world.

To what extent does our knowledge of the past rely upon written sources? And what happens when these sources are destroyed? Focusing on the manuscripts of the Middle Ages, History in Flames explores cases in which large volumes of written material were destroyed during a single day. This destruction didn't occur by accident of fire or flood but by human forces such as arson, shelling and bombing. This book examines the political and military events that preceded the moment of destruction, from the Franco-Prussian War and the Irish Civil War to the complexities of World War II; it analyses the material lost and how it came to be where it was. At the same time, it discusses the heroic efforts made by scholars and archivists to preserve these manuscripts, even partially. History in Flames reminds us that historical knowledge rests on material remains, and that these remains are vulnerable.

To what extent does our knowledge of the past rely upon written sources? And what happens when these sources are destroyed? Focusing on the manuscripts of the Middle Ages, History in Flames explores cases in which large volumes of written material were destroyed during a single day. This destruction didn't occur by accident of fire or flood but by human forces such as arson, shelling and bombing. This book examines the political and military events that preceded the moment of destruction, from the Franco-Prussian War and the Irish Civil War to the complexities of World War II; it analyses the material lost and how it came to be where it was. At the same time, it discusses the heroic efforts made by scholars and archivists to preserve these manuscripts, even partially. History in Flames reminds us that historical knowledge rests on material remains, and that these remains are vulnerable.

Where were the frogs housed on Noah's Ark? Why were forks introduced? And how many guardian angels do we have? Drawing from a wide range of sources, this anthology explores the contexts, connections and meanings of 100 striking and unusual passages from the Middle Ages. Through chronicles, love poetry, bestiaries, and more, bestselling historian Robert Bartlett illuminates disparate aspects of medieval European life and thought across countries and centuries, offering insights that are engaging, personal and often surprising. Despite their differences, these are all words written by a person in the Middle Ages, and capture a voice from the Europe of hundreds of years ago. From fairies to fornication and from pets to passports, this marvellous miscellany from a master historian includes something for everyone.