Bøger i Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia serien

This volume interrogates the assumption that Visigothic practices and institutions were mere imitations of the Byzantine empire. Contributors rethink these practices not as uncritical and derivative adoptions of Byzantine customs, but as dynamic processes in dialogue with not only the Byzantine empire but also with the contemporary Iberian context, as well as the Roman past. The goal of the volume is to approach Visigothic customs not as an uncritical adoption and imitatio of contemporary Roman models (an "acculturation" model), but as unique interpretations of a common pool of symbols, practices, and institutions that formed the legacy of Rome. The contributors argue that it is necessary to reconsider the idea of imitatio imperii as a process that involved specific actors taking strategic decisions in historically contingent circumstances.

The replacement of the Roman Empire in the West with emerging kingdoms like Visigothic Spain and Merovingian Gaul resulted in new societies, but without major population displacement. Societies changed because identities shifted and new points of cohesion formed under different leaders and leadership structures. This volume examines two kingdoms in the post-Roman west to understand how this process took shape. Though exhibiting striking continuities with the Roman past, Gaul and Spain emerged as distinctive, but not isolated, political entities that forged different strategies and drew upon different resources to strengthen their unity, shape social ties, and consolidate their political status.

This volume reflects on the motivations underpinning the writing of history in Late Antique Iberia, emphasising its theoretical and practical aspects and outlining the social, political and ideological implications of the constructions and narrations of the past. The volume includes general topics related to the writing of history, such as the historiographical debates on writing history, the praxis of history writing and the role of central and local powers in the construction of the past, the legitimacy of history, the exaltation of Christian history to the detriment of other religious beliefs, and the perception of time in hagiographical texts. Further points of interest in the volume are the specific studies on the historiographical culture. All these issues are analysed from an innovative perspective, which combines traditional subjects with new historiographical topics, such as the configuration of historical discourse through another type of documentation like councils, hagiography or legislation.

This is the first study to bring together all twenty-nine extant copies of the medieval Commentary on the Apocalypse, which was originally written by Spanish monk Beatus of Li bana.

This book builds on more than a decade of fieldwork, providing an unprecedented overview of urban and rural development in the late medieval period.

The first work to address the end of Roman Hispania and the emergence of Medieval Spain from a principally archaeological perspective

Isidore of Seville (560-636) was a crucial figure in the preservation and sharing of classical and early Christian knowledge.

As this book demonstrates, early medieval 'Romanness' encompassed a sense of belonging to an ethnic group, which allowed Romans in Iberia and Gaul to adopt Gothic or Frankish identities in a more nuanced manner than has been previously acknowledged in the literature.

In this colourfully illustrated book, Rose Walker surveys Spanish and Portuguese art and architecture from the time of the Roman conquest to the early twelfth century.