Ebook: The Merovingian Kingdoms and the Mediterranean World: Revisiting the Sources

This book explores the Merovingian kingdoms in Gaul within a broader Mediterranean context. Their politics and culture have mostly been interpreted in the past through a narrow local perspective, but as the papers in this volume clearly demonstrate, the Merovingian kingdoms had complicated and multi-layered political, religious, and socio-cultural relations with their Mediterranean counterparts, from Visigothic Spain in the West to the Byzantine Empire in the East, and from Anglo-Saxon England in the North to North-Africa in the South.
The papers collected here provide new insights into the history of the Merovingian kingdoms by examining various relevant issues, ranging from identity formation to the shape and rules of diplomatic relations, cultural transformation, as well as voiced attitudes towards the “other”. Each of the papers begins with a short excerpt from a primary source, which serves as a stimulus for the discussion of broader issues. The various sources’ point of view and their contextualization stand at the heart of the analysis, thus ensuring that discussions are accessible to students and non-specialists, without jeopardizing the high academic standard of the debate.
The book explores the place of the Merovingian kingdoms within a broader Mediterranean context. Apart from being post-Roman successor states, deeply rooted in the traditions and practices of the Western Roman Empire, the Merovingian kingdoms had complicated and multi-layered political, religious, and socio-cultural relations with their Mediterranean counterparts, from Visigothic Spain in the West to the Byzantine Empire in the East. The politics and culture of Merovingian Gaul have mostly been interpreted in terms of a local phenomenon. This volume seeks to re-examine perceived knowledge and accepted paradigms by broadening the perspective in order to include cross-Mediterranean connections and thus reaching new insights regarding the history of the Merovingians and the early medieval Mediterranean. Following this objective, the articles in this book examine subjects from the formation of identity to the shape and rules of diplomatic relations, social, legal, and religious aspects that reflect cultural transfer, as well as voiced attitudes towards the respective “other”. The perspectives of the individual sources and their contextualization will be at the center of our studies. To this end, the papers begin with a short excerpt from a relevant source text, which will then serve as a stepping stone to the discussion of broader issues. This innovative structuring principle will turn the discussions more accessible to students and novices in the field, without jeopardizing the high standard of academic debate and diligent historical analysis.