Laws in medieval Iceland

Whereas in eleventh- and twelfth-century western Europe Christianity had taken firm root, monarchy had developed and legislation by royal and ecclesiastical authorities was a normal practice, in Iceland culture remained, for a long period, practically uninfluenced by Roman and canon law. In the present article early Icelandic laws, representatives of this culture, will be described, their formulation and application investigated, and the developments among the establishment of a central authority at the end of the thirteenth century discussed.     

Pre-Columbian treponematosis in medieval Britain

There has been much debate regarding the origins of treponemal disease and, in particular, acquired syphilis. Greater numbers of skeletons with apparently diagnostic bone lesions in the New World than in the Old have given rise to the postulate, particularly advanced by American workers, that the disease originated there prior to AD 1492 and was carried back to the Old World by Columbus's sailors. This paper presents evidence for the presence of treponemal disease in medieval Norwich prior to AD 1492, however. The dating of the site is good and the skeleton concerned comes from a well-sealed context. Others in the group have similar lesions and there are four individuals with evidence of leprosy. All were buried in a communal cemetery. The individual has widespread, bilateral, florid periostitis, especially of the tibiae and fibulae, and the radiographic changes support the diagnosis of treponemal disease. Differential diagnosis and geographical situation suggest that this skeleton displays evidence of syphillis.     

Rural marketing in medieval Nottinghamshire

The data sources available for a study of medieval marketing are extremely limited. However, work in contemporary developing nations illustrates the existence of a detailed structure of periodic marketing. This paper draws cautious parallels between medieval Nottinghamshire and these contemporary patterns. It begins by reconstructing a possible set of markets for the fourteenth century; details of tolls and rents are mentioned in order to indicate the types of produce in circulation and some aspects of the practical functioning of the markets. The spatial and temporal characteristics of these markets are shown not to agree with either the trader or the consumer models of periodic marketing, although there is some evidence to suggest that markets taking place on the same day were generally not located in settlements that were close together. Taxation evidence suggests that a market did not always lead to a relative increase in the importance of a settlement. In addition markets appear to have been established by lords of widely varying social status. By the seventeenth century there had been a large reduction in the number of markets, and they had become essentially urban in character, primarily associated with the few main roads in the county.     

The world of medieval learning

Karl Kautsky's writings on the French Revolution were crucial to the construction not only of the Marxist interpretation of the Revolution, which was perhaps the most important reference point for the historiography of that event during the 20th century, but even of Marxism itself as a comprehensive, systematic theory partly based on historical studies. However, these writings have been neglected and practically forgotten for decades, mainly because of the general rejection of Kautsky's theories after the October Revolution of 1917, in Marxist as well as non-Marxist circles.

Studying these writings, spanning roughly four decades from 1889 till 1930, we may see dynamic interrelations between historical study, theory construction and contemporary political intervention. Kautsky's approach to such key Marxist concepts as class and state prove to be much more subtle and nuanced than what has commonly been assumed, incorporating the results of historical study rather than pure social theory. Yet, his account does contain important internal tensions and contradictions between agency and objective conditions and between the historical material and the normative and political perspective of the historiographer. Several of these internal tensions were carried on into mainstream Marxist accounts of the Revolution, with important historiographical as well as political consequences.     

Propaganda in English medieval historiography

Propaganda occurs sporadically in the chronicles of medieval England, mainly in official histories (that is those commissioned by authority) and quasi-official ones (those not actually commissioned but representing the authority's point of view). It ranges from mere eulogy to forceful argument which may even involve deliberate misrepresentation. In monastic chronicles the propaganda is generally on behalf of the monastery itself, and is rarely that of the central government; in fact such chronicles tend to be critical of king and government. Government propaganda occurs more frequently in chronicles by other groups of writers, notably secular clerks. Although very few non-monastic chronicles were actually commissioned by the king (the only indisputable examples belong to the reign of Edward IV), a few are quasi-official, written probably to attract patronage and/or in a literary mode, especially that of romance literature, which tended to favour the king.Clearly government-sponsored history established no continuous tradition in England, comparable to that, for example, in France. Nor were quasi-official histories numerous. Therefore it seems that government propaganda was not congenial to most chroniclers in England, an impression confirmed by the fact that it only left a significant mark on the chronicles in exceptional circumstances, for instance at times of political crisis. Moreover, the chronicles containing it were by foreigners and/or were written when continental influence was particularly strong at court. The historiographical genre most characteristic of medieval England was the monastic chronicle, with its strong local attachments and generally independent attitude to the central government.     

Propaganda in English medieval historiography

Propaganda occurs sporadically in the chronicles of medieval England, mainly in official histories (that is those commissioned by authority) and quasi-official ones (those not actually commissioned but representing the authority's point of view). It ranges from mere eulogy to forceful argument which may even involve deliberate misrepresentation. In monastic chronicles the propaganda is generally on behalf of the monastery itself, and is rarely that of the central government; in fact such chronicles tend to be critical of king and government. Government propaganda occurs more frequently in chronicles by other groups of writers, notably secular clerks. Although very few non-monastic chronicles were actually commissioned by the king (the only indisputable examples belong to the reign of Edward IV), a few are quasi-official, written probably to attract patronage and/or in a literary mode, especially that of romance literature, which tended to favour the king.Clearly government-sponsored history established no continuous tradition in England, comparable to that, for example, in France. Nor were quasi-official histories numerous. Therefore it seems that government propaganda was not congenial to most chroniclers in England, an impression confirmed by the fact that it only left a significant mark on the chronicles in exceptional circumstances, for instance at times of political crisis. Moreover, the chronicles containing it were by foreigners and/or were written when continental influence was particularly strong at court. The historiographical genre most characteristic of medieval England was the monastic chronicle, with its strong local attachments and generally independent attitude to the central government.     

Regnal succession in early medieval Ireland

Regnal succession in early medieval Ireland has been the centre of scholarly debate for the past eighty-five years. This paper contributes to the debate with an investigation of the early Irish law texts. It is argued that these law texts, especially the tracts on inheritance, reveal a certain pattern of regnal succession, which can be divided into an early and a later phase. Moreover, they allow us to define necessary criteria for eligibility for Irish kingship. The results of this examination are illustrated in the summary by the historical example of the early Síl nÁedo Sláine.     

Urban domestic slavery in medieval Ragusa

Medieval slavery and the slave trade are by now well established facts. This study of medieval Ragusa (Dubrovnik) attempts to answer the question: how were slaves employed, in place of free wage laborers, in urban environments? Ragusa is a well documented instance in which slaves, largely female slaves, were employed in the household. They provided non-specialized labor to the household and to commercial endeavors. This method of utilizing unskilled rural workers was cheap but required a cohesive social order and co-ordinated communal efforts.The thirteenth-century slave system was replaced in the fourteenth century by reliance upon contract labor. This study argues that it was competition for trained, domestic slaves from foreign purchasers which priced rural Balkan slaves out of the market for local inhabitants. Contract laborers from rural areas offered a cheap alternative and through adroit communal action came to inhabit a condition closely resembling chattel slavery.Over the long term this cheap labor supply, combined with the domestic and civil tranquility at Ragusa, gave the city-state a competitive edge as a carrying power in the commercial economy. Concomitantly the word sclavi pejorated in meaning.     

Dendrochronology on material from medieval Oslo

The dendrochronological material from Oslo discussed here was collected through archaeological excavations in the period 1970–6 on the sites ‘Mindets tomt’ (Lidén 1977) and ‘S?ndre felt’ (Schia 1987).