Water power and the plan of St Gall

An analysis of the scale used by the designer of the Plan of St Gall allows for no other conclusion than that the mill and mortars shown on this Plan were water driven. Because of the paradigmatic nature of the Plan this means that hydraulically operated mills and mortars were by the makers of the Plan considered to be standard equipment of a Carolingian monastery — a conclusion supported by a wealth of other documentary source material available for this period.The Romans knew the water mill, but made little use of it. Its general adoption and diffusion in Merovingian and Carolingian Europe is in this study attributed to the rise and spread of Benedictine monasticism. It received its primary impetus from the need to provide milled and crushed grain in bulk for communities of considerable size, including a leisure class of men who had to be freed from the normal chores of toiling for life so that their energies could be directed to their primary task: the Work of God (Opus Dei). Water-powered trip hammers were in use in China before the birth of Christ. Their portrayal on the Plan of St Gall suggests that they were introduced in western Europe, not by Marco Polo, as some propose, but in the age of folk migrations or the early Carolingian Period.     

Folcwin of Rankweil: the world of a Carolingian local official

This article examines charters from the St Gall archive which are valuable for the light they throw on the secular society of the settlement of Rankweil in Rhaetia and the surrounding area. The centrepiece is the rare collection of early ninth-century grants and sales made to the centenarius Folcwin and the article uses these and other related documents to examine the workings of Carolingian local society, the activities of local officials, and the patterns of landholding and transfer amongst secular individuals of relatively modest standing.     

Book reviews

Carolingian Renewal: Sources and Heritage. By D. A. Bullough.
The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe . By Valerie I. J. Flint.
Dark Age Naval Power . By John Haywood.
Goths and Romans 332–489. By P. J. Heather.
The Goths in the Fourth Century . By Peter Heather and John Matthews
The External School in Carolingian Society . By M. M. Hildebrandt.
Handbook for William: A Carolingian Woman's Counsel for her Son , by Dhuoda.
Wulfstan of Winchester: The Life of St æthelwold . Edited by Michael Lapidge and Michael Winterbottom.
The End of Ancient Christianity. By Robert Markus.
Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire: The Development of Christian Discourse . By Averil Cameron. Berkeley
The Annals of St-Bertin (Ninth-century Histories, volume I). Translated and annotated by Janet L. Nelson
Ireland and Northern France AD 600–810. Edited by Jean-Michel Picard
The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600–900. Edited by L. Webster and J. Backhouse     

Multi‐analytical Studies of the Lime Mortars from the Yanxi Hall in the Yangxin Palace of the Palace Museum (Beijing)

For centuries, the architecture of the Palace Museum represented the highest standard of Chinese architecture. The Yangxin Palace of the Palace Museum consisted of 18 masonry buildings built using bricks, wood, roof tiles and various mortars. In 2016, a five‐year project was initiated to work on the maintenance and restoration of the Yangxin Palace buildings. The characterization of the construction materials has become of primary importance, in order to obtain information about the raw ingredients and building technology of the mortars, and the history of possible previous restorations. In this paper, 12 different samples representing three types of mortar‐based materials—namely, jointing mortars between the bricks on the wall, and surface plasters as well as mortars used on the roof—were collected for analysis from the Yanxi Hall of the Yangxin Palace. Analysis into the composition, grain‐size distribution, organic and fibre additives and testing of the mortar density and water absorption were performed. Starch, protein and plant fibres were identified in some of the samples. Brucite, mullite and ettringite were detected within most mortars on the roof, possibly originating from the furnace slag added into the raw materials for restoration purposes. The analytical results will serve as a critical reference for the maintenance and restoration of the buildings in the Yangxin Palace.     

Growing up in a Carolingian monastery: Magister Hildemar and his oblates

The monastic Rules of the early middle ages make it quite clear that the monasteries of this period were populated by a mixed community of adults and children. The Carolingian commentaries, and especially the so-called Hildemar commentary on the Rule of St Benedict, provide detailed information on the education and upbringing of the children who lived in the monasteries. We learn from Hildemar that they were subjected to constant supervision and diligent care. For this reason they were set apart from the adult monks. However, in spite of their separation, they were still full members of the community, who participated in all the activities of monastic life. Apparently Hildemar preferred to recruit new members for his community when they were very young. This was the result of a new development in monastic life: in the Carolingian period a growing number of monks were admitted to the priesthood. Hildemar considered the children who were raised in the monasteries to be eminently suitable for ordination. They were trained to be the future intellectual and moral elite of the community.     

Franz Joseph Gall on hemispheric symmetries

ABSTRACT

Franz Joseph Gall believed that the two cerebral hemispheres are anatomically and functionally similar, so much so that one could substitute for the other following unilateral injuries. He presented this belief during the 1790s in his early public lectures in Vienna, when traveling through Europe between 1805 and 1807, and in the two sets of books he published after settling in France. Gall seemed to derive his ideas about laterality independently of French anatomist Marie François Xavier Bichat (1771–1802), who formulated his “law of symmetry” at about the same time. He would, however, later cite Bichat, whose ideas about mental derangement were different from his own and who also attempted to explain handedness, a subject on which Gall remained silent. The concept of cerebral symmetry would be displaced by mounting clinical evidence for the hemispheres being functionally different, but neither Gall nor Bichat would live to witness the advent of the concept of cerebral dominance.     

Rethinking the Pseudo‐Eligius sermon collection

St Eligius of Noyon (d. 660) has been credited with the authorship of a collection of sixteen sermons since their publication in the sixteenth century. However, this article demonstrates through a detailed analysis of the sources used in these sermons that the collection cannot have been composed before the end of the ninth century. The sermons were written to be preached by a bishop in the vernacular to a mixed audience of clergy and laity. This article also shows how the sermons for Maundy Thursday can shed light on the theory and practice of public penance in the late Carolingian church.     

The reception of Gall’s organology in early-nineteenth-century Vilnius

Much has been written about the development and reception of Franz Joseph Gall’s (1758–1828) ideas in Western Europe. There has been little coverage, however, of how his Schädellehre or organology was received in Eastern Europe. With this in mind, we examined the transmission and acceptance/rejection of Gall’s doctrine in Vilnius (now Lithuania). We shall focus on what two prominent professors at Vilnius University felt about organology. The first of these men was Andrew Sniadecki (1768–1838), who published an article on Gall’s system in the journal Dziennik Wileński in 1805. The second is his contemporary, Joseph Frank (1771–1842), who wrote about the doctrine in his memoirs and published an article on phrenology in the journal Bibliotheca Italiana in 1839. Both Frank and Sniadecki had previously worked in Vienna’s hospitals, where they became acquainted with Gall and his system, but they formed different opinions. Sniadecki explained the doctrine not only to students and doctors but also to the general public in Vilnius, believing the new science had merit. Frank, in contrast, attempted to prove the futility of cranioscopy. Briefer mention will be made of the assessments of Johann Peter Frank (1745–1821) and Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus (1776–1827), two other physicians who overlapped Gall in Vienna and went to Vilnius afterward. Additionally, we shall bring up how a rich collection of human skulls was used for teaching purposes at Vilnius University, and how students were encouraged to mark the organs on crania using Gall’s system. Though organology in Vilnius, as in many other places, was always controversial, it was taught at the university, accepted by many medical professionals, and discussed by an inquisitive public.     

Matters of Sex and Gender in F. J. Gall’s Organology: A Primary Approach

The originator of phrenology, F. J. Gall (1758–1828), saw himself as a natural scientist and physiologist. His approach consisted of brain anatomy but also of palpating skulls and inferring mental faculties. Unlike some of the philosophical principles underlying Gall’s work, his conception of sex/gender has not yet been examined in detail. In this article, I will focus on Gall’s treatment of men and women, his idea of sex differences, and how far an assumed existence of dichotomous sexes influenced his work. In examining his primary writings, I will argue that Gall held some contradictory views concerning the origin and manifestation of sex/gender characteristics, which were caused by the collision of his naturalistic ideas and internalized gender stereotypes. I will conclude that Gall did not aim at deducing or legitimizing sex/gender relations scientifically, but that he tried to express metaphysical reasons for a given social order in terms of functional brain mechanisms.     

Characterization of ancient building lime mortars of Anhui province,China: A multi-analytical approach

The characterization of lime mortars has become of primary importance in order to obtain information about the raw ingredients and building technology of ancient masonry structures. Five different samples from Anhui province, China, representing two types of lime mortar-based materials: joint mortars between the bricks of the city wall and lime mortar sealing a tomb coffin, were collected for analysis. Archaeological information about the samples was reported and studies into the microtextural features and mineralogical compositions of those mortars were performed via a multi-analytical approach. The joint lime mortars between the bricks of city walls, including Mingzhongdu city wall, Mingzhongdu Xihua gate foundation, Zhengyangguan city wall and She county city wall, were found to be aerial lime mortars. The lime mortar from Nanling Tieguai Song dynasty tomb was analysed and found to be a pozzolanic mortar consisting of lime, clay, sand and cocciopesto-like materials. The analytical results serve as a critical reference for the maintenance and restoration of ancient city walls in Anhui province, and as a starting point for searching for ancient Chinese pozzolanic mortars and technology for making those mortars.     

Gendered Violence: Castration and Blinding as Punishment for Treason in Normandy and Anglo‐Norman England

The use of castration as a punishment for treason and other forms of misdemeanour was a specific trait of the Norman realms of medieval Europe. In the post‐Carolingian kingdoms of France, Germany and Italy, it was rarely practised and only known as a punishment for sexual crimes. In Scandinavia, Normandy, Anglo‐Norman England and Norman Sicily, however, blinding and castration were regarded as an appropriate equivalent of the death penalty. The particular emphasis on masculinity implied in the Norman construction of noble honour, rendered the Norman warrior's body particularly vulnerable. Since his testicles were regarded as the prerequisite of his social existence, they became a legitimate point of attack whenever the ruler felt betrayed and decided to use force against his enemies. This gendered violence constituted a constantly renewed frame of reference, which defined political power as male and reinforced the notion that authority required a fully functional masculine body.     

Short notices

Bede and his World: The Jarrow Lectures . With a preface by Michael Lapidge. Communications and Power in Medieval Europe: the Carolingian and Ottonian Centuries and Communicatiions and Power in Medieval Europe: The Gregorian Revolution and Beyond. By Karl Leyser. English Heritage Book of Lindisfarne Holy Island . By Deirdre O'Sullivan and Robert Young. Excavations at Rhuddlan, Clwyd: 1969–73 Mesolithic to Medieval . By Henrietta Quinnell (formerly Miles) and Marion R. Blockley with Peter Berridge. Zur Kontinuität zwischen Antike und Mittelalter am Oberrhein . Edited by Franz Staab. Pre-Viking Lindsey . Edited by Alan Vince.     

Legislation and politics in late Carolingian Italy: the Ravenna constitutions

This article considers some overlooked evidence for royal legislation in the dying days of the Carolingian empire, a series of charters known as the Ravenna constitutions. These documents, which deal with the status of Italian freemen, are often analysed as sources for social history but rarely as texts in their own right. Reconstructing the context in which the charters were issued enables us to cast light on political events and royal self‐representation in early 880s Italy; and by drawing attention to the peculiarities of their form, we can use them to reflect more broadly on the nature of Carolingian capitulary legislation and the meaning of its disappearance at the end of the ninth century.     

A testimony of Carolingian rule? The Codex epistolaris carolinus,its historical context,and the meaning of imperium

In the preface to the Carolingian collection of papal letters, known as the Codex epistolaris carolinus, the word imperium is used in the context of describing what is in the collection. In this article, I shall argue that a reinterpretation of the preface's statement about what imperium refers to will shed a different light on the CC as a collection in its entirety. What imperium refers to exactly can be debated, yet studying the Codex carolinus as a Carolingian product of its time, in combination with a reappraisal of its preface, may help to understand the source's historical context and its value to the Carolingian court. As I hope to demonstrate, the CC was an essentially purposeful collection, which underlined the shared history of the Carolingian family and the papacy in Rome.     

Overlooked Husbands: The Paradox of Unfree Marriage in the Carolingian World

Unfree people in the Roman world could not legally marry, while they could in the Middle Ages. This paper explores the marriage of the unfree in the Carolingian empire (750–900 CE), a society with an intense moral concern about marriage. Carolingian churchmen wrote extensively about marriage, using a strongly gendered discourse focusing on how men should approach marriage and behave as husbands. However, these moral and legal texts rarely discussed unfree marriage, even though the practice was common. It is argued that this silence reflects the persistence of late antique class-based gender models, in which masculinity was reserved for married property holders. Although legal prohibitions on unfree marriages had ended, Carolingian moralists continued to be influenced by patristic assumptions that these were not valid relationships. These assumptions, combined with Frankish social practices that largely excluded unfree men from other key male roles, such as arms-bearing, meant that unfree husbands were not conceptualised as sufficiently ‘manly’ to have their marriages discussed. It is only from the tenth century onwards, when images of masculinity began to fragment more along lines of social status, that authors began explicitly to state that the Christian ideas of marriage applied to all, free and unfree.     

The origin of the so-called plan of St Gall

In his second provisional report on investigations into the plan of St Gall, the author argues that this famous monastic blue print was drawn up by Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury (668-90), with the cathedral monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury, in mind. The author's first provisional report was published in the journal Baumeister in 1977 (Noll 1977: 74-5); this second report has been translated by John Vaughan from the German edition, published by the author in Munich in 1981, with some revision by the author. The plan has already been the subject of a full-scale illustrated paper in this journal by Waiter Horn (1975:219-57).     

Charlemagne's involvement in central and southern Italy: power and the limits of authority

This article is an overview of political developments in southern Italy during Charlemagne's reign. Traditionally the historiography has approached this topic from a Carolingian or papal perspective. Without denying the reality of both papal and Carolingian influence, the article argues that neither of these institutions exercised predominant influence in southern Italy in this period, much as they may have wished to. Rather the pattern of political (and to an extent ideological) development in the area was determined by a series of compromises dictated by self-interest and the limits of power. This article therefore deals in turn with the evidence concerning the main protagonists in the south: the abbey of Farfa, the dukes of Spoleto, the monasteries of Monte Cassino and San Vincenzo al Volturno and the princes of Benevento. The article goes on to argue that the activities of these institutions are driven by self-interest. Finally the paper concludes that in the 790s there is a change in the way Carolingian government worked, at least in Spoleto.     

A secular shift in Carolingian history writing?

This article explores a series of Carolingian historians, writing in the early ninth century, who marginalized the role of God’s agency, in sharp contrast to the pattern established by the Annales Regni Francorum. Where this has been noted before, largely in relation to Einhard’s Vita Karoli, it has been explained either as a clash between lay and monastic ideals or as a by-product of the classical renewal at the Carolingian court. Examining this process across multiple texts suggests, however, that these historians can be understood as self-consciously ‘secularizing’ in response to contemporary crises.