Title for this image

After Empire: Using and not using the past in the crisis of the Carolingian world, c. 900-c.1050


Project Summary

The tenth century is an overlooked moment in European history. It has played an important role as a starting point for the national narratives of modern countries including England and Germany.

However, it is often characterised as a ‘dark age’, a ‘century of iron’ in which the structures of the Carolingian Empire (751–888) collapsed and the map of medieval Europe took shape in the rubble. By rejecting these stories of nations or chaos as starting points for this project, the researchers seek to understand the tenth century on its own terms.

‘Uses of the Past’ is an ideal theme for this project because the absence of clear administrative or legal structures in the chosen period meant that action in the present often drew authority and legitimacy from claims about the past. The ways that contemporaries chose to use or not use the past – especially the Carolingian past – can be highly instructive to the historian.

Prof. Stefan Esders

Project Leader

Free University of Berlin

Germany


The convent of Quedlinburg. Image credit Sarah Greer 2015

Altar Frontal of the Archangels. Image credit Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, published under Creative Commons

Detail of Conrad II from 12th century manuscript of the universal chronicle of Ekkehart of Aura

Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 10077

Focusing on legal, liturgical and historical attitudes to the past will therefore help the research team recapture the imagined landscapes of tenth-century Europe and to explore it not as a chapter in pre-ordained national narratives but as a case study in transition – an example of how people in the past dealt with crisis and rapid change in the political order.

The project will produce academic articles and monographs. It will also attempt to open up the period to a broader audience by providing online resources, including images and translated texts, for teachers and general readers.

To accomplish these goals the research team will collaborate with schoolteachers and with museums and archives in Austria, Germany, Spain and the UK. The team will also organise a public exhibition of related manuscripts in Catalonia.

View project website

Project Partners

Prof. Stefan Esders

Project Leader

Free University of Berlin

Germany

Email

Dr Max Diesenberger

University of Vienna
Austria

Email

Prof. Sarah Hamilton

University of Exeter
United Kingdom

Email

Prof. Simon MacLean

University of St. Andrews
United Kingdom

Email

Prof. Matthias M. Tischler

Autonomous University of Barcelona
Spain

Email

  • Free University of Berlin

    Free University of Berlin

  • University of Vienna

    University of Vienna

  • University of Exeter

    University of Exeter

  • University of St. Andrews

    University of St. Andrews

  • Autonomous University of Barcelona

    Autonomous University of Barcelona

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