A collection of eight lectures published over the past 20 years, in which Bullough (medieval history, U. of St. Andrews) looks at the ninth-century Carolingian court, focusing on the pan-European cultural elements. He combines his own close analysis of texts with the work of other scholars. Distributed in the U.S. by St. Martin's Press. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Spans the beginning of the Middle Ages: the rise of the Church, Byzantium and the Carolingian Empire.

This book presents samples of experimental methods for reading medieval Latin texts that have scarcely been adopted, if at all, by mainstream research in the field. It contributes to the discovery of some underestimated aspects of early medieval (especially Carolingian) Latin literature: intertextuality as intercultural relationship (in Biblical epic), intermediality (text-image-sound connections), interdisciplinarity (science, religion, and poetry), hermeneutics (Biblical exegesis as poetry-engine), post-colonial reading (medieval Latin as a second language), socio-literary approaches (monastic epigraphs as witnesses of everyday life, writing as a status symbol of an intellectual class and a whole civilization). It also discusses quantitative methods, which are explored in more detail in a second volume, 'Digital Philology and Quantitative Criticism of Medieval Literature: Unconventional Approaches to Medieval Latin Literature II').00The book thus seeks to encourage scholarly interest in obscure or less familiar elements of the Carolingian literary renewal, interpreted here as more a laboratory of innovations than a revival of traditional patterns.

Frank Senn ventures behind the liturgical screen, behind the texts, and behind the rubrics to reconstruct the everyday religious expression in Christian history. Senn's magisterial Christian Liturgy: Catholic and Evangelical (1997) has been widely hailed for its appreciation of the dynamic role of culture in shaping liturgical expression. In The People's Work, Senn delves further into the cultural home of liturgy looking at processions and pilgrimage, communion practices and spiritual reading, fasting and feasting-all the myriad liturgical practices that have been the concrete life and primary work of the body of Christ.

Chrodegang of Metz (c. 712-766) was a leading figure of the late Merovingian and early Carolingian Church. Born to one of the principal aristocratic families in Austrasia, he served as referendary of Charles Martel, and was appointed bishop of Metz in the 740s. As bishop, Chrodegang became one of the foremost churchmen in Francia, chairing councils, founding monasteries, and beginning a reform of the lives of the canons of the Metz cathedral. This book is a major study in the English language on Chrodegang, examining his preoccupation with the creation of communities of faith and concord modelled on the early Church. It explores his attempts to unite the Frankish episcopacy, his rule for the cathedral clergy in Metz - the Regula canonicorum - and his introduction of new liturgical practices that sought to transform his see into a hagiopolis, a holy city which provided a model for later Carolingian reform.

Translated from the 1983 French edition, traces the rise, fall, and revival of the Carolingian dynasty, and shows how it molded the shape of a post-Roman Europe that is still with us today. An introduction to the subject for undergraduate or general readers. The largely French and German bibliography has been replaced with a short list of recommended English works. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Sample Text