Space in the Medieval West: Places, Territories, and Imagined Geographies

Description

First published 2014 by Ashgate Publishing. In the last two decades, research on spatial paradigms and practices has gained momentum across disciplines and vastly different periods, including the field of medieval studies. Responding to this 'spatial turn' in the humanities, the essays collected here generate new ideas about how medieval space was defined, constructed, and practiced in Europe, particularly in France. Essays are grouped thematically and in three parts, from specific sites, through the broader shaping of territory by means of socially constructed networks, to the larger geographical realm. The resulting collection builds on existing scholarship but brings new insight, situating medieval constructions of space in relation to contemporary conceptions of the subject. List of Figures vii List of Maps ix List of Tables xi Notes on Contributors xiii Acknowledgments xvii List of Abbreviations xix Introduction / Meredith Cohen, Fanny Madeline, and Dominique Iogna-Prat 1 Part I. Places, Monuments, and Cities 1. Squarely Built: an Inquiry into the Sources of 'Ad Quadratum' Geometry in Lombard Architecture Between the Eleventh and the Twelfth Centuries / Emanuele Lugli 21 2. The Geometry of Rib Vaulting at Notre-Dame of Paris: Architectural or Exegetical Space? / Stefaan Van Liefferinge 37 3. Gothic Drawing and the Shaping of Space / Robert Bork 51 4. Marking the City for Christ: Spatiality and the Invention of Utrecht’s Medieval Cross of Churches / David Ross Winter 77 Part II. Spatial Networks and Territories 5. From 'Plebs' to 'Parochia': The Perception of the Church in Space from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century (Dioceses of Rennes, Dol, and Saint-Malo) / Anne Lunven (translated from the French by Emanuele Lugli) 99 6. New Masters of Space: The Creation of Communication Networks in the West (Eleventh–Twelfth Centuries) / Thomas Wetzstein (translated from the French by Raeleen Chai-Elsholz) 115 7. Inventing Legal Space: From Regional Custom to Common Law in the 'Coutumiers' of Medieval France / Ada-Maria Kuskowski 133 Part III. Cartography and Imagined Geographies 8. The Image of France in the Beatus Map of Saint-Sever / Sandra Sáenz-López Pérez 159 9. France in the Two Geographical Works of Al-Idrīsī (Sicily, Twelfth Century) / Jean-Charles Ducène (translated from the French by Robert Bork) 175 10. From Gaul to the Kingdom of France: Representations of French Space in the Geographical Texts of the Middle Ages (Twelfth–Fifteenth Centuries) / Nathalie Bouloux (translated from the French by Katherine Bork) 197 11. The Definition and Boundaries of Eucharistic Space in the Grail Prose Romances: Focalization and Dissemination / Catherine Nicolas (translated from the French by Raeleen Chai-Elsholz) 219 Frequently Cited Sources 233 Index 235