Britain and its Neighbours: Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Description

Britain and its Neighbours explores instances and periods of cultural contact and exchanges between communities in Britain with those in other parts of Europe between c.500 and 1700. Collectively, the twelve case studies highlight certain aspects of cultural contact and exchange and present neglected factors, previously overlooked evidence, and new methodological approaches. The discussions draw from a broad range of disciplines including archaeology, history, art history, iconography, literature, linguistics, and legal history in order to shine new light on a multi-faceted variety of expressions of the equally diverse and long-standing relations between Britain and its neighbours. Organised chronologically, the volume accentuates the consistency and continuity of social, cultural, and intellectual connections between Britain and Continental Europe in a period that spans over a millennium. With its range of specialised topics, Britain and its Neighbours is a useful resource for undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars interested in cultural and intellectual studies and the history of Britain’s long-standing connections to Europe. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Figures Maps Tables Contributors Acknowledgements Britain and its neighbours: Contacts, exchanges, influences. An introduction Notes 1. Wayland the Smith and the Massacre of the Innocents: Pagan-Christian 'amalgamation' on the Anglo-Saxon Franks Casket The front side of Franks Casket - Wayland's Revenge and the Adoration of the Magi How can Jesus be linked to Wayland? The Massacre of the Innocents Wayland, the Anglo-Saxon Herod Notes 2. The permeating presence of practices: Northwest English and Manx ecclesiastical sites with Viking-Age furnished burials and sculpture Prying apart practices Considering the context Studying the stone Extrapolating from the evidence Conclusions and contemplations Notes 3. Between continental models, a Christian message, and a Scandinavian audience: Early examples of the image of 'Christ trampling the Beasts' in the British Isles Introduction: images of Christ and the Beasts Continental links: occidental models and British images Scandinavian links: pagan mythology and Christian messages International links: influences and imports from across the seas Notes 4. Silver threads: How Scandinavian Scotland connected with a wider economic world Economic anthropology Silver and market commerce in Scandinavian Scotland Silver: commodity money for a long-distance age Market currencies: the Baltic and Southern Scandinavian Model Transfer to Ireland and Britain Market economy in Scandinavian Scotland Conclusions Notes 5. The problem of Manx: Norse linguistic evidence for the survival of Manx Gaelic in the Scandinavian period Introduction Survival or extinction, and the limits to place-name evidence Historical linguistic evidence: beyond the place-names Linguistic theories: extinction or survival? Pre-occlusion: Kenneth Jackson's fugitive unexploded d Loanwords and their semantics Conclusion Appendix: Old Norse loanwords in Manx Notes 6. Legal custom and Lex Castrensis?: Using law and literature to navigate the North-Sea neighbourhood in the late Viking Age Introduction Lex Castrensis and establishing Knútr's international legal legacy Knútr's approach to Viking-Age problems Lex Castrensis: a fictionalised solution to a factual Viking-Age problem? Knútr's punitive attitude and a case for legal exchange in the late Viking Age Literary approaches to the customary law of the late Viking Age Notes 7. Ring-fencing the gardinum?: European romance to British reality of the thirteenth-century Caernarfon Castle garden and park Introduction Caernarfon Castle: Queen's Gate Ring-fencing the medieval garden definition? The garden below Queen's Gate Eleanor de Castile's gardens: European romance to British reality The 'Little Park' below Queen's Gate Queen's Gate and an elite processional way Conclusion Notes 8. Albany and the poets: John Stuart, Duke of Albany, and the transfer of ideas between Scotland and the continent, 1509-1536 Pierre Gringore's Abus du Monde for James IV, c.1509 Macé de Villebresme's Epistres du Turc and the fortifications at Dunbar, 1515-1523 Bremond Domat, genealogy, and military ambition in the Hague Manuscript, 1518 Domat, the Liber Pluscardensis, and the Sainte Chapelle at Vic-le-Comte, 1519-1529 A sketch by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and a eulogy by Desmontiers, c.1525-1538 Blood and vellum: Albany's promotion of the Boulogne and d'Auvergne lineage Conclusion Notes 9. Anglo-Swiss relations in the seventeenth century: Religion, refuge, and relief Notes 10. Fashioning an expanding English world: Commerce, curiosities, and coastal profiles from Edward Barlow's 1668 voyage to Italian port cities English shipping to the Mediterranean and Italian shores, 1660s Edward Barlow: an eyewitness to history Edward Barlow's 1668-1669 Mediterranean cruise Conclusion Notes 11. 'England is not a kingdom located on the Moon': Use and usefulness of English knowledge in early modern Swedish agricultural literature Introduction Translation as appropriation Jacob Serenius and The English Husbandman and Shepherd (1727) The kingdom not located on the moon: calendar and climate The confusing case of the colon symbol: units of measurements Things not useful other than in England? Knowledge and status Reinerus Broocman and A Complete Book of Swedish Husbandry (1736) Broocman, Serenius, and the problem of measurements Seaweed and clay: from England to Sweden through Europe The usefulness of English agricultural knowledge in Swedish books of husbandry and agriculture Epilogue Notes 12. An honoured guest: The 1764 journeys across Piedmont of Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany Introduction Reading the reports: Prince Edward's journeys and stays in Piedmont The first journey (10 February-7 March 1764) The second journey (10-27 July 1764) Prince Edward in Piedmont: a case study A critical interpretation of Prince Edward's journeys: strategies of appearance and 'Shortcut-Diplomacy' between Britain and Italy in the second half of the eighteenth century Notes Further Reading Index