The Languages of Gift in the Early Middle Ages

This book is a collection of original essays on gift in the early Middle Ages, from Anglo-Saxon England to the Islamic world. Focusing on the languages of gift, the essays reveal how early medieval people visualized and thought about gift, and how they distinguished between the giving of gifts and other forms of social, economic, political and religious exchange. The same team, largely, that produced the widely cited The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe (Cambridge University Press, 1986) has again collaborated in a collective effort that harnesses individual expertise in order to draw from the sources a deeper understanding of the early Middle Ages by looking at real cases, that is at real people, whether peasant or emperor. The culture of medieval gift has often been treated as archaic and exotic; in this book, by contrast, we see people going about their lives in individual, down-to-earth and sometimes familiar ways. "...solid and wideranging." -Felice Lifshitz, Journal of Interdisciplinary HistoryList of illustrations; List of contributors; Preface; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; 1. Introduction Janet L. Nelson; 2. Giving to God in the mass: the experience of the Offertory David Ganz; 3. Gifts and prayers: the visualization of gift-giving in Byzantium and the mosaics at Hagia Sophia Leslie Brubaker; 4. The use of the term 'beneficium' in Frankish sources: a society based on favours? Paul Fouracre; 5. The gifts of Wearmouth and Jarrow Ian N. Wood; 6. The settings of the gift in the reign of Charlemagne Janet L. Nelson; 7. The queen of the Franks offers gifts to the caliph al-Muktafi' Ann Christys; 8. Reciprocal gifts on Mount Athos in the tenth and eleventh centuries Rosemary Morris; 9. Compulsory gift-exchange in Lombard Italy, 650-1150 Chris Wickham; 10. When gift is sale: reciprocities and commodities in tenth-century Christian Iberia Wendy Davies; 11. Conclusion Chris Wickham; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.