Challenging the Boundaries of Medieval History: The Legacy of Timothy Reuter (review)

In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the importance of medieval German history and culture amongst English-speaking scholars. While scholars like Karl Leyser, Henry Mayr-Harting and John Gillingham, who did considerable work on Ottonian history, were never completely ignored, the work of Timothy Reuter brought to the fore not only the importance of comparative history but also the wealth of historiography found in German scholarship that had been overlooked by 'anglolexic' historians. Reuter worked in both England and Germany, at Exeter and at Southampton, as well as at the Munich-based Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Therefore he was well placed to act as a bridge between German and English scholarship. His death in 2002 was a real loss to this medieval cross-cultural research.

This book provides us with an indication of the importance of Reuter's work and the respect with which he was regarded in Britain in particular. It is a collection reflecting the range of themes and areas which recurred in his research, as an editor of texts, as an interpreter and as a participant in challenging debates that questioned historical assumptions about secular power and institutions, and their interactions with the Church.

The book has an impressive array of contributors: the foreword is by Henry Mayr-Harting, and the texts of the first two Reuter lectures by Chris Wickham and Janet Nelson are included. Both lectures set the tone for the collection, being thought-provoking interrogations of critical themes inherent in Reuter's work. Wickham, writing about the problems of doing comparative history, makes the seemingly obvious, but often overlooked, point, that if comparative studies are not done this can lead to the assumption 'that one type of historical development is normal ... and that every other is a deviation'. Things do happen differently in different places. These differences frame the preoccupations of historians interested in exploring their particular Grand Narratives of nationhood. Thus the 'feudal revolution' debate, so important to French scholars in the 1990s, has no resonance in Germany, while 711, the year of the Arab Conquest of Spain, which marks the beginning of the Middle Ages in Spanish scholarship, creates a specific local paradigm through which history is there interpreted. Janet Nelson's lecture on 'Charlemagne and the Paradoxes of Power' also draws on an important issue raised in Reuter's work, in particular his lectures and essays on 'Plunder and Tribute in the Carolingian Empire', where he explored the role of controlled violence and the profits derived from it in state power. She also highlights the importance of exploring differing perspectives in understanding history in Reuter's work, such as the German view of the Becket dispute.

The remaining seven essays come from a commemorative conference held at Southampton in 2004. These can be grouped into three areas: histories of secular power, histories of the Church and its secular benefactors, and technical issues around scholarly editions of medieval texts. Lena Wahlgren-Smith writes a fascinating essay on different approaches to editing a medieval text, in her case the letters of Nicholas of Clairvaux, providing a salutary check for those of us who have grown dependent on modern editions. Martina Hartmann recounts Timothy Reuter's uncompleted work on an edition of Wibald of Stavelot's letter collection for the MGH. Julia Barrow queries our understanding of the meaning of 'reform' when examining the tenth-century Benedictine reshaping of the English Church, carefully analysing the language found in such documents as the Regularis Concordia. Ryan Lavelle explores the different understandings of rebellion, comparing the case of the Ætheling Æthelwold in 899-902 with contemporary Ottonian uprisings, while Patricia Skinner examines the disparate treatments of the career of Archbishop Daibert of Pisa, who became Patriarch of Jerusalem.

For this reviewer, perhaps the most thought-provoking work is David A. Warner's re-reading of Ottonian history and the concept of the Sonderweg, which he re-examines...