In this Book
- Language and Power in the Early Middle Ages
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: Brandeis University Press
- Series: The Menahem Stern Jerusalem Lectures
summary
The eminent historian Patrick J. Geary has written a provocative book, based on lectures delivered at the Historical Society of Israel about the role of language and ideology in the study and history of the early Middle Ages. He includes a fascinating discussion of the rush by nationalist philologists to rediscover the medieval roots of their respective vernaculars, the rivalry between vernacular languages and Latin to act as transmitters of Christian sacred texts and administrative documents, and the rather sloppy and ad hoc emergence in different places of the vernacular as the local administrative idiom. This is a fascinating look at the weakness of language as a force for unity: ideology, church authority, and emerging secular power always trumped language.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page
- pp. 4-5
- Introduction
- pp. 1-9
- 2. Religion and Language
- pp. 38-55
- Bibliography
- pp. 101-115
Additional Information
ISBN
9781611683929
Related ISBN(s)
9781611683905, 9781611683912
MARC Record
OCLC
827212276
Pages
124
Launched on MUSE
2013-05-20
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2013