Beyond the Monastery Walls

Rezensionen / Stimmen

'Here is a book that - with wonderful clarity - illuminates experience and attitudes of lay people in the early Middle Ages. The formularies which are its subject may look dense, dry, and legalistic, but Warren Brown shows that there are human beings behind the formulas and that we can examine behaviors that are barely documented elsewhere. His treatment is enhanced by a fine sense of regional difference and of the nuances of personal status.' Wendy Davies, University College London 'Warren Brown's pioneering exposition of the Frankish formulae collections of model legal documents from the eighth and ninth centuries elucidates the way in which they mirror the social realities and possibilities of the lives of the Carolingian laity. The formulae relate to kinship, marriage, and inheritance; legal disputes and conflict resolution; lordship; patronage; freedom and unfreedom; they highlight the crucial part land and property played in early medieval social relationships. In this engaging study, moreover, Brown convincingly demonstrates how the formularies promoted the common culture of documentary use in Carolingian society.' Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge '[Brown]'s challenge was to explain the secular society of the early Middle Ages using formularies. This bet has been fully won, thanks to a careful reading of these documents, informed by a completely up-to-date international bibliography.' Benoit-Michel Tock, Francia recensio