Dr%20Veronica%20West-Harling: List of publications

<p>The richest and most politically complex regions in Italy in the earliest Middle Ages were the Byzantine sections of the peninsula, thanks to their links with the most coherent early medieval state, the Byzantine Empire. This comparative study of the histories of Rome, Ravenna, and Venice arises from their unifying element: their common Byzantine past, since all three escaped being incorporated into the Lombard kingdom in the late seventh and early eighth centuries. By 750, however, their political links with the Byzantine Empire were irrevocably severed, except in the case of Venice. Thus, after 750, and in the ninth and tenth centuries, did these cities remain socially and culturally heirs of Byzantium in their political structures, social organization, material culture, ideological frame of reference, and representation of identity? Did they become part of the Western political and ideological framework of Italy: Frankish Carolingian in the ninth, and German Ottonian in the tenth, centuries? This book attempts to identify and analyse the ways in which each of these cities preserved the continuity of structures of the late antique and Byzantine cultural and social world; or in which they adapted each and every element available in Italy to their own needs, at various times, and in various ways. It does so through a story which encompasses the main contemporary narratives, the documentary evidence, recent archaeological discoveries, and discussions on art history, and it follows the markers of status and identity through titles, names, ethnic groups, liturgy and ritual, foundation myths, representations, symbols, and topographies of power</p>

<p style="text-align:justify;"> La sezione monografica è dedicata allo studio dei monasteri femminili in Italia nel periodo 700-1100, mettendo a confronto gli enti situati in città dell’Italia settentrionale, centrale e meridionale (Brescia, Venezia, Verona, Ravenna, Roma, Benevento e Napoli). Elementi chiave del confronto sono i legami tra monache e badesse con le più potenti famiglie aristocratiche e regie dell’area in cui i monasteri erano inseriti e le modalità con cui queste famiglie contribuirono al potere e alla ricchezza delle case monastiche. Sia l’esame di tali relazioni, sia l’indagine del ruolo delle monache nel mantenere la memoria e nel rappresentare quelle famiglie grazie alle preghiere, alla conservazione delle reliquie e alla gestione dei patrimoni fondiari hanno consentito di avviare il confronto anche tra diverse tradizioni monastiche (longobarda, franco-carolingia, postbizantina, romana) in aree differenti e l’identificazione di loro tratti specifici a seconda delle interazioni con le élite politiche e sociali. </p>

<p style="text-align:justify;"> Throughout the seventh century, great mutual amity was professed by the churches of Ravenna, Constantinople and Rome. Sometimes, therewasamity. But the situation of the Byzantine empire was often so precarious as to threaten, directly and indirectly, the churches of Rome and Ravenna and hence preclude even a pretence of amity.<br/><br/> From the end of the sixth century the empire had had to contend with Persian attacks on its eastern front as well as Avar-Slav attacks in the Balkans, only temporarily halted by the victories of the emperor Heraclius both in defending Constantinople (626) and in recapturing Jerusalem in... </p>

This series focuses on Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages and covers work in the areas of history, Language &amp; literature, archaeology, art history and religious studies.

This is the first full-length study of the connections between the English and Continental churches during the tenth and eleventh centuries.