Medieval History

Abstract:
Intelectuals from subaltern cultures are in a very different situation from that of scholars in hegemonic countries, but they should be sought, read and listened to because they have a lot to say. Not only in Folkloristics, but in other areas of human learning we could learn from the experience researchers and thinkers of other cultures can offer. In order to avoid the oxymoron represented by the expression “oral literature” many African and American scholars have adopted the term orature (it should not be confused with the concept of orality). Orature from African and American cultures has a great value to us because it can serve as a reference to perform comparative studies and to analyze the relationship between oral and written transmission not only in those cultures but also in those from which we have inherited cultural elements.

Key words: Orature orality,folklore, subaltern cultures, folkloristics, oral transmission.

Resumen:
Frente al mundo académico hegemónico, los intelectuales de las culturas subalternas tienen mucho que enseñarnos si nos detenemos a escuchar lo que nos pueden decir. No sólo la folklorística, sino también las otras ciencias humanas y sociales pueden aprender de la experiencia de los investigadores de los países no occidentales. Para evitar el oxímoron que representa la expresión “literatura oral” muchos intelectuales africanos y  americanos han adoptado el concepto de oratura (que no debe confundirse con oralidad, que se contrapone a escritura). La oratura de los países africanos y americanos nos interesa pues nos puede servir de referencia para realizar estudios comparados sobre las relaciones entre transmisión oral y transmisión escrita y otras cuestiones de oralidad y escritura en las culturas de las que nos sentimos herederos.

Palabras clave: Oratura, oralidad, folklore, folklore, culturas subalternas, folclorística, transmisión oral.

French blurb / quatrième de couverture:
Ce livre est le fruit d'un projet ambitieux visant à replacer l'émergence du portrait européen dans le contexte large d'une évolution où parmi d'autres facteurs les rites funéraires et les masques mortuaires jouent un rôle déterminant. L'« archéologie de la ressemblance » est ainsi la formule que l'auteur propose pour renouveler notre connaissance des débuts du portrait au XIIIe siècle, c'est-à-dire bien avant l'apogée du portrait individuel à la Renaissance. Par une transgression audacieuse des frontières du champ disciplinaire, l'enquête jette un éclairage inattendu sur l'environnement culturel qui favorisa l'apparition de ce genre visuel si caractéristique du continent européen. Le recours à la méthode étymologique enrichit tout particulièrement l'investigation en éclairant d'un jour nouveau les causes profondes de cette représentation figurée. Sur un sujet où tout déjà semblait avoir été dit, un arrière-plan aux multiples facettes se trouve ici mis au jour, qui d'une manière exemplaire révèle la complexité des facteurs intervenant dans l'histoire de la représentation figurée.

Hans Belting


German blurb / Klappentext:
Das Buch spannt einen weiten Bogen und ordnet die Herausbildung des europäischen Porträts in einen viel größeren Zusammenhang ein, in welchem auch Grabriten und die Totenmaske eine Rolle spielen. So ist etwa die „Archäologie der Ähnlichkeit“ ein Stichwort, um unsere Aufmerksamkeit für die Anfänge des Porträts im 13. Jahrhundert, lange vor der Blütezeit des Individualporträts in der Renaissance, neu zu wecken. Indem sie die Fachgrenzen kühn überschreitet, bietet die Untersuchung einen unerwarteten Einblick in das kulturelle Umfeld, in welchem es zur Entstehung dieser für Europa so charakteristischen Bildgattung kommen konnte. Das gilt auch für die Etymologie der Begriffe, die bei diesem Vorgang eine Rolle spielen und ein neues Licht auf die Motivation hinter diesem Bildnis werfen. In einem Thema, in dem alles schon gesagt schien, wird hier ein vielfach verzweigter Hintergrund freigelegt, der exemplarisch beweist, wie komplex die Gründe sind, die in der Bildgeschichte eine Rolle spielen.

Hans Belting

This timely volume examines the commitments of historicism in the wake of New Historicism. It contributes to the construction of a materialist historicism while, at the same time, proposing that discussions of work need not be limited to the clash between labor and capital. To this end, the essays offer more than a strictly historical view of the complex terms, social and literary, within which labor was treated in the medieval period. Several of the essays strive to reformulate the very critical language we use to think about the categories of labor and work through a continually doubled engagement with modern theories of labor and medieval theories and practices of labor.

Praise

"This collection of essays examines a favorite topic of medievalists, breathing new life into its analysis. Robertson and Uebel have achieved something remarkable here. The essays are wide-ranging, innovative, and provocative. Medieval labor is granted a complexity and an expansiveness that readers will likely find inspiring. Consistently engaging, lucidly composed, and full of insight, the work gathered in this important book constitutes essential reading for all those interested in the critical reexamination of the past."--Jeffrey J. Cohen, Department of English, George Washington University

Table of Contents

Conceptualizing Labor in the Middle Ages--Michael Uebel * The Idioms of Women's Work and Thomas Hoccleve's Travails--Catherine Batt * "As If She Were Single"--Brian Gastle * "The Workman is Worth his Mede"--Kate Crassons * The Carpenters Company and Lay Spirituality in Late Medieval England--Mark Addison Amos * Reconstructing English Labor Laws--Anthony Musson * Branding and the Technologies of Labor Regulation--Kellie Robertson * The Displacement of Labor in Wynnere and Wastoure--Britton Harwood * Scribal Hermeneutics and the Genres of Social Organization in Piers Plowman--Andrew Cole * Poetic Work and Scribal Labor in Hoccleve and Langland--Ethan Knapp * The Erasure of Labor: Hoccleve, Caxton, and the Information Age--William Kuskin

The death of Louis X in 1316 triggered a succession crisis that had a longterm effect on history of France and its neighbours. The king left behind a pregnant wife and a young daughter, Jeanne. The subsequent death of her posthumous
brother left Jeanne as the only remaining offspring of the late king and yet her claim to the throne was denied, setting a precedent that effectively barred women from inheriting the French crown. The succession crisis of 1316 was
especially significant as it marked the first time that the Capetian dynasty was confronted with the possibility of a female on the throne of France. Despite common belief, at that time there was no citation of ‘Salic Law’ to specifically
prohibit her accession to the throne. There was ample precedent for women to succeed to fiefdoms and even kingdoms; Louis’ mother was Queen of Navarre
in her own right. Given that the succession of females to the throne of France was a valid possibility at that moment in time, this paper will focus on why Jeanne’s claim to the throne was denied, the ensuing succession crises of 1322
and 1328 and Jeanne’s eventual coronation as Queen of Navarre in 1329.

The first book of the Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa (covering the years 952-1052) is notorious for its jumbled chronology. This creates a problem for the historian who would use Matthew as a source—his is the only record for many events that took place in the late tenth century and early eleventh, but his chronology is so tangled that it is difficult to know how to use his information. This paper explores the patterns of Matthew's chronological error, and proposes solutions to the most notorious of his dating puzzles.

We discuss some educational possibilities connected to the use of an ancient Chinese artifact. Our theoretical framework is based upon classical works by Vygotskij, Wartofsky and some recent papers by Bartolini Bussi. We proposed to a group of 10-11 year-old pupils a problem (from the Chinese treatise entitled Jiuzhang Suanshu, 1st cent. BC) that can be solved by a couple of simultaneous linear equations. Empirical data suggest that, in particular in the context of the game, the use of the primary artifacts (counting rods, the counting board), taking into account the secondary artifacts referred to the modes of action (rules and prescriptions), can be important in order to approach some mathematical contents.

This article explores the relationship between Montaigne and Plutarch, arguing that the Greek author had two identities to the essayist: as an intimate friend and as a moral philosopher. The importance of this double identity becomes clear as the article uncovers how Montaigne viewed the work of moral philosophy as a form of writing that needed to imitate life and relationships between people.

UDK 94 (497.15) (049.3) Emir Filipović VLASTELA ILIRSKOG GRBOVNIKA 1 THE NOBILITY OF THE ILLYRIAN ARMORIAL Sažetak Tekst je prikaz knjige Srđana Rudića, Властела илирског грбовника, Историјски институт, Посебна издања, књ. 52, Београд, 2006, str. 387, koja se bavi pitanjima čuvenog Ilirskog grbovnika i plemićkih porodica zastupljenih u njemu.

What is in a word? The use of the Chu language word for ‘to suckle, milk’ is investigated in the light of recently discovered manuscripts, which further our knowledge of cultural aspects of ‘milktrees’, and bring back to life now obsolete word usages and connotations. Early Han medical recipes which use the latex or the red fruit of the paper mulberry are discussed. The paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera (Linnaeus) L’Héritier ex Ventenat) is the milk tree of the southern regions of ancient China. Most prominently, its red fruit, called the ‘milk fruit’, denoted a part of the human vagina, located at the anterior upper vaginal wall, forming an erectile body, and even displaying some structural similarity with the fruit of the paper mulberry.

Körper-und Medizingeschichte des alten und mittelalterlichen Chinas, 1997–2007 Rudolf Pfister Keywords: historiography of the body and medicine; ancient and medieval China; sexual body techniques; kallisthenics; Dunhuang medical manuscripts; innovation in Chinese medicine; medicine for women; paediatrics; ophthalmology Die Körper-und Medizingeschichtsschreibung über das alte und mittelalterliche China hat sich differenziert: Von der Hinwendung zu «Klassikern» zu der Bearbeitung von Manuskriptquellen und Einzelschriften, von einer Tendenz der Umschreibung und Vereinheitlichung für die moderne Praxis zu einer Historisierung (etwa der Innovation) und der Periodisierung, von einem Dornröschenschlaf der Philologie zu einem zögerlich vollzogenen diesbezüglichen Aufwachen und einigen wenigen Übersetzungen mit medizingeschichtlichem Anspruch. Die folgende kurze Darstellung einiger Tendenzen wurde bewusst auf Arbeiten in englischer, französischer und deutscher Sprache aus dem letzten Jahrzehnt beschränkt.

There are three major cultural uses of the hooligan concept that concern the discussion of Norman Manea’s last memoir-novel, referred to in the title of the present paper. Mircea Eliade used the term in reference to the amoral young generation that contributed to the Iron Guard activities in his novel The Hooligans (1935). Mihail Sebastian employed it in his composite pamphlet How I Became a Hooligan (1935), which answered Nae Ionescu’s anti-Semitic Preface to his novel For Two Thousand Years (1934). The self-ironic hooligan self-denomination referred to his scandalizing both the Romanian anti-Semites and the Romanian Jews in his honest, direct novel. Finally, Norman Manea took the term over, ironically too, but also as a post-modernist inter-textual reference to Sebastian’s case, in The Hooligan’s Return (2003), wherein the hooligan stands for the Jewish anti-Communist artist’s condition opposing the Romanian anti-Semitic Communist and post-Communist mainstream.
The social outsider and rebel status suggested by this Jewish-Romanian hoodlum condition dramatizes Manea’s triple minority group exilic allegiance: ethnically as a Jewish Transnistrian Holocaust victim of the Romanian nationalist Antonescu regime (1934 – 1945), politically as an anti-Communist inmate of the Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’s (1952 – 1965) and Nicolae Ceausescu’s gulag (1967 – 1986), and artistically as an immigrant writer in danger of losing his native linguistic foothold in the multicultural United States of America (1987-to date). Back in Romania, for a brief reluctant visit (1997), he will have the opportunity to doubly confirm the foreigner condition of his now dual cultural hyphenation as a Romanian-Jewish-American artist

O serie de articole recente au abordat iconografia sirenei bicaudate pe cahle, susţinând sau contrazicând identificarea ei cu Melusina. 1 Reprezentările de secol XV şi XVI ale legendei Melusinei (contemporane aşadar cahlelor cu sirene) arată că într-adevăr, aceasta nu a fost reprezentată şi nici descrisă vreodată cu cozi de peşte ci doar cu coadă de şarpe şi eventual cu aripi. 2 De altfel, atât numele cât şi legenda monstrului feminin, strămoş al familiei de Lusignan, apar doar la sfârşitul secolul al XIV-lea, în timp ce sirena bicaudată este mult mai timpurie.

En este artículo se compara el tratamiento de la terminología mística en una traducción antigua y en otra contemporánea de Ruusbroec. La primera traducción, de finales del siglo XVII, es indirecta, a través de la traducción latina de Surio, la segunda, del siglo XX es directa a partir del medioneerlandés. El problema para los lectores de ambas versiones es que los traductores no se han dado cuenta de que la mística tiene su lenguaje de especialidad. Sin la comprensión de esta 'otredad' no puede haber traducción.

The presented study investigates the pathologically changed animal bones from medieval Emden,
Germany. Conditions are described, interpreted and compared with material from Ireland (a regional study including
several historical sites), Germany (early medieval Hedeby and its successor Schleswig) and The Netherlands (Roman
settlement Tiel-Passewaaij).

Keywords: Palaeopathology, spavin, traction, periodontal disease, animal bones, Emden.

Fiasko operacji dardanelskiej, a zwłaszcza sromotna przegrana w bitwie o cieśninę, do jakiej doszło 18 marca 1915, uświadomiły Aliantom, że czas wreszcie porzucić nadzieję na wejście jakiejkolwiek jednostki nawodnej na Morze Marmara. Zaplanowany więc na 25 kwietnia 1915 desant na Półwysep Gallipoli doprowadzić miał do zniszczenia od strony lądu wszelkich stanowisk artyleryjskich, uniemożliwiających flocie pokonanie Dardaneli. Jednym z zasadniczych warunków powodzenia było jednak odcięcie obrońców od dostaw amunicji i wszelkich innych uzupełnień, które transportowane były na półwysep ze Stambułu drogą morską. Jednym ze środków, przy pomocy którego, teoretycznie, można było to zadanie wykonać wydawał się być okręt podwodny. Pierwsze improwizowane próby spenetrowania Cieśniny Dardanelskiej podejmowane były zresztą przez jednostki tego typu jeszcze przed rozpoczęciem operacji dardanelskiej. Wspomnieć tu należy o B11, który 13 grudnia 1914 w Zatoce Sarısığlık zatopił turecki okręt liniowy Mesudiye oraz o francuskim Saphir, który 15 stycznia 1915, po minięciu najwęższego odcinka cieśniny między Çanakkale a Kilitbahir zatonął, w dużej mierze w wyniku fatalnego stanu technicznego 2

Firenze trasfigura nella Commedia da città storica a "urbs imago mundi" atta a rappresentare l'universale decadenza.
Il saggio investiga questo percorso figurativo, illustrandone gli snodi fondamentali: la critica dantesca dell'assimilazione di Firenze a Roma, consueta nella cultura fiorentina duecentesca, e la conseguente sostituzione di questo modello nobilitante con il paradigma negativo di estrazione biblica della "ciuitas diaboli".
Infine sono mostrate le conseguenze macrostrutturali dell'analogia così istituita tra Firenze e le città diaboliche della tradizione cristiana e medievale, in particolare ai fini della costruzione identitaria del protagonista-autore del poema in veste di nuovo "scriba Dei".

http://www.carocci.it/caroccifrontend/Controller.do?query=__EXECUTE_VISINFORIVISTE&rivista=44&jscr=0

Il saggio esamina le reminiscenze di provenienza scritturale delle tre epistole della stagione arrighiana (VI, VII e VIII secondo la numerazione in vigore).
L'intento è duplice. In primo luogo, riconsiderare i principi critici che hanno guidato la costituzione dei commenti moderni delle Epistole, la cui storia critica è per altro particolarmente tempestosa. In secondo luogo, valutare, a partire dall'esame microscopico delle citazioni scritturali, la natura dei riferimenti danteschi all'ipotesto biblico.
L'individuazione di una nuova fonte dantesca, permette di correggere la variante erronea della conclusione della VI epistola nell'unico testimone manoscritto conservato, di contro alla congettura di Moore ("sine retractatione"), priva di senso nell'arringa dantesca ma promossa a testo da tutti gli editori.

A partire dai primi commentatori della Commedia, l'apparire inaspettatto al fianco della Fortuna di un villano nella celebre terzina del XV canto dell'Inferno ha promosso molteplici letture.
L'articolo discute l'interpretazione dominante nella critica novecentesca, e formulata per primo da Ernesto Giacomo Parodi, secondo la quale Dante avrebbe mutuato quest'immagine da un detto proverbiale e popolare, e mette in luce i postulati critici dei quali questa tesi è espressione.
Attraverso il riesame di un locus parallelo del Convivio, è quindi proposta un'interpretazione alternativa che fa appello alla tradizione degli esempi filosofici sulla Fortuna nella cultura classica e medievale.

The architecture of the Palazzo Francesconi. Baldassarre Peruzzi: a career spent between Rome and Siena

On the basis of new documents and a detailed analysis of its fabric, the article examines the architecture of the Palazzo Francesconi at Siena, one of the many buildings traditionally attributed to Baldassarre Peruzzi in his hometown, but never yet subjected to any detailed study. After a summary discussion of the chronology of the building, closely linked to the fortunes of its patron, and after firmly establishing that the work began in 1520, the author examines its architecture in detail. She points out the close links with architectural research in Rome, and especially in the circle of Leo X, in the second decade of the sixteenth century, but also the differences and similarities with the contemporary context in Siena itself, from the viewpoint of plan, use of materials, design of the main façade and type of arcaded courtyard.
In the second part of her article the author presents some hypotheses on the configuration of the initial project, which was only partially put into practice, and reviews the successive changes in programme. The regular plan and the façade with superimposed orders – a case unique of its kind in Siena in the first half of the sixteenth century –, the patron Bernardino Francesconi’s network of political and family contacts, the dating, personal relations with the Sienese artistic environment, and the traces identified in other projects of the architect and in some of his drawings, permit the author to argue convincingly for the project’s attribution to Peruzzi. A less schematic division of the chronology of Peruzzi’s activity as an architect, traditionally separated into an ante 1527 in Rome and a post 1527 in Siena, results from this. The article thus suggests a greater mobility of Baldassarre and lends force to the idea that he continued to have relations with Siena throughout his career, as would also be confirmed by other episodes recalled in the article.

The history of law in Iceland is remarkable for both the respect with which the Icelanders held the law and the attention to detail and concern for the well-being of the population as a whole which the law showed in its canons. Several law codes were published in the era of the Icelandic commonwealth in the tenth to twelfth centuries. At first these were oral, but later written down and codified into a complex and comprehensive system of conflict resolution and provisions for social security which aimed at securing the peace of the land. Each of these law codes reflected the political, religious and social concerns of the country and of the population as a whole. Particularly outstanding in this respect is Icelandic law's concern with the care of the elderly and for those in need. As far as can be ascertained, Icelandic law's concern with this question; the detailed nature of the law's definition of the rights and responsibilities of children to their parents and its concern for the maintenance of the needy goes much further than any other law code in contemporary Europe. It is the purpose of this paper to present an outline of the rules for social welfare contained in the twelfth-century Icelandic law code, the Grágás. The intention is not to speculate at length about the origins of these rules, nor is this the place for an analysis of the way in which these laws fit into the history of European law. Such an analysis must wait until more is known about welfare provision in other countries around the North Sea and in the Baltic Region and about the reception of the Christian faith's precepts about such matters. Instead, this paper aims to present what appear to be unique early rules for welfare provision in medieval Europe.

marriage cases re-defining some of the essential features of Western marriage, they were aware that they were passing new and innovative legislation. However, despite the novelty of their policies, the transition between the absence of a unified set of rules for marriage and the highly complex rules that were in place after the promulgation of the Decretals of Gregory IX in 1234 met no serious challenge to the new papal interpretation of the canon law or to the church's jurisdiction in disputes over marriage. From then on the responsibility for the implementation of the canon law lay with the local bishops and their officials.

Currently we know quite a lot about the legal framework surrounding marriage in the middle ages. We know how the law developed, we know about the development of the church courts and about their application of the law. But we know very little about the way in which the law was received: how people established their marriages, how they tried to protect them or how they prepared for litigation. In this paper I shall present the evidence of eight cases which show different ways in which people either tried to safeguard against or prepare for marriage litigation in fourteenth-century York. In particular, I shall focus on different kinds of pre-court tribunals found in the material. This is an institution that is common enough in practice, but these tribunals took a multitude of forms ranging from the totally informal to formal meetings in the premises of the Church (though not with a clear mandate from the church). It will also become clear that although these pre-court meetings are common, they are not required and they appear to have affected only those cases that involved litigants who can be shown to have been (or arguably should be) under some form of tutelage.

The implementation of the canon law rules of marriage by the medieval Church has been seen as one of the major turning points in the history of western Europe, 2 and several studies in the last twenty years have treated the development and application of these rules. 3 As a result, the teaching of the Church on marriage, particularly in England, is well understood and some comparative studies of its development and application have begun to appear. The development of the canonical theory of marriage has been described by James Brundage in a recent book, 4 and the development of a papal policy of marriage has been outlined in numerous studies by Charles Donahue. 5 The translation of the papal decisions on marriage into conciliar and synodal legislation in England has been described in detailed studies by Michael Sheehan, 6 while the function of the ecclesiastical courts when dealing with marriage cases has been studied in a classic study by R. H. Helmholz. 7 In an article published in 1988 Sheehan argued that the ideology of marriage proposed in the ethical teaching of the medieval Church since the third century, allowing former slaves to marry, had penetrated to all levels of society and that even the poorest members of society were willing to stand up for the right to marriage that was allowed them by the Church. This development, he argued, had its origins not only in synodal legislation but also in the ideological indoctrination of church sermons and the establishment of a system of ecclesiastical jurisdiction which gave the Church the means to enforce conformity with its ethical ideals and ensured that ordinary people were aware of the rules of canon law on marriage. 8 2 Michael M. Sheehan, *Marriage Theory and Practice in the Conciliar Legislation and Diocesan Statutes of Medieval England,* Mediaeval Studies 40 (1978): 408-60. 3 A number of important studies in this field are listed in Michael M. Sheehan and Jacqueline Murray

"The paper considers all the problems related to the planning of a digital tool for processing faunal remains with the use of a GIS (Geographic Information System) solution. Archaeological data processing can be done on different levels: it can concern both the production of thematic maps or the elaboration of interpretative and predictive models, using statistical and mathematical tools.
The distinction between an excavation and an animal bones analysis GIS platform is based on differences in data processing methods. In fact the detail level shifts from stratigraphical contexts to the set of bone fragments pertaining to the same context (or structure, or period, etc.); at the same time the underlying database (strictly dialoguing with the GIS platform) becomes our animal bones DBMS instead of the excavation DBMS.
Data frequency (and eventually other statistical analysis) are done on the DBMS and then imported within the GIS platform as points related to the zooarchaeological sample; using a GIS technique called geocoding, coordinates of the points are generically positioned inside the stratigraphical context they belong to.
Our aim is to display the bone deposit, by using stratigraphical and zooarchaeological keywords in order to understand how anthropic, animal and natural factors transformed the original animal population into a fossilized sample. Experimenting of GIS technology on a large open area excavation like the Poggio Imperiale project (more than 1.5 hectars excavated, with a bone sample of 5.763 fragments), has allowed us to produce important information used in elaborating diachronical models of social and economical structures; it is also possible to predict the archaeozoological potential of non-excavated areas, through a combination of statistical and spatial analysis.
"

Excavations carried out at Dudley Castle recovered an assemblage of animal bones dominated by horse from the vaulted cellar beneath the Great Hall. The deposit dates to c. 1710 and appears to have been the result of partial butchery of several aged horses. The possible interpretations are discussed and it seems likely that the deposit represents the leftover waste of a knacker.

"There is a persistent myth to the effect that Norway is and always has been the odd one out in the sphere of Nordic furniture design. But irrespective of what we ourselves might think, it is a fact that when it comes to international fame, Norwegian pioneers such as Alf Sture from Hiort & Østlyngen lose out as against the Dane Arne Jacobsen of Fritz Hansens Eftf., the Swede Bruno Mathsson from Dux / Bruno Mathsson International, and the Finn Alvar Aalto from Artek.
A trivial, but nevertheless striking illustration of this is to be found by leafing through the ”furniture bible”, 1000 chairs by Charlotte & Peter Field. Represented in it are 21 Danish designers, two Swedes, four Finns, but no Norwegians.  Another example is the website www.scandinaviandesign.com, which in its review of design-intensive undertakings in the North has not included a single Norwegian producer.
However, against the background of such observations, can we really authenticate the myth of Norway’s junior status? Are internationally famous designers, products and producers the only valid parameters when evaluating a nation’s achievements in the field of design? Starting out from this kind of assertion, we risk creating a skewed, perhaps also slightly erroneous impression of the situation. Is it not at least as interesting to study products that have found their way into a host of homes as it is to keep up with what has been bought by museums? On the basis of such a hypothesis we are well equipped to dismiss old myths relating to design history.
Products, producers and designers most often achieve fame in the world of design by appealing to critics, design magazines and museums’ purchasing committees. But design is about much more than elite design. What can be termed mainstream design usually tells us more about real social, cultural and aesthetic trends in the population at large. By applying such a cultural historical approach, the time is perhaps ripe for a revaluation of a few ”truths” concerning Norwegian design.
"

One of the fundamental tasks of medieval kings was to be a peacemaker, that is, to settle disputes and to prevent new ones from arising. The later medieval kings of France, whose councilors probably thought more about kingship than anyone else would ever care to, took this task very seriously. Throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the kings of France presented themselves to the world and to their subjects as arbiters of discord and guardians of peace. They did this through their personal work and that of their administrators and institutions in settling conflicts, but they also proceeded prescriptively by promulgating prohibitions or limitations of non-royal warfare. These ordinances outlawing the so-called "private" wars of nobles and other magnates have been considered, most notably by Aryeh Graboïs, as the culmination of a centuries-long development in the maintenance of order, one that began with the Peace of God Movement around the millennium and evolved into a royally directed program in the reigns of Louis VI and Louis VII. 1 But if development and change have been observed in the ideas and practices intended to maintain peace from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, this group of ordinances has not received as nuanced a treatment. Traditionally, in an approach that dates from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these texts were considered a single body of legislation representing a coherent and consistent ideological program directed by the crown. 2 Yet, these ordinances were issued over the course of more than a century, during which time eight kings held the scepter of France. 3 Moreover, as Raymond Cazelles has argued, there is considerable evidence for disjuncture among these texts. Indeed, Cazelles went so far as to assert that the ordinances against non-royal warfare were not at all indicative of a consistent program but rather only ad hoc, unconnected measures meant to deal with temporary