Hen Y. Roman Barbarians. The Royal Court and Culture in the Early Medieval West

Basingstoke (UK) - New York (USA): Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, 2007. – 228 p. – (Medieval Culture and Society Series).
ISBN-13: 978–0–333–78665–9 hardback
ISBN-10: 0–333–78665–3 hardback«Roman Barbarians» investigates the nature of early medieval culture, and what place the royal court had in it. It explores the place of the royal court and the operation of patronage through it in several European kingdoms of the early Middle Ages, such as the Ostrogothic court of Theoderic the Great, the Vandal court of Thrasamund, the Frankish courts of Dagobert I and the Visigothic court of Sisebut. It seeks to identify the roots of later medieval developments, and especially of the so-called Carolingian Renaissance, in the centuries immediately succeeding the period of Roman rule. After all, it was in that formative period that Roman and Christian ideas and practices came together to be mingled with indigenous Germanic practices, to produce the seeds of what we now call 'the medieval civilization'.Introduction: A Series of Unfortunate Events
The dim view of early medieval culture
The survival of early medieval culture in modern historiography
A word on the patronage of culture
Another word on the concept ‘culture’Adaptation: The Ostrogothic Court of Theoderic the Great
Theodericus illiteratus
Ostrogothic past, Roman present
Roman past, Gothic presentOut of Africa: The Vandal Court of Thrasamund
The cultural heritage of Roman North Africa
King Thrasamund and the ‘Vandal Renaissance’
The Anthologia Latina
Dracontius
The peculiar case of Fulgentius of Ruspe
Roman VandalsBefore and After: The Frankish Court of Chlothar II and Dagobert I
Kings and culture in Merovingian Gaul
Court and culture in seventh-century Francia
The Merovingian court school
Culture and monasticism
Flirting with liturgyMusic of the Heart: The Unusual Case of King Sisebut
King Sisebut, vir sapiens et… pietate plenissimus
Visigothic political ideology and the ‘Isidorian Renaissance’
Isidore of Seville and the culture of his time
King Sisebut’s ‘Isidorian Renaissance’Postcards from the Edges: A Prelude to the Carolingian Renaissance
Charlemagne’s Lombard father-in-law
The defiant cousin from Bavaria
The splendour of Byzantium
Ex oriente lux?Select Bibliography