Land, Language and Memory in Europe 700–1100

Abstract

Literacy and property have been among the dominant themes of early medieval history for more than a decade. Since the work of Rosamund McKitterick, Janet Nelson and others, contrary to the assumptions of an earlier generation of scholars, scholars have recognised that die written word profoundly influenced die transmission of die past and the control of the present in early medieval Europe. This was true not only in die highest circles of ecclesiastical and royal life, but also at much more humble levels across Europe. If, as Janet Nelson reminds us, even freedmen could still be referred to in die ninth century as ‘cartularii’, literally charter-men, ‘because of the written carta of manumission required by law courts as symbol and proof of liberation’, die written word reached indeed deeply into society.