Intercultural Transmission in the Medieval Mediterranean

This volume presents evidence of the extent and effects of intercultural contacts across Europe and the Mediterranean rim, opening up a new understanding of early medieval civilisation and its continuing influence in both Western and Eastern cultures today. From the perspectives of textual transmission, cultural memory, religion, art and cultural traditions, this work explores the central question of how ideas travelled in the medieval world, challenging the conventional notion of insular communities in the Middle Ages. Despite the schism between East and West that took hold after the thirteenth century this volume reveals a rich and extensive cultural exchange and demonstrates that transmission of ideas and culture across borders began much earlier than the Crusades. It contributes to new perspectives on medieval cities, Christian Europe's history with the Byzantine and Islamic Mediterranean, the landscape of power and the power-plays of the medieval Church, and the way in which cross-cultural transmission affected all of these areas.

Preface \ Acknowledgements \ Abbreviations \ Introduction \ Faith and Spirituality \ Thomasine Metamorphosis: Community, Text, and Transmission from Greek to Coptic David W. Kim \ St Michael of Chonai and the Tenacity of Paganism Alan Cadwallader \ Chivalry \ Medieval Persian Chivalry and Mysticism Milad Milani \ From Knight to Chevalier: Chivalry in the chanson de geste Material from Aquitaine to Germany Stephanie L. Hathaway \ Love and Literature \ Humour and Sexuality: Twelfth-Century Troubadours and Medieval Arabic Poetry Jerónimo Méndez \ Ladies, Lovers and Lais: A Comparison of Some Byzantine Romances with the Anglo-Norman Guigemar Andrew Stephenson \ Performance and Reception of Greek Tragedy in the Early Medieval Mediterranean Amelia R. Brown \ Material Culture \ The Urban Language of Early Constantinople: The Changing Roles of the Arts and Architecture in the Formation of the New Capital and the New Consciousness Gordana Korolija Fontana-Giusti \ There and Back Again: Cross-cultural Transmission of Clothing and Clothing Terminology Timothy Dawson \ Index