Territorio, Sociedad y Poder

A transcription of Gutierre de Toledo’s tapestry inventory from the Libro Becerro de Oviedo

2022-04-28T11:47:09+02:00

Gutierre de Toledo, during his stay has bishop in Oviedo (1377 – 1389), recorded an inventory os his posesions and those of San Salvador. In this text, the tapestries in his chapel are screened. From the description, the iconography of the garments the we analyze can be deduced. We also include a transcript of the relevant part of the Libro Becerro.

Social realities in the Early Middle Ages: dichotomy of the rural territory around Villaviciosa de Odón (Madrid, Spain)

2022-06-15T11:06:42+02:00

The objective of this work is to present the results of two excavations conducted in the south of the Central Plateau of the Iberian Peninsula: The Curch of San Babilés and the secondary village of Monte de la Villa (Madrid). Using this method, we pewsent a diachronic study of two centres connected through material culture. Both settlements offer an insight into daily life in the Early Middle Ages (8th and 8th centuries AD). In fact, by studying the architecture, the tombs, the glass, and ceramics in detail, to illustrate some of the distinctive features of rural society between the Visigoth and the Emiral periods.

Sculpture on the margins: the musical and liturgical parable on the rood-screen of Tarragona cathedral

2022-08-15T11:43:23+02:00

Between the 13th and 14th centuries, the Tarragona Cathedral chapter decided to move its choir stalls from their original location in the presbytery to the first bays of the nave. To this end, a monumental stone screen was built to house a contemporary choir stalls. The choir stalls were replaced at the end of the 15th century by the Late Gothic furniture we have today. In 1963, with the intention of enlarging the worship space in the cathedral, the western façade of the stone screen was dismantled and moved, and was partially reinstalled between the cathedral and the Museu Diocesà de Tarragona. The remains of the choir screen contain one of the most interesting sculptural ensembles dedicated to liturgy, chant and to the dialogue between sacred and secular music in the European Middle Ages.

The reserve of San Julián de Samos: the formation of a monastic territory in the 10th and 11th centuries

2022-03-01T11:56:03+01:00

The development of Samos’s monastic reserve is one of the most unique processes of territory formation in early medieval north-western Iberia. Charters privilege royal initiatives as the main factor behind the grant of the original reserve and its subsequent enlargement. However, the sources also reveal that the reserve developed in an area that was densely populated and in which a variety of actors interacted with the monastery around issues concerning the appropriation of land and territorial control. This paper provides a systematic analysis of the charters that illuminate the areas that became part of the reserve before the 12^th century. The aim is to investigate the actors, initiatives, and social relationships that determined how Samos’s claims over the areas around the monastery were effected and materialised on the ground at different times throughout the early medieval period.