“Romanness” in Early Medieval Culture

Abstract

Most historians of the early medieval West are aware of the significant problems posed by their sources: the scarcity of texts and objects extant from the era, relative to later centuries; their frequently far from perfect condition; the isolated states in which they are often found, with no indication of place or time of production and no comparanda. Partly because of the difficulties, scholars of culture and thought in this era have become adept at piecing together scattered fragments of evidence, squeezing it for information through a range of analytical techniques, and reconstructing lost writings and artifacts from limited surviving vestiges. Such methods have made it possible to locate relationships and continuities among seemingly disparate sources, and thus map the transmission and evolution of artistic, literary, and other cultural conventions across regions and considerable periods of time.¹