Language and Power in the Early Middle Ages

The eminent historian Patrick J. Geary has written a provocative book, based on lectures delivered at the Historical Society of Israel about the role of language and ideology in the study and history of the early Middle Ages. He includes a fascinating discussion of the rush by nationalist philologists to rediscover the medieval roots of their respective vernaculars, the rivalry...

The eminent historian Patrick J. Geary has written a provocative book, based on lectures delivered at the Historical Society of Israel about the role of language and ideology in the study and history of the early Middle Ages. He includes a fascinating discussion of the rush by nationalist philologists to rediscover the medieval roots of their respective vernaculars, the rivalry between vernacular languages and Latin to act as transmitters of Christian sacred texts and administrative documents, and the rather sloppy and ad hoc emergence in different places of the vernacular as the local administrative idiom. This is a fascinating look at the weakness of language as a force for unity: ideology, church authority, and emerging secular power always trumped language.

帕特里克·J.格里，美国普林斯顿大学高等研究院中世纪史教授，加州大学洛杉矶分校中世纪史杰出教授。在中世纪史尤其是社会和文化等诸议题上贡献巨大，近年来主要研究方向为中世纪欧洲民族奠基神话及其在现代欧洲的应用及影响。

刘林海，北京师范大学历史学院教授、博士生导师，主要从事欧洲中古史、史学史等方向的教学研究。