Roger Collins
University of Edinburgh, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Department Member
- Frankish historiography of the 8th and 9th centuries, Lord Lovat and the Jacobites, Spanish Early Medieval history, Visigothic Spain, Visigothic Numismatics, Visigothic Architecture, and 6 moreLate Antiquity, Byzantine Studies, J.R.R. Tolkien, Anglo-Saxon Studies (History), ARQCRISHISPANIAE1, and Late Antique and Byzantine Historyedit
- Historian and authoredit
This book offers the first collective discussion, by archaeologists, historians and philologists, of a corpus of six charters (four of which recently discovered) that all came from or are linked to the archive of the monastery of Asán.... more
This book offers the first collective discussion, by archaeologists, historians and philologists, of a corpus of six charters (four of which recently discovered) that all came from or are linked to the archive of the monastery of Asán. The various contributions examine the monastery in its territorial context across the centuries, and its economic underpinning through the exploitation of its estates. Also included are explorations of monastic life in the eastern Pyrenees, which provides some of the earliest evidence for it in the peninsula, and consideration of its connections to early Gallic and Italian monasticism. Asán is also the source of the earliest evidence for the use of particular forms of documentary record or charter in the Iberian Peninsula in the post-Roman period. These texts offer unexpected and important information about the legal and administrative practices of the Visigothic monarchy in the late sixth century and of the monastery’s connections to it. Amongst these are its role in providing a succession of bishops for important dioceses in the provinces of Tarraconensis and Narbonensis, in a period normally seen as being marked by religious conflict between church and state. Amongst other bodies of evidence studied here are later texts relating to Asán, including the hagiographic dossiers of Victorianus, abbot of Asán, and of Gaudiosus, bishop of Tarrazona, with new critical editions of several of them being included in this book.
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Half a century ago, the evidence for monastic life and practices in the Visigothic king- dom consisted entirely of literary sources of very unequal merit, both in the value of their contents and its interpretation, and in the quality of... more
Half a century ago, the evidence for monastic life and practices in the Visigothic king- dom consisted entirely of literary sources of very unequal merit, both in the value of their contents and its interpretation, and in the quality of the editions of them. Over recent decades, the latter has improved, though the lack of a proper critical edition of most of the monastic rules of the period remains a great weakness. After a slightly hesitant start, caused by disagreements over chronology, archaeology has come to play a central role in uncovering and understanding the evidence for Visigothic mo- nasticism. Comparisons with discoveries made in several other geographical contexts, ranging from Egypt to the islands of the Hebrides, can enhance understanding of its scale and importance in the Iberian Peninsula in the post-Roman centuries. While much work remains to be done, it seems from what has now been achieved that His- panic monasticism was far more extensive and more varied in character than would have been believed fifty years ago. Textual editing and study now need to be accelerat- ed, to keep pace with expected further archaeological discoveries, to provide a better understanding of this important aspect of the history of the Visigothic kingdom.
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Amongst the many achievements of Peter Brown may be included the ways in which he has taught us to understand and value the testimony of the Saints Lives and other hagiographic texts of Late Antiquity that often seemed baffling to... more
Amongst the many achievements of Peter Brown may be included the ways in which he has taught us to understand and value the testimony of the Saints Lives and other hagiographic texts of Late Antiquity that often seemed baffling to scholars of earlier generations. On the other hand, sa small number of these hagiographic texts can appear so transparently historical in the nature and details of their content, as not to seem in need of such careful interpretation. In the western Mediterranean the Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Emeretensium is an outstanding example of such a work, that has been used to throw light on a range of topics, from medicine to architecture, beyond the confines of the events in later sixth century Mérida that it describes, and largely without raising any questions as to the reliability of its narrative. However, when this can be compared with that provided by other, more clearly contemporary historiographical sources, its account usually proves to be erroneous or misleading. This article reopens questions long thought closed, or which have been ignored, as to the origins, nature and purpose of the work, so as to enable the strengths and weaknesses of its evidence be better understood.
A story of manuscripts found and now lost, and what they can tell us of the intellectual culture of the last decades of the Gothic kingdom in Spain.
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Roger Collins, Review of Ian Wood, The Modern Origins of the Early Middle Ages, Networks and Neighbours 3.1 (2015), 48-50
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, Christianity, History, European History, and 61 moreModern History, Intellectual History, Archaeology, Humanities, Late Antique and Byzantine History, Medieval Literature, Medieval History, Early Modern History, Genealogy, History of Christianity, Medieval Studies, Medieval Historiography, Historiography, Early Christianity, Discourse, Modern Europe, Early Medieval Archaeology, Medieval Ecclesiastical History, Early Modern Europe, Medieval Church History, Early Medieval History, Philosophy of History, Postmodernism, Critical Discourse Analysis, Late Antiquity, Michel Foucault, Medieval Europe, Medieval Intellectual History, Historical Theory, Church History, Early Modern Intellectual History, History, Writing and Memory, Late Roman Empire, Politics of Writing History, Early Middle Ages (History), Roman Empire, Modern and Postmodern Historiography, Late Antique Hagiography, Early Medieval Studies, Modern European History, Historia, Foucault power/knowledge - discourse, Ecclesiastical History, Later Roman Empire, História, Histoire, Historia Medieval, Early Medieval Monasticism, French Historiography, Edad Media, Catholic Church History, Barbarians and Romans in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, Barbarian Kingdoms, Histoire Medievale, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Early Medieval Period, Fall of Rome, Ancient and Medieval Church History, Late Medieval Intellectual History, Baja Edad Media, and History of the (Early) Middle Ages
Draft of a review of Robert Portass 'The Village World of Early Medieval Northern Spain'
Draft of a review published in The American Historical Review, vol. 123 (October, 2018), pp. 1370-1371
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Some revisionary thoughts on several aspects of the early history of the Kingdom of Asturias, presented to a conference in Oviedo and then published in its proceedings.
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The processes that led to the cultural realignments of the seventh and eighth centuries were by no means exclusively negative ones. One of the most striking features of the second half of this period in particular was the way in which the... more
The processes that led to the cultural realignments of the seventh and eighth centuries were by no means exclusively negative ones. One of the most striking features of the second half of this period in particular was the way in which the former physical and intellectual boundaries of the Roman world came to be superseded. The frontiers of the Empire had represented the limits of the civilised world as far as its inhabitants were concerned, and those who lived beyond them were of little or no interest, other than so far as they represented a periodic menace to peace and good order. There was no sense in which it was felt necessary to try to export the benefits of Roman civilisation to such ‘barbarians’.
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This book offers the first collective discussion, by archaeologists, historians and philologists, of a corpus of six charters (four of which recently discovered) that all came from or are linked to the archive of the monastery of Asán.... more
This book offers the first collective discussion, by archaeologists, historians and philologists, of a corpus of six charters (four of which recently discovered) that all came from or are linked to the archive of the monastery of Asán. The various contributions examine the monastery in its territorial context across the centuries, and its economic underpinning through the exploitation of its estates. Also included are explorations of monastic life in the eastern Pyrenees, which provides some of the earliest evidence for it in the peninsula, and consideration of its connections to early Gallic and Italian monasticism. Asán is also the source of the earliest evidence for the use of particular forms of documentary record or charter in the Iberian Peninsula in the post-Roman period. These texts offer unexpected and important information about the legal and administrative practices of the Visigothic monarchy in the late sixth century and of the monastery’s connections to it. Amongst thes...
Research Interests: Late Antiquity, Mountain communities, Late Antique Hagiography, Pastoralism (Archaeology), Visigothic Spain, and 10 morePyrenees, Tarraconensis, Early Medieval Monasticism, Monastic charters and cartularies, Antiquité tardive, History of taxation, Monastères, Péninsule ibérique, History of Donations, and chartes
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Of all the major literary figures of Visigothic Spain, Valerius is probably, at first sight, the oddest, certainly the least well understood, and the most unjustly vilified. Unlike the other principal writers of the period he has made no... more
Of all the major literary figures of Visigothic Spain, Valerius is probably, at first sight, the oddest, certainly the least well understood, and the most unjustly vilified. Unlike the other principal writers of the period he has made no mark in contemporary records other than in ...
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The question of when the Basques were converted to Christianity has been long debated, with the answers given ranging over a period extending from the fourth century at the earliest to the twelfth at the latest. Proponents of both the... more
The question of when the Basques were converted to Christianity has been long debated, with the answers given ranging over a period extending from the fourth century at the earliest to the twelfth at the latest. Proponents of both the early and the late dates for the conversion have considerable strength in their arguments. In trying to resolve this problem it is necessary to take account of changes in ethnic self perception in the Upper Ebro Valley and Western Pyrenees, especially in the period of the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire and the formation of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. Changes in Basque attitudes towards their neighbours were largely the product of altered political and economic circumstance that were triggered off by the dissolution of the Roman state. One major consequence of this was the growth of division and mutual hostility between mountain-dwelling pastoralists and lowland agriculturalists in the Western Pyrenees. Both of these two ec...
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... 810 conflicto franco con Godofredo 814-840 reinado de Luis el Piadoso 817 «Ordinatio Imperii» 829 compilación de la «Historia Britlonum» 835 ... 978-1016 reinado de Etelredo el Desprevenido 980 ataques vikingos contra el sur de... more
... 810 conflicto franco con Godofredo 814-840 reinado de Luis el Piadoso 817 «Ordinatio Imperii» 829 compilación de la «Historia Britlonum» 835 ... 978-1016 reinado de Etelredo el Desprevenido 980 ataques vikingos contra el sur de Inglaterra 991 batalla de Maldon década del ...
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Draft (as published) form of the memoir for the Proceedings of the British Academy: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy XVIII (2019), 197-216.
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... 'Sicut lex Gothorum continet': law and charters in ninth-and tenth-century Leon and Catalonia ... It will help to begin, taking Catalonia first, by looking at a ninth-century document that might serve to illustrate both the... more
... 'Sicut lex Gothorum continet': law and charters in ninth-and tenth-century Leon and Catalonia ... It will help to begin, taking Catalonia first, by looking at a ninth-century document that might serve to illustrate both the court procedures and the types of record that they produced. ...
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A draft of a contribution to the festschrift for Tom Brown
Research Interests: Tibetan Studies, Central Asian Studies, Sasanian History, Central Asia, Sogdian Archaeology, and 8 moreSasanian art, Sasanian Empire, Sasanian Archaeology, Central Asians/Sogdians in China, Sogdian Coins, Art and Archaeology, Dunhuang_Ancient Khotan_ Buddhism, Bactrian and Sogdian Language, and Dunhuang Studies
Draft of my contribution to 'Transforming the Early Medieval World: Studies in Honour of Ian N. Wood', ed. N. Kivilcim Yavuz and Richard Broome (Kismet Press, 2018)
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Like its two predecessors in this trilogy of books on Crusade and Reconquista in medieval Spain this is a work that could be described as the historiographical equivalent of a swan on a pond. Above the surface a stately form is proceeding... more
Like its two predecessors in this trilogy of books on Crusade and Reconquista in medieval Spain this is a work that could be described as the historiographical equivalent of a swan on a pond. Above the surface a stately form is proceeding on its way with no apparent effort; below the waterline there is strenuous and unremitting paddling taking place that makes possible the seemingly serene progress of the whole. The visible upper part here comes in the form of a seamless narrative that describes the various conflicts between the major Christian states of the Iberian Peninsula, Castile in particular but also Portugal, and the gradually diminishing Muslim enclave that was the Nasrid Emirate of Granada, from the death of Alfonso XI in 1350 to the fall of the city of Granada in 1492. A brief introduction lists the major literary-historical texts written in this period and which describe some of the events that took place, but the assessments of the value of their differing accounts, the resolution of contradictions between them, and the historian's personal judgments upon which the formation of the overall narrative rest are largely concealed, or kept firmly to the end notes of each chapter. Academic dispute and scholarly uncertainty are largely eschewed in the interests of pace and direction. In some cases problems and discrepancies are noted in passing, but without any attempt being made to solve them. For example, the figures for the improbable sizes of opposing military forces are quoted in the text, with no more than a warning that they should not be accepted literally. Nothing is allowed to interrupt the flow of the narrative, which proceeds majestically in its coverage of the sequence of events. There are great merits to such an approach to writing a work of this sort that has to cover nearly a century and a half
INSCRIPTIONS: https://tribunadarqueologia.blog.gencat.cat/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/PosterCat.pdf As part of the Monastic Landscapes research project, we are organising this international seminar, specially aimed at PhD students who... more
INSCRIPTIONS: https://tribunadarqueologia.blog.gencat.cat/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/PosterCat.pdf
As part of the Monastic Landscapes research project, we are organising this international seminar, specially aimed at PhD students who do their research on ecclesiastical matters in the period between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. The seminar will include the participation of internationally renowned researchers, who will present aspects related to their most recent research, always on the topic of the monastic phenomenon in the West between the 4th and 7th centuries. At the end of each session, we will hold a round table that will begin with the presentation of the doctoral thesis projects that are currently being carried out in different universities, at the proposal of the speakers and the organisation itself.
As part of the Monastic Landscapes research project, we are organising this international seminar, specially aimed at PhD students who do their research on ecclesiastical matters in the period between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. The seminar will include the participation of internationally renowned researchers, who will present aspects related to their most recent research, always on the topic of the monastic phenomenon in the West between the 4th and 7th centuries. At the end of each session, we will hold a round table that will begin with the presentation of the doctoral thesis projects that are currently being carried out in different universities, at the proposal of the speakers and the organisation itself.