Books by John Reuben Davies
Copper, Parchment, and Stone: Studies in the Sources for Landholding and Lordship in Early Medieval Bengal and Medieval Scotland, 2019
Records of the gift of land are the major sources for the history of early India and medieval Sco... more Records of the gift of land are the major sources for the history of early India and medieval Scotland. Unlike other countries, this type of record – in copper, parchment, or stone – is central to debates about emerging regional configurations, the growth of royal authority, the development of government and its relation to people on the land. Striking parallels of form exist between Sanskrit records from India and contemporaneous Latin charters from Europe. For Scotland between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, charters are the largest category of historical source; Bengal’s medieval history relies very heavily on its copper ‘charters’ too. This book brings together specialists from the Universities of Calcutta and Glasgow, with fresh approaches to these comparable sources, setting out new perspectives on these records, the nature of land-holding, royal power, and the formation of kingdoms.
The way in which saints' cults operated across and beyond political, ethnic and linguistic bounda... more The way in which saints' cults operated across and beyond political, ethnic and linguistic boundaries in the medieval British Isles and Ireland, from the sixth to the sixteenth centuries, is the subject of this book. In a series of case studies, the contributions highlight the factors that allowed particular cults to prosper in, or that made them relevant to, a variety of cultural contexts. The collection has a particular emphasis on northern Britain, and the role of devotional interests in connecting or shaping a number of polities and cultural identities [Pictish, Scottish, Northumbrian, Irish, Welsh and English] in a world of fluid political and territorial boundaries. Although the bulk of the studies are concerned with the significance of cults in the insular context, many of the articles also touch on the development of pan-European devotions [such as the cults of St Brendan, The Three Kings or St George].
This book explores the ecclesiastical and political transformation of south-east Wales in the lat... more This book explores the ecclesiastical and political transformation of south-east Wales in the later eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Ecclesiastical and administrative reform was one of the defining characteristics of the Norman regime in Britain, and the author argues that a new generation of clergy in South Wales was at the heart of this reforming programme. The focus of this volume is the early twelfth-century Book of Llandaf, one of the most perplexing but exciting historical works from post-Conquest Britain. It has long been viewed as a primary source for the history of early medieval Wales, but here it is presented in a fresh light, as a monument to learning and literature in Norman Wales, produced in the same literary milieu as Geoffrey of Monmouth. As such, the Book of Llandaf provides us with valuable insights into the state of the Norman Church in Wales, and allows us to understand how it thought about its past.
Papers by John Reuben Davies
Choice Reviews Online, 2013
John Reuben Davies introduces the manuscripts used for the dynamic edition of the Declaration of ... more John Reuben Davies introduces the manuscripts used for the dynamic edition of the Declaration of Arbroath, based on an account by Dauvit Broun. Links are provided to online images or catalogues of these manuscripts where some exist.
Models of Authority: Scottish Charters and the Emergence of Government is a resource for the stud... more Models of Authority: Scottish Charters and the Emergence of Government is a resource for the study of the contents, script and physical appearance of the corpus of Scottish royal charters which survives from 1100–1250. Through close examination of the diplomatic and palaeographic features of the charters, the project will explore the evidence for developments in the perception of royal government during a crucial period in Scottish history.
The DigiPal project for palaeography has featured in previous DH conferences. It includes a gener... more The DigiPal project for palaeography has featured in previous DH conferences. It includes a generalised framework for the description and analysis of handwriting, initially applied to Old English of the eleventh century but subsequently extended to Latin, Hebrew, and decoration; it incorporates a novel model for describing handwriting; and a recent addition allows the embedding of linked palaeographical images into prose description. The purpose of this poster is to present new developments which form part of two further major grants, one of which is the Models of Authority project. Specifically, the focus here is on the incorporation of textual content into the model for handwriting.
Bringing William Wallace to London for execution was a departure from normal practice, and the re... more Bringing William Wallace to London for execution was a departure from normal practice, and the reason seems to have been to have him executed in front of the largest audience possible, and on the feast day of an apostle who had died like one of Wallace's victims.
This is a database of all known people of Scotland between 1093 and 1314 mentioned in over 8600 c... more This is a database of all known people of Scotland between 1093 and 1314 mentioned in over 8600 contemporary documents. The database contains all information that can be assembled about every individual involved in actions in Scotland or relating to Scotland in documents written between the death of Malcolm III on 13 November 1093 and Robert I’s parliament at Cambuskenneth on 6 November 1314. The database is not simply a list of everyone who is ever mentioned. It is designed to reflect the interactions and relationships between people as this is represented in the documents. The database draws on over 8600 documents from this period that are directed by one or more individuals to others (either by name or in general terms). This allows the database to be structured according to the formal aspects of these documents, giving it the potential to be used not only a source of information, but also as a means of investigating the ways in which social relationships were mediated by the doc...
Between the middle of May and the end of August 1296, during the course of a royal progress throu... more Between the middle of May and the end of August 1296, during the course of a royal progress through the kingdom of Scots, via an eastern coastal route, having militarily asserted his authority over the leading nobles of Scotland, Edward I received into his peace the prelates, earls, barons, nobles and the communities of the realm of Scotland. Over 1500 individuals performed fealty, with those who held their lands in capite (that is, ‘in chief’, immediately of the Crown) doing homage as well. Fealty was performed either individually or in groups, and the acts were recorded in over 180 deeds, in the form of letters patent written in French, with each individual or community attaching their own seal. Of these original deeds, about seventy are extant, preserved in the records of the exchequer, collection E 39, ‘Scottish Documents’, at The National Archives in Kew.
A newly discovered English source, which also marks the earliest record of William Wallace’s exec... more A newly discovered English source, which also marks the earliest record of William Wallace’s execution, confirms outright what historians had only suspected before: the reason that Edward I dealt so harshly with Wallace was that he viewed him as a pretender to the Scottish crown.
This second major class of letters is closer in form to the charter, for it gives notice of a dis... more This second major class of letters is closer in form to the charter, for it gives notice of a disposition which has given rise to the consequent instruction or injunction that the letter serves to relate. The notification of the type Sciatis quod or Sciatis me/nos is not diagnostic, but it is usually a signal that we are dealing with letters rather than a charter.
Text and translation of a relic-list of the early thirteenth century, probably from the north of ... more Text and translation of a relic-list of the early thirteenth century, probably from the north of England. Appendix to a research note by Stephen Marritt. Published in The Innes Review 65:2 (Autumn 2014) 146-52
Steve Boardman, John Reuben Davies, and Eila Williamson, eds., Saints' Cults in the Celtic World. (Studies in Celtic History, 25.) Woodbridge, Eng., and Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell and Brewer, 2009. Pp. xiii, 217; 1 genealogical table and 1 map. $95 Speculum-a Journal of Medieval Studies, 2010
... Scotland before 1000, while Fiona Edmunds looks at the influence of the Patrician cult throug... more ... Scotland before 1000, while Fiona Edmunds looks at the influence of the Patrician cult through the adoption of the personal name Patrick (in the form ... On a different note, Joanna Huntington examines how Aelred of Rievaulx created a secular saint in the figure of King David I of ...
Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2005
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Books by John Reuben Davies
Papers by John Reuben Davies
sub-Roman periods. The case is made for the geographic dispersal of the practice, for the constructedness of British ecclesiastical identity, and the maintenance of the tradition among successive communities of the Brittonic-speaking peoples despite their other differences.
Format pre-circulated papers - because of this, places limited!