The relative absence of written references to fortifications in the Carolingian Empire is well known, but seems difficult to square with increasing evidence that such buildings were familiar features in the ninth-century Frankish landscape. I argue that one reason for this is that contemporary narratives participated in a Carolingian “way of seeing” which associated castle building with frontier territories and lands beyond rather than with the imperial heartlands. Fortified residences were linked in the Carolingian imperial imagination with negative characteristics such as secrecy and hiddenness, in contrast to the supposed openness of Frankish royal palaces.
University of St Andrews, United Kingdom - ORCID: 0000-0002-3543-7734
Titolo del capitolo
Frontiers and fortifications in the Carolingian imperial imagination
Autori
Simon MacLean
Lingua
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0416-3.11
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2024
Copyright
© 2024 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Titolo del libro
Carolingian Frontiers: Italy and Beyond
Curatori
Maddalena Betti, Francesco Borri, Stefano Gasparri
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
354
Anno di pubblicazione
2024
Copyright
© 2024 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0416-3
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0415-6
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0416-3
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0418-7
Collana
Reti Medievali E-Book
ISSN della collana
2704-6362
e-ISSN della collana
2704-6079