Review of periodical articles
FREDERICK BUYLAERT|Gerrit Verhoeven|Tim Verlaan|Reinoud Vermoesen
Historians are held hostage by the sources that available to them, and for reason, historiography of medieval towns is dominated research on thirteenth-, fourteenth- or fifteenth-century case-studies. In preceding centuries, literacy was largely monopoly ecclesiastical milieus, who were often hostile simply not interested in describing urban settlements which then emerged all over Europe. An interesting exception, however, Breton town Redon, took shape around an abbey established 832 with support Carolingian Emperor Louis Pious. By navigating unusually extensive set cartularies this abbey, as well cartographic archaeological evidence, Julien Bachelier has developed incisive sketch development a shadow eleventh twelfth centuries (‘Une ville abbatiale bretonne. Redon du IXe au XIVe siècle’, Histoire Urbaine , 48 (2017), 133–54). This case-study confirms once again urbanization Europe more than side-effect rebirth long-distance trade canonical Pirenne thesis would have it. The case provides valuable contribution revisionist perspective stresses importance local demand from abbeys, episcopal palaces castles stimulus (see esp. seminal work A. Verhulst, Rise Cities North-West (Cambridge, 1999)).
Urban History|Institutional Repository University of Antwerp (University of Antwerp)