Text and Territory: Geographical Imaginations in the European Middle Ages by Sylvia Tomasch and Sealy Gilles
Celia M. Lewis
130ARTHURIANA to her statting point at Cluny in 1095. The Merovingian period enshrined exemption and the central feature ofaristocratic negotiations over sacred spaces. In Carolingian exemptions continued but were usually joined with protection such a way as, paradoxically, confer strict control persistence ofthe basic practices related immunities also witnessed slow, steady disappearance of royal court from process. Gradually, became 'divergent': they might mean concessions, or declaring certain lands therefore inviolate. wound up defended by its own sacrality. It must be said that Rosenwein pauses interpret, detail context, only small number surviving immunity charters. Thank heavens! Teutonic thoroughness would have deprived this book admirable clarity readability without adding anything methodology argument. has, fact, blazed trail many can follow researches devoted immunities. For what has shown beyond any contradiction qualification is changed time virtually every product specific human community grappling very concrete problems. Immunity as form suggested ways framing discussions never dictated outcome. THOMAS F. X. NOBLE Unviersity Notre Dame Sylvia Tomasch sealy gilles, Text Territory: Geographical Imaginations European Middle Ages. Ages Series. Philadelphia: University Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Pp. 330. isbn: 0—8122-1635-0. $19.95. quest for territory knowledge rarely ifever neutral act, traces process reside documents generated—or reconfigured—en route. Whether claimed an imaginary realm actual physical space, history, empire, body, genealogy, twelve essays Territory expose which desire exclusion are embedded geographical textual representation. One delights collection order it engages topics intersection ofacademic fields, crossing disciplines illuminate object ofstudy further. A potential risk may seem lack common purpose. Such criticism cannot easily leveled Territory, editors artfully unified divergent within four coherent groups: 'Centers Margins,' 'Place Politics Identity,' 'Gender, Sexuality, Geography,' 'The Texts.' Introduction, provides overlay these broad headings, referencing concepts developed Derek Gregory Imaginations—'representation,' 'articulation,' 'spatialization,' 'authorization.' read remarkable light Gregory's precepts. Margins' section opens Mary Blaine Campbell's elegant study Purgatorio-as-trave\ogue, disclosing primacy Dante's canticle. We then move space; 'Defining Earth's Center Medieval "Multi-Text,"' Iain Macleod Higgins explicates BookofJohnMandevilleas verbal analogue' theJerusalem-centered mappae mundi. REVIEWS131 Higgins's essay pairs well Scott D. Westrem's stimulating cattographic analysis, 'Against Gog Magog,' vague signifiers become repository anti-Semitic paranoia. first two ofIdentity' illustrate geographicaltextual constructing cultural self. Sealy Gilles's contribution, 'Territorial Interpolations Old English Orosius,' describes course ofself-definition spans several centuries, Orosius's Latin geogtaphy rewritten include those people vital Anglo-Saxon identity. reverse strategy, uncovered Robert M. Stein 'Making History English,' employed William Malmesbury, who simplifies diminishing heterogeneity reconfigure diversity social spatial unity. With similar agenda, Lagamon's Brut 'converts succession narratives into stories alliance' (110). Christine Chism's compelling 'Too Close Comfort,' skillfully probes 'interpénétrations eastern western cultures' (136) Wars ofAlexander, revealing Alexander's conquests hybrid identity mirror desires doubts Btitish gentry end crusades. volume's third section, begins historical analysis oppression ofmedieval...
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