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OverviewIn reconstructing and interpreting rituals of supplication, Geoffrey Koziol here uncovers the dense meanings of these most commonplace of all early medieval rituals. The author casts a wide net, comparing these rituals in several regions of northern and western France to illuminate the complex changes in social relations and political power in the tenth and eleventh centuries. In medieval cultures, ""supplication"" was simply the act of prayer, an act that required a distinctive language of entreaty accompanied gestures of humility, such as kneeling and prostration. Koziol shows that in tenth- and eleventh-century France, prayer was an act of political honor as well as religious devotion, since the language and gestures of prayer were used to address not only God but also earthly lords who claimed to rule ""by the grace of God."" Making subtle use of ethnological studies and using a remarkable range of sources, Koziol demonstrates that supplication accurately reflected the complexities and paradoxes in contemporary attitudes toward friendship, enmity, and political authority. And in documenting their regional variations, he shows that the rituals of supplication, far from being routinized gestures insensitive to context, remained culturally meaningful by adapting to the realities of different political and social communities. Original and richly interdisciplinary, Begging Pardon and Favor is a major contribution to our understanding of medieval political and religious culture. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Geoffrey Koziol , Geoffrey KoziolPublisher: Cornell University Press Imprint: Cornell University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.20cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.907kg ISBN: 9780801477539ISBN 10: 0801477530 Pages: 488 Publication Date: 16 September 2011 Recommended Age: From 18 years Audience: General/trade , General Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsReviews<p> In this highly original book, Geoffrey Koziol studies the language and gestures of petition and supplication in tenth and eleventh-century northern France. His central argument is that political order, both in the secular and the ecclesiastical spheres, was closely dependent on ritual: kings governed, relations between antagonists were resolved, and monks had their property rights confirmed through grand gestures of humble supplication. -American Historical Review <p> Koziol's book is of a sort that would permit someone going to medieval Europe on assignment to figure out how things get done there. Journal of Interdisciplinary History Author InformationGeoffrey Koziol is Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |