Overview

English summary: In the 10th and 11th century, a new form of reciprocity based on contracts emerged in the region of Lotharingia. This development came about a result of local traditions on the one hand, but also through new political, social, and economic challenges on the other. Thus, in the course of the 10th century, these parallel developments arrived at a convergence of contractual and witness forms of precarial land tenure (land tenure in which one party is granted the use of land for a determined amount of time without ownership changing hands) as well as the diplomatic form of a chirograph, a document that was usually divided so that the congruency of the torn edges would prove the authenticity of the document. Katherine A Gross's study seeks to understand to what extent and why the continental chirograph developed in Lotharingia, what the adoption of this new form of land tenure meant, and what the consequences were, in a regional context. After a review of all surviving Lotharingian chirographs and other executive documents related to precarial land tenure from the period of time under examination, the systematic analysis of these compiled sources, on the basis of formal and content-related criteria, reveal patterns and lines of development in the certification of precarial and fief forms of land tenure as well as a change in the practice of chirography. These two steps make possible an interpretation of the results, in which written documents were treated as a vehicle for the ""visualization"" of social relations in an age between orality and literacy. The synthesis of this book contains a series of case studies, in which individual sources are examined as forms of precise ""snapshots"" and their contemporary historical context is also discussed. German description: Im 10. und im 11. Jahrhundert entstand in Lotharingien eine neue Form von auf Gegenseitigkeit beruhenden Vertragen. Diese Entwicklung wurde einerseits durch lokale Traditionen, andererseits aber auch durch neue politische, soziale und okonomische Herausforderungen begunstigt. So kam es im Laufe des 10. Jahrhunderts zur Begegnung zwischen der Vertrags- und Urkundenform der Prekarie einerseits und der diplomatischen Form der Teilurkunde (auch oft als ""Chirograf"" bezeichnet) andererseits. Katharina A. Gross' Studie geht den Fragen nach, inwiefern und warum Lotharingien die (oder eine) Wiege der kontinentalen Teilurkunde war und was die Ubernahme und der besondere Erfolg dieser neuen Ausstellungsform fur Prekarien im regionalen Kontext bedeuten. Nach einer Bestandsaufnahme aller noch fassbaren lotharingischen Prekarien und Teilurkunden aus dem betrachteten Zeitraum zeigt die systematische Analyse des ermittelten Urkundencorpus nach formalen und inhaltlichen Kriterien Tendenzen und Entwicklungslinien in der Beurkundung von Prekarien und Leihevertragen wie auch der Praxis der Chirografierung andererseits. Diese beiden Schritte ermoglichen eine Interpretation der vorgefundenen Phanomene, wobei die Urkunde als Mittel der ""Visualisierung"" von sozialen Beziehungen in einer Epoche zwischen Mundlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit betrachtet wird. Die Synthese des Buches enthalt schliesslich eine Reihe von Fallstudien, in denen einzelne Stucke in Form von ""Momentaufnahmen"" genauer untersucht und in ihrem jeweiligen historischen Kontext besprochen werden.

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9783447101615

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"""...there is much to commend in this insightful and timely study, which engages substantially with notions of pragmatic literacy, gift exchange, and symbolic communication, as well as with more traditional diplomatics. The book represents a major contribution to the study of Lotharingia as an Urkundenterritorium and of documentary practices in the tenth and eleventh centuries. It will be of great interest to individuals studying social relations, property transfers, and the performative aspects of charters."" --Edward Roberts, University of Liverpool, The Medieval Review 16.11.12"

.. .there is much to commend in this insightful and timely study, which engages substantially with notions of pragmatic literacy, gift exchange, and symbolic communication, as well as with more traditional diplomatics. The book represents a major contribution to the study of Lotharingia as an Urkundenterritorium and of documentary practices in the tenth and eleventh centuries. It will be of great interest to individuals studying social relations, property transfers, and the performative aspects of charters. --Edward Roberts, University of Liverpool, The Medieval Review 16.11.12

...there is much to commend in this insightful and timely study, which engages substantially with notions of pragmatic literacy, gift exchange, and symbolic communication, as well as with more traditional diplomatics. The book represents a major contribution to the study of Lotharingia as an Urkundenterritorium and of documentary practices in the tenth and eleventh centuries. It will be of great interest to individuals studying social relations, property transfers, and the performative aspects of charters. --Edward Roberts, University of Liverpool, The Medieval Review 16.11.12

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