Manuscript Culture and Medieval Devotional Traditions: Essays in Honour of Michael G. Sargent ed. by Jennifer N. Brown and Nicole R. Rice (review)

Moving to expressions of civic identity in the early medieval period, Matthieu Tillier broadens the scope of the volume to include urban populations identifying with Islam. He argues that, in the seventh and eighth centuries, Islamic political identity, influenced by consensus, similarly emphasised tribal origins over urban origins, but a shift in the latter half of the eighth century saw a new emphasis on political centralisation. Marco Mostert reflects on urban culture in the early medieval West. Focusing on a Germanic context, Mostert identifies a shift in the tenth century in the political identity of episcopal towns identifying with Roman concepts of civitas and urbs to, perhaps monastic, ideals centred on community. Gianmarco de Angelis then explores elites and urban communities in an early medieval Italian context, as particularly informed by recorded tensions between central authority and local traditions. He posits a clear and vital urban identity strongly informing political discourse in this period. Claudia Rapp rounds off the volume by noting the variety of political continuities informed by the volume as providing a counterpoint to teleologies inspired by the ‘fall of Rome’. Despite the teleological shift from Roman to medieval and the continuities this microanalysis of urban political culture inspires, this volume is perhaps at its best when it disagrees with itself: uncertainty over whether the ‘power of the people’ or ‘urban identity’ were formally and politically effective in this period of transition creates a powerful tableau for reflection. A small criticism, common in an age dominated by secularism, is the sense that that other radical continuity, Christianity, was somehow not vitally active and invested in this transition, but rather informed by it. Still, this is a volume bringing together a wide variety of perspectives into a useful whole. Stephen Joyce, Monash University