Britain and its Neighbours: Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Medieval and Early Modern Europe(Themes in Medieval and Early Modern History)

Britain and its Neighbours explores instances and periods of cultural contact and exchanges between communities in Britain with those in other parts of Europe between c.500 and 1700. Collectively, the twelve case studies highlight certain aspects of cultural contact and exchange and present neglected factors, previously overlooked evidence, and new methodological approaches. The discussions draw from a broad range of disciplines including archaeology, history, art history, iconography, literature, linguistics, and legal history in order to shine new light on a multi-faceted variety of expressions of the equally diverse and long-standing relations between Britain and its neighbours. Organised chronologically, the volume accentuates the consistency and continuity of social, cultural, and intellectual connections between Britain and Continental Europe in a period that spans over a millennium. With its range of specialised topics, Britain and its Neighbours is a useful resource for undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars interested in cultural and intellectual studies and the history of Britain’s long-standing connections to Europe.

Table of Contents:
1. Wayland the Smith and the Massacre of the Innocents. Pagan-Christian ‘Amalgamation’ on the Anglo-Saxon Franks Casket 2. The Permeating Presence of Practices: Northwest English & Manx Ecclesiastical Sites with Viking-Age Furnished Burials & Sculpture 3. Between Continental Models, a Christian Message, and a Scandinavian Audience: Early Examples of the Image of ‘Christ trampling the Beasts’ in the British Isles 4. Silver Threads – How Scandinavian Scotland Connected with a Wider Economic World 5. The Problem of Manx: Norse Linguistic Evidence for the Eurvival of Manx Gaelic in the Scandinavian Period 6. Legal Custom & Lex Castrensis?: Using Law and Literature to Navigate the North-Sea Neighbourhood in the Late Viking Age 7. Ring-fencing the gardinum? European Romance to British Reality of the Thirteenth-Century Caernarfon Castle Garden and Park 8. Albany and the Poets: John Stuart, Duke of Albany, and the Transfer of Ideas Between Scotland and the Continent, 1509–1536 9. Anglo-Swiss Relations in the Seventeenth Century: Religion, Refuge, and Relief 10. Fashioning an Expanding English World: Commerce, Curiosities, and Coastal Profiles from Edward Barlow’s 1668 Voyage to Italian Port Cities 11. ‘England is not a kingdom located on the Moon’: Use and Usefulness of English Knowledge in Early Modern Swedish Agricultural Literature 12. An Honoured Guest: the 1764 Journeys across Piedmont of Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany

About the Author :
Dirk H. Steinforth is an archaeologist and translator in Göttingen, Germany. Working as an independent researcher, he studied every aspect of the Viking Age in the Irish Sea, particularly the Isle of Man, and published two books and various articles on the subject. Charles C. Rozier is Lecturer in Medieval European History at Durham University, United Kingdom. He specialises in the intellectual culture of European monasticism, c.800–1200, publishing widely on the writing of history and uses of the past in medieval Europe.