This Academic Meetings seek to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of all aspects of medieval studies. Each Congress has one particular special thematic strand on an area of interdisciplinary study in a wider context.

Next Autumn the city of Nájera (La Rioja, Spain) will once again host the International Meetings of the Middle Ages, organized by the Medieval Research Group of the University of Cantabria, supported by the Town council of Nájera, Dirección General de Cultura de la Consejería de Desarrollo Económico e Innovación de La Rioja, Escuela de Patrimonio Histórico de Nájera, Instituto de Estudios Riojanos, University of Cantabria, Sociedad Espańola de Estudios Medievales, Instituto de Estudos Medievais de la Universidade Nova de Lisboa and the Government of Spain.

 

The international conference will take place in Nájera (Spain), from 8th to 9th November, 2018.

 

The topic of this year is about:        Law and Authority in the Medieval Atlantic Europe (and beyond)

 

Much of the sophistication of the late medieval public sphere at both the state as the local level came from legal practice, and the discourse that it generated. In the period between 1250 and 1550, rapid changes within the juridical and political history of communities took place. More law was written down, and more new law was made. More people went to public courts, and far more judgments were written down. While the juridical power of lords, kings, and emperors has already abundantly been studied, a systematic comparison of urban law and legal practices across Europe has not yet been undertaken. Townspeople (both the elite as well as the less powerful inhabitants) were coming to be involved in the arena of written law, everywhere, which in itself tied them into the political networks of the town. Even if this participation was not always willing, and took place in contexts of subjection and contention, the legal world was touching everyone by the later Middle Ages. Furthermore, political thinking about legal practices and the government of towns was increasingly written down by lawyers and secular clerks, sometimes resulting in the production of treatises on 'how cities should be governed'.
The growing production of texts in the later medieval towns (verdicts, agreements, ordinances, treatises, and legal records) enables historians to study the political history of law within an urban context. Therefore we invite speakers to think about the following questions. Who took the initiative to make law in the medieval town? Perhaps more than we think, the political interaction between townspeople rather than the personal opinions of urban rulers seems to have been responsible for the creation of new rules in towns. Which ideas did motivate townspeople to participate in the law making process? Where did the authority of law makers come from? Their political power gave urban magistrates the right to promulgate town ordinances, but one wonders which kind of principles lay on the basis of their active engagement to do so. Why did people increasingly go to court to settle conflicts? Why were these settlements written down? Town magistrates created archives and 'written memories' of legal practices, but one wonders what motivated them to do so. Such questions can only be answered by studying both the political as well as the legal history of towns. As a result, this conference wants to unite historians combining both aspects in their work.
Concrete topics could be:
 A study of political or legal treatises on urban government
 Law-making and decision-making processes within towns
 Legal practices of townspeople
 Confrontation and conflicts about the jurisdiction of town governments
 political discourse of local judges
 Writing practices of town councils: the codification of law ('cartularies') and the recording of verdicts
 The role of the various 'socio-political actors', formal and informal groups, of the Atlantic town-ports in the elaboration of norms regarding private and public affairs
 Comparison of the urban legislation and the influence in shaping the social and political order of the urban community
 The regulation of port activity and the sea in legal systems, charters and local law

 This fascinating conference may be a good springboard to facilitate this goal.

CALL FOR PAPERS

 

Historians and Graduate students are encouraged to submit abstracts for research presentations or posters on topics related to "Exclusion and social discipline in the Medieval European City.

Abstracts should be no more than 500 characters and should clearly state the purpose, thesis, methodology, and principal findings of the paper to be presented. Successful proposals will be published in 2018. All abstracts and a short CV should be submitted electronically to Jesús Solórzano at:  solorzaja@unican.es and Jelle Haemers jelle.haemers@kuleuven.be

The deadline for submissions will be September 1th, 2018.

        Grants

Spanish Society of Medieval Studies established a fund to support students participation and attendance in the Conference. The Conference Fund is available to all students, both undergraduate and graduate, who are looking for funding to attend a conference related to their academic or professional goals. The purpose of these grants is to encourage and assist student presentations at this academic conference related to his/her goals by off-setting the cost of lodging.

 

The application for grants is open to all students who meet the following:

• The student is in good academic standing

• The student has matriculated into a degree of Grade, Master or PhD.

• Good knowledge of modern languages

 

The languages of the meetings are Spanish, English, French, Italian and Portuguese.

 

Venue: Escuela de Patrimonio de Nájera. Plaza de Santa María. Nájera. Spain.

 

        GUIDELINES FOR THE MONOGRAPHIC BOOK

 

    Style and technical specifications

 

  • The monographic book will be published by the Instituto de Estudios Riojanos, an Spanish pretigious institute and publishing house, as well as holding an important share of the Latin America continent.  
  • Paper should be sent, please, before on  1st April 2019, in a format that is recognisable to Microsoft Word (.doc) in any of its versions for Windows.
  • The maximum length of manuscripts is 25 pages.
  • Double spacing should be used for all the paper except for the references which are to be single-spaced.
  • Times New Roman, normal style, 12-point type.
  • Footnotes or Notes, when necessary, are to be placed at the end of the page and numbered in their order of appearance in the text.
  • Illustrations (images, graphics...) are to be inserted in the appropriate point in the text.
  • All illustrations will be denominated generically Figures and are to be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals with the title centred at the bottom.
  • Images must be in black and white with a quality of at least 300 ppp.
  • Images have to be sent in a separated files.
  • The title page should contain a concise and informative title, author’s name and full address of the institution, email address and current address.
  • The article will include an introduction and conclusions.

  

     Footnotes and citations  

 Examples:

 

a) Conference papers and communications or chapters of books:

 

 Benton,  J. R. “Clio and Venus: An Historical View of Medieval Love”,  Newman, E.X. (Ed.) The Meaning of Courtly Love. State University of New York Press, Albany, 1968: 19-42. 

  

b) Journal articles.

    Wicham, C. “Sobre la mutación socioeconómica de larga duración en Occidente durante los siglos V-VIII”, Studia Historica. Historia Medieval, 22, 2004: 17-32.

 

c) books

    Verbruggen, J.F. The Art of Warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages: from the Eighth Century to 1340. Boydell Press, Ámsterdam, 1977.

 

 Secretariat

 

http://www.h-net.org/graphics/dot.gif

Jesús Angel Sólórzano Telechea
University of Cantabria
Edificio Interfacultativo. Av. de los Castros s/n. 39005.
Santander. Spain. EU. 
Phone: (0034) 942202015
Fax: (0034) 942201203
Email:
solorzaja@unican.es
Visit the website at http://www.neim.unican.es