Jesse T Palmer
Biographic Data
| ID | 2008073 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jesse T Palmer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jesse T |
| FAMILY NAME | Palmer |
| SIGNATURE | PALMER J T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of St Andrews |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1933-0670 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 24 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1932 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Early Medieval Medicine
Thanks to the work of several generations of scholars, there has never been a greater interest in early medieval medicine. Yet the field, which continues to be largely manuscript-based given the sheer number of unedited texts, remains tethered to two now-outdated manuscript catalogues that collectively record 225 Latin manuscripts containing medical writings produced before ca. 1100. The Corpus of Early Medieval Latin Medicine ( CEMLM ) has recen…
Merovingian Medicine Between Practical Art and Philosophy
This essay offers a new examination of medical knowledge in Merovingian Gaul (c. 500–c.750), the ways that it became part of non-specialized learning, and its continuities with Carolingian medicine. In most histories of medicine, the Merovingian world is portrayed as providing a hostile environment for medicine due to the Christianization of knowledge. A significant problem, however, is that there has been no study of what medicine was known or h…
The making of a world historical moment
M atthew B ryan G illis . Heresy and Dissent in the Carolingian Empire
In this important and welcome study, Heresy and Dissent in the Carolingian Empire: The Case of Gottschalk of Orbais, Matthew Bryan Gillis provides the first focused analysis of the disputes surrounding the ninth-century Carolingian heretic Gottschalk of Orbais. Gottschalk was a rarity in the Carolingian world, as most heretics were distant in time or space to the political and religious centers of Northern Europe. Studies of him, however, have te…
Early Medieval Hagiography
Sinnstiftungen eines Rechtsbuchs
The Lex Salica is an important and surprising Late Antique legal text. Composed in Gaul, in Latin, shortly after the end of the Western Roman Empire, and surviving in 54 early manuscripts, it has long been at the centre of debates about the nature of non-Roman or Germanic society in a period of dramatic change. This, unsurprisingly, means that it brings much historiographical baggage with it. From one side, German legal history was long dominated…
The Global Eminent Life
Sanctity and the holy have been useful concepts for scholars seeking to compare religious cultures. This paper seeks to extend the project of comparisons by investigating the organisational contexts that produced collected biographies about holy women and men. It focuses on case studies from Latin and Byzantine Christianity and Buddhist China in the sixth century CE to highlight useful similarities in the authorsâ conceptions of their work in the…
History, Frankish Identity and the Framing of Western Ethnicity, 550-850. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, Fourth Series, 101
The Formation of Christian Europe. The Carolingians, Baptism, and the, written by Owen M. Phelan
The Otherness of Non-Christians in the Early Middle Ages
Non-Christian ‘others’ were crucial to the definition of early medieval Christendom. Many groups certainly found it important to generate a sense of belonging through shared practice, history and ideals. But the history of Christianity was a story of conflict, which from the very beginning saw a community of believers struggling against Jews and ‘pagan’ Romans. At the end, too, Christ warned there would be ‘false prophets’ and tribulations, and J…
The Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages
This groundbreaking study reveals the distinctive impact of apocalyptic ideas about time, evil and power on church and society in the Latin West, c.400–c.1050. Drawing on evidence from late antiquity, the Frankish kingdoms, Anglo-Saxon England, Spain and Byzantium and sociological models, James Palmer shows that apocalyptic thought was a more powerful part of mainstream political ideologies and religious reform than many historians believe. Movin…
An Empire of Memory
Calculating Time and the End of Time in the Carolingian World, c.740-820
The hopes and fears associated with the imminence of apocalypse acted as catalysts for a number of significant changes in history. Relevant patterns of behaviour are not, however, always consistent. This paper examines the intellectual contexts for the (sometimes quite real) fear that the world might end or be revolutionised in c. AD800 with the advent of the ‘6000th year of the world’. It argues that, in the Carolingian world, apocalyptic belief…
The Long Morning of Medieval Europe
The ‘long morning’ of this volume's title is a phrase of Paul Dutton’s, which he coined to characterise the positive way in which the post-Roman ‘Dark Ages’ are now seen by scholars. As the editors explain in their introduction, early medieval studies has confidently dispelled the notion that significant developments in the middle ages only occurred after AD 1000, while successive generations of scholars have made the field a vibrant and expandin…
Die Integration Sachsens in das frankische Reich
In the second half of the eighth century, the Frankish emperor Charlemagne entered into a concerted effort to conquer, reorganize and convert Saxony. Such was the force employed that one commentator on Charlemagne's reign, the courtier Einhard, remarked that the Franks and Saxons became ‘as if one people’. Caspar Ehlers’ admirable new book aims to provide a new analysis of this coming together of two peoples, charting the transformation of Saxony…
The Times of Bede
Defining paganism in the Carolingian world
Generations of scholars have looked for evidence of ‘paganism’ in continental sources from the eighth and ninth centuries. This paper surveys some of the key problems in defining and conceptualizing the available literary evidence for such a project. Part one argues for a return to the sources to help escape the intellectual baggage created by discussions of ‘pan‐Germanic paganism’, interpretatio Romana and, more recently, folk practices. From th…
Saxon or European? Interpreting and Reinterpreting St Boniface
St Boniface ( c. 680–754) has been called one of the ‘founders of Christian Europe’ for his wide‐ranging influence on religion, politics and culture in the early Middle Ages. This Anglo‐Saxon was a missionary in Frisia, reformer in Germany, promoted papal authority, and supported the Carolingian seizure of royal power in Frankia in 751. Yet the precise significance of his achievements has always been subject to interpretation, invention and chall…
The ‘vigorous rule’ of Bishop Lull
This paper argues that the reputation of St Boniface, one of the ‘founders of Christian Europe’, needs to be understood in relation to the career of Lull of Mainz, the saint's pupil and successor. It analyses Lull's literary, pastoral and missionary interests, as well as his political networks, to illustrate how he helped give form to the legends of Boniface and, in particular, Willibald's Vita Bonifatii and the Bonifatian letter collections. Stu…
Rimbert's Vita Anskarii and Scandinavian Mission in the Ninth Century
The idea of converting Scandinavia to Christianity had been enthusiastically pursued by the Emperor Louis the Pious and Archbishop Ebbo of Rheims in the 820s. Optimism such as theirs was, however, not to last, and little progress was made between the death of Archbishop Rimbert of Hamburg-Bremen in 888 and the conversion of Harald Bluetooth a century later. This article examines how Rimbert wrote a saint's Life about Anskar, his predecessor and ‘…
The Banana in Caribbean Trade
T NHE extent to which the development of the banana trade between the United States and the countries of the Caribbean has been a factor in the economic and political development of the Caribbean countries forces a consideration of the major problems awaiting solution. They are dealt with under the following heads: (1) the historical and statistical development of the banana trade between the United States and the countries of the Caribbean, (2) …
The Long Morning of Medieval Europe
The ‘long morning’ of this volume's title is a phrase of Paul Dutton’s, which he coined to characterise the positive way in which the post-Roman ‘Dark Ages’ are now seen by scholars. As the editors explain in their introduction, early medieval studies has confidently dispelled the notion that significant developments in the middle ages only occurred after AD 1000, while successive generations of scholars have made the field a vibrant and expandin…
Defining paganism in the Carolingian world
Generations of scholars have looked for evidence of ‘paganism’ in continental sources from the eighth and ninth centuries. This paper surveys some of the key problems in defining and conceptualizing the available literary evidence for such a project. Part one argues for a return to the sources to help escape the intellectual baggage created by discussions of ‘pan‐Germanic paganism’, interpretatio Romana and, more recently, folk practices. From th…
Rimbert's Vita Anskarii and Scandinavian Mission in the Ninth Century
The idea of converting Scandinavia to Christianity had been enthusiastically pursued by the Emperor Louis the Pious and Archbishop Ebbo of Rheims in the 820s. Optimism such as theirs was, however, not to last, and little progress was made between the death of Archbishop Rimbert of Hamburg-Bremen in 888 and the conversion of Harald Bluetooth a century later. This article examines how Rimbert wrote a saint's Life about Anskar, his predecessor and ‘…
The ‘vigorous rule’ of Bishop Lull
This paper argues that the reputation of St Boniface, one of the ‘founders of Christian Europe’, needs to be understood in relation to the career of Lull of Mainz, the saint's pupil and successor. It analyses Lull's literary, pastoral and missionary interests, as well as his political networks, to illustrate how he helped give form to the legends of Boniface and, in particular, Willibald's Vita Bonifatii and the Bonifatian letter collections. Stu…
The Otherness of Non-Christians in the Early Middle Ages
Non-Christian ‘others’ were crucial to the definition of early medieval Christendom. Many groups certainly found it important to generate a sense of belonging through shared practice, history and ideals. But the history of Christianity was a story of conflict, which from the very beginning saw a community of believers struggling against Jews and ‘pagan’ Romans. At the end, too, Christ warned there would be ‘false prophets’ and tribulations, and J…
Calculating Time and the End of Time in the Carolingian World, c.740-820
The hopes and fears associated with the imminence of apocalypse acted as catalysts for a number of significant changes in history. Relevant patterns of behaviour are not, however, always consistent. This paper examines the intellectual contexts for the (sometimes quite real) fear that the world might end or be revolutionised in c. AD800 with the advent of the ‘6000th year of the world’. It argues that, in the Carolingian world, apocalyptic belief…
The Banana in Caribbean Trade
T NHE extent to which the development of the banana trade between the United States and the countries of the Caribbean has been a factor in the economic and political development of the Caribbean countries forces a consideration of the major problems awaiting solution. They are dealt with under the following heads: (1) the historical and statistical development of the banana trade between the United States and the countries of the Caribbean, (2) …
Rimbert's Vita Anskarii and Scandinavian Mission in the Ninth Century
The idea of converting Scandinavia to Christianity had been enthusiastically pursued by the Emperor Louis the Pious and Archbishop Ebbo of Rheims in the 820s. Optimism such as theirs was, however, not to last, and little progress was made between the death of Archbishop Rimbert of Hamburg-Bremen in 888 and the conversion of Harald Bluetooth a century later. This article examines how Rimbert wrote a saint's Life about Anskar, his predecessor and ‘…
The ‘vigorous rule’ of Bishop Lull
This paper argues that the reputation of St Boniface, one of the ‘founders of Christian Europe’, needs to be understood in relation to the career of Lull of Mainz, the saint's pupil and successor. It analyses Lull's literary, pastoral and missionary interests, as well as his political networks, to illustrate how he helped give form to the legends of Boniface and, in particular, Willibald's Vita Bonifatii and the Bonifatian letter collections. Stu…
Saxon or European? Interpreting and Reinterpreting St Boniface
St Boniface ( c. 680–754) has been called one of the ‘founders of Christian Europe’ for his wide‐ranging influence on religion, politics and culture in the early Middle Ages. This Anglo‐Saxon was a missionary in Frisia, reformer in Germany, promoted papal authority, and supported the Carolingian seizure of royal power in Frankia in 751. Yet the precise significance of his achievements has always been subject to interpretation, invention and chall…
Defining paganism in the Carolingian world
Generations of scholars have looked for evidence of ‘paganism’ in continental sources from the eighth and ninth centuries. This paper surveys some of the key problems in defining and conceptualizing the available literary evidence for such a project. Part one argues for a return to the sources to help escape the intellectual baggage created by discussions of ‘pan‐Germanic paganism’, interpretatio Romana and, more recently, folk practices. From th…
Die Integration Sachsens in das frankische Reich
In the second half of the eighth century, the Frankish emperor Charlemagne entered into a concerted effort to conquer, reorganize and convert Saxony. Such was the force employed that one commentator on Charlemagne's reign, the courtier Einhard, remarked that the Franks and Saxons became ‘as if one people’. Caspar Ehlers’ admirable new book aims to provide a new analysis of this coming together of two peoples, charting the transformation of Saxony…
The Times of Bede
The Long Morning of Medieval Europe
The ‘long morning’ of this volume's title is a phrase of Paul Dutton’s, which he coined to characterise the positive way in which the post-Roman ‘Dark Ages’ are now seen by scholars. As the editors explain in their introduction, early medieval studies has confidently dispelled the notion that significant developments in the middle ages only occurred after AD 1000, while successive generations of scholars have made the field a vibrant and expandin…
Calculating Time and the End of Time in the Carolingian World, c.740-820
The hopes and fears associated with the imminence of apocalypse acted as catalysts for a number of significant changes in history. Relevant patterns of behaviour are not, however, always consistent. This paper examines the intellectual contexts for the (sometimes quite real) fear that the world might end or be revolutionised in c. AD800 with the advent of the ‘6000th year of the world’. It argues that, in the Carolingian world, apocalyptic belief…
An Empire of Memory
The Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages
This groundbreaking study reveals the distinctive impact of apocalyptic ideas about time, evil and power on church and society in the Latin West, c.400–c.1050. Drawing on evidence from late antiquity, the Frankish kingdoms, Anglo-Saxon England, Spain and Byzantium and sociological models, James Palmer shows that apocalyptic thought was a more powerful part of mainstream political ideologies and religious reform than many historians believe. Movin…
The Formation of Christian Europe. The Carolingians, Baptism, and the, written by Owen M. Phelan
The Otherness of Non-Christians in the Early Middle Ages
Non-Christian ‘others’ were crucial to the definition of early medieval Christendom. Many groups certainly found it important to generate a sense of belonging through shared practice, history and ideals. But the history of Christianity was a story of conflict, which from the very beginning saw a community of believers struggling against Jews and ‘pagan’ Romans. At the end, too, Christ warned there would be ‘false prophets’ and tribulations, and J…
History, Frankish Identity and the Framing of Western Ethnicity, 550-850. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, Fourth Series, 101
Early Medieval Hagiography
Sinnstiftungen eines Rechtsbuchs
The Lex Salica is an important and surprising Late Antique legal text. Composed in Gaul, in Latin, shortly after the end of the Western Roman Empire, and surviving in 54 early manuscripts, it has long been at the centre of debates about the nature of non-Roman or Germanic society in a period of dramatic change. This, unsurprisingly, means that it brings much historiographical baggage with it. From one side, German legal history was long dominated…
The Global Eminent Life
Sanctity and the holy have been useful concepts for scholars seeking to compare religious cultures. This paper seeks to extend the project of comparisons by investigating the organisational contexts that produced collected biographies about holy women and men. It focuses on case studies from Latin and Byzantine Christianity and Buddhist China in the sixth century CE to highlight useful similarities in the authorsâ conceptions of their work in the…
The making of a world historical moment
M atthew B ryan G illis . Heresy and Dissent in the Carolingian Empire
In this important and welcome study, Heresy and Dissent in the Carolingian Empire: The Case of Gottschalk of Orbais, Matthew Bryan Gillis provides the first focused analysis of the disputes surrounding the ninth-century Carolingian heretic Gottschalk of Orbais. Gottschalk was a rarity in the Carolingian world, as most heretics were distant in time or space to the political and religious centers of Northern Europe. Studies of him, however, have te…
Merovingian Medicine Between Practical Art and Philosophy
This essay offers a new examination of medical knowledge in Merovingian Gaul (c. 500–c.750), the ways that it became part of non-specialized learning, and its continuities with Carolingian medicine. In most histories of medicine, the Merovingian world is portrayed as providing a hostile environment for medicine due to the Christianization of knowledge. A significant problem, however, is that there has been no study of what medicine was known or h…
Early Medieval Medicine
Thanks to the work of several generations of scholars, there has never been a greater interest in early medieval medicine. Yet the field, which continues to be largely manuscript-based given the sheer number of unedited texts, remains tethered to two now-outdated manuscript catalogues that collectively record 225 Latin manuscripts containing medical writings produced before ca. 1100. The Corpus of Early Medieval Latin Medicine ( CEMLM ) has recen…
History (18 works) · Medieval Literature and History (15 works) · Classics (13 works) · Ancient history (12 works) · Art (11 works) · History (11 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Classics (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Political science (8 works)