Innovation and Medieval Communities: The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and Out of the Town 1200-1500

Bock, Nils (Editor)/ Lecuppre-Desjardin, Elodie (Editor)

ISBN 10: 2503596479 / ISBN 13: 9782503596471

Published by Brepols Pub, 2025

About this Item

305 pages. 7.01x0.64x10.00 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # x-2503596479

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Innovation and Medieval Communities: The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and Out of the Town 1200-1500
• Publisher: Brepols Pub
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 2503596479
• ISBN 13: 9782503596471
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.72 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

It has to be said that when it came to innovation medieval culture demonstrated its mastery of the art of the paradox. Medieval people were compelled to innovate, driven by the dissatisfaction that is part of their nature, leading to changes that could generate not only enthusiasm, but also mistrust and sometimes fear. In a world where innovation was ordinarily perceived in a negative light, societies developed discursive strategies to legitimize such developments, even going so far as to make the old out of the new. This book interrogates this gap between cultural assumptions and practical necessity. Drawing on numerous examples from the towns and cities of Western Europe between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries, it examines in context and in practice both sophisticated conceptions and unexamined habits of thought concerning innovation. These offered a range of possibilities for dealing with the new, often imposing novelty quietly, as the only means of maintaining the old state of affairs... at least in appearance.