Law, Culture and Regionalism in Early Medieval Spain

Roger Collins deals here with the history of Spain, specifically Christian Spain, in the period from the 6th- to the 10th century - from the Visigoths through the time of the Arab conquest and expansion, up to the era of Carolingian dominance across the Pyrenees. Particular emphasis, indeed, is placed upon the importance of this Pyrenean region, in the lands now known as France as well as those in Spain, with the author for instance calling into question the received notion of an Aquitanian identity in the 5th-9th centuries. Of the themes running through this volume, that of regionalism is evident here and in the articles on the Basques, but appears equally for instance, in the study on the relations between Merida and the Visigothic government. Similarly, legal and cultural themes provide the focus for the articles on the workings of Visigothic law in the 9th-10th centuries, or on the intellectual culture of Navarre, but recur in other parts of the collection. Two of these articles appear for the first time in English, while a third has been re-written for this volume and other supplied with additional notes and illustrations.