Merovingian Letters and Letter Writers

This book, useful for both scholars and students of Late Antique Gaul, is a survey of 600 plus Latin letters written during the Merovingian era (ca. 500-750) by bishops and other clergy, highly-placed laymen, women, popes, and royalty. Various aspects of the correspondence are discussed, including amicitia, literary circles, gift-giving, letter-bearers, Scripture usage, and women's writing. An appendix supplies English summaries of the letters, many of which have not received translation into any modern language. Primary sources from the Frankish kingdom during the Merovingian era (ca. 500-750) are few and far between. This volume is a survey of more than 600 Latin letters, selected by the author, that were exchanged between persons in Gaul during that time period. Many are almost entirely unknown and have never been translated into any modern language. While most of the letters were authored by clerics and highly-placed laymen, a small but significant number was composed by women, both religious and lay. For elite individuals, letter networks were the social media of their day. Letters were written to maintain the bonds of friendship, to seek or extend patronage and political alliance, to instruct, rebuke, defend, console, and recommend. Many have come down to us in collections; others are strays embedded in other texts or deperdita that come to light only in the replies of others. In seven chapters, the author discusses numerous aspects of the letters and explores how they fit with, and enlarge upon, the better-known sources of the period such as the works of Gregory of Tours, Fredegar, the anonymous History of the Franks (LHF), and various saints' vitae.