North, South, East and West in Twelfth-Century Thought
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A01=Eric Wolever
Abbey of Cluny
Author_Eric Wolever
Bible
Biblical Exegesis
Cardinal Points
Category=DSBB
Category=NHDJ
Conceptual System
Duchy of Normandy
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
First Crusade
Geography
History Writing
Honorius Augustodunensis
Hugh of Saint Victor
Identity Formation
Middle Ages
Orderic Vitalis
Ordinary Gloss
Romuald of Salerno
Sigebert of Gembloux
Twelfth-Century
Universal Histories
Product details
- ISBN 9781837650637
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 23 Dec 2025
- Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Considers how twelfth-century authors used the four cardinal points as a conceptual system to make sense of and construct their world.
From the Great White North to the West End or the Global South, we frequently carve up our world according to the cardinal points. These divisions are rarely mere geographical conveniences; they bring with them a host of ideas about regions and their inhabitants.
This book examines how this phenomenon operated in the Middle Ages, drawing on sources from the Ordinary Gloss on the Bible to the geographies of Hugh of Saint Victor and Honorius Augustodunensis. It begins by tracing the consolidation of the cardinal points as a foundational spatial vocabulary in the Middle Ages and looks athow these terms accumulated new meaning and significance in biblical exegesis, geography and history writing over the twelfth century. It pays particular attention to the ways in which authors actively engaged with and manipulated this tradition, showing how authors like Sigebert of Gembloux, Romuald of Salerno and Orderic Vitalis made use of these ideas to underscore the broader narrative agendas of their universal histories. Subsequent chapters focus on the role of space in narratives of identity formation, using as case studies histories of the First Crusade, the duchy of Normandy and the abbey of Cluny.
ERIC WOLEVER gained his PhD at the University of York, UK.
