20/01/2003 - Shorter Notices


Extraits : This is a collection of twenty-two articles derived from a conference held at Sainte-Eulalie-de-Cernon (Aveyron) in October 2000. Twelve are in French and ten in English. The contributions are subdivided into five sections covering institutional structure and typology, personnel, life and functions, and exonomy, ending with two papers which focus upon the commanderie of Sainte-Eulalie itself. (...) Understandably, the focus is on France, but nevertheless the geographical range is impressive, encompassing Castile, leaon, Aragon, England, Hungary, Germany and Livonia. Equally, they cover a wide chronological span, beginning with the first appearance of the commanderie in early twelfth-century Provence (Riley-Smith) and extending to the impact of the Wars of Religion in seventeenth-century Rouergue (Miquel). (...) No single historian could cover such a range of evidence and subjects as can be found here, but equally conference proceedings do have their limitations... Several of the contributions here, although containing valuable information, are more descriptive than analytical, while others cannot fully accomplish their programme within the format...