21. De spatio singnando. Material determinants of space and its organization in the Middle Ages
The intention of the initiators of the section is to present the latest medievalist research on space and to provide a forum for discussion. The significant increase in interest in this subject in recent years makes it possible today to broaden the field of research and enrich the research programme with a social and cultural dimension. From this vast subject matter, we propose to focus the participants' attention on the material aspects of the organisation of space. We would like to make the material determinants by which space can be known, marked and identified by the communities living in it the core focus of discussion. These actual determinants serve to limit space, to define it, tame it, develop it, valorise it, consider it as one's own or foreign, divide it into private and public, urban and rural, sacred and secular or other functional categories – in general, they play an important role in the ‘production’ and ‘cultivation’ of space in different social and cultural settings. The themes are multifaceted and can be considered by medievalists representing different disciplines and using different genres of sources.
The expansion of documentary practices in late medieval Halych Rus’ changed profoundly the process of delimiting boundaries and recording local knowledge about landscape. Relations between written and oral evidence in perambulations were restructured, creating new “written archives of tradition”. The paper discusses one such tradition, which was shaped by charters written in local Ruthenian language, as well as oral memories of Ruthenian nobles and clergy. The aim is to highlight communicative and performative contexts within which those charters were used as legal instruments. Those charters often lacked necessary information for establishing property boundaries. They had, however, a great symbolic importance for Ruthenian nobles and ecclesiastics as material bearers of the particular tradition, confirming rights of ownership. Their role was intertwined with the oral legal memories, which were articulated by Ruthenian landowners to meet their interests in perambulation disputes.
Urban space, through the layout of streets and the distribution of functions, played a significant role in shaping social, economic, religious, and ethnic hierarchies in medieval cities. Both deliberate and accidental urban planning processes determined mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. Analyses of selected cities in Central Europe, based on GIS methods, space syntax, and Space Validation Index, as well as architectural and archaeological studies, allow for the evaluation of the impact of spatial structure on social divisions. The results suggest that the organization of urban space could promote the marginalization of specific groups and the concentration of elites. Understanding these processes enables a better grasp of the role of space in shaping social relationships and daily life in medieval cities.
The aim of this paper is to explore the potential use of urbanization gradients in describing and analyzing the spatial structure of chartered towns, particularly in observing the gradual transition between urban, suburban, and rural spaces. This approach involves constructing gradient models that incorporate various factors—such as spatial organization, the regularity of the communication network, building types, construction materials, infrastructure elements, vegetation, waste disposal practices, and archaeological finds—and then comparing these across different settlements. The goal is to determine whether the urbanization gradient can be used to assess the size and economic potential of towns, classify their functional roles, and serve as a valuable tool for reconstructing historical urban spaces, particularly in cases where certain sources (especially written records) are lacking.
The aim of this presentation is to discuss the methods of delineating the boundaries of rural areas and suburbs in medieval Silesia. This topic has rarely been addressed in the literature, and written sources offer only a few references to the issue. These boundaries served a dual function – they not only acted as barriers protecting specific territories from unwanted access, but also signified ownership and served as a symbol of property. Minor structures such as fences, embankments, or hedges thus possessed both defensive and symbolic roles. The second aspect of the presentation is an analysis of the methods of dividing space within rural and suburban areas, with particular emphasis on delineating garden boundaries. The erected barriers protected the area from intruders, safeguarded crops and buildings, and facilitated property management while, much like a "hortus conclusus," creating an aura of secure refuge.
Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii PAN Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN
The paper is a minor contribution to the debate on the functioning of the system scheduled by the so-called testament of Bolesław Krzywousty several decades after the death of the prince. On the one hand, I will present arguments for the participation of younger brothers in power (e.g. the dating formulae of documents, the denarii of Bolesław Kędzierzawy with feasting brothers). On the other hand, I will point to the manifestations of the senior's strong power and his superiority over the juniors (holding court in the juniors' districts, the tympanum of Jaksa, etc.).
The Rusian letopises are a primary source of information about the diplomatic practices of the Rurikids. These accounts have been analysed regarding politics, culture or rituals. In contrast, attention has rarely been paid to the role of the space in which the international non-military events described by the Rusian bookmen took place. I would like to analyse the fragments of the three most important monuments of South-Rusian historiography dating from the end of the 10th to the turn of the 13th/14th centuries. I have in mind the Primary chronicle, the Kyivian annals and the Chronicle of Halych-Volhynia. These contain a number of very interesting references to the international gatherings that took place in border areas where the spheres of influence of two states met. Based on some selected examples, I will present why and on what basis the specific borderland space (border settlements, certain rivers, etc.) regularly became a place where international politics was conducted.
In the territory of the Teutonic Order, we repeatedly encounter demarcations for goods and villages/towns in the documents and administrative sources of the late Middle Ages. We learn a great deal about a) the people involved, b) the perceptions of space, c) conflict potential (or specifically the conflicts that resulted from it). In my lecture, I will discuss the development of border demarcation in Prussia (keywords: land surveying, first geodetic handbook: Geometria Culmensis around 1400) and also compare it with other European regions (primarily in the Holy Roman Empire).
The author presents neighbourly relations in private and professional life within the plots of land and the buildings located on them. The genesis of such neighbourly relations were family divisions, separated as a result of inheritance from the father or mother. In this way, members of the new "small families" - relatives and in-laws - became each other's neighbours at the level of the space of the same plot, including the same front house, and what's more - different parts of its shared rooms, with different valuations of these parts (e.g. the right to have a place in the shared kitchen at a different distance from the heat source). The increasingly smaller area in which individual multiplying families could exist resulted in the need for administrative, meticulous spatial and ownership divisions.
The aim of the proposed paper is to look at the issue of broadly understood space through the prism of late medieval court books from Łęczyca (land and town records). Among the numerous issues included in them, a lot of space was also devoted to territory, which is the subject of concern for landowners. This care was expressed in matters related to the demarcation of, for example, individual settlements or parts of villages. Judicial sources also contain information about land measurements and mentions of material markers of space, i.e. boundary mounds, which were sometimes damaged as a result of incursions of some kind. Therefore, the following aspects related to space will remain in the speaker's sphere of interest: taking care of the area (setting boundaries, land measurement) and space violations. The paper will also attempt to statistically compare the discussed matters against the background of other entries entered into the books in selected years.
The main subject of the discussion will be the stories about the creation of ‘Danevirke’, or the Danish border fortifications located in the south of Jutland. The paper will focus on three main accounts - the Danish chronicles by Sven Aggesen and Saxo Grammaticus, as well as the Icelandic Knytlinga saga. In the context of Danevirke, they will be supplemented by accounts from German sources, primarily Widukind and Adam of Bremen. As part of comparative studies, other stories will be cited that materialize the past in its preserved and described relics. In the paper, I would like to focus on the specificity of the stories centered around "Danevirke", at the same time embedding them in the mechanism of fictionalization of space based on material relics of the past. In this last context, I would also like to undertake a critical reflection on the usefulness of categories developed within the framework of the seemingly obvious Actor-network Theory.
The date and place of the paper will be announced soon, along with the detailed schedule of the Congress.
Territorial boundaries are just one way of designating any kind of space, even political space, i.e. the scope of exercising power. However, the repertoire of means used in the late Middle Ages to mark and describe space was much richer, going beyond the view derived from this particular Cartesian idea of space, which maps impose on us through the visualization used in them, especially in the form of linear boundaries. Different forms of defining political space will be presented with reference to the lands of the Halych-Volhynian principality, which was partitioned between Poland and Lithuania in the mid-14th century. The clash of the expansion of these two states caused the divisions of the territory of the fallen principality. Sources documenting the new political organization of this region of Central and Eastern Europe can allow an analysis of the various manifestations of how the space of power was constructed and perceived at that time.
The subject of paper will be the issue of sacred space as an area for private prayer. In the late Middle Ages, the development of devotional practices favoured the individualisation of religious experience. Religious movments, the activities of mendicant orders, and the development of the economy of salvation supported the personal concern for a happy eternal life and the multiplication of practices leading to it. Every Christian, even those with no theological knowledge and unaccustomed to difficult spiritual practices, became responsible for their own prayer. The range was extensive, and various areas, objects and items served to arrange and designate a space for the faithful to have personal contact with God. From the church, where there was space for private prayers in addition to the liturgy, to paintings, chapels, devotional objects, and even the sound of a bell. Examples from late-medieval Poland will be used to show the material and symbolic determinants of prayer spaces.
In Bohemian urban sources of the late Middle Ages, space, or rather the control of space, becomes an increasingly prominent subject of conflict between town councils and the urban population. The control of public space, the definition of the tools that enable or, conversely, disrupt this control, have already been described in a number of works. Perhaps less noticeable, but important was the effort to shift the boundaries between public and private space in the exercise of power. Looking into houses, checking guests, obtaining information from neighbours become written fixed duties of officials subordinate to the town councils. In various local variants, the all-encompassing monitoring of the town is promoted and tools of social control are created or adapted for this public oversight.
