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Hicks Leonie V., Brenner Elma (dir.), Society and culture in medieval Rouen, 911-1300, Turnhout, Brepols (Studies in the Early Middle Ages, vol. 39), 2013, 400 p. ISBN: 978-2-503-53665-1Compte rendu par/Review by : Karen SchousboeMedieval HistoriesDate : Feb 2014To a large extent the city of Rouen represents an unknown quantity. Originally it was founded by an ancient tribe, the Veliocasses, and used to control the lower Seine Valley and the estuary. They called it Ratumacos. Later it was renamed by the Romans as Rotomagus. It still holds the foundations of an amphitheatre and Roman baths. In the 5th century it became the seat of a bishopric and later – in Merovingian Gall – it functioned as capital of Neustria. However, Vikings repeatedly sacked the city in the late 9th century; in the aftermath they finally took over and turned it into their main capital in what later became the Duchy of Normandy. Finally it reached its apogee in the 11th to 13th century, during which period the inner city and its suburbs exploded while its political and economic significance was unparalleled (it even out-distanced Paris).Continue la lecture →Compte rendu par/Review by : Benjamin PohlReviews in HistoryDate : 13 Mar 2014This volume of collected essays explores the social and cultural history of the city of Rouen between the ‘foundation’ of Normandy under Rollo in 911 and the end of the 13th century. As David Bates points out in the book’s preface, Rouen so far has not received the attention which scholars have readily paid to other great cities throughout the Anglo-Norman World – including several other cities in Normandy, such as Caen, Bayeux and Lisieux. Undoubtedly, therefore, the present volume represents a welcome addition to the already existing range of compendiums devoted to important places and institutions in medieval Europe, as it caters to a long-standing desideratum within contemporary Anglo-Norman scholarship.Continue la lecture →Compte rendu par/Review by : David S. SpearThe Medieval ReviewDate : 27 Oct 2014Rouen was, and remains, the largest city in Normandy. Until about 1200 it was larger than Paris. What weakened Rouen was, first, the foundation of Caen, and second, the rise of Paris. Caen had been founded by William the Conqueror as a new outpost of his ducal power in central Normandy (Rouen, by contrast, was too far east in the duchy). Caen never surpassed Rouen in terms of population, but it had a large ducal castle and two very prestigious ducal abbeys (St.-Etienne for men, and La Trinité for women). In the later Middle Ages Normandy's first university was in Caen, not Rouen. The rise of Paris vis-à-vis Rouen came about when King John lost the province of Normandy to the King of France in 1204. After that date, Philip Augustus lavished numerous resources on urban renewal in Paris, and seems to have actively thwarted further growth in Rouen. Later in the Middle Ages, Rouen experienced periods of effervescence, but was condemned to be always in the shadow of Paris.Continue la lecture →