Languages of Empire and Grammars of Power


Aim of this sub-project is the study of the strategic interplay between Carolingianscholars and rulers in a field which only rarely has been investigated under this perspective, i.e. in the works of known or anonymous teachers of grammar, rhetoric and dialectic. For this purpose, both works already available in a modern edition and still transmitted in a manuscript form will be taken into consideration. Particular attention will be directed to the analysis of the Carolingian understanding and use of terms such as gens, populus, natio, regnum, imperium; to grammatical works that were dedicated to or commissioned by Charlemagne; and to a number of miscellaneous manuscripts preserved in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek of Vienna. 

An extension to a database of source passages relevant for concepts of identity will be created that has been implemented in the ERC project 'SCIRE: Social Cohesion, Identity and Religion in early medieval Europe', and which will be put to use of the VISCOM project. This study will address the topic of the relationship of power and knowledge and contribute to the question of the semantics and 'grammars' of community. 

Investigator:

The SFB is affiliated with the University of Vienna and with the Austrian Academy of Sciences

For more information please visit the project homepage.