Publisher's description:
'Communication' has become one of the most vibrant areas of current research on medieval and early modern Europe, almost paralleling the heightened popularity of conflict study since the 1980s. However, the nature of this concept seems to be ambiguous and has been defined with multiple nuances. Needless to say, communication in the Middle Ages was usually accomplished by personal presence, contact, and interaction, including conflict and its settlement. In this sense, the process of communication often comprised symbolic and ritual action.
In response to concerns about the study of political communication, it should be emphasised that communication may confirm and spread certain fundamental ideas, social values and norms, bringing about certain patterns of behaviour and mentality that can be shared by members of the political body and community. The authors of these essays discuss the characteristics of political communication in medieval and early modern Europe by highlighting two aspects: 'ritual and symbolic communication', and 'conflict, feuds and communication'.

Index:
7 Yoshihisa Hattori, Communication, Conflict, Ritual, and Order: An Introduction
I. Forms of Political Communication in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
33 Gerd Althoff, Questions and Perspectives. Medieval Studies in Germany and the "Performative Turn"
52 Comments by Nobutada Zushi
63 Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, Rituals of Decision-making? Early Modern European Assemblies of Estates as -Acts of Symbolic Communication
96 Comments by Taku Minagawa
109 Giorgio Chittolini, Private Wars at the End of the Middle Ages: Notes on Italy and Germany in the 15th Century
133 Comments by Keiko Takada
145 Andrea Gamberini, The Vocabulary of War in the Duchy of Milan: A Language of Class
II. Communication and Conflict in England and France in the Central and Late Middle Ages
175 Atsuko Nakamura, Introduction
179 Atsuko Nakamura, Anglo-Norman Kings and the "Renewal" of Charters: Examples from the History of the Church of Abingdon
199 Kotaro Todoroki, Modes of Tribunal Proof and Bonds of Friendship or Fidelity in Western France in the 11th and 12th Centuries
213 Nobutada Zushi, Negotiations and the Use of Documents in 13th Century Toulouse
231 Hideki Aotani, The Papal Indulgence as a Medium of Communication in the Conflict between Charles the Bold and Ghent, 1467-69