DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-1076-8.02 ISSN: 2704-6362

Searching for the High Middle Ages. Past and present of a periodisation

Giuseppe Petralia
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This volume publishes the proceedings of a seminar that, in December 2022, brought together some of the leading scholars who, primarily with regard to the Italian context, have studied and continue to study the 11th and 12th centuries. The aim was, and remains, to sharpen the focus on the characteristics, complexities, timing, and dynamics of what many consider to be the great-est phase of transformation and internal turning point within the medieval millennium, linking it to the notion of the “High Middle Ages”. The introduction outlines, in broad strokes, the evo-lution – within European and international medieval studies – of the main historiographical approaches connected to this crucial issue. It then argues for the necessity and timeliness of a new discussion freed from outdated narrative frameworks, and also attempts to define the complex set of questions to which such a discussion should respond. Central to the inquiry is the problem of establishing plausible connections and interweavings among the different levels of social reality and across the various spaces affected by change. In the final section, the analysis of each contribution is followed by an initial assessment of their impact on the debate.

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