Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

The Social Life of Early Medieval Normative Texts

Project description

Revealing medieval society through canonical studies

In the heart of medieval Western Europe, ideas about social norms were encoded in works of canon law, forming a complex tapestry that spanned religious, moral, political and economic realms. Funded by the European Research Council, the SOLEMNE project will explore this intricate web. Specifically, the project focuses on canonical collections, compendia of rearranged authoritative statements, and their role in shaping medieval attitudes. Using an innovative digital tool, it will pioneer the analysis of how these statements spread through society. Studying medieval negotiation of canonical authority, compositional strategies for communicating norms, and the transmission of ideas through canon law, SOLEMNE delves into lesser-known canonical florilegia, broadening the scope of canonical studies.

Objective

SOLEMNE studies how ideas about social norms, expressed in works of canon law, spread throughout medieval Western Europe, using an innovative digital tool to analyse the transmission of combinations of authoritative statements in canonical collections.

Canonical collections are in essence compendia of rearranged authoritative statements (canones) drawn from a large body of authoritative texts. As a genre that intersects with every aspect of medieval life and society [Rennie, 2008], works of canon law, in varying degrees of sophistication, survive in a vast number of medieval manuscripts and address not only religious concerns, but also social, moral, political, and economic issues. SOLEMNE is built on the premise that it is through the (re)arrangement of authoritative statements that medieval scholars articulated the changing medieval attitudes about social norms and societal ideals.

SOLEMNE aims to be the first large-scale analysis of this dynamic process of appropriation and reorganisation of authoritative statements by developing a unique database and digital tool designed to identify and map the transmission of combinations of textual elements. Building on this innovative database, SOLEMNE will study three central phenomena: the medieval negotiation of canonical authority throughout the Middle Ages (approx. 500-1200 CE) to address individual objectives and specific contexts; the compositional strategies to communicate social norms and ideals; and the transmission of ideas through canon law.

In addition to the well-known grand collections, SOLEMNE includes mostly overlooked canonical florilegia in its analysis, expanding the breadth of canonical studies. Through its open access online presence, SOLEMNE addresses the issue of the inaccessibility of canonical sources, while its interdisciplinary methodology offers a wide applicability in the study of legal, social, political, and intellectual history.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2022-COG

See all projects funded under this call

Host institution

STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITEIT
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 955 000,00
Address
HOUTLAAN 4
6525 XZ Nijmegen
Netherlands

See on map

Region
Oost-Nederland Gelderland Arnhem/Nijmegen
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 955 000,00

Beneficiaries (1)

My booklet 0 0