This project investigates a fundamental albeit relatively unexplored aspect of early medieval societies, namely, the role played by language in the production and subsequent uses of all those documents which are collectively known in English as charters. The principal object of the investigation is represented by Anglo-Saxon charters, that is, the documents that were produced in England between the late seventh century and the Norman Conquest of 1066. These include royal diplomas, episcopal leases, wills, records of dispute settlements, etc. One of their most remarkable characteristics is the employment, from the ninth century onwards, of two different languages: Latin and Old English. In this respect, Anglo-Saxon England represents a unique case within the territories of the former Western Roman Empire because nowhere else documentary culture relied so heavily on both Latin and a vernacular. This is a feature which among Anglo-Saxonists is more or less taken for granted, but whose profound implications have never been fully explored. In general accounts on the relations between language and power in the early Middle Ages, the peculiarities of Anglo-Saxon charters have been treated as exceptional features which do not fit into the models of interpretation of the use of the written word in early medieval European societies that have been proposed so far, resulting in an even more 'insular' treatment of the Anglo-Saxon case.

By contrast, one of the fundamental tenets of this project is that, since interactions between the written language of the charters and the spoken word took place in every region of early medieval Western Europe, Anglo-Saxon charters should become a starting point for possible comparisons with other regions where such interactions are less visible but clearly still occurring. This is what this project will propose in a comparative exercise which will comprise on one side, a detailed analysis of a specific set of Anglo-Saxon charters, normally referred to as lay grants, and, on the other, a first exploratory survey of the charters' production of the Middle and Upper Rhine Valley, preserved through the important documentary collections of Lorsch, Fulda, Wissembourg and St Gallen. It is in fact within these collections, which like the Anglo-Saxon ones, concern mainly non-Romance speaking areas, that the few Continental early occurrences of Germanic vernacular in charters are attested. These rare but significant incursions of the vernacular into the otherwise entirely Latin charter texts produced in the eastern Frankish territories deserve to be analysed carefully, as they can reveal much more than is usually assumed about the interactions between the spoken and the written word. While these early occurrences of written Germanic have been analysed by philologists interested in reconstructing the earliest attestations of Old High German, much more can be achieved by investigating them within the framework of the social history of writing.

Candidates must have already completed their PhD.
Knowledge of Spanish is NOT necessary

REQUIREMENTS for Post-doctoral position A to work on the Anglo-Saxon material:

PhD on relevant subject
Knowledge of Old English and Latin
Familiarity with Anglo-Saxon charters
Capacity to write and publish in English

REQUIREMENTS for Post-doctoral position B to work on the Continental material:

PhD on relevant subject
Familiarity with one or more of the Continental archives mentioned above Knowledge of Latin and, possibly, some knowledge of Old High German Excellent knowledge of Modern German
Capacity to write and publish in English

To ask for further INFORMATION on how to apply, candidates should contact Dr Francesca Tinti (francesca.tinti@ehu.es) by 8 October 2014