Posted by Gregory Lippiatt
9 December 2024For the final regular blog post of this term, we’re returning to our ‘spotlight’ series, following in the footsteps of our earlier discussions with Verity Bruce and Dr. Jennifer Farrell. This week, we’re hearing from Dr. Gregory Lippiatt, Senior Lecturer in Medieval History and Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies. Thanks to Gregory for sitting down with us!
I am a historian of high medieval aristocracies and their political interest in Christian reform, with a particular focus on France and the Mediterranean.
I’ve always found the idea of the ‘democracy of the dead’ a very powerful and attractive concept. We are all prisoners not only of the chance geographical and social circumstances of our birth, but even more fundamentally (and irrevocably) of our temporal context. Studying history and other disciplinary approaches to the human past allows us a glimpse through the prison window (albeit smudged and obscured by the constraints of our sources) to observe, analyse, and empathise with cultures that are necessarily foreign to us, but which collectively make up the vast majority of human experience over time. Those cultures may help to explain our own circumstances today, but they are principally interesting to me for the ways that they show other ways of being in the world, expanding and deepening our understanding of what it means to be human.
When I saw the post at Exeter advertised in 2019, I recognised it as in many ways my dream job. To join such a distinguished and friendly community of medieval historians and other scholars, to contribute to research and teaching on the Mediterranean in the legacy of the late Prof. Simon Barton, and to teach bright and inquisitive Exeter undergraduate and postgraduate students were all enormously exciting opportunities. The icing on the cake was (and is) the prospect of living in Devon, possibly the most beautiful and fascinating county in England, with Dartmoor and the sea on my doorstep. I still marvel at how blessed I am to be here.
Narrative histories play an important part in my teaching and research, recording as they do the courses of events, perceptions of contemporaries, and purposes of historical actors (or at least of the historians). They feature prominently in my teaching, as they are more likely to be available in printed translations, but I also like to share the documentary sources that are essential to my research: charters, letters, legal texts, etc. Of course, these sources present their own challenges, of both access (language, script, etc.) and of interpretation, but I find the documentary expression of aspiration, if not always of achievement, a fascinating glimpse of medieval attitudes to the world.
As for my research, I am working at the moment on a critical edition, translation, and commentary on the Statutes of Pamiers (1212), a set of legal customs established for the lands conquered by the Albigensian Crusade (1208–1229) in the south of what is now France. These were obviously concerned with the military security of the conquest and the eradication of heresy and its supporters (the purpose of the crusade), but also aimed to erect a reformed Christian republic in a region accused of decadence. Thus, harsh penalties for harbouring heretics or failing to support the crusader regime sit alongside prohibitions of arbitrary arrest (two and a half years before Magna Carta in England!) and the enfranchisement of serfs. I find these apparent tensions extremely interesting. The Statutes also have a complex manuscript tradition, which has been rewarding to untangle.
Well, it necessarily varies quite a bit, which is part of what makes it enjoyable: it is never monotonous! I spend more time on emails than I would like, but sorting out how best to address challenges, whether assisting students with their studies, organising Centre activities, or planning for the future of medieval studies within the university or academia as a whole. I spend a bit of time each day in language practice, as I find this essential to keeping myself engaged with primary sources and secondary literature. On Wednesdays in term time, I lead our informal Latin Reading Group (one of the real highlights of my week) and chair the Centre’s research seminar. If I am teaching that day, I will be leading a seminar or delivering a lecture, which is a great opportunity to get energised by interactions with students. I will also do some reading, whether for teaching preparation or my own research, which also fires me up to think about my subject in new ways.
Featured image: the capture of Marmande by Louis VIII of France during the Albigensian Crusade (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS français 25425, fol. 231r; viewable here).