EAA2021: Abstract

A generally adopted perspective when examining the relationship between castle and town in the Middle Ages, is that of the modern expert, who tends to provide a balanced and interdisciplinary interpretation, as far as possible. However, it is only through linguistic examination, and particularly one based on the electronic corpus of Medieval Latin data available, that truly reveals the viewpoint of contemporaries writing about the relationship between their castles and towns. This paper examines such testimonies, focusing on the utterances concerning interaction between town and castle as they are encountered in the corpus of Polish Medieval Latin eFontes. A special attention is given to the distribution and collocational force of the term castrum as well as its more or less synonymic equivalents, such as castellum, arx and fortalitium. The research points to fresh interpretations for the definitions and delimitations of the functions of both castle and town in the medieval social sphere.

medieval castle, medieval town, corpus of Medieval Latin, medieval social sphere

 Abstract (PDF)

Michal Rzepiela¹