Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This year's papers cover a range of topics and a wide geographical spread, with studies focusing on Britain, France, Egypt, and China, amongst others.They employ a range of historical, archaeological, and digital humanities methods, with many sharing the common aim of re-evaluating old orthodoxies in the light of new techniques.We start in China, where Dong and Cheng examine the relationship between religion and science during the Song dynasty (960-1279).Their study revisits the impact of Neo-Confucianism and Chinese scientific achievements in this period and adds to the recent efforts in breaking down the long-held view that Confucian culture hindered science.Their analysis of the stock of scientific and technological works written by Song dynasty scholars demonstrates that there was a considerable scientific output (339 texts) during the period, including works of geography, medicine, agronomy, astronomy, and mathematics.They then carry out a large-scale analysis of the surviving corpus of Neo-Confucian texts, as listed in the Song Yuan Xue An (Records of Song and Yuan Scholarship), comprising texts by 193 authors.Their results suggest that there is a strong positive association between the Neo-Confucian spirit and local scientific production, a phenomenon they suggest is amplified by the density of Confucian academies in particular areas.Dong and Cheng conclude that, rather than hindering scientific discovery, the specific form of Neo-Confucianist thought of the Song dynasty played a positive role in the considerable scientific developments of the period.From China, we move to France, where three papers look at various aspects of secular and ecclesiastical lordship during the tenth and eleventh centuries.Barzilay explores the well-studied phenomena of the rise of local lordship in eleventh-century France -and the 'Peace of God' movements that went along with it -through the perspective and experiences of France's Jewish population.The article focuses primarily on the '1007 Anonymous' account, which describes the persecution of Jews in France at this date and their subsequent protection by the pope.
Source: The Economic History Review
DOI: 10.1111/ehr.70073
Author: James Chetwood
Institution: University of Sheffield
Language: English
Subfield: Classics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,900
OpenAlex ID: W4416933327