Sources of Russian history of the 11th–17th centuries SourcesLibrary of literature of Ancient Rus': in 20 volumes / ed. D. S. Likhacheva and others - St. Petersburg: Science, 1997–2013. – 17 volumes. Russian Historical Library, published by the Archaeographic Commission. – St. Petersburg: printing house of V. I. Golovin; L.: Ed. AN

Chapter 2

A historical source is usually understood as everything created in the process of human activity or affected by it. Everything that has been generated or modified by society in the course of history objectively reflects its development and carries information about it. The historical source is inexhaustible. The problem is how to extract and correctly interpret the information it contains.

Classification of medieval sources. In relation to the Middle Ages, it is advisable to distinguish five types of sources, differing in the forms of recording social information: 1) natural-geographical, ᴛ.ᴇ. directly studyable data on the landscape, climate, soils, vegetation and other components of the environment, both those affected by human activity and those simply important for understanding its specific geographic specifics; 2) ethnographic, represented by ancient technologies, customs, stereotypes of thinking that have survived to this day, the appearance of homes, costume, cuisine, as well as folklore and ancient layers of modern living languages; 3) material, which include preserved material relics of the past, incl. obtained by archeology: buildings, tools, means of transport, household utensils, weapons, etc.; 4) artistic and visual, reflecting their era in artistic images captured in monuments of architecture, painting, sculpture and applied art; 5) written, which are any texts written in letters, numbers, notes and other writing signs.

In principle, only a combination of data from all types of sources allows one to form a comprehensive picture of medieval society. At the same time, they play a different role in the practical work of a medievalist. Material sources are of greatest importance in the study of the early Middle Ages. Folklore and ethnographic sources, on the contrary, are the most important for the study of the late Middle Ages, since, with rare exceptions, when transmitting information from memory, the realities and ideas of only relatively recent times are more or less accurately preserved. The main ones for all periods of the Middle Ages and for almost all aspects of its history are written sources, and over time, due to the spread of literacy and improved conditions for storing manuscripts, their number, variety and information content increase.

It is appropriate to divide medieval written sources into three class: 1) narrative (narrative), describing real or illusory reality in all the richness of its manifestations and in a relatively free form; 2) documentary, recording individual moments of predominantly socio-economic, socio-legal and socio-political life through special, largely formalized vocabulary; 3) legislative, which, being also legal in form, differ from documentary ones in that they reflect not only (sometimes not so much) existing legal practice, but also the transformative will of the legislator who wants to change this practice, and most importantly, an attempt to streamline social relations, systematize social gradations and situations. Gradually, especially during the Renaissance, within the framework of narrative and partly legislative sources, a special class of scientific literature was established, where the description of phenomena gives way to the disclosure of their essence through theoretical analysis.

Somewhat earlier, fiction separated from narrative monuments, reflecting reality by generalizing various phenomena in artistic images.

The named classes of written sources fall into kinds. Thus, among narrative sources, historical narratives are distinguished that specifically highlight the course of political (primarily) events; various hagiographic works telling about the asceticism and miracles of saints; monuments of epistolary creativity; sermons and all kinds of instructions; until a certain time, also scientific and fiction literature. In turn, they are divided into numerous varieties. For example, among the historical works of the Middle Ages, a distinction is made between annals, chronicles, biographies, genealogies and so-called histories. dedicated to any specific event or period of time ʼʼmonographsʼʼ. Chronicles are divided according to various criteria into global and local, prose and poetry, church and secular, subdivided into seigneurial, urban, etc.

Although convenient to use, this classification is, of course, quite arbitrary. After all, a coin or a written parchment scroll can be considered simultaneously as a material, artistic, and written source. Medieval narrative sources often include the texts of documents, and the latter - lengthy excursions of a narrative nature. The assignment of a source to one category or another is determined by the specifics of the information obtained when analyzing it from any point of view.

General characteristics of medieval sources and methods of their study. Medieval written sources, in comparison with sources on the history of antiquity or modern times, have certain features. Due to its low prevalence and generally low level of literacy in the Middle Ages, writing was used relatively rarely. The culture of that era, especially the early Middle Ages, was largely oral and ritual, so information was mainly transmitted from memory.

This state of affairs was largely due to the linguistic situation. With the exception of Byzantium, where they wrote in Greek, which was understandable to the majority of the population, Rus', where they used Old Church Slavonic, Bulgaria and Serbia, where both of these languages ​​were used, as well as Muslim Spain, where Arabic was in use, in medieval Europe they wrote for the most part in Latin, obscure or completely incomprehensible to the majority of the population. As a result, there was a gap between the living spoken language and the written language, which affected the style, terminology and nature of the use of the sources being studied. A similar gap existed in Byzantium, where literary works were created in an archaic language imitating the language of the ancient classics. The situation began to change only in the second period of the Middle Ages, when more and more texts appeared in vernacular languages. By the XIV-XV centuries. in most countries of Western Europe they already predominate, but in some areas of public life (diplomacy, church, science) Latin retains its position until modern times. At the same time, in a number of countries Latin coexisted with two national languages ​​at once - local and foreign (French in England in the 12th-14th centuries, German in Hungary, the Czech Republic, the Baltic states in the 14th-16th centuries, etc.).

Modern science is also interested in those aspects of the life of medieval society that the creators of the sources did not intend to cover - either for ideological reasons, or because it seemed to them too banal and unworthy of attention.

Production technology, agricultural productivity, wealth stratification, family type, daily life, worldview of the masses - all this and much more was extremely rarely directly reflected in the sources. The information you are looking for is present, as a rule, in the form of hidden information (imprinted against the will of the author), which can be extremely difficult to catch.

Until recently, source studies distinguished between external and internal criticism of a source, ᴛ.ᴇ. analysis of the handwritten tradition, style, form of the text and, on the other hand, analysis of its semantic content. At the same time, modern source study is based on a comprehensive, holistic study of the monument. The study, for example, of the evolution of the form of a document sheds light on the socio-economic development of society, and the study of the content of the text often becomes decisive in determining its reliability, dating, etc.

Indispensable assistance in interpreting a source as a product of a certain sociocultural environment is provided by non-written sources and auxiliary historical disciplines that study them: historical landscape studies, archeology, ethnography, onomastics (the science of proper names, including geographical names), art history, numismatics and etc.
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It is equally important to have a good knowledge of medieval realities, to navigate medieval genealogy, heraldry, chronology, metrology, titulary, geography, as well as church topics (in typical, frequently used images and expressions) and dogma. Consideration of sources in their historical context should be combined with the study of their manuscript tradition, fate within the framework of the centuries-old history of archival and library collections. This is done by such special disciplines as codicology - a science that studies medieval manuscript books as a whole; paleography, which examines ancient writing as such; archaeography, which deals with the identification, processing and publication of texts; diplomacy, which analyzes documents from the point of view of their authenticity, typicality, etc.; sphragistics (sigillography), studying seals.

A reliable means of understanding the past remains the method of combining these types and classes of sources, tested by many generations of scientists, which, illuminating society from different sides, not only complement, but also correct each other. In recent decades, this method has received additional impetus due to the development of interdisciplinary research.

Quantitative methods of source analysis and historical information science, in particular the creation of databases and the preparation of electronic texts, dictionaries and reference books, are widely penetrating into medieval studies.

Sources on the history of the V-XI centuries. The early Middle Ages are characterized by the transition from antiquity and barbarism to feudalism, and this is fully reflected in the sources of the V-XI centuries. This is the era of the dominance of subsistence farming, weak trade and other ties between countries and regions, very primitive statehood, low literacy and growing clericalization of culture.

In the early Middle Ages, the majority of the population of Western and Southern Europe lived according to the old Roman laws, which were gradually adapted to the changing reality. In the VI century. by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I they were codified. These are the laws of the emperors of the 2nd - early 6th centuries. (the so-called Code of Justinian), “New Laws” (novels) of Justinian himself, systematized statements of the most authoritative jurists of antiquity (Digests, or Pandects), as well as a short special textbook of law (Institutions). All of them compiled an extensive code, which later, in the 12th century, received the name “Corpus Juris Civilis” - “Code of Civil Law”. At the same time, in the 12th century, the so-called “Corpus Juris Canonicis” - “Code of Canon Law”, which incorporated the most important acts of church legislation, took shape; the latter, in addition to church affairs itself, also regulated many areas of the daily life of believers. Since Justinian's legislative commission selected those of the ancient laws that retained significance, not only the Novellas, but the entire Code of Civil Law is a valuable source on the history of the 6th century. Subsequently, in Byzantium, this monument was repeatedly revised, serving as the basis for all early medieval Byzantine legislation (ʼʼEclogueʼʼ 726ᴦ., ʼʼVasilikiʼʼ 886-912, etc.).

In the West, Justinian's Code was almost unknown until the 11th-12th centuries, when, in the context of the revival of commodity-money relations and the strengthening of royal power, the so-called reception (adopting and assimilation) of Roman law began. Before this, Western European lawyers used an earlier set of Roman laws - the Code of Emperor Theodosius II (438ᴦ.). At its base at the beginning of the 6th century. in some barbarian kingdoms, legal compilations were compiled intended for the Romanized population ("Roman Visigothic Law", etc.). This Romanized population continued to adhere to Roman legal norms, which gradually turned into custom. Roman law had a certain influence on the emerging royal legislation.

The Germanic, Celtic and Slavic peoples who settled in the territory of the former Roman Empire retained their ancient customs, passed down orally from generation to generation and changing very slowly. The formation of states among them, as well as close contact with the “Romans,” who had written laws, made it extremely important to record these customs in writing. The result was recorded from the end of the 5th century. to the beginning of the 9th century. legal codes, known in Russian medieval studies as “truths” (Burgundian, Visigothic, Salic, Saxon, etc.) In the British Isles, due to the slow pace of feudalization, such legal codes were compiled later, in the 7th-11th centuries, in Scandinavia for the same reasons e - in the 12th-13th centuries, and in both cases in folk languages, in contrast to continental legal codes written in Latin.

Representing a record of current legal norms, barbaric truths, however, were not entirely adequate to ancient customs. The compilers did not record all of them, recording mainly fines and other punishments for various crimes and misdemeanors; making a selection, they made some additions and changes to the text, reflecting the formation of a new social system and state. However, the early editions of the truths preserved the most important rules of ancient customary law; In this regard, the Salic truth, created at the beginning of the 6th century, is of particular interest. (see Chapter 4).

From additions and amendments to the truths, royal legislation gradually grew. Its most significant monument is the capitularies of the Frankish kings (from Latin - capitula - head), which acquired their classical form at the turn of the 8th - 9th centuries. Combining the features of the public, ᴛ.ᴇ. public and private, ᴛ.ᴇ. patrimonial law, law, capitularies contain the most amazing information about the economy, social system, political institutions, military affairs, etc.

Compared to the legislative sources available to researchers of the history of almost all European countries of that era, documentary sources are distributed very unevenly across regions, which is explained by both the unequal initial distribution of documentation in different countries and its unequal preservation. In Northern and Central Europe, they began to resort to written documentation of transactions, orders and other acts (moreover, occasionally and mainly on the initiative of the state and the church) only at the end of the early Middle Ages; Previously, business agreements were concluded through solemn, ritualized procedures at public assemblies in the presence of a significant number of witnesses. On the territory of the former Roman Empire, the compilation of documents remained a fairly commonplace task, however, in a number of cases, external factors, for example, the capture by the Arabs of most of Spain or the Turkish conquest of Byzantium, led to the destruction of archives, broke the existing public record-keeping and almost completely deprived us of early medieval documentation from these countries . The fragility of papyrus, which was mainly used for writing at the time, also prevented the preservation of this documentation. It survived in significant quantities (thanks to special climatic conditions) only in Egypt; Italy and Gaul are also represented by a few dozen monuments. From the 8th century Hundreds of documents have reached us (now on parchment), mainly from Italy, Rhine and Danube Germany and North-Eastern France, from the 9th-10th centuries. - also from other regions of France, from Spain and England. In the 11th century The number of Western European documents (most often called charters, as well as charters, acts) is already measured in many thousands. The vast majority of them come from church archives and are preserved not in originals, but in copies - usually rewritten, sometimes with abbreviations and insertions (interpolations), in special collections - the so-called cartularies (from the Latin carta - letter). Almost all documents of this time were written in Latin.

Office documents of the early Middle Ages consolidated various, although not all, legal relationships that existed at that time. They recorded decisions of royal, less often princely courts, personal orders and awards of monarchs (so-called diplomas), acts of donations, purchases and sales, exchanges and grants of land, drew up wills, entry into dependence, as well as some procedures of church life: election abbots, consecration of churches, etc. The best preserved documents are those certifying the legality of the change of land owner. Deeds of subordination and lease agreements, which quickly lost their meaning, were preserved less; transactions with movable property, debt obligations, decisions in criminal cases, etc. comparatively rarely were they then subject to recording in writing, as being too unimportant in the eyes of their contemporaries.

Certificates were drawn up according to certain models, they were called formulas. In an abstract form, without mentioning specific names, dates, geographical names, numbers, they set out the essence of the matter: donation of land, freeing a slave, etc. Reflecting undoubtedly typical legal relations, formulas as a source on socio-economic and socio-political history are very valuable; sometimes (in relation to Visigothic Spain) the presence of a collection of formulas partly even compensates for the loss of the actual documents. But in general, thanks to their specificity (and sometimes deviations from the model), letters, especially complexes of letters, are immeasurably richer in information. This is the most important source on the history of the economy, social system, political institutions, beliefs, chronology, onomastics, geography, and genealogy.

Along with office documents, the historian of the early Middle Ages has at his disposal inventory documents, represented mainly by inventories of church estates. Science knows of several dozen of them (mostly French, German and Italian), created from the 6th to the 11th centuries. They are usually called polyptics, which in Greek means ʼʼmany leavesʼʼ, ᴛ.ᴇ. just books. For the most part, these are lists of peasant holdings, usually indicating the location and duties due from them, sometimes also the names and social status of the holders and members of their families. These and some other data contained in the polyptics have long made them a classic source on the history of the early feudal estate. In recent years, they have also been actively used in the study of demography, the history of settlements and social psychology.

Early medieval narrative sources are varied and numerous. Of course, not all works created in that era have reached us. Very few of them even enjoyed regional, let alone national, fame; most authors were content with compiling one copy, accessible to a very limited circle of people, the fate of which depended on many accidents (wars, fires, etc.), not to mention the vicissitudes of political and religious struggle, during which they dealt with not only people, but also books. The high cost of parchment also hampered the preservation of early medieval writings, since the old text was often scraped off to make room for a new one (the so-called palimpsests).

Among the historiographical works of the early Middle Ages, the first place should be given stories- large works dedicated to a series of significant and mostly contemporary political events of the author. An example is the “History of Justinian’s Wars” by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea (VI century), written in the traditions of classical ancient historiography. The Western European “histories” of that time have a somewhat different character: “History of the Franks” by Gregory of Tours (VI century), “Church history of the English people” by the Venerable Bede (VIII century). Οʜᴎ were created within the framework of the late antique Christian tradition, which emphasized the presentation of history from the creation of the world. Current events occupy a central place here, too, but they only crown lengthy narratives of ancient times, built on the Bible, the writings of predecessors and oral traditions. Such narratives served as one of the origins of the chronicle genre, which is a combination of a story about modern events well known to the author in one country (principality, city) with a compilation and schematic outline of the “world” history of the previous period.

Along with histories and chronicles, medieval historiography is also represented by biographies (for example, “The Life of Charlemagne” by Eingard, early 9th century) and annals - weather records of the most important events. The annals are short, dry, outwardly impartial lists of poorly connected basic milestones in political and church life that occurred in a particular year. Most annals are named after the monasteries and cathedrals in which they were created. The heyday of Western European annalistics occurred in the 8th-10th centuries.

An important source on the history of the early Middle Ages are hagiographic works: the lives of real and fictitious people canonized by the church, descriptions of their asceticism, martyrdom, visions and miracles. The creation of most of them occurs during the period of Christianization (in Gaul this is the 4th-6th centuries, in Britain and Germany - the 7th-8th centuries, etc.), as well as during major upheavals within the church itself, for example during the era of iconoclasm in Byzantium (VIII-IX centuries). Of course, the events that hagiographers narrate, following a certain accepted template, are sometimes fictitious, but the authors also report on very real people whom they knew personally, incl. about major political figures (about the chancellor of Louis the Pious, Abbot Benedict of Anian, about the “baptizer of Scandinavia,” the Hamburg bishop Ansgarius (IX century), etc.). At the same time, even the most implausible lives contain a huge amount of side and therefore quite reliable information on the history of material culture and economics, legal proceedings, social conflicts, life and customs, beliefs, as well as on historical geography and genealogy. Being the most widely read, and most importantly, genre of early medieval literature promoted from the church pulpit, hagiophathia is also valuable for studying the spiritual culture of the common people. From the same point of view, spiritual preaching is of significant interest to a medievalist. Explaining complex passages from the Bible, introducing Christian commandments into the consciousness of the flock, talking about the deeds and grace of the righteous, the preacher had to, in order to make his speech intelligible and effective, take into account the outlook and mentality of the parishioners and in this regard, he necessarily gave examples from life, appealed to their ideas about peace, justice, good and evil. When working with this source, the main problem is to separate realities from commonplaces (topos).

Journalism in the era under review had not yet emerged as an independent genre and was, as it were, dissolved in historiography, as well as in messages(valuable as a source on other aspects of history, from economics to philosophy) and especially in treatises, which were often openly didactic in nature.
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These are, for example, the treatise “On Palace and State Administration,” written by the Archbishop of Reims Ginkmar for King Charles the Simple (late 9th century), and the treatise “On the Administration of the Empire,” addressed by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus to his son Roman (mid-10th century). Such instructions are interesting not only as monuments of social thought; they contain important information about the political system, foreign policy, neighboring peoples, relationships within the ruling class, etc. Most other non-political treatises are also pragmatic in their own way. Thus, “Christian Topography” of the Byzantine merchant Kosmas Indikoplov (VI century) talks about the appearance and wealth of overseas countries, about the trade routes leading to these countries; The “establishment for the laity” of the Orléans bishop Jonah (beginning of the 9th century) was aimed at instilling Christian norms of everyday and public behavior in the Frankish nobility; anonymous English treatise of the early 11th century. “Responsibilities of various persons” serves as an instruction to patrimonial owners in matters of management and in relations with vassals. The general and special encyclopedias of that time are somewhat more academic: “Etymologies” of Isidore of Seville (beginning of the 7th century), “On the Universe” of the Mainz Archbishop Rabanus Maurus (beginning of the 9th century. ), Byzantine “Geoponics” (mid-10th century), representing the sum of agronomic and agrotechnical knowledge. These essays contain interesting, sometimes unique information on a variety of issues; its value, however, is reduced by the fact that the creators of such compendia often (including when talking about law, economics, geography) were based not on modern evidence, but on the messages of the most revered ancient authors.

Being not always original, the works of early medieval writers are precisely in connection with this important source on the history of education and culture in general, since they allow us to understand what the authors and their contemporaries read, what and in what form early feudal society preserved from the classical heritage. An analysis (qualitative and quantitative) of the manuscript tradition can also give a lot in this regard - after all, the overwhelming majority of the works of ancient writers came to us precisely in the early medieval copies, both Byzantine and Western European. From the same point of view, it is advisable to approach the fiction of this era, at least the “scientific”, Latin-language literature, often also imitative. In addition to the fact that from it one can glean information about many aspects of courtly, military, socio-political, and sometimes economic life, its very themes and style, orientation towards a certain (most often ancient or biblical) system of artistic images shed light on light on the cultural development of society.

A fundamentally different appearance is characteristic of the folk literature of the early Middle Ages, closely connected with folklore and represented mainly by heroic songs and tales created in folk languages. These are the German “Song of Hildebrand” and the English “Beowulf”, which survived in the copies of the 9th-10th centuries, the German epic monument “Song of the Nibelungs”, the French “Song of Roland”, Icelandic sagas that survived in the recordings and processing of the 11th-13th centuries . In any case, however, these are works of the early Middle Ages, reflecting the realities and thinking of their time. Monuments of the early medieval epic serve as a very valuable, sometimes irreplaceable (like sagas) source on a variety of issues, painting us a living, colorful picture of society.

Sources on the history of the XI-XV centuries. The progress of productive forces, the growth of cities, the formation of centralized states, and the onset of a new stage in the history of culture during the period of developed feudalism also affected the nature of the sources. There are many more of them, new species appear, and the structure becomes more complex. The deepening of the social division of labor and the development of commodity-money relations required more detailed legal registration of contracts and transactions, and the improvement of the management apparatus and the expansion of its functions influenced official paperwork.

Diplomacy distinguishes between public and private acts. The first include letters and diplomas of emperors, kings, feudal lords who had sovereign rights, city communes and seigneuries, as well as heads of church administration - popes, patriarchs and bishops. Seals were often attached to charters, the name of which was sometimes used to refer to the document itself. In Byzantium, for example, imperial grants in the form of a charter with this seal were called chrysovulami("gold-printed Word"), and in the papal office, where lead seals were used - bulls, the "apostolic epistles" themselves began to be called bulls. Private acts include documents drawn up by notaries - persons who received a special legal education and had a special status, which was given to them by emperors, kings or popes. Notaries compiled documents according to strictly defined templates for each type of act. In case of violation of the terms of the transaction, the injured party could present the notarial deed to the court as an official document for the examination of the case. Notarial acts formalized the purchase and sale of property, debt obligations, leasing, contracts for the transportation of goods and chartering of ships, the conclusion of commercial agreements and the formation of trading companies, wills, donations, manumission of slaves, etc. Notarial acts have come down to us mainly in the form of copies or short notes (minutes) as part of cartularies handed over for storage to city archives. For example, the archives of Italy have the richest collections of acts. The institution of notaries became most widespread in the XII-XV centuries. in Mediterranean countries.

From the end of the 14th century. notarial deeds, which are expensive for customers, are beginning to be replaced by private records that have no legal force. Their distribution was facilitated by trading companies with a developed internal records management system. Companies and banks, as well as individual merchants, used accounting books (account books) to record capital and goods. Gradually, from the middle of the 14th century. These account books, based on the most advanced accounting system for that time, with mutually verifiable debit and credit items, began to be used in the financial practice of the Italian republics (Florence, Genoa, Venice) and other countries of Western Europe. To navigate the complex world of commerce, trade guides were created, with information about the conditions in all known markets in Europe and the Levant. The most famous of them is “The Practice of Trade” by the Florentine Francesco Balducci Pegolotti (first half of the 14th century).

Important sources on the history of the economy are land inventories and cadastres(census of the population who paid taxes), compiled for fiscal purposes. These include, for example, the English “Book of the Last Judgment” (1086) - materials of the general land census of the kingdom, carried out in order to determine the possibilities of taxation in England, as well as the “Hundred Rolls” - an inventory of land holdings in England at the end of the 13th century. Byzantine land inventories were called practices. Οʜᴎ were compiled either in connection with the transfer of certain possessions to the land owner with the right to collect taxes in their favor, or in connection with the next cadastral audit. Mostly monastic practices have been preserved.

The legal sources of the period of developed feudalism are very diverse. The rise of cities and the formation of city self-government required legal regulation of both intra-city life and relations with feudal lords. On the basis of agreements with the latter, local customs and the reception of Roman law, urban law itself is formed, reflected in city ​​charters and statutes. One of the most ancient is the charter granted by the French king Louis VI to the city of Loris (Orleans) in the first half of the 12th century. Based on its model, many other charters were given, formalizing limited city privileges on the lands of the royal domain. The statutes of Italian cities, often combined into large codes compiled over centuries, such as, for example, the “Book of Rights of the Genoese Republic,” provided for much broader freedoms, formalized the independence of commune cities from feudal lords and autonomy from imperial power, and regulated all aspects of economic life. In addition to city statutes, there were statutes of workshops, trading corporations, universities, and charters of monasteries. The first European guild statute was the Byzantine “Book of the Eparch” of the 10th century. - a collection of decrees concerning the trade and craft colleges of Constantinople (see Chapter 5). At the same time, the purpose of compiling the “Book of the Eparch” was detailed government regulation and control of the activities of colleges deprived of economic independence. The guild statutes of Western European cities of the 13th-15th centuries had a different character, formalizing the creation and functioning of a self-governing guild community with its inherent social hierarchy of masters, apprentices and apprentices. These include, for example, the “Book of Crafts of the City of Paris” of the 13th century, numerous charters of the guilds of German cities (Cologne, Lübeck, Frankfurt, etc.) of the 14th-15th centuries.

In the XIII-XV centuries. records of feudal customary law in force in certain regions or provinces of Western Europe are compiled. These include French Kutyums, German ʼʼ mirrorsʼʼ, Spanish fueros. These monuments well reflect the specific forms of feudal land ownership, the structure of the ruling class, the nature of the exploitation of peasants, and local features of administrative management and legal proceedings. Some kutyums, especially those of southern France, were significantly influenced by Roman law. The most famous are the “Kutumy Bovezi” - a record of the law of North-Eastern France (late 13th century), “Saxon Mirror” (beginning of the 13th century), with a characteristic division of the right to fief (only for persons of the feudal class) and zemstvo (for non-noble, but personally free). Rights of the lower classes, incl. dependent peasants were not recorded in this legislation. The law of the Crusader states in the East also belongs to this category of sources - the “Jerusalem Assizes,” which also breaks down into the “Book of the Assizes of the High Court” and the “Book of the Assizes of the Court of Citizens,” as well as the “Assizes of Romania,” compiled in Morea, in the Peloponnese, at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. Initially, the Assizes of Romagnia were not an official, but a private judicial compilation. They were codified by the Venetian Republic in the 15th century.

Along with the recording of kutyum, royal (imperial) legislation also developed in European states: ordinances in France and England, privilege, patents And mandates in the Holy Roman Empire. Byzantine law at this time was still based on the norms of Justinian law. Various legal compilations (Prochiron and Vasiliki of the end of the 9th century, Pyra of the 11th century, “Six Books” of the Thessalonian judge of the 14th century Constantine Armenopulos) only systematized and commented on this law, and also somewhat modernized it. Imperial laws in Byzantium were called short stories. In the XI-XV centuries. they were most often published in the form of letters of grant.

New types of sources appear during the formation of the class monarchy. This acts of parliament And statutes in England, protocols meetings of the States General and Provincials in France, acts German imperial assemblies, solutions Castilian and Aragonese Cortes, etc.

Protocols of court decisions and meetings directly reflect various aspects of property and social relations and allow one to check the effectiveness and direction of current legislation. In the XIII-XV centuries. Along with royal and city, as well as patrimonial courts, specialized judicial magistrates appeared, considering a certain type of case. These include, in particular, the Venetian Court of Appeal for Trade Claims. Acts of special judicial commissions (for example, the Inquisition) contain important information on political history, the history of social struggle and popular heretical movements.

The desire to systematize knowledge and economic experience has led to an increase in such types of sources as treatises. Οʜᴎ cover almost all areas of science and social practice: from mathematics and astronomy to politics

Sources on the history of the Middle Ages V-XV centuries. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Sources on the history of the Middle Ages V-XV centuries." 2017, 2018.

Classification of historical sources.

A weakly synthetic path of development of feudal relations.

Non-synthesis way of development of feudal relations.

Synthetic path of development of feudal relations.

The most active feudal synthesis took place where the ancient and barbarian principles were sufficiently balanced. A classic example of such a development option is northeastern Galia, where feudalism established itself early (already in the 8th-9th centuries) and was relatively weakly burdened with pre-feudal remnants in the form of various modifications of primitive communal and slaveholding biases and their superstructured manifestations. The degree of activity of feudal synthesis in a particular region depended on many factors:

1. The numerical ratio of barbarians and Romans who found themselves in the same territory (in north-eastern Gaul the ratio is 1:10). Feudalism developed most successfully here. The influence of the Germans as the dominant ethnic group was much greater than their share in the population.

2. The very nature of the settlement of barbarians on the territory of the empire (the territories of the barbarians, which were in contact with the possessions of the Romans, contributed to economic interaction and the emergence of common affairs and interests).

3. Comparative cultural level of the visiting and local population. The provinces were developed by the Romans far from uniformly. The speed of the process also depended on religious and legal factors. Natural-geographical and foreign policy conditions also had a noticeable influence (soils, landscape).

Example of Byzantium. The settlement of barbarians on the territory of the empire created only the preconditions for feudal synthesis (there was no automatic qualitative leap). It took at least one and a half to two centuries for the interaction of the two systems (late antique and barbarian societies) to occur. In the very first decades, feudalization took place in each of the two peoples in its own way, continuing the previous line of development, but in fundamentally new conditions. At the beginning, the evolution to feudalism manifested itself more in Roman society (from the 4th century) a sharp weakening of state intervention led to the growth of private power, the transformation of the socio-economic structure and law of classical antiquity continues, the status of the slave (already as the owner of property) is changing. The Roman estate turns into a feudal fiefdom. The barbarians are even more influenced by the new environment - they become acquainted with Roman agricultural technology and the organization of Roman estates, and Roman law. The German nobility imitates the Roman nobility.

In relation to the Middle Ages, it is advisable to distinguish five types of sources, differing in the forms of recording social information:

1) natural-geographical, that is, directly studyable data on the landscape, climate, soils, vegetation and other components of the environment, both affected by human activity and simply visible for understanding its specific geographical specificity;

2) ethnographic, represented by ancient technologies, customs, stereotypes of thinking that have survived to this day, the appearance of homes, costume, cuisine, as well as folklore and ancient layers of modern living languages;

3) real, which include material relics of the past obtained by archeology or otherwise surviving: buildings, tools, means of transport, household utensils, weapons, etc.;

4) artistic and visual arts, reflecting their era in artistic images captured in monuments of architecture, painting, sculpture and applied art;

5) written, which are any texts written in letters, numbers, notes and other writing signs.

In principle, only a combination of data from all types of sources allows us to form a comprehensive picture of medieval society. However, in the practical work of a medievalist they play a different role. Material sources are of greatest importance in the study of the early Middle Ages. Folklore and ethnographic sources, on the contrary, are the most important for the study of the late Middle Ages, since, with rare exceptions, when transmitting information from memory, the realities and ideas of only relatively recent times are more or less accurately preserved. The main thing for all periods of the Middle Ages and for all aspects of its history are written sources, and over time, in connection with the spread of literacy and the improvement of storage conditions for manuscripts, their number, variety and information content increase.

It is appropriate to divide medieval written sources into three classes:

· narrative(narrative), describing real or illusory reality in all the richness of its manifestations and in a relatively free form;

· documentary recording individual moments of predominantly socio-economic, socio-legal and socio-political life through special, largely formalized vocabulary;

· legislative which, while also legal in form, differ from documentary ones in that they reflect not only existing legal practice, but also the transformative will of the legislator who wants to change this practice, and most importantly, an attempt to streamline social relations, systematize social gradations and situations.

Gradually, especially during the Renaissance, within the framework of narrative and partly legislative sources, a special class of scientific literature was established, where the description of phenomena gives way to the disclosure of their essence through theoretical analysis.

Somewhat earlier, fiction separated from narrative monuments, reflecting reality by generalizing various phenomena in artistic images.

The named classes of written sources are divided into types. Thus, among the narrative sources there are historical narratives, specially covering the course of political events; various hagiographical works, telling about the asceticism and miracles of saints; monuments epistolary creativity; sermons and all kinds instructions; until a certain time also scientific And fiction. In turn, they can be divided into numerous varieties. For example, among the historical works of the Middle Ages there are annals, chronicles, biographies, genealogies and the so-called stories, those. “monographs” dedicated to any specific event or period of time. Chronicles are divided according to various criteria into global and local, prose and poetry, church and secular, dividing the latter into seigneurial, urban, etc.

The early Middle Ages are characterized by the transition from antiquity and barbarism to feudalism (reflected in sources of the 5th-11th centuries). This is the era of the dominance of subsistence farming, weak trade and other ties between countries and regions, very primitive statehood, and low literacy. In the early Middle Ages, the majority of the population was Western. and south Europe lived according to the old Roman laws, gradually waking up to the new time. In the 6th century. By order of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, these laws were codified (the Justinian Code). New laws (novels) of Justinian himself, statements of the most famous lawyers of antiquity, a short special textbook on law (Institutions). Together they received their name in the 12th century. The Code of Civil Law, at the same time the Code of Canon Law was formed - it contains the most important acts of church legislation. The Code of Civil Law is the basis of Byzantine legislation and is a valuable source of the early Middle Ages. In the west, the Justinian Code was almost unknown until the 11th-12th centuries. Germanic, Celtic and Slavic peoples preserved their ancient customs and recorded them in writing. Documentary sources – charters, acts. The certificates were drawn up according to a certain pattern. There were documents on office work, inventories of church estates. Among the historiographical works, in the first place are histories - “History of the Wars of Justinian”, “History of the Franks”). Journalism had not yet emerged; it was contained in the messages and treatises “On the Administration of the Empire.” Folk literature is connected with folklore - songs, heroic tales.

4.Sources on the history of the Middle Ages ( V - XV centuries).

Legislative and documentary sources on the history of the Middle Ages.
LegislativeIn the early Middle Ages, the majority of the population of Western and Southern Europe lived according to the old Roman laws, which were gradually adapted to the changing reality. IN VI V. by order of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I they were codified. All of them compiled an extensive collection, which later received XII c., title “Code of Civil Law”. Then, in XII c., the “Code of Canon Law” was formed. They were valuable sources on history VI V. In the West, the Justinian Code was almost unknown until XI XII centuries, Western European jurists used an earlier set of Roman laws Code of Emperor Theodosius II (438 g). Numerous are known. letters laws written from the end V century to the beginning of IX V. truth (Burgundian, Visigothic, Salic, Saxon, etc.). Royal legislation gradually grew from additions and amendments to the truths: the Capitularies of the Frankish kings, which acquired their classical form at the turn VIII - IX centuries

Documentary sources are distributed very unevenly across regions. From VIII V. Hundreds of documents have reached us, from Italy, Rhine and Danube Germany and North-Eastern France, from IXX centuries also from other regions of France, from Spain and England. IN XI V. number of Western European documentsalready measured in many thousands. Almost all documents of this time were written in Latin. Records of the early Middle Ages recorded decisions of royal, less often princely courts, personal orders and awards of monarchs, acts of donations, purchases and sales, land exchanges, and executed wills. Certificates were drawn up according to certain samples, they were called formulas. AND There are inventory documents (polyptics) represented by inventories of church estates. Diplomacy distinguishes between public and private acts. The first include letters and diplomas of emperors, kings, and feudal lords. Private deeds include documents drawn up by notaries.

History sources XI XV centuries. Important sources on the history of the economy are land inventories and cadastres. These include, for example, the English “Book of the Last Judgment” (1086) materials of the general land census of England. kingdoms.. The legal sources of the period of developed feudalism are very diverse. city ​​charters and statutes. IN XIIIXV centuries records of feudal customary law in force in certain regions or provinces of Western Europe are compiled. These include French Kutyums, German “mirrors”, Spanish fueros (“Kutumy Bovezi”, “Saxon Mirror”).Royal (imperial) legislation also developed in European countries: ordinances in France and England, privileges, patents and mandates in the Holy Roman Empire. Byzantine law at this time was still based on the norms of Justinian law. Imperial laws in Byzantium were called short stories. In XI - XV centuries they were most often published in the form of letters of grant. New types of sources appear during the formation of the class monarchy. Thisacts of parliament and statutes in England, protocols state meetings in France, acts German imperial assemblies, etc. Met treatises . They cover almost all areas of science and social practice (“Summa Theologica” by Thomas Aquinas XIII century)

Narrative (narrative) sources on the history of the Middle Ages.

Narrative sources are varied and numerous. Not all works created in that era have reached us. The high cost of parchment also hampered the preservation of early medieval writings, since old text was often scraped off to make room for new ones (palimpsests). Among the historiographical works of the early Middle Ages, the first place should be given to “histories” - large works devoted to a series of significant political events. "History of the Wars of Justinian" by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea ( VI V.). "History of the Franks" by Gregory of Tours ( VI c.), "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" by the Venerable Bede ( VIII V.). Along with histories and chronicles, medieval historiography is also represented by biographies (for example, Einhard’s “Life of Charlemagne”, beginning IX c.) and annals weather records of the most important events. The annals are short, dry, outwardly impartial lists of poorly connected main milestones in political and church life. An important source is hagiographical works: the lives of real and fictitious people canonized by the church. Most of them were created during the period of Christianization. Among the narrative sources XIXV centuries The most important are historical works - annals, chronicles and histories. A large number of chronicles are associated with the history of the Crusades. Among them are “The Acts of the Franks and Other Jerusalemites,” written by a simple and not very educated knight, a participant in the First Crusade. “The Capture of Constantinople” by Marshal of Champagne Geoffroy Villehardouin, and the description of the same event by the Amiens knight Robert de Clary. WITH XIII V. summary chronicles are created relating to the history of the country as a whole. The medieval epistolary heritage, numbering hundreds of thousands of letters, varying in type and content, is also of considerable value.

The literary monuments of the period of developed feudalism are also very diverse, from chivalric romance and poetry of troubadours and vagants to folk songs and ballads.

In the era under review, journalism had not yet emerged as an independent genre and was, as it were, dissolved in historiography, as well as in messages (valuable as a source on other aspects of history, from economics to philosophy) and especially in treatises, which were often openly didactic in nature. Such, for example, is the treatise “On Palace and State Administration,” written by the Archbishop of Reims Ginkmar for King Charles the Simple (end IX c.), and the treatise “On the Administration of the Empire,” addressed to the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus to his son Roman (middle X V.). Such instructions are interesting not only as monuments of social thought; they contain important information about the political system, foreign policy, neighboring peoples, relationships within the ruling class, etc.

A fundamentally different appearance is characteristic of the folk literature of the early Middle Ages, closely connected with folklore and represented mainly by heroic songs and tales created in folk languages. Such are the German “Song of Hildebrand” and the English “Beowulf”, which have survived in the copies IXX centuries, the German epic monument “The Song of the Nibelungs”, the French “Song of Roland”, Icelandic sagas that have survived in recordings and processing XI XIII centuries.

Our knowledge about the medieval world, about the system of roads and communications is largely based on the “Books of Travel,” itineraries (descriptions of routes), and navigation portolan maps. The most famous is the “Book” of the Venetian traveler XIII V. Marco Polo, who visited the countries of Southeast and Central Asia, China.

SOURCES ON THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGES (V-XV centuries)

The history of feudal society in Western Europe is reflected in numerous sources, mostly written. To study the initial stage of feudalism, archaeological monuments are important, as well as monuments of architecture, art, coins, etc., which provide valuable information on the history of medieval agriculture, crafts, construction, monetary circulation, etc.

Medieval written sources fall into several types: documentary materials (public acts, private acts, documents of an economic nature, administrative, financial, military, etc. documents of state power), legal monuments (“truths”, i.e. records of customary law Germanic and other peoples, codes of civil, criminal and ecclesiastical law, individual laws and decrees, city charters, court records, legal treatises), narrative sources (annals, i.e. chronicles, biographies, lives of saints, unofficial correspondence, journalism), folklore, literary works, etc.

Documentary and legal sources, as a rule, provide abundant material on the history of economics, social and legal relations. Narrative sources contain primarily data for political history.

Of all types of sources, documentary material has the greatest reliability. In narrative sources, to a greater extent than in documents and legal monuments, events are reflected through the prism of the consciousness of their authors. Therefore, sources of this type are characterized by subjectivity of perception, sometimes deliberate silence about certain facts or even deliberate distortion of them.

The formation of barbarian states on the territory of the Western Roman Empire and the formation of the feudal system required the written registration of the customs that existed among the Germanic peoples and the adoption of laws regulating their relations with the conquered population. Therefore, already in the 5th century. the Germanic peoples who settled on the territory of the former empire developed written laws; for the initial stage of the formation of feudalism, they are the only written sources reflecting socio-economic relations. Being by their purpose legal documents, i.e., a list of fines and other punishments for various crimes and misdemeanors, these records of customary law provide rich and extremely valuable material for studying the level of productive forces, forms of ownership, beginning social differentiation, remnants of the communal-tribal system, forms of judicial process, etc. during the birth of the feudal system.

The same written laws then arose among the Germanic and Celtic peoples of Northern and Central Europe, who did not know the slave system and Roman rule. The process of decomposition of the communal-tribal system and the formation of feudalism took place more slowly among some of these peoples, so the recording of laws was carried out later - in the 8th - 9th centuries, and among the Scandinavian peoples even later - in the 12th - 13th centuries.

In Russian, most of these legal monuments are called “pravda” by analogy with the name “Russian Truth”. Their usual Latin name (most of it is written in Latin) is lex (i.e. law) with the addition of the name of the tribe or people (for example, lex saxsonum, lex frisionum). Collectively they are usually called “Barbarian Truths” (“Leges barbarorum”). They represent a record of pre-existing legal norms that were gradually developed in the process of development of society (the so-called customary law). However, even in the earliest editions of the “truths”, the rules of customary law, when they were fixed, were subject to some changes under the influence of royal power. Over time, the “truths” changed and were supplemented in accordance with the development of the feudal system; at this stage the people no longer took part in legislation. The strengthened state power issued laws that changed certain provisions of the “truths”.

The text of the “truths” is usually very complex in its composition due to later layers, insertions, and numerous editions (i.e., variants). The Visigothic, Burgundian, Salic, Ripuarian, Alemannic, Bavarian, Saxon, Frisian, Thuringian and Anglo-Saxon “truths” have reached us. The record of Lombard customary law is called the Edict of Rotary. The Salic Truth (the law of the Salic Franks), in its oldest edition of the early 6th century, deserves special attention. closest to ancient Germanic customs. The most important source for the study of the agrarian system of Byzantium in the 8th century. is the “Agricultural Law”, which is a set of Byzantine-Slavic customary law, in a number of its features reminiscent of the “truths” of the Germanic peoples.

Only a small part of the actually existing documentary materials of the early Middle Ages has reached us. In addition, the social life of that time itself was limited to a relatively narrow area of ​​​​relations that required official confirmation in documents. Decrees of the royal court (local courts had not yet recorded their decisions), acts of donation, purchase and sale and exchange of land, wills, acts that consolidated relations of dependence - these are the main types of early feudal charters. Along with them, there were also collections of formulas, i.e., samples of typical letters, according to which real documents of various contents were written, giving an idea of ​​​​all types of transactions being made, but in an abstract form, without mentioning names, dates, specific descriptions of lands, etc. VIII-IX centuries in monasteries, polyptics appeared, i.e., inventories of estates (for example, a detailed polyptic of Irminon, abbot of the Saint-Germain monastery near Paris, compiled at the beginning of the 9th century), and cartularies, i.e., collections of charters and other documents, usually in copies. At the same time, instructions for managing large estates appeared. The latter includes, for example, the “Capitulary on Estates” (“Capitulare do villis”) of Charlemagne, compiled around 800. Polyptics, cartularies, and instructions give an idea of ​​the organization of large feudal land ownership, forms of exploitation of the dependent population, and the main types of dependence of peasants.

In the empire of Charlemagne, extensive and varied royal legislation appears - capitularies (so called because the text is divided into chapters, i.e. chapters). In Byzantium, the publication of imperial decrees has not been interrupted since the late Roman Empire.

Sources for the political and partly social history of the early Middle Ages are the annals and “histories” of individual peoples. Annals (Latin - annales from annus - year) were called chronicles in Western Europe. Inherited from Rome, they appeared in monasteries from the 6th century. and took the form of short notes on Easter tables, in which the days of celebration of the mobile church holiday of Easter were indicated for several years in advance. The first records appeared first against individual years, and not every year was marked by some event; then recordings became more frequent, and from the end of the 7th century. -- annually. By the VIII--IX centuries. include annals of a wider territorial scope, compiled at the royal courts: the “Royal Annals” at the court of Charlemagne, the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” at the court of King Alfred in England.

Along with the annals in the countries of Western Europe from the 6th century. “histories” of individual Germanic tribes settled in the provinces of the former Roman Empire appeared. They contain legends about ancestors, about migrations, about the first dukes and kings, folk songs, sagas, as well as much more detailed than in the annals, news about the first centuries of the history of individual Germanic peoples: “On the origin and deeds of the Goths” of Jordan, “ History of the Goths” by Isidore of Seville, “History of the Franks” by Gregory of Tours, “History of the Lombards” by Paul the Deacon, “Ecclesiastical History of the People of the Angles” by Bede the Venerable, etc. Valuable information on political history also contains those that appeared from the 9th century. biographies of sovereigns, bishops and other major feudal lords, among whom Einhard’s “Life of Charlemagne” became widely known.

Narrative sources from this period in Byzantium are of particular value. The authors of Byzantine historical works - high dignitaries or monks - widely use ancient historiographical traditions and, having a broader political outlook than Western historians, give in their works the history of not only Byzantium, but also of its neighboring peoples. The works of the 6th century historian are most famous. Procopy of Caesarea, dedicated to the events of the reign of Emperor Justinian. Later in the 10th century. the development of productive forces was reflected in the Byzantine treatise “Geoponics”, which collected a lot of data on agriculture. By the 10th century There is also an important source on the history of the Byzantine city - the “Book of the Eparch” - a collection of government orders that regulated the organization of crafts and trade in Constantinople. The book provides valuable information about the economic life and guild structure of the Byzantine capital.

An important historical source of the early Middle Ages are the lives of saints. In them, despite the abundance of legendary material, many features of folk life and valuable information on the history of the church, the growth of its land ownership, life, customs, ideology, aspirations and beliefs of the masses were preserved.

For studying the cultural history of the early Middle Ages, monuments of folk poetry are of paramount importance: Irish, Icelandic, Scandinavian sagas and Anglo-Saxon epics. The ancient epics of other Germanic peoples have come to us, as a rule, in later adaptations, but they also contain a lot of interesting data.

In the former Western Roman Empire, legal and narrative sources of the early Middle Ages were written in Latin. But, as a rule, it was not literary Latin, but provincial folk dialects adopted by the Germanic peoples. In England, Ireland and Iceland, laws and some historical works were written in the vernacular, since Latin was alien to the Celts and Anglo-Saxons and remained largely the language of the church during this period. In the empire of Charlemagne, the language of the annals and especially historical works was closer to the literary Latin language, understandable only to the clergy and partly to the nobility, but for the people it became less and less understandable, as popular languages ​​deviated more and more from Latin. Byzantine sources, documentary and narrative, were written in Greek, which was used by the majority of the population.

The period of developed feudalism is characterized by significant progress in the life of the peoples of Europe. Cities appeared, national states began to take shape, and a national culture was born. All this contributed to the quantitative growth of sources, their diversity and the emergence of new species.

The growth of productive forces in the XI-XV centuries. can no longer be traced only from archaeological data and from indirect evidence from documents and annals. In the 13th century in Western Europe a number of agricultural treatises were compiled; from XIV--XV centuries. treatises on trade and cloth making have reached us. Guild statutes are very valuable sources on the history of urban crafts. On miniatures of manuscripts, on bas-reliefs and stained glass windows of cathedrals and town halls, on carpets, many images of scenes of craft and agricultural labor have been preserved: mowing, reaping, threshing, preparing wine and oil, weaving, construction.

The picture of feudal production relations is reflected in various documents. Charters, inventories of estates, lists of peasant duties are the main documents for the agrarian history of the 11th-12th centuries. Unfortunately, the bulk of these documents have reached us not in originals, but in copies or in the form of summaries entered in cartularies.

In connection with the development of commodity-money relations in the XIII-XV centuries. new types of documents appeared: acts formalizing various land transactions (purchase and sale, pledge and lease of land, pledge and sale of land rent, etc.), the establishment of fixed peasant duties, the redemption of peasants from serfdom, etc. Most These documents have also been preserved in copies - in the form of notarial minutes (i.e., brief records of the contents of the transaction) or as part of city and seigneurial registers. Important material on the agrarian and social history of England in the 11th-13th centuries. provide land censuses - the results of government investigations. The most interesting among them is the “Domesday Book,” compiled in England in 1086 and being a census of almost all landholdings, settlements, including cities, and the country’s population, as well. “The Hundred Rolls” of 1279 is a complete inventory of the land holdings of some counties of Central England. Germany is characterized by the appearance in the 13th century. “Mark’s charters,” i.e., records of customary law in which communal regulations were recorded, and sometimes also the duties of peasants in favor of the feudal lords.

In countries where, even with the development of commodity-money relations, feudal lords continued to conduct lordly farming on a significant scale, they acquired great importance in the 13th century. inventories of estates (extents in England, urbariums in Germany and other countries), reports of managers, accounts, instructions, etc. These sources sometimes even make it possible to make more or less accurate statistical calculations.

The development of cities gave rise to city charters and statutes that regulated intra-city organization and relations between cities and lords. In the 13th century For the first time, regulations began to be written down that determined the internal structure of workshops. Among sources of this kind, the “Book of Crafts” compiled in Paris around 1268 stands out - a set of 100 guild statutes. Since the 14th century. in cities there appears a large number of acts formalizing donations, purchases and sales, wills, marriage contracts, mortgages and promissory notes, loan documents, etc. In those countries where back in the XIV-XV centuries. The beginnings of capitalist relations have appeared, for example in Italy, large companies are already maintaining trade books.

For the period XIII-XV centuries. characteristic records of feudal customary law (“Mirrors” in Germany, “Kutums” in France, “Fueros” in Spain, “Jerusalem Assizes” in the state of the Crusaders, etc.), which reflected the changes taking place in the socio-economic development of those or other countries. These documents, drawn up, as a rule, by judges, formalized the law that operated within more or less large regions and regulated the relations of feudal ownership of land, legal proceedings, relationships between individual classes, vassal connections and property relations within the class of feudal lords, as well as quitrent monetary relations between peasants and landowners. In Byzantium, due to the preservation of a centralized state and legislation, as well as due to the long dominance of Roman law, legal collections were guides for lawyers in the form of presentation of individual legal cases (the collection of “Symposium” of the 11th century, etc.).

In the XIII-XV centuries. Cities developed their own city law, based largely on the norms of Roman law.

In states with strengthened central power, at the same time, royal legislation developed (ordinances in France, statutes and ordinances in England), which introduced a certain uniformity in the sphere of legal proceedings and provided normal conditions for the development of trade and industry. Byzantium is characterized by the continuous development of imperial legislation. Of particular note is the appearance in the middle of the 14th century. in England, France, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands, the so-called labor legislation established the working day and fixed the wages of the hired workers who appeared at that time.

All these legal monuments, as well as protocols (registers) of judicial institutions since the 13th century. Together with documents of an economic, financial and administrative nature, they become the most important sources on the history of property and social relations. They also outline the administration, court, police and finances of the feudal state.

The most important sources for the political history of the X-XV centuries. are annals and chronicles. In feudally fragmented Europe X-XII centuries. the annals were kept in separate, quite numerous centers of chronicle writing - monasteries and other church institutions. At the same time, chronicles appear, in which, unlike the annals, a coherent and sometimes very detailed account of events is given in chronological order, but with digressions, insertions, comparisons, etc. The annals are impersonal in nature. In the chronicles, the personality of the author, his interests, sympathies, and literary style are clearly revealed; These are already copyrighted works. The chronicles of the 10th - 12th centuries, especially the 13th century, are wider than the annals in terms of their range of interests and their political tendencies. The Crusades, the growth of cities and their political role, the expansion of economic, political and cultural ties - all these new phenomena were reflected in the chronicles.

In the 13th century (and in France and Italy from the 12th century) with the growth of cities, urban annals appeared, which from the very beginning had a different, secular character and other political objectives. They are characterized by anti-feudal tendencies, developed in the long struggle of cities with lords, clear presentation, and a business-like approach to all issues. Very quickly, city annals developed into coherent and detailed city chronicles, compiled primarily by city officials. These chronicles, especially numerous in Italy and Germany, represent the most important source for the history of cities and one of the main sources for the political history of this period.

In England, France, Spain and other countries, sets of “royal chronicles” appeared (for example, “The Great French Chronicle”, “St. Alban’s Chronicle” in England), in which, under the pen of successive well-informed authors, the history of the country was created, successively illuminated from the progressive for that time point of view of the interests of the central government. These chronicles, which reflected the initial stage of the formation of centralized states, were received in the XIV-XV centuries. further development and widespread distribution, which led to the creation in the 15th century. in many countries historical works of national scale.

Unlike the earlier period, the authors of the chronicles of the 13th century. There were not only monks, but also secular people, mainly knights and large feudal lords, who wrote in national languages ​​and intended their works for a wider circle of readers and listeners than the monks - the authors of Latin chronicles.

In the XIV-XV centuries. chronicles were written, as a rule, by royal advisers, knights, townspeople or city clergy, close to the townspeople in their political interests. Their focus is on long-term wars, no longer local, but on a European scale, which contributed to a more distinct manifestation of national interests and sympathies. With few exceptions, chroniclers' accounts of the numerous popular uprisings of this time are sharply hostile to the people, and the facts are often distorted. The content and style of the chronicles were reflected by the changing demands of readers, whose circle was constantly expanding. This contributed to the growth in the number of chronicles. But their importance as historical sources is gradually decreasing, partly because from the middle of the 14th century. the amount of documentary material is increasing, which is becoming the main source for reconstructing political history; partly due to the fact that the chronicles of the 14th-15th centuries, with the exception of urban or those compiled by royal advisers, lost the most important quality of a source of political history - the reliability of the information reported. The increasing complexity of social and political life and the secrecy of certain aspects of state activity that began at that time made it difficult for most chroniclers to obtain the necessary information in a timely manner. The chronicles of this period for the most part remain of great importance mainly as sources for the history of public opinion, ideology, culture and life, as well as for the history of the language and literature of that era. The most characteristic in this regard is the French chronicle of the 14th century, written by the “singer of chivalry” Froissart.

The chronicles in Byzantium had a different character. The historiographic tradition was not interrupted there. As before, the authors were high-ranking dignitaries close to the government, imitating the style of ancient historians, or monks who wrote in colloquial language. The destruction of almost all Byzantine documentary material makes narrative monuments the main sources on the political history of Byzantium in the 11th-15th centuries.

Since the 14th century. In all countries, the number of documents related to public administration, diplomacy, etc. is rapidly increasing - registers, accounts, reports, instructions, previously few in number. These documents are now better stored and recorded; life itself causes the appearance of more and more new documents - minutes of meetings of central and local government bodies, everyday business correspondence, numerous letters and instructions from leading officials, major public figures, etc. The value of these sources for the history of Western Europe is very great; these are the most reliable historical sources. They directly and accurately reflect reality, record all changes in government policy and reveal its secret springs, cover in detail the activities of many major political and public figures, and are reliable in terms of dates, names and factual material in general. Documentary sources (mainly court records, city registers, etc.) contain a lot of valuable information on the history of the class struggle of the 14th-15th centuries.

A special place is occupied by sources on the history of the Catholic Church and the papacy. The main ones are papal charters (“apostolic charters”, from the 14th century usually called bulls (a bull was a lead seal suspended on a cord from a papal charter; this name was later transferred to the charter itself), and small charters - breve , published on various specific events); they reflect the policy of the papacy in Western Europe. Acts of church councils reveal Catholic doctrine and illuminate the life of church institutions. The church and clergy lived according to special church (canonical) law, which at the beginning of the 13th century. was compiled into a single code. On the history of heresies, the main sources are theological treatises and protocols of inquisitorial courts.

Fund of sources on the history of culture of the XI-XV centuries. extremely large and diverse. There are folk songs, ballads, fairy tales, and the city theater with its mysteries (performances on evangelical themes) and farces, and rich knightly literature: knightly poetic and prose novels, love lyrics, adaptations of ancient epic tales. Sources for the history of scientific knowledge in the Middle Ages can be those that appeared in the 12th century. philosophical, medical, philological and other treatises. Much material on the history of medieval culture is provided by architectural monuments, as well as monuments of fine art, represented mainly by miniatures in numerous manuscripts, stained glass windows and sculpture in cathedrals.