Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the ninth and tenth centuries

Histories of medieval Europe have typically ignored southern Italy, looking south only in the Norman period. Yet Southern Italy in the ninth and tenth centuries was a complex and vibrant world that deserves to be better understood. In Before the Normans, Barbara M. Kreutz writes the first modern study in English of the land, political structures, and cultures of southern Italy in the two centuries before the Norman conquests. This was a pan-Meditteranean society, where the Roman past and Lombard-Germanic culture met Byzantine and Islamic civilization, creating a rich and unusual mix.

Frontmatter --; Contents --; Acknowledgments --; Abbreviations --; Introduction --; 1. The Beginnings --; 2. The First Arab Impact --; 3. A Carolingian Crusade --; 4. Firming the Elements --; 5. Amalfi in Context --; 6. Salerno's Southern Italy in the Tenth Century --; 7. The Late Tenth Century and South Italian Structures --; 8. Campania and Its Culture in the Tenth Century --; 9. Epilogue: The Eleventh Century and After --; Notes --; Appendix: The Southern Lombard Rulers, 758-1000 --; Bibliography --; Index