Social Network Analysis (Medieval Studies)

Applicare le metodologie dell'analisi delle reti sociali all'ambito della ricerca storica può fornire una misura quantitativa quanto qualitativa a supporto degli storici. Nella fattispecie si vuole presentare uno studio in cui si è analizzata una vasta gamma di documenti relativi agli anni precedenti la famosa Battaglia di Benevento avvenuta nel febbraio del 1266 in cui Manfredi, Re di Sicilia, perse la vita a causa di un presunto tradimento dei baroni che dovevano supportarlo in battaglia. Il grafo delle relazioni creato a partire dalla vastissima documentazione online (es. Regesta imperii) e non (es. Registri Angioini) ha permesso di ricostruire una fitta rete di comunicazioni tra le figure principali del periodo: il Papa Clemente IV (documenti dal 1265 al 1266), Manfredi (documenti dal 1257 al 1266) e Carlo I d'Angiò (1265 al 1267). Infine la lunga serie di personalità citate nella documentazione ha consentito, grazie all'uso del software UciNet, una puntuale applicazione di alcune euristiche proprie dell'analisi di rete permettendo dapprima un'analisi su diversi piani semantici e infine un bilancio sul grafo complessivo dei livelli di Degree e Betwenness su quei nodi che storicamente sono individuati come i personaggi chiave della disfatta di Manfredi. I risultati mostrano come ad alti livelli di Betweenness e Degree il soggetto è tra quelli indicati come traditore dagli storici, mentre coloro che hanno un basso grado di Betweenness nonostante Degree alta, pare siano coloro che gli storici identificano come fedelissimi al Re e che effettivamente morirono nella battaglia o furono imprigionati e uccisi qualche mese dopo. Uno sviluppo futuro potrebbe prevedere misure predittive sul grafo o l'aggiunta della rete dei matrimoni tra le varie famiglie coinvolte nell'analisi.

"Nel Friuli patriarcale Cividale era solo una 'terra', ma la vocazione urbana - già visibile nella 'forma urbis' - era fortissima. Nel corso del Trecento il consiglio del Comune attuò una chiusura oligarchica: 'milites' e 'pedites' appaiono ormai come etichette prive di valore, ma sono un gruppo coeso, che nei confronti del patriarca Bertrando di Saint-Geniés seglie la via del conflitto, fino al tragico epilogo del 1350.
Nel saggio sono descritte le magistrature cittadine e individuato il gruppo dirigente urbano tra tra 1328-45 (riassunto in due tavole poste in appendice)."

The modelling and visualisation of networks is based on the material in: M. Mullett, Theophylact of Ochrid. Reading the Letters of a Byzantine Archbishop. Birmingham 1997.

The first graph is a visualisation of the connections between letters in localities between which these letters were exchanged (" 2mode network").

The second graph is a visualisation of the weighted network of localities on the basis of Theophylact´s correspondence; two localities are connected if letters of Theophylact were exchanged between them. Links are scaled according to the number of letters within Theophylact´s collection documenting exchanges between them.

The third graph visualises these connections between localities on a map. Links are again scaled according to the number of letters within Theophylact´s collection documenting exchanges between them. The size of nodes is scaled according to their number of connections within the network ("degree").

The fourth graph is a "zoom" into these geographical visualisation of the network for the Western Balkans; links are again scaled according to the number of letters within Theophylact´s collection documenting exchanges between them.

For the localisation of sites within the historical region of Macedonia cf. also the upcoming volumes on Macedonia (Southern Part) by Peter Soustal and on Macedonia (Northern Part) by Mihailo Popovic within the series "Tabula Imperii Byzantini" (http://www.oeaw.ac.at/imafo/die-abteilungen/byzanzforschung/communities-landscapes/historische-geographie/)

For any further questions, please contact Johannes.Preiser-Kapeller@oeaw.ac.at.

MS 609 of the Bibliothèque municipale de Toulouse contains the registry of the largest known medieval inquisition, the so-called ‘Great Inquisition’ lead by two Dominicans at Toulouse between 1245 and 1246. Since its discovery in the nineteenth century, this registry has remained unedited and is rarely studied in detail. Yet it has become famous for being the record of a broad inquisition into the ‘general state of the faith’, one that affirms that Catharism – the theory of a dualist, organized heretical counter-Church which brought the Albigensian crusade and eventual inquisition to the lands of the Count of Toulouse – was widespread between Toulouse and Carcassonne. This article argues that the registry does not record any general survey of Cathar heresy among the population, but rather it records an inquisition principally aimed at collecting evidence against village consulates who had no greater or lesser relationship to any ‘heresy’ than the rest of the population. This argument is made by challenging the historiographic bias towards sampling the registry anecdotally, replacing it with an evaluation based on a combination of macroanalysis and close reading facilitated by the author’s digital edition of MS 609 and network analysis techniques.

[Double-blind peer reviewed]

Il-Ḵh̲ānid Tabrīz became not only a nodal point in the spatial imagination of Christian merchants and missionaries, but was promoted even to a significant landmark in the Biblical and apocalyptic topography of 13th and 14th century Christianity. As this processes were very much connected to the rise of the city as centre of Mongol Iran, its prominence on the (mental) maps dwindled with its political and mercantile importance; yet, the case of Tabrīz provides a most interesting example for the imagination and organisation of space respectively the modification and adaption of these phenomena within the Christian communities confronted with the rise and fall of Mongol power in Iran.

By the time the marble decoration of San Miniato al Monte was completed – much earlier than Giotto and Dante’s time – Florence had become an economic and military power. By studying thousands of notarial acts, the volume aims at investigating the changes in economy, society, and mentality which transformed a peripheral and virtually unknown urban centre into a powerful city community.

Quando si pensa alla Firenze medievale si pensa a quella del Due e del Trecento: a quella gotica di Giotto, di Dante, di Boccaccio e di Villani. Le origini dell’autonomia cittadina, però, sono ben più antiche e affondano nella precedente stagione artistica, forse poco apprezzata per Firenze, quella dei marmi di San Miniato al Monte e del Battistero. Senza dedicare spazio alla storia dell’arte, il volume intende però analizzare il contesto economico e sociale che vide quel primo rigoglio artistico. Un contesto denso di contraddizioni: l’impetuosa immigrazione di povera gente dalle campagne e la perdita di controllo dei Fiorentini sul contado; la nascita di un sistema di gerarchie sociali all’esterno delle mura e il rigoroso egualitarismo lessicale all’interno; la faticosa costruzione di un potere cittadino univoco e il permanere dei molteplici gruppi di interesse dai quali era scaturito il Comune. La Firenze dei secoli XI e XII era un gigantesco laboratorio cui mancò un narratore consapevole e fecondo. Solo migliaia di modesti documenti notarili, passati al setaccio e messi in relazione l’uno con l’altro, ci permettono oggi di comprenderne fino in fondo la forza innovativa.

El enorme volumen de recursos fiscales percibidos por los monarcas castellanos a finales de la Edad Media en la Andalucía Atlántica permite considerar este espacio, en el que la ciudad de Sevilla ocupaba un lugar de centralidad, como uno de los más rentables en términos tributarios de toda la Corona de Castilla, en consonancia con su elevado nivel demográfico y la importancia de las actividades productivas y de intercambio allí desarrolladas. El presente libro no solo trata de ofrecer una descripción sintética de las principales fuentes de renta ordinaria recaudadas por el fisco regio en este territorio, de su cuantía y evolución en el siglo XV y comienzos del XVI, y de la articulación del espacio fiscal a efectos de organización de la colecta. También presenta un modelo analítico que permite avanzar en la comprensión integral del “negocio” ligado a la gestión de la fiscalidad regia, de los intereses que se ocultaban detrás de las iniciativas empresariales puestas en marcha por los recaudadores de rentas y sus avalistas, de sus estrategias cooperativas, y de las posibilidades que el negocio fiscal brindaba a los operadores a la hora de integrarse en redes socio-económicas que, partiendo del espacio local y regional, se extendían por toda la Corona de Castilla.

While Social Network Analysis (SNA) has become an accepted research tool in historical studies in the last decades, actual theoretical foundations for the approach to depict and analyse past social realities in the form of nodes and ties have remained as many-voiced and sometimes under-determined as in other fields of network analysis. A theoretical framework from which historical network analysis may benefit is the systems theory established by the sociologist Niklas LUHMANN (1927–1998). In Luhmann´s theory, social systems are systems of communication; in modern society, Luhmann identified several differentiated communication systems such as politics, religion or economy. For the analysis of Byzantine society, we combine Luhmannʼs framework with the concepts of SNA: we understand ties between nodes as potential channels of communication which can pertain to any communication system. And while communications between individuals in a specific institutional framework such as state administration or the church may primarily pertain to one system, we have to account for “multiplex” ties of communication and an overlap of various communication systems on the same set of nodes (who, in Luhmannʼs theory, are not per se part of any of these social systems, which only consist of communications). This approach also enables us either to examine communication ties (their density, distribution patterns, etc.) of one system separately or to concentrate on the structural position of individuals within the general social framework. Thus, we demonstrate that Luhmann can provide a coherent and at the same time flexible framework for historical network analysis.

Robert Gramsch

Das Reich als Netzwerk der Fürsten
Politische Strukturen unter dem Doppelkönigtum Friedrichs II. und Heinrichs (VII.) 1225–1235
Mittelalter-Forschungen, Band 40

Format 17 x 24 cm
456 Seiten
mit zahlreichen Grafiken und einer Beilage
Hardcover mit Schutzumschlag
ISBN: 978-3-7995-0790-5
€ 64


Der Sturz König Heinrichs (VII.) im Jahr 1235 zählt zu den rätselhaftesten Episoden der mittelalterlichen deutschen Geschichte. Ein so drastischer Schritt wie die Absetzung durch den eigenen Vater schien nur als Folge schuldhaften politischen Versagens denkbar. Die vorliegende, netzwerkanalytisch angelegte Studie untersucht die Bedingungen von Heinrichs Herrschaft innerhalb eines komplexen Wirkverbundes politischer Akteure und zeichnet ein neuartiges Bild eines turbulenten Jahrzehnts der spätstaufischen Zeit.

http://www.thorbecke.schwabenverlag.de/das-reich-als-netzwerk-der-fuersten-p-1754.html?cPath=310_138_245&osCsid=a1582cebfcf4c16437de0df2b5119cda

The ESSHC is a biennial International Conference that brings together historians and other scholars from across the world who are interested in studying the past using the methods of the Social Sciences.  The programme is organised around Networks, each of which organises panel sessions (including collaborative sessions with other networks): some of these are period-based, some based on geographical area, and some focused on themes or methods.  You can find further information about the ESSHC on its web https://esshc.iisg.amsterdam/en/esshc-conference-2022

The ESSHC has had a Middle Ages Network, which has become the main regular forum for discussions of Medieval Social History, an opportunity to meet scholars from other countries, as well as to see what’s happening in other periods and other fields. The network is currently co-chaired by Jelle Haemers (University of Leuven) and Jesús Ángel Solorzano-Telechea (University of Cantabria)

Our network studies the social fabric of medieval societies (c. 1000-1500). Scholars are invited to submit sessions on the social history of politics, economy, cultural phenomena, ideas, and discourses. Subjects to be dealt with include: networking at courts, gender issues in urban or rural societies, conflict studies, factions and nobility, the history of commoners, trust and social capital, spatial dimension of social relations, new methodologies etc. Other topics are very welcome! The particular focus of our network is comparative: first, it brings together medievalists working on the crossroads of cultural, political and economic history; second, it looks at different areas across Europe and the wider Mediterranean world. Nevertheless, we will be happy to discuss any ideas you wish to put forward. We are particularly interested in proposals for inter-disciplinary and comparative panels.  The earlier you contact us, the more advice we will be able to offer.
There is also scope for proposing an individual paper, of roughly 20 minutes, if you do not wish to organise a whole panel. If your proposal is accepted, we may put you in touch with the organiser of a relevant session, to see if your paper could be accommodated there, or we may seek to put together a composite panel of individual submissions.  Again, the sooner you contact us to discuss your ideas or submit your proposal, the better.
We invite proposals for panel sessions and individual papers for the next meeting of the ESSHC in Belfast in 2018.  Panel sessions last two hours, and generally involve four or three papers on a specific theme, with or without a discussant, and with a chair.  Ideally, panel contributors should come from a mix of countries, and certainly a mix of universities. 

Important note: Proposals for panel sessions or individual papers need to be submitted via the ESSHC website using their online pre-registration form by 15 May 2021 in order to be considered, even if you have been discussing the idea with us. Panel organisers need to ensure that all participants in their panels have sent in their abstracts and pre-registered by the deadline, with an indication of the name of the session to which their paper belongs.
Please, do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss proposing a paper or a panel.

The social network analysis (SNA) is a promising instrument in medievistic research. In a weakly institutionalised face-to-face society concrete social relations and interactions were obviously very important. Particularly, historians are interested in the problem of network dynamics, because historical processes can be understood as the development of networks in time. One of the most important factors, which influences a given network, are conflicts. We can model mathematically their emergent effects using Fritz Heiders concept of the so called structural balance. The paper shortly introduces the monograph „The Empire as a network of princes“, which uses SNA techniques and structural balance for modelling and explaining a large 13th-century political network.

Published in: Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia, ed. by A.C.S. Peacock, Bruno De Nicola and Sara Nur Yıldız, all at the University of St Andrews, UK. Ashgate 2015 (http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&isbn=9781472448637&lang=cy-gb)

The ports and coastal zones constituted the most important points of interaction between the interior of Anatolia and the Mediterranean world; only along the 600 km long coast of Lycia and Pamphylia, for instance, medieval sources list almost 100 ports and landing places.  With the (anew) advance of the Seljuks towards the coast (conquest of Attaleia/Antalya in 1207, conquest of Sinope in 1214) and the increasing presence of Italian merchants in the harbours of the Aegean, the Black Sea and the Levant, maritime Asia Minor became a zone of intensive contacts between Byzantines (after 1204 in the exile realms of Nicaea and Trebizond), Armenians (in the Kingdom of Cilicia), Turks, Persians and Arabs (in the Sultanate of Konya) and “Latins” respectively “Franks”, thus also between Orthodox, Oriental and Western Churches as well as Islam (in its various denominations). With the fragmentation of Seljuk central power after the defeat against the Mongols in 1243 into various Emirates and their expansion especially into Western Asia Minor towards the Aegean and the establishment of Italian colonies (including “Catholic” bishoprics) in coastal towns and offshore islands (e. g. the Genoese on Chios and in Phokaia/Foça) and of the Knights Hospitallers on Rhodes, the number of zones of interaction, but also conflict increased (relocation of crusading efforts towards the Aegean in the 14th century, for instance). At the same time, Venetians and Genoese integrated all these locations and regions as hubs and nodes into their commercial networks and into the late medieval “World System”.  With the Ottoman Expansion, these territories were absorbed into one imperial framework once more (as it has existed under Byzantine rule until the 11th century), which finally also included the remaining western colonies (Rhodes in 1522/1523, Chios in 1566, Cyprus in 1571). During this period, “no other region of Europe or the Mediterranean became a cynosure of so many ethnicities in such a small place”.
Some of these aspects, such as the intensive trade between Venetian Crete and the Emirates in South-western Anatolia or the Genoese and the Turks in the 14th and 15th century , the military conflict between Crusaders and Turks in the Aegean  or the establishment of Latin monastic communities and bishoprics in the region  have already been analysed in greater detail. The same is true for aspects of religious transformations (especially conversions to Islam) in the region in the early modern period  as well as in late medieval centuries, but less so for maritime aspects of the organisation, identity and dynamics of various religious groups.  A view from the sea towards the coasts of Anatolia also opens a new perspective away from a “continental” overlapping of competing territorial claims towards a sum of potential nodal points within the late medieval network of socioeconomic interactions, which often modified or even overcame lines of religious, ethnic or political differentiation.
As we demonstrate in this paper, there existed various and manifold channels of encounters across religious border in maritime Asia Minor; their systematic survey and mapping contributes to a further embedding of the processes of political, economic and religious transformation in Anatolia in these centuries within the late medieval Mediterranean and Islamic world, complementary to already existing projects just as “The Islamisation of Anatolia” (https://www.islam-anatolia.ac.uk/).

Kommunikasjon, kontaktar og nettverk er viktige trekk ved dagens samfunn, der menneske, ressursar, gjenstandar og idear spreier seg over store avstandar. Også i fortidige samfunn var det kontaktar og samhandling på ulike nivå, lokalt, regionalt og overregionalt – dvs. på tvers av regionar – både direkte og gjennom ulike nettverk. Det er ikkje alltid lett å spore historisk kjende regionar og grenser i eit arkeologisk materiale. Ved å trekkje inn ulike typar regionar definerte gjennom ulike kjeldekategoriar ønsker eg å problematisere og diskutere regionsperspektivet. Eit viktig spørsmål er i kva grad omgrep som ‘region’ og ‘regionalitet’ er eigna i analysar av ulike former for samhandling i mellomalderen. Korleis kan desse omgrepa
vere nyttige innfallsvinklar i arkeologiske analysar på ulikt geografisk nivå? Artikkelen har fokus på kontaktar og kommunikasjon mellom lokalsamfunn og regionar i mellomalderens Skandinavia, ca. 1000–1500 e.Kr., med enkelte døme frå vikingtid. Eksempel er hovudsakleg
frå Noreg, men danske område blir òg trekte fram. Sentrale spørsmål er i kva grad distribusjonsmønster av arkeologisk materiale vitnar om regionale og overregionale kontaktar, og i kva grad likskapar og ulikskapar i den materielle kulturen indikerer ulike regionar frå
ein materiell synsstad. Målet er å sjå i kva grad ulike kjeldetypar samsvarar eller divergerer, og i kva grad arkeologiske kjelder kastar nytt lys i slike studiar.

The paper demonstrates the the application of concepts and findings of network theory (also without the use of quantitative models, since the source evidence is too fragmentary) provides new frameworks for the description of religious conversion across and along Islamic-Christian borders in the late medieval Eastern Mediterranean.

In the latter half of the 12th century, the families of the groups overseeing the comuni forged widespread, implementable and strictly regulated military alliances. These alliances were organized around the control of tower houses. However, the paucity of surviving documentation has long hindered meaningful research into these ‘intermediate bodies’ of society, too often considered relics of a ‘feudal’ past. The shared management of power and assets, the written regulation of violence, and the presence of controlling groups that would vary according to precise legislation all indicate that the ‘association of towers’ organized around the ‘pacta’ were not simply family groups, rather complex coordinating bodies not dissimilar to the city communes.

From Metaphor to Method. Network Analysis as an Instrument for Research into Pre-Modern Societies
The paper introduces an important and promising branch into the field of the rapidly evolving Digital Humanities, the Social Network Analysis (SNA). SNA can be defined as the application of the graph theory to the problem of modelling and analysing social structures. The network paradigm stresses the importance of relational aspects in history and it fits very well into pre-modern mentality and social practices. In a weakly institutionalised face-to-face society, social entanglements and interactions were absolutely crucial. Today, the development of modern computer technology and the ubiquity of the World Wide Web as well as social networks such as Facebook promote the application of this research paradigm.
The article alludes to recent research contributions and discusses frequent methodological objections against the use of SNA in medieval and early modern history studies. In a second step, medieval network thinking and networking strategies which can be found for instance in genealogical sources and humanistic exchange of letters are discussed as possible objects of historical network research. Finally, a preliminary case study demonstrates how techniques of Text Mining and SNA can be applied to the investigation of late medieval Vatican registers, providing new insights into the money transfer (payment of annates) between Germany and Rome during the pontificate of Pope Sixtus IV. (1471–1484).

Ausschnitte: Einleitung und Kap. III: Eine Fallstudie zur Netzwerkanalyse: Annatenzahlungen im Pontifikat Sixtus’ IV. (1471–1484), S. 1-2 und 20-28.

El artículo presenta la reflexión metodológica y los resultados del enfoque que he aplicado para comprender los procesos sociales y políticos presentes en una fuente textual. El tema sobre el que se fundó el estudio fueron las interacciones entre los actores sociales tal como se desarrollan en una narrativa histórica. Un enfoque relacional puede contribuir a la comprensión de las narrativas y su utilidad histórica, y las dos preguntas principales rectoras de mi investigación fueron: 1) ¿Cómo extraer datos relacionales y construir redes que representan la información contenida en una fuente narrativa; y 2) ¿qué nos dicen las redes así construidas sobre el significado y las implicaciones del espacio social presente en el mensaje? Con el fin de concentrarme en la información sociológicamente relevante que el texto ofrece, ‘traduje’ un informe retórico en un conjunto relacional de datos. El primer paso de este esfuerzo consistió en trasladar una estructura textual en una construcción sociológica, es decir, en un conjunto de datos socio-relacionales. Los conjuntos de datos narrativos proporcionaron una serie de sociomatrices narrativas listas para ser analizadas a través de herramientas analíticas de redes. De éstos, el uso e interpretación de las medidas de centralidad resultó ser uno de los enfoques más fructíferos para comprender las dimensiones sociales del texto. Medidas de centralidad y prestigio resultaron útiles al explorar las interacciones narrativas de comunicación e influencia social. Este estudio intenta demostrar que, a través de un enfoque relacional, se puede superar la brecha entre los puntos de vista cognitivo y estructural y, por lo tanto, avanzar hacia una mejor comprensión de las construcciones sociales ‘entre líneas’ de una fuente histórica textual.

Connecting Medieval Music is a platform for the study of contrafacta of medieval Romance lyric. It constitutes a digital repertory of Occitan and French lyrics, as well as Latin, German, Italian, and Galician-Portuguese contrafacta connected to the Gallo-Romance tradition.

Thanks to its interactive interface, Connecting Medieval Music invites users to explore the connections between lyrics across Europe in their geographical and chronological dimensions.

The project does not only provide a list of known cases of contrafaction but aims to provide information on the formal and cultural features of each lyric: the circumstances of its compositions, the people involved, the events it mentions, the sources that preserve it, and much more.

La correspondance de Gerbert, éditée par Pierre Riché et Jean-Pierre Callu, contient une dizaine de lettres adressées à divers moines et abbés aurillacois, entre 983 et 995. Hélas, nous ne possédons pas les missives expédiées par les moines auvergnats à leur correspondant. Pour autant, en croisant cette correspondance avec d’autres sources (gesta abbatum d’Aurillac, sources diplomatiques et hagiographiques contemporaines), il demeure possible de se livrer à une étude des enjeux variés présents dans ce petit dossier épistolaire. Le premier aspect à mettre en évidence est culturel : un certain nombre de lettres évoquent la circulation de manuscrits ainsi que l’intérêt des moines de Saint-Géraud pour les recherches de Gerbert ; elles nous renseignent aussi sur l’histoire de l’amitié en milieu monastique et les formes qu’elle pouvait prendre. Le second enjeu est plus politique : outre que les lettres en question révèlent le maintien de liens plus forts qu’on ne le croit souvent entre Aquitaine et nord de la Loire, elles permettent également de discerner l’intérêt que portent les moines aurillacois aux événements politiques de leur époque (élection d’Hugues Capet, rapports avec les comtes raimondins et avec la Catalogne). En particulier, la relation avec Gerbert et Adalbéron explique certainement qu’à Aurillac on ait très vite reconnu Hugues Capet, alors que l’abbaye voisine de Conques a daté ses actes de Charles de Lorraine durant plusieurs années. Elles permettent d’entr’apercevoir la dimension politique de l’action menée en particulier par l’abbé Géraud de Saint-Céré à la tête de l’abbaye auvergnate. Enfin, ce dossier épistolaire est également intéressant du point de vue de l’histoire de Saint-Géraud même : il rend possible de mieux dater la chronologie des abbatiats de Géraud de Saint-Céré puis de son successeur Raimond ; il invite à reposer la question des origines de Gerbert, au-delà des mythes qui ont obscurci cette question ; il conduit à s’interroger sur l’insertion de l’abbaye auvergnate dans les réseaux ecclésiastiques de son temps, certaines missives de Gerbert faisant écho à ces efforts pour favoriser cette intégration.

"Visualisations of the teacher-disciple network of Byzantine scholars for the period 1204-1453 CE; arrows indicate teacher-disciple relationships. In the second graph, individuals are ordered according to their distance from Nikephoros Blemmydes, the "original source" of this network after the hiatus of 1204. We observe a continuum of knowledge from the exile in Nicaea to the Italian Renaissance.  In the third graph, nodes are scaled according ot their out-degree (= number of disciples in this case).
(Based on data from: MATSCHKE, Klaus-Peter; TINNEFELD, Franz: Die Gesellschaft im späten Byzanz. Gruppen, Strukturen und Lebens-formen, Cologne – Weimar – Vienna 2001, p. 297-300, and information from the Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit, ed. E. Trapp et. al. CD-ROM Version, Vienna 2001).
"

Overview on the possibilities of quantitative research and Network Analysis for Medieval Studies.

Three main focuses:
* Quantitative data from the natural sciences: climatic and natural phenomena

* Quantitative data from medieval sources: economic and demographic quantities

* The complexity of medieval societies: social network analysis on the basis of medieval sources

Conclusio:
* Complexity allows us to establish a framework for comparative research across time and space > the patterns of interaction between environment and society and within societies are and were always complex.
* We can analyse how similar crisis phenomena influenced the development of societies with different (or similar) traditions, religions, institutions, geographies or ecologies > differences matter!
* At the same time, we do not  loose track of essential commonalities (the “strange parallels”) of environmental impacts and historical change in pre-modern societies.
* We recognize the high significance of endogenous social dynamics in the polities in this period, on which exogenous changes (such as climatic) and extreme events had an impact, but not along the lines of an overwhelming linear causation as postulated in (older and) recent research.

Der Volltext des Buchs ist jetzt in „Heidelberger historische Bestände - digital“ verfügbar (siehe DOI und Link).

Abstract:
The political system of the medieval German empire can be understood as a network of princely and comital actors which acted under the conditions of Fritz Heider´s theory of structural balance. The „Empire as a network of princes“ constituted a complex and interdependent system which was formed by numerous interactions of positive or negative character like kinship, political alliances, personal contacts (e.g. document witness), territorial or status competition, legal and military conflicts and so on. This political environment also determinated the royal activities: Frictions and conflicts between the princes must have a negative impact on the relation of both Staufian sovereigns. With the help of network-analytical methods the monograph analyses the political system of Germany during a period of ten years and gives new answers to some long-discussed questions: Did Henry VII. really offended the princes?  Why did he lose the support of the German princes in such a dramatical way?

With the rapid growth of users in social networking services, data is generated in thousands of terabytes every day. Practical frameworks for data extraction from social networking sites have not been well investigated yet. In this paper, a methodology for data extraction with respect to Sina Weibo is discussed. In order to design a proper method for data extraction, the properties of complex networks and the challenges when extracting data from complex networks are discussed first. Then, the reason for choosing Sina Weibo as the data source is given. After that, the methods for data gathering are introduced and the techniques for data sampling and data clean-up are discussed. Over 1 million users and hundreds of millions of social relations between them were extracted from Sina Weibo using the methods proposed in this paper.

A network of ports in late medieval Western Greece on the basis of the routes described in Portulan I (A. Delatte, Les Portulans Grecs. Paris 1947, p. 26-53); the ports are localized on the basis of P. Soustal, Nikopolis und Kephallenia (TIB 3). Vienna 1981. Visualisation for the new project "Ports and landing places at the Balkan coasts of the Byzantine Empire (4th-12th century). Monuments and technology, economy and communication", see also: http://www.academia.edu/2969226/Ports_and_landing_places_at_the_Balkan_coasts_of_the_Byzantine_Empire_4th-12th_century_._Monuments_and_technology_economy_and_communication_-_Project_outline

The network of transfer (total graph and detail view) of pieces of property ("feuda") between "Venetian" (red nodes) and "Greek" (blue nodes) aristocratic families in the region of Chania (Crete) between 1314 and 1396; nodes are scaled according to their number of incoming links ("in-degree"). Data from: Charalampos Gasparis, Catasticum Chanee, 1314-1396 (Catastici Feudorum Crete). Athens 2008. Graph from: J. Preiser-Kapeller, ‘Visualising Communities. Möglichkeiten der Netzwerkanalyse und der relationalen Soziologie für die Erfassung und Analyse mittelalterlicher Gemeinschaften’, Working Paper for a presentation for the SFB "Visions of Community", 2012 (online: http://oeaw.academia.edu/JohannesPreiserKapeller/Papers)
Below also a map of many of the localities of the feuda mentioned in the documents edited by Gasparis (created by Johannes Preiser-Kapeller)

This visualisation maps in a schematic way the (deliberate or forced) moblity of groups from the Northwestern Caucasus region identified as "Alans" as warriors, guard troops, mercenaries, Mamluks or slaves from the Mediterranean to Mongol ruled China ("Asud" guards of the Yuan emperors); from: J. Preiser-Kapeller, Nomadikon Ethnos. Research perspectives for the analysis of transregional networks between Byzantium and the Mongol-Islamic World of the 13th-15th century. Presentation for the Vienna Dialogues, November 2012 [publication in preparation].

The family of Olomouc burgesses the Salczars is at least for scholars dealing with medieval Olomouc well known. Th is one of the reasons why it is an ideal sample for analysis of self-representation and formation of social structure of the spectrum of burgess society, which shows particular traits of elite behavior. The family could overstep its social position because of a good financial situation. Th e main aspect in the evaluation of self-representation was especially tracking of economic status of individual members of the family, which mirrored in their immovable property. The Salczars, especially during the times of Lucas I. Salczar, had indeed a large amount of property which was equal to an average property of an upper central Moravian nobleman. Family relationships and trade-social relations were tracked in the framework of a reconstructed social structure. The researched showed that the family did not integrate into the noble milieu through marriages, they rather circulated with equally orientated group of the bourgeoisie. The Salczars would preferably kept an active trade-based relationship with the nobles, with whom they were close acquaintances, almost friends. A  deep evaluation of all researched sources could not bring a clear outcome, whether we should regard Salczars as members of the bourgeoisie or noblemen. It is therefore a family which is somewhere on the border or both circles.

Between 1050 and 1130 the bishops of Parma were frequently absent from the city. The bishops Cadalus (1045-1072), Eberard (1072-1085) and Vido (1085-1104) all appeared in imperial armies for extended periods. Bishop Bernard (1104-1133) was expelled by groups within the city for several years. This paper will investigate the relationship between these absences and changes in the structures of power and authority within the city and county of Parma.
The bishops of Parma were some of the most powerful ecclesiastical figures in Italy under the Ottonian and early Salian emperors. They enjoyed a large territory and a series of rights and exemptions allowing them to act decisively within the region; a key example of this was the prolonged attempt by Cadalus, bishop of Parma, to claim the papal seat as Honorious II in 1061-1072. However, towards the end of the eleventh century the bishops of Parma featured less prominently in the ongoing papal-imperial conflict. By the middle of the twelfth century they had been largely replaced by the commune of Parma as the dominant force in the city. Authors such as Schumann, Fasoli and Santifaller have seen this change in the political structure of Parma as the result of the imposition of Gregorian and Paterene ideals on the bishopric which called for the reduction or elimination of the secular roles of the bishop. However, the extended absences of the bishops from the city have not been considered in this context in any real depth. By considering the political, judicial and economic infrastructures employed during these absences I will attempt to establish whether a causal or consequential link can be made to the bishops’ diminishing secular role.

Information on the life of the Armenian scholar Anania of Širak we gain from two of his texts; in one he describes how he as young student in the 630s, dissatisfied with the quality of education in his homeland, set out for Byzantium to find an adequate instructor, but was referred to the teacher Tychikos in relatively nearby Trebizond, where Ananias then acquired the treasures of classic education. In another short text, Ananias describes the journey of a kinsman to Balkh in modern-day Afghanistan, where he purchased a very valuable pearl, which he then profitably sold piece for piece on his way back to native Širak.
If we visualise the connections outlined in Anania´s biographical narratives, we detect a multiplex, despite the briefness of both accounts already relatively complex network of ties of education, commerce, kinship, authority and patronage. The backbone of Anania´s longer account is of course the network of education, consisting of ties between teachers and disciples. A simple quantitative analysis makes the central position of Tychikos of Trebizond visible; he also provides connection to the centres of classic education in the Mediterranean, which Ananias himself never visited, but also obtained from his prestige as teacher in Armenia. The wide connections integrated in the life story of a man who himself actually never travelled far beyond the borders of his homeland become also visible if we take a look at the spatial structure of the narratives. Also here, we can quantify the centrality of localities with regard to their “betweenness”; the Armenian capital of Dvin emerges as most important node of intermediation between West and East in Anania´s narratives, thereby corresponding to the description of the city´s relevance in the work of Procopius. The application of spatial clustering to the network of localities within the narrative also provides interesting results; we detect a Mediterranean cluster of education (so important also for Anania´s legitimation as teacher), an Iranian cluster of commerce and a Black Sea cluster of transmission of teachers and teaching between the centre of the Empire and the Middle ground in Eastern Anatolia and Armenia.

Bibliography:
Tim GREENWOOD, A reassessment of the life and mathematical problems of Anania Širakacʿi, in: Revue des études arméniennes 33 (2011), p. 131-186.
Robert H. HEWSEN, Science in Seventh-Century Armenia: Ananias of Sirak, in: Isis, Vol. 59, No. 1, (Spring, 1968), p. 32-45.
Johannes PREISER-KAPELLER, erdumn, ucht, carayut´iwn. Armenian aristocrats as diplomatic partners of Eastern Roman Emperors, 387-884/885 AD, in: Armenian Review 52 (2010) p. 139–215.

Cf. also http://www.academia.edu/3792891/Medieval_Entanglements_Trans-Border_Networks_in_Byzantium_and_China_in_Comparison_c._300-900

Medieval town’s topography reveals several aspects about the life of the societies that inhabited them, such as corporative organization, religious devotion and social stratification. Most of the occupations were concentrated in specific streets and districts, around parishes which, in Cologne, beyond its religious function, also played, initially, the role of agglutinating centers for political activities. The ruling group in Cologne, however, opposing that of the artisans, was not concentrated in determined districts; but it was dispersed all over the city. The present contribution tries to expose and analyze this
phenomenon relating it with the social stratification process present in the medieval towns.

The religiosity, as an integral part of the politic and economic life in Middle Ages is, nowadays, an unquestionable fact. However, only few studies make this association in the study of the urban medieval context, where, as will be demonstrated, the religiosity should be thought not only as integral part of the politic and economic life, but also as an element used by the ruling class in the strategies to obtain and maintain status. This can be seen, for in-stance, through the analysis of testaments, registration of the property books, (land and buildings register). The destination of a greater number of sons and daughters to religious life in the most numerous families indicates a con-cern with the inheritance and maintenance of the status. The charitable practices, besides their religious merits, had the role of distin-guish the name of donor and his family in the city's architecture and social life and consoli-dated his social position. These elements rein-force the notion of certain pragmatism in the religious life in this period, besides of being a further indication of the influence of the nobili-ty's model in the urban elite.
Key-words: Religion; politics; ruling classes.