Book contents
- The Cambridge Urban History of Europe
- The Cambridge Urban History of Europe
- The Cambridge Urban History of Europe
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- Acknowledgements
- Editors’ Introduction to the Series
- Additional material
- 1 Introduction: Urban Europe from the Middle Ages to 1850
- 2 Cities and Complex Settlements in Early Medieval Europe, c. 500–1150
- Part I Regions
- Part II Themes
- Index
- References
2 - Cities and Complex Settlements in Early Medieval Europe, c. 500–1150
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 January 2026
Book contents
- The Cambridge Urban History of Europe
- The Cambridge Urban History of Europe
- The Cambridge Urban History of Europe
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- Acknowledgements
- Editors’ Introduction to the Series
- Additional material
- 1 Introduction: Urban Europe from the Middle Ages to 1850
- 2 Cities and Complex Settlements in Early Medieval Europe, c. 500–1150
- Part I Regions
- Part II Themes
- Index
- References
Summary
Analysing Northern and Mediterranean Europe together, this chapter challenges old and new grand narratives. There was urban growth during the sixth and seventh centuries in certain regions of northern and Mediterranean Europe, contrary to old notions of total urban decline linked to collapse paradigms of the western Roman Empire, including ideas about social collapse. There had been contractions, redefinitions of urban space and its uses, but in many places, those changes had already largely occurred in the later third and fourth centuries. This chapter traces the force of collaborative and competitive actions in the process of redefining urban spaces and spurring growth. Different social groups acted as drivers of the growth of cities and the creation of new forms of town between the sixth and twelfth centuries. The story of the Early Medieval city is one of diversity.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Urban History of Europe , pp. 22 - 74Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Further Reading
Gelichi, S., and Hodges, R. (eds), From One Sea to Another: Trading Places in the European and Mediterranean Early Middle Ages (Turnhout, Brepols, 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodson, C., Cultivating the City in Early Medieval Italy (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodson, C., Lester, A. and Symes, C. (eds), Cities, Texts and Social Networks, 400–1500: Experiences and Perceptions of Medieval Urban Space (Farnham, Ashgate, 2010).Google Scholar
Henning, J. (ed.), Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium, Vol. 1: The Heirs of the Roman West, Vol. 2: Byzantium, Pliska and the Balkans (Berlin, de Gruyter, 2007).Google Scholar
Holmquist, L., Kalmring, S. and Hedenstierna-Jonson, S. (eds), New Aspects on Viking-Age Urbanism, c. AD 750–1100 (Stockholm, Stockholm University, 2016).Google Scholar
La Rocca, C. and Majocchi, P. (eds), Urban Identities in Northern Italy (Turnhout, Brepols, 2015).Google Scholar
Lebecq, S., Béthouart, B. and Verslype, L. (eds), Quentovic: Environnement, Archéologie, Histoire (Lille, Presse Universitaire Lille 3, 2010).Google Scholar
Loveluck, C., Northwest Europe in the Early Middle Ages c. AD 600–1150: A Comparative Archaeology (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malbos, L., Les ports des mers nordiques à l’époque viking (VIIe–Xe siècle) (Turnhout, Brepols, 2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wickham, C., Medieval Rome: Stability and Crisis of a City, 900–1150 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015).Google Scholar
Willemsen, A. and Kik, H. (eds), Dorestad in an International Framework: New Research on Centres of Trade and Coinage in Carolingian Times (Turnhout, Brepols, 2010).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zavagno, L., Cities in Transition: Byzantium between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, Archaeopress, 2009).Google Scholar
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