French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Lemesle, Procès en récit. Formes et perception de procès avant l’an mil (IXe-Xe s.)
History, Politics and Society
Bruno Lemesle
Procès en récit. Formes et perception de procès avant l’an mil (IXe-Xe siècles)
Paris, Classiques Garnier, coll. POLEN - Pouvoirs, lettres, normes, 2021
EAN : 9782406109853 — 294 p. — 31 €
Seven cases and trials between the 830s and the year 1000 are brought to light through multiple narratives that ultimately merge into a single account thanks to the reuse of earlier episodes. They are the precursors to the political and ecclesiastical trials of the later Middle Ages.
The study of early medieval legal culture frequently relies on sparse narrative records that blend administrative documentation with oral tradition. In this period, institutional authority was often negotiated through localized dispute resolution rather than codified statute law. Bruno Lemesle examines seven cases and trials between the 830s and the year 1000, which are brought to light through multiple narratives that ultimately merge into a single account thanks to the reuse of earlier episodes, serving as precursors to the political and ecclesiastical trials of the later Middle Ages.
Readers interested in medieval legal history and the development of early European institutions may find this volume relevant. The text engages with questions of textual transmission and the performative nature of justice before the emergence of professionalized legal systems. While focused on a specific corpus of trials, the analysis speaks to wider historiographical interests in the transition from customary dispute settlement to more formalized structures of governance during the central Middle Ages.