Abstract
This article studies the ways the sixth-century queen and monastic founder Radegund (c.520–87) managed the non-textual elements of communication by letter. While Radegund’s role as a writer and commissioner of letters has been well studied, her efforts as an orchestrator of letter deliveries, gift exchanges and other associated acts of public communication remain under-explored. Drawing on two Merovingian hagiographies, one written c.590–600 by Radegund’s friend and agent Venantius Fortunatus, and another composed shortly after 600 by a fellow nun, Baudonivia, this article offers a new methodological approach to the study of letter-writing in the early Middle Ages.
| Original language | English |
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| Journal | Early Medieval Europe |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 9 Jun 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2025 The Author(s). Early Medieval Europe published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Funding
We are grateful to Anne Sieberichs and the graduate students of our Utrecht University research tutorial, for fruitful discussions on letters, gifts, and Radegund. We would also like to thank James Burns, for discussion of monastic slave ownership, and audiences in Kalamazoo, Leeds, Nijmegen, and Utrecht, for helpful questions and comments. Finally, we wish to acknowledge the two anonymous reviewers for their generous and perceptive feedback. This article was written within the NWO VIDI research project \u2018Lettercraft and Epistolary Performance in Early Medieval Europe, 476\u2013751\u2019 (VI.Vidi.211.045), financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek |