Courtney Booker
Thematic Research Area
Regional Research Area
Education
Ph.D., UCLA
About
I am a historian of medieval Europe, with a focus on Carolingian intellectual and cultural history.
Teaching
Research
Research Appointments
Research Fellow, Eberhard Karls UniversitĂ€t TĂŒbingen, Centre for Advanced Research, “Migration and Mobility,” 2024
Research Fellow, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Freie UniversitÀt Berlin, 2023
Member, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 2015â16
Research Fellow, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, University of Cologne, 2014â15
Visiting Scholar, UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2009â10
Research Interests
- Early medieval Europe
- Historiography
- Rhetoric, narrative, and hermeneutics
- Literacy and textual criticism
- Latin philology
- Codicology, transmission of texts, and intertextuality
- Political theology and l’augustinisme politique
- Medievalism
Research Projects
1. My current project, Kingdom of Conscience, investigates the notion of conscience, the distinctions of interiority/exteriority, and discourses of truth-finding and truth-telling during and after the reign of Charlemagneâs son Louis the Pious. It builds on my earlier work regarding the public penance of Louis in 833, the specific moral discourse by which that controversial event was interpreted and re-interpreted, and how its enduring memory both demonstrated and itself informed later discourses of ministry, morality, and truth. I now wish to investigate early medieval notions of truth, trust, and hidden sin more generally â what one scholar has recently referred to as a âtypically Carolingianâ discourse on the emptiness of solemn gestures and pronouncements informed by deception. Why was such discourse of doubt âtypicalâ of the Carolingians? What did the co-emperors Louis the Pious and his son Lothar mean when they demanded that everyone scrutinize and follow their âconscientiaâ for the well-being of the realm? How was this collective, purportedly therapeutic examination of conscience to be conducted and verified, and how could the guiding influence of conscience itself be kept under control? What was the source and extent of its power, and how did it relate to law and justice, sovereignty and necessity, self and the soul? Within a moral community organized by principles and degrees of honor and shame, what were the links between the individual private Christian conscience and social ideas of scandal and public utility? Why did a layman, Nithard, believe in 843 that men had become callous, conscienceless beasts, while a contemporary laywoman, Dhuoda, believe rather that men should model themselves on sensitive beasts that act conscientiously by instinct? In short, how was conscientia related to being Christian? to being a man or a woman? to being human?
2. Another research project uncovers the history of a very special book preserving the Latin chronicle by the ninth-century lay author and grandson of Charlemagne, Nithard, who happened to include in his text the earliest extant appearance of the French language. Entitled Lost Cause: Forgetting, Remembering, and Stealing the First French Text, the study demonstrates that the movements of the lone manuscript long preserving this singular record of French (the âStrasbourg Oathsâ of 842) provide an exceptionally favorable index by which to discern, track, and evaluate changes in attitudes about language, history, and identity over the course of a millennium. What quickly emerges from the manuscriptâs fortunes is that the times and places that Nithardâs work was especially valued were precisely those times and places largely characterized by division and war. The sad irony is that Nithard had written his provocatively patriotic text in the interest of unity and peace.
3. A third project is an English translation of the Latin texts of Agobard of Lyons. As bishop of Lyons from 816 to 835, Agobard was an outspoken âsouthernerâ who constantly sought to have a voice in Carolingian court politics to the north. To this end, he penned several letters, entreaties, and admonitions over the course of his career to Emperor Louis the Pious and his courtiers, urging them to take action against matters ranging from the âimpious practiceâ of the judicial ordeal to the âmalignant effectsâ of associating with Jews to the âunseemly and iniquitousâ conduct being increasingly displayed by the emperor himself. In short, Agobard’s extant texts, which vary in both content and intended audience, provide a nearly unparalleled lens through which to observe the political and religious, the social and economic, and the prosaic and arcane world of ninth-century Europe.
Recent Conference Papers
âSacred Kingdom, Penitential State: A Short History of LâAugustinisme politique,â delivered at the âKingship and Political Culture in the Visigothic Kingdomâ conference, Freie UniversitĂ€t, Berlin, 29 June 2023
âThe Modesty of the Dog-Man: Varieties of Conscience in Carolingian Europe,â delivered as part of the panel âTerminological Tensions: Reconsidering Key Categories of Late Antique and Early Medieval Research, III â Parsing Minds,â at the International Medieval Congress, Leeds, U.K., 6 July 2021
Publications
Books
Articles/Book Chapters
with Anne A. Latowsky, âIntroduction,â in Courtney M. Booker and Anne A. Latowsky, eds., In This Modern Age: Medieval Studies in Honor of Paul Edward Dutton (Budapest: Trivent, 2023), 1â19.
âThe Two Sorrows of Nithard,â in Courtney M. Booker and Anne A. Latowsky, eds., In This Modern Age: Medieval Studies in Honor of Paul Edward Dutton (Budapest: Trivent, 2023), 97â142.
with Hans Hummer, and Dana M. Polanichka, âIntroduction,â in Courtney M. Booker, Hans Hummer, and Dana M. Polanichka, eds., Visions of Medieval Studies in North America and Europe: Studies on Cultural Identity and Power (Turnhout: Brepols, 2022), 9â28.
âAn Alleged Oratio of Boniface to Pippin in 751,â in Courtney M. Booker, Hans Hummer, and Dana M. Polanichka, eds., Visions of Medieval Studies in North America and Europe: Studies on Cultural Identity and Power (Turnhout: Brepols, 2022), 379â420.
âBy the Body Betrayed: Blushing in the Penitential State,â in Matthew Gillis, ed., Carolingian Experiments (Turnhout: Brepols, 2022), 221â43.
âScience in the Service of Melodrama: Remembering the Carolingians in the Nineteenth Century,â postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies 10.2 (2019): 176â93.
âMurmurs and Shouts: Speaking the Conscience in Carolingian Narratives,â in Philippe Depreux, Stefan Esders, eds., La productivitĂ© dâune crise: Le rĂšgne de Louis le Pieux (814â840) et la transformation de lâEmpire carolingien / ProduktivitĂ€t einer Krise: Die Regierungszeit Ludwigs des Frommen (814â840) und die Transformation des karolingischen Imperium (Ostfildern: Thorbecke, 2018), 343â58.
âBy Any Other Name? Charlemagne, Nomenclature, and Performativity,â in Rolf Grosse, Michel Sot, eds., Charlemagne: Les temps, les espaces, les hommes. Construction et dĂ©construction dâun rĂšgne (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018), 409â26.
âHypocrisy, Performativity, and the Carolingian Pursuit of Truth,â Early Medieval Europe 26.2 (2018): 174â202.
âIusta murmuratio: The Sound of Scandal in the Early Middle Ages,â Revue BĂ©nĂ©dictine 126.2 (2016): 236â70.
âAddenda to the Transmission History of Dhuodaâs Liber manualis,â Revue dâhistoire des textes n.s. 11 (2016): 181â213.
âThe False Decretals and Ebboâs fama ambigua: A Verdict Revisited,â in Karl Ubl and Daniel Ziemann, eds., FĂ€lschung als Mittel der Politik? Pseudoisidor im Licht der neuen Forschung. Gedenkschrift fĂŒr Klaus Zechiel-Eckes [Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Studien und Texte 57] (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2015), 207â42.
âThe Dionysian Mirror of Louis the Pious,â Quaestiones Medii Aevi Novae 19 (2014): 241â64.
âReading a Medieval Narrative: An accessus,â in Janos Bak and Ivan JurkoviÄ, eds., Chronicon: Medieval Narrative Sources. A Chronological Guide with Introductory Essays [Brepols Essays in European Culture, 5] (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013), 35â67.
âAn Early Humanist Edition of Nithard, De dissensionibus filiorum Ludovici Pii,â Revue dâhistoire des textes n.s. 5 (2010): 231â58.
âHistrionic History, Demanding Drama: The Penance of Louis the Pious in 833, Memory, and Emplotment,â in Helmut Reimitz and Bernhard Zeller, eds., Vergangenheit und VergegenwĂ€rtigung: FrĂŒhes Mittelalter und europĂ€ische Erinnerungskultur [Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters 14], (Vienna: Verlag der Ăsterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2009), 103â27.
âThe Public Penance of Louis the Pious: A New Edition of the Episcoporum de poenitentia, quam Hludowicus imperator professus est, relatio Compendiensis (833),â Viator 39.2 (2008): 1â19.
âA New Prologue of Walafrid Strabo,â Viator 36 (2005): 83â105.
âByte-Sized Middle Ages: Tolkien, Film, and the Digital Imagination,â Comitatus 35 (2004): 145â74.
âThe Demanding Drama of Louis the Pious,â review essay of Ivan Gobry, Louis Ier: Premier successeur de Charlemagne (Paris, 2002), in Comitatus 34 (2003): 170â75.
âImitator daemonum dicor: Adalhard the Seneschal, Mistranslations, and Misrepresentations,â Jahrbuch fĂŒr internationale Germanistik 33 (2001): 114â26.
âThe Codex purpureus and Its Role as an Imago regis in Late Antiquity,â in Carl Deroux, ed., Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History (Brussels: Latomus, 1997), 8:441â77.
âPrecondition to Miracle: The Construction of Discernment and Its Application in the Works of Sulpicius Severus and Gregory of Tours,â Orpheus: Rivista di umanitĂ classica e cristiana 18 (1997): 182â95.
âLatin Terms for Damming and Diverting Water,â Bulletin Du Cange (archivum latinitatis medii aevi) 54 (1996): 93â98.
âVermiculatus as Scarlet in Jerome,â Orpheus: Rivista di umanitĂ classica e cristiana 16 (1995): 124â26.
Reviews et al.
Review of Rutger Kramer, Rethinking Authority in the Carolingian Empire: Ideals and Expectations during the Reign of Louis the Pious (813â828) (Amsterdam, 2019), in The Medieval Review (TMR 21.08.26).
Review of Anne A. Latowsky, Emperor of the World: Charlemagne and the Construction of Imperial Authority, 800â1229 (Ithaca, 2013), in American Historical Review 119.3 (2014): 958â59.
Review of Nithard, Histoire des fils de Louis le Pieux, ed. and trans. Philippe Lauer, rev. Sophie Glansdorff (Paris, 2012), in Early Medieval Europe 21.2 (2013): 229â32.
Review of Abigail Firey, A Contrite Heart: Prosecution and Redemption in the Carolingian Empire (Leiden, 2009), in Speculum 87.1 (2012): 211â14.
Review of Patrick Wormald and Janet L. Nelson, eds., Lay Intellectuals in the Carolingian World (Cambridge, 2007), in Early Medieval Europe 18.3 (2010): 363â65.
Review essay of Gabriel Piterberg, An Ottoman Tragedy: History and Historiography at Play (Berkeley, 2003), in Comitatus 35 (2004): 265â71.
Review of Elizabeth Valdez del Alamo and Carol Stamatis Pendergast, eds., Memory and the Medieval Tomb (Aldershot, Brookfield, 2000), in Comitatus 32 (2001): 219â24.
Review essay of Paul Edward Dutton, Charlemagneâs Courtier: The Complete Einhard (Peterborough, Ontario, 1998), in Comitatus 30 (1999): 179â87.
Review of Luigi Ricci, Problemi sintattici nelle opere di Liutprando di Cremona (Spoleto, 1996), in Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 34 (1999): 147â48.
âInterview with Patrick J. Geary,â Comitatus 29 (1998): 1â20.
Translations (modern)
Translations (medieval)
Agobard of Lyons, Adversus legem Gundobadi (ca. 817â822)
Agobard of Lyons, De divinis sententiis contra iudicium Dei (ca. 817â822)
Agobard of Lyons, Contra praeceptum impium de baptismo Iudaicorum manicipiorum (ca. 826)
Louis the Pious, Regni divisio (831)
Agobard of Lyons, De privilegio apostolicae sedis (ca. AprilâJune, 833)
Pope Gregory IV, Epistle to the Bishops of Louis the Pious (June, 833)
Agobard of Lyons, Liber apologeticus, I (June, 833)
Agobard of Lyons, Liber apologeticus, II (ca. JulyâOct. 833)
Louis the Pious, Epistle to Hilduin of Saint-Denis (late 834â835)
Walafrid Strabo, Poem to Empress Judith (ca. 834â835)
Thegan, Epistle to Hatto (836)
Adalhard the Seneschal, Epistle to Walafrid Strabo (late 839)
Walafrid Strabo, Prologue and Chapter Titles to Thegan, Gesta Hludowici imperatoris (late 840â842)
Epistle from an anonymous nobleman (Adalhard?) to Queen Ermengard (ca. 840â843)
Ebbo of Reims, Apologeticum (forma posterior) (ca. 841â842)
Narratio clericorum Remensium (ca. 866)
Odilo of Saint-MĂ©dard, Extract (chps. 44â45) from the Translatio sancti Sebastiani (ca. 930)
Awards
American Philosophical Society, Franklin Research Grant, 2018
UBC Humanities and Social Science (HSS) Research Grant, 2016
Killam Teaching Prize, 2009
SSHRC Standard Research Grant, 2008â11
Medieval Academy of America, Book Subvention Award, 2008
American Philosophical Society, Franklin Research Grant, 2007
Hampton Humanities and Social Sciences Research Grant, Large Grant, 2004â05, 2007â08
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Medieval History, Rutgers University, New Brunswick (declined), 2003â04
Gerhart B. Ladner Postdoctoral Lecturer in Medieval History, UCLA, 2003
Lynn White, jr., Fellowship, UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1999â2000
Graduate Supervision
Doctoral Theses
Josh Timmermann (2021), âTemporality, Authority, and ‘Ancient Christianity’ in the Carolingian Eraâ
Georg Heinzle (2019; co-supervised with Prof. Karl Ubl, University of Cologne), âFlammen der Zwietracht: Deutungen des karolingischen BrĂŒderkrieges im 9. Jahrhundertâ
—
Master’s Theses
Josh Timmermann (2015), “Beati patres: Uses of Augustine and Gregory the Great at Carolingian Church Councils, 816â836″
(Awarded prize for best thesis of cohort)
David Patterson (2013), “Adversus paganos: Disaster, Dragons, and Episcopal Authority in Gregory of Tours”
(Awarded prize for best thesis of cohort)
âąÂ Download published version in Comitatus 44 (2013): 1â28
Johanna Goosen (2008), “The Chalice and the Cup: The Changing Role of Wine in the High Middle Ages”
—
Undergraduate History Honors Theses
Chenyang Li (2022), âContrition and Emulation: Ambroseâs De apologia prophetae David and Its Carolingian Receptionâ
Josh Timmermann (2013), “Sharers in the Contemplative Virtue: Julianus Pomeriusâs Carolingian Audience”
(Winner of the J.H. Stewart Reid Medal and Prize in Honors History for best thesis of cohort)
âąÂ Download published version in Comitatus 45 (2014): 1â44
Catherine Bright (2009), “Ex quibus unus fuit Odorannus: Community and Self in an Eleventh-Century Monastery (Saint Pierre-le-Vif, Sens)”
(Winner of the Leslie F.S. Upton Memorial Prize for best thesis in History/Medieval Studies)
âąÂ Download published version in Comitatus 41 (2010): 77â118
Mohamad Ballan (2008), “Fraxinetum: A Glimpse into the Mediterranean World of the Tenth Century?”
âąÂ Download published version in Comitatus 41 (2010): 23â76
Chelsea Gardner (2008), “Papal Smear: Remarks on the Conspiracy, Narrative, and Emplotment of a Historical Fiction”
Meg Leja (2007), “The Making of Men, not Masters: Right Order and Lay Masculinity According to Dhuoda and Nithard”
(Winner of the J.H. Stewart Reid Medal and Prize in Honors History for best thesis of cohort)
âąÂ Download published version in Comitatus 39 (2008): 1â40
Kelsey Mack (2007), “Indirectly Critical: The Treatment of Louis the Pious by Einhard and Paschasius Radbertus”
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Undergraduate Medieval Studies Theses
Peter Jones (2011), “Temporum series praestitit: Order and Truth in the Texts of Gregory of Tours”
âąÂ Download published version in Comitatus 46 (2015): 1â30