April 28, 2011
Jennifer Davis, assistant professor of history, has been awarded two fellowships to conduct research for her book Charlemagne's Practice of Empire , using sources in Italy and Germany.
One fellowship - the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome - will send Davis to Rome for the 2011-2012 academic year. The second - an award from the German Academic Exchange Service or Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) - will enable her to spend the summer conducting research in Munich, Germany.
In Rome, Davis says she will focus on the third section of her book, which "examines how Charlemagne used conquered regions, like the kingdom of Italy, as laboratories for experimentation, or places to practice political tools before exporting them home to Francia (a medieval empire that encompassed large parts of modern-day France, Germany, and Belgium)."
"I will also be addressing how the challenge of integrating Italy into his Frankish territories prompted Charlemagne and his men to innovate politically," she notes.
To conduct her research, Davis will review Frankish royal laws - called capitularies - at the Vatican Library and at other Italian libraries. She also will look at centuries-old legal manuscripts at the Vatican Library in order to compare them with the capitulary manuscripts.
The goal of Davis' research is to better understand the nature of how Charlemagne exercised his power and the kind of legacy he left for the rest of the Middle Ages.
Davis says she is looking forward to her experience in Rome.
"The American Academy offers fellowships to both scholars and creative artists," she explains. "We all live together in a villa in Rome, creating an atmosphere of collaboration and collegiality. I can really think of no better place to finish my book. I will be able to learn from interesting colleagues in many fields, I will be close to my manuscript sources, and I will be able to write about Rome - the site of Charlemagne's momentous coronation as emperor - while actually in Rome itself."
Davis will use the fellowship from the DAAD to study capitulary manuscripts at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library) in Munich. There, she also will spend time at the research institute Monumenta Germaniae Historica, where she will work on final revisions of the first two sections of her book. Those sections focus on Charlemagne's exercise of power by addressing tools of control and coercion he used as well as innovation and the pace of change in his empire.
"The Bavarian manuscript holdings are incredibly rich and will add a significant amount to my analysis of the capitularies," she says. "It is also a great privilege to be able to work at the Monumenta, which is an institution famous to all medievalists."
"Being named a recipient of the Rome Prize confirms Professor Davis' stature among young humanities scholars in the U.S., and the fellowships she's won will allow her to complete her current book project to cement her growing reputation," says L.R. Poos, dean of CUA's School of Arts and Sciences.