Paris
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 April 2016
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 April 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396584-0200
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 April 2016
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 April 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396584-0200
Introduction
While Paris has been continuously inhabited since Celtic tribes settled on its islands in the Seine, developing into the Roman market hub called Lutetia, it was during the Middle Ages that Paris became a political, intellectual, and artistic capital. Christianity arrived with the city’s first bishop, Denis, martyred in 250 CE. Another of the city’s patrons, Saint Geneviève, repulsed the Huns with prayers in 451, calming the nervous merchants. The first Christian king of the Franks, Clovis, established his capital in Paris around 508. Many of the city’s great churches and abbeys date to this Merovingian period. The Vikings exploited the Seine waterway to besiege the city in 885–886. Count Eudes of Paris held them off, gaining prestige that would eventually lead his Capetian descendants to kingship in the 10th century. The Capetians favored Paris as a capital more than the Carolingians did, although Orleans and Burgundy were close rivals. Evidence for reconstruction and new building appears in the mid-11th century, gaining momentum in the 12th century with the Romanesque-style rebuilding of Saint-Germain-des-Près. The famous experiments in Gothic architecture began with bishop Maurice de Sully’s Notre Dame building campaign in 1160. By the early 1100s Paris was an educational center. Whereas cathedral schools at Orleans and Chartres had attracted students with Latin grammar instruction, Paris took the ascendant with William of Champeaux’s teaching of Scholastic biblical exegesis at Saint-Victor and Abelard’s promotion of dialectic (logic). By 1200, Paris was the center for the study of the liberal arts and philosophy, with some 3,000–4,000 students. Pope Innocent III recognized the growing “university” in 1208. Philip II undertook ambitious construction of city walls, including the Louvre, and in the mid-13th century Louis IX multiplied the religious and charitable institutions. Guild records collected in 1268 by Etienne Boileau reveal a vibrant city producing and exchanging specialized products. Population estimates for the late 13th century approach 200,000: Paris was the largest city in the West (compare London at around 80,000 inhabitants, or 120,000 for Florence). Despite the demographic difficulties of the later Middle Ages, such as the plague and the Hundred Years’ War, by 1356 the population was straining against the walls, expanded by provost Etienne Marcel. The Anglo-Burgundian alliance occupied the city from 1420 to 1436 following their catastrophic defeat of French forces. Merchant tensions increased in the late Middle Ages, and the royal presence became rarer, but the city’s reputation for luxury goods and intellectual activity remained strong.
General Overviews
There was an initiative on the part of the Paris municipal council to publish a “New History of Paris” beginning in the 1970s, with publication continuing into the 1990s. For the medieval period, Boussard 1976, Cazelles 1994, and Favier 1974 set a standard for looking closely at narrower slices of the medieval millennium. They are excellent bibliographic introductions and follow a similar three-part structure. Favier 1997 is a general history of Paris that gives more attention to the medieval period than many counterparts, and it also offers a bibliographic overview. Baldwin 2010 and Roux 2009 offer more-discursive thematic cultural histories, grounded in extensive scholarship. Overviews aimed at a popular readership often focus on sensational moments, such as Horne 2002, included here as one such example, with its emphasis on the burning of the Templars. For those who seek a more visual introduction to the medieval city, Lorentz and Sandron 2006 chronicles Paris’s expansion and key sites through maps, medieval images, and pre-Haussmann 19th-century photographs. Duby, et al. 2009 neglects all but the late Middle Ages, but for that subperiod it is rather gorgeous.
Baldwin, John W. Paris, 1200. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010.
A narrow slice of Paris’s chronology, 1190–1210. Chapters study merchant anxieties such as credit, currencies, trade regulations, poverty, and prostitution; women; the challenges of record keeping and governing facing Philip II’s itinerant court; the church; schools; and festivities, music, and poetry. Includes illustrations, map, notes, and a thorough index.
Boussard, Jacques. Nouvelle histoire de Paris: De la fin du siège de 885–886 à la mort de Philippe Auguste. Paris: Hachette, 1976.
One of few histories of Paris published since the third quarter of the 20th century that is devoted to the 9th through 12th centuries. For the later Carolingian period, church institutions furnish most sources: they assumed much of the governance as imperial structures receded. Studies the urban renaissance in the city’s three sectors (Cité, Left and Right Banks), followed by religious and intellectual life and the growth of outlying villages.
Cazelles, Raymond. Nouvelle histoire de Paris: De la fin du règne de Philippe Auguste à la mort de Charles V, 1223–1380. 2d ed. Paris: Diffusion Hachette, 1994.
Cazelles assessed the city’s population through demographic growth then contraction in the 13th–14th centuries. Discusses who held power in Paris (king, municipality, church, and university), then the “spirit of the age,” treating the arts, the city as intellectual and governing capital, and the prestige of Parisian products. Selective bibliography, maps, and images.
Duby, Georges, Guy Lobrichon, Geneviève Brunel, et al., eds. The History of Paris in Painting. New York: Abbeville, 2009.
Oversized volume featuring a chapter on “The Fortified City: Paris in the 14th and 15th Centuries.” Images by the Limbourg brothers and Jean Fouquet are reproduced on a generous scale, revealing fine details often lost in digital reproductions, such as textile patterns and altar reliefs. Splendid if limited introduction to the city.
Favier, Jean. Nouvelle histoire de Paris. Vol. 3, Paris au XVe siècle, 1380–1500. Paris: Hachette, 1974.
During the period 1380–1500, Paris was overwhelmed by civil war, economic ruin, and depopulation, and rulers and merchants struggled to supply material needs. Appendixes list city officers, trade guilds of 1467, and key dates. Essential bibliography. Indexes of proper names and sites and monuments, but no subject or theme index.
Favier, Jean. Paris: Deux mille ans d’histoire. Paris: Fayard, 1997.
A monumental thematic history. The medieval period features chapters on “What Is a Parisian?,” city expansion, and spatial organization (taxation, justice, and parishes), as well as on Paris as the capital in terms of centralization, celebrations, clerical life, literature, art, business, and daily life. Includes a 30-page outline of medieval Parisian history. Excellent index and bibliography.
Horne, Alistair. Seven Ages of Paris. New York: Knopf, 2002.
Aimed at a broad readership, this book begins with two chapters on the medieval period, presenting Philip Augustus and the Louvre, and then on the ravages of the Hundred Years’ War. Slant is popularizing and dramatic; for example, lingering over the “Templars’ curse” to present the reign of Philip IV, rather in the spirit of Maurice Druon’s Rois maudits series.
Lorentz, Philippe, and Dany Sandron. Atlas de Paris au Moyen Âge: Espace urbain, habitat, société, religion, lieux de pouvoir. Paris: Parigramme, 2006.
A richly illustrated introduction to medieval Paris, taking a cartographic approach. Treats the Seine’s importance for city growth and addresses urban expansion, spiritual life, and administrative structures. Photos show fragmentary medieval vestiges such as the early Louvre, Conciergerie, and refectory of the Cordeliers. Respectable bibliography and index.
Roux, Simone. Paris in the Middle Ages. Translated by Jo Ann McNamara. Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.
“Paints” an image of street-level Paris, 13th–15th centuries. Describes the city and its inhabitants then, in Part 2 (“A Kaleidoscope of Hierarchies”), examines political, religious, and artisanal social ladders, networks, and binding affiliations; also brief views of public and private spaces, lodging, food, and dress. Sensitivity to the limits of the sources. Index is quite brief.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Aelred of Rievaulx
- Alcuin of York
- Alexander the Great
- Alfonso X
- Alfred the Great
- Alighieri, Dante
- Alliterative Verse in Middle English
- Ancrene Wisse
- Angevin Dynasty
- Anglo-Norman Realm
- Anglo-Saxon Art
- Anglo-Saxon Law
- Anglo-Saxon Manuscript Illumination
- Anglo-Saxon Metalwork
- Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture
- Apocalypticism, Millennialism, and Messianism
- Archaeology of Southampton
- Armenian Art
- Art and Pilgrimage
- Art in Italy
- Art in the Visigothic Period
- Art of East Anglia
- Art of London and South-East England, Post-Conquest to Mon...
- Arthurian Romance
- Attila And The Huns
- Auchinleck Manuscript, The
- Audelay, John
- Augustodunensis, Honorius
- Bartholomaeus Anglicus
- Benedictines After 1100
- Benoît de Sainte Maure [113]
- Beowulf
- Bernard of Clairvaux
- Bernardus Silvestris
- Biblical Apocrypha
- Birgitta of Sweden and the Birgittine Order
- Boccaccio, Giovanni
- Boethius
- Bokenham, Osbern
- Book of Durrow
- Book of Kells
- Bozon, Nicholas
- Byzantine Art
- Byzantine Empire, Eunuchs in the
- Byzantine Empire, Rural Landscapes, Rural Communities, and...
- Byzantine Empire, Women in the
- Byzantine Manuscript Illumination
- Byzantine Monasticism
- Byzantine Science
- Calendars and Time (Christian)
- Cambridge Songs
- Canon Law
- Capgrave, John
- Carolingian Architecture
- Carolingian Era
- Carolingian Manuscript Illumination
- Carolingian Metalwork
- Carthusians and Eremitic Orders
- Cecco d’Ascoli (Francesco Stabili)
- Charlemagne
- Charles d’Orléans
- Charters of the British Isles
- Chaucer, Geoffrey
- Childhood
- Christian Mysticism
- Christianity and the Church in Post-Conquest England
- Christianity and the Church in Pre-Conquest England
- Christina of Markyate
- Chronicles (East Norse, Rhymed Chronicles)
- Chronicles of England and the British Isles
- Church of the Holy Sepulchre, The
- Cistercian Architecture
- Cistercians, The
- Clanvowe, John
- Classics in the Middle Ages
- Cloud of Unknowing and Related Texts, The
- Coins
- Constantinople and Byzantine Cities
- Contemporary Sagas (Bishops’ sagas and Sturlunga saga)
- Coptic Art
- Corpus Christi
- Councils and Synods of the Medieval Church
- Crusades, The
- Crusading Warfare
- Cynewulf
- da Barberino, Francesco
- da Lentini, Giacomo
- da Tempo, Antonio and da Sommacampagna, Gidino
- da Todi, Iacopone
- Dance
- Dance of Death
- d’Arezzo, Ristoro
- de la Sale, Antoine
- de’ Rossi, Nicolò
- de Santa Maria, Cantigas
- Death and Dying in England
- Decorative Arts
- delle Vigne, Pier
- Drama in Britain
- Dress
- Dutch Theater and Drama
- Early Italian Humanists
- Economic History
- Eddic Poetry
- El Cid
- England, Pre-Conquest
- England, Towns and Cities Medieval
- English Prosody
- Exeter Book, The
- Falconry
- Family Letters in 15th Century England
- Family Life in the Middle Ages
- Feast of Fools
- Female Monasticism to 1100
- Feudalism
- Findern Manuscript (CUL Ff.i.6), The
- Florence
- Folk Custom and Entertainment
- Food, Drink, and Diet
- Fornaldarsögur
- France
- French Drama
- French Monarchy, The
- French of England, The
- Friars
- Froissart, Jean
- Games and Recreations
- Gawain Poet, The
- German Drama
- Gerson, Jean
- Glass, Stained
- Gothic Art
- Gower, John
- Gregory VII
- Guilds
- Hagiography in the Byzantine Empire
- Handbooks for Confessors
- Hardyng, John
- Harley 2253 Manuscript, The
- Hiberno-Latin Literature
- High Crosses
- Hilton, Walter
- Historical Literature (Íslendingabók, Landnámabók)
- Hoccleve, Thomas
- Hood, Robin
- Hospitals in the Middle Ages
- Hundred Years War
- Hungary
- Hungary, Latin Literacy in Medieval
- Hungary, Libraries in Medieval
- Hymns
- Icons
- Illuminated Manuscripts
- Illustrated Beatus Manuscripts
- Insular Art
- Insular Manuscript Illumination
- Islamic Architecture (622–1500)
- Italian Cantari
- Italian Chronicles
- Italian Drama
- Italian Mural Decoration
- Italian Novella, The
- Italian Religious Writers of the Trecento
- Italian Rhetoricians
- Jewish Manuscript Illumination
- Jews and Judaism in Medieval Europe
- Julian of Norwich
- Junius Manuscript, The
- King Arthur
- Kings and Monarchy, 1066-1485, English
- Kings’ Sagas
- Knapwell, Richard
- Kraków
- Lancelot-Grail Cycle
- Late Medieval Preaching
- Latin and Vernacular Song in Medieval Italy
- Latin Arts of Poetry and Prose, Medieval
- Latino, Brunetto
- Learned and Scientific Literature
- Ælfric
- Libraries in England and Wales
- Lindisfarne Gospels
- Liturgical Drama
- Liturgical Processions
- Liturgy
- Lollards and John Wyclif, The
- Lombards in Italy
- London, Medieval
- Love, Nicholas
- Low Countries
- Lydgate, John
- Machaut, Guillaume de
- Magic in the Medieval Theater
- Maidstone, Richard
- Malmesbury, Aldhelm of
- Malory, Sir Thomas
- Manuscript Illumination, Ottonian
- Marie de France
- Markets and Fairs
- Masculinity and Male Sexuality in the Middle Ages
- Medicine
- Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Fifth to Eleventh Centuri...
- Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Twelfth to Fifteenth Cent...
- Medieval Bologna
- Medieval Chant for the Mass Ordinary
- Medieval English Universities
- Medieval Ivories
- Medieval Latin Commentaries on Classical Myth
- Medieval Music Theory
- Medieval Naples
- Medieval Optics
- Melusine
- Mendicant Orders and Late Medieval Art Patronage in Italy
- Middle English Language
- Middle English Lyric
- Mirk, John
- Mosaics in Italy
- Mozarabic Art
- Music and Liturgy for the Cult of Saints
- Music in Medieval Towns and Cities
- Music of the Troubadours and Trouvères
- Musical Instruments
- Necromancy, Theurgy, and Intermediary Beings
- Nibelungenlied, The
- Nicholas of Cusa
- Nordic Laws
- Norman (and Anglo-Norman) Manuscript Ilumination
- N-Town Plays
- Nuns and Abbesses
- Old English Hexateuch, The Illustrated
- Old English Language
- Old English Literature and Critical Theory
- Old English Religious Poetry
- Old Norse-Icelandic Sagas
- Ottonian Art
- Ovid in the Middle Ages
- Ovide moralisé, The
- Owl and the Nightingale, The
- Papacy, The Medieval
- Paris
- Peasants
- Persianate Dynastic Period/Later Caliphate (c. 800–1000)
- Peter Abelard
- Petrarch
- Philosophy in the Eastern Roman Empire
- Pictish Art
- Pizan, Christine de
- Plowman, Piers
- Poland
- Poland, Ethnic and Religious Groups in Medieval
- Pope Innocent III
- Post-Conquest England
- Pre-Carolingian Western European Kingdoms
- Prick of Conscience, The
- Pucci, Antonio
- Pythagoreanism in the Middle Ages
- Queens
- Rate Manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 61)
- Regions of Medieval France
- Regular Canons
- Religious Instruction (Homilies, Sermons, etc.)
- Religious Lyrics
- Rímur
- Robert Mannyng of Brunne
- Rolle, Richard
- Roman Law
- Romances (East and West Norse)
- Romanesque Art
- Rus in Medieval Europe
- Ruthwell Cross
- Sagas and Tales of Icelanders
- Saint Plays and Miracles
- Saint-Denis
- Saints’ Lives
- Scandinavian Migration-Period Gold Bracteates
- Schools in Medieval Britain
- Scogan, Henry
- Seals
- Sermons
- Sex and Sexuality
- Ships and Seafaring
- Shirley, John
- Skaldic Poetry
- Slavery in Medieval Europe
- Snorra Edda
- Song of Roland, The
- Songs, Medieval
- Spain
- St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury
- St. Peter's in the Vatican (Rome)
- Syria and Palestine in the Byzantine Empire
- Textiles
- The Middle Ages, The Trojan War in
- The Notre Dame School and the Music of the Magnus liber or...
- The Use of Sarum and Other Liturgical Uses in Later Mediev...
- Theater and Performance, Iberian
- Thirteenth-Century Motets in France
- Thomas Aquinas
- Thomism
- Thornton, Robert
- Tomb Sculpture
- Travel and Travelers
- Trevisa, John
- Tropes
- Troubadours and Trouvères
- Troyes, Chrétien de
- Umayyad History
- Usk, Adam
- Usk, Thomas
- Venerable Bede, The
- Vercelli Book, The
- Vernon Manuscript, The
- Vikings
- Von Eschenbach, Wolfram
- Wace
- Wall Painting in Europe
- Wearmouth-Jarrow
- Welsh Literature
- William of Ockham
- Witchcraft
- Women's Life Cycles
- Wulfstan
- York Corpus Christi Plays
- York, Medieval