HUMOUR, HISTORY AND

POLITICS IN LATE
ANTIQUITY AND THE EARLY
MIDDLE AGES
EDITED BY
GUY HALSALL
iuniisuio n\ rui iiiss s\xoicari oi rui uxiviisir\ oi caxniioci
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
caxniioci uxiviisir\ iiiss
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK
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First published in printed format
ISBN 0-521-81116-3 hardback
ISBN 0-511-02980-2 eBook
Cambridge University Press 2004
2002
(Adobe Reader)

Contents
Notes on contributors page ix
Preface xii
List of abbreviations xiv
Introduction: Dont worry, Ive got the key :
Guy Halsall
PART I : THE FATE OF HUMOROUS WRI TI NG
: Laughter and humour in the early medieval Latin west .
Danuta Shanzer
. Humour and the everyday in Byzantium 8
John Haldon
PART I I : HUMOUR AND THE POLI TI CS OF DI FFERENCE
The lexiconof abuse: drunkenness andpolitical illegitimacy
in the late Roman world
Mark Humphries
Funny foreigners: laughing with the barbarians in
late antiquity 8q
Guy Halsall
Liutprand of Cremonas sense of humour ::
Ross Balzaretti
vii
viii Contents
PART I I I : HUMOUR, HI STORY AND POLI TI CS I N THE
CAROLI NGI AN WORLD
6 He never even allowed his white teeth to be
bared in laughter: the politics of humour in the
Carolingian renaissance ::
Matthew Innes
Alcuins Disputatio Pippini and the early medieval
riddle tradition :
Martha Bayless
8 Laughter after Babels fall: misunderstanding and
miscommunication in the ninth-century west :q
Paul Kershaw
Index .o