Sommaire

Faire communauté par l’eau ou malgré l’eau. Communautés

maritimes et insulaires du premier Moyen Âge
Alban Gautier avec la collaboration de Christer Westerdahl 5

En milieu littoral, sur l’eau et outre-mer. Regards sur les

communautés et solidarités maritimes dans le bassin des mers du
Nord du viie au xie siècle
Stéphane Lebecq 23

Femme de marchand ou marchande ? Présence, rôle et statut des

femmes dans les emporia d’Europe du Nord-Ouest (ixe-xe siècles)
Lucie Malbos 37

Une communauté à la fois maritime et territoriale. Venise jusqu’à l’an 1000

Stefano Gasparri 57

La terre et la mer. La construction de la mémoire de Venise dans

l’Istoria Veneticorum de Jean Diacre
Chiara Provesi 67

Communautés lagunaires dans l’Adriatique pendant le haut Moyen

Âge. Venise et Comacchio comparées
Sauro Gelichi 79

An Emerging Periphery. Maritime Activities and Communities in

Northern Iberia (850-1100)
André Evangelista Marques 97

Communities on the Edge. Retracing the Northern Emporia

Søren M. Sindbæk 127

De l’île au continent. La transition entre deux formes de

monachisme dans la communauté de Saint-Philibert au ixe siècle
Isabelle Cartron 143

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222 sommaire

La communauté monastique de l’Île-Barbe, exemple d’une

fondation insulaire fluviale
Charlotte Gaillard 157

Piscium quem vos haked nuncupatis. Communautés monastiques et

imaginaire maritime dans l’Angleterre anglo-saxonne
Arnaud Lestremau 175

Conclusions. Connaissance, pratiques et identités des communautés

maritimes et insulaires du premier Moyen Âge
Pierre Bauduin 195

English abstracts 205

Liste des auteurs 209

Index des noms de personnes 211

Index des noms de lieux et de peuples 215

 André Evangelista Marques

An Emerging Periphery
Maritime Activities and Communities in Northern Iberia
(850-1100)*

Rethinking the “periphery” paradigm

The northern seaboard of Iberia is generally regarded as a peripheral area before

the late Middle Ages, whether one looks at it from beyond the Pyrenees or from
Iberia itself. It is generally accepted that there was a marked contrast between the
remote Atlantic and Cantabrian Sea coasts, epitomised by the name of Cape Finisterre
in Galicia, and the Mediterranean shores of the Peninsula, where urbanization,
commerce and a general pattern of connectivity with the wider world never fully
ceased from before Roman times to the age of the Crusades.1 Between the eighth and
mid-thirteenth century, while the southern half of Iberia was under Muslim control,
this contrast was reinforced by the political divide between North and South.2
For most of the twentieth century, Iberian historiography was mainly concerned
with the processes of conquest and colonization (the so-called Reconquista and
Repoblamiento) that opposed the Christian kingdoms to the successive polities of
al-Andalus. Historians often saw these processes as being driven, in the long run, by
the expansionist impetus of Christian kings, lords, and “pioneers”, according to a

* I wish to thank José Carlos Quaresma, José Carlos Sánchez Pardo, José Miguel Andrade Cernadas,
Mário Barroca, Rui Morais and Wendy Davies, who generously offered bibliographic guidance and
shared their expertise on some of the topics touched upon in this article. The editors of the volume
bore with patience my delays and provided invaluable assistance in making the text more palatable,
for which I owe them a great debt. All errors remain my own. I am also grateful to Álvaro Carvajal
Castro and Maria Inês Marques for kindly providing me with bibliography that I would not have seen
otherwise. The abbreviations used in this paper for quoting charters and narrative sources are listed in
the appendix.
1 J. M. Lacarra, “Panorama de la historia urbana en la Península Ibérica desde el siglo v al x”, in La città
nell’alto medioevo, Spoleto (Settimane di studio del CISAM, 6), 1959, p. 319-358; S. I. Mariezkurrena,
“Puertos y comercio marítimo en la España visigoda”, in POLIS, 11, 1999, p. 135-160 (p. 152-153).
2 It should be noted that al-Andalus encompassed not only the Mediterranean coasts to the east of the
Strait of Gibraltar, but also the Atlantic coasts of modern Andalusia and southern Portugal up to an
unstable parallel drawn between the estuaries of the rivers Tagus and Douro.

André Evangelista Marques • Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Instituto de Estudos Medievais.

Communautés maritimes et insulaires du premier Moyen Âge, éd. par Alban Gautier et Lucie Malbos,
Turnhout : Brepols, 2020 (HAMA 38), p. 97–125
© FHG10.1484/M.HAMA-EB.5.118552
98 a n dr é e va n g e l i s ta m arq u e s

somewhat teleological perspective.3 A more complex view emerged from the 1970s
onwards, but such a strong focus on inland conquest and colonization continued,
which helps to explain why little attention has been paid to the coastlands of modern
Portugal, Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria (all part of the Asturian-Leonese kingdom),
as to those of the Basque Country (closer to the sphere of influence of the kingdom
of Pamplona).4
Some form of colonization is thought to have taken place along the northern
shores, ensuing the emergence of the Asturian kingdom and its expansion to
Cantabria and northern Galicia from the late eighth century, and then on to
southern Galicia and northern Portugal from the mid-ninth century.5 Very little
can be said, though, before the mid-twelfth century, when the emergence of several
small seaside towns testifies to the growing attention paid by kings and lords to
the littoral, as a result of the growing integration of Atlantic Iberia in international
routes of travel and trade.6 Unsurprisingly, the mainstream historiographical view
still implies that the sea repelled rather than attracted settlement during the early
Middle Ages.
There is no easy way around this notion, as the evidence dated before the twelfth
century is still too meagre to support an alternative view. More than 22,000 charters
dated to 1100 are extant in northern Iberian archives – a remarkable figure when
compared to most European areas –, but as we shall see, they pose several problems

3 For a conventional account of conquest and colonization, see M. Á. Ladero Quesada, La formación
medieval en España. Territorios, regiones, reinos, Madrid, 2004.
4 For two influential Spanish surveys, see J. Á. García de Cortázar, La época medieval, Madrid (Historia
de España, dir. M. Artola, 2), 1999 [1973]; J. M. Mínguez Fernández, La España de los siglos vi al
xiii. Guerra, expansión y transformaciones: en busca de una frágil unidad, San Sebastián, 2008 [1994];
on Portugal, see J. Mattoso, “Portugal no reino asturiano-leonês”, in Id. (ed.), História de Portugal, 1:
Antes de Portugal, Lisbon, 1992, p. 438-565; J. Mattoso, “1096-1325”, in Id. (ed.), História de Portugal, 2:
A Monarquia Feudal (1096-1480), Lisbon, 1993, p. 9-309.
5 J. Á. García de Cortázar (ed.), Organización social del espacio en la España medieval: la Corona de
Castilla en los siglos viii a xv, Barcelona, 1985; Id., “Movimientos de población y organización del
poblamiento en el cuadrante noroeste de la Península Ibérica (ca. años 700-1050)”, in Movimientos
migratorios, asentamientos y expansión, siglos viii-xi, Pamplona, 2008, p. 105-154.
6 C. González Mínguez, “La urbanización del litoral del norte de España (siglos XII-XIV)”, in J. I. de la
Iglesia Duarte (ed.), III Semana de Estudios Medievales, Logroño, 1993, p. 43-62; J. A. Solórzano
Telechea, “Medieval Seaports of the Atlantic Coast of Spain”, in International Journal of Maritime
History, 21/1, 2009, p. 81-100. For regional surveys, see B. Arízaga Bolumburu and J. Á. Solórzano
Telechea (eds), El fenómeno urbano medieval entre el Cantábrico y el Duero: revisión historiográfica
y propuestas de estudio, Santander, 2002; A. A. Andrade, “A estratégia régia em relação aos portos
marítimos no Portugal medieval: o caso da fachada atlântica”, in B. Arízaga Bolumburu and
J. Á. Solórzano Telechea (eds), Ciudades y villas portuarias del Atlántico en la Edad Media, Logroño,
2005, p. 57-90; Á. Solano Fernández-Sordo, “Historia urbana en la Galicia medieval. Balance
y perspectivas”, in Cuadernos de estudios gallegos, 123, 2010, p. 59-90; J. Añíbarro Rodríguez, La
implantación urbana medieval en la costa de Cantabria: ¿Creación original o herencia del pasado?,
Santander, 2010. On integration in Atlantic routes, see Á. Rozas Español, “La ruta atlántica (siglos
XIII-XIV): análisis de la formación de una ruta comercial”, in Espacio, tiempo y forma. Serie III,
Historia medieval, 30, 2017, p. 485-504.

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