The Middle Ages in Catalan Historiography and Imagination

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In the nineteenth century, a literary movement within Catalonia known as the Renaixença revived the Catalan language and national sentiment.  As was the case with other politically subordinated nations, a Romantic revival centered on the medieval period.  Catalonia has not only been independent but dominated the medieval Crown of Aragon and this expansionist era as well as the legacy of Romanesque art and medieval Catalan literature were the basis for both elite and popular manifestations of pride and an identity that questioned Spanish state rhetoric about unity.

Paul Freedman has been a Professor of History at Yale since 1997.  Before that he taught at Vanderbilt University.  He received his doctorate from Berkeley in 1978.

His teaching and research have concentrated on medieval Catalonia, the peasantry and luxury products.  Freedman is the author of The Diocese of Vic (1981); The Origins of Peasant Servitude in Medieval Catalonia (1991); Images of the Medieval Peasant (1999) and Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination (2008).  The Splendor and Opulence of the Past: Studying the Middle Ages in Enlightenment Catalonia appeared in 2023.

Freeman has also written on modern as well as medieval food and cuisine, including Ten Restaurants that Changed America, (2016), American Cuisine and How It Got This Way, (2019) and Why Food Matters (2021).  He is co-author of a children’s book (ages 10 and up) entitled Bite by Bite: American History through Feasts, Food and Side Dishes, published this year. Read more.