ZIMMERMANN M. NAISSANCE DE LA CATALOGNE (VIII–XII SIÈCLE). Limoges: Publications de l’Université de Limoges, 2019. 553 p.

The reviewed monograph is a fundamental study of the formation of medieval Catalonia’s political and cultural identity. The author is one of the best contemporary specialists on medieval Catalan written culture in the most broad sense of the word. He based his study mainly on the documents from Catalan archives, unrivalled in Europe in wealth, as far as the chosen period is concerned. Analyzing the documents’ language and formulary, the manner of their dating, the information about the geography of the region and the ethnic self-designation of its people, he traces the process of formation of their regional identity which in the XIIth century found expression in the creation of such words as «Catalans» and «Catalonia». Likewise he traces the land’s gradual political detachment from the French kingdom. The reviewer estimates the book’s quality as very high, regretting only the absence of the list of scholarly publications and the excessively laconic description of the archival series which the author worked with.

medieval Catalonia, regional and ethnic identity, history of archives, documentary sources, historical onomastics