The Merovingian era is one of the best studied yet least-known periods of European history. From the fifth to the eighth centuries, the inhabitants of Gaul (what now comprises France, southern Belgium, Luxembourg, Rhineland Germany, and part of modern Switzerland), a mix of Gallo-Roman inhabitants and Germanic arrivals under the political control of the Merovingian dynasty, sought to preserve, use, and reimagine the political, cultural, and religious power of ancient Rome while simultaneously forging the beginnings of what would become medieval European culture.

The forty-six essays included in this volume highlight why the Merovingian era is at the heart of historical debates about what happened to Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. The essays demonstrate that the inhabitants of the Merovingian kingdoms in these centuries created a culture that was the product of these traditions and achieved a balance between the world they inherited and the imaginative solutions they bequeathed to Europe. The Handbook highlights new perspectives and scientific approaches that shape our changing view of this extraordinary era by showing that Merovingian Gaul was situated at the crossroads of Europe, connecting the Mediterranean and the British Isles with the Byzantine empire, and it benefited from the global reach of the late Roman Empire. It tells the story of the Merovingian world through archaeology, bio-archaeology, architecture, hagiographic literature, history, liturgy, visionary literature and eschatology, patristics, numismatics, and material culture.

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Bonnie Effros is Professor and Head of the Department of History at the University of British Columbia. Isabel Moreira is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Utah.

"The academic world of Merovingian studies finds here an extremely helpful, comprehensive, thoughtful, up-to-date representation of the epoch. The two editors may be congratulated for having brought all theseauthors and their papers together." --Early Medieval Europe

"The Oxford Handbook of the Merovingian World...offers rich discussions about their history from various methodological perspectives. In doing so, it joins other recent volumes on the Merovingians that aim to give a broader outlook on the period, yet none of them is as extensive as the volume under review.... A volume that succeeds in giving diverse perspectives on the Merovingians and which provides its readers with a range of methodological approaches to study late antique and early medieval history, as well as a rich bibliography of primary and secondary sources that should help anyone who wishes to delve deeper into the history of this period.... Extremely useful for students and scholars alike." --Speculum

"The Handbook includes forty-six essays written by the most prominent scholars of the Merovingian period, including well-established experts and early-career ones. This combination of authors creates a volume that succeeds in giving diverse perspectives on the Merovingians and which provides its readers with a range of methodological approaches to study late antique and early medieval history, as well as a rich bibliography of primary and secondary sources that should help anyone who wishes to delve deeper into the history of this period." --Tamar Rotman, Independent Scholar, Speculum