LAUSR

Cologne has undoubtedly waited too long for its early history to be told in English. In this work, Professor Huffman sets out to provide a historical survey of Cologne during the Roman and early medieval periods. He has clearly read widely, in both English and German, around the history of Cologne, Francia and Germany during the early medieval period. This book, which is very detailed and contains a lot of narrative, raises several interesting questions about aspects of Cologne’s history during this period. Huffman bookends this work between Marcus Agrippa’s relocation of the Ubii people onto the site of Cologne in 19 BC and the death of Emperor Henry V in AD 1125. These dates establish the parameters of a wide, imperial framework focused on political and dynastic events and processes, and the role played by Cologne’s bishops and archbishops therein. Consequently, this work feels unbalanced. The history of Cologne’s walled suburb (the first in Germany) and the development of markets, fairs and harbours in the tenth century are, for instance, cursorily integrated into a section on the archiepiscopate of Bruno I (pp. 112–13). There is an extended survey of the ‘dreary business’ (p. 232) which was the Investiture Controversy, yet the only guild or fraternity discussed in any detail is the Richerzeche or ‘Fraternity of the Rich’. It is, too, unfortunate that a book which sets out to provide a comprehensive history of Cologne in English then directs the reader to two German-language publications to learn more about these important organizations. Themost engaging sections of this book are foundwhenHuffmandoes turn his attention to thepeople ofCologne. Forexample,whendiscussing the continuityof urban life in sub-RomanCologne, the tribulations of the Jewish community during the First Crusade, the growth of industry and commerce in tenth-century Cologne and the twelfth-century emergence of institutions of municipal governance. There is, however, too little of this type of discussion and it can at times feel rather unsophisticated. For example, we are told that ‘in spite of these political upheavals’ as the Carolingian Empire fell apart and Vikings and Magyars attacked the Rhineland, ‘the socio-economic history of Cologne remained strong and steady during the whole of the Carolingian era’ (p. 90). This book is published in the ‘Early Medieval North Atlantic’ series which has the laudable aim of publishing works which regard ‘the North Atlantic as a centre, rather