Cultures of learning and practices of education in the Middle Ages are drawing renewed attention, and recent approaches are questioning the traditional boundaries of institutional and intellectual history. The volume assembles contributions on both Byzantine and Latin learned culture, and aims to locate medieval scholars in their religious and political contexts instead of studying them in a framework of 'schools'. Eleven contributions on eastern and western scholars offer complementary perspectives on scholars and their work, discussing the symbolic and discursive construction of religious and intellectual authority, practices of networking and adaptations of knowledge formations.

Sita Steckel is Junior Professor of Medieval History at the University of Münster and author of a study on `cultures of teaching' in the early and high middle ages. Niels Gaul is Associate Professor of Byzantine Studies at CEU Budapest, with an interest in Byzantine scholarship, especially the societal functions of rhetoric. Michael Grünbart is Associate Professor of Byzantine Studies at the University of Münster. He is currently working on the image of Byzantine aristocracy and preparing an introduction to the function of letters and words in Byzantine daily life.