I am an historian of western Europe and the Mediterranean in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. My research focuses on the social, cultural and intellectual history of the post-Roman Barbarian kingdoms of the early medieval West; Western Liturgy; early medieval Latin Palaeography and Codicology. I have published numerous articles and several books, among them Culture and Religion in Merovingian Gaul, 481-751 (1995); The Sacramentary of Echternach (1997); The Royal Patronage of Liturgy in Frankish Gaul to the Death of Charles the Bald (2001); Roman Barbarians: The Royal Court and Culture in the Early Medieval West (2007).
I am currently teaching in the Department of History (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), and I am the Director of the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies.
Fields of Interest and Research
- Social, cultural and religious history of the late-antique and the early medieval World
- The post-Roman Barbarian kingdoms of Western Europe and North Africa
- The early medieval Mediterranean
- Early Christian liturgy
- Latin palaeography and codicology
- The Middle Ages in film and TV adaptations