Anders Winroth

Professor - Historie
Image of Anders Winroth
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Visiting address Niels Henrik Abels vei 36 Niels Treschows hus 0851 Oslo
Postal address Postboks 1008 Blindern 0315 Oslo

Academic interests

Medieval history in Europe and in the Nordic region, especially legal history, intellectual history, cultural history, church history, and the history of Vikings. Premodern world history.

Courses taught

Background

Educated at Stockholm University (BA 1990) and Columbia University (MA, MPhil, PhD 1996), Anders Winroth taught medieval history 1998-2020 at Yale University, last as the Birgit Baldwin Professor of History. He has published widely in the fields of medieval legal and intellectual history and in Scandinavian history during the Viking Age. 

Winroth's first book The Making of Gratian's Decretum (Cambridge University Press, 2000) was widely recognized as a major and transformational contribution to medieval legal history, notably within the history of canon law. Reviews talk about the book as "revolutionary" and "a "triumph," which "work[s] a major change in the history of medieval law."

The Conversion of Scandinavia: Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern Europe (Yale University Press, 2012) is a critical synthesis of the history of Scandinavia's conversion to Christianity in the Viking Age. The book focuses on how Nordic chieftains used Christianity and its practices as part of the gift exchange nexus of their societies, because it "with its prestigious associations worked better than other religions." Christianity was useful to the emerging hierarchical kingdoms of Scandinavia as a monopolizing religion.

With the "accessible and engaging" The Age of the Vikings (Princeton University Press, 2014), Winroth reaches tens of thousands of readers (and listeners to the two audiobook versions). The book is an "outstanding resource" and "a compelling and successful" synthesis of the history of the Viking Age, drawing directly on a wide range of primary sources in Old Norse and Latin, as well as archeological reports and the long historiography of the topic. The book has been translated into German, French, Chinese, and Korean, and audiobooks exist in English and French.

 

Awards

 

Positions held

  • Birgit Baldwin Professor of History, Yale University, April 2018–June 2020
  • Forst Family Professor of History, Yale University, April 2013–2018
  • Professor of History, Yale University, July 2004–June 2020
  • Associate Professor of History, Yale University, July 2003–June 2004
  • Assistant Professor of History, Yale University, July 1998–June 2003
  • Sir James Knott Research Fellow, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1996―1998
  • Assistant Editor, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, Stockholm, 1987–1991

PhD dissertations directed

  • John C. Wei, “Law and Religion in Gratian’s Decretum” (PhD, Yale University, 2008). Revised and published as Gratian the Theologian.
  • Joshua C. Tate, “Advowson Law and Litigation in the English Royal Courts, 1154–1250” (PhD, Yale University, 2009)
  • Sara McDougall, “Bigamy in Late Medieval France” (PhD, Yale University, 2009). Revised and published as Bigamy and Indentity in Late Medieval Champagne.

  • Eric Knibbs, “The Origins of the Archdiocese of Hamburg–Bremen” (PhD, Yale University, 2009). Revised and published as Ansgar, Rimbert, and the Forged Foundations of Hamburg-Bremen.

  • Michael Wehrman, “De-Emphasizing the Miraculous in Early Medieval Saints’ Lives, 590–800” (PhD, Yale University, 2012).

  • Gregory Roberts, “Policing and Public Power in the Italian Communes” PhD, Yale University, (2013). Revised and published as Police Power in the Italian Communes, 1228-1326.

  • Kristina Hosoe, “Regulae and Reform in Carolingian Monastic Hagiography” (PhD, Yale University, 2014).

  • Elizabeth Walgenbach, “Excommunication and Outlawry in the Legal World of Thirteenth–Century Iceland” (PhD, Yale University, 2016).  Revised and published as Excommunication and Outlawry in the Legal World of Medieval Iceland.

  • John Burden, “Between Crime and Sin: Penitential Justice in Medieval Germany, 900–1200” (PhD, Yale University, 2018).

  • Aaron Vanides, “The Ends of Authority at the Council of Constance, 1414–1418” (PhD, Yale University, 2018).

  • Amelia Kennedy, “Growing Old in a Cistercian Monastery, c. 1100–1300” (PhD, Yale University, 2020).

  • Sebastian Rider Bezerra, “Between the Leopard and the Lily: The Use and Abuse of the Law in English Gascony” (PhD, Yale University, 2020).

  • Mireille Pardon, “Tropes of Violence and the Changing Nature of Urban Urban Justice in Late Medieval Bruges and Ghent” (PhD, Yale University, 2020).

Publications

Anders Winroth and John C. Wei, The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022). 617 pp.

Anders Winroth, The Age of the Vikings (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014). 304 pp.
Paperback edition 2015. Audiobook from Audible, 2014.

Anders Winroth, Die Wikinger: Das Zeitalter des Nordens, translated by Susanne Held (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 2016).

Anders Winroth, Au temps de Vikingsavec un Préface de Alban Gautier, traduit par Philippe Pignarre (Paris: La Decouverte, 2018). Audiobook lu par Yann Sundberg (Paris: Lizzie, 2020).

Chinese and Korean translations forthcoming.

Anders Winroth, The Conversion of Scandinavia: Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern Europe (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012). 238 pp.

Uta–Renate Blumenthal, Anders Winroth, and Peter Landau, eds., Canon Law, Religion, and Politics: Liber amicorum Robert Somerville (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2012). 320 pp.

Adam J. Kosto and Anders Winroth, eds., Charters, Cartularies and Archives: The Preservation and Transmission of Documents in the Medieval West (Toronto: Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies, 2002). 185 pp.

Anders Winroth, The Making of Gratian's Decretum. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4th series, 49 (Cambridge University Press, 2000), 245 pp.

 

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Anders Winroth, "Canon Law in a Time of Renewal, 1130-1234," in The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law, edited by Anders Winroth and John C. Wei (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), 96-107.

Anders Winroth, "Law Schools and Legal Education," in The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law, edited by Anders Winroth and John C. Wei (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), 262-284.

Anders Winroth, “Viking Violence,” in The Cambridge World History of Violence 2, edited by Richard W. Kaeuper, D.G. Tor, and Harriet Zurndorfer. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 100–120.
Anders Winroth, “New Editions of Gratian’s Decretum,” in Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, Paris 2016, edited by Franck Roumy et al., Monumenta iuris canonici C:16 (Vatican City, 2020).
Anders Winroth, ”L’universale Graziano da Chiusi: Un uomo per il suo e per tutti i tempi,” in Gratianus magister Decretorum: Il Decretum tra storia, attualità e prospettive di universalità, ed. Manlio Sodi and Francesco Reali, Studia Gratiana: Collectanea historiae iuris canonici 30 (Vatican City: Bibliotheca apostolica Vaticana, 2020), 181–188.
Anders Winroth, “Goffredus och Västgötalagen,” Kyrkohistorisk årsskrift 2019, 183–188.
Anders Winroth, “The Canon Law of Emergency Baptism and of Marriage in Iceland and Europe,” Gripla 29 (2018), 203–229.
Anders Winroth, “Gratian,” chapter in Christianity and Family Law: An Introduction, edited by John Witte, Jr., and Gary S. Hauk (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 134–145.
Anders Winroth, “Canon Law in the Arctic,” in Texts and Contexts in Medieval Legal History: Essays in Honor of Charles Donahue, edited by Sara McDougall, Anna di Robilant, and John Witte, Jr., (Berkeley, Calif.: Robbins Collection, 2016), 301–309.
Anders Winroth, “Innocentius IV och hans Noveller i Lund,” in Kyrklig rätt och kyrklig orätt: Kyrkorättsliga perspektiv; Festskrift till professor Bertil Nilsson, ed. by Anna Minara Ciardi and Martin Berntsson, Bibliotheca theologiae practicae (Lund: Artos, 2016), 371–383.
Anders Winroth, “Where Gratian Slept: The Life and Death of the Father of Canon Law,” Zeitschrift der Savigny–Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung 99 (2013),105–128.
Anders Winroth, “The Legal Revolution of the Twelfth Century,” in Thomas F.X. Noble and John Van Engen, eds., European Transformations: The Long Twelfth Century (Notre Dame, 2012), 338–353.
Anders Winroth, “Decretum Gratiani and Eystein’s Canones Nidrosienses,” in Tore Iversen, ed., Archbishop Eystein as Legislator: The European Connection (Trondheim, 2011), 73–85.
Anders Winroth, “Law Schools in the Twelfth Century,” in Bernard d’Altreroche, Florence Demoulin–Auzary, Olivier Descamps, Franck Roumy, eds., Mélanges en l’honneur d’Anne Lefebvre–Teillard (Paris, 2009), 1057–1064.
Anders Winroth, “Innocent II, Gratian, and Abbé Migne,” Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 28 (2008), 145–151.
Anders Winroth, “教皇の二つの仕事―普遍的教会の最高裁判官、そして司牧者” [‘The pope’s two jobs: Supreme judge and pastor of the universal church’], 新世代法政策学研究 [New Generation Law and Policy Studies (Sapporo, Japan)] 12 (2011), 177–196.
Anders Winroth, “19世紀および21世紀におけるグラーティアーヌス教令集の校訂––リヒターとフリートベルクから今日まで” [‘Editing Gratian’s Decretum in the nineteenth and in the twenty–first centuries: From Richter and Friedberg to Now’], 19世紀学 研究 [Nineteenth–Century Studies (Niigata, Japan)] 5 (2011), 113–122.
Anders Winroth, "Daniel Svinhuvud och kyrkorätten,” Svensk genealogisk tidskrift 5 (2011), 2–10.
Anders Winroth, "The legal underpinnings, 1050–1300," in The Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. 4: c. 1100–c. 1500, ed. by Miri Rubin and Walter Simons (Cambridge, 2009), 89–98.
Anders Winroth, "Recent work on the making of Gratian's Decretum," Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 26 (2008), 1–29.
Torsten Berglund, Elisabet Hemström, Leif Olofsson, and Anders Winroth, “Om släkten Svinhuvuds ursprung samt om en misstänkt förfalskning i ett medeltidsbrev från 1386,” in Sveriges släktforskarförbund, Årsbok 2008 (Stockholm, 2008), 9–28.
Anders Winroth, “Marital consent in Gratian’s Decretum,” in Kathleen G. Cushing and Martin Brett, eds., Readers, Texts and Compilers in the Earlier Middle Ages: Studies in Medieval Canon Law in Honour of Linda Fowler–Magerl (Aldershot, U.K., 2008) , 111–121.
Anders Winroth, “Roman law in Gratian and the Panormia,” in Kathleen G. Cushing and Bruce C. Brasington, eds., Bishops, Texts, and the Use of Canon Law around 1100: Essays in Honour of Martin Brett  (Aldershot, U.K., 2008), 183–190.
Anders Winroth, “Tools for the study of medieval Latin,” appendix in Introduction to Manuscript Studies, by Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007), 259–261.
Anders Winroth, "An unnoticed Gratian manuscript in Stockholm," in Vincenzo Colli and Emanuele Conte, eds., Iuris historia: Liber amicorum Gero Dolezalek (Berkeley, 2007), 141–144.
Anders Winroth, "Neither free nor slave: Theology and law in Gratian’s thoughts on the definition of marriage and unfree persons," in Mary E. Sommar and Wolfgang P. Müller, eds., Medieval Foundations of the Western Legal Tradition: A Tribute to Kenneth Pennington (Washington, D.C., 2006), 97–109.
Anders Winroth, "The Jelling Monument," section in Barbara Rosenwein, Reading the Middle Ages (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview press, 2006), 266–267.
Anders Winroth, "The teaching of law in the twelfth century," in Helle Vogt and Mia Münster–Swendsen, eds., Law and Learning in the Middle Ages (Copenhagen, 2006), 41–62.
Anders Winroth, "Préface," in Sophie Péralba, Autour du Stilus de Guillaume Dubreuil (vers 1331): Étude des caractères du droit processuel au Parlement (Clermont–Ferrand: Les Presses universitaires de la Faculté de Droit, 2005), ix–x.
Anders Winroth, "Le manuscrit florentin du Décret de Gratien: Une critique des travaux de Carlos Larrainzar sur Gratien, I," Revue de droit canonique 51:2 (2001, published in 2003), 211–231.
Anders Winroth, "Papal letters to Scandinavia and their preservation." In Adam J. Kosto and Anders Winroth, eds., Charters, Cartularies and Archives: The Preservation and Transmission of Documents in the medieval West (Toronto, 2002), 175–185.
Anders Winroth, "Behovet av Scandinavia pontificia." In Claes Gejrot and Roger Andersson, eds., Ny väg till medeltidsbreven (Stockholm, 2002), 87–98.
Anders Winroth, ”Svinhufvud–ätternas gemensamma ursprung,” in Jonas Kuschner, ed., Släkt– och personhistoriska studier tillägnade Pontus Möller 29 augusti 2001, Släkt och hävd 2001 (Stockholm, 2001), 150–155.
Anders Winroth, "Les deux Gratien et le droit romain," Revue de droit canonique 48:2 (1998), 285–298.
Anders Winroth, "The Two Recensions of Gratian's Decretum,"
Anders Winroth, "Uncovering Gratian’s Original Decretum with the Help of Electronic Resources," Columbia Library Columns 46.1 (1997), 26–31.
Robert Somerville and Anders Winroth, "’Collecting tidbits’: Aulus Persius Flaccus and Bishop Burchard of Worms." In Peter Landau, ed., De iure canonico medii aevi: Festschrift für Rudolf Weigand, Studia Gratiana 27 (Rome, 1996), 507–516.
Anders Winroth, "’Thomas interpretatur abyssus vel geminus’: The Etymologies in the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Varagine." In Monika Asztalos and Claes Gejrot, eds., Symbolae septentrionales: Latin Studies Presented to Jan Öberg (Stockholm, 1995), 113–135.
Anders Winroth, "As good as its owner? Giovanni Aurispa and His Manuscript of Victorinus’ Commentary," Columbia Library Columns 44.1 (1995), 4–9.
Anders Winroth, "Klostret i Husby – Guds berg i Dalarna" [The Monastery of Husby–God’s Mountain in Dalarna]. In Husbyringen i Dalarna (Falun, 1995), 96–101.
Anders Winroth, "Den världsliga grundvalen för Gudsberga kloster," Bebyggelsehistorisk tidskrift 13 (1987), 97–112.
Anders Winroth, "Vilket vapen förde bergsfogden Jöns Ingemarsson?" Personhistorisk tidskrift 81 (1985), 1–3.

 

Encyclopedia articles

"Canon law" and "Gratian," articles for The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity, edited by Daniel Patte (Cambridge, 2010).
"Canon law," "Corpus iuris canonici," "Corpus iuris civilis," "Decretals," "Gratian," articles for The New Westminster Dictionary of Church History, edited by Robert Benedetto (Louisville, Kent., 2008).
"Gratian" and "Irnerius," articles for Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia (New York, 2004).
24 biographical articles in Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, vols. 25–32 (Stockholm, 1988–2016).
10 articles in the encyclopedia Norrländsk uppslagsbok (Höganäs, 1993).

 

  • Winroth, Anders (2023). Herr Johan och upprorsmakaren Gustav Vasa: Den påvliga Penitentiarian som källa till svensk historia. Svensk genealogisk tidskrift. ISSN 1654-1731. p. 37–45.
  • Winroth, Anders (2023). Herr Johan och upprorsmakaren Gustav Vasa. Släkthistoriska studier. ISSN 2004-3910. p. 1–7. doi: 10.55797/tgw724.
  • Winroth, Anders (2022). New Editions of Gratian’s Decretum, Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. ISSN 978-88-210-1095-8. p. 101–112.
  • Winroth, Anders (2022). Kanonisk rätt. In Nordin, Jonas (Eds.), Kodex: Boken i medeltidens Sverige. Mediehistoriskt arkiv. ISSN 978­91­985800­6­8. p. 404–415. Full text in Research Archive
  • Winroth, Anders (2022). Sankt Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, 673 in Context: Twelfth-Century Transformations and Abbreviations of Gratian’s Decretum, Creating and Sharing Legal Knowledge in the Twelfth Century Sankt Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, 673 and Its Context. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 978-90-04-42829-4. p. 221–241. Full text in Research Archive
  • Winroth, Hans Anders (2022). Law Schools and Legal Education, The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781107025042. p. 262–284. doi: https:/www.duo.uio.no/handle/10852/99718. Full text in Research Archive
  • Winroth, Hans Anders (2022). Canon Law in a Time of Renewal, 1130-1234, The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781107025042. p. 96–107. Full text in Research Archive
  • Winroth, Hans Anders & Wei, John C. (2022). Medieval Canon Law: Introduction, The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781107025042. p. 1–7.
  • Winroth, Anders (2021). Hólar and Belgsdalsbók. Gripla. ISSN 1018-5011. 32, p. 151–164. doi: 10.33112/gripla.32.6.
  • Winroth, Anders (2021). Hólar and Belgdalsbók. Gripla. ISSN 1018-5011. 32, p. 151–164. Full text in Research Archive
  • Winroth, Hans Anders (2021). Gratian and His Book: How a Medieval Teacher Changed European Law and Religion. Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (OJLR). ISSN 2047-0770. 10(1), p. 1–15. doi: 10.1093/ojlr/rwab003. Full text in Research Archive
  • Winroth, Anders (2020). L’universale Graziano da Chiusi: un uomo per il suo e per tutti i tempi. In Sodi, Manlio (Eds.), Gratianus magister Decretorum: Il Decretum tra storia, attualità e prospettive di universalità. Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana. ISSN 9788821010569. p. 183–190.

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  • Winroth, Anders (2022). Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. ISBN 978-88-210-1095-8.
  • Winroth, Anders (2022). Creating and Sharing Legal Knowledge in the Twelfth Century Sankt Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, 673 and Its Context. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-42829-4.
  • Winroth, Hans Anders & Wei, John C. (2022). The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107025042.
  • Winroth, Hans Anders (2020). Au temps de vikings. Lizzie. ISBN 9791036611940.

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  • Winroth, Anders (2024). En nästan utplånad Västerbyfamilj: Koleran i Söderbärke 1853. Släktforskaren. p. 4–4.
  • Winroth, Anders (2024). From Heathen to Heaven... [Internet]. Vikingology Podcast.
  • Winroth, Anders (2023). Kristendommen frå Romarriket til Moster. [Internet]. Anno 1024.
  • Winroth, Anders (2023). Kristninga som ei hending i Knuts Nordsjøimperium. [Internet]. Anno 1024.
  • Winroth, Anders (2023). Anno 1024: Kva skjedde på Moster? [Internet]. Anno 1024.
  • Winroth, Anders (2023). UnXplained with William Shatner: Mysteries of the Vikings. [TV]. History Channel.
  • Winroth, Anders (2022). Anna Catharina Horn och Karen Arup Seip, red. Lov og lovgivning i middelalderen. Nye studier av Magnus Lagabøtes landslov. Nota bene 14. Oslo: Nasjonalbiblioteket, 2020. 348 sid. Scripta Islandica: Isländska sällskapets årsbok. ISSN 0582-3234. 1, p. 87–90.
  • Winroth, Anders (2022). Medieval Law, Canon Law, and Roman Law in Europe. [Internet]. Spotify.
  • Winroth, Anders (2022). Leidulf Melve Ei verd i endring: Den globale mellomalderen 5001500 Dreyers forlag, Oslo 2020, 316 s. Historisk Tidsskrift (Norge). ISSN 0018-263X. 101, p. 166–167. doi: 10.18261/ht.101.2.7.
  • Winroth, Anders (2022). Vikings and their quest for silver. [Radio]. BBC World Service.
  • Winroth, Anders (2021). Review of Thomas J. McSweeney, Priests of the Law: Roman Law and the Making of the Common Law’s First Professionals. American Historical Review. ISSN 0002-8762. 126, p. 1308–1309. doi: 10.1093/ahr/rhab420.
  • Winroth, Anders (2021). European jurisprudence in the Nordic countries: Copies, Translations, and Use.
  • Winroth, Anders (2021). Law Schools and Legal Education in the Middle Ages.
  • Winroth, Anders & Sunde, Jørn Øyrehagen (2021). Kanonisk rett og kristenretten. [Internet]. Lagapodden.
  • Winroth, Anders (2021). Real Viking Professor Reviews Valheim. [Internet]. Buzzfeed.
  • Winroth, Hans Anders (2021). The Murder of Bishop Gottskalk Falkdal, or When the Devil Inspires.
  • Winroth, Hans Anders (2021). Kanonisk rätt och 1200-talets norska kristenrätter.
  • Winroth, Hans Anders (2021). Minnen från grundandet av VBS. Släktforskaren. 158, p. 5–6.
  • Winroth, Anders & Lilleslåtten, Mari (2021). Da Adam skyldte på Eva ble grunnlaget for dagens rettssystem lagt. [Internet]. https://www.hf.uio.no/iakh/forskning/aktuelt/aktuelle-saker/.
  • Winroth, Hans Anders (2021). Mordet på biskop Gottskalk Falkdal, 1374, eller När Djävulen Inspirerar.
  • Winroth, Anders; Gillingstam, Hans & Berglund, Torsten (2020). Svinhufvud, släkt. In Karlsson, Åsa (Eds.), Svenskt biografiskt lexikon 35. Svenskt biografiskt lexikon. ISSN 0000000000. p. 23–30.
  • Winroth, Anders (2020). Svinshoued, Otte. In Karlsson, Åsa (Eds.), Svenskt biografiskt lexikon 35. Svenskt biografiskt lexikon. ISSN 0000000000. p. 30–32.
  • Winroth, Hans Anders & Walgenbach, Elizabeth (2020). Kristinréttr Árna Þorlákssonar in Context: Project to publish an edition, English translation, source notes, introduction, and glossary to Bishop Árni Þorláksson’s Christian Laws for Iceland.
  • Winroth, Anders (2020). The American Runestone. [TV]. Viaplay.
  • Winroth, Hans Anders (2020). Släktskap som äktenskapshinder.

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Published Aug. 6, 2020 8:54 AM - Last modified Oct. 17, 2023 3:18 PM