| Many disciplines have progressively become more interested in the questions surrounding their origins and their external history. The recent renaissance of interest in the Middle Ages, medieval studies and historical linguistics has brought with it a fresh perspective which has begun to question many of the beliefs and opinions that have become established norms defining those fields. With the intention of contributing to this newly evolving perspective in medieval studies and philology, this study examines some of the ideological underpinnings that influenced the development of several of the early linguistic atlases of the Romania. The maps examined were completed by Ramon Menendez Pidal, Tomas Navarro Tomas, Manuel Alvar, Antoni Griera and Jules Gillieron, all of whom were active Romance philologists and medievalists during a period when the field of Romance philology, often using German models, was in the process of establishing and defining itself in Romance speaking countries like Spain, France and Italy. The process of the evolution of the discipline during this period, along with external influences such as intellectual and political movements, and the personal and political ideologies of the researchers, influenced both the creation of these linguistic atlases, their final outcome and the research done that was based on their data. For any piece of research to be valid, it also has to carry with it some viable claim for authority. The way in which these maps were received by their intended audience, and whether or not their claims for authority were accepted by that audience were also influenced by the same political, ideological and disciplinary forces that shaped their creation. |
