Introduction

Summary

The introduction provides the thematic, heuristic, methodological, theoretical and disciplinary clues of the book. It has accordingly four parts. The first locates the research in the context of existing scholarship published on the general subject of coronations and announces the original information on self-coronations and the new perspectives offered by this book. The second details the primary sources available for direct access to the knowledge of self-coronations – i.e. coins, inscriptions, images, liturgical books and narrative accounts. The third describes the theoretical assumptions and methodological options taken in order to accurately interpret these primary sources: the emphasis on political theology, the use of long-term chronology and cultural comparative exercise, the concept of agency and the use of the ritual studies and theories. It also notes the academic disciplines at play in the necessary interdisciplinary approach deployed such as history, theology, liturgy, iconology and symbolic anthropology. The last part of this introduction explains the principles governing the basic structure and chapter organisation of the book, and provides a summary of the content of each of the chapters.