About
Biography
Spike Gibbs has been Junior Professor for the Economic History of the Middle Ages in the Chair group for Medieval History since January 2022. He studied for his undergraduate degree in history at the University of Cambridge (from 2011 to 2014) and his masters in medieval history at King’s College London (from 2014 to 2015). Spike Gibbs then returned to Cambridge for his PhD, entitled ‘Manorial Officeholding in Late Medieval and Early Modern England, 1300–1600’ which was completed in 2019. Prior to coming to Mannheim, M. Gibbs was an LSE Fellow in the Department of Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Research interests
His research primarily focuses on examining the governance of local communities in Europe across the medieval and early modern eras. How did governing structures allow rural communities to organise agriculture, conserve environmental resources, maintain law and order, and manage complex tenurial relations? To what extent did these structures create inequalities in access to political power and economic resources? And how were local governing regimes affected by the decline of direct lordship and the rise of the state? Through an interdisciplinary approach adopting quantitative and qualitative social-science methodologies, he answers these questions by analysing long-runs of manuscript sources to examine communities over the longue-durée.
Additionally, through collaborations with other scholars, he has developed interests in calculating long-run wage series for late medieval England, the resilience of communities to the crises of the early fourteenth century and the management of stray animals. Spike Gibbs welcomes inquiries about his work or suggestions for collaborations so please get in touch!
- Gibbs, S. (2024). Review of periodical literature for 2022: (ii) 1100–1500. The Economic History Review, 77, 335–346.
- Gibbs, S. (2023). Review of periodical literature for 2021. The Economic History Review, 76, 342–353.
- Claridge, J. and Gibbs, S. (2022). Waifs and strays: Property rights in late medieval England. Journal of British Studies : JBS, 61, 50–82.
- Gibbs, S. (2022). Review of periodical literature for 2020: (ii) 1100–1500. The Economic History Review, 75, 240–249.
- Gibbs, S. (2022). ‘Open’ or ‘Closed’? Participation in English manorial presentment juries, c.1310–c.1600: A quantitative approach. The English Historical Review, 137, 1003-1052.
- Gibbs, S. (2019). Lords, tenants and attitudes to manorial office-holding, c.1300– c.1600. Agricultural History Review, 67, 155–174.
- Gibbs, S. (2023). Lordship, state formation and local authority in late medieval and early modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Gibbs, S. (2023). Vivienne Aldous (ed.), Monks Eleigh manorial records, 1210–1683 (Boydell and Brewer, 2022). 432 pp. 13 illus. £75.. Review, Agricultural History Review
- Gibbs, S. (2019). John Hare, The Victoria history of Hampshire. Basingstoke: a medieval town, c. 1000–c. 1600 (London: University of London, 2017. Pp. xii + 106. 23 figs. 6 maps. 3 tabs. ISBN 9781909646612 Pbk. £12 + £2 p&p). Review, The Economic History Review
- Gibbs, S. (2019). Phillipp R.Schofield, Peasants and historians: debating the medieval English peasantry (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016. Pp. vii + 280. ISBN 9780719053788 Pbk. £19.99). Review, The Economic History Review