ABSTRACT
These concluding observations aim to discuss the potential of the horizontal learning approach, connect it to extant research paradigms, and set out some further questions prompted by this juxtaposition. After showing how the existence of ‘horizontal’ bonds is approached differently by different contributors to this volume, the text illustrates how the findings of this volume complement and combine with recent approaches to the history of learning, especially as it is currently transforming into a ‘cultural history of knowledge’ or an ‘anthropology of knowledge transmission’ during the pre-modern period. It concludes with three hypotheses concerning the growing role of horizontal learning during the High Middle Ages, which future research may want to develop or contradict.
