Definition of "Germanist" adjective comparative more Germanist , superlative most Germanist
(historiography, law) Pertaining to the school of thought which downplays or denies the continuity of legal and cultural institutions between Rome and later medieval Europe , highlighting the role of external influences and innovation in the decline of the Roman Empire . quotations examples
Quotations The Germanist view also led to the description of post -Roman lawcodes as Germanic law , and , in archeology , to the new types of rural settlement which replaced the old Roman villas being called 'Germanic ', and to the new burial forms , like furnished inhumation (with grave -goods ), similarly being ascribed to Germanic influence .
2005 , “The Barbarian invasions”, in The New Cambridge Medieval History (The New Cambridge Medieval History), volume 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, page 36