HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

HIGH AND LATE MEDIEVAL NATIONAL HISTORIOGRAPHY 187personifies the epoch of mass robberies and land acquisitions, standsat the center, although he is not yet connected with the history ofthe dynasty of later Norman dukes. The dynastic-historical aspect isfirst addressed in the second book, which is dedicated to the politicalaccomplishments of Rollo (927/32), the first Norman ruler in a historicalsense. The most comprehensive part deals with the portrayalof Richard I, the Norman ruler who prompted the first historicaltreatment of the entire context of the formation of Norman rule.Dudo’s historical work is historiographically and historically meaningful,because it attempts, on the one hand, to place itself—in literaryrespect with the choice of the form of gesta ducum/regum—inthe tradition of Carolingian historiography. On the other hand, itrecognizes for the first time that a ‘new people’, a people withouttradition-forming roots in the area of Roman-Frankish European culture,conceives of itself as a political unity in the early national senseand thereby tethers itself typologically through the appropriation ofthe Trojan genealogy to the models of older European historicalthought.One generation later, after the middle of the eleventh century,historiographic activity transferred its location from the Norman courtto the cloisters. William, a monk at Jumièges, took Dudo’s portrayalof Norman history as the point of departure for Gesta Normannorumducum, which he had dedicated to the Norman duke William around1070/71, after the latter’s ascension to the English throne. 26 Theconception of the work, to dedicate a book to every Norman duke,remained the same, but its significance was incomparably greater,because his work was much more widely distributed in written form(47 manuscripts) and, furthermore, was continued several times followingthe completion of William’s version. The two most importantrevised versions originated around 1109 at Saint-Évroul byOrderic Vitalis (1075–1142/43) and around 1139 at Bec by Robertof Torigny (around 1110–86).In the second decade of the twelfth century in the cave-monasteryof Kiev, older annalistic depictions were compiled in three versions,following shortly on each others’ heels, into a comprehensive portrayalof old Russian history, the Povest’ vremennych let, the first version26The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis and Robertof Torigni, 2 vols., ed. E. M. C. van Houts (Oxford, 1992/95).