HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor
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HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

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INTRODUCTION 11Eusebius of Caesarea invented the genre; as also in the later MiddleAges, universal histories usually start with creation, and then becomemore local as they approach the time of their composition. In asense, they thus function as both universal and local histories, in thiscase with ‘local’ being the bishopric or the kingdom or the territorialunit. 35 The early Middle Ages was a period that saw many newpolitical entities come into being; of these, it seems to have beenparticularly ‘peoples’ who had their histories written, which was sometimes,but not always, analogous with kingdoms. This ambiguity ofsubject matter reflects the ambiguity of the identities of the ‘peoples’and kingdoms themselves. Curiously, the Carolingian empire, whichsaw a large amount of historiography and the development of somenew forms (notably the annal), was not the subject of major narrativehistories. 36 Institutions in the early Middle Ages whose historieswere written down were almost exclusively bishoprics and individualmonasteries, whose pasts were universalized by demonstrating theirdivine origins. 37 And of the biographical writing produced, there wereonly a very few Lives of exceptional rulers (Charlemagne, Alfred);otherwise it was all hagiography. 38As institutions, governments, cities, and families developed, arose,became more complex and perhaps more politically or socially important,they too began to become the subject of historical writing. Thegenres used for the new subjects were often the same as in the earlyMiddle Ages, but they were adapted to highlight the new subjectmatter. What is interesting about the “new” subject matter in thelater Middle Ages is that the area which saw the greatest expansionin terms of subject matter was local and institutional history. Forthe early Middle Ages, this was one category, and it almost alwayscovered the history of a bishopric or monastery. In the later MiddleAges, in contrast, various different subjects on the local level weredeemed worthy of having their own histories, such as ruling families,cities, and religious institutions. An interesting development isthat in the later Middle Ages, some religious institutions have becometransnational; thus histories of mendicant orders, for example, are35See Sot and Allen, in this volume.36See Pizarro, in this volume.37See Sot, in this volume.38See Heffernan, in this volume.

12 DEBORAH MAUSKOPF DELIYANNISnow institutional but no longer local. 39 Another type of history thatwas not new, but was rediscovered, was the writing about recentevents such as a military campaign, a crusade, or a war, written bya participant or someone who interviewed eyewitnesses. This wasthe classical subject for history, but had been neglected in the earlyMiddle Ages, at least in the Latin West. There was also the developmentof texts which present material in a historical manner,although the subject matter is considered fictional by us (and wasby people in the Middle Ages also). It is important to consider thoseepic and legendary texts alongside more “factual” historiographicalones, to remind us how interrelated were the literary forms. 40 Nonetheless,some categories—like universal history, biography and hagiography,and national history—continued as subjects for historians,although of course with changes in focus and purpose. 41The writing of history required someone to say that the historyof something needed to be written down, and then someone had toresearch and write the text. The choice of subject matter thus informsus of the self-awareness of entities, and of the general cultural valuesthat made the idea of writing such a history possible. For example,Augusto Vasina defines urban historiography as not just historieswhich focus on cities, but histories that actually recognize or dealwith the consciousness that they are writing about cities; in otherwords, not just people writing about their own localities, but peoplewriting in a way that shows that they are aware that the importantsubject of their histories is the urban collective. What we see throughoutthis volume is that history was written when its subject matteredto someone. Sometimes history was just written as an exercise inscholarly curiosity, and certainly it was often considered entertainment;42 it also usually had a purpose in the larger world of ideas,to create, establish, or justify an institution, a lineage, a kingdom, asaint. By studying the types of history that were written, we canlearn what mattered to whom, and when.When does medieval historiography end? Forms and types of subjectmatter developed by medieval historians continued to be written39Cf. van Houts (1995). See Shopkow, Roest, and Vasina, in this volume.40See the two chapters by Ainsworth, in this volume.41See Sprandel, Kersken, and Goodich, in this volume.42Cf. Partner (1977).

12 DEBORAH MAUSKOPF DELIYANNISnow institutional but no longer local. 39 Another type of history thatwas not new, but was rediscovered, was the writing about recentevents such as a military campaign, a crusade, or a war, written bya participant or someone who interviewed eyewitnesses. This wasthe classical subject for history, but had been neglected in the earlyMiddle Ages, at least in the Latin West. There was also the developmentof texts which present material in a historical manner,although the subject matter is considered fictional by us (and wasby people in the Middle Ages also). It is important to consider thoseepic and legendary texts alongside more “factual” historiographicalones, to remind us how interrelated were the literary forms. 40 Nonetheless,some categories—like universal history, biography and hagiography,and national history—continued as subjects for historians,although of course with changes in focus and purpose. 41The writing of history required someone to say that the historyof something needed to be written down, and then someone had toresearch and write the text. The choice of subject matter thus informsus of the self-awareness of entities, and of the general cultural valuesthat made the idea of writing such a history possible. For example,Augusto Vasina defines urban historiography as not just historieswhich focus on cities, but histories that actually recognize or dealwith the consciousness that they are writing about cities; in otherwords, not just people writing about their own localities, but peoplewriting in a way that shows that they are aware that the importantsubject of their histories is the urban collective. What we see throughoutthis volume is that history was written when its subject matteredto someone. Sometimes history was just written as an exercise inscholarly curiosity, and certainly it was often considered entertainment;42 it also usually had a purpose in the larger world of ideas,to create, establish, or justify an institution, a lineage, a kingdom, asaint. By studying the types of history that were written, we canlearn what mattered to whom, and when.When does medieval historiography end? Forms and types of subjectmatter developed by medieval historians continued to be written39Cf. van Houts (1995). See Shopkow, Roest, and Vasina, in this volume.40See the two chapters by Ainsworth, in this volume.41See Sprandel, Kersken, and Goodich, in this volume.42Cf. Partner (1977).

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