HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

DYNASTIC HISTORY 233selves. The Ninety-five Comital Reigns of Austria lists the counts of Austriabeginning with the first count, who reigned 810 years after the flood,but it begins with universal history, and the five books into whichthe text is divided are also each dedicated to one of the five senses. 75In other words, alternative ways of thinking about the history of afamily and alternative forms of organization, particularly those whichcast the history of a dynasty in the context of larger structures, intellectualor political, continually would have presented themselves.Nonetheless, it seems clear that once a dynastic history had beenproduced, other histories produced in the area or in contiguity werelikely to adopt the form. In other words, existing texts served asmodels for other similar works. Dudo of Saint-Quentin’s Normanhistory directed Norman history into a dynastic form for the nextcentury and a half. It also may have influenced the Angevin tradition,for the author of the Gesta consulum Andegavorum seems to haveknown Dudo’s work or that of William of Jumièges, the only likelysource for his contention that Rollo had married a daughter ofCharles the Simple named Gisela and been granted all of Normandyand Brittany besides. 76 The counts of Anjou were intermittent enemiesof the dukes of Normandy, but this does not mean that theywould not imitate the form Norman history took; in fact, it mightincrease the likelihood of such imitation. It is tempting to see thegenealogical form of the Grandes chroniques as arising from the Normanexample as well; from 1204 the kings of France were also dukes ofNormandy, and manuscripts of the Norman histories were presentin Parisian libraries from at least the twelfth century. 77 Similarly, theearly genealogies of the Flemish counts seem to have given rise to ahost of genealogical histories, not only Noble Flanders but also Lambertof Saint-Omer’s and Lambert of Wattrelos’s genealogies of their ownfamilies and the History of the Counts of Guines and Lords of Ardres.75See Österreichische Chronik von den 95 Herrschaften, ed. J. Seemüller (Hannover andLeipzig, 1909), 6 ff. on the seven ages; 25 on the names of Austria; 25–26 on thefirst count.76Halphen and Poupardin, Chroniques des comtes d’Anjou et des seigneurs d’Amboise,35; Dudo, De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum, ed. Lair, 166, 168, 169.77Manuscript C2 of William of Jumièges was at Saint-Victor (The Gesta Normannorumducum of William of Jumièges, ed. Van Houts, 1:xcix); Manuscript E2 was composedat Saint-Denis (Gesta Normannorum, ed. Van Houts, civ).