HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

CHAPTER NINELATER MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONAL HISTORYBert RoestLike other essays in this volume, this chapter concentrates on textsthat share a comparable subject matter rather than a generic label.To be specific, this chapter deals with later medieval institutionalhistory, defined as the official or unofficial historical writings by andfor medieval religious institutions (e.g., individual cloisters, monasticand mendicant orders, the papacy, and the diocese), regardless ofthe generic categories to which these texts themselves can be assigned. 1The chosen approach enables me to evade some traditional problemsof generic division and generic exclusion that traditionally forma stumbling block in surveys of medieval historiography. That is notto say that I have solved all problems with regard to the demarcationof my text corpus. Many chronicles were not conceived to presentthe history of a particular institution. Yet they contain so muchmaterial concerning a particular religious house or order that theycan hardly be ignored. An interesting example is the famous chronicleof Salimbene of Parma. Its surviving parts suggest a universalhistorical conception. However, the work abounds in informationregarding Franciscan houses, the early development of the Franciscanorder, and the life and career of many individual friars. Moreover,this kind of information is a central part of Salimbene’s narrative.Another case in point is the work of Orderic Vitalis († ca. 1142),which began in a very localised institutional format (the history ofSaint-Évroul in Normandy), but expanded into ecclesiastical and universalhistory. 2 There are many such borderline cases. They makeclear that overly refined distinctions between so-called institutionalhistory and other forms of medieval historical writing will necessitateme to leave out many interesting works, or to separate writings thatin the eyes of the medieval compiler belonged together.1With thanks to The Netherlands Royal Academy for Arts and Sciences, whichprovided me with the means to complete my research.2See the remarks in Houts (1995), 15; Chibnall (1984).