HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

LATER MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY 281historiographical traditions and a royal court trying to legitimate itspower and to boost its literary culture brought about a significanthistoriographical production. 11In French royal monasteries comparable developments took place.Famous are the formidable historiographical activities in the abbeysof Fleury, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Saint-Magloire, and Saint-Denis.From the early eleventh century onwards, these centres producedGestae & Vitae Abbatum, saints’ lives and royal biographies, alongsideof histories of the Franks and the French realm. Good examples arethe works of Aimon of Fleury and its continuations, the works ofRaoul le Tourtier and Hugh of Fleury, the history of Louis VI bySuger of St. Denis, the Roman des Rois of the Saint-Denis monk Primat(fl. 1274), the subsequent works of Guillaume de Nangis and RichardLescot, and the ultimate literary offspring of combined monastic androyal patronage: the thirteenth-and fourteenth-century Grandes Chroniquesde France. 12For monastic historians, dynastic aspects were not the sole impetusto extend the historiographical scope. The ongoing interest inchronographical matters and the strong salvation-historical, exegeticaland eschatological concerns of medieval monastic authors enticedmany of them to follow the lead of Eusebius and Jerome. Hencethey engaged in the production or continuation of universal chroniclesand forms of ecclesiastical history. Frequently, such works wereconceived as universal chronicles from the outset, for which I wouldlike to refer the reader to other chapters. Sometimes, however, suchworks grew out of an ever-expanding monastic history. This was forinstance the case with the aforementioned Historia ecclesiastica of OrdericVitalis. Before 1120, Orderic was asked by his abbot Roger of St.Évroul to write a history of the cloister. In the writing process (whichlasted until 1141), the scope of his work gradually expanded into afull-blown history of the world. Notwithstanding this evolution, Ordericcomposed the work as a whole primarily for his fellow brethren andfor the liturgical praxis of his monastery. 13The work of Orderic Vitalis was not exceptional. Many monasticchroniclers placed the history of their monastic institution in a11Cf. Dyer (1990), 141–58, 248–51; Houts (1995), 20.12Spiegel (1978); Guenée (1986), 189–214; Bautier (1994), 59–72.13The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. M. Chibnall, 6 vols. (Oxford,1969–80); Hofmann (1987), 415–16.