HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

288 BERT ROESTIII. Mendicant HistoriographyUntil ca. 1970, mendicant historiography shared in the generallynegative verdict that three generations of mediaevalists (betweenLorenz/Wattenbach and Herbert Grundmann) had passed on latemedieval historiography. These scholars duly acknowledged the increasein historiographical output during the closing centuries of the MiddleAges. Yet aside from the ‘lebendige, spontane Geschichtsschreibungauf kleinere Zeiten und Räume . . .’.’ 36 this output was deemed tobe fossilised and schematic, not able to emulate the standards andeschatological perspectives of eleventh and twelfth century historicalwriting. This verdict disqualified an enormous text corpus that atthe same time was eagerly used as source material for the study oflate medieval political, institutional and socio-economic history. Forthis reason, late medieval chronicles often have received partial editionsthat contain only the ‘useful’ or ‘original’ parts; therewith distortingthe compilatory set-up of the manuscript copies.Since ca. 1970 we are experiencing a major re-evaluation of latermedieval historiographical praxis. This re-evaluation is no doubt connectedwith a general redemption of the late medieval period altogether.Gradually, the inherently historicist idea of a medieval autumnis left behind. We begin to appreciate the correspondence betweenthe use value of texts and the phenomenology of literary production.The late medieval period overflowed with historiographical (sub)genres, and related forms of literature. Apparently, such literature wasin tune with readers’ expectations and the discursive needs of thetime. No use complaining that texts from that period do not matchtheir high medieval forerunners, or do not seem to cohere with modernnotions about the proper format of medieval historiography.New generations of (predominantly German and some French)historians have done much to emancipate late medieval historiographyfrom the limbo to which previous generations had condemnedit. Important signposts in this regard are the 1980 and 1985 studiesof Bernard Guenée, the 1985 study of Rolf Sprandel, the 1985 handbookof Franz-Josef Schmale, and the 1987 volume Geschichtsschreibungund Geschichtsbewusstsein im späten Mittelalter edited by Hans Patze. 37 In36Grundmann (1965), 23.37Guenée (1980) and (1985) Sprandel B. Guenée, ‘L’histoire et la compilationau XIII e siècle’, Journal des Savants 78 (1985) 119–135; Schmale (1985); Patze (1987).