HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

LATER MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY 315Many medieval authors mentioned here wrote more than onework, or dealt with different genres. 153 Others dealt in one work withvarious forms of institutional and non-institutional history, combininguniversal history with catalogues of order saints, functionariesand provinces. They ensured that all this information could beretrieved from the universal format with the help of powerful indices,or through the layout of the text. 154 All such developments were connectedwith 1) changing conceptions of worthwhile history (from historyto multiple histories along a clear axis); 2) innovative notionsof brevity and compilatio techniques that reflect epistemological concernsand educational objectives and practices; 3) a diversified envisagedreaders’ public. In general, we see the rise of pragmatism andthe emergence of history as handbook and reference literature.Insofar as it can be distinguished from other forms of historicalwriting, later medieval institutional history contains more than meetsthe eye. The catalogues of abbots, bishops, and order generals, aswell as the chronicles of institutional beginnings share a strong ideologicalsubtext that frequently is kept from view in the existing (partial)editions. A further exploration of these texts will help to uncoverthese subtexts, and will enable us to understand medieval views ofinstitutions and the representation of institutional self-conceptions.153Sprandel (1987), 300.154Sprandel (1987), 305, refers to a manuscript of the late fourteenth centuryGesta Trevirorum that is divided in four columns, dealing respectively with the diocese,the popes, nota digna from the region and the world as a whole, and the emperors;see Melville (1987).