HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor
HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor
CHAPTER TENMEDIEVAL URBAN HISTORIOGRAPHY INWESTERN EUROPE (1100–1500)Augusto VasinaAmong the extensive and varied scientific analyses of medieval historiographyin western Europe, the part dedicated expressly to annalisticand chronicle production of an urban character after the year1000 has not been, at least in relatively recent times, very significantlydeveloped, nor, one could say, developed with a sufficient balancebetween the particular historical and geographic areas concerned.Starting in the seventeenth century, the scholarship of the Mauristspromoted and published at the national level, especially for France,Germany, and England, abundant collections of medieval narrativetexts, in the process also providing investigations and analytical studiesof individual urban chronicles. 1 We also can consider the work ofL. A. Muratori, in the collection and publication of medieval Italianchronicles from 500–1500 in his Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (RIS) tobe a branch of this tradition. 2 Works in this series are of great importance,since a large number of the narrative texts that were publishedconcern Italian cities after the year 1000, thus strongly characterizingthe historiography of this peninsula in the intervening centuries.But only in the nineteenth century, with the publication of theMonumenta Germaniae Historica’s section Scriptores (MGH SS ), edited byG. H. Pertz and his successors, has it finally been possible to seemedieval historiographical production representing sufficiently diverseEuropean historical areas in an inclusively balanced and accurateview. Thus, only recently have scholars been able to begin to select1Delogu (1994), 21.2Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (RIS ) (1723–1751). It must be remembered that, evenbefore other Italian chronicles had been published by other scholars in volumeslater than the collection, Muratori had published, parallel to the RIS, various narrativetexts, especially about south-central Italy, in volumes 3–6 of his AntiquitatesItalicae Medii Aevi (AIMAE).
318 AUGUSTO VASINAand to distinguish from the very variegated compass of medieval narrativesources the various typological components of urban historiography,and to better single out the actual texts. 3The definition of true urban chronicle-writing has been from thestart a rather difficult task, not only because of the very heterogeneousand composite character of the texts under consideration, someof which are given titles referring to urban centers that are notalways adequate and faithful to their individual narrative contents,but also because of a still imprecise idea that we have of actualurban reality, which was defined in the Middle Ages—one mustnever disregard this!—as the presence of a bishop and an episcopalsee. 4 And yet, during the course of the nineteenth century, there wasundoubtedly progress toward a more appropriate recognition of historicaldetails, of the complexity and individuality of urban phenomena.Historians of that time, inspired by the spread throughoutEurope of a lay and middle-class culture that was increasingly selfconsciousof its civic origins and of its values of liberty and autonomy,focused more attention on the medieval urban world, especiallyon the decisive phase of revival that arose all over Europe from thetorment of the centuries around the year 1000 and lasted throughoutthe period. Sometimes more, sometimes less, historians tendedto minimize consideration of the ecclesiastical components (above allepiscopal, canonical, and monastic), which in the early medievalurban world had expressed a determined presence by giving historiographicalculture a universalistic tendency. Instead, historiansfocused their attention on the great undertakings of the lay urbanforces in, for example, the more or less bold construction of communalautonomy, in the dialectic among the various social classes,and in the economic dynamics of the merchant and artisan businessmen.History and historians thus sometimes almost confused in itinerethe just-recovered sense of identity in urban life with the symbolicand effective figure of the bishop, by losing their way in a multiplicityof perspectives on realities particular to the urban world, whichwere difficult to reduce to synthesis.3Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH SS ) (1826–1998). A large number of theurban chronicles written after 1000 have been published, organized by national sections,in vols. 16–19 and 24.4This is a connotation of particular significance above all in the course of theearly Middle Ages; on this, see Dupré (1956), passim; Dupré (1958), passim.
- Page 275 and 276: 266 PETER AINSWORTHat Les Estinnes-
- Page 277 and 278: 268 PETER AINSWORTHmust have disapp
- Page 279 and 280: 270 PETER AINSWORTHalso—and more
- Page 281 and 282: 272 PETER AINSWORTHGiven that the k
- Page 283 and 284: 274 PETER AINSWORTHwhose likeness h
- Page 285 and 286: 276 PETER AINSWORTHhonest ‘generi
- Page 287 and 288: 278 BERT ROESTThis chapter deals wi
- Page 289 and 290: 280 BERT ROESTMonastic chronicles a
- Page 291 and 292: 282 BERT ROESTwider salvation-histo
- Page 293 and 294: 284 BERT ROESTConstance Proksch eve
- Page 295 and 296: 286 BERT ROESTcatalogues. Normally,
- Page 297 and 298: 288 BERT ROESTIII. Mendicant Histor
- Page 299 and 300: 290 BERT ROESTIII.1Franciscan and D
- Page 301 and 302: 292 BERT ROESTand anecdote collecti
- Page 303 and 304: 294 BERT ROESTtexts were concerned
- Page 305 and 306: 296 BERT ROESTmost renowned followe
- Page 307 and 308: 298 BERT ROESTof smaller Franciscan
- Page 309 and 310: 300 BERT ROESTClareno and his spiri
- Page 311 and 312: 302 BERT ROESTabout the spread of t
- Page 313 and 314: 304 BERT ROESTAnother prolific Domi
- Page 315 and 316: 306 BERT ROESTonwards. 105 Of compa
- Page 317 and 318: 308 BERT ROESTIII.5Other forms of m
- Page 319 and 320: 310 BERT ROESTThese compendia share
- Page 321 and 322: 312 BERT ROESTde mundi aetatibus of
- Page 323 and 324: 314 BERT ROESTremain unedited or ar
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- Page 329 and 330: 320 AUGUSTO VASINAthe international
- Page 331 and 332: 322 AUGUSTO VASINAthese proposed bi
- Page 333 and 334: 324 AUGUSTO VASINA1000 to the early
- Page 335 and 336: 326 AUGUSTO VASINABut before analyz
- Page 337 and 338: 328 AUGUSTO VASINAall the way to th
- Page 339 and 340: 330 AUGUSTO VASINApanorama, without
- Page 341 and 342: 332 AUGUSTO VASINAcertainly an inac
- Page 343 and 344: 334 AUGUSTO VASINAmoralistic affirm
- Page 345 and 346: 336 AUGUSTO VASINAabsolutely of ope
- Page 347 and 348: 338 AUGUSTO VASINAProceeding along
- Page 349 and 350: 340 AUGUSTO VASINAnovitates. But in
- Page 351 and 352: 342 AUGUSTO VASINAwith titles attac
- Page 353 and 354: 344 AUGUSTO VASINAcanon of St. Autb
- Page 355 and 356: 346 AUGUSTO VASINAchronicles interr
- Page 357 and 358: 348 AUGUSTO VASINAevents, appear in
- Page 359 and 360: 350 AUGUSTO VASINAwritten sometimes
- Page 361 and 362: 352 AUGUSTO VASINAThe present list
- Page 363 and 364: 354 MICHAEL GOODICHcentury, Matthew
- Page 365 and 366: 356 MICHAEL GOODICHDominican provin
- Page 367 and 368: 358 MICHAEL GOODICHentrusted with r
- Page 369 and 370: 360 MICHAEL GOODICHBecause our soul
- Page 371 and 372: 362 MICHAEL GOODICHevidence of Eliz
- Page 373 and 374: 364 MICHAEL GOODICHCanonization and
- Page 375 and 376: 366 MICHAEL GOODICHof Hildesheim, W
CHAPTER TENMEDIEVAL URBAN <strong>HISTORIOGRAPHY</strong> <strong>IN</strong>WESTERN EUROPE (1100–1500)Augusto VasinaAmong the extensive and varied scientific analyses of medieval historiographyin western Europe, the part dedicated expressly to annalisticand chronicle production of an urban character after the year1000 has not been, at least in relatively recent times, very significantlydeveloped, nor, one could say, developed with a sufficient balancebetween the particular historical and geographic areas concerned.Starting in the seventeenth century, the scholarship of the Mauristspromoted and published at the national level, especially for France,Germany, and England, abundant collections of medieval narrativetexts, in the process also providing investigations and analytical studiesof individual urban chronicles. 1 We also can consider the work ofL. A. Muratori, in the collection and publication of medieval Italianchronicles from 500–1500 in his Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (RIS) tobe a branch of this tradition. 2 Works in this series are of great importance,since a large number of the narrative texts that were publishedconcern Italian cities after the year 1000, thus strongly characterizingthe historiography of this peninsula in the intervening centuries.But only in the nineteenth century, with the publication of theMonumenta Germaniae Historica’s section Scriptores (MGH SS ), edited byG. H. Pertz and his successors, has it finally been possible to seemedieval historiographical production representing sufficiently diverseEuropean historical areas in an inclusively balanced and accurateview. Thus, only recently have scholars been able to begin to select1Delogu (1994), 21.2Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (RIS ) (1723–1751). It must be remembered that, evenbefore other Italian chronicles had been published by other scholars in volumeslater than the collection, Muratori had published, parallel to the RIS, various narrativetexts, especially about south-central Italy, in volumes 3–6 of his AntiquitatesItalicae Medii Aevi (AIMAE).