HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor
HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor
MEDIEVAL URBAN HISTORIOGRAPHY 319Between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, especiallyunder the influence of positivist thought, oriented to perceive thehistorical process in its factuality and concreteness and in an objectiveform, an adequate search for the cultural aspects of the medievalurban experience was missing. Neglecting narrative sources becauseof their subjectivity, historians thus lost many occasions to researchand define the collective identity of the urban world, the individualityof the civic spirit from community to community, the consciousnessof common belonging to a unique urban reality, not justin the demographic, political, and social senses. In the process, theyneglected, for the most part, the intellectual and professional profilesof the men of culture and of the ruling groups of the urban world;they did not catch their reflections in the more or less elevated levelof sensibility and consciousness of the chronicle authors. Because thisis the point of departure for a functional definition of urban typologywithin medieval European historiography, this is in a certain sensethe discriminator that we can agree to use to make a convincingselection of numerous, frequently anonymous, and variegated narrativetexts produced during the medieval centuries in western Europe.In the course of the twentieth century, especially in recent decades,scholars have tried to remedy this lack of methodological and criticalcharacter, dedicating increasing attention to the personality ofthe already-identified chroniclers or trying to free from anonymitythe still very numerous anonymous annals and chronicles. They alsohave investigated in a more thorough way the scholastic and culturalcursus and the social and professional origins of the identifiedchroniclers. 5 It also should be noted that the study of medieval historiographyhas in the meantime been in part freed from its traditionalcompartmentalization and from the prevalent activity ofexclusively philological/literary analysis of individual texts, to assumea historico-critical dimension and a systematic consideration, throughcomparison of narrative and other types of sources, in an ever largerand more wide-reaching radius. 6 There have thus arisen, on both5The contributions of Girolamo Arnaldi cover this area in many pioneeringways, in particular Arnaldi (1963). More recently in this field of interest, for itsvalue both retrospective and prospective, we should mention Il senso della storia nellacultura medievale italiana (1100–1350): quattordicesimo convegno di studi; Pistoia, 14–17maggio 1993 (Pistoia, 1995), passim.6An essential bibliography on this, even if not brought up to date, can be consultedin Delogu (1994), 174–75.
320 AUGUSTO VASINAthe international as well as the national and regional levels, numerousreviews of medieval European historiography, more and morediligent at distinguishing and modulating according to their interiorlogic an urban narrative typology. 7 The enlargement of the horizonsof this historiographical production in ever more detailed comparisons,and at various levels of narrative sources of different historicalareas, undoubtedly has been facilitated by the publication, sincethe nineteenth century on the initiative of several national historicalinstitutes, of Repertori, as for example of the general one by A. Potthast,whose updated edition has been for some decades in process underthe care of the Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo. 8Among the various publication initiatives of specific interest (particularlyintense in the orbit of Anglo-American, German, and Frenchhistoriography), it recently has become possible to produce a fullydeveloped analysis of medieval sources, distinguished typologicallyand articulated for the various historical and cultural areas of Europe.Of specific interest here, as well as for its undoubted didactic worth,is the volume which, written by Elisabeth M. C. van Houts, hasappeared recently with the title Local and Regional Chronicles, 9 in which“Town Chronicles” are taken into consideration specifically in sectionC, organized geographically, with a reconstruction of the pastand the present of each chronicle, of the authors, and of the possibleaudiences and number of sources put to use in each narrativetext in question. Van Houts includes numerous works composed variouslyfrom 500–1500, but always identified as pertinent to thisspecific typological field, for the most part by identifiable authors.The distinction that she has used between civic chronicles andepiscopal or monastic chronicles (section A) and dynastic chroniclesor Gesta principum (section B) as a point of departure guarantees therigor with which she has made the selection of narrative materialsand their organized distribution in time and in historical space. Butin this important book, it no doubt would have been possible to7For a recent article on medieval historiography at the international level, seeDelogu (1994), 111–74 and esp. 161 ff.; a historiographical review of a nationalcharacter, regarding Italy, has been published by Capitani (1964); a census of regionalchronicle-writing, almost exclusively urban, in the region of Emilia Romagna wasedited some years ago by the author: cf. Andreolli et al., eds. (1991).8See the two volumes of Potthast (1896), and their ample revision and enhancementconducted in more recent years in Potthast (1962–98).9Van Houts (1995), 42–49.
- 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 327: 318 AUGUSTO VASINAand to distinguis
- 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
- Page 377 and 378: 368 MICHAEL GOODICHdated between 13
320 AUGUSTO VAS<strong>IN</strong>Athe international as well as the national and regional levels, numerousreviews of medieval European historiography, more and morediligent at distinguishing and modulating according to their interiorlogic an urban narrative typology. 7 The enlargement of the horizonsof this historiographical production in ever more detailed comparisons,and at various levels of narrative sources of different historicalareas, undoubtedly has been facilitated by the publication, sincethe nineteenth century on the initiative of several national historicalinstitutes, of Repertori, as for example of the general one by A. Potthast,whose updated edition has been for some decades in process underthe care of the Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo. 8Among the various publication initiatives of specific interest (particularlyintense in the orbit of Anglo-American, German, and Frenchhistoriography), it recently has become possible to produce a fullydeveloped analysis of medieval sources, distinguished typologicallyand articulated for the various historical and cultural areas of Europe.Of specific interest here, as well as for its undoubted didactic worth,is the volume which, written by Elisabeth M. C. van Houts, hasappeared recently with the title Local and Regional Chronicles, 9 in which“Town Chronicles” are taken into consideration specifically in sectionC, organized geographically, with a reconstruction of the pastand the present of each chronicle, of the authors, and of the possibleaudiences and number of sources put to use in each narrativetext in question. Van Houts includes numerous works composed variouslyfrom 500–1500, but always identified as pertinent to thisspecific typological field, for the most part by identifiable authors.The distinction that she has used between civic chronicles andepiscopal or monastic chronicles (section A) and dynastic chroniclesor Gesta principum (section B) as a point of departure guarantees therigor with which she has made the selection of narrative materialsand their organized distribution in time and in historical space. Butin this important book, it no doubt would have been possible to7For a recent article on medieval historiography at the international level, seeDelogu (1994), 111–74 and esp. 161 ff.; a historiographical review of a nationalcharacter, regarding Italy, has been published by Capitani (1964); a census of regionalchronicle-writing, almost exclusively urban, in the region of Emilia Romagna wasedited some years ago by the author: cf. Andreolli et al., eds. (1991).8See the two volumes of Potthast (1896), and their ample revision and enhancementconducted in more recent years in Potthast (1962–98).9Van Houts (1995), 42–49.
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