HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor
HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor
MEDIEVAL URBAN HISTORIOGRAPHY 327north (Lombardy and part of the Veneto) and the south (Emilia andRomagna) sides of the Po. In the course of the later Middle Ages,these regions figured prominently as centers of intense circulation ofhistoriographical activity, characterized also by the mingling of internaland external impulses of a political as well as a cultural naturethat came from beyond the Apennines, especially from Florence andfrom the lands of the Papal States. 18North-Central ItalyComing now to a detailed list of individual chroniclers and theirworks, it seems opportune to start with Genoa, because of the antiquityand continuity over a long period of an urban historiographicalproduction that presents specific characteristics, significant especiallyfor its official status, internal to its communal institutions, and forits strong focus on the maritime and mercantile destiny of its cives.We are dealing, to be precise, with the Annales Januenses, 19 whichwere begun by Caffaro di Rustico di Caschifellone (ca. 1080–1166)after 1099 and were continued and brought up to date with manyadditions up to 1293 by other authors of the commune, accordingto a chronological framework of the civic consuls and on the orderof the local magistrates, who ordered its transcription and conservationin the communal cartulary. The uninterrupted work of thecontinuators—Oberto (1169–73), Ottobono (1174–96), Ogerio Pane(1197–1219), Marchisio (1220–24), Bartolomeo (1225–38); then ascoauthors together the chancellors of the commune up to 1263, thequattuorviri (lawyers and laymen, from 1265–79), and, finally, GiacomoDoria (1280–93)—bears witness to the character of the great interestand authority of their testimony, to the sources of informationand particular amplitude of their narrative perspective that, from theLigurian capital, follows the economic and social fortunes of theGenovese merchants and seamen along their Mediterranean routes18These aspects of interregional circulation, within the ancient lands of the ‘regnumItalie’, of chronicle production in greater quantity of exchange of experiencesand cultural, political, institutional, and economic-social models, have been takenunder consideration for the region of Emilia-Romagna in Andreolli et al. (1991).19Annali genovesi di Caffaro e de’suoi continuatori, ed. L. T. Belgrano (Rome, 1890).
328 AUGUSTO VASINAall the way to the Holy Land and the eastern Empire. 20 The Annales,intended to hand down the historical memory of the urban communityin an official version, were composed in Latin and subsequentlyenjoyed a varied fortune, above all from the nineteenthcentury onward. It was precisely from the nineteenth century thatthe peculiarities of the Annales began to be studied and identified, asa product of the almost two-century-long collaboration of its variousauthors, from upper-middle class families and communal professionalsin the notariate and the chancellery. These were conditionsthat already by themselves could secure public dignity and credibilityto the chroniclers, as faithful interpreters of the lay ideology ofthe new communal society, in the continuity of its transmarine andmarine undertakings, in both peace and war. 21From Caffaro to Jacopo Doria, during the prolonged municipalexperience of Genoa, are blended together the succession of compagneand consulates, the initial municipalismo and the early moralistic-pedagogicalburdens, in a perspective more open to the increasing complexityand dispersion of late thirteenth-century life.The Annales Placentini, by a notary of Piacenza, Giovanni Codagnello(ca. 1175–after 1235) invite us to enter into the life of the communalexperience of a city of dry land, of Lombard culture, of great relevancefor transport in the heart of the plain of the Po and, becauseof this, a city of remarkable mercantile vocations. 22 Probably a descendantof the lower nobility, local vassals of the urban church, Codagnelloworked as a notary in Piacenza’s commune, but there is no evidencethat his chronicle production was officially commissioned by urbanmagistrates. Thus, his Annales could be considered a personal expressionof his desire to pass down to contemporaries and to posteritythe memory of the records of Piacenza. The Annales (ca. 1090–1235)seem derived only in their first part from written memory of a familial(his father also was a notary) and communal (archival documentation,especially from the urban commune) character; then theybecome ever more an expression of the direct experience undergoneby the notary-chronicler, a participant in conflicts both internal and20Petti Balbi (1995) has given us one of the most recent and critically up to datestudies of Caffaro, the continuators and their works.21Potthast (1962–98), 2:291–92.22J. Codagnelli, Annales Placentini, ed. O. Holder-Egger, MGH Script. rerum German.in usum scholarum, vol. 23 (Hannover, 1901).
- Page 285 and 286: 276 PETER AINSWORTHhonest ‘generi
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- 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 and 328: 318 AUGUSTO VASINAand to distinguis
- Page 329 and 330: 320 AUGUSTO VASINAthe international
- Page 331 and 332: 322 AUGUSTO VASINAthese proposed bi
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- 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
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- 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
- Page 379 and 380: 370 MICHAEL GOODICHa different set
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MEDIEVAL URBAN <strong>HISTORIOGRAPHY</strong> 327north (Lombardy and part of the Veneto) and the south (Emilia andRomagna) sides of the Po. In the course of the later Middle Ages,these regions figured prominently as centers of intense circulation ofhistoriographical activity, characterized also by the mingling of internaland external impulses of a political as well as a cultural naturethat came from beyond the Apennines, especially from Florence andfrom the lands of the Papal States. 18North-Central ItalyComing now to a detailed list of individual chroniclers and theirworks, it seems opportune to start with Genoa, because of the antiquityand continuity over a long period of an urban historiographicalproduction that presents specific characteristics, significant especiallyfor its official status, internal to its communal institutions, and forits strong focus on the maritime and mercantile destiny of its cives.We are dealing, to be precise, with the Annales Januenses, 19 whichwere begun by Caffaro di Rustico di Caschifellone (ca. 1080–1166)after 1099 and were continued and brought up to date with manyadditions up to 1293 by other authors of the commune, accordingto a chronological framework of the civic consuls and on the orderof the local magistrates, who ordered its transcription and conservationin the communal cartulary. The uninterrupted work of thecontinuators—Oberto (1169–73), Ottobono (1174–96), Ogerio Pane(1197–1219), Marchisio (1220–24), Bartolomeo (1225–38); then ascoauthors together the chancellors of the commune up to 1263, thequattuorviri (lawyers and laymen, from 1265–79), and, finally, GiacomoDoria (1280–93)—bears witness to the character of the great interestand authority of their testimony, to the sources of informationand particular amplitude of their narrative perspective that, from theLigurian capital, follows the economic and social fortunes of theGenovese merchants and seamen along their Mediterranean routes18These aspects of interregional circulation, within the ancient lands of the ‘regnumItalie’, of chronicle production in greater quantity of exchange of experiencesand cultural, political, institutional, and economic-social models, have been takenunder consideration for the region of Emilia-Romagna in Andreolli et al. (1991).19Annali genovesi di Caffaro e de’suoi continuatori, ed. L. T. Belgrano (Rome, 1890).
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