HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

MEDIEVAL URBAN HISTORIOGRAPHY 341urban lord, the representative of the empire, of the pope, or of theterritorial prince. In the process, in certain aspects the motives andcontent of late medieval historiography of the area of the ‘regnumItalie’ seem to approach those of transalpine annals and chronicles,and those of southern and insular Italy. 61The Rest of EuropeAs has already been mentioned, the constituent characteristics anddevelopments of urban historiography in Europe of the monarchicalnationalstates are quite different. This is really as much an expressionof different types of experiences—not just political and institutionalbut also and above all social and cultural. An examination of sucha vast and complex field of research is difficult, even at a comparativelevel, because, among other things, it is conditioned by a seriesof unfavorable circumstances. 62 This corpus is, as a whole, less easilystudied than that of the Italian world, partly because it is lesstypologically definable in its precise urban definitions, given a multiplicityand variety of historical narrations that were oriented primarilyin a universal or national or ethnic direction or focused onrulers, princes, or feudal dynasties; on episcopates, monasteries, canons,convents; or on other realities for the most part external to the urbanworld.Another non-negligible limitation in the recognition of such chroniclesis their frequently anonymous nature, sometimes aggravated bythe fact that these historiographical texts have been handed down61On the monarchical, dynastic, signorial, and even monastic characters of thehistoriographical traditions of southern and insular Italy after 1000 (indeed, urbanchronicle-writing had a very limited fortune, since the cities belonged to the royaldemesne), cf. Capitani (1988), 783–85 and 792.62The research and analysis of texts have been conducted primarily in the MGH,SS (see n. 3 above). Other than the text and bibliography produced by Van Houts(1995) (9–12, 42–49), the following are helpful as keys for reading transalpine chronicles:for German areas, Die Chroniken der Deutschen Staedte von 14. bis in 16. Jahrhundert,ed. Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften(Leipzig, 1862–); Boulay (1981); Schmidt (1958); Patze (1987); for English areas:English Historical Documents (1969–81), vols. 2–4; Graves (1975); Gransden (1990–91);for France, Guenée (1980); for Spanish areas, Sanchez Alonso (1947). For a comprehensive,up-to-date, and rich survey of medieval historiography, see by variedauthors the term ‘Chronik’, in Lexikon des Mittelalters, vol. 2 (Munich, 1983), cols.1954–2028.