Writing Medieval Biography, 750-1250

Writing Medieval Biography, 750-1250
Author: Frank Barlow
Publisher:
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2006
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

A survey both of medieval biographical writings, and the problems of recovering medieval lives. Biography is one of the oldest, most popular and most tenacious of literary forms. Perhaps the best attested narrative form of the Middle Ages, it continues to draw modern historians of the medieval period to its peculiar challenge to explicate the general through the particular: the biographer's decisions to impose or to resist the imposition of order on biographical remnants raise issues which go to the heart of historical method. This collection, compiled in honour of a distinguished modern exponent of the art of biography, contains sixteen essays by leading scholars which examine the limits and possibilities of the genre for the period between 750AD and 1250AD. Ranging from pivotal figures such as Charlemagne, William the Conqueror and St Bernard, to the anonymous female skeleton in an Anglo-Saxon grave, from kings and queens to clerks and saints, and from individual to the collective biographies, this collection investigates both medieval biographical writings, and the issues surrounding the writing of medieval lives. Professor DAVID BATES is Director of the Institute of Historical Research; Dr JULIA CRICK and DrSARAH HAMILTON teach in the Department of History at the University of Exeter. Contributors: JANET L. NELSON, ROBIN FLEMING, BARBARA YORKE, RICHARD ABELS, SIMON KEYNES, PAULINE STAFFORD, ELISABETH VAN HOUTS, DAVID BATES, JANE MARTINDALE, CHRISTOPHER HOLDSWORTH, LINDY GRANT, MARJORIE CHIBNALL, EDMUND KING, JOHN GILLINGHAM, DAVID CROUCH, NICHOLAS VINCENT

Medieval Intrigue

Medieval Intrigue
Author: Ian Mortimer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2010-09-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1441160493

In this important new work Ian Mortimer examines some of the most controversial questions in medieval history, including whether Edward II was murdered, his possible later life in Italy, the weakness of the Lancastrian claim to the throne in 1399 and the origins of the idea of the royal pretender. Central to this book is his ground-breaking approach to medieval evidence. He explains how an information-based method allows a more certain reading of a series of texts. He criticises existing modes of arriving at consensus and outlines a process of historical analysis that ultimately leads to questioning historical doubts as well as historical facts, with profound implications for what we can say about the past with certainty. This is an important work from one of the most original and popular medieval historians writing today.

The Making of Medieval History

The Making of Medieval History
Author: G. A. Loud
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2017
Genre: History
ISBN: 1903153700

Essays on the discipline of medieval history and its practitioners, from the late eighteenth century onwards. A hugely interesting set of essays, reflecting on a variety of ways in which medieval history has developed to the present time. Scholarship of the highest standard, deeply thought-provoking and deeply engaged with the inheritances and future tasks of medieval academic history. The collection will be essential reading for all medievalists. John Arnold, Professor of Medieval History, University of Cambridge. Medieval history is present in manyforms in our world. Monuments from the Middle Ages or inspired by them are a familiar feature of landscapes across Europe and beyond; the period between the end of the Roman Empire in Western Europe and the Reformation and European expansion is an essential part of our imagination, be it conveyed through literature, the arts, science fiction or even video games; it is also commonly invoked in political debates. Specialists in the field have played a majorrole in shaping modern perceptions of the era. But little is known about the factors that have influenced them and their work. The essays in this volume provide original insights into the fabric and dissemination of medieval history as a scholarly discipline from the late eighteenth century onwards. The case-studies range from the creation of specific images of the Middle Ages to the ways in which medievalists have dealt with European identity, contributed to making and deconstructing myths and, more specifically, addressed questions relating to land and frontiers as well as to religion. GRAHAM A. LOUD is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Leeds;MARTIAL STAUB is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Sheffield. Contributors: Christine Caldwell Ames, Peter Biller, Michael Borgolte, Patrick Geary, Richard Hitchcock, Bernhard Jussen, Joep Leerssen, G.A. Loud, Christian Lübke, Jinty Nelson, Bastian Schlüter, Martial Staub, Ian Wood.

The Medieval Gift and the Classical Tradition

The Medieval Gift and the Classical Tradition
Author: Lars Kjaer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2019-08-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108424023

Explores how classical ideals of generosity influenced the writing and practice of gift giving in medieval Europe.

Early Medieval Winchester

Early Medieval Winchester
Author: Ryan Lavelle
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2021-11-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789256267

Winchester’s identity as a royal centre became well established between the ninth and twelfth centuries, closely tied to the significance of the religious communities who lived within and without the city walls. The reach of power of Winchester was felt throughout England and into the Continent through the relationships of the bishops, the power fluctuations of the Norman period, the pursuit of arts and history writing, the reach of the city’s saints, and more. The essays contained in this volume present early medieval Winchester not as a city alone, but a city emmeshed in wider political, social, and cultural movements and, in many cases, providing examples of authority and power that are representative of early medieval England as a whole.

Ottonian Queenship

Ottonian Queenship
Author: Simon MacLean
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2017-03-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 0192520490

This is the first major study in English of the queens of the Ottonian dynasty (919-1024). The Ottonians were a family from Saxony who are often regarded as the founders of the medieval German kingdom. They were the most successful of all the dynasties to emerge from the wreckage of the pan-European Carolingian Empire after it disintegrated in 888, ruling as kings and emperors in Germany and Italy and exerting indirect hegemony in France and in Eastern Europe. It has long been noted by historians that Ottonian queens were peculiarly powerful - indeed, among the most powerful of the entire Middle Ages. Their reputations, particularly those of the empresses Theophanu (d.991) and Adelheid (d.999) have been commemorated for a thousand years in art, literature, and opera. But while the exceptional status of the Ottonian queens is well appreciated, it has not been fully explained. Ottonian Queenship offers an original interpretation of Ottonian queenship through a study of the sources for the dynasty's six queens, and seeks to explain it as a phenomenon with a beginning, middle, and end. The argument is that Ottonian queenship has to be understood as a feature in a broader historical landscape, and that its history is intimately connected with the unfolding story of the royal dynasty as a whole. Simon MacLean therefore interprets the spectacular status of Ottonian royal women not as a matter of extraordinary individual personalities, but as a distinctive product of the post-Carolingian era in which the certainties of the ninth century were breaking down amidst overlapping struggles for elite family power, royal legitimacy, and territory. Queenship provides a thread which takes us through the complicated story of a crucial century in Europe's creation, and helps explain how new ideas of order were constructed from the debris of the past.

Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World, 1066-1272

Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World, 1066-1272
Author: Laura Cleaver
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2018-05-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 0192523619

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, texts about the recent and more distant past were produced in remarkable numbers in the lands controlled by the kings of England. This may be seen, in part, as a response to changing social and political circumstances in the wake of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The names of many of the twelfth and thirteenth-century historians are well known, and they include Orderic Vitalis, William of Malmesbury, John of Worcester, Henry of Huntingdon, Gerald of Wales, and Matthew Paris. Yet the manuscripts in which these works survive are also evidence for the involvement of many other people in the production of history, as patrons, scribes, and artists. Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World focuses on history books of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to examine what they reveal about the creation, circulation, and reception of history in this period. In particular, this research concentrates on illuminated manuscripts. These volumes represent an additional investment of time, labour, and resources, and combinations of text and imagery shed light on engagements with the past as manuscripts were copied at specific times and places. Imagery could be used to reproduce the features of older sources, but it was also used to call attention to particular elements of a text, and to impose frameworks onto the past. As a result, Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World has the potential to change the way in which we see the medieval past and its historians.

Queenship in Medieval Europe

Queenship in Medieval Europe
Author: Theresa Earenfight
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2017-09-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137303921

Medieval queens led richly complex lives and were highly visible women active in a man's world. Linked to kings by marriage, family, and property, queens were vital to the institution of monarchy. In this comprehensive and accessible introduction to the study of queenship, Theresa Earenfight documents the lives and works of queens and empresses across Europe, Byzantium, and the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages. The book: - Introduces pivotal research and sources in queenship studies, and includes exciting and innovative new archival research - Highlights four crucial moments across the full span of the Middle Ages – ca. 300, 700, 1100, and 1350 – when Christianity, education, lineage, and marriage law fundamentally altered the practice of queenship - Examines theories and practices of queenship in the context of wider issues of gender, authority, and power. This is an invaluable and illuminating text for students, scholars and other readers interested in the role of royal women in medieval society.