Newsletter 11
Planned 7th International Conference of The Medieval Chronicle, Liverpool July 2014
At the General Meeting on the last day of the conference in Pécs last year it was decided to accept the offer of the University of Liverpool to host the 7th International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle in July 2014. The organsiers are well known to regular congress participants, and our webmasters as well: Godfried Croenen and Sarah Peverley. For more information, see the end of this Newsletter.
MCS Twitter Account
The Medieval Chronicle Society now has a Twitter account to accompany its website. The account is being run by Dr Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool) and will be used to provide short updates about the 2014 Medieval Chronicle conference, other chronicle conferences and symposia (which have reached the ‘call for papers’ stage), large funded research projects involving medieval chronicles, and newly published editions and/or monographs on chronicles. If members would like Dr Peverley to ‘tweet’ about any of the above on their behalf please contact her at S.Peverley{at]liv.ac.uk. Twitter messages are limited to 140 characters and to avoid being overwhelmed with requests Dr Peverley will only ‘tweet’ about publications and events that are chronicle related. The Twitter account is @medievalchron so please follow us and spread the word.
The Medieval Chronicle Series, The Medieval Chronicle VIII
At this moment it is clear that most of the space of vol. VIII will go to papers read at the conference in Pécs in 2011. This volume will appear in the spring of 2013.
Call for contributions for vols. IX and X
Members are reminded that we are – of course – already looking ahead to vols. IX and X, for which they encouraged to submit papers. Those who intend to do so are requested to use the stylesheet attached to this Newsletter.
Research Stipends, Notre Dame’s programs for visiting medievalists
The Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame has several year-long and short-term programs for visiting scholars, including an A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Medieval Studies (for faculty at US institutions), Stipends for Short-term Postdoctoral Research, Stipends for Ambrosiana Microfilms Collection Research, and the SIEPM Fellowship in Medieval Philosophy. For more information, see http://www.nd.edu/~medinst/funding/funding.html
Notre Dame has substantial collections of microfilms and facsimiles, which may be searched here:
http://medieval.library.nd.edu/mss_microfilms/
http://medieval.library.nd.edu/mss_facs/
New Publications
Cambridge International Chronicle Symposium 2010 – Proceedings
Julia Dresvina and Nick Sparks, eds., Authority and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, 2012. ISBN 1-4438-4145-5. £ 55, $ 83.
Dr Juliana Dresvina was educated in Moscow, Oxford and Cambridge. She is currently a British Academy postdoctoral fellow at King’s College London and a research member of Wolfson College. Dr Nicholas Sparks gained his first degree in Australia, and received his PhD at the University of Cambridge. He is Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, and Assistant Librarian at the Warburg Institute.
This volume is an attempt to discuss the ways in which themes of authority and gender can be traced in the writing of chronicles and chronicle-like writings from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance. With major contributions by fourteen authors, each of them specialists in the field, their studies span full across the compass of medieval and early modern Europe, from England and Scandinavia to Byzantium and the Crusader Kingdoms, embrace a variety of media and methods, and touch evidences from diverse branches of learning such as language and literature, history and art, to name just a few. This is an important collection which will be of the highest utility for students and scholars of language, literature, and history for many years to come
For further information, see:
Classical Antiquity – Early Middle Ages
R. W. Burgess and Michael Kulikowski, Mosaics of Time, The Latin Chronicle Traditions from the First Century BC to the Sixth Century AD. Vol. I. A Historical Introduction to the Chronicle Genre from its Origins to the High Middle Ages. Turnhout: Brepols, 2013; ISBN 978-2-503-53140-3; approx. xiv + 413 pp.; € 95.
This long delayed book will finally be appearing in the new year (we are just finishing the proofs now). This is a comprehensive study of the history of the chronicle genre from Assyria and Babylonia in the second millennium BC to Europe and Byzantium in the twelfth century AD and beyond. The contents are as follows:
Chapter 1. Nomenclature and Genre
Chapter 2. Early Chronicles in the Mediterranean World
Chapter 3. Apologetic Chronography and the Chronographic Works of Eusebius
Chapter 4. The Early Development of Calendars and Consularia
Chapter 5. Consularia and Chronicles in the Later Roman Empire
Chapter 6. Chronicles in the Middle Ages
Conclusion
Appendices
1. The Origin of the Term χρονικη/Chronica
2. The Meaning of the Word Annales
3. Excerpts from Babylonian Chronicles
4. Excerpts from Greek Chronicles in the Greek and Roman Worlds
5. Excerpts from Roman Consularia and Chronicles
6. The Newly Published Leipzig Chronograph
7. Eusebius’s Sources for Secular History and the Identities of Cassius Longinus and Thallus
8. Livy’s Foundation Date
http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503531403-1
Crusades, Jews and Muslims
Shmuel Shepkaru, ‘The Preaching of the First Crusade and the Persecution of the Jews,’ The Journal of Medieval Encounters, 2012: 93-135.
The main sources are the versions of Pope Urban II’s speech at Clermont, and the Hebrew Chronicles of the First Crusade. Additional sources are by St. Bernard of Clervaux and several Jewish accounts about the Second and Third Crusades.
The Francophone World
Violence and the Writing of History in the Medieval Francophone World. Ed. Noah D. Guynn and Zrinka Stahuljak Woodbridge: D.S.Brewer, 2013; ISBN 9781843843375; 224 pp.; £ 50.
Noah D. Guynn is Associate Professor of French at the University of California, Davis. Zrinka Stahuljak is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Medieval historiography is here challenged and reassessed as “usable past.” the contributors’ shared claim is that the value of medieval historiographical texts lies not only in the factual information the texts contain but also in the methods and styles they use to represent and interpret the past and make it ideologically productive. Violence is adopted as the key term that best demonstrates the making of historical meaning in the Middle ages, through the transformation of acts of physical aggression and destruction into a memorable and usable past.
The twelve chapters assembled here explore a wide array of texts, including chansons de geste, histories, chronicles, travel writing, and lyric poetry. These texts emanate from throughout the francophone world and encompass a broad span of time, from the late eleventh century through the fifteenth. Through examination of topics as varied as rhetoric, imagery, humor, gender, sexuality, trauma, subversion, and community formation, the twelve chapters strive to demonstrate how knowledge of the medieval past can be enhanced by approaching medieval modes of historical representation and consciousness on their own terms, and by acknowledging – and resisting – the desire to subject them to modern conceptions of historical intelligibility.
Contributors: Rosalind Brown-Grant, Andrew Cowell, Matthew Fisher, Simon Gaunt, Noah D. Guynn, Deborah McGrady, Jeff Rider, David Rollo, Leah Shopkow, Zrinka Stahuljak, and Karen Sullivan.
Catalonia
Authoring the Past. History, Autobiography, and Politics in Medieval Catalonia, ed. Jaume Aurell. The University of Chicago Press, 2012 [http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo12778575.html] 328 pages | 2 maps, 1 table | 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 | © 2012 Cloth $45.00 ISBN: 9780226032320 Published April 2012. E-book $7.00 to $36.00 About E-books ISBN: 9780226032344 Published March 2012
Jaume Aurell is associate professor in the Department of History and dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Navarra, Spain.
Authoring the Past surveys medieval Catalan historiography, shedding light on the emergence and evolution of historical writing and autobiography in the Middle Ages, on questions of authority and authorship, and on the links between history and politics during the period. Jaume Aurell examines texts from the late twelfth to the late fourteenth century—including the Latin Gesta comitum Barcinonensium and four texts in medieval Catalan: James I’s Llibre dels fets, the Crònica of Bernat Desclot, the Crònica of Ramon Muntaner, and the Crònica of Peter the Ceremonious—and outlines the different motivations for the writing of each. For Aurell, these chronicles are not mere archaeological artifacts but rather documents that speak to their writers’ specific contemporary social and political purposes. He argues that these Catalonian counts and Aragonese kings were attempting to use their role as authors to legitimize their monarchical status, their growing political and economic power, and their aggressive expansionist policies in the Mediterranean. By analyzing these texts alongside one another, Aurell demonstrates the shifting contexts in which chronicles were conceived, written, and read throughout the Middle Ages. The first study of its kind to make medieval Catalonian writings available to English-speaking audiences, Authoring the Past will be of interest to scholars of history and comparative literature, students of Hispanic and Romance medieval studies, and medievalists who study the chronicle tradition in other languages.
England
Matthew Fisher, Scribal Authorship and the Writing of History in Medieval England. Ohio State University Press, 2012; 296 pp.; $54.95 cloth; ISBN 978-0-8142-1198-4.
Matthew Fisher is Assistant Professor of English at the University of alifornia, Los Angeles. Based on new readings of some of the least-read texts by some of the best-known scribes of later medieval England, Scribal Authorship and the Writing of History in Medieval England reconceptualizes medieval scribes as authors, and the texts surviving in medieval manuscripts as authored. Culling evidence from history writing in later medieval England, Matthew Fisher concludes that we must reject the axiomatic division between scribe and author. Using the peculiarities of authority and intertextuality unique to medieval historiography, Fisher exposes the rich ambiguities of what it means for medieval scribes to “write” books. He thus frames the composition, transmission, and reception—indeed, the authorship—of some medieval texts as scribal phenomena. History writing is an inherently intertextual genre: in order to write about the past, texts must draw upon other texts. Scribal Authorship demonstrates that medieval historiography relies upon quotation, translation, and adaptation in such a way that the very idea that there is some line that divides author from scribe is an unsustainable and modern critical imposition. Given the reality that a scribe’s work was far more nuanced than the simplistic binary of error and accuracy would suggest, Fisher completely overturns many of our assumptions about the processes through which manuscripts were assembled and texts (both canonical literature and the less obviously literary) were composed.
England – Holinshed’s Chronicles
The Oxford Handbook of Holinshed’s Chronicles, ed. Paulina Kewes, Ian Archer, and Felicity Heal Oxford University Press, 2012.
The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1577, 1587), issued under the name of Raphael Holinshed, was the crowning achievement of Tudor historiography, and became the principal source for the historical writings of Spenser, Daniel and, above all, Shakespeare. While scholars have long been drawn to Holinshed for its qualities as a source, they typically dismissed it as a baggy collection of materials, lacking coherent form and analytical insight. This condescending verdict has only recently given way to an appreciation of the literary and historical qualities of these chronicles. The various sections of the Handbook analyse the making of the two editions of the Chronicles; the relationship of the work to medieval and early modern historiography; its formal properties, genres and audience; attitudes to politics, religion, and society; literary appropriations; and the parallel descriptions and histories of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The result is a seminal study that shows unequivocally the vitality and complexity of the chronicle form in the late sixteenth century
France
Loïc Colella-Denis, ‘Vive bourgogne ! Arras ville gagnée!’ Récit de la prise et de l’occupation des ville et cité d’Arras par les troupes de Maximilien d’Autriche (nov. 1492- sept. 1493). St Martin Boulogne: Cercle d’Études en Pays Boulonnais, 2013. 140 pages, 20 illustrations. € 15.
Loïc Colella-Denis est un doctorant en littérature médiévale; il prépare une thèse sur les Mémoires de Jacques du Clercq à l’université du Littoral-Cote d’Opale à Dunkerque. Il s’agit d’un récit de la prise d’Arras de 1492 par les troupes de Maximilien de Habsbourg alors que la ville était au mains du roi de France, Charles VIII. Le texte a été écrit à partir de chroniques, en particulier :
– le Journal de Gérard Robert, moine à l’abbaye de Saint-Vaast d’Arras à la fin du XVe siècle
– les Die Geschichten und Taten Wilwolts von Schaumburg de Ludwig von Eyb
– les Chroniques de Jean Molinet
Du haut de la muraille de la ville, en surplomb de la petite porte d’Hagerue dans la serrure de laquelle il venait de tourner une clef, Grisart scrutait l’horizon. Il attendait depuis de longues minutes déjà en compagnie de la lune blanche posée sur un fond noir, comme un patard suspendu au ciel qu’il pouvait presque caresser de la main. Avec cette alliée, rencontrée là par hasard, le boulanger pouvait jeter un regard au loin, au-delà des fortifications et des fossés emplis d’eau qui protégeaient la place, plus loin que les faubourgs plantés de clochers et que la campagne endormie. Le léger vent frais qui berçait ses lourds cheveux blancs ne perturbait pas son immobilité : l’homme était aussi droit et figé que les tours qui ponctuaient l’enceinte d’Arras. Aucune émotion ne transparaissait, même lorsque son cœur s’accélérait à la pensée que, peut-être, ceux qu’il attendait ne viendraient pas….
Des renseignements sont disponibles sur le site internet: http://cepb.info/index.html.
Lisa Fagin Davis, La Chronique Anonyme Universelle. Reading and Writing History in Fifteenth-Century France. Studies in Medieval and Early Renaissance Art History. Brepols: Turnhout, 2012; ISBN 978-1-905375-55-4. Appr. € 100.
Per Förnegård : Les démonstratifs dans une compilation historique du XIVe siècle : préfixation, microsystèmes, cooccurrences. Stockholm : Runica et Mediaevalia ; 110 pp.; ISBN 978-91-88568-53-3.
Justin Lake, Richer of Saint-Rémi: The Methods and Mentality of a Tenth-Century Historian. The Catholic University of America Press, 2013; 336 pp.; ISBN 978-0-8132-2125-0. $ 70.
Justin Lake is Assistant Professor of Classics in the Department of International Studies at Texas A&M University.
The History written by Richer of Saint-Rémi (ca. 950–1000) is one of the only contemporary narrative sources for the history of France in the tenth century, a tumultuous period in which the Carolingian and Capetian dynasties fought for control of the throne while Viking raiders inflicted chaos upon the realm, and ambitious nobles expanded their own power at the expense of the monarchy. Besides describing the battles, betrayals, and shifting allegiances that characterized tenth-century political culture, and providing accounts of the major ecclesiastical disputes of his day, Richer’s history contains the only contemporary account of the life and career of Gerbert of Aurillac, the brilliant scholar and controversial prelate who served as master of the cathedral school of Rheims before being elected archbishop of Rheims, and later pope (as Sylvester II). Building upon, but also moving beyond, previous scholarship that has focused on Richer’s political allegiances and his views of kingship, this study by Justin Lake provides the most comprehensive synthesis of the History, examining Richer’s use and abuse of his sources, his relationship to Gerbert, and the motives that led him to write. Not only are Richer’s principal written sources all extant, but so is his autograph manuscript, giving readers an unrivaled window into the working methods of a tenth-century historian. Lake situates Richer within the broader scholastic culture of the late tenth-century Latin West and explores the ways in which classical rhetoric, newly revived as a focus of instruction at Rheims by Gerbert, affected the way in which Richer wrote. In particular, he analyzes his use of the classical rhetorical doctrine of plausible narrative (narratio probabilis) in reworking his source material, his composition of speeches and dramatic scenes, and the way in which he used his history as a means of self-fashioning and self-memorialization.
Jean de Noyal, Miroir historial : livre X. Édition critique par Per Förnegård. Genève : Droz ; 640 pp.; ISBN 2600015477. Appr. € 60. Per Förnegård est chercheur auprès de l’Académie royale suédoise des Belles-Lettres, de l’Histoire et des Antiquités.
Chronique universelle compilée en 1388 par Jean de Noyal, abbé de Saint-Vincent de Laon, le Miroir historial formait, à l’origine, douze livres qui retraçaient l’histoire du monde depuis la Création jusqu’en 1380. Seuls les trois derniers livres sont parvenus jusqu’à nous. Dans ce volume est édité le livre X, qui couvre les années 1223 à 1328. L’histoire de la France et de ses rois y est amplement traitée de même que celle du Saint-Siège et du Saint Empire. L’abbé fait également des digressions sur l’état de la Terre sainte et sur les us et coutumes des Mongols. Enfin, il trace brièvement l’histoire de ses prédécesseurs à l’abbaye de Saint-Vincent. Le présent volume est doté d’une introduction ainsi que d’un index verborum et d’un index nominum qui inventorient l’ensemble des mots, des formes et des noms propres du texte édité. En outre sont recensées toutes les sources auxquelles Jean de Noyal a eu recours pour composer sa chronique. See also: http://www.droz.org/fr/livre/?GCOI=26001100924040.
Frisia and Groningen (Netherlands)
F.A.H. van den Hombergh and E.O. van der Werff, assisted by A.J. Rinzema, eds. Kroniek van Sicke Benninge – Croniken der Vreescher landen mijtten Zoeven Seelanden ende der stadt Groningen. The Hague, 2012; cxxxiv, 720 pp. (two vols.); ISBN 978-90-5216-180-8.
This is a regional chronicle about the history of Frisia and Groningen, consisting of three parts: the descent of the Frisians from the Trojans (including a discussion on Frisian liberty), an inserted chronicle on the years 1110-1478, and as its pièce de resistance a chronicle on the period 1491-1530.
Germany
Lars-Arne Dannenberg und Mario Müller, eds., Chronicon Silesiae ab anno Christi 1052 usque in annum 1573. (Scriptores rerum lusaticarum, Bd. 6) Görlitz-Zittau: Verlag Günther Oettel, 2011; 172 S.; ISBN 978-3-938583-67-8.
Josef Dolle, ed., Niedersächsisches Klosterbuch. Verzeichnis der Klöster, Stifte, Kommenden und Beginenhäuser in Niedersachsen und Bremen von den Anfängen bis 1810. 4 Bände. (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Historische Landesforschung der Universität Göttingen Bd. 56, 1-4).
Bielefeld: Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 2012; 2296 pp.; ISBN 978-3-89534-956-0. € 29 pro Band.
Viele Artikel haben in den Abschnitten 2.4 ‘Kulturelle und spirituelle Leistungen’ und 3 ‘Gedruckte und ungedruckte Quellen’ Hinweise auf Chroniken, die in den Klöstern entstanden.
Jordan von Giano O.Min., Chronik vom Anfang der Minderbrüder in Deutschland (Chronica Fratris Jordani). [lat.-dt.] Eingeführt […] kritisch ediert sowie mit einem Anhang ihrer Weiterführungen ins Deutsche übertragen und hg. von Johannes Schlageter OFM. (= Quellen z. franziskanischen Geschichte, Bd. 1) Norderstedt: Books on Demand 2012; 184 S.; ISBN 978-3-8482-1737-3.
Steffen Patzold, Anja Rathmann-Lutz und Volker Scior, eds., Geschichtsvorstellungen. Bilder, Texte und Begriffe aus dem Mittelalter. Festschrift für Hans-Werner Goetz zum 65. Geburtstag. Wien: Böhler Verlag, 2012; 574 pp.; ISBN: 978-3-412-20898-1; ca. € 65.
Seit geraumer Zeit beschäftigt sich die Mediävistik vermehrt mit der Analyse von Wahrnehmungen, Deutungen und Vorstellungen der Zeitgenossen. Sie versteht die Geschichtsschreibung der Epoche zunehmend von ihren Entstehungs- und Überlieferungsbedingungen her und interpretiert sie vergleichend. Sie arbeitet zeitgenössische Bilder und Vorstellungen über Institutionen, Personen und Völker heraus und sie interessiert sich für die Bilder, die in späteren Epochen vom Mittelalter entworfen wurden. Der vorliegende Band vereint mehr als 20 Aufsätze zur Historiographie-, Vorstellungs- und Rezeptionsgeschichte des gesamten Mittelalters, die von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern aus dem In- und Ausland stammen.
Russia
Iliana Tschekova, ‘Равноапостолният княз Владимир в “Повест за изминалите години” – семиотика на княжеската святост.’ In Класика и канон в руската литература. Българският поглед. С., 2012, 20-30. (in Bulgarian)
This article analyzes the narrative about king Vladimir I and the Christian baptisms in the Old Slavic Nestorchronik Povest vremennyh let.
–––, ‘Св. Георгий Победоносец и св. Димитрий Солунский в культурной традиции Киевской Руси.’ In In stolis repromissionis. Светци и святост в централна и източна Европа (In stolis repromissionis. Saints and Sainthood in Central and Eastern Europe). Ed. А. Ангушева-Тиханова, М. Димитрова, Р. Костова, Р. Малчев. Sophia, 2012. Pp. 211-22. (In Russian, with a summary in English)
In diesem Artikel wurde eine Geschichte in der altrussischen Nestorchronik Povest vremennyh let betrachtet mit biblischen und agiologischen Vorbilder, die für die Aufbauen der fürstlichen Heiligkeit dienen. Es ist möglich, daß das Model des bulgarischen Fürsten Boris I und der slavischen Apolstel Cyril und Method eine Wirkung auf das Model des Fürsten Vladimir (und Jaroslav) geübt haben.
In the same volume:
Andrej Ranchin, ‘The conversion of St Constantine the Great in the Chronicle of Georgios Namartolos and the Baptism of Prince Vladimir Svjatoslvitch in Povest vremennyh let.’ Pp. 92-108. (In Russian, with a summary in English).
Scotland
The Annals of Multyfarnham, ed. Bernadette Williams. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2012; 240pp; illustrated; ISBN 978-1-84682-333-6; €55.00.
This edition of the ‘Annals of Multyfarnham’ explores the reason why these annals were so named and it now suggests a Roscommon provenance. The annals begin in AD45 and were written by Stephen de Exonia who tells us that he was born in 1246 and entered the Franciscan order in 1263 when he was aged 17. His own personal contribution to the annals begins in 1261 and it is possible to determine, from internal evidence, that he was writing the annals during the period 1272 and 1274 when the annals cease. Roscommon or its close environs is the focus of interest beginning with the building of the castle and a year later, 1269, the establishment of the Franciscans in Roscommon, which is the only extant medieval reference to that friary, which was burnt a year later. Richard de Exonia was then in charge of Roscommon castle and the names of his three wives and birth of a son are recorded. The Irish names in the annals also reflect familiarity with Connacht and the military activity of Áed O’Connor, king of Connacht, whose death is recorded in 1274.
For full details see: http://www.fourcourtspress.ie/product.php?intProductID=1063
Short Scottish Prose Chronicles, ed. Dan Embree, Edward Donald Kennedy and Kathleen Daly, with Latin translations by Susan Edgington. Medieval Chronicles 5. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2012. ix ~395 pp.; ISBN 978-1-84383-745-9.
Wales
David Stephenson, ‘The chronicler at Cwm-hir abbey, 1257-63: the construction of a Welsh chronicle.’ In R. A. Griffiths and P. R. Schofield (eds.), Wales and the Welsh in the Middle Ages (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 2011), pp. 29-45.
Exhibitions
Pracht auf Pergament – Schätze der Buchmalerei von 780 bis 1180, Magnificent Manuscripts – Treasures of Book Illumination from 780 through 1180, 19 October 2012 – 13 January 2013, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek – Ludwigstr. 16 – 80539 München – Germany
With 72 extraordinary manuscripts from the collection of the Bavarian State Library, as well as three exceptional works from the Bamberg State Library, the Kunsthalle of the Hypo Cultural Foundation presents a wide overview of the earliest and most precious examples of German book illumination.These 75 magnificent volumes represent some of the greatest cultural and artistic achievements of the Carolingian, Ottonian and Romanesque eras. Within this library’s extensive collection, the Ottonian manuscripts in particular form a unique nucleus that is unsurpassed worldwide. Owing to their extraordinary fragility, these highly valuable works can hardly ever leave the library’s vault. This exhibition of original manuscripts therefore offers a unique opportunity to discover thousand-year-old testimonies to our cultural heritage. The oldest manuscript on display dates from the era of the last Bavarian Agilolfing duke. The Carolingian codices from the illumination centres of Salzburg, Tegernsee and Freising bear witness to the high quality of artistry in the 9th century. German illumination under the Saxon emperors from Otto the Great (912-973) to Henry II (973-1024), is one of the most glorious epochs of early occidental illumination, which played a prominent role in the arts at that time. Among the greatest achievements of this Ottonian period are the magnificent depictions of sovereigns. These establish a connection between the secular and the sacred, and underline the sanctity of imperial power. Secular and ecclesiastical rulers commissioned liturgical manuscripts from the best writing schools and illumination centres: these gospels, pericopes and sacramentaries were richly decorated with luminous colours and gold. Their ingeniously tooled luxurious bindings are encrusted with numerous precious stones, cameos and ivory reliefs, including spolia dating from the classical, Byzantine and Carolingian periods. Four world-famous sumptuous codices from the island of Reichenau, whose monastery became the imperial scriptorium under Otto III and Henry II, are on show, including the gospels of Otto III and the pericopes of Henry II. Together with the evangeliary from Bamberg cathedral and the Bamberg Apocalypse, these books have been listed on UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” World Documentary Heritage register since 2003. The importance of Regensburg as a centre for the creation of sumptuous codices is demonstrated by two magnificent liturgical manuscripts, the Codex commissioned by the Abbess Uta and the Sacramentary of Henry II. The art of Ottonian illumination outlasted the Saxon rulers until well into the Salian period. The date of the transition from Ottonian to Romanesque art cannot be precisely defined. Other selected manuscripts from the Bavarian State Library illustrate the continuity into the 11th century right up to the threshold of the Romanesque, at the same time following the development of Romanesque book illumination and its flourishing in the following century up to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1122-1190).
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.
More information, images and contact adresses under
http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/Detailed-information.403+M5a20f3cfe33.0.html
http://www.hypo-kunsthalle.de/newweb/buchmalerei.html
Varia
Call for Papers
“Historical Genres in the 21st Century”
(Special issue of Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice)
Date: 31 January 2013
Essays are sought for a special issue of Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice entitled “Historical Genres in the 21th century”. This themed issue aims to create a discussion about genre within current historical and historiographical practice today. Our evolving understanding of the importance of form in the inscription of history makes a discussion of the role of genre imperative. Traditionally, historians have tended to think of genres and modes of writing as rigid compartments within which they structure their texts, and as categories from which readers comprehend these texts. More recently, several forms of historiography have viewed genres as living forms in flux and as flexible structures that invite more creative and experimental representations of the past. The proliferation of new historical genres—film, media, comics, novel, graphic narratives, poetry, biopics, dramas—challenges the conventional historical prose models. I invite the submission of essays that explore the ways history is being inscribed, articulated, represented, and performed in the 21st century, and the function and functioning of the historical genres. The essays may also be theoretical or focus on a particular genre or text.
500-word abstracts must be submitted to the editor of the special issue, Jaume Aurell (saurell@unav.es) before January 31, 2013. Final papers (6000 words) will be due on November 30, 2013.
Prof. Jaume Aurell, Department of History, University of Navarra, Spain.
Phone: +948 42 56 00. Ext. 2159
Email: saurell@unav.es
Visit the website at http://www.tandfonline.com/rrhi
Project: Peter of Poitiers and His Chronicle – Jean-Baptiste Piggin
Before recent digitization projects, the biblical chronicle in diagram form which was compiled in the late 12th century by Peter of Poitiers (Petrus Pictaviensis) had never been easily available to scholars. Now, about 20 of the manuscripts of this Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi, several of them in roll form, can be conveniently consulted using open-access internet sites. As a small independent-scholarship project, Jean-Baptiste Piggin in Germany has begun a survey to list as many of the manuscripts as possible and establish which of them are online in high resolution. He is also planning to digitally plot one of the earliest uninterpolated manuscripts, for example Harvard Ms. Typ 216, and put this online to aid further research. It is generally believed that Peter planned and designed the whole work to be displayed on a roll, and that it was only later sectioned to appear in codices. The sortable manuscript list, which is a work in progress, is already online at http://www.piggin.net/stemmahist/petercatalog.htm Mr Piggin, who also blogs about historic infographic charts at http://macrotypography.blogspot.com/, welcomes any contributions and advice. He has already published findings on the same website about a much older diagrammatic chronicle which is found in Spanish bibles and Apocalypse Commentaries. That earlier, anonymous diagram, which appears to be of Late Antique authorship, combines a chronographic survey with a genealogy of Jesus and could well be described as one of the world’s oldest data visualizations. An article about it is forthcoming in Studia Patristica.
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The Medieval Chronicle Society
For information contact:
Dr Erik Kooper
Dept of English
Trans 10
3512 JK Utrecht – The Netherlands
E-mail: e.s.kooper{at}uu.nl
Planned 7th International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle, Liverpool 2014.
The University of Liverpool will host the Seventh International Conference the Medieval Chronicle in July 2014 on behalf of The Medieval Chronicle society.
The University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool was founded in 1881 and was granted its Royal Charter in 1903, confirming its degree‐conferring powers. The University of Liverpool has an impressive history of pioneering education and research, with a particular emphasis on ‘education for the professions’ and applied sciences. The University currently has 27,000 students pursuing 400 programmes in 54 subject areas. Although the sciences are one of the University’s research strengths (it counts 9 Nobel laureates amongst its current and former staff) the University is also strong on Humanities research. Its Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences covers most humanities disciplines.
Medieval Studies at Liverpool
The University has been the home to several famous medievalists in the past, and medieval studies is still a thriving subject at Liverpool. Apart from the Chair of Medieval History based in the School of History, different departments include medievalists amongst their academic staff. The Liverpool medievalists are all members of the Liverpool Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (LCMRS), a hub for interdisciplinary study and research of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Europe, the Near East and Africa from c.300 to c.1700. The Centre involves scholars from several disciplines (Archaeology, Classics, English Language and Literature, French Language and Literature, Hispanic Studies, History) and academic institutions and heritage organisations across the North West of England. The Centre regularly organises conferences, workshops, seminars and lectures. It also runs a successful MA in Medieval and Renaissance studies.
The organisers
The Seventh Medieval Chronicle conference conference would be sponsored by the LCMRS (with its director Dr Harald Braun). The local organising committee is comprised of Dr Godfried Croenen (French), Dr Damien Kempf (History) and Dr Sarah Peverley (English).
Date
The final date will be decided after consultation with the Society’s officers and will avoid other major medievalists conference. If possible we will try to choose a date which would enable delegates to attend other conferences in the region (in particular IMC Leeds). Whereas previous conferences in the cycle sometimes stretched over five days, the local organisers propose to cut this back to three days so as to keep the cost reasonable for conference delegates.
The Medieval Chronicle 
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