Newsletter 20

The Medieval Chronicle. Die mittelalterliche Chronik. La chronique médievale

Newsletter / Bulletin / Rundschreiben 20

Autumn / Automne / Herbst 2018

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9th International Conference of The Medieval Chronicle. Die mittelalterliche Chronik. La Chronique au Moyen Age. 

13 – 17 July 2020, Poznan, Poland

Organizing Institutions:

Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences (Instytut Slawistyki, Polskiej Akademii Nauk) and Adam Mickiewicz University (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza).
For more information on these two institutions, see below.

For more information write to: Ryszard Grzesik, grzesik@man.poznan.pl, or Józef Dobosz, doboszjozef@hotmail.com

Dates: 13 (Monday) to 17 (Friday) July, 2020.

On 18 July (Saturday) there will be two excursions (by coach):

1) The Piast Route1: Gniezno – Strzelno

2) The Piast Route 2: Strongholds Lednica – Grzybowo – Giecz

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Information on the Organizing Institutionsof the 2020 Conference at Poznan

Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences (Instytut Slawistyki, Polskiej Akademii Nauk)

The Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences was established in 1954 and connected a number of research units dealing with Slavic Studies in several fields of the humanities. The editorial team of the eight-volume Słownik starożytności słowiańskich(Lexicon of Slavic Antiquities, henceforth: SSS) was one of these units. The Lexicon was prepared from the early 1950s, although the idea had originated at the turn of 1930s. The edition was finished in the mid 1990s. During the preparation of the SSS, we started a new project: an edition of Testimonia najdawniejszych dziejów Słowian(Testimonies of the Ancient History of the Slavs), which contains excerpts from Greek and Latin narratives with information about the Slavic people in a wider narrative context. The excerpts are published in the original language with a Polish translation and an extensive introduction and commentaries. At first they were edited by Prof. Wincenty Swoboda and Dr. Alina Brzóstkowska, and now by Prof. Anna Kotłowska and Prof. Ryszard Grzesik, both members of the Medieval Chronicle Society.

Adam Mickiewicz University (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza)

The Institute of History at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań was founded in 1956. The traditions of the Poznań historical milieu, however, date back to 1919 and the Historical Seminary at Poznań University, which was transformed in 1950 into the Department of History. Today part of the Faculty of History at Adam Mickiewicz University, the Institute of History has a total of 100 teaching and research staff (including 15 full professors, 50 associate professors and habilitated doctors, and 35 assistant professors), dozens of doctoral students and seven technical and administrative staff members. The Institute educates over 800 first and second degree students in seven specialisations and majors, both in full-time programmes and part-time weekend and individual study formats. Structurally, the Institute is divided into 19 units (Zakłady); it has its own photographic, graphic and computer studios and a publishing house, which every year publishes more than 30 monographs and four journals. The research conducted by the staff covers the full chronological spectrum of universal history (from the history of the Middle East in antiquity to the 20th/21st century) and the history of Poland (from the birth of the Polish statehood to the present), the methodology and theory of history and archival studies.

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The Medieval Chronicle Series

IMPORTANT NOTICE – Permanent 50 per cent Discount for MCS members

Members of the MCS are offered a permanent discount of 50 per cent on any volumes of MedChronif these are ordered directly from the publisher at:

http://www.brill.com/products/series/medieval-chronicle

To obtain the discount price use the discount code: 70257

The Medieval Chronicle 12 is now printing, and will soon be available from the publisher

The Medieval Chronicle13 and 14– In progress

Members are reminded that they may always submit articles or short text editionsfor publication in our series.

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Obituary – Dr David Pattison (1942–2018)

The death on 3 September of Dr David Pattison (Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, since his retirement in 2005), following a long illness, has deprived us of an inspiring teacher and a fine scholar. David had held the post of Tutorial Fellow at Magdalen since 1969. He was the author of From Legend to Chronicle: the treatment of epic material in Alphonsine historiography(Medium Aevum Monographs, NS, 13; Oxford: Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature, 1983). Among his other works were the monograph based on his doctoral thesis, Early Spanish Suffixes(Publications of the Philological Society, 27; Oxford: Blackwell [for the Society],1975) and a good number of articles on medieval Spanish topics. His commitment to learned societies (both in and beyond medieval studies) was notable; he also successfully discharged important administrative roles within his College and University. The Medieval Chronicle Society remembers him as a much appreciated member of the Advisory Board of The Medieval Chronicle, which he joined in 2002. This generous, supportive, and collegial scholar will be sorely missed.

David Hook

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New Projects

The Middle English Prose BrutChronicle

Since 2015, Michelle Warren (Dartmouth College, USA) has been leading a digital research project centered on a Middle English Prose Brutchronicle: Remix the Manuscript: A Chronicle of Digital Experiments (https://sites.dartmouth.edu/RemixBrut). The project team has now published an article describing the first phase of the project in the online journal Archive Journal, http://www.archivejournal.net/essays/remix-the-medieval-manuscript-experiments-with-digital-infrastructure/.

Currently, Remix the Manuscript is focused on rebuilding and revising the online catalogue previously available as Imagining History: Perspectives on Late Medieval Vernacular Historiography. This project was led by John Thompson at Queen’s University, Belfast, with primary contributions from Jason O’Rourke and Ryan Perry (2002-05). Many of the original goals for cultural mapping and data analysis remained incomplete and the catalogue itself has been offline since 2017. Michelle Warren is undertaking a new iteration in partnership with Dartmouth College Library, with the goal of producing a sustainable database as well as other digital outputs. The first data set has been released through theRemixblog; you can subscribe to receive notice of future releases and interim updates at:https://sites.dartmouth.edu/RemixBrut/2018/10/07/re-imaginary-history-release-1-0/

The Canterbury Roll

The Canterbury Roll – A Digital Edition. With Latin transcription, English translation, notes, and introductory material. Ed. Chris Jones, Christopher Thomson, Maree Shirota, Elisabeth Rolston, Thandi Parker, and Jennifer Middendorf. Canterbury University Press, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-98-850307-3

Open Access Digital Facsimile of Christchurch, University of Canterbury, MS 1
The Canterbury Roll is a 15th-century English genealogical text. It was created in the late 1420s/early 1430s and subsequently modified on a number of occasions before final revisions were made to it, most probably during the reign of Richard III (1483–1485). The genealogy is accompanied by an extensive commentary in Latin. The five-metre long manuscript roll, the work of at least four scribes, was purchased by the University of Canterbury in 1918 from the Maude family of Christchurch.

This open access Digital Edition presents a new transcription and English translation of the Roll, both of which are mapped to a high quality digital facsimile. The edition is accompanied by academic apparatus, a detailed introduction, and full documentation. It is embedded within a website that provides further contextual information on the Roll and its history.

The Digital Edition includes:

– A new, high definition facsimile of the complete Canterbury Roll manuscript.

– The first new English translation and Latin transcription of the Roll produced in a century.

– A downloadable edition of Arnold Wall’s 1919 edition of the Roll as well as a “Getting Started” handbook and detailed User Guide.

– Accompanying essays that explore the origins of the Roll, its use as medieval propaganda, and its place in New Zealand history.

The Project Team welcome feedback on any aspect of the project and are particularly interested in commissioning peer review reports that will inform the release of Stage 2 in 2019. Expressions of interest from established scholars and any comments should be sent to the General Editor (chris.jones@canterbury.ac.nz).

The Literary Heritage of Anglo-Dutch Relations, c.1050–1600

This new project, based at the University of Bristol, has been awarded funding from the Leverhulme Trust. It is carried out by professors Ad Putter (Bristol) and Elisabeth van Houts (Cambridge), and postdoc researchers Sjoerd Levelt and Moreed Arbabzadah. It further includes outreach activities, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, in collaboration with special educational needs charity Flash of Splendour Arts, Oscar-winning animation studios Aardman, and the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford, which will host an exhibition in 2020.

Het Berghse Kroniekenhandschrift – New Project and Call for Papers

The Dutch castle “Huis Bergh” in ‘s-Heerenberg (Guelders) has recently acquired a beautifully illustrated manuscript (olimAnholt, Fürstlich Salm-Salm’sche Bibliothek, Ms. Schmitz 42), showing the arms of the lords of Bergh on the opening page. It can be dated to c.1453-1461, and is the earliest surviving and only illustrated chronicle of the Rhime-Meuse area. The manuscript contains twelve chronicles of popes, emperors and various regions in the Low Countries, in particular of the Lower Rhine area.

Call for Papers

Scholars interested in contributing to a volume of studies on the manuscript, its contents and its historical context are invited to submit proposals by 30 November 2018 to Wim van Anrooij (w.van.anrooij@hum.leidenuniv.nl), editor of the volume together with Jeanne Verbij-Schillings. Proposals must include a working title and a short description of the intended article (max. one A4), as well as the name and e-mail address of the author.

For more information, see the website (in Dutch):

https://huisbergh.nl/bezoekersinformatie/collectie/kroniekenhandschrift/call-for-papers/

Hungary and Hungarians in Central and East European Narrative Sources (10th–17th centuries)

On 21-22 March 2018 a conference was held in Pécs on this subject. A volume with papers presented at this conference will next year be published by Pécs University Press. For the programme, see the attachmentto this Newsletter.

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New Publications

England

Livia Visser-Fuchs, History as Pastime. Jean de Wavrin and His Collection of Chronicles of England. Shaun Tyas Publishing, Donnington, UK, 2018; 682 pp.; 16 pp. of colour illustrations; numerous appendices with further details about manuscripts and texts; bibliography; index. ISBN: 9781907730696. $85.95.

The Burgundian author Jean de Wavrin (c.1400–c.1477) has been known to historians for a long time, but his work is usually considered derivative and of little importance. Closer study revealed that he had an interesting career, first serving in the Anglo-Burgundian army, then marrying a rich widow and settling down to a quieter life in Lille, and to composing his vast compilation of histories of England. At the same time he became a supplier of romances to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and an avid collector of all kinds of books for himself. A very unusual draughtsman, whom he almost uniquely patronised, was later named after him. Wavrin’s life as a soldier and civilian, ambassador and courtier, is presented as fully as possible and put in context; his library and his interests are analysed; his own book, its creation, use of sources, purpose and value are discussed, and its often beautifully illustrated surviving manuscripts described and explained.

For a special offer for members of the MCS, see the flyerattached to the Newsletter.

Beal, Jane, ‘The Idea of Music in the Polychronicon.’ The Medieval Chronicle12 (forthcoming 2018).

Beal, Jane, ‘Preaching and History: The Audience of Ranulf Hidgen’s Ars componendi sermones and the Polychronicon.’ Medieval Sermon Studies 62 (forthcoming 2018).

France

Bertrand Boysset, Chronique. Ed. M.-R. Bonnet, P. Gautier Dalché, P. Rigaud. Textes vernaculaires du moyen âge (TVMA 20). Turnhout: Brepols, 2018. 202 p., 7 b/w ill. ISBN: 978-2-503-58053-1. € 75 excl. tax.

La chronique de Bertran Boysset, de la moyenne bourgeoisie d’Arles (v. 1350-1415),est un texte difficile à classer. Elle comporte certains aspects du livre de raison, mais l’intérêt de l’auteur dépasse largement le cercle restreint de l’environnement familial. Proche d’Avignon à l’époque du Grand Schisme, dans une région troublée par les rivalités politiques et les exactions des gens de guerre, l’auteur note non seulement ses activités (l’exploitation de ses vignes et de ses pêcheries), les phénomènes météorologiques, les faits qui sortent de l’ordinaire, mais encore ce qui se passe à la cour papale à Avignon et à Rome, ainsi que les séjours des souverains. C’est un témoignage exceptionnel sur la vie quotidienne et sur la perception du monde d’un laïc de culture moyenne, qui veut par ses écrits se situer dans le cadre plus large d’une cité autrefois prestigieuse.

Rédigée en provençal avec quelques passages en latin, elle est transmise en trois versions, dont deux autographes. On édite ici la deuxième version (Paris, BnF 5728), accompagnée d’une traduction française et d’une introduction.

Patrick Gautier Dalché est directeur de recherche émérite (CNRS, IRHT) et directeur d’études émérites (Ecole pratique des hautes études).

Marie Rose Bonnet, docteur ès- lettres, membre de l’Académie d’Arles, a enseigné la langue et la littérature médiévale de langue d’oc à l’Université de Provence.

Philippe Rigaud, membre de l’Académie d’Arles, est diplômé de l’Ecole pratique des hautes études.

A Knight for the Ages: Jacques de Lalaing and the Art of Chivalry. Ed. Elizabeth Morrison. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2018. 192pp., 94 color illus. ISBN 978-1606065754. $ 55.

In 2016, the Getty acquired one of the greatest productions from the last flowering of Flemish secular manuscript illumination, the finest illuminated copy of the Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalaing (Book of the Deeds of Jacques de Lalaing,Ms. 114 in the collection). The vibrant text and illuminations of the Getty’s manuscript concern the adventurous life of Jacques de Lalaing (1421-1453), celebrated knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece and perhaps the most famed tournament fighter of the Middle Ages. The miniatures largely concentrate on Jacques’s unparalleled feats of arms, as he made his way across Europe challenging and defeating most of the prominent knights of his day. The manuscript’s images have never before been published in color, and the details of the life story of Jacques de Lalaing may be unfamiliar to scholars. Therefore, the first part of the book is devoted to a plot summary and a reproduction of all the manuscript’s miniatures, accompanied by individual translations of the pertinent portions of text. The second part of the book features a series of interdisciplinary essays in a wide range of fields, ranging from a study of its hero’s biography to a consideration of the authors and artists who made the manuscript possible, to the arms and fighting techniques depicted, to the manuscript’s place in the family’s history.

Elizabeth Morrison is senior curator of manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum. The bookcan be purchased on the Getty’s bookstore site at: https://shop.getty.edu/products/a-knight-for-the-ages-jacques-de-lalaing-and-the-art-of-chivalry-978-1606065754#

Germany

Nina Rowe, ‘Shrugging at the Sacred: Dreams, Punishments, and Feasting in the Daniel-Nebuchadnezzar Cycles of Illuminated Weltchroniken, circa 1400.’ Gesta57 (2018): 43-68.

Nina Rowe, ‘Devotion and Dissent in Late-Medieval Illuminated World Chronicles.’ Art History41 (2018): 12-41.

Hungary

The Illuminated Chronicle. of the Deeds of the Hungarians / Chronica de gestis Hungarorum. Ed. and trans. János M. Bak and László Veszprémy, with a preface by Norbert Kersken. CEMT IX. ISBN: 978-963-386-264-3. $85.00 / €70.00 / £62.00, and ISBN 978-963-386-261, $65.00 / €56.00 / £49.00.

TheIlluminated Chronicle was composed in 1358 in the international artistic style at the royal court of Louis I of Hungary. Its text, presented here in a new edition and translation, is the most complete record of Hungary’s medieval historical tradition, going back to the eleventh century and including the mythical past of its people. The 147 pictures in this manuscript – formerly known as the Vienna Chronicle – are not merely occasional illustrations added to some exemplars, but text and image are closely connected and mutually related to each other, to qualify it as a proper “illuminated chronicle”. The artistic value of the miniatures is quite high, and the characters are drawn with detail and with a knowledge of anatomy. Forty-two of the miniatures are included in the present volume. A full color facsimile will be accessible online.

The English translation is based on a newly transcribed Latin text, and a CD with the facsimile of the codex is attached. The volume is accompanied by a Subsidium: Studies to the Illuminated Chronicle, with essays on the codex, the textual tradition, the illuminations, the heraldry and the afterlife of the text. Two studies treat two significant chapters: on the presentation of dynastic struggles in the eleventh century and the central figure of a significant part, King (St.) Ladislas.

Volume 10 of CEMT, the Chronicle of the Czechs by Cosmas of Prague, is soon to be published.

Further details and additional titles of this important series of source material are available on the CEMT website: http://ceupress.com/series/central-european-medieval-texts.

Italy

Storia dei vescovi napoletani (I secolo – 876) / Gesta Episcoporum Neapolitanorum. Ed.and translation into Italian by Luigi Andrea Berto. Pisa: Pisa University Press, 2018. € 18.

Luigi Andrea Berto, Cristiani e musulmani nell’Italia dei primi secoli del Medioevo. Percezioni,scontri e incontri. Milan: Jouvence, 2018. € 20.

Spain / Portugal

David Hook, The Hispanic, Portuguese, and Latin American Manuscripts of Sir Thomas Phillipps. 2 vols. Publications of the Magdalen Iberian Medieval Studies Seminar, 5. Westbury on Trym: Fontaine Notre Dame/David Hook, 2017. ISBN 978-0-9517564-3-0. £ 98.

The catalogue lists all the Iberian historiographic texts, including the Latin ones, that the author has been able to identify in the (notoriously) vast collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps. Volume I is the study of the collection and Phillipps, vol. II is the edited texts of the relevant entries from the extant in-house catalogues produced by Phillipps and his successors (mainly Thomas Fitzroy Fenwick).

Switzerland

Roberto Leggero, Domatori dei prìncipi e altre note di storia svizzera (secoli XII-XVI). Udine: Forum, 2018. 271 pp. ISBN: 8832830701.€ 25.

The book relates to the problem of exploitation of the natural resources in the alpine communities of South Switzerland during Middle Ages. It touches the theme of the construction of real estate assets of the rural communes, the management of common pool resources (CPR) and the role of CPR administration in the political life of medieval Switzerland.

The book offers also a first time edition of Alessandro Giovio’s Description of Switzerland. Alessandro was a nephew of the well-known historian and bishop Paolo Giovio.

Roberto Leggero is Assistente alla ricerca at the USI-Accademia di Architettura, Mendrisio, Italy.

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Brief Notices 

Boydell & Brewer’s Medieval Chronicles Series

Prospective editors of medieval chronicles are invited to contact Dan Embree, Editor of Boydell and Brewer’s Medieval Chronicles Series, at sothsegger@comcast.netor croiniceoir@gmail.com, to discuss projects. We encourage discussions at any stage from vague stirrings to substantial drafts. We are interested in editions of medieval texts in various languages, of collections of short, related texts, and of  previously (but inadequately) edited texts.

Boydell & Brewer’s Writing History in the Middle AgesSeries

History-writing was a vital form of expression throughout the European Middle Ages, and is fundamental to our understanding of medieval societies, politics, modes of expression, cultural memory, and social identity. This series publishes innovative work on history-writing from across the medieval world; monographs, collections of essays. Editions of texts will also be considered.

For more information, write to the Series Editors:

Dr Henry Bainton, Department of English and Related Literature, University of York.  henry.bainton@york.ac.uk

Professor Lars Boje Mortensen, Head of Centre, University of Southern Denmark  labo@sdu.dk

And see also: Writing History in the Middle Ages series

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Research Stipends

Notre Dame’s programs for visiting medievalists (from Julia Marvin)

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/
http://homepages-nw.uni-regensburg.de/~dug22463/FAZ_22May2011_p60-63.PDF

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MCS Twitter Account

The Medieval Chronicle Society has a Twitter account to accompany its website. The account is being run by Professor Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool) and will be used to provide short updates about 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 Professor 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 Professor 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.

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The Medieval Chronicle Society – https://medievalchronicle.org/

For information contact:

Dr Erik Kooper, Dept of English – Utrecht University – The Netherlands, E-mail: e.s.kooper@[at]uu.nl

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