The Medieval Chronicle/ Die mittelalterliche Chronik/ La chronique médiévale

Newsletter / Bulletin / Rundschreiben 23

Autumn / Automne / Herbst 2021

At the General Meeting that concluded the 8th International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle in Lisbon in 2017, Ryszard Grzesik, on behalf of his colleagues in Poznań, offered to organize the 2020 conference. When, early in 2020, it became clear that the conference had to be moved to 2021, and had to be organized as an online event, they simply set to work to do it. And in spite of innumerable obstacles, the resulting conference was a great success, for which the organizers deserve our compliments.

In spite of the fact that it was entirely online, also this conference was concluded with a General Meeting. At this Meeting the President of the Medieval Chronicle Society, Graeme Dunphy, announced that there had been an offer that the next conference would be held in Nancy, France. Isabelle Guyot-Bachy and Adrien Quéret-Podesta then treated the audience to an enticing and entirely convincing presentation, making clear that the University of Lorraine in Nancy would be an excellent place to host the 2023 conference. Not surprisingly the proposal was accepted unanimously.

(For the full minutes of the General Meeting, see the the final page of this Newsletter)

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Nancy is a major campus of the university of Lorraine, with 52 000 students in 2020; its urban area hosts one of the most important healthcare and technology clusters in Europe, internationally famous for its innovations in surgical robotics. However, it is on the Literature and Humanities campus that we wish to welcome you, not far from the building of ATILF, a significant CNRS laboratory specialised in linguistics, which for some fifty years now has been focusing on the study and knowledge of the French language. It designed and still expands the Dictionary of Middle French, which is especially useful for anyone studying texts written in medieval romance languages.

The CRULH (Lorraine University Research Center for History) brings together historians, archaeologists, art historians and musicologists specializing in all periods of history. It aims to supervise and boost research carried out at the University of Lorraine in these fields, whether at a regional, national or international level.

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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 MedChron if 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 14 (2021) is printing, and will be available later this year. The Medieval Chronicle 15 and 16 – In progress

Members are reminded that they may submit articles at any time, in particular editions of short chronicle texts (full texts or important sections) which cannot easily be published elsewhere

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New Publications

General

Fulvio Delle Donne, Paolo Garbini, Marino Zabbia, Scrivere storia nel medioevo Regolamentazione delle forme e delle pratiche nei secoli XII-XV. Roma: Viella, 2021. Pp. 356. ISBN ISBN: 9788833137193. € 38.

The essays collected in this volume seek to answer the questions as to which were distinctive features of historical writing and when the writing of history became a profession. It is proposed that a gradual professionalization of history writing began from the end of the twelfth century, leading to the codification of rules in the fifteenth. It includes a contribution by Jakub Kujawinski.

Gabrielle Spiegel, ‘David Carr’s Theory of Experiencing Times Past.’ History and Theory, Theme Issue 56 (2018), online supplement to Volume 57, no. 4 (December 2018). 

—, ‘The Limits of Empiricism: The Utility of Theory in Historical Thought and Writing.’ Medieval History Journal 44 (2018: 1-22).

—, ‘A Response to François Hartog,  Chronos, Kairos, Krisis: The Genesis of Western Time.’ In History and Theory 60 (2021: 440-443).

England

Lloyd de Beer and Naomi Speakman, Thomas Becket: murder and the making of a saint. London: Thames and Hudson, 2021. ISBN 9780714128382. £35.00, but £30.00 for members of the Medieval Chronicle Society, quoting the reference ‘Medieval Society Offer’. See the website:

Thomas Becket: murder and the making of a saint

Exhibition catalogue for the new British Museum exhibition. Becket was assassinated in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 (his head cleaved in two by a gang of knights) and his reputation has suffered its own schism ever since, swinging from saint to ‘traitor’, in the eyes of Henry VIII, and back again.

Discount offer by John Sandoe (Books) Ltd.

Trevor Russell Smith, ‘Authorship and Further Manuscripts of the Gesta regis Ricardi secundi and Vita Ricardi secundi.’ Notes and Queries, 67 (2021 for 2020: 475–80).

—, ’The Cronica bona et compendiosa and Shorter Fourteenth-Century Histories of England.’ Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 97 (2021: 19–42).

Gemma Wheeler, Gaimar’s Estoire des Engleis: Kingship and Power. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2021. 228 pp. ISBN: 9781843846079. £70/$130.  

Geffrei Gaimar’s Estoire des Engleis is its author’s sole surviving work. His translation and adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, expanded with a number of lengthy interpolations which appear to draw upon oral traditions and other, unknown written sources, is all that remains of an ambitious history which once reached back as far as Jason and the Golden Fleece. However, the extent of Gaimar’s achievement – as poet, historian, and translator – has been obscured by a tendency among scholars to dismiss him as a writer of romance masquerading as history, his work riddled with guesswork, errors, and outright fabrications. 

  This volume aims to challenge such views of Gaimar by providing the first holistic study of his Estoire’s incisive commentary upon kingship: its virtues, vices and conflicting models, as applied to rulers such as Edgar “the Peaceable”, Cnut, and the ill-fated William Rufus. One good king, for Gaimar, is much like another. A bad king, by contrast, is vividly characterised as ineffectual, tyrannical, or both. Gaimar, a product of that extraordinary period in medieval English culture often termed the “twelfth-century Renaissance'” blends history with literary tropes to yield a sophisticated account of the invasions, betrayals, and familial conflicts that shaped his England’s history.

Germany

Loud, Graham A., trans. The Chronicle of Arnold of Lübeck. Crusade Texts in Translation. London and New York: Routledge, 2019. Pp. xiv, 320. $160.00. ISBN: 978-1-138-21178-0. 

Ireland

John Scattergood, with Niamh Pattwell & Emma Williams, Trinity College Library Dublin. A catalogue of manuscripts containing Middle English and some Old English. 432 pp. ISBN: 978-1-84682-852-2. Hardback € 55.

The world-famous collection of manuscripts in Trinity College Library Dublin largely consists of items which came to the College in 1661 from the library of Archbishop James Ussher, primate of All Ireland, who had been a fellow and professor there. Ussher’s manuscripts were mainly in Latin, but he also collected material in English, Irish and other languages – including a number of ancient eastern languages. His interests were principally in theology and religion, history and some practical sciences, and though, later, other donors contributed other valuable items, the character of the collection remained what it was. Accordingly, among the Middle English items, there are many religious texts, in both poetry and prose, quite a few of which are reformist – Wycliffite Bibles and polemical works, many of which are unique to this collection. Among the histories appear ten copies of the popular Brut Chronicle, of which five are in Middle English and two of which (MSS 489 and 505) are richly illuminated, Robert Bale’s Chronicle of London 1189–1461, and translations of Giraldus Cambrensis’s Expugnacio Hibernica, as well as William Lambarde’s invaluable text (MS 631), made in 1563, of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to the year AD 1001, copied from a manuscript destroyed by fire in 1731. John Benet’s personal miscellany (MS 516), compiled over many years in the middle of the fifteenth century, preserves many unique texts relating to the Wars of the Roses. This catalogue, put together by its authors over many years, is the first to concentrate on these manuscripts and to describe them in detail.

John Scattergood is professor emeritus of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at TCD, where Niamh Pattwell and Emma Williams were both students in the School of English. Niamh Pattwell is associate professor at the School of English, Drama and Film, UCD. Emma Williams is a senior vice-president with Microsoft, based in Seattle.

Italy

Berto, Luigi Andrea, ed. and trans., History of the Venetian Dukes (1102-1229). With an Appendix of Brief Venetian Historical Texts. Venice: Centro di Studi medioevali e Rinascimentali ‘E. A. Cicogna’, 2021). http://centrocicogna.it/pubblicazioni/. €20 (Italy), € 25 (European Union), € 30 (Non EU countries).

—, ed. and trans., The Little History of the Lombards of Benevento by Erchempert: A Critical Edition and Translation of ‘Ystoriola Longobardorum Beneventum degentium’. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2021. 

—, ed. and trans., Franks and Lombards in Italian Carolingian Texts: Memories of the Vanquished. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2021. 

Knox, Lezlie S., ‘Toward a New Appreciation of Fra Mariano of Florence.’ Iin Michael Cusato and Steven J. McMichael, eds. “Non enim fuerat Evangelii surdus auditor …” (1 Cel 22). Essays in Honor of Michael J. Blastic, O.F.M. on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday. Leiden: Brill, 2020. Pp. 348-359.

The Low Countries

Anrooij, Wim van, and Jeanne Verbij-Schillings, Het Berghse kroniekenhandschrift. Ontstaan, inhoud en functie van een laatmiddeleeuws geschiedenisboek. Pp. 392. Hilversum: Verloren, 2021. ISBN 9789087049393. € 30. 

The Bergh chronicle manuscript is a stout history book from the later Middle Ages, containing numerous historiographical texts, one of them being the oldest known chronicle of the Dukedom Gelre. It also has a series of partly coloured pen drawings and representative images of rulers in a realistic setting. The manuscript was probably commissioned by the lords of Huis Bergh, to whose library it returned when the manuscript was acquired at an auction in 2017.

The present volume presents a collection of studies by an international team of scholars on the origin, contents and function of the manuscript.

Wim van Anrooij is professor of Dutch Literature before Romanticism at Leiden University; Jeanne Verbeij-Schillings is a specialist in Medieval History.

Sjoerd Levelt, The Middle Dutch Brut, An Edition and Translation. Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies. Liverpool UP, 2021. Pp. 176. Hardback ISBN 9781800348608. £80 / $120.

The earliest chronicle of England in Dutch is found in a series of chronicles published in 1480 by Jan Veldener, who had been William Caxton’s business partner in the Low Countries. The chronicle was written independently and made to fit in with the larger series. While being the first known standalone chronicle of England in Dutch, it shows a remarkable sophistication and adeptness in negotiating English and Dutch sources, as well as Dutch and English interests, and presents a determinedly Lancastrian view of English history to its Dutch audience. As such, the Middle Dutch Brut is a fifteenth-century product of what for the middle of the seventeenth-century has been identified as ‘the Anglo-Dutch public sphere’, and an indication that the reciprocal channels of discourse between Dutch and English speakers of the early modern period found their origins in the Middle Ages.

This book provides an edition, together with a facing-page modern English translation, accompanied by a contextualizing introduction and explanatory notes. It is the first study, the first modern edition, and the first English translation of the Middle Dutch Brut. The chronicle has received very little scholarly attention, and has never been subject of study in the context of the Brut tradition. This edition will therefore provide a very significant further international dimension to the study of medieval English literature.

 30% discount online. For UK & RoW: BRUT30, at http://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/; for USA: ADISTA5, at www.global.oup.com/academic.

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Calls for Papers

General

From Isabel Maria de Barros Dias (Isabel.Dias{@}uab.pt) 

The journal Medievalista will dedicate volume 34 to Medieval Chronicles. This special issue is meant to be published by the 1st of July 2023. In order to go through the peer-reviewing process we have to receive the articles by September 2022. However, it would be a great help if those who would like to participate could inform me of his/her intentions as soon as possible, so that the editors may have an idea about the composition of the issue. For more information, see the journal’s website: https://medievalista.iem.fcsh.unl.pt/index.php/medievalista

France

Colloque international Usages du passé et imaginaire politique dans la littérature bourguignonne

Boulogne-sur-Mer, Centre universitaire du Musée, 19-21 octobre 2022. Université Littoral Côte d’Opale, UR 4030 HLLI.

Organisateurs : Jean DEVAUX, Elena KOROLEVA, Grace BAILLET

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WANTED:

LATINIST CO-EDITOR AND TRANSLATOR

(Preferably late medieval with a grasp of late 15th-century English affairs)

I have been working for several years on an edition of the two most important Latin chronicles of the Wars of the Roses: The Second Continuation of the Crowland Chronicle and Mancini’s Usurpation of Richard III. Up to now I have used my own translation of both (which is execrable and unpublishable), with glances at the work of previous editors C. A. J. Armstrong and John Cox and considerable help from Latinist Susan Edgington. 

But now I need a co-editor who will take over the translation and cooperate in the production of an edition on the lines I have worked out in editing 17 earlier English chronicles. By that I mean a kind of edition common for literary texts since the 19th-century – one in which the commentary outruns in volume the text itself, that approaches history through the eyes of the narrator, and that does not assume that the only readers are history professors at Princeton or Cambridge. A look at Boydell’s recent publication of The Contemporary English Chronicles of the Wars of the Roses, by Tess Tavormina and me, will make clear what I mean. 

Though I am the editor of Boydell and Brewer’s Medieval Chronicles series, I have no agreement with that publisher or with any other to accept this edition. 

Dan Embree 
sothsegger{@}comcast.net 
2411 Martin Luther King Jr Way
Berkeley, CA 94704 
510-848-1880 

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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.net or 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 Ages Series

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                                                                       Professor Lars Boje Mortensen

Department of English and Related Literature                     Head of Centre

University of York                                                                     University of Southern Denmark

henry.bainton{@}york.ac.uk                                                         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{@}liverpool.ac.uk. 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

Minutes of the General Meeting of the Medieval Chronicle Society

July 16, 2021 at 18.00-19.30 CET

Held on-line in the framework of the Poznań chronicles conference

Chair: Graeme Dunphy

Minutes taken by: Cristian Bratu

In attendance: 

Dániel Bagi, Diane Beeson, Magdalena Biniaś-Szkopek,Marie Bláhovám Cathy Blunk, Cristian Bratu, Elizabeth Bryan, Nicholas Coureas, Pierre Courroux, Judit Csákó, Paweł Derecki, Isabel Barros Dias, Graeme Dunphy

Agnieszka Fabiańska, Marta Font, Antoni Grabowski, Ryszard Grzesik, Kestutis Gudmantas, Isabelle Guyot-Bachy, Mikhail Khorkov, Erik Kooper, Daniil Kotov, Jakub Kukawiński, Alison Williams Lewin, Julia Marvin,Andrea Nanetti, Sarah Peverley

Adrien Quéret-Podesta, Darius Rafter, Jaclyn Rajsic, Christiane Raynaud, Lisa Ruch, Vicky Shirley, Andris Šnē, Miłosz Sosnowski, Robert Tomczak, Aleksandre Tvaradze, Anne Van Arsdall, Grischa Vercamer, László Veszprémy

Meeting Agenda: 

1.         Report of the Executive committee
2.         Adoption of statute
3.         Appointment of auditors
4.         Conference venue for 2023
5.         EMC report
6.         AOCB

Meeting Summary:

1.         The President, Graeme Dunphy, presented a report on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Medieval Chronicle Society (henceforth MCS), which currently has 532 members. He mentioned the fact that all members of the MCS mailing list are automatically considered members of the Society and asked anyone not on the mailing list to contact him. He also reminded the audience about the MCS’ peer-reviewed journal, the Medieval Chronicle, and that its 13^th issue recently appeared in print. Additionally, he mentioned the Society’s newsletter that Erik Kooper sends out on a regular basis, as well as the MCS Facebook group. He then congratulated the organizing team in Poznań on behalf of the Executive committee and all MCS members.

2.         The President explained the need for the MCS to have a set of statutes. He then briefly presented and discussed the main points and aspects of the statutes proposed for the MCS by the Executive Committee. The floor was opened to discussions. The members present at the meeting unanimously approved the Society’s statutes. 

3.         The President pointed out that the new statutes require the MCS to appoint auditors. There were two nominations from the floor: Julia Marvin and Jaclyn Rajsic. The members present unanimously approved the two nominees. 

4.         The President noted that the next MCS conference is slated to take place in 2023. Isabelle Guyot-Bachy and Adrien Quéret-Podesta made a presentation detailing the University of Lorraine’s bid to host the next conference in Nancy, France. Members accepted the proposal unanimously.

5.         Cristian Bratu made a brief presentation on the current status of the Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle (henceforth EMC) and mentioned the fact that those attending the Poznań conference are entitled to a free one-week access to the online platform of the EMC.

6.         AOCB:  Erik Kooper suggested that the MCS initiate a series of publications dedicated to medieval manuscripts and critical editions. Sarah Peverley noted that in its current state, our website cannot host large files. Elizabeth Bryan suggested we create a special working group on this issue. Erik Kooper. Sarah Peverley, and Andrea Nanetti volunteered to serve on the working group.

Winter / Hiver 2020

9th International Conference The Medieval Chronicle/ Die mittelalterliche Chronik/ La Chronique au Moyen Age 14 – 16 July 2021, Poznań, Poland 

Information on the 2021 Conference at Poznań

The new dates are Wednesday 14 to Friday 16 July, with possibly the MCS Assembly on Saturday 17 July.

New website for the 2021 Conference: MCS 2021 Poznań (google.com)

Contact: The Organizing Committee can be reached at: icmcs2020@gmail.com

Organizing Institutions

–  Department of History, Adam Mickiewicz University

– Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences

Keynote speakers 

– Prof. Marie Bláhová (Charles University in Prague)

– Prof. Márta Font (University of Pécs)

– to be announced

Call for Papers

Proposals for 20 minutes presentations are invited in English, French or German. Papers will be allocated to thematic sessions, therefore submissions should identify the theme to which the paper relates. 

Registration is FREE

For more information, see the website under “Technical Information”.

On-line registration forms are available at:  MCS 2021 Poznań – Registration Forms (google.com)

Host of the virtual Conference 

Faculty of Historical Studies, Morasko Campus, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań.

Address: ul. Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 7, 61-614 Poznań.

Important Note: Teams Tutorial

For participants new to on-line conferences the organizers have provided links to the Microsoft Teams Tutorial website.

See the conference website under “Technical Information”.

For further information, please contact the organisers at icmcs2020@gmail.com

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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 MedChron if 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 13 (2020) is available from the publisher

The Medieval Chronicle 14 – In progress

Members are reminded that they may submit articles at any time,

in particular editions of short chronicle texts (full texts or

important sections) which cannot easily be published elsewhere

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New Publications

England

Marie-Françoise Alamichel, Voix épiques médiévales anglaises. Paris, Champion, 2020. ISBN 9782745353979. € 38.

Chapitre 5: L’épopée moyen-anglaise / Les Bruts : une grande fresque nationale / Épopée nationale, mythe fondateur / Les Bruts, chants de gloire à la Bretagne / Le nationalisme des Bruts / L’empreinte des Bretons / Ennemis et étrangers / Croisade et guerre sainte / Arthur, héros et modèle / Reprise des motifs et formules épiques du vieil-anglais dans le Brut de Laȝamon. 

Joanna Bellis, ‘An Anglo-Danish Naval Encounter in Two Fourteenth-Century Chronicles.’ Reading Medieval Studies 45 (2019): 75-107.

Trevor Russell Smith, ‘The Durham Latin Prose “Brut” to 1347 with a Continuation to 1348: A Nationalistic Chronicle of England and its Manuscripts.’ Manuscript Studies 5 (2020): 120–141.

—, ‘A Handlist of Manuscripts Containing Adam Murimuth’s Continuatio chronicarum.’ Scriptorium 73 (2019): 144–164.

Germany

Jürgen Wolf, ‘Augsburger Chronistik in Handschrift und Druck. Geschichtsschreibung als Fundament und Ausdruck eines neuen Denkens.’ In Gewissheiten im Wandel. Wissensformierung und Handlungs­orientierung von 1350-1600. Hg. von Christa Bertelsmeier-Kierst (Kulturgeschichtliche Beiträge zum Mittelalter und zur frühen Neuzeit 9). Berlin, 2020. S. 143-162.

—, ‘Rudolf von Ems als Bibeldichter? Weltchronistik und biblische Geschichtsschreibung.’ In Rudolf von Ems. Beiträge zu Autor, Werk und Überlieferung. Hg. von Elke Krotz, Norbert Kössinger, Henrike Manuwald und Stephan Müller. Stuttgart, 2020. S. 267-280.

—, ‘Objektives Wissen. Geschichtsforschung in der Frühen Neuzeit als Wegbereiter der Moderne?’ In Wettstreit der Künste – Der Aufstieg des praktischen Wissens zw. Reformation und Aufklärung. Hg. von B. Heinecke, I. Kästner (Europ. Wissenschaftsbeziehungen). Aachen, 2018. S. 25-43.

— (mit M. Chinca, H. Hunter, C. Young), ‘Kaiserchronik digital.’ ZfdA 148 (2019): 285-288. [online = https://doi.org/10.3813/zfda-2019-0010]

Germany / Austria

Nina Rowe. The Illuminated World Chronicle: Tales from the Late Medieval City. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2020. 220 Pp. ISBN: 9780300247046. $ 65.

In this richly illustrated book, Rowe examines the images and texts in twenty-four illuminated Weltchronik manuscripts created in Bavaria and Austria between circa 1330 and 1430. The tales in these codices are attributed to Rudolf von Ems, the Christherre-Poet, Jans der Enikel, and Heinrich von München, but the pictorial cycles repackage the verse for distinctly urban, non-noble audiences. Considering the manuscripts in relation to social conditions in Regensburg, Nuremberg, Vienna, and Salzburg, this study explores issues including: the expansion of industry, urban pageantry, conceptions of Jews and Africans, and the resistance of so-called heretics in the late medieval city.

Ireland (French)

Keith Busby, ed., The French Works of Jofroi de Waterford. Textes vernaculaires du moyen Âge 25. Turnhout: Brepols, 2020. ISBN: 978-2-503-58294-8. € 90 (excl. tax).

At the beginning of the fourteenth century, Jofroi, a brother of the Dominican house of St Saviour’s in Waterford, Ireland, translated into French and adapted from the Latin three texts: the De excidio Troiae of the so-called ‘Dares Phrygius’, the Breviarium historiae romanae of Eutropius, and Pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum secretorum. While the first two, La gerre de Troi and Le regne des Romains are generally close translations, Le secré de secrés is much modified by omissions and interpolations of exempla and scientific material. In his enterprise, Jofroi was aided and abetted by his scribe, the Walloon merchant and custos, Servais Copale. This book is the first critical edition of Jofroi’s œuvre. The texts are accompanied by a general introduction, individual introductions to each of the three texts, extensive notes, a substantial glossary, and an index of proper names. Jofroi and Servais collaborated in Waterford, not Paris, as has long been assumed, and these texts are therefore witness to the importance of French as a literary language in southeastern Ireland.

The Low Countries

Bram Caers, Vertekend verleden. Geschiedenis herschrijven in vroegmodern 

Mechelen (1500-1650). Hilversum: Verloren, 2020. ISBN 9087045719. Pb. € 35.

Around 1500 a citizen of Mechelen (Malines, Belgium) wrote an extensive chronicle recounting the history of his city from the early Middle Ages up to the year 1477. In the ensuing ages his account, based mainly on Brabantine sources, was frequently copied and eventually printed in the 17th century. This study traces the history of the text in the many surviving manuscripts, which include a number of autographs, revealing the working methods of the adaptors.

Spain

Jaume Aurell,  Medieval Self-Coronations. The History and Symbolism of a Ritual. CUP, 2020. ISBN: 9781108840248. ₤ 90.

Based on narrative, iconographical, and liturgical sources, this is the first systematic study to trace the story of the ritual of royal self-coronations from Ancient Persia to the present. Exposing as myth the idea that Napoleon’s act of self-coronation in 1804 was the first extraordinary event to break the secular tradition of kings being crowned by bishops, Jaume Aurell vividly demonstrates that self-coronations were not as transgressive or unconventional as has been imagined. Drawing on numerous examples of royal self-coronations, with a particular focus on European Kings of the Middle Ages, including Frederic II of Germany (1229), Alphonse XI of Castile (1328), Peter IV of Aragon (1332) and Charles III of Navarra (1390), Aurell draws on history, anthropology, ritual studies, liturgy and art history to explore royal self-coronations as privileged sites at which the frontiers and limits between the temporal and spiritual, politics and religion, tradition and innovation are encountered

Wales

B. Guy, G. Henley, O. W. Jones, R. Thomas, eds., The Chronicles of Medieval Wales and the March. New Contexts, Studies, and Texts. Turnhout: Brepols, 2020. ISBN ISBN: 978-2-503-58349-5. € 80.

This book offers a collection of new studies on the chronicles of medieval Wales and the March, supported by synoptic pieces placing the tradition of chronicle writing in Wales within the context of historical writing on a broader scale. The volume is accompanied by five editions and translations of little-known texts written in Latin and Medieval Welsh.

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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.net or 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 Ages Series

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                                                                      Professor Lars Boje Mortensen

Department of English and Related Literature                  Head of Centre

University of York                                                                    University of Southern Denmark

henry.bainton[at]york.ac.uk                                                         labo[at]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/

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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