The 9th International Conference of the Medieval Chronicle Society has been postponed until July 2021 (due to the Covid-19 pandemic). For further updates please check future editions of our newsletter, which will outline the new arrangements as they are known.

The Medieval Chronicle/ Die mittelalterliche Chronik/ La chronique médievale

Newsletter / Bulletin / Rundschreiben 21

Autumn / Automne / Herbst 2019

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9th International Conference 

The Medieval Chronicle/ Die mittelalterliche Chronik / La Chronique au Moyen Age

13 – 17, July 2020, Poznań, Poland

 Information on the 2020 Conference at Poznań

 Organizing Institutions:
–  Department of History, Adam Mickiewicz University

– Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences

Keynote speakers: Professor Tomasz Jasiński (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań), Professor Marie Bláhová (Charles University in Prague), Professor Márta Font (University of Pécs), Professor Dániel Bagi (University of Pécs) and Dr Darius von Guttner-Sporzynski (University of Melbourne).

The organising committee is available at:
http://historia.amu.edu.pl/index.php/organising-comittee

CfP and planned paper strands are available at: http://historia.amu.edu.pl/index.php/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. The paper proposals (including the title and a 200-word abstract) are to be submitted by Saturday, 1 February 2020 using the online submission form.

Registration fee:

full conference:     €300

3-4 days:               €200

1-2 days:               €100

The registration fee covers meals and hotel accommodation at the Ibis Hotel Poznań (from Sunday, 12 July 2020 until Saturday, 18 July).

The Post-Conference Tour on Saturday, 18 July is free of charge. Please register your participation using the conference registration form. There are two options:

1) The Piast Route1: Gniezno – Strzelno

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

Conference venue: Department of History, Morasko Campus, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Address: Uniwersytetu Poznanskiego 7, 61-614 Poznań.

Public transport: by tram from the city-centre (10-15 minutes).

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 is almost ready to be printed, and will be available from the publisher in the spring of 2020

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 Projects

SESDiva – Bulgarian-Russian-Belgian project

The ongoing (2018–2020) Bulgarian-Russian-Belgian project ‘South and East Slavs: Diversity and Interaction of Written Cultures (11th‐20th C)’ (‘SESDiva’; https://sesdiva.eu/en) offers the visitor ten virtual museum rooms about several aspects and/or results of the cultural encounters in the past millennium between South Slavs (Bulgarians and Serbs a.o.) and East Slavs (Russians and Ukrainians a.o.). The main coordinator of this ERA.Net RUS Plus project is Prof. Dr. Anissava Miltenova (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences). The research team consists of scholars from (1) the Institute for Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia), (2) the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), and (3) the Department of Languages and Cultures, section Slavic and East‐European Studies, at Ghent University. A part of the virtual museum room contributions directly or indirectly deals with chronicle-related or other historiographical topics, e.g., https://sesdiva.eu/en/virtual-rooms/cultural-exchange/item/80-detour-russian-tale-en.

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Announcements

CFP for the International Congress on Medieval and Renaissance Scottish Language and Literature (which traditionally includes sessions on Scottish chronicles)

See Link.

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New Publications

General

A Students’ Guide to Late Antique and Medieval Historical Narratives. Ed. by János M. Bak, Justin Lake and Ivan Jurkovic With the cooperation of twenty-eight medievalists a digital guide to chronicles and (selected) hagiography for the period AD 300-1500 is in preparation to be published by the ITER Community, if all goes well, by the end of 2019. The guide offers a first orientation in the narratives and points to more detailed reference works (above all to the Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle).  Its specialty is that, in contrast to most other reference works, it is not organized alphabetically by author and/or title, but by the chronology of the texts’ relevance. In short: if one wants to know which chronicles (in he widest sense) and saints’ lives contain narratives for a given century (and within a more or less exact time span) this guide would list the most important ones all across Europe, including Byzantium, the Christian East and (in selection) the Muslim world, indicating the coverage, regional emphasis, editions, translations and (if available) internet links of the texts. The completed Guide will be available on the site: https://narratives.itercommunity.org/   (Start with ‘Big Table’)

Latin biblical Exegesis

Elisabeth Mégier, Scripture and History in the Middle Ages / Schriftsinn und Geschichte im Mittelalter. Studies in Latin biblical Exegesis/Untersuchungen zur Bibelauslegung in der lateinischen Kirche (ca. 350-ca. 1150). Beihefte zur Mediaevistik 23. Berlin: Peter Lang, 2018. 444 pp. ISBN: 9783631757086. £ 60, € 89. This collection of essays (in various languages) by Elisabeth Mégier focuses on the question ‘What is “history” in late antique and medieval biblical commentaries?’ The question concerns the term historia: to what uses is it put by the exegetes, and what do they mean by ‘historical sense’? It also concerns the representations of history in a modern sense, observable in the interpretation of the Bible. Answers are searched for in the vocabulary used by the authors, and by comparing different expositions. It follows that history as a text tends to give way, progressively, to history as the succession of real events.

Armenia

Tara L. Andrews, Mattʿēos Uṙhayecʿi and His Chronicle. The Medieval Mediterranean 108. Leiden: Brill, 2016. ISBN: 978-90-04-33035-1. € 109; $ 131. In Mattʿēos Uṙhayecʿi and His Chronicle Tara L. Andrews presents the first ever in-depth study of the history written by this Armenian priest, who lived in Edessa (modern-day Urfa in Turkey) around the turn of the twelfth century and was an eyewitness to the First Crusade and the establishment of the Latin East.
Although the Chronicle is known as an extremely valuable source of information for the eleventh- and early twelfth-century Near East, neither its guiding structure nor Uṙhayecʿi’s motivation in writing it have ever been clear to modern historians. This study elucidates the prophetic framework within which the text was written, and demonstrates how that framework has influenced Uṙhayecʿi’s understanding of the time in which he lived.

Belgium

Bram Caers and Mark Visscher, ‘The Illuminated Brabantsche yeesten Manuscripts IV 684 and IV 685 in the Royal Library of Belgium: An Unfinished Project of Brabantine Historiography. Description, List of Illustrations and Index of Persons Depicted.’ In Monte Artium 11 (2018): 7-35. The Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels is the custodian of two intriguing fifteenth-century manuscripts that contain part of the fourteenth-century Brabantine chronicle Brabantsche yeesten, by the Antwerp council clerk Jan van Boendale (IV 684 and IV 685). One of them contains no less than 69 illuminations, while the other was obviously intended to be illustrated in the same way, but never was. They are the only medieval manuscript version of the chronicle to ever have been illustrated, making them popular among medievalistst studying the Duchy of Brabant. Surprisingly, very little scholarly work has been done on the illuminations as such, and the manuscript context in which they are found. We also see that a handful of illustrations return time and again in scholarly publications, while others are less known. Now that the Library has digitised the manuscripts and made them available online, we provide an updated description and an annotated list of illustrations, with an index of persons and places depicted. We hope to provide scholars easier access to this rich collection of illustrations, which is of interest not only to medievalistst studying Brabant, but to medievalists studying western Europe generally.

See also: https://uurl.kbr.be/1065581 (MS IV684)

England

Continuatio Eulogii. The Continuation of the Eulogium Historiarum, 1364-1413. Ed. and trans. by Chris Given-Wilson. OUP, 2019. 240 pages. ISBN: 9780198823377. £ 85. Oxford Medieval Texts The Continuation of the Eulogium Historiarum is one of the major contemporary narratives of the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV. It covers the dramatic half century from 1364-1413, including the later years of the ailing Edward III (who died in 1377), the turbulent reign and ultimate fall of Richard II (deposed in 1399), and the struggles of his supplanter, Henry IV (who died in 1413) to establish the Lancastrian regime. It is written in a picturesque and anecdotal style, with a great deal of material not found in other contemporary chronicles. Although known and referred to for nearly two hundred years, it has never been translated into English before. This edition also includes a new transcription of the sole surviving British Library manuscript and a thorough investigation of the authorship, sources, and composition of what has always been regarded as an enigmatic source

Henry Bainton, History and the Written Word: Documents, Literacy, and Language in the Age of the Angevins. The Middle Ages Series. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020. 272 pages. 2 illus. ISBN 9780812251906. $ 69.95 (£58.00). Drawing on the perspectives of modern and medieval narratology, medieval multilingualism, and cultural memory, History and the Written Word argues that members of an administrative elite demonstrated their mastery of the rules of literate political behavior by producing and consuming history-writing and its documents.

Mary Bateman, ‘A Newly-Discovered Latin Prose Brut Manuscript at Downside Abbey.’ The Downside Review 137.3 (2019, forthcoming) This article provides a detailed study of a manuscript held in the archives of Downside Abbey in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset, UK. The manuscript, Downside 78291, contains a Latin prose chronicle which has not previously been described or identified.

Dan Embree and Teresa Tavormina, ed. The Contemporary English Chronicles of the Wars of the Roses. Medieval Chronicles Series. Boydell Press, 2019. 406 pages, 8 B/W illustrations. ISBN: 9781783273645. £ 60. The first modern edition of eight contemporary chronicles covering the Wars of the Roses up to the return of Edward IV in 1471. The eight chronicles edited here are the principal surviving historical narratives of the Wars of the Roses written in English by men who lived through those wars. These are the best accounts by commoners (and one lord) written for their fellow Englishmen, produced within a few years of the events they describe, and thus have a particular immediacy.  These accounts, although contemporary, have to be treated with caution. All of them are narratives of public events intended for public consumption. They remain, however, vibrant and immediate accounts of the events they describe in a systematic, modern edition.

Paul McLoughlin, Breaking Ground: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Poems in Old English and in Translation. London: Paekakariki Press, 2018. 33 pages. ISBN: 978-190133-34-2. £ 12.50.

Jaakko Tahkokallio, The Anglo-Norman Historical Canon. Publishing and Manuscript Culture. Elements in Publishing and Book Culture. Cambridge UP, 2019. This Element is a contribution to the ongoing debate on what it meant to publish a book in manuscript. It offers case-studies of three twelfth-century Anglo-Norman historians: William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon and Geoffrey of Monmouth. It argues that the contemporary success and rapid attainment of canonical authority for their histories was in significant measure the result of successfully conducted publishing activities. These activities are analysed using the concept of a ‘publishing circle’. This concept, it is suggested, may have wider utility in the study of authorial publishing in a manuscript culture. Aavailable as Open Access on Cambridge Core at doi.org/10.1017/9781108624886

Germany

Thomas J. H. McCarthy, The continuations of Frutolf of Michelsberg’s Chronicle. Schriften der MGH 74. Wiesbaden, 2018. xxviii + 258 pp. ISBN 978-3-447-11061-7. € 55. This is the MGH’s first publication in English. Frutolf of Michelsberg’s Chronicle, completed c. 1099, is one of the most important historical works of the Middle Ages. Often seen as the epitome of the universal chronicle, it presents a detailed account of world history from the Creation until the end of the eleventh century. Such was its significance that it had already been continued and adapted numerous times by 1125. The author of these continuations has traditionally been seen as Abbot Ekkehard of Aura († c. 1130). This book is the first full-length study of the early twelfth-century continuations of Frutolf’s Chronicle. Through detailed textual, palaeographical and historiographical study, McCarthy shows that the attribution of the continuations to Ekkehard is largely false, concluding that only one of the surviving continuations can reasonably be ascribed to him. These conclusions drastically alter the accepted view of Ekkehard, which was based on the assumption that the eye-witness reports of the continuations were his. Rather, is much less known about him than previously believed. McCarthy uncovers fascinating evidence of repeated interaction with Frutolf’s Chronicle in early twelfth-century Bamberg. His book thus paints a vivid picture of the practice of historical writing and offers a salutary reminder of how central the work of medieval scribes is to our historical epistemology.

Hungary

Cosmas of Prague, The Chronicle of the Czechs – Cosmae Pragensis Chronica Bohemorum. Editors: János M. Bak, Pavlína Rychterová. 550 pages. ISBN: 978-963-386-300-8. $80.00 / €70.00/ £62.00. Latin-English bilingual. Central European Medieval Texts (forthcoming). The Latin-English bilingual volume presents the text of The Chronicle of the Czechs by Cosmas of Prague. Cosmas was born around 1045, educated in Liège, upon his return to Bohemia, he got married as well as became a priest. In 1086 he was appointed prebendary, a senior member of the clergy in Prague. He completed the first book of the Chronicle in 1119, starting with the creation of the world and the earliest deeds of the Czechs up to Saint Adalbert. In the second and third books Cosmas presents the preceding century in the history of Bohemia, and succeeds in reporting about events up to 1125, the year when he died. The English translation was done by Petra Mutlova and Martyn Rady with the cooperation of Libor Švanda. The introduction and the explanatory notes were written by Jan Hasil with the cooperation of Irene van Rensvoude.

Central European Medieval Texts (CEMT) These two volumes of CEMT have appeared or are about to:
Chronica de gestis Hungarorum e Codice Picto s. xiv &c.. Ed. János M. Bak and L. Veszprémy, with a CD of the facsimile of the codex. CEMT 9. ISBN: 978-963-386-264-3.

Studies to the Illuminated Chronicle. CEMT Subsidia 1. ISBN: 978-963-386-261-2 (a volume of essays on this illuminated chronicle) 

Online Decreta Regni Mediaevalis Hungariae Even if it is not a narrative source, some of you may be interested in laws. The five volumes of medieval Hungarian laws, the Latin-English  DRMH, published between 1989 and 20013, are now available in pdf format online. The title is: Online Decreta Regni Mediaevalis Hungariae: The Laws of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary  (https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/lib_mono/4/). In addition to the texts, a few studies are attached to the online publication. For inquiries and possible complaints I am still available as the last survivor of the original editorial team, wishing good reading to everyone interested in the legal development of the kingdom of Hungary-Croatia. János M. Bak (bakjm@ceu.edu) ed.-in-chief

Italy

Luigi Andea Berto, Making History in Ninth-Century Northern and Southern Italy. Pisa: Pisa University Press, 2019. 180 pp. ISBN 978-88-3339-1205. € 18. The ninth century represents a pivotal period for early medieval narrative sources. Despite the absence of great authors comparable to Gregory of Tours, Bede and Paul the Deacon, who had been capable of developing far-reaching works, historical writing in this period flourished remarkably.      This volume presents a detailed introduction to all the historical texts composed in Northern and Southern Italy during this century, thus shedding some light on little-known texts and offering an important contribution for a better understanding of ninth-century Italian history.

The Netherlands

Nicolaas Clopper, Florarium temporum (Bloemhof der tijden). Een laatmiddeleeuwse  wereldkroniek door Nicolaas Clopper, geschreven in het Klooster Mariënhage bij Eindhoven. Willem Erven, Nico Arts , Nico Pijls and Lauran Toorians. Hilversum: Verloren, 2018. ISBN 9789087047443. €29. The Florarium temporum is a late medieval Latin universal chronicle, written in the Mariënhage monastery near Eindhoven, by Nicolaas Clopper. The present book contains a number of studies and a selection of important passages with translations into Dutch. A usb-stick with the complete text and a facsimile edition of the autograph manuscript comes with it.

Spain

Kirstin Kennedy, Alfonso X of Castile-León: Royal Patronage, Self-Promotion and Manuscripts in Thirteenth-Century Spain. Amsterdam UP, 2019. € 99. Where this book deals with chronicle manuscripts from the reign of Alfonso X in the course of its examination of the king’s self-projection, they are considered principally from the codicological perspective or in terms of the relation of text to miniature in specific chapters.

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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 Professpr Peverley to ‘tweet’ about any of the above on their behalf please contact her at S.Peverley[at]liv[dot]ac[dot]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

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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