
Writing History in the Anglo-Norman World
Manuscripts, Makers and Readers, c.1066-c.1250
York Medieval Press
Published on 15. June 2018
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-903153-80-2 (ISBN)
Description
The contexts for the works of eleventh and twelfth-century historians are here brought to the fore.
History was a subject popular with authors and readers in the Anglo-Norman world. The volume and richness of historical writing in the lands controlled by the kings of England, particularly from the twelfth century, has long attracted the attention of historians and literary scholars, whilst editions of works by such writers as Orderic Vitalis, John of Worcester, Symeon of Durham, William of Malmesbury, Gerald of Wales, Roger of Howden, and Matthew Paris has made them well known. Yet the easy availability of modern editions obscures both the creation and circulation of histories in the Middle Ages.
This collection of essays returns to the processes involved in writing history, and in particular to the medieval manuscript sources in which the works of such historians survive. It explores the motivations of those writing about the past in the Middle Ages, and the evidence provided by manuscripts for the circumstances in which copies were made. It also addresses the selection of material for copying, combinations of text and imagery, and the demand for copies of particular works, shedding new light on how and why history was being read, reproduced, discussed, adapted, and written.
LAURA CLEAVER is Senior Lecturer in Manuscript Studies, Institute of English Studies, University of London; ANDREA WORM is Professor of Art History. Kunsthistorischen Institut, Eberhard Karls University, Tubingen.
Contributors: Stephen Church, Kathryn Gerry, Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Laura Pani, Charles C. Rozier, Gleb Schmidt, Laura Slater, Michael Staunton, Caoimhe Whelan, Andrea Worm
History was a subject popular with authors and readers in the Anglo-Norman world. The volume and richness of historical writing in the lands controlled by the kings of England, particularly from the twelfth century, has long attracted the attention of historians and literary scholars, whilst editions of works by such writers as Orderic Vitalis, John of Worcester, Symeon of Durham, William of Malmesbury, Gerald of Wales, Roger of Howden, and Matthew Paris has made them well known. Yet the easy availability of modern editions obscures both the creation and circulation of histories in the Middle Ages.
This collection of essays returns to the processes involved in writing history, and in particular to the medieval manuscript sources in which the works of such historians survive. It explores the motivations of those writing about the past in the Middle Ages, and the evidence provided by manuscripts for the circumstances in which copies were made. It also addresses the selection of material for copying, combinations of text and imagery, and the demand for copies of particular works, shedding new light on how and why history was being read, reproduced, discussed, adapted, and written.
LAURA CLEAVER is Senior Lecturer in Manuscript Studies, Institute of English Studies, University of London; ANDREA WORM is Professor of Art History. Kunsthistorischen Institut, Eberhard Karls University, Tubingen.
Contributors: Stephen Church, Kathryn Gerry, Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Laura Pani, Charles C. Rozier, Gleb Schmidt, Laura Slater, Michael Staunton, Caoimhe Whelan, Andrea Worm
Reviews / Votes
This volume thus offers a rich variety of insights into the diversity and complexity of Anglo-Norman historical writing. . . . [It] achieves its goal of using manuscripts to add nuance to our understanding of Anglo-Norman historical writing. * MANUSCRIPT STUDIES * The quality of the essays, and the originality of many of their findings, should, if nothing else, serve to spur other researchers into action. * FRANCIA *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
York
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
5 farbige Abbildungen, 31 s/w Abbildungen
5 colour, 31 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
680 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-903153-80-2 (9781903153802)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Laura Cleaver | Andrea Worm
Writing History in the Anglo-Norman World
Manuscripts, Makers and Readers, c.1066-c.1250
Book
10/2022
York Medieval Press
€37.60
Shipment within 3-4 weeks

Laura Cleaver | Andrea Worm
Writing History in the Anglo-Norman World
Manuscripts, Makers and Readers, c.1066-c.1250
E-Book
06/2018
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€48.99
Available for download
Persons
Laura Cleaver is Senior Lecturer in Manuscript Studies at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Her research focuses on manuscripts made in England and France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and on the sale of pre-modern manuscripts in the early twentieth century. ANDREA WORM is Professor of Art History. Kunsthistorischen Institut, Eberhard Karls University, Tubingen. ANDREA WORM is Professor of Art History. Kunsthistorischen Institut, Eberhard Karls University, Tubingen. Laura Cleaver is Senior Lecturer in Manuscript Studies at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Her research focuses on manuscripts made in England and France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and on the sale of pre-modern manuscripts in the early twentieth century. CHARLES C. ROZIER is Lecturer in Medieval Studies at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. S.D. Church is Professor in Medieval Studies at the University of Lincoln. Kathryn Gerry centres her research on the cult of saints and monastic culture in Anglo-Norman England. She has published on medieval manuscripts and the so-called minor arts, curated exhibitions at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, and the Bowdoin College Museum of art, Brunswick, Maine, and has taught at several colleges and universities in the US; she is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History at Bowdoin College.
Editor
Author
Contributions
Author
Content
Introduction: Making and Reading History Books in the Anglo-Norman World
Did the Purpose of History Change in England in the Twelfth Century? - Michael Staunton
England's Place within Salvation History: An Extended Version of Peter of Poitiers' Compendium Historiae in London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII - Andrea Worm
Computus and Chronology in Anglo-Norman England - Anne Lawrence-Mathers
A Saint Petersburg Manuscript of Excerptio Roberti Herefordensis de Chronica Mariani Scotti - Gleb Schmidt
Autograph History Books in the Twelfth Century - Laura Cleaver
Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum in Anglo-Norman England - Laura Pani
Durham Cathedral Priory and its Library of History, c. 1090 - c. 1150 - Charles C. Rozier
King John's Books and the Interdict in England and Wales - Stephen D. Church
Artistic Patronage and the Early Anglo-Norman Abbots of St Albans - Kathryn Gerry
Matthew Paris, Cecilia de Sanford and the Early Readership of the Vie de Seint Auban - Laura Slater
New Readers, Old History: Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland - Caoimhe Whelan
Bibliography
Did the Purpose of History Change in England in the Twelfth Century? - Michael Staunton
England's Place within Salvation History: An Extended Version of Peter of Poitiers' Compendium Historiae in London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII - Andrea Worm
Computus and Chronology in Anglo-Norman England - Anne Lawrence-Mathers
A Saint Petersburg Manuscript of Excerptio Roberti Herefordensis de Chronica Mariani Scotti - Gleb Schmidt
Autograph History Books in the Twelfth Century - Laura Cleaver
Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum in Anglo-Norman England - Laura Pani
Durham Cathedral Priory and its Library of History, c. 1090 - c. 1150 - Charles C. Rozier
King John's Books and the Interdict in England and Wales - Stephen D. Church
Artistic Patronage and the Early Anglo-Norman Abbots of St Albans - Kathryn Gerry
Matthew Paris, Cecilia de Sanford and the Early Readership of the Vie de Seint Auban - Laura Slater
New Readers, Old History: Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland - Caoimhe Whelan
Bibliography