Medieval Historical Writing
Britain and Ireland, 500-1500
Published on 28. November 2019
Book
Hardback
228 pages
978-1-107-16336-2 (ISBN)
Description
History writing in the Middle Ages did not belong to any particular genre, language or class of texts. Its remit was wide, embracing the events of antiquity; the deeds of saints, rulers and abbots; archival practices; and contemporary reportage. This volume addresses the challenges presented by medieval historiography by using the diverse methodologies of medieval studies: legal and literary history, art history, religious studies, codicology, the history of the emotions, gender studies and critical race theory. Spanning one thousand years of historiography in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, the essays map historical thinking across literary genres and expose the rich veins of national mythmaking tapped into by medieval writers. Additionally, they attend to the ways in which medieval histories crossed linguistic and geographical borders. Together, they trace multiple temporalities and productive anachronisms that fuelled some of the most innovative medieval writing.
Reviews / Votes
'The collection as a whole works to resist the potentially dangerous oversimplification of histories and historiography by highlighting their ongoing shaping as transmitted and interpreted texts.' D. W. Hayes, Choice '... this very fine book is a radical departure from Gransden's earlier work and one that deserves to sit alongside it as a very different but equally important contribution to the study of medieval historiography.' Helen Fulton, Studies in the Age of Chaucer 'The essays presented here are a useful introduction to medieval historical writing for any student, and they provide access points for a number of areas for further research.' Claire Macht, Journal of British Studies 'The expert editors of this rich, cohesive collection have worked hard to organize the twenty-seven essays gathered here so that each chapter contributes to an ongoing discussion and to the larger whole ... [a] serious, keenly engineered, and informative model of research and humanist scholarship. It is accessible, clearly purposed, and trenchantly researched.' Michael Calabrese, Modern PhilologyMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
2 Tables, black and white; 5 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
1005 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-107-16336-2 (9781107163362)
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
Jennifer Jahner | Emily Steiner | Elizabeth M. Tyler
Medieval Historical Writing
Britain and Ireland, 500-1500
E-Book
03/2021
Cambridge University Press
€128.99
Available for download
E-Book
11/2019
Cambridge University Press
€113.99
Available for download
Persons
Content
Introduction Jennifer Jahner, Emily Steiner and Elizabeth M. Tyler; Part I. Time: 1. Gildas Magali Coumert; 2. Monastic history and memory Thomas O'Donnell; 3. Apocalypse and/as history Richard K. Emmerson; 4. The Brut: legendary British history Jaclyn Rajsic; 5. Genealogies Marie Turner; 6. Anglo-Saxon futures: writing England's ethical past, before and after 1066 Cynthia Turner Camp; 7. Pagan histories/Pagan fictions Christine Chism; Part II. Place: 8. Mental maps: sense of place in medieval British historical writing Sarah Foot; 9. Viking armies and their historical legacy across England's North-South divide, c.790-c.1100 Paul Gazzoli; 10. Cross-channel networks of history writing: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Elizabeth M. Tyler; 11. Creating and curating an archive: Bury St Edmunds and its Anglo-Saxon past Kathryn A. Lowe; 12. Historical writing in medieval Wales Owain Wyn Jones and Huw Pryce; 13. Scotland and Anglo-Scottish border writing Kate Ash-Irisarri; 14. London histories George Shuffelton; 15. History at the Universities: Oxford, Cambridge and Paris Charles F. Briggs; Part III. Practice: 16. The professional historians of medieval Ireland Katherine Simms; 17. Gender and the subjects of history in the early Middle Ages Clare A. Lees; 18. Historical writing in medieval Britain: the case of Matthew Paris Bjoern Weiler; 19. Vernacular historiography Matthew Fisher; 20. Tall tales from the archive Andrew Prescott; 21. History in print from Caxton to 1543 A. S. G. Edwards; Part IV. Genre: 22. Chronicle and romance Robert Rouse; 23. Forgery as historiography Alfred Hiatt; 24. Hagiography Catherine Sanok; 25. Writing in the tragic mode Thomas A. Prendergast; 26. Crisis and nation in fourteenth-century English chronicles Andrew Galloway; 27. Polemical history and the Wars of the Roses Sarah L. Peverley.