Universal Chronicles in the High Middle Ages 1903153735, 9781903153734

Table of contents :
Frontcover
Contents
List of Illustrations
Contributors
Introduction: New Perspectives on Universal Chronicles in the
High Middle Ages
1 The First Islamic Chronicle: The Chronicle Of Khalīfa B. Khayyāṭ
(d. AD 854)
2 Universal Historiography as Process? Shaping Monastic
Memories in the Eleventh-Century Chronicle Of Saint-Vaast
3 Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England:
Cotton Tiberius B. i, German Imperial History-writing and
Vernacular Lay Literacy
4 Political Didacticism in the Twelfth Century: the Middle-High
German Kaiserchronik
5 Cosmology, Theology of History and Ideology in Godfrey of
Viterbo’s Pantheon
6 Écrire l’histoire universelle à la cour de Konrad IV de
Hohenstaufen : la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems (milieu du
XIIIe siècle)
7 Écrire la première histoire universelle en français: l’Histoire
ancienne jusqu’à César de Wauchier de Denain et l’adaptation
du modèle latin de l’histoire universelle à un public de laïcs
8 How Unusual was Matthew Paris? The Writing of Universal
History in Angevin England
9 The Pillars of Hercules: The Estoria De Espanna (Escorial, Y.I.2)
as Universal Chronicle
10 La Vie d’Alexandre dans la Chronique dite de Baudouin d’Avesnes
11 Universal Histories and their Geographies: Navigating the
Maps and Texts of Higden’s Polychronicon
Index

Citation preview

UniversalChronicles_PPC 28/03/2017 08:03 Page 1

F

MiChELE CaMpOpiaNO is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Latin Literature at the University of York. hENrY BaiNTON is Lecturer in high Medieval Literature at the University of York. CONTriBUTOrS: Tobias andersson, Michele Campopiano, Cornelia Dreer, Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas, Elena Koroleva, Keith Lilley, andrew Marsham, rosa M. rodriguez porto, Christophe Thierry, Elizabeth M.Tyler, Steven Vanderputten, Bjorn Weiler, Claudia Wittig. Front cover: rudolf von Ems, Weltchronik. The construction of the Tower of Babel. Bibliothèque municipale de Colmar, MS 305, cliché irhT.

C A MP OP IA NO, B A INTON (eds)

ound in pre-modern cultures of every era and across the world, from the ancient Near East to medieval Latin Christendom, the universal chronicle is simultaneously one of the most ubiquitous pre-modern cultural forms and one of the most overlooked. Universal chronicles narrate the history of the whole world from the time of its creation up to the then present day, treating the world’s affairs as though they were part of a single organic reality, and uniting various strands of history into a unified, coherent story. They reveal a great deal about how the societies that produced them understood their world and how historical narrative itself can work to produce that understanding. The essays here offer new perspectives on the genre, from a number of different disciplines, demonstrating their vitality, flexibility and cultural importance, They reveal them to be deeply political texts, which allowed history-writers and their audiences to locate themselves in space, time and in the created universe. Several chapters address the manuscript context, looking at the innovative techniques of compilation, structure and layout that placed them at the cutting edge of medieval book technology. Others analyse the background of universal chronicles, and identify their circulation amongst different social groups; there are also investigations into their literary discourse, patronage, authorship and diffusion.

UNIVERSAL CHRONICLES IN THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES

WriTiNG hiSTOrY iN ThE MiDDLE aGES

YOrK MEDiEVaL prESS

UNIVERSAL CHRONICLES IN THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES An imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge IP12 3DF (GB) and 668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620–2731 (US)

YOrK MEDiEVaL prESS

Edited by MICHEL E CAMPOPIANO and HENR Y BA INTON

Writing History in the Middle Ages Volume 4 Universal Chronicles in the High Middle Ages

9781903153734.indd 1

08/05/2017 08:29

YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS York Medieval Press is published by the University of York’s Centre for Medieval Studies in association with Boydell & Brewer Limited. Our objective is the promotion of innovative scholarship and fresh criticism on medieval culture. We have a special commitment to interdisciplinary study, in line with the Centre’s belief that the future of Medieval Studies lies in those areas in which its major constituent disciplines at once inform and challenge each other. Editorial Board (2017) Professor Peter Biller (Dept of History): General Editor Professor T. Ayers (Dept of History of Art) Dr Henry Bainton (Dept of English and Related Literature): Secretary Dr J. W. Binns (Dept of English and Related Literature) Dr K. P. Clarke (Dept of English and Related Literature) Dr K. F. Giles (Dept of Archaeology) Professor W. Mark Ormrod (Dept of History) Dr L. J. Sackville (Dept of History) Dr Hanna Vorholt (Dept of History of Art) Professor J. G. Wogan-Browne (English Faculty, Fordham University) Consultant on Manuscript Publications Professor Linne Mooney (Dept of English and Related Literature) All enquiries of an editorial kind, including suggestions for monographs and essay collections, should be addressed to: The Academic Editor, York Medieval Press, Department of History, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD (E-mail: [email protected]) Details of other York Medieval Press volumes are available from Boydell & Brewer Ltd.

WRITING HISTORY IN THE MIDDLE AGES ISSN 2057-0252 Series editors Dr Henry Bainton, University of York Professor Lars Boje Mortensen, University of Southern Denmark 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, and editions of texts are all welcome. Other volumes in the series are listed at the back of this book.

9781903153734.indd 2

08/05/2017 08:29

Universal Chronicles in the High Middle Ages

Edited by Michele Campopiano and Henry Bainton

Y ORK MEDIEVA L PRE S S

9781903153734.indd 3

08/05/2017 08:29

© Contributors 2017 All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner First published 2017 A York Medieval Press publication in association with The Boydell Press an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620–2731, USA website: www.boydellandbrewer.com and with the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York ISBN 978 1 903153 73 4 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate This publication is printed on acid-free paper Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view these images please refer to the printed version of the book.

9781903153734.indd 4

08/05/2017 08:29

Contents

List of Illustrations

vii

Contributors

xi

Introduction: New Perspectives on Universal Chronicles in the High Middle Ages



Michele Campopiano

  1

The First Islamic Chronicle: The Chronicle Of Khalīfa B. Khayyāṭ (d. AD 854)



Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham

  2

Universal Historiography as Process? Shaping Monastic Memories in the Eleventh-Century Chronicle Of Saint-Vaast



Steven Vanderputten

  3

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England: Cotton Tiberius B. i, German Imperial History-writing and Vernacular Lay Literacy

1

19

43

65



Elizabeth M. Tyler

  4

Political Didacticism in the Twelfth Century: the Middle-High German Kaiserchronik 95



Claudia Wittig

  5

Cosmology, Theology of History and Ideology in Godfrey of Viterbo’s Pantheon 121



Michele Campopiano

  6

Écrire l’histoire universelle à la cour de Konrad IV de Hohenstaufen : la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems (milieu du XIIIe siècle) 141



Christophe Thierry

v

9781903153734.indd 5

08/05/2017 08:29

Contents   7

Écrire la première histoire universelle en français: l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César de Wauchier de Denain et l’adaptation du modèle latin de l’histoire universelle à un public de laïcs



Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas

  8

How Unusual was Matthew Paris? The Writing of Universal History in Angevin England



Björn Weiler

  9

The Pillars of Hercules: The Estoria De Espanna (Escorial, Y.I.2) as Universal Chronicle



179

199

223

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto

10 La Vie d’Alexandre dans la Chronique dite de Baudouin d’Avesnes 255

Elena Koroleva

11

Universal Histories and their Geographies: Navigating the Maps and Texts of Higden’s Polychronicon



275

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley

Index

303

vi

9781903153734.indd 6

08/05/2017 08:29

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view these images please refer to the printed version of the book.

Illustrations Steven Vanderputten: Universal Historiography as Process? Table 1: Comparison of historiography attested in eleventh-century manuscripts from Saint-Vaast and Saint-Bertin

59

Table 2: Situation following first compilation, 1020s–1030s (?)

63

Table 3: Evolution in the mid- to later eleventh century, as attested in Douai BM 795

63

Elizabeth M. Tyler: Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England Figure 1: Worcester booklist and opening of Visio Leofrici. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 367, fol. 101v. Reproduced with the permission of the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. 90 Claudia Wittig: Political Didacticism in the Twelfth Century Table 1: Two interpretations of the dream

107

Christophe Thierry: Écrire l’histoire universelle à la cour de Konrad IV de Hohenstaufen Figure 1: Rudolf von Ems, Weltchronik. La construction de la tour de Babel. Bibliothèque municipale de Colmar, MS 305, cliché IRHT.

143

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto: The Pillars of Hercules Table 1: Structure and main contents of the General Estoria. 225 Table 2: The manuscript transmission of the Estoria de Espanna (after I. Fernández-Ordóñez, Transmisión y metamorfosis: Hacia una tipología de mecanismos evolutivos en los textos medievales (Salamanca, 2012), p. 24, with slight modifications)

228

Table 3: Illustrations in the Estoria de Espanna (Escorial, Y.I.2) listed and grouped according to their presumable content.

234

Figure 1: Alfonso X of Castile, General Estoria. Infancy of King Nebuchadnezzar. Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Urb. Lat. 539, fol. 2v. Reproduced with permission. © Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. 231

vii

9781903153734.indd 7

08/05/2017 08:29

Illustrations Figure 2: Alfonso X of Castile, Estoria de Espanna. Hercules. San Lorenzo, Escorial, MS Y.I.2, fol. 4r. Reproduced with permission. © Patrimonio Nacional.

232

Figure 3: Alfonso X of Castile, Estoria de Espanna. Alfonso the Learned presents Fernando de la Cerda with the royal copy of the estoria. San Lorenzo, Escorial, MS Y.I.2, fol. 1v. Reproduced with permission. © Patrimonio Nacional.

236

Figure 4: Alfonso X of Castile, Estoria de Espanna. First battle between Julius Caesar and Pompeius. San Lorenzo, Escorial, Y.I.2, fol. 50r. Reproduced with permission. © Patrimonio Nacional.

241

Figure 5: Alfonso X of Castile, Estoria de Espanna. Herculean monument where Seville was to be founded. San Lorenzo, Escorial, MS Y.I.2, fol. 5r. Reproduced with permission. © Patrimonio Nacional.

249

Figure 6: Alfonso X of Castile, Estoria de Espanna. The tower of Cádiz. San Lorenzo, Escorial, MS Y.I.2, fol. 4v. Reproduced with permission. © Patrimonio Nacional.

251

Elena Koroleva: La vie d’Alexandre Tableau 1: Événements de la vie d’Alexandre

263

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley: Universal Histories and their Geographies Figure 1: Higden, Polychronicon. London, British Library, Royal MS 14 C IX, fols. 1v–2r. Reproduced by permission of the British Library. © British Library Board. All rights reserved.

279

Figure 2: Higden, Polychronicon. London, British Library, Royal MS 14 C IX, fol. 2v. Reproduced by permission of the British Library. © British Library Board. All rights reserved.

280

Figure 3: Higden, Polychronicon. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Tanner 170, fol. 15v. Reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library. © University of Oxford. All Rights Reserved.

292

Figure 4: Higden, Polychronicon. Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 89, fol. 13v. Reproduced by permission of the President and Fellows, Corpus Christi College, Oxford. © Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 2017. 293 Figure 5: Higden, Polychronicon. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 4922, fol. 2r. Reproduced by permission of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

294

Figure 6: The Atlantic coast and islands: Higden, Polychronicon. San Marino (California), Huntington Library, HM MS 132, fol. 4v. Reproduced by permission of the Huntington Library.

295

viii

9781903153734.indd 8

08/05/2017 08:29

Illustrations Figure 7: Higden, Polychronicon. San Marino (California), Huntington Library, HM MS 132, fol. 4v. Reproduced by permission of the Huntington Library.

298

Figure 8: Two adjoining monastic homes of the Polychronicon in fourteenth-century Gloucester: St Oswald’s Priory and St Peter’s Abbey. Plan from N. Baker and R. Holt, Urban Growth and the Medieval Church. Gloucester and Worcester (London, 2004), 35. Reproduced by permission. 300

ix

9781903153734.indd 9

08/05/2017 08:29

The publication of this book was generously supported by the University of York’s F. R. Leavis Fund

9781903153734.indd 10

08/05/2017 08:29

Contributors

Tobias Andersson is PhD fellow in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, University of Edinburgh Henry Bainton is Lecturer in High Medieval Literature, Department of English and Related Literature, University of York Michele Campopiano is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Latin Literature, Centre for Medieval Studies and Department of English and Related Literature, University of York Cornelia Dreer is PhD fellow in Medieval History, Department of History, Universität Kassel Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas is Professor of Medieval French Language and Literature, Department of French Literature, Université Charles de GaulleLille 3 and Senior Member of Institut universitaire de France Elena Koroleva is Researcher in Medieval French Language and Literature, Department of French Literature, Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille 3 Keith D. Lilley is Professor of Historical Geography, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen´s University, Belfast Andrew Marsham is Senior Lecturer in Islamic History, School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, University of Edinburgh Rosa M. Rodriguez Porto is postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Medieval Literature, Department of English and Related Literature, University of York Christophe Thierry is Maître de conférences in German Literature, Department of German and Scandinavian Studies, Lyon Université Lumière- Lyon 2 Elizabeth M. Tyler is Professor in Medieval Literature, Department of English and Related Literature, University of York

xi

9781903153734.indd 11

08/05/2017 08:29

Contributors Steven Vanderputten is Professor in Medieval History, Department of History, Universiteit Gent Björn Weiler is professor in History at Aberystwyth University Claudia Wittig is [PEGASUS]² Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at the Henri Pirenne Institut at the University of Ghent.

xii

9781903153734.indd 12

08/05/2017 08:29

Introduction: New Perspectiveson Universal Chronicles in the High Middle Ages Michele Campopiano

Defining Universal History The ambition of composing narratives that embrace the totality of humankind’s past – or the entire history of the universe – can be found throughout the world and throughout history. Yet universal history as a practice seems to have fallen out of favour among European historians today. Ambitious projects like Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West and A. J. Toynbee’s A Study of History – which traced the shape of history across many civilizations and many epochs1 – seem to belong to a distant past, and in any case neither was the work of professional historians, at the margins of the Rankean definition of historical research, which attempts solely to show the past as it really was (‘wie es eigentlich gewesen’).2 Nonetheless, historians are finally beginning to rediscover universal history, and moves are afoot to reintroduce universal history into academic curricula.3 David Christian, for example, has recently argued that teaching universal history at universities ‘will help students grasp the underlying unity of modern knowledge’.4 He also suggests that ‘only at the scales of universal history will it be possible to grasp the underlying unity of humanity as a whole. We have seen that the overall trajectory of human history cannot be seen within the constricted timescales of Rankean scholarship.’5 A medievalist reading these statements will probably observe that these sentiments are hardly new. Medieval universal chronicles were already based on the fundamental principle of the unity of humankind, and allowed the reader to understand the fundamental unity of knowledge:

1 O. Spengler, Der Untergang des Abendlandes: Umrisse einer Morphologie der Weltgeschichte, I (Vienna, 1918) and II (Munich, 1922). See also H. Stuart Hughes, Oswald Spengler (New Brunswick, 1992), pp. 137–50; A. J. Toynbee, A Study of History, 10 vols. (Oxford, 1934–54). 2 L. Ranke, Geschichten der romanischen und germanischen Völker von 1494 bis 1535 (Leipzig, 1824), I, p. vi. 3 There are several modern handbooks for the study of World History, such as J. H. Bentley, The Oxford Handbook of World History (Oxford, 2011). 4 D. Christian, ‘The Return of Universal History’, History and Theory 49 (2010), 6–27. 5 Christian, ‘The Return of Universal History’, p. 25.

1

9781903153734.indd 1

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano narrating the history of salvation revealed the coherence of the Creation. The academic community is currently debating the possibility of narrating the geographical and chronological totality of the history of humanity. It is important, therefore, to consider how this totality was understood in the past. Despite the fact that universal history has been so geographically and chronologically widespread across history, it is difficult to define the universal chronicle as a single genre. Several attempts have been made to do so, however. Karl Krüger, for example says in his volume on universal chronicles in the Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental that they represent the entirety of the history available to their redactor in the form of writing.6 In fact, the German medieval historian Hans-Werner Goetz has expressed scepticism about the possibility of accurately classifying histories according to genre, arguing that any such attempt must be based first and foremost on the intentions of the author and the material he chose to include, rather than narrower, formal criteria.7 Craig Benjamin, meanwhile, has stressed the difficulty of providing a definition of universal history. He has explained that ‘common to these definitions is the notion that this is a form of history that treats the affairs of the known world as though they were those of a single organic whole, and which argues that this unified whole adds up to something much more useful than its constituent parts.’8 Benjamin has tried to differentiate between world history and universal history, which is not an easy task. However, Benjamin suggests that one distinction might be that, where world history attempts to provide an inclusive and broad-ranging survey of events, universal history emphasizes the continuity and connections between those events by organizing them around a particular theme, or a handful of thematic frameworks, as a means of contextualizing and making sense of the events themselves, and of connecting these various ‘parts’ together into a more organic and unified narrative.9

This is a useful distinction, but we should keep in mind that every form of history-writing – any act of writing world events into a narrative, however

6 K. H. Krüger, Die Universalchroniken (Turnhout, 1976), p. 13; see also A.-D. von den Brincken, Studien zur lateinischen Weltchronistik bis in das Zeitalter Ottos von Freising (Düsseldorf, 1957). 7 H.-W. Goetz, ‘On the Universality of Universal History’, in J.-P. Genet (ed.), Historiographie médiévale en Europe (Paris, 1991), pp. 247–61; H.-W. Goetz, Geschichtsschreibung und Geschichtsbewusstsein im hohen Mittelalter (Berlin, 2008), p. 346; H.-W. Goetz, ‘Historical Writing, Historical Thinking and Historical Consciousness in the Middle Ages’, Revista Diálogos Mediterrânicos 2 (2012), 110–28. 8 C. Benjamin, ‘“But From This Time Forth History Becomes a Connected Whole”: State Expansion and the Origins of Universal History’, Journal of Global History 9 (2014), 357–78 (p. 360). 9 Ibid.

2

9781903153734.indd 2

08/05/2017 08:29

Introduction: New Perspectives schematic – represents an act of understanding, of putting different things in the same order of meaning. As Hayden White argued, ‘the capacity to envision a set of events as belonging to the same order of meaning requires a metaphysical principle by which to translate difference into similarity’.10 One of the issues that any definition of universal history has to negotiate is the different notions of totality that might lay the foundation of its narrative (Hervé Inglebert has recently emphasized this point).11 Notions of totality have changed across history and have led – still lead – to different ways of defining world history, universal history, and global history. Sanjay Subrahmanyam has tried to distinguish what he calls world history, a genre that he sees rising in the sixteenth century, from ancient and medieval universal history, pointing out that world history was based on the recognition of the need for completeness, for full coverage. For Subrahmanyam, therefore, world history is accumulative in character, and disordered. Universal history, on the other hand, was based on a distinction between an inner core, a centre of the narrative, and an outer counterpart. In Subrahmanyam’s model, universal history tends to be symmetrical and well ordered.12 I would argue, however, that medieval universal history had a sense of full coverage as well. This sense of coverage is based on certain unifying principles around which universal histories were centred, such as a single, universal, political power. The idea of ‘universal domination’ became the basis for establishing a geographical totality: the notion that the Roman Empire had developed a universal domination along with a knowledge of the entire world, for example, became widespread in the Middle Ages.13 Medieval historiography also offers examples of the accumulative style that Subrahmanyam associates with modernity. Medieval universal histories frequently integrated new materials as they became available. There are several examples of this, such as the integration of different Latin and Greek sources on the representation of the oikouméne, the use of the Ravenna cosmography, and the use of Dionysius Periegetes’s second-century description of the world in verse.14 There is also the case of the Franciscan Grifon des Flandres, whose knowledge of Arabic

10 H. White, ‘The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality’, Critical Inquiry 7 (1980), 5–27 (p. 19). 11 H. Inglebert, Le monde, l’histoire. Essai sur les histoires universelles (Paris, 2014), pp. 39–73. 12 S. Subrahmanyan, ‘On the World History in the Sixteenth Century’, Representations 91 (2005), 26–57 (p. 36). 13 C. Nicolet and P. Gautier-Dalché, ‘Les “quatres sages” de Jules César et la “mesure du monde” selon Julius Honorius: la tradition médiévale’, Journal des Savants s. n. (1986), 157–218; P. Gautier-Dalché, ‘L’espace de L’Histoire, le rôle de la Géographie dans les chroniques universelles’, in L’Historiographie médiévale en Europe, ed. J.-P. Genet (Paris 1991), pp. 287–300. 14 M. Campopiano, Liber Guidonis compositus de variis historiis. Studio ed edizione critica dei testi inediti, Edizione Nazionale dei Testi Mediolatini, 22 (Florence, 2008).

3

9781903153734.indd 3

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano and of Islamic history enabled him to integrate elements of into his history of Asia that were previously scarcely known in the West.15 Different notions of totality have developed in different cultural contexts throughout history. Ideas of chronological totality, for example, make it possible to see the history of the world as a unity. Creation myths offer a point of departure for some narratives, with an act of the gods establishing the unity of the world. Some Babylonian histories, for example, begin their narratives with the creation of the world: the Royal Chronicle spans a period from the creation to the middle of the eighth century BC.16 Greek and Roman models provided the theoretical foundations of medieval notions of spatial and chronological totality. To achieve a sense of totality, Greek historians developed categories to narrate the history of the world as a series of events belonging to the same metaphysical order. Greek thinkers were confronted with divisions that could have presented a barrier in the creation of a unified narrative, such as the basic distinction between Hellenes and Barbarians. However, this dyad itself became the basis for establishing a geographical and ethnographical totality: the first example of this was probably the work of Ephorus of Cyme, who wrote his Historiai around 330 BC, and who supported his historiographical narrative with a systematic description of the oikouméne, articulating it with an account of the past of each ethnic group, Hellenic or otherwise. Envisaging the geographical totality of the known world thus laid the foundations for a narrative that could include the history of both Greeks and Barbarians. Ephorus began his narrative after the age of the heroes, rejecting myths that could not be put in a chronological series.17 The conquests of Alexander the Great were probably crucial in stimulating the writing of a history of humankind, because those conquests so spectacularly transcended ethnic and religious boundaries. The successive Roman conquests strengthened this sense of unity. As Arnaldo Momigliano stressed, Polybius (third century BC) made a conscious attempt to write a specifically universal history when he claimed to write history ‘tōn kathólou pragmátōn’, ‘of the facts in general’.18 Benjamin emphasizes how the metaphysical background of Polybius’s history writing can be traced back to classical

15 P. Gautier-Dalché, ‘L’Éthiopie selon Grifon de Flandres, Martino de Segono et Pietro

Ranzano’, Annales d’Éthiopie 27 (2012), 91–106. Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles (Atlanta, 2004); Mosaics of Time. The Latin Chronicle Traditions from the first Century BC to the Sixth Century AD, I, A Historical Introduction to the Chronicle Genre from its Origins to the High Middle Ages, ed. R. W. Burgess and M. Kulikowski (Turnhout, 2013), p. 75. 17 J. Marincola, ‘Universal History from Ephorus to Diodorus’, in J. Marincola (ed.), A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography (Oxford, 2007), pp. 171–9; G. Parmeggiani, Eforo di Cuma: studi di storiografia greca (Bologna, 2011); Inglebert, Le monde, pp. 218–20. 18 A. Momigliano, Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography (Oxford, 1977), p. 39; K. Sacks, Polybius on the Writing of History (Berkeley, 1981), pp. 96–120. 16 J.-J.

4

9781903153734.indd 4

08/05/2017 08:29

Introduction: New Perspectives philosophy. Plato, for example, argued that the whole is more than the sum of its parts; and Aristotle suggested that the whole has a cause that actually creates its unity or wholeness, and that eventually the wholeness of something becomes its purpose. We might add to this the unitary vision of the Cosmos shared by Stoic philosophers, who were a formative influence on so many medieval history-writers. This unitary vision would have justified writing a history of the entire world, overcoming the limitations that Aristotelian philosophy (especially that of the Poetics) placed on history. The possibility of perceiving the whole allowed history-writing to be at once a narrative of the events and an explanation of their origins, which offered useful real-life examples at the same time.19 It is also interesting to note that Polybius compared the power of the Romans, which he considered universal, with previous political hegemonies. Polybius compares the ‘superior greatness’ of Rome to three empires that had preceded it – those of the Persians, the Lacedaemonians, and the Macedonians – finding limitations in each of their methods and ambitions. It is from the specific point of the establishment of Roman power that history becomes universal. Roman imperialism ‘was not partial; nearly the entire inhabited world was reduced by them to obedience.’20 Inglebert shows that in this way Polybius achieved an idea of universality in space, if not in time.21 Elsewhere, other historians thought that universal domination had preceded Rome, since it had been established by previous polities, such as that of the Assyrians, and then passed to the Medes, the Persians, and the Romans. The notion of a universal power established a principle that could unify historical narrative on a world scale. An example of this is Diodorus of Sicily, who wrote of what he believed to be a common history, koiné historia, common to Greeks and Barbarians, who now shared a unified culture in Hellenism. Diodorus started with the Egyptians, since he thought that humankind had begun on the Nile by spontaneous generation. Diodorus discusses the Egyptians in particular concerning religion and culture, but it is with the Assyrians that he locates the start of the history of political domination, and this became the thread that ran throughout his narrative. Ninus was the first king and founded the first city.22 Diodorus of Sicily broke the boundaries between mythical and historical past, myths that had been denounced as archaic, and he used the hypothesis of Euhemerus (c. 300 BC), that the gods were usually divinized men.23 The idea that world domination represented a unifying principle for the

19 Inglebert,

Le monde, pp. 232–3. ‘But From This Time’, p. 16. 21 Inglebert, Le monde, p. 249. 22 Inglebert, Le monde, pp. 238–9. 23 K. Sacks, Diodorus Siculus and the First Century (Princeton, 1990), pp. 83–116; I. Sulimani, Diodorus’ Mythistory and the Pagan Mission. Historiography and Culture-heroes 20 Benjamin,

5

9781903153734.indd 5

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano narration of universal history deeply influenced Roman historiography. The De Annis populi Romani by Aemilius Sura places the Romans at the end of a succession of empires starting with the Assyrians and continuing with the Medes, the Persians, and the Macedonians.24 Pompeius Trogus (first century BC) structured his narrative, the Liber historiarum Philippicarum et totius mundi origines et terrae situs, unfortunately known to us only from the epitome realized by Justin, on the basis of the succession of empires. In Roman historiography, the writing of world history became to a large extent interwoven with the analysis of the successions of empires, opening the way to the definition of translatio imperii as a principle of organization of historical events that was deeply influential on medieval historiography.25 A new perception of the totality of history can be found in the emergence of Christianity, with its stress on the creation of the world (and humankind) by God. As a result, universal chronicles bloomed as a genre in connection with the rise of Christianity, as late antique works such as Eusebius’s (260–339) Chronicle demonstrate. Carmen Cardelle de Hartmann insists on the Jewish foundations of this development. Jahweh was for the Jews a God of History;26 Jewish theologians had taken the Creation as a type of history, and the six days of Creation corresponded to 6,000 years of history. Hartmann emphasizes how Judeo-Christian theology stimulated the unidirectional sense of history, history as Einbahnstraße (a one-way road). Christian theology emphasized the sense of a common origin for all humanity, and its common goal in salvation.27 As late-antique works, such as Eusebius’s Chronicle demonstrate, it is no coincidence that universal chronicles bloomed as a genre together with Christianity as a religion. Eusebius’s world history set the tone for Christian world history. Eusebius established a system of parallel tables showing the parallel chronology of different kingdoms – Greeks, Romans, and other civilizations – thereby demonstrating the unity of God’s providential plan.28 Human history converges in the establishment of a Roman universal monarchy in Augustus, under whom Christianity rose. In this way,

in the First Pentad of the Bibliothek (Leiden 2011), pp.  165–228; Inglebert, Le monde, p. 237. 24 Momigliano, Essays, p. 41. 25 J. M. Alonso-Núñez, ‘An Augustan World History: The Historiae Philippicae of Pompeius Trogus’, Greece & Rome 34 (1987), 56–62. 26 C. Cardelle de Hartman, ‘Historie und Chronographie: Entstehung und Frühzeit lateinischer Chronistik (von Hieronymus bis Beda)’, Minerva: Revista de filología clásica 14 (2000), 107–28 (p. 112). 27 The origin and the end of time figure in the Chronography of Iulius Africanus, which was the first Christian treatment of world history. Africanus thought world history would last 7000 years from the beginning to the end. M. I. Allen, ‘Universal History 300–1000: Origins and Western Developments’, in Historiography in the Middle Ages, ed. D. M. Deliyannis (Leiden, 2003), pp. 17–42 (pp. 17–19). 28 Allen, ‘Universal History’, pp. 21–2.

6

9781903153734.indd 6

08/05/2017 08:29

Introduction: New Perspectives universal chronicles stress the unity of humankind, offering a repository of humanity’s past. These foundations for historical thought were to a large extent shared beyond the Christian world. This is why this book includes a chapter, written by Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham, on the universal chronicle of Khalīfa b. Khayyāț (d. 854). Andersson and Marsham show how Khalīfa’s chronicle shares some of the characteristic features of medieval universal historiography. The text locates itself in the same tradition of chronography, beginning with Adam and past peoples and empires. It thus can be placed in the wider context of late antique universal history writing and, compared to other historiographical examples of these common roots in late antique culture, an analysis of universal history in this transcultural context is particularly worthy of investigation. Several scholars, including Michele Campopiano, Rolf Strootman and Harry Munt, have stressed the continuity of historical memory between late Roman and early Islamic civilization. This continuity connects with other forms of cultural exchange that can be found in the domain of universal history. Orosius’s histories, for example – one of the foundational texts for the western tradition of universal chronicles – was translated into Arabic in this period (albeit for a Christian audience). Orosius’s Histories took its place alongside Eusebius’s Chronicle as the other great example of universal history from Christian Late Antiquity. Orosius provided a model of continuous narrative in a rhetorically refined prose: aiming at illustrating disasters, sins, and traumas of human history. ‘Orosius … powerfully asserted the providential construct of Rome’s empire and made all of history, pagan or sacred, into a means of instruction, subject to the historian’s power of exegetical prophecy’.29 Orosius’s historical narrative was introduced by means of a geographical outline of the world, a move that would have a profound influence on later universal histories. Orosius also adopted another highly influential framework for his history, namely the structure of four world empires. Other models for the entire history of humankind were also developed in Late Antiquity. Augustine articulated the idea that the six periods of world history corresponded to the classical six ages of man. This idea is present in foundational works for medieval culture such as De civitate Dei, but also in the commentary of Genesis against the Manicheans (an early work, 388). This scheme was then used by influential authors such as Isidore of Seville, and later by Bede. The scheme of the six ages was not the only one adopted for the organization of time in Christian historiography. The scheme of Translatio imperii – the passage of dominion from one empire the next – was also subsumed within the eschatological framework of Christian theology. Mireille Chazan stresses that two sources influenced this model: Jerome’s commentary on the

29 Allen,

‘Universal History’, p. 30.

7

9781903153734.indd 7

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano Book of Daniel, in which Jerome invokes the succession of the four universal monarchies, and Virgil’s Aeneid (especially Aeneid I, vv. 278–294, where Jupiter affirms he gave to the Romans imperium sine fine).30 Jerome, in his exegesis of the Book of Daniel, emphasized firstly that God was the force behind the short lives of empires, and secondly that these empires culminated in the Roman Empire.31 Ernst Breisach, in his history of historiography, has stressed the link between the idea of Translatio and the development of universal chronicles in the late Carolingian empire, because the concept of framing world history in a sequence of empires would have strengthened the sense that the Carolingians had a role to play in God’s plan for the world.32 The Roman Empire was seen as the universal power that would endure until the end of the world. Some historians, such as Otto of Freising, list the German emperors as direct successors of the emperors of ancient Rome. The succession of the four monarchies is not the only way the fabric of time could be woven. The notion of Translatio was closely related to the idea that history had developed as a continuum that had a beginning and an end. Eschatology played a major role in this idea: Otto of Freising dedicated the last part of his Historia de duabus civitatibus to a description of the state of the Heavenly Jerusalem and its ‘inhabitants’ after the Apocalypse, with the historical section to a certain extent acting as an introduction to the description of the end of time and the City of God.33 As Goetz has explained, the notion of Translatio meant there was no contradiction between the medieval concern for continuity in history on the one hand (the medieval emperor was an immediate successor of Caesar or Augustus) and the medieval care for chronology, division into ages, and attention to major turning points in the history of mankind on the other.34 Historical narratives could apply the scheme of the four world empires in various ways in order to convey different political meanings. We can take as an example the chronicle of Ekkehard of Aura, based on Frutolf’s universal chronicle, but divided into five books taking among its points of division the birth of Christ, the empire of Charlemagne, and Henry V’s accession to the throne.35 This, of course, leads to one of the most important issues tackled by the essays included in this volume: the relationship between universal

30 M.

Chazan, L’Empire et l’histoire universelle de Sigebert de Gembloux à Jean de SaintVictor, XII–XIV siècle (Paris, 1999), p. 17. 31 Jerome, Commentariorum in Danielem libri III, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 75, ed. F. Glorie, II.21a; II.31, 35; VII.7b.11, 24. 32 E. Breisach, Historiography. Ancient, Medieval and Modern (Chicago, 1994), pp. 103–4. 33 O. von Freising, Chronica sive Historia duabus civitatibus, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum 45 (Hannover, 1912), VIII. prol. 34 H.-W. Goetz, ‘The Concept of Time in the Historiography of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, in Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory and Historiography, ed. G. Althoff, J. Fried and P. J Geary (Cambridge, 2002), pp. 139–66 (pp. 155–63). 35 Goetz, ‘The Concept of Time’, pp. 147–8.

8

9781903153734.indd 8

08/05/2017 08:29

Introduction: New Perspectives chronicles and the formation of political meanings. As several of the chapters in this volume will show, the idea of the universal played a crucial role in constructing political meaning.

The universal chronicle as a frame for political messages Positioning institutions and polities within a universal history helps to define their political consciousness. As Raymond Aron has argued, ‘Notre conscience politique est et ne peut pas ne pas être une conscience historique.’36 Margaret Somers has pointed out how narratives are a crucial element of social and political life: ‘social life is itself storied … narrative is an ontological condition of social life … people construct identities (however multiple and changing) by locating themselves or being located within a repertoire of emplotted stories; … “experience” is constituted through narratives.’37 These narratives become ontological narratives: ‘These are the stories that social actors use to make sense of – indeed, to act in – their lives. Ontological narratives are used to define who we are; this in turn can be a precondition for knowing what to do.’38 And as Gabrielle Spiegel has written of the Middle Ages in particular, ‘What made the writing of history important in the Middle Ages, despite its absence from the scholarly curriculum, was exactly its ability to address contemporary political life via a displacement to the past, and to embed both prescription and polemic in an apparently “factual”, because realistic, account of the historic legacy that the past had bequeathed.’39 The idea of a created world had bestowed new political implications on universal chronicles, because the beginning and end of history were now connected. (Augustine writes that ‘In omni enim motu actionis suae qui non respicit initium non prospicit finem’ [In every movement of his action he who does not look at the beginning does not foresee the end]).40 Goetz has stressed the crucial role of universal chronicles in ‘inventing the past’, and creating a narrative able to legitimize present polities and institutions, since it was crucial for them to connect with a remote past. Many universal chronicles begin with the Creation, representing the culmination of this connection with a long-gone past. But not all universal chronicles started at that point: Chazan has shown that universal chronicles can take as their point of departure any 36 R.

Aron, ‘La notion du sens de l’histoire’, in Dimensions de la conscience historique (Paris, 2011), p. 53. 37 M. Somers, ‘The Narrative Construction of Identity: A Relational and Network Approach’, Theory and Society 25 (1994), 605–49 (p. 614). 38 Somers, ‘The Narrative Construction of Identity’, p. 618. 39 G. M. Spiegel, ‘Introduction’, in The Past as Text: The Theory and Practice of Medieval Historiography (Baltimore, 1997), pp. xi–xii, xiii. 40 Augustine, De civitate Dei, VII.7, in Aurelii Augustini Opera, XIV, 2, ed. B. Dombart and A. Kalb, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 48 (Turnhout, 1955).

9

9781903153734.indd 9

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano event considered to affect the world in its entirety. This is why they can start from the Creation, or from the Fall, or even from the seizure of power by Caesar.41 From one of those points of departure the medieval history-writer then tries to develop a vision of the development of humankind on a world scale. The French history-writer Robert d’Auxerre, for example, defines the scope of his work in the prologue of his universal history thus: A mundi itaque exordio sumpsimus et ad nostra usque tempora temporum seriem stuiduimus texere… Hic nempe describitur qualiter ab initio usque nunc mundus fluxerit vel florens provectibus vel pressuris attritus, qualiter res mutatae, translata regna, regnorum gloriae ad nihilum devolute; quomodo denique post adventum Christi christianitas creverit, corruerit impietas, pietas triumpharit. (We took the start from the beginning of the world and we applied ourselves to weave the series of time up to our time… here it is truly described, in which way from the beginning of the world till now the world has flowed, either flowering in advancement or consumed by pressures, in which way things were changed, the transferred kingdoms, the glories of the kingdoms devolved into nothing; how Christianity grew after the coming of Christ, impiety collapsed, and piety triumphed).42

Reflecting the idea of Translatio imperii we have already mentioned, the regna that Robert of Auxerre mentions are the four universal monarchies: that of the Assyrians, the Medo-Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. These monarchies supply a chronological framework into which Robert can set universal history.43 For Siccard of Cremona (d. 1215), meanwhile, the genre of the chronicle (cronica) coincides with this notion of the universal chronicle, although the narration in itself implies a selection of events: ‘cronicam id est temporalem narracionem ab exordio mundi de temporibis et personis et gestis earum, non omnibus, sed que nobis et nunc ad exempli et cautele memoriam scripturarumque noticiam expedire videntur’ (a chronicle, i.e. a temporal narration from the beginning of the world about the times and persons and their deeds – not all of them, but those which seem suitable to us and now for remembrance of example and caution and for renown of the scriptures).44 Universal chronicles were able to place different polities in context because of the generality of their scope, and because they organized a wealth of

41 Chazan,

L’Empire et l’histoire universelle, pp. 15–16. Canonici S. Mariani Autissiodorensis Chronicon, ed. O. Holder-Egger, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores 26 (Hannover, 1882), pp. 219–87 (p. 227). 43 Chazan, L’Empire et l’histoire universelle, pp. 15–16. 44 Sicardi episcopi Cremonensis Cronica, ed. O. Holder-Egger, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores 31 (Hannover, 1903), pp. 22–181 (p. 78). 42 Roberti

10

9781903153734.indd 10

08/05/2017 08:29

Introduction: New Perspectives information – including the history of different kingdoms and the history of the empire and of popes – into a continuous sequence.45 Their underlying unity, as well as the distinct identities of the histories they related, could be expressed by different graphic arrangements. Sigebert of Gembloux, for example, adopted a scheme of up to nine synoptical tables to record the reigns of kings.46 The chronicle of Hugh of Saint Victor includes a synoptical list of popes and emperors that records the year of incarnation, the indiction, the names of the popes and emperors, and the individual years of their pontificate or reign, in four columns.47 Different ways of organizing narratives, along with specific choices of mise en page, could imply various political meanings. We can take the example of the Tractatus de divisione regnorum by Jean de Saint-Victor. In his Tractatus, Jean affirms that after the Flood four powerful kingdoms appeared in the different cardinal points, the Scythes (North), the Assyrians (East), the Egyptians (South), and the Sicyonians (West). The Roman Empire is shown to have lasted from Julius Caesar to the deposition of Frederick II: ‘et tunc, scilicet tempore Iulii, magis roboratum est imperium, durans abhinc usque ad deposicionem Frederici annos M CC XCII (and then, in the time of Julius, the empire was more strengthened, lasting hence to the deposition of Frederick 1291 years).’48 After that the regnum Romanorum is called regnum Alemanie sive Germanie: ‘postquam tamen imperium Romanorum defecit deposito Fredrico, fuerunt Alemannie reges sed non imperatores Romani (after that, however, the empire of the Romans failed, Frederick having being deposed, they were kings of Germany but not Roman emperors’).49 After him, the emperors disappear from the catalogue of monarchs displayed in the chronicle. Several kingdoms preceded the empire, and several kingdoms will continue to exist after its end. The universal monarchy is not the frame of history.50 In order to understand fully the implications of medieval universal chronicles for the formation of a medieval political consciousness, however, we need to look at what Spiegel called the ‘social logic of the text’. According to Spiegel,

45 Krüger,

Die Universalchroniken, p. 19. Verbist, Duelling with the Past. Medieval Authors and the Problem of the Christian Era (c. 990–1135) (Turnhout, 2010), pp. 177–230; Goetz, ‘The Concept of Time’, p. 151. 47 Goetz, ‘The Concept of Time’, p. 155; L. B. Mortensen, ‘Hugh of St. Victor on Secular History. A Preliminary Edition of Chapters from his Chronica’, Cahiers de l’Institut du Moyen-Âge Grec et Latin 62 (1992), 3–30. 48 Jean de Saint-Victor, Traité de la division des royaumes. Introduction à une histoire universelle, ed. E. Guyot-Bachy and D. Poirel, (Turnhout, 2002), p. 144, Paris, BNF, MS lat. 14626, fol. 3v. 49 Ibid., fol. 11v. 50 Jean de Saint-Victor, Traité de la division des royaumes, p. 236, Chazan, L’Empire et l’histoire universelle, pp. 459–60. 46 P.

11

9781903153734.indd 11

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano the ‘social logic of the text’ is a term and a concept that seeks to combine in a single but complex framework a protocol for the analysis of a text’s social site – its location within an embedded social environment of which it is a product and in which it acts as an agent – and its own discursive character as ‘logos’, that is, as itself a literary (formal) analysis’.51

By investigating patronage, authorship, and diffusion in connection with the writing practices that generated them, this book offers several different analyses of the social logic of different universal chronicles. Grasping the ‘social logic of the text’ also involves addressing the language in which the chronicles were written, together with their social valences. When studying the West we especially need to understand the multiple relationships between vernacular and Latin texts: the chapters in this book by Elizabeth Tyler, Christophe Thierry, and Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas aim to do just this. Tyler illustrates how English vernacular historiographical culture, in its engagement with universal history, was fully part of the European mainstream, in a bidirectional dialogue with Latin history-writing. Thierry analyses Rudolf of Ems’s Weltchronik in the context of the rise of the world chronicle in German, which began with the Annolied (at the end of the eleventh century). Thierry shows that an early vernacular historiography developed in the empire, and asserted its authority alongside Latin universal chronicles. Latin and vernacular texts, that is, were written for the same audiences, and conveyed similar ideological messages. Like Godfrey of Viterbo’s Pantheon (which Rudolf used as a source), Rudolf’s chronicle is closely connected with the Hohenstaufen dynasty: both texts were patronized by Konrad IV. Rudolf’s Weltchronik also shares the encyclopedic nature of Godfrey’s Pantheon. This is especially clear in Rudolf’s geographical section, where Rudolf inserts into his chronicle the genealogy of the Hohenstaufen family. This demonstrates the continuity of the royal line and the permanence of the empire. The use of genealogy is probably the Speculum regum of Godfrey of Viterbo. The Latin and German texts therefore show that they belong to a similar cultural as well as political tradition, and they both have didactic functions for princes. Just as Thierry traces the intended public for Rudolf’s Weltchronik, GaullierBougassas also shows how similar political preoccupations lay behind the first extant example of a universal chronicle in French. By analysing Wauchier de Denain’s Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César – an adaptation of a number of Latin texts – Gaullier-Bougassas scrutinizes the political implications of this act of adaptation. The public that Wauchier de Denain was addressing was the aristocratic and urban elite of northern France, which promoted the use of written French (the French monarchy, by contrast, continued to patronize works in Latin). Wauchier was patronized by Philippe de Namur (brother of the count of Flanders), Roger IV, châtelain of Lille, and finally Jeanne, countess

51 Spiegel,

‘Introduction’, p. xviii.

12

9781903153734.indd 12

08/05/2017 08:29

Introduction: New Perspectives of Flanders. Wauchier places the prestigious genre of the universal chronicle at the service of this audience for the first time, which allowed his patrons to frame their values and aspirations within the framework of the history of the world. At the same time, Wauchier the cleric also used his history to offer exempla to his lay audience, offering an education in Christian morality in the process. Gaullier-Bougassas’s chapter shows, therefore, how closely the social context of a historiographical text is connected with contemporary systems of historical knowledge and understanding. The author knows how to appeal to his noble, lay public. He changes the representation of one of its key figures, Alexander the Great, who had been negatively portrayed in Orosius (the main source of the Histoire ancienne). Wauchier makes of him an example for all monarchs and nobles who want to understand how to put their work at the service of God. Alexander becomes a model of aristocratic virtue and Christian values. The strongly didactic cast of Wauchier’s text is also evident in other vernacular universal chronicles: Claudia Wittig, in her chapter on the Kaiserchronik, shows how universal histories could offer a wealth of moral exempla to instruct the nobility. The use of the vernacular (the Kaiserchronik is the first chronicle in German) is related to the diffusion of these texts among the lower nobility. Just as the Histoire ancienne is part of a group of texts representing the interests of the northern French and Flemish nobility – and which set the new vernacular texts in opposition to the ‘official’ Latin historiography of the French monarchy – so the Kaiserchronik is one of a number of vernacular texts promoted by the lower nobility and by supporters of the House of Welf. The Welfs were the chief antagonists over the imperial with the Hohenstaufens, who were for their part keen patrons of universal chronicles in Latin (including Otto of Freising’s Historia de duabus ciuitatibus and Godfrey of Viterbo’s Pantheon). Wittig’s chapter on the Kaiserchronik shows how closely a text’s genre was related to its social circulation. The Kaiserchronik must be understood within the context of didactic literature in the vernacular, produced for a public of lay nobles. Wittig shows how the text teaches its audience their moral responsibility for the existence of the empire, underlining the continuity of the universal empire by adapting existing ideas of translatio imperii to suit its political agenda. This combination of moral didacticism and political ideology is also clear from Elena Koroleva’s chapter below on a later French case, the Chronique dite de Baudouin d’Avesnes.

Universal histories, manuscripts, and editorial culture The tendency to treat medieval chronicles simply as repositories of source material to be mined for historical evidence has obscured their nuanced political positions, and their subtle political messages. As Justin Lake has recently argued, this tendency characterized scholars’ approach to these 13

9781903153734.indd 13

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano texts from the age of Humanism to the time of Ranke, and influenced some of the great historiographical enterprises such as the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH), established by the Gesellschaft für Deutschlands ältere Geschichtskunde in 1819. According to Lake, the editorial philosophy of the MGH reflected the nineteenth century’s prevailing interest in medieval historiography as Quellenmaterial above all else. Duplicative or irrelevant sections of medieval histories were left out of the MGH’s early editions, while derivative material was printed in a smaller typeface. These decisions made sense from the perspective of nineteenth-century positivist historiography, but they gave a distorted picture of the aims of medieval historians and contributed to a comparative lack of interest in the author as an object of study.52

Medieval historiography is, however, not just a source: it offers a privileged perspective on the medieval perception of the world or, to use a very effective German expression coined by Hans-Werner Goetz, Vorstellungsgeschichte.53 As Steven Vanderputten points out in his chapter below, scholarship on medieval chronicles – and in particular on medieval universal chronicles – has tended to privilege works regarded as ‘original’, neglecting works that included less original material but nevertheless played a crucial role in developing a shared sense of the past in medieval communities. A further example of this can be seen in the edition of Godfrey of Viterbo’s work by Georg Waitz.54 This edition is still crucial for the study of this twelfth-century historian and philosopher. However, Waitz decided only to edit integrally what he considered the first of his works, the Speculum regum. Of Godfrey’s final version of the Pantheon, he decided that he would repeat only those things (ea) after the birth of Christ, and some parts concerning the history of the Germanic people, even though they can have a fairy-tale character. From the previous version of the Pantheon we find just what Godfrey modified in the final version.55 The rich theological and philosophical sections of the Pantheon are completely omitted, except for titles of their chapters.56 Contemporary intellectual historians approach this text in a completely different way from Waitz, as I show in my own chapter below. As Lars Boje Mortensen writes: ‘As the history of mentalities became trendsetting in the 1970s and 1980s it gave rise, in the study of medieval historiography, to numerous illuminating studies of the type “the world of 52 J.

Lake, ‘Authorial Intention in Medieval Historiography’, History Compass 12 (2014), 344–60 (p. 345). 53 H.-W. Goetz, Vorstellungsgeschichte. Gesammelte Schriften zu Wahrnehmungen, Deutungen und Vorstellungen im Mittelalter (Bochum, 2007). 54 For Waitz’s edition of the Pantheon: Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores 22 (Hannover, 1872), pp. 1–352. 55 Ibid., p. 12. 56 Ibid., pp. 107–37.

14

9781903153734.indd 14

08/05/2017 08:29

Introduction: New Perspectives [medieval historian]” and medieval chronicles were now, and continue to be, read in their entirety for their contribution to the history of ideas.’57 As Björn Weiler shows in his chapter in this volume, the lack of available critical editions has influenced research on universal chronicles. Works available in good critical editions and published in widely diffused series have naturally attracted more studies, but the High Middle Ages have been particularly overlooked. This is not only despite, but also because of the abundance of historical writing produced in that period. As Mortensen has argued, whereas the grand narratives of the Early Middle Ages (Bede, Isidore, Paul the Deacon, etc.) have been excavated for factual information and have often shaped the structuring of historical discourse, the abundant historical writing of the twelfth and thirteenth century has fostered local or, at best, national research on historiography, abetted in this by a lack of a common European canon.58 The limitations of this national approach with regards to universal chronicles are clearly demonstrated below by Björn Weiler, who shows how the framework of universal history enabled a chronicler like Matthew Paris to write the history of the area in which he lived (Britain) from a very international perspective, connecting events ‘at home’ with the histories of the Mongols and of the Holy Land, among many others. It is evident from the studies in this book that there is an urgent need to restart editorial work on universal chronicles, and to attend to their manuscript transmission especially closely. Doing this would not just make universal chronicles available to scholars in their entirety, in a way that they are not now. Rather, the study of the texts within their manuscript context would cast light on how these texts were produced, and demonstrate how they were constructed upon complex strata of excerpts and citations from other histories. Consequently, it would become clearer how these texts tried to respond to the intellectual and political needs of the communities that produced them.59 I have given an example of this methodology below, by analysing the manuscript tradition of the Liber Guidonis compositus de variis historiis. In my chapter, I show how both the work of compilation that created this text and the successive transmission across the century responded to different intellectual and political needs. Several other chapters included in this volume also demonstrate how codicological analysis casts light on the social logic of the text. This is particularly the case in Steven Vanderputten’s chapter on the Chronicon Vedastinum. Vanderputten shows how the process of revising and integrating the Chronicon Vedastinum in the eleventh century

57 L.

B. Mortensen, ‘Comparing and Connecting: The Rise of Fast Historiography in Latin and Vernacular (12th–13th centuries)’, Medieval Worlds 1 (2015), 25–39 (p. 28). 58 Mortensen, ‘Comparing and Connecting’, p. 26. 59 M. Chazan, ‘La méthode critique des historiens dans les chroniques universelles (XIIe-XIVe siècle)’, in M. Chazan and G. Dahan (eds.), La méthode critique au Moyen Âge (Turnhout, 2006) pp. 223–56.

15

9781903153734.indd 15

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano helped its monastic community establish a communal identity. Elizabeth Tyler’s chapter, in which she integrates codicological and textual analysis with analysis of the political and intellectual engagements of the compiler of London, British Library, MS Tiberius B I, offers another example of the fruits of a codicological approach. Rosa Rodríguez Porto, meanwhile, shows in her chapter on the Estoria de Espanna that studying a chronicle’s manuscript context can reveal a complex visual apparatus that casts light on the intellectual needs it expressed. As we have seen, the question concerning the social embedding of universal chronicles has led us by necessity to investigate how these connect to the organization of learning in the medieval period. This is, in particular, relevant for a period like the High Middle Ages which represented a crucial turning point in the understanding of history and which produced many influential universal chronicles.

Universal chronicles and their position in the high medieval organization of knowledge One of the reasons why we decided to focus on specifically high-medieval chronicles in this book is that theoretical reflection on the writing of history flourished in this period. It was in the twelfth century in particular, for example, that the relationship between history and other parts of the medieval system of knowledge were articulated most clearly. Hugh of Saint-Victor’s theoretical work offers a clear example of this. In his Didascalicon, Hugh distinguishes four elements that are crucial for understanding of history: person, action, time, and place (persona, negotium, tempus, and locus).60 The emphasis on locus, place, was particularly crucial. (The connections between what we would call geography and history are particularly overt in Orosius’ Histories,61 which influenced the composition of medieval historical compilations so much.) For Hugh, historical knowledge is the basis for the literal interpretation of holy writings: ‘fundamentum autem et principium doctrinae sacrae historia est (however, the foundation and beginning of sacred learning is history)’.62 This can also be seen in another work by Hugh of Saint Victor, the De tribus circumstantiis gestorum, his preface to his chronicle, in which history is considered part of the preparation for the study of holy writings.63 In this work, Hugh

60 Hugonis

de Sancto Victore Didascalicon de studio legendi, ed. C. H. Buttimer, Studies in medieval and Renaissance Latin 10 (Washington D.C., 1939), VI.3. 61 Paulus Orosius, Historiae adversus paganos, I.i (Orosio, Le storie contro i pagani), ed. A. Lippold, 2 vols. (Milan, 1998). See also A. H. Merrills, History and Geography in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, 2005), pp. 64–96. 62 Didascalicon, ed. Buttimer, VI.3. 63 W. M. Green, ‘Hugh of St Victor: De tribus maximis circumstantiis gestorum’,

16

9781903153734.indd 16

08/05/2017 08:29

Introduction: New Perspectives explains that the understanding of the historical events depends on knowing where and when they took place, and who was involved in them.64 Meanwhile, as Goetz has shown, twelfth-century historiography ‘systematized’ the theology of history, by emphasizing, for example, in a kind of exegetical historiography, that history was divided into six ages (so the sixth age, beginning with Christ’s Incarnation, must be the last one) or into four great realms. Here, equally, when Rome, according to the prophecy of the prophet Daniel in the exegetical interpretation of Saint Jerome, was the fourth and last empire, people must still live in the Roman Empire which, meanwhile, had been “transferred”, first to the Greeks, then to the Franks, and finally to the Germans’.65 Hans-Werner Goetz shows how this point was already widely demonstrated in his crucial work Translatio Imperii.66 We have already made clear how this is one of the crucial points of understanding medieval ideas of totality in time: the contributions of Thierry and Wittig, and my own chapter, in this volume give interesting case studies of how the issue of Translatio imperii needs to be tackled from new perspectives. Universal chronicles, therefore, intersected with aspects of medieval learning as diverse as geography, exegesis, and theology. Medieval lore had also insisted on the fact that history was part of grammar, following Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae.67 Making the position of universal chronicles in the medieval world of learning more complex still is their connection to the quadrivium, and in particular to computus.68 Isidore and Bede place their chronicles in the ratio temporum, and some high-medieval chroniclers such as Sigebert and Heimo, also wrote computistical works.69 Cornelia Dreer and Keith Lilley directly address the connection between geography and universal historiography below. Dreer and Lilley remind us, in particular, that medieval universal histories belonged to a long tradition of including both historical and geographical information, the latter sometimes in the form of maps. The work they analyse, Ranulf Higden’s Polychronicon, offers an opportunity to see how world chronicles engage with world geographies. Higden gave a description of the world in the first of the seven books of the Polychronicon, and thus demonstrates, for Dreer and Lilley, that when history-writers included maps in their histories, those maps and texts should not be studied separately, but as a single entity. They examine the maps in their Speculum 18 (1943), 484–93. ‘Hugh’, p. 491. 65 Goetz, ‘Historical Writing,’ p. 118. 66 W. Goetz, Translatio Imperii. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Geschichtsdenkens und der politischen Theorien im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit (Tübingen, 1958). 67 ‘Haec disciplina ad grammaticam pertinet, quia quidquid dignum memoria est litteris mandatur.’ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive originum liber, ed. B. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911), I.xli. 68 Verbist, Duelling, pp. 1–14. 69 Ibid., pp. 173–7, 251–4; Krüger, Die Universalchroniken, p. 16. 64 Green,

17

9781903153734.indd 17

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano specific manuscript context, taking as a case study London, British Library, Royal MS 14 C IX, the only copy of the Polychronicon containing more than one map. The way in which a map-image seeks to order the world is based upon certain principles, a ‘spatial logic’, underpinning a map, or maps. Among the factors we need to consider in understanding this logic is the connection with the text, but more specifically with the specific manuscript and its place of origin. Placing a map in context, seeing how its visual and textual geographies relate to one another, as well as placing the map manuscripts in their local landscapes, are two strategies adopted in this chapter that underline the importance of thinking through the spaces in which medieval maps were situated. This also helps us to understand the readership of this work, since through this geographical appropriation we can understand how universal chronicles were re-used in different specific areas to adopt them or a new representation of the past. In my own contribution below, I stress how Godfrey of Viterbo’s chronicle has cosmological and theological rather than geographical information. From these two chapters emerges the idea that to understand the sense of the past expressed in universal chronicles we must also look at the geographical and scientific sections included in these works, rather than just at what our modern idea would define as their historical sections. We can stress again that nineteenth-century editions have often not published these sections, as in the case of Godfrey of Viterbo. As my discussion above shows, our volume therefore contributes to the debates about universal history by offering a broad range (linguistically, typologically, and geographically) of case studies of high medieval universal chronicles, each of them offering fresh methodological approaches to the study of history of historiography. It builds on recent results and trends in the history of medieval historiography, but it combines and re-examines them in order to pave the way for new, path-breaking studies of this still understudied material, high medieval Universal Chronicles.70

70 I

would like to thank the co-editor of this book, Henry Bainton, for bringing this project to completion with me. I would like to thank Professor Peter Biller for discussing it with us and supplying essential feedback. Finally, I need to thank Eric Woelver, my research assistant, for his support in the final phase of the project. The British Academy has provided the funding for this project, without which it would have been impossible. Project: ‘Finding your place in history and politics: the life of universal chronicles in the high Middle Ages’. Principle Investigator: Michele Campopiano (University of York). Grant Reference: SG122724.

18

9781903153734.indd 18

08/05/2017 08:29

1 The first Islamic chronicle: the Chronicle of Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ (d. AD 854)* Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham

The Chronicle (Ar. Taʾrīkh) of Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ (d. AD 854) was composed in the early-to-mid ninth century and is the oldest Islamic chronicle still extant.1 Its compiler was a scholar of Qurʾān and ḥadīth – that is, a scholar of both of the Qurʾānic revelation and of the ‘reports’ or ‘traditions’ about the Prophet Muḥammad and the earliest Muslims.2 Khalīfa lived and worked in the large southern Iraqi port city of Basra – at the time one of the foremost centres of learning in the Islamic world.3 His Chronicle is arranged annalistically by years of the lunar Hijri calendar, beginning, after a short introduction, with year one – the year of the Prophet Muhammad’s emigration (hijra) from Mecca to Medina (AD 622) – and ending with year AH 232/AD 847. It covers, * The authors would like to thank Michele Campopiano for his invitation to Andrew Marsham to present a paper at the first workshop in the series ‘Finding your place in history and politics: the life of universal chronicles in the high Middle Ages’ at the University of York in December 2013. After Andrew had accepted the invitation and offered the subject of Khalīfa’s Chronicle, Tobias Andersson came to the University of Edinburgh in September 2013 and began work on a Ph.D. on the Chronicle under the supervision of Andrew Marsham (lead supervisor) and Andreas Görke (second supervisor). Hence, this chapter is jointly authored and reflects both Andrew Marsham’s preliminary work and some of Tobias Andersson’s research during the first year of his Ph.D. The two authors would like to thank the other participants in the workshop for their comments and criticisms, as well as Chase Robinson and Harry Munt for very helpful further comments and suggestions. The authors themselves, of course, are responsible for all errors that remain. 1 Although Taʾrīkh is commonly translated as ‘History’, it might more accurately be translated as ‘Chronicle’ or possibly ‘Chronography’ – see E. W. Lane, An ArabicEnglish Lexicon (London, 1863–81), s.v.; Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edn (Leiden, 1954–2005), hereafter EI2, ‘Taʾrīkh’ (F. C. De Blois, B. van Dalen, R. S. Humphreys et al.). 2 For example, Ibn al-Nadīm (fl. 987) lists Khalīfa among the ‘traditionist jurisprudents and proponents of ḥadīth’ (fuqahāʾ al-muḥaddithīn wa-aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth): Ibn al-Nadīm, al-Fihrist (Beirut, n.d.), p. 324. 3 For a survey of the history of Basra, see C. Pellat, Le milieu baṣrien et la formation de Ǧāḥiẓ (Paris, 1953); EI2, ‘al-Baṣra’ (C. Pellat and S. H. Longrigg).

19

9781903153734.indd 19

08/05/2017 08:29

Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham in summary fashion, the political and administrative history of the Muslim polity, from its origins in Medina at the time of the Prophet and under the first caliphs through to the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates. Despite its early date, Khalīfa’s Chronicle has received little attention in modern scholarship.4 Survey and textbook accounts tend to remark on its being the earliest surviving history in Arabic arranged chronologically, in contrast to earlier extant works which are structured thematically or arranged as biographical entries on individuals by generations. Modern historians have tended to dismiss it as telling us little or nothing that is not found in later, more famous works of the ninth century.5 It is, after all, much shorter than the surviving compendious histories produced in Iraq two or three generations later by al-Balādhurī (d. c. 892) and al-Ṭabarī (d. 923): al-Ṭabarī’s History of Messengers and Kings (Taʾrīkh al-rusul wa-l-mulūk) is perhaps twenty times as long; al-Balādhurī’s genealogically-arranged historical work, Genealogies of the Tribal Notables (Ansāb al-ashrāf), is perhaps about fifty times the length of Khalīfa’s work. But although Khalīfa’s Chronicle may not provide many facts not known from later works, his framing of the material and the context of its compilation are markedly different from other early histories. In other words, the Chronicle itself is a hitherto-overlooked historical fact that raises important questions about the origins and development of Arabic chronicle-writing and the different ways in which the early Muslims went about finding their place in history and politics. After a short discussion of Khalīfa’s biography, this chapter highlights three distinct aspects of the work. First, it is argued that Khalīfa’s Chronicle reflects a unique moment in Arabic chronicle writing from before the decline of Abbasid political authority and the rise of independent, non-Arab dynasties. Accordingly, it reflects an outlook on politics and the caliphal institution quite 4 Apart

from Tobias Andersson’s Ph.D. dissertation (‘Early Sunnī Historiography: A Study of the Tārīkh of Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ’ [Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 2016), there are so far only a few partial studies. See J. B. Roberts, ‘Early Islamic historiography: ideology and methodology’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1986), pp. 65–77; Ḥ. ʿĀṣī, Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ fī-taʾrīkhihī wa-ṭabaqātihi (Beirut, 1993); J. A. Nawas, ‘An Early Muslim Philosopher of History: Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ (d. 240 A.H./854 A.D.) and the Encyclopedic Tradition of Islamic Historiography’, Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 26 (1995), 163–69; C. F. Robinson, Islamic Historiography (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 77–9; C. Wurtzel, Khalifa ibn Khayyat’s History on the Umayyad Dynasty (Liverpool, 2015), which is based on Wurtzel’s Ph.D. dissertation from 1977 (Yale University) and prepared for publication by Robert G. Hoyland. 5 Chase Robinson summarizes the current position, ‘This annalistic history is significant only because it is the earliest we possess; neither the author, who merits only two lines in Ibn al-Nadīm’s Fihrist, nor his short book, which tells us little that we do not otherwise know from the later tradition, is noteworthy otherwise.’ Robinson, Islamic Historiography, p. 77.

20

9781903153734.indd 20

08/05/2017 08:29

The First Islamic Chronicle different from that of later histories, compiled after the political transformations of the mid to late third/ninth and early fourth/tenth centuries. Second, Khalīfa’s Chronicle is clear evidence for important internal dynamics in the Muslim polity that stimulated the production of historical writing in the first centuries of Islam and which gave that writing a distinctive character.6 The Chronicle is somewhat unusual because it was produced by a member of the emerging class of religious scholars usually referred to as the ‘Proponents of Ḥadīth’, or ‘Traditionalists’ (ahl al-ḥadīth). The Traditionalists were that group of scholars who held that Islamic law and doctrine should be inferred from the corpus of traditions known as the ḥadīth. That is, they depended upon reports of what the Prophet, his Companions and the Successors had said or done without significant use of independent reasoning (hereafter, ‘Traditionalist’ is used to refer to this scholarly stance, while ‘traditionist’ refers to the wider group of scholars active in collecting and transmitting ḥadīth but not necessarily belonging to the Traditionalists). These Traditionalists are not usually associated with the production of annalistic history, but the Chronicle (and a few other early historical texts) indicate that some Traditionalist scholars of the early ninth century did also concern themselves with history. That said, there is some evidence that annalistic history needed some justification among the emerging class of Traditionalist scholars. This need for justification is reflected in Khalīfa’s introductory section to his work, in which he cites the Qurʾān and ḥadīth in support of his project.7 Finally, this survey concludes with a consideration of Khalīfa’s Chronicle in the wider context of late antique universal history writing. Despite the comparatively limited chronological and geographical scope of Khalīfa’s Chronicle, it is suggested that it shares some of the characteristic features of medieval universal historiography. The text locates itself in the tradition of chronography, beginning with Adam and past peoples and empires. Furthermore, it has clear imperial and communal themes and a wide geographical range. However, it is a very different history from the fully universal Arabic histories of the later ninth and early tenth centuries. This is

6 On

internal and external explanations for the rise of annalistic chronography, see Robinson, Islamic Historiography, pp. 46–50. 7 This distinction follows fairly widely-accepted convention. On the emergence of the Traditionalists, see C. Melchert, The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law: 9th–10th Centuries C.E. (Leiden, 1997), pp. 1–31; C. Melchert, ‘The Traditionist-Jurisprudents and the Framing of Islamic Law’, Islamic Law and Society 8 (2001), 383–406; E. Dickinson, The Development of Early Sunnite Hadith Criticism: The Taqdima of Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī (240/854–327/938) (Leiden, 2001), pp. 2–5; P. Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought (Edinburgh, 2004), 125–41; W. Hallaq, The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law (Cambridge, 2005), p. 74–6; J. Brown, Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Oxford, 2009), pp. 17–18.

21

9781903153734.indd 21

08/05/2017 08:29

Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham a reflection of the distinctive context of its production in the ḥadīth circles of early to mid ninth century Basra. Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ al-ʿUṣfurī Khalīfa was born in Basra around 776 and died in the same city in 854.8 Thus, he would have grown up in the last quarter of the eighth century, under the third, fourth and fifth Abbasid caliphs, al-Mahdī (r. 775–785), al-Hādī (r. 785–786) and Hārūn al-Rashīd (r. 786–809). That is, he would perhaps have been in his mid thirties during the civil war between Hārūn’s sons al-Amīn and al-Maʾmūn of 811–13. When Khalīfa died – probably in his late seventies – in 854, this was about eight years after the accession of al-Mutawakkil in 847. The latter’s reign is not, however, mentioned in the Chronicle, which peters out just before his accession, in the year AH 232/AD 847. It was thus probably around the year 847 that Khalīfa transmitted the extant version of the Chronicle to his student, the Andalusian ḥadīth scholar Baqī b. Makhlad (d. 889).9 The evidence from citations of another, now lost, recension of the Chronicle in later medieval Arabic works tends to suggest a close congruence between the two versions, and so comparatively limited intervention by Khalīfa’s later transmitters; that is, we can be confident that the content and structure of the Chronicle closely resembles material transmitted by Khalīfa.10 In the earliest biographical notices from the ninth and tenth centuries, Khalīfa is mainly remembered as a muḥaddith – that is, a scholar of ‘reports’ or ‘traditions’ about the Prophet and the earliest Muslims.11 Later sources pay more attention to his erudition in the fields of history and genealogy.12 8 Al-Dhahabī,

Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, ed. Ḥ. ʿAbd al-Mannān, 3 vols. (Beirut, 2004), II, 1632; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb al-tahdhīb, ed. I. al-Zaybaq and ʿĀ. Murshid, 4 vols. (Beirut, 1995), I, 551; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa-anbāʾ abnāʾ al-zamān, ed. I. ʿAbbās, 8 vols. (Beirut, 1994), II, 244. See also Wurtzel, Khalifa ibn Khayyat’s History, p. 1. 9 For Baqī b. Makhlad’s biography, see al-Dhahabī, Siyar, I, 1215–8; M. Marín, ‘Baqī b. Majlad y la introducción del estudio del ḥadīṯ en al-Andalus’, al-Qanṭara 1 (1980), 165–208; M. Nūrī, Muḥammad b. Waḍḍāḥ al-Qurṭubī: Muʾassis madrasat al-ḥadīth bi-l-Andalus maʿa Baqī b. Makhlad (Rabat, 1983); A. Ḍ. al-ʿUmarī, Baqī b. Makhlad al-Qurṭubī wa-muqaddimat musnadihi (Beirut, 1984); M. L. Ávila, ‘Nuevos datos para la biografía de Baqī b. Majlad’, al-Qanṭara 6 (1985), 321–68; A. N. M. Raisuddin, ‘Baqī b. Makhlad al-Qurṭubī (201–276/818–889) and his Contribution to the Study of Ḥadīth Literature in Muslim Spain’, Islamic Studies 27 (1988), 161–8; M. I. Fierro, ‘The Introduction of Hadith in al-Andalus (2nd/8th–3rd/9th Centuries)’, Der Islam 66 (1989), 68–93. 10 On the citations in later works, see Wurtzel, Khalifa ibn Khayyat’s History, pp. 39–46. On the transmission of texts in early Islam, and the distinction between ‘books’ and ‘notes’, see G. Schoeler, The Oral and the Written in Early Islam, pp. 62–86. 11 Ibn ʿAdī, al-Kāmil fī-ḍuʿafāʾ al-rijāl, 7 vols. (Beirut, 1984), III, 935; Ibn Ḥibbān, Kitāb al-Thiqāt, 9 vols. (Hyderabad, 1973–83), VI, 269; Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl, 9 vols. (Beirut, 1953), III, 378. See also statements attributed to ninth-century critics in al-Dhahabī, Siyar, II, 1632; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb, I, 551. 12 Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Istīʿāb fī-maʿrifat al-aṣḥāb, ed. ʿA. M. al-Bajāwī, 4 vols. (Beirut,

22

9781903153734.indd 22

08/05/2017 08:29

The First Islamic Chronicle His students and transmitters of his ḥadīth include a number of prominent traditionist scholars who shaped what became Sunni Islam – among them Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī (d. 870), the compiler of one of the six ḥadīth compilations that eventually achieved a canonical status with the Sunnis.13 Khalīfa is said to have composed four or five books.14 Besides the Chronicle, these are: 1. Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt (‘The Book of the Generations’) 2. Ṭabaqāt al-qurrāʾ (‘Generations of the Qurʾān Reciters’) 3. Taʾrīkh al-zamnā wa-l-ʿurjān wa-l-marḍā wa-l-ʿumyān (‘History of the Ill, the Lame, the Diseased and the Blind’) 4. Ajzāʾ al-Qurʾān wa-aʿshāruhu wa-asbāʿuhu wa-ayātuhu (‘The Qurʾān’s Thirtieths, Tenths, Sevenths and Verses’) Only the titles of the latter three works are known, but they are all indicative of Khalīfa’s traditionist concerns: (1) a dictionary of transmitters of the Qurʾān; (2) a collection about the afflictions of famous Muslims, most likely scholars; and (3) a work on the organization of the Qurʾān. Both the Chronicle and the ‘Book of the Generations’ are extant. The latter is a laconic collection of the names of more than 3,000 ḥadīth transmitters – arranged geographically and by tribe from the beginning of Islam down to Khalīfa’s own time. This collection can be seen as a biographical and historical expression of the traditionist epistemic community to which Khalīfa belonged. The two extant books are also – as is evident from the references in later biographical notices – by far his most famous works, alongside the twenty-one references to Khalīfa in the isnāds of al-Bukhārī’s collection of ḥadīth, al-Jāmīʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ (‘The Authenticated Compendium’).15

1992), I, 22; Abū Bakr b. al-ʿArabī, al-ʿAwāṣim min al-qawāṣim, ed. M. al-Khaṭīb (Cairo, 1991), p. 175; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, II, 243; al-Dhahabī, Siyar, II, 1632; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb, I, 551. 13 Other major scholars among his students are ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal (d. 903), Baqī b. Makhlad (d. 889), Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Ḥasan b. Sufyān al-Nasawī (d. 916), Abū Yaʿlā Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Mawṣilī (d. 919), Abū Zurʿa ʿUbayd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Rāzī (d. 878), Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 890), Abū Yaʿlā Zakariyyāʾ b. Yaḥyā al-Sājī (d. 920), ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dārimī (d. 869). See al-Dhahabī, Siyar, II, 1632; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb, I, 551. 14 Ibn al-Nadīm, al-Fihrist (Beirut, n.d.), p. 324. 15 Ibn ʿAdī, Kāmil, III, 935; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, II, 243; al-Dhahabī, Siyar, II, 1631; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb, I, 551. On al-Bukhārī’s narrations from Khalīfa, see A. Ḍ. al-ʿUmarī’s introduction in Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, ed. A. Ḍ. al-ʿUmarī (Riyadh, 1985), pp. 8–9.

23

9781903153734.indd 23

08/05/2017 08:29

Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham

Socio-political context Among the extant early chronicles, Khalīfa’s is the only one compiled before the disastrous decade of anarchy in 861–870, which precipitated the political decline of the Abbasid Caliphate. This period and the subsequent decades were marked by the loss of central imperial authority, systemic financial problems and the appearance of independent local dynasties.16 The Chronicle therefore reflects a unique moment in Arabic historical writing; Khalīfa’s view on the development of Islamic politics was based on the ideal of a strong, centralized caliphate – an ideal that more or less corresponded to actual political conditions in his time. This is not to say that other annalistic works were not compiled around this time; the number of taʾrīkh works listed in Ibn al-Nadīm’s tenth-century bibliographic compilation, al-Fihrist (‘The Catalogue’), suggests otherwise.17 Furthermore, the type of history that Khalīfa compiled had precursors in both caliphal and annalistic chronography, the former of which appeared first and may have been the basis for the latter.18 Both Ibn Isḥāq (d. 767) and Abū Maʿshar (d. 786) are credited with caliphal chronicles (Taʾrīkh al-khulafāʾ), before the earliest known annalist, al-Haytham b. ʿAdī (d. 821–824).19 However, among the early chronicles composed before the decline of Abbasid imperial power, only Khalīfa’s Chronicle actually survives – in addition to the Taʾrīkh of ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥabīb (d. 238/853), which must have been compiled at a similar time under the Umayyads in al-Andalus.20 In retrospect the Abbasid Caliphate might be seen to have already been in decline in Khalīfa’s time. The civil war and its aftermath (811–19) had inflicted significant damage on the Abbasid dynasty. Their diminished power after this war is reflected in the ending of the appointment of members of the dynasty to provincial governorships.21 However, the disintegration of imperial power began in earnest only after 861 and accelerated in the early tenth century. When the Chronicle was composed and circulated in Basra, the actual results of the increasing political and economic problems all lay in the future. Imperial rule, centred on Iraq, had been restored by al-Maʾmūn in 819 and the end of the caliphate or its irreversible break-up into local dynasties was probably fairly inconceivable. Indeed, caliphs such as al-Muʿtaṣim and 16 See

H. Kennedy, ‘The Decline and Fall of the First Muslim Empire’, Der Islam 81 (2004), 3–30. 17 See, for example, Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist, pp. 142, 144–6, 149, 155. 18 F. M. Donner, Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing (Princeton, 1998), pp. 182–3, 230–1; Robinson, Islamic Historiography, p. 47. 19 Robinson, Islamic Historiography, p. 47. On al-Haytham b. ʿAdī, see S. Leder, Das Korpus al-Haiṯam ibn ʿAdī (st. 207/822): Herkunft, Überlieferung, Gestalt früher Texte der aḫbār Literatur (Frankfurt am Main, 1991). 20 ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥabīb, Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh, ed. J. Aguadé (Madrid, 1990). 21 Kennedy, ‘Decline and Fall’, pp. 8–10.

24

9781903153734.indd 24

08/05/2017 08:29

The First Islamic Chronicle al-Mutawakkil, at end of Khalīfa’s life, may in some respects have enjoyed an absolute authority that even their predecessors had lacked; it was not until the time of their successors in the second half of the ninth century that the results of the internal political and economic problems began to become more apparent.22 Hence, Khalīfa’s Chronicle might be expected to reflect the coterminous nature of Muslim imperial power and the Muslim community – something that was never to be again after the 860s, but had generally been the case for the previous two centuries. The structure of the Chronicle does indeed emphasize this perspective; the existence of the Muslim community is presented as a direct continuation of the polity founded by the Prophet Muḥammad following his emigration to Medina. Raids against the Muslims’ enemies, the leadership of the pilgrimage, appointments to military and fiscal commands and offices, and to judgeships in the various cities are the recurrent themes of every annual entry. That is, leadership of the prayer, leadership of jihād, the distribution of tax revenues and the enacting of justice are the repeating patterns, first under the Prophet Muḥammad and then under the aegis of successive caliphs. Moreover, the reign of each caliph and a few prominent governors is concluded with list-sections enumerating governors, judges and other administrative appointees, which serves to emphasize the continuous development of the caliphate and its institutions. These elements are all found in later histories, of course, but in Khalīfa’s Chronicle they are the main foci of the text. The transmission of the caliphate itself is, with a few important exceptions,23 represented as smoothly as possible. Most notably, there is no mention of ʿAlī’s claims to power after the death of the Prophet Muḥammad. ʿAlī, as a key figure for the various Shi’i movements who denied the legitimacy of the caliphate, is usually the focus of significant attention in the historical tradition.24 However, the introductory section of the Chronicle mentions accounts of the Prophet’s birth before the chronography proper begins with the Prophet and Abū Bakr (later the first caliph) arriving in Medina in AH 1/ AD 622.25 ʿAlī appears comparatively rarely until his actual succession to the caliphate after the killing of the third caliph, ʿUthmān, in AH 36/AD 656.26 22 Kennedy,

‘Decline and Fall’, p. 16.

23 The main exceptions are the objections to Muʿāwiya’s appointment of his son, Yazīd

b. Muʿāwiya, and the conflicts surrounding the accessions of Yazīd b. al-Walīd, Marwān b. Muḥammad and al-Maʾmūn. Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, pp. 213–8, 363–5, 372–4, 466–8. 24 On the image of ʿAlī in the early historical tradition, see e.g. T. El-Hibri, Parable and Politics in Early Islamic History: The Rashidun Caliphs (New York, 2010), pp. 205–61. 25 Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, pp. 52–6. 26 The exceptions are ʿAlī’s report about the Hijri dating system; ʿAlī’s marriage to the Prophet’s daughter, Fāṭima; ʿAlī’s role in the Battle of Uḥud; a raiding mission sent by the Prophet under the command of ʿAlī; a short Prophetic ḥadīth narrated

25

9781903153734.indd 25

08/05/2017 08:29

Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham Unusually, the disagreements following the death of the Prophet in AH 11/ AD 632 and the meeting afterwards at the saqīfa (‘shelter’) of Banū Sāʿida are passed over in complete silence. Most other histories record the conflict at the saqīfa between some of the Meccan and Medinan Companions, after which Abū Bakr received (wrongly according to the Shi’is, who preferred ʿAlī) the oath of allegiance as caliph.27 However, in Khalīfa’s work there is simply a segue from the military and administrative appointments of the Prophet to the succession of Abū Bakr, about which Khalīfa only mentions that, ‘In year 11, Abū Bakr was given the general oath of allegiance (bayʿat al-ʿāmma) on Tuesday, the day after the death of God’s Messenger, God’s blessing and peace be upon him.’28 Hence, the annalistic structure and the foregrounding of the caliphate serve to emphasize continuity and unity – the caliphs progress from Abū Bakr and ʿUmar through to ʿUthmān and ʿAlī and then on to the Umayyads and Abbasids. Conflicts between the Prophet’s Companions – in particular the killing of ʿUthmān and the civil war at the time of ʿAlī – are reported in a way that tends to emphasize the collective innocence of the Companions and the overall righteousness of the Muslim community.29 This is also the case in the section on the first year of the Umayyad caliphate in AH 41/AD 661, when ʿAlī’s son, al-Ḥasan, transferred the caliphate to the first Umayyad caliph, Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān. As in some other Sunnī histories, this year is presented as the ‘year of unity’ (sanat al-jamāʿa).30 The conflict surrounding Muʿāwiya’s controversial appointment of his son, Yazīd, to the caliphate is reported in detail.31 However, Khalīfa includes a number of reports in support of the necessity of obedience to the caliph in order to preserve communal unity:

by ʿAlī; ʿUmar’s consultation of ʿAlī before the battle of Nihāwand; ʿAlī’s disassociation from the Egyptian rebels against ʿUthmān; and ʿUthmān’s sending of ʿAlī to negotiate with the Egyptians. Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, pp. 65, 67, 79, 93, 147–8, 169–70. 27 See, e.g., Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrat al-Nabawiyya, ed. ʿU. ʿA. Tadmurī, 4 vols. (Beirut, 1990), IV, 308–12; al-Yaʿqūbī, Taʾrīkh, ed. ʿA. Mihnā, 2 vols. (Beirut, 2010), II, 7–11; al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh al-rusul wa-l-mulūk, ed. M. de Goeje, 15 vols. (Leiden, 1879–1901) I, 1837–45. 28 Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, p. 100. 29 Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, pp. 168–77, 180–97. 30 Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, p. 203. The term was also used by the Syrian ḥadīth scholar Abū Zurʿa al-Dimashqī (d. 895) in his Taʾrīkh, ed. S. al-Qawjānī, 2 vols. (Damascus, 1980), I, 190, where he says, ‘Muʿāwiya received the oath of allegiance in year 40 and that was the year of unity’ (ʿām al-jamāʿa). The fourteenth-century scholar al-Dhahabī, likewise calls the first year of Muʿāwiya’s reign ‘the year of unity’ (ʿām al-jamāʿa) and then cites Khalīfa’s Taʾrīkh. See al-Dhahabī, Taʾrīkh al-Islām wa-wafayāt al-mashāhīr wa-l-aʿlām, ed. ʿU. ʿA. Tadmurī, 53 vols. (Beirut, 1987–2000), IV, 5. 31 Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, pp. 213–18.

26

9781903153734.indd 26

08/05/2017 08:29

The First Islamic Chronicle ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Mahdī narrated to us; he said: Sufyān narrated to us from Muḥammad b. al-Munkadir; he said: When Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya received the pledge of allegiance, Ibn ʿUmar said, ‘If he is good, we will be content and if he turns out to be a trial, we will be patient.’32 Ismāʿīl b. Sinān said: Ḥammād b. Salama narrated to us from Yaʿlā b. ʿAṭāʾ from his paternal uncle; he said: I accompanied ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAmr when Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya sent him to ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr. I heard ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAmr say to Ibn al-Zubayr, ‘Know that I found in the book that you will both afflict and be afflicted, and that you will claim the caliphate, although you are not the caliph. I find Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya to be the caliph.’33

Similarly, the contentious subject of the killing of ʿAlī’s son, al-Ḥusayn, and his family and followers at Karbalāʾ is mentioned briefly, but not dwelled upon in the way of most later histories. 34 Instead of providing details about the event, Khalīfa merely enumerates those who were killed.35 Even the Abbasid Revolution is reported quite laconically and without much notice to the planning and propaganda during the thirty years of preparation,36 which is prominent in some of the later chronicles.37 Nearer to Khalīfa’s own time, this ‘smoothing out’ of caliphal history reflects the immediate political context: the civil war of AH 195/AD 811, which had followed Hārūn al-Rashīd’s death in AH 193/AD 809 is presented entirely from the perspective of the victorious brother, al-Maʾmūn.38 The defeated al-Amīn is al-Amīn al-Makhlūʿ – ‘al-Amīn the Deposed’ – or simply, without his formal epithet, Muḥammad al-Makhlūʿ. His victorious brother, on the other hand, is referred to as al-Maʾmūn the Commander of the Believers (i.e. the Caliph), even during al-Amīn’s own lifetime.39 In this sense, the Chronicle is a caliphate-centred and somewhat triumphalist narrative: it is taken for granted that the umma is a community with universal hegemony, led by one universal ruler, the caliph. Revolts and conflicts are reported in detail throughout Khalīfa’s Chronicle, but never in a way that threatens the foundations of the caliphate or the unity of the Muslim b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, p. 217. b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, p. 218. 34 Ibn Saʿd, Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr, ed. ʿA. M. ʿUmar, 11 vols. (Cairo, 2001), VI, 421–60; al-Yaʿqūbī, Taʾrīkh, II, 155–69; al-Dīnawarī, al-Akhbār al-ṭiwāl, ed. M. S. al-Khuḍrī (Cairo, 1912), pp. 231–60; al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, II, 227–390; al-Masʿūdī, Murūj al-dhahab wa-maʿādin al-jawhar, ed. Y. A. Dāghir, 4 vols. (Beirut, 1978), III, 54–63; Ibn Aʿtham al-Kūfī, Kitāb al-Futūḥ, ed. M. ʿA. Khān, 8 vols. (Hyderabad, 1968–75), IV, 45–222. 35 Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, pp. 231, 234–5. 36 Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, pp. 387–405. 37 For example, Ibn Aʿtham al-Kūfī, Futūḥ, VIII, 153–77; al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, II, 1467, 1501–3, 1586–8, 1726–7, 1769, 1949–59, 1984–2003. 38 Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, pp. 466–72. 39 Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, pp. 466–8. 32 Khalīfa 33 Khalīfa

27

9781903153734.indd 27

08/05/2017 08:29

Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham community. The narrative ‘mode of emplotment’, to use Hayden White’s term,40 may be described as ‘process and continuity’, which reflects both Khalīfa’s immediate political context and, as explored below, the ideological orientation of the Basran Traditionalist circles to which he belonged. This stands in contrast to, for example, the politically more pessimistic outlook of al-Ṭabarī, whose own History – composed as the Abbasid caliphate disintegrated – can be read (among other things) as a lament of the political developments and mismanagement of the caliphate after the four ‘rightlyguided’ caliphs.41 Both al-Ṭabarī’s and Khalīfa’s works emphasize the unity of the Muslim community in a way that would fit the broad tradition that came to be known as ahl al-sunna wa-l-jamāʿa – the ‘People of the Prophetic Tradition and the Community’. But this unity is stressed through quite different narrative strategies: while Khalīfa’s Chronicle emphasizes communal unity by a more or less singular narrative in accordance with the Traditionalist views of his own scholarly circles, al-Ṭabarī provides a much wider and more inclusive selection of reports and viewpoints and uses irony to implicitly lament the political disunity of the Muslims.42 In light of the above discussion, Khalīfa’s Chronicle might be seen as a text that assumes that unified imperial-style rule is the natural state of affairs for the Muslim community. However, while Khalīfa takes the universal rule of the caliphate completely for granted, and while the structure and arrangement of the Chronicle itself asserts the caliphate’s legitimacy, it does not entirely conform to the religio-political stance of the Abbasid dynasty at the time. While the Abbasid dynasty came to support various rationalist 40 Introduced

in H. White, Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Baltimore, 1973), pp. 7–11. 41 On al-Ṭabarī’s critical account of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, see U. Mårtensson, Tabari (Oxford, 2009), pp. 122–44. 42 On al-Ṭabarī’s concerns and methods, see E. Petersen, ʻAlī and Muʻāwiya in Early Arabic Tradition: Studies on the Genesis and Growth of Islamic Historical Writing until the End of the Ninth Century (Copenhagen, 1964), pp. 149–58; M. G. S. Hodgson, ‘Two Pre-Modern Historians: Pitfalls and Opportunities in Presenting them to Moderns’, in World Academy of Art and Science 5: Towards World Community, ed. J. U. Nef (The Hague, 1968), pp. 53–68; T. Khalidi, Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 73–81; A. Tayob, ‘Tabari on the Companions of the Prophet: Moral and Political Contours in Islamic Historical Writing’, Journal of the American Oriental Society (1999), 203–10; B. Shoshan, Poetics of Islamic Historiography: Deconstructing al-Ṭabarī’s History (Leiden, 2004), esp. pp. 85–154; U. Mårtensson, ‘Discourse and Historical Analysis: The case of al-Ṭabarī’s History of the Messengers and the Kings’, Journal of Islamic Studies 16 (2005), 287–331; S. Judd, ‘Narratives and character development: al-Tabari and al-Baladhuri on late Umayyad history’, in Ideas, Images, and Methods of Portrayal: Insights into Classical Arabic Literature and Islam, ed. S. Günther (Leiden, 2005), 209–26; U. Mårtensson, ‘“It’s the Economy, Stupid”: Al-Ṭabarī’s Analysis of the Free Rider Problem in the ʿAbbasid Caliphate’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (2011), 203–38; El-Hibri, Parable and Politics, passim.

28

9781903153734.indd 28

08/05/2017 08:29

The First Islamic Chronicle scholarly parties, the form and content of the Chronicle clearly reflect the perspectives and methods prevalent among Khalīfa’s fellow Traditionalist scholars. This, in turn, relates to the larger intra-Muslim dynamics that stimulated the development of Arabic historiography and gave shape to its different historical traditions.

Sectarian and scholarly context The second distinguishing aspect of the Chronicle is the scholarly context in which it was compiled and first disseminated – the ḥadīth circles of Basra in the first half of the ninth century, before the formation of classical Sunni and Shi’i positions in the later ninth and tenth centuries. This context is important as it helps to explain many of the distinct, but hitherto little studied, textual and ideological characteristics of Khalīfa’s Chronicle.43 In contrast to many other surviving histories, the Chronicle reflects certain Traditionalist (or ‘early Sunni’) approaches to the early history of Islam. The Chronicle is therefore a valuable source for inquiry into the development of Islamic historiography, in particular among those scholars whose ideas and practices were crucial to the formation of Sunni Islam.44 Khalīfa’s lifetime coincided with the period of the Abbasid caliphs’ move away from their initial, eighth-century proto-Shi’i millenarian and revolutionary stance towards an alliance with various rationalist scholarly trends – more specifically, an emergent Ḥanafī school of Islamic legal thought and an embryonic Muʿtazilī school of theology.45 Abbasid claims to legitimacy on the basis of their membership of the Banū Hāshim (named after the Prophet Muḥammad’s great-grandfather) continued to be emphasized in the first half of the ninth century, but distinctively Shi’i opposition movements and alternative soteriologies also took shape, which emphasized the religious and/ or political primacy of other branches of the Banū Hāshim, especially the descendants of ʿAlī.

43 A

brief survey of Khalīfa’s ‘religio-political attitudes’ in the Chronicle is found in Wurtzel, Khalifa ibn Khayyat’s History, pp. 24–30. 44 S. Lucas, Constructive Critics: Ḥadīth Literature and the Articulation of Sunnī Islam (Leiden, 2004), pp. 1–2. See also M. Q. Zaman, Religion and Politics Under the Early ʿAbbāsids: The Emergence of the Proto-Sunnī Elite (Leiden, 1997), pp. 208–13; Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought, p. 219. 45 The gradual reorientation of the Abbasids, away from the millenarian proto-Shi’i milieu in which their movement appears to have originated, is often attributed to the reign of al-Mahdī or Hārūn al-Rashīd – although the exact nature of this transition remains unclear. See al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, III, pp. 532, 749; Zaman, Religion and Politics, pp. 47–56; Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought, p. 93; N. Tsafrir, The History of an Islamic School of Law: The Early Spread of Hanafism (Cambridge, MA, 2004).

29

9781903153734.indd 29

08/05/2017 08:29

Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham The Ḥanafīs, on the one hand, represented a scholarly approach that admitted a significant scope for raʾy (speculative and rationalist inquiry), which had acquired rather negative connotations among Iraqi Traditionalists at the time of Khalīfa.46 Many rationalists were, moreover, associated with certain theological views considered heretical in the early traditionist as well as later Sunni circles – most importantly the Murjiʾa, the Qadariyya and the Muʿtazila.47 The Shi’i groupings, on the other hand, asserted the special religious and political authority of the living descendants of the Prophet Muḥammad, while rejecting the idea of the collective probity and authority of all Companions. In contrast to both these trends, Khalīfa represented what has been called the Traditionalist movement – also known as the ‘Proponents of Ḥadīth’ (ahl al-ḥadīth or aṣḥāb al-ḥadīth) – that came to prominence in the mid to late eighth century.48 During Khalīfa’s lifetime (c. 776–854), Basra was perhaps the foremost centre of ḥadīth scholarship, before gradually being eclipsed by Baghdād in the ninth century.49 In modern scholarship, there is still some discussion as to the diversity of scholarly methods employed by these ‘Proponents of Ḥadīth’.50 However, the term usually refers to those who prioritized transmitted textual evidence in derivation of law or doctrine and who preferred the interpretations of the earlier Muslim community to speculative reasoning.51 These ḥadīth circles to which Khalīfa belonged were crucial to the earliest formation and articulation of what became Sunni Islam.52 It has been suggested that Sunni Islam (in its pre-classical form) was built upon these three pillars: (1) the collective authority of the Companions; (2) the development of

46 See

Melchert, Formation, pp. 1–13; Hallaq, Origins and Evolution, pp. 74–6. Formation, pp. 2–3, 54–60; Zaman, Religion and Politics, p. 211. 48 Melchert, Formation, pp. 1–31; C. Melchert, ‘How Ḥanafism Came to Originate in Kufa and Traditionalism in Medina’, Islamic Law and Society 6 (1999), 318–47; Melchert, ‘Traditionist-Jurisprudents’; Hallaq, Origins and Evolution, pp. 74–8; S. Spectorsky, ‘Ḥadīth in the Responses of Isḥāq b. Rāhawayh’, Islamic Law and Society (2001), 407–31; S. Lucas, ‘Where are the Legal Ḥadīth? A Study of the Muṣannaf of Ibn Abī Shayba’, Islamic Law and Society 15 (2008), 283–314. See also Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought, pp. 125–41. 49 Lucas, Constructive Critics, pp. 187, 359–60. 50 On the diversity among the early ahl al-ḥadīth, the ‘traditionist jurisprudent school’, see J. Brown, ‘Did the Prophet Say It or Not? The Literal, Historical, and Effective Truth of Hadīths in Early Sunnism’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 129 (2009), 259–85 (p. 260); Melchert, ‘Traditionist-Jurisprudents’; Spectorsky, ‘Hadīth in the Responses of Isḥāq b. Rāhawayh’; Lucas, ‘Where Are the Legal Ḥadīth?’ 51 Cf. Melchert, Formation, pp. 2–3; Melchert, ‘Traditionist-Jurisprudents,’ pp. 385–6; Dickinson, Development, pp. 2–5; Hallaq, Origins and Evolution, p. 74; Brown, Hadith, pp. 17–18. 52 Lucas, Constructive Critics, p. 1. See also Zaman, Religion and Politics, pp. 208–13; Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought, p. 219. 47 Melchert,

30

9781903153734.indd 30

08/05/2017 08:29

The First Islamic Chronicle ḥadīth-transmitter criticism; and (3) the common historical vision of ḥadīth transmission from the time of the Prophet.53 These pillars accordingly stood in contrast, on the one hand, to rationalist tendencies (supported by the Abbasid court) and, on the other, to the Shi’i emphasis on the political and religious leadership of the Prophet’s living descendants. Khalīfa’s Chronicle appears to be a clear articulation of these Traditionalist principles in the form of chronicle-writing. Khalīfa’s selection of sources reflects both his Traditionalist stance and his Basran milieu. A substantial proportion of his most frequently cited informants were fellow Basrans: eight of the nine most frequently cited transmitters (who together account for almost half of all the reports in the Chronicle) are Basran. Although many of these scholars did not have significant reputations in Traditionalist circles, and were better known for their historical knowledge, Khalīfa does also cite a significant number of Basran Traditionalist scholars, especially on matters of religious import, such as the civil wars that were crucial to the formation of various sectarian positions. He also excludes popular transmitters of historical reports who were severely criticized in Traditionalist circles. He does not, for example, transmit any reports from Abū Mikhnaf (d. 774), the Kufan who became a major source for other historical compilers of the ninth century, but was rejected among the Traditionalists for his weak transmission and Shi’i tendencies.54 Likewise, he only cites Sayf b. ʿUmar (d. c. 800) on two occasions. Sayf was another contested Kufan source, accused of heresy (zandaqa) and heavily criticized as transmitter by the critics, yet frequently cited in many historical works.55 Khalīfa’s Traditionalist concerns are also reflected in the emphasis on the continuity of leadership from the death of the Prophet Muḥammad and the collective probity of the Prophet’s Companions. In asserting the legitimacy of the first three caliphs – none of whom were from Banū Hāshim – and in playing down the special claims of ʿAlī and the story of his family after his death, Khalīfa was making an argument about religio-political authority in Islam which emphasized the unity of the Muslims behind any imam from Quraysh. This argument was, in turn, based on the notion of the 53 Lucas,

Constructive Critics, p. 18. Abī Ḥātim, al-Jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl, VII, 252; ʿĀṣī, Khalīfa, p. 64. For a discussion on Abū Mikhnaf’s Shi’i inclinations, see U. Sezgin, Abū Mikhnaf: Ein Beitrag zur Historiographie der umaiyadischen Zeit (Leiden, 1971), pp. 93–4. 55 On the critics, see al-Dhahabī, Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl fī-naqd al-rijāl, ed. M. Barakāt and M. R. ʿIrqsūsī et al., 5 vols. (Damascus, 2009), II, 236; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb, II, 144; Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Jarḥ wa-l- taʿdīl, IV, 278; Ibn ʿAdī, Kāmil, III, 1271–2; al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Ḍuʿafāʾ al-ṣaghīr, ed. M. I. Zāyid (Beirut, 1986), p. 187; Landau-Tasseron, ‘Sayf Ibn ʿUmar in Medieval and Modern Scholarship’, Der Islam 67 (1990), 1–26. For citations in other historical works, see, e.g. al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, I, 1749, 1824–5, 1844–5, 1848–53, et passim; al-Balādhurī̄, Futūḥ al-buldān, ed. ʿA. A. al-Ṭabbāʿ and ʿU. A. al-Ṭabbāʿ (Beirut, 1987), pp. 354, 431. 54 Ibn

31

9781903153734.indd 31

08/05/2017 08:29

Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham rightly-guided first community, led by the Prophet’s senior Companions, who authorized the succession of the early caliphs. Ultimately, this position won out in what became Sunni circles during the ninth and tenth centuries, when the idea of the rāshidūn caliphs – the four ‘rightly-guided’ caliphs at the beginning of Islam – came to be firmly established. However, in the late eighth and early ninth century it had yet to achieve ‘orthodox’ status with the scholarly majority; some emphasized only the special status of the first three caliphs, some avoided the question of ʿUthmān and ʿAlī’s respective merit, some ranked ʿAlī above ʿUthmān and others – such as various Shi’i groups and sometimes the Abbasids – emphasized only ʿAlī’s legitimacy. These different positions were also related to the different religio-political climates of the major cities of the caliphate: while Kufa was known for scholars of Shi’i sympathies, many Basran Traditionalists at the time of Khalīfa were associated with views characterized as ʿUthmānī.56 By the late eighth century, the term ʿUthmānī is said to have referred to those who held that the right-guided caliphate had ended with the third caliph, ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān, and then usually were silent about ʿAlī.57 Given the infrequent usage of the term ʿUthmānī in ninth-century biographical dictionaries, it was probably not widely used by the ḥadīth scholars themselves. But it is noteworthy that a number of Basran informants in the chains of transmission in Khalīfa’s Chronicle were known for ʿUthmānī tendencies – among them ʿAbd Allāh b. Shaqīq al-ʿUqaylī, Ibn ʿAwn, Ḥammād b. Zayd, Yazīd b. Zurayʿ and Bishr b. al-Mufaḍḍal.58 In the course of the ninth century, however, the ‘three caliph thesis’ disappeared among the Traditionalists with the spread of the ‘four caliph thesis’, which accepted both ʿUthmān and ʿAlī as rightly guided, but maintained that their relative merit corresponded to their order of succession.59 Khalīfa’s own views, reflected in his Chronicle, correspond to the idea of four rightly-guided caliphs: Abū Bakr is depicted as the uncontested successor of the Prophet, ʿUmar as a successful ruler and conqueror, ʿUthmān as unjustly killed and ʿAlī as his legitimate, albeit contested successor. However, Muʿāwiya’s first year as caliph is, as noted, presented as the ‘Year of Unity’ and as a continuation of the success of the Rāshidūn period until the highly contested appointment of his son, Yazīd, and the conflicts that broke out under the latter’s reign. Khalīfa’s emphasis on the continuity from ʿAlī to Muʿāwiya is itself symptomatic of the emerging Traditionalist discourse of

56 Crone,

Medieval Islamic Political Thought, p. 128. Medieval Islamic Political Thought, p. 134; EI2, ‘ʿUthmāniyya,’ (P. Crone). See also Pellat, Le milieu baṣrien, 188–94; al-Jāḥiẓ, Kitāb al-ʿUthmāniyya, ed. ʿA. M. Hārūn (Beirut, 1991) 58 Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, IX, 125, 261, 287, 290–1. 59 EI2, ‘ʿUthmāniyya’ (P. Crone). See also Zaman, Religion and Politics, 50–1. 57 Crone,

32

9781903153734.indd 32

08/05/2017 08:29

The First Islamic Chronicle leadership in Islam and, in particular, ninth-century Traditionalist views on Muʿāwiya’s caliphate.60 On this basis, Khalīfa’s Chronicle can be seen as a Traditionalist argument about the unity of the Muslim community – a stance Marshall Hodgson characterized as jamāʿī, as it were, ‘unity-ist’ – emphasizing the continuity of the Muslim polity from the Prophet down to his own time, under the leadership of the caliphs and with its institutions rooted in the practices of the earliest community.61 This Traditionalist stance is, as noted, reflected both in the jamāʿī historical vision of the Muslim community (in contrast to the Shi’i and Khārijī groups) and in the Traditionalist selection of sources (in contrast to the various rationalist groups). Therefore, the Chronicle should not simply be seen an account of caliphal politics, but also as an argument about the unity of the Muslim community and the authority of the Traditionalist scholars within that community. In this sense, the motivations for its production were internal to the Muslim polity and specific to the Basran and Iraqi milieu in which Khalīfa lived.

Chronicle-writing and its justifications Another reflection of the dynamics within the early Muslim polity is Khalīfa’s apparent need to justify this type of chronicle writing among other Traditionalist scholars. This can be seen in the introductory section to the Chronicle, which seems to have served two interrelated purposes – first, to justify the practice of chronicle-writing and, second, to introduce the scope and narrative framework of the Chronicle.62 Chronography and chronicles are not usually associated with Traditionalist scholars.63 Some early Traditionalists did compile chronological history, but such works seem to have been unusual.64 Historical compilation among tradi 60 On

historiographical depictions of Muʿāwiya, see K. Keshk, The Historians’ Muʿāwiya: The Depiction of Muʿāwiya in the Early Islamic Sources (Saarbrücken, 2008); El-Hibri, ‘The Redemption of Umayyad Memory by the ʿAbbāsids’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 61 (2002), 241–65. 61 M. G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, 3 vols. (Chicago, 1974), I, 278. 62 In a brief article on Khalīfa’s introduction to his Chronicle, Nawas has suggested that it should be seen as an attempt to interjoin ‘religion and history’ in a way that ‘causes history to be subsumed under religion, hence giving history its status of a religious science.’ The present discussion of the introduction corresponds to some degree with Nawas’ views, but focuses more specifically on its purpose in, first, the traditionist milieu of its compilation and, second, the overall narrative of the Chronicle. See Nawas, ‘Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ’, p. 165. 63 See A. Marsham, ‘Universal Histories in Christendom and the Islamic World, c.700–c.1400’, in The Oxford History of Historical Writing, vol. 2: 400–1400, ed. S. Foot and C. Robinson (Oxford, 2012), pp. 431–55 (p. 453). 64 For example al-Fasawī (d. 890), Kitāb al-Maʿrifa wa-l-taʾrīkh, ed. A. Ḍ. al-ʿUmarī, 3

33

9781903153734.indd 33

08/05/2017 08:29

Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham tionists before and during the lifetime of Khalīfa more often took the form of ḥadīth collections, containing both Prophetic and post-Prophetic material. Clear examples of Traditionalist historiography are the chapters on postProphetic history in the two muṣannaf collections (topically arranged ḥadīth works) of ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī (d. 827) and Ibn Abī Shayba (d. 849).65 Thus, the potential critique of chronicle-writing and Khalīfa’s traditionist milieu may help to explain the introductory section to his Chronicle and the scope and narrative framework that it presents. Khalīfa’s introduction contains Qurʾān citations and historical reports that address three main themes: (1) the importance and purpose of chronography (taʾrīkh), (2) mankind’s previous systems of dating and chronography and (3) how the Hijri calendar came into existence.66 He begins by some Qurʾānic verses about measuring time for religious or legal purposes: In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. God’s blessing and peace be upon Muḥammad and his family. Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ said: This is a book of chronography (taʾrīkh). By means of assigning dates (taʾrīkh) people know about the matter of their pilgrimage and their fast, the end of the waiting-period of their women and the due dates of their debts. Blessed and Exalted God says to His Prophet Muḥammad, God’s blessing and peace be upon him: ‘They will ask you about the crescent moons. Say, “They are set times for mankind and for the pilgrimage.”’ (Q 2.189) Khalīfa said: Yazīd b. Zurayʿ reported to us; he said: Saʿīd reported to us from Qatāda about ‘They will ask you about the crescent moons.’ He said: They asked, ‘Why are these crescent moons made?’ So God revealed what you hear: ‘They are set times for mankind and for the pilgrimage.’ God made them on account of the Muslims’ fast and the breaking of the fast, their pilgrimage and their rites during it, the waiting-periods of their women and the due dates of their debts in things. God knows best how to set right His Creation. He said, ‘We made the night and day two Signs. We blotted out the Sign of the night and made the Sign of the day a time for seeing so that you can seek favour from your Lord and will know the number of years and the reckoning of time.’ (Q 17.12) He said in another verse, ‘It is He who appointed the sun to give radiance, and the moon to vols. (Medina, 1989), I, 115–238, and Abū Zurʿa al-Dimashqī, Taʾrīkh, I, 141–97. for example Ibn Abī Shayba’s chapters on ‘Expeditions’ (maghāzī), ‘Chronology’ (taʾrīkh), ‘Originators’ (awāʾil), ‘Trials’ (fitan) and the Battle of the Camel. Ibn Abī Shayba, al-Muṣannaf, ed. Ḥ. al-Jumʿa and M. al-Laḥidān, 16 vols. (Riyadh, 2004), XII, 5–59; XIII, 5–79, 196–503; XIV, 5–311. See also ʿAbd al-Razzāq’s chapter on ‘Expeditions’ in ʿAbd al-Razzāq b. Hammām al-Ṣanʿānī, al-Muṣannaf, ed. Ḥ. al-Aʿẓamī, 11 vols. (Beirut, 1983), V, 313–492. 66 Nawas, ‘Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ’, p. 165. 65 See

34

9781903153734.indd 34

08/05/2017 08:29

The First Islamic Chronicle give light, assigning it phases so you would know the number of years and the reckoning of time. God did not create these things except with truth. We make the Signs clear for people who know.’ (Q 10.5)67

With these Qurʾānic texts Khalīfa underlines the importance of chronology and time measurement with reference to its usefulness for people in fulfilling their individual and communal duties, in the spheres of worship as well as social transactions. In line with his Traditionalist orientation, he begins with Qurʾānic citations and their explanations, before continuing with reports from the Prophet and the early generations of Muslims, backed up by the formal chains of transmission that had become the hallmark of Traditionalist discourse. The second theme is mankind’s systems of chronography (taʾrīkh). The practice of assigning dates and measuring time is said to be almost as old as mankind, with events in the prophetic careers of Adam, Noah, Abraham and Ishmael having been used as the bases of various dating systems. It is then observed that the Persians organized their affairs by a system of dating that had begun with the last Persian emperor, Yazdajird b. Shahrayār (Yazdagird III, r. AD 632–651), and that this system still remains in use. The Seleucid Era is also noted as the dating system of the Jews (Banū Isrāʾīl), before the text turns to the dating systems of the peoples of Arabia, including the Muslims. Khalīfa reported to us; he said: Yaḥyā b. Muḥammad al-Kaʿbī reported to me from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. ʿImrān; he said: People have always had a calendar system (taʾrīkh). In the primordial age they used to date events from Adam’s fall from the Garden. That continued until God sent Noah and they reckoned dates from Noah’s mission to his people. Then they dated events from the Flood. It continued like that until the attempt to burn Abraham and then they reckoned dates from that event. The sons of Ishmael dated events from the foundation of the Kaʿba. Khalīfa said: Muḥammad b. Muʿāwiya reported to me from Abū ʿUbayda Maʿmar b. al-Muthannā; he said: The Persians have always had a calendar system, by which they know their affairs. The dating system of their reckoning up until the present day is since Yazdajird b. Shahriyār became king, and that was in year 16 of the emigration (hijra) of God’s Messenger, God’s blessing and peace be upon him; it is the people’s dating system today. He said: the sons of Isrāʾīl have another dating system, according to the years of Dhū al-Qarnayn [i.e. Alexander the Great]. Khalīfa said: Yaḥyā b. Muḥammad al-Kaʿbī reported to me; he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. ʿImrān reported to me; he said: The sons of Ishmael the son

67 Khalīfa

b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, pp. 49–50.

35

9781903153734.indd 35

08/05/2017 08:29

Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham of Abraham used to reckon the date from the foundation of the Kaʿba. It continued like that until Kaʿb b. Luʾayy died and they dated events from his death. It continued like that until it was the year of the elephant and then they dated events from the year of the elephant. Then the Muslims dated events afterwards from the emigration of God’s Messenger, God’s blessing and peace be upon him. The Arabs also had a dating system.68

The references to the different dating systems in previous communities underline the relationship of chronography to communal identities. Thereby Khalīfa provides a context for his history of the Muslim community, which suggest a concern for outlining its development and continuity, not merely fixing dates and historical data. He continues: ʿAbd Allāh b. Maslama b. Qaʿnab and Isḥāq b. Idrīs reported to us; they both said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Abī Ḥāzim reported to us from his father from Sahl b. Saʿd al-Sāʿidī; he said: People made mistakes about the reckoning of years. They did not count from the mission of God’s Messenger, God’s blessing and peace be upon him, nor from his death, but only from his arrival at Medina. He said: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā b. ʿAbd al-Aʿlā said: Qurra b. Khālid reported to us from Muḥammad b. Sīrīn; he said: An administrator (ʿāmil) said to ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb, ‘Do you not reckon the dates?’ For they wanted to reckon the dates. They said, ‘From the mission of God’s Messenger, God’s blessing and peace be upon him, or from his death?’ Then they agreed to stipulate it from his emigration. They wanted to begin with the month of Ramaḍān. Then they decided to set it in al-Muḥarram. Kathīr b. Hishām reported to us; he said: Jaʿfar b. Burqān reported to us from Maymūn b. Mihrān; he said: The Companions of God’s Messenger, God’s blessing and peace be upon him, consulted together about how they should write the date. One of them said, ‘We write it from the birth of God’s Messenger, God’s blessing and peace be upon him’; another said, ‘From when he received revelations.’ Another said, ‘From his emigration, in which he emigrated from the abode of idolatry to the abode of belief.’ They agreed that they should write it from his emigration. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr reported to us; he said: Ḥayyān reported to us from Mujālid from ʿĀmir; he said: Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī wrote to ʿUmar that, ‘Letters are reaching us the dates of which we do not b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, p. 50. The distinction between the sons of Ishmael and ‘the Arabs’ appears to reflect the genealogists’ distinction between the ‘northern’ Arabian tribes (including the Prophet’s tribe of Quraysh), who were descended from Ishmael via ʿAdnān and the ‘Arabs’ proper, who were the ‘southern’ tribes, descended from Qaḥṭān. See EI2, ‘Kaḥṭān’ (A. Fisher and A. K. Irvine). On this see further now, P. A. Webb, Imagining the Arabs: Arab Identity and the Rise of Islam (Edinburgh, 2016).

68 Khalīfa

36

9781903153734.indd 36

08/05/2017 08:29

The First Islamic Chronicle understand.’ So ʿUmar consulted the Companions of God’s Messenger, God’s blessing and peace be upon him. Some of them said, ‘From the prophetic mission’, and others said, ‘From his death’. Then ʿUmar said, ‘Reckon the date from his emigration, for his emigration distinguished between truth and falsehood.’ Khalīfa reported to us; he said: Isḥāq b. Idrīs reported to us; he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Muḥammad reported to us; he said: ʿUthmān b. ʿUbayd Allāh reported to us from Saʿīd b. al-Musayyib; he said: ʿUmar gathered the Muhājirūn and the Anṣār and said, ‘From when should I record the dates?’ ʿAlī replied to him, ‘From when God’s Messenger, God’s blessing and peace be upon him, departed from the land of idolatry, which is the day he emigrated.’ So ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb recorded from that.69

The accounts of the establishment of the Hijri calendar do not differ much from the standard accounts found in other sources.70 But due to Khalīfa’s overall arrangement and scope – the history of the Muslim community from year one of the hijra onwards – the accounts are more prominent than in other sources. The placing of these accounts at the beginning of the work anticipates its arrangement and scope – an annalistic chronology of the political and administrative development of the Muslim community. Apart from some accounts on the birth of the Prophet, year one of the Hijri calendar is the actual beginning of Khalīfa’s narrative. As the accounts of ʿUmar’s introduction of the calendar suggest, it was the beginning of the Muslim community and its political establishment, marked by the relocation from the abode of idolatry at Mecca to the abode of belief at Medina. In line with this focus on the political and administrative development of the Muslim polity, Khalīfa does not include any details about the Prophet’s life in Mecca, but simply notes the time he spent there and the time during which he received revelations, before turning to the first year after the emigration to Medina.71 Hence, Khalīfa’s introduction is in many respects a piece of Traditionalist rhetoric about historical writing. It begins with Qurʾānic references on the reckoning of time, and then moves to a series of reports, fitted out with formal chains of transmission and references to major authorities – Companions and Successors – from the first generations of Muslims. In presenting his introduction like this, Khalīfa asserts the primacy of the Qurʾānic revelation b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, p. 51. example Ibn Shabba, Taʾrīkh al-Madīna, ed. F.M. Shaltūt, 4 vols. (Beirut, 1990), pp. 758–9; al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, I, 1250–6; Ibn al-Jawzī, al-Muntaẓam fī-taʾrīkh al-mulūk wa-l-umam, ed. M. ʿA. ʿAṭā and M. ʿA. ʿAṭā, 18 vols. (Beirut, 1992), IV, 226–9; Ibn al-Athīr, al-Kāmil fī-l-taʾrīkh, ed. A. ʿA. al-Qāḍī and M. Y. al-Diqāqa, 10 vols. (Beirut, 1987), I, 12–14; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāya wa-l-nihāya, ed. ʿA. ʿA. al-Turkī et al. 21 vols. (Cairo, 1997–9), IV, 510–13. 71 Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, pp. 52–4.

69 Khalīfa 70 For

37

9781903153734.indd 37

08/05/2017 08:29

Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham and transmission-based scholarship as well as the legitimacy of recording chronography on the basis of precedents that his fellow scholars would have recognized. This suggests that his main audience were these Traditionalists, some of whom might have been sceptical of chronography as a genre, and all of whom would have been looking for him to assert his credentials as one of the ‘Proponents of Ḥadīth’ (ahl al-ḥadīth). Along the way, the introduction also invokes the Qurʾān to situate the Muslim community in universal time: ‘People have always had a calendar system. In the primordial age they used to date events from Adam’s fall from the Garden.’72 Furthermore, the Muslim polity is presented as the successor and unifier of not only previous prophetic communities, but also the Persian Empire and pre-Islamic Arabia. In this sense, the introduction implies a vision of the Muslim umma as a universal community, led by one universal ruler and united by one universal religion, superseding previous nations and empires. Ultimately, Arabic historiography shared many of these concerns and forms with the wider monotheist Middle Eastern world that the Arabians joined and subdued so spectacularly in the seventh century. The concerns with time, salvation, prophecy and righteous community resemble those of Christian historiography from the same period (although Khalīfa, interestingly, does not mention the Christians or the Romans in the enumeration of previous calendar systems). That said, the specific concerns, structures and scholarly methods underlying the Chronicle are particular to the Islamic tradition; they clearly reflect Khalīfa’s Traditionalist milieu in Basra and, more generally, the internal religio-political dynamics within the early Muslim polity that drove the development of Islamic historical writing and stimulated its distinctive expressions.

The question of universal history It is this context for the production of the Chronicle in the Traditionalist circles of Basra that explains the relationship of Khalīfa’s work to the genre of universal history. The title of the work, Taʾrīkh (literally ‘assigning dates’), suggests a chronologically wider scope than those of the more common monographs on single subjects such as conquests (futūḥ) or martyrdoms (maqātil) – works seldom entitled Taʾrīkh. Thus, the opening line of Khalīfa’s Chronicle (‘This is a book of chronography. By means of chronography people know…’) may well be read as a self-identification of the work as a history with a wide chronological scope – especially in the light of the passages that follow. Khalīfa’s introduction begins in primordial times with Creation: he first

72 Khalīfa

b. Khayyāṭ, Taʾrīkh, p. 50.

38

9781903153734.indd 38

08/05/2017 08:29

The First Islamic Chronicle cites some Qurʾānic passages about God’s creation of the crescent moons for the guidance of mankind and then reports about the calendar systems among the ancient prophetic communities, beginning with those who dated from the fall of Adam and ending with the followers of the Prophet Muḥammad. Thereby, Khalīfa situates the Muslim community in universal time and depicts it as a universal, monotheist community superseding previous nations.73 In terms of geographical scope, the Chronicle also does not seem entirely out of place in the genre of universal history. While many late-antique universal histories aspired to universal geographical scope, they rarely achieved this in practice.74 Although Khalīfa’s sources of information are predominantly Basran, the geographical scope of the Chronicle is remarkably broad, covering the history of the caliphate from the Atlantic coast of North Africa in the West to Transcaucasus and India in the East.75 However, Khalīfa makes no attempt to encompass world history beyond that of his own community. The narrative in the Chronicle does not even cover the complete chronology of the Prophet’s life and the early Muslim community. Rather, it leaves out the earliest history of Islam at Mecca and begins properly with the foundation of the first polity at Medina. Thus, in correspondence to the Hijri calendar upon which the Chronicle is based, its focus appears ‘imperial’ and ‘communal’ rather than ‘universal’; the main concern of Khalīfa’s work is clearly events pertaining to the political and administrative development of the caliphate, along with some notices of births and deaths of prominent individuals, mainly scholars. Besides the introduction, the history of pre-Islamic or non-Muslim communities features only sporadically in relation to military confrontations at the border regions of the caliphate. Thus, in terms of chronological scope and interest in non-Muslim societies, Khalīfa’s Chronicle differs significantly from later universal chronicles such as those of al-Dīnawarī (d. 895), al-Yaʿqūbī (d. c. 905), al-Ṭabarī (d. 923) or al-Masʿūdī (d. 956). These four works all record world history beginning with the Creation and show a greater interest in pre-Islamic societies, especially Iran, whereas Khalīfa’s focus is limited to the development of the Muslim polity. Khalīfa’s ‘imperial’ framework may again perhaps be at least partially explained by reference to the Basran, traditionist milieu in which the Chronicle was compiled and circulated. The later ‘universal’ chronicles were all compiled in culturally more diverse contexts than Khalīfa’s Traditionalist circles in Basra and reflect, to a larger extent, the increasing interaction with new cultures and intellectual traditions in the major cities of the Muslim

73 On

time in universal history, see Marsham, ‘Universal Histories’, esp. pp. 433–4, 437–9, with references. 74 On space in universal history, see Marsham, ‘Universal Histories’, esp. 433–4, 439–41, with references. 75 In this geographical scope, it is comparable to conquest histories, such as al-Balādhurī’s Futūḥ al-buldān.

39

9781903153734.indd 39

08/05/2017 08:29

Tobias Andersson and Andrew Marsham world. It may also be added that Khalīfa worked independently of the Abbasid dynasty, which stands in contrast to some later universal works from the Islamic world, which were compiled under patronage or in close proximity to the courts of the Abbasids or one of the successor dynasties.76 Khalīfa’s Chronicle might perhaps be described as a Traditionalist scholars’ vision of history, framed according to Traditionalist concerns and methods. However, like the later universal histories, the Chronicle situates its author’s community in universal time, beginning with Creation and singles out the Muslim umma as the final, rightly-guided universal community. In these senses at least, it is an important variation on the patterns and models of universal history that prevailed in the wider monotheist milieu of the lateantique world.

Conclusions In comparison to later historical works within Khalīfa’s own Traditionalist milieu, his Chronicle is somewhat unusual. By the tenth century, the Traditionalist scholars seem to have ceased being concerned with the genre. The only extant stand-alone imperial or universal chronography compiled by an early traditionist is the slightly later History of al-Ṭabarī – a scholar whose broad vision, it must be noted, extended beyond that commonly associated with the Traditionalists. It was not until about three centuries later that an interest in universal chronography reappeared in Traditionalist circles, as evinced by works such as Ibn al-Athīr’s (d. 1233) al-Kāmil fī-l-taʾrīkh (‘The Complete History’), al-Dhahabī’s (d. 1348) Taʾrīkh al-Islām (‘History of Islam’) and Ibn Kathīr’s (d. 1373) al-Bidāya wa-l-nihāya (‘The Beginning and the End’). Before then, universal chronicles in Arabic centuries had tended to become the preserve of more literary oriented scholars such as al-Yaʿqūbī, al-Dīnawarī, al-Masʿūdī and Miskawayh (d. 1030) – often, but not always, supported by ruling dynasties. In this sense, Khalīfa’s Chronicle stands out among the early histories not only because of its early date, but also the compiler’s specific religio-political concerns and scholarly associations. Its unique importance lies in the context of its compilation and circulation, before major political, cultural and intellectual transitions in the Islamic world in the centuries following Khalīfa’s death in 854. While it may not provide much new material not known from later sources, the Chronicle provides important insights into the historical views and concerns among Basran Traditionalist scholars in the early ninth century, which were important in the early formation and articulation of Sunni Islam. As such, it also provides insights into the dynamics that drove

76 On universal history and patronage, see Marsham, ‘Universal Histories,’ pp. 444–52.

40

9781903153734.indd 40

08/05/2017 08:29

The First Islamic Chronicle the development of distinctive Islamic forms of historiography – in this case a kind of Traditionalist annalistic narrative of the Muslim community. This narrative situated God’s chosen community in universal time and asserted the natural political order of the caliphate as proceeding from the foundational moment of the Prophet Muḥammad’s establishment of the first Muslim society in year one of the Muslim calendar, 232 lunar years (i.e. 225 solar years) before the author’s own time.

41

9781903153734.indd 41

08/05/2017 08:29

9781903153734.indd 42

08/05/2017 08:29

2 Universal historiography as process? Shaping monastic memories in the eleventh-century Chronicle of Saint-Vaast* Steven Vanderputten

Until recently there was a tendency in the study of medieval universal historiography to privilege texts that were regarded as original, in that they had brought something new to the genre and could be relied upon to illustrate new trends in historical writing. Other texts were also singled out because they deviated so clearly from a particular norm or tradition that they were deemed to be exceptional, or because they had enjoyed extraordinary popularity, and therefore were thought to have impacted on a relatively large cross-section of society. Such a focus on the exceptional, or the exceptionally popular, of course refers to more general trends in how past generations of medievalists have thought about relevance when studying medieval narrative texts. But it is important to realize that such a methodological position risks overlooking a substantial body of evidence that does not match any of these criteria. These overlooked sources belong to a group of what I call – for want of other ways to classify them – ‘boring’ universal chronicles. They lack originality as regards the contents, in that they add little to what was already being transmitted in older or more prestigious works; they represent a way of thinking about the past that was, in some way or other, behind the times; and they failed to reach an audience beyond their authors’ immediate circle, remaining virtually unread until they were discovered by modern scholars. None of these factors – or, indeed, all of these factors combined – constitutes a good argument for dismissing these texts as irrelevant to our understanding of medieval historiographical culture, and of the various (social, educational, other) uses of chronicles. Although many are known through only one or two copies, as a ‘subgenre’ works of this type are extremely well attested in * The research for this paper was carried out with the generous support of the Humboldt Foundation and the Research Foundation-Flanders. I would like to express my gratitude to the organizers and participants of the workshop on universal chronicles, held in York in January 2014, and to Melissa Provijn, for their helpful comments.

43

9781903153734.indd 43

08/05/2017 08:29

Steven Vanderputten the manuscript evidence and in medieval booklists. Furthermore, the simple observation that there was a demand for such texts (however redundant they may look to us from an intellectual or creative viewpoint) – and the fact that substantial numbers of such texts were acquired in addition to what we consider to be the canon of medieval historiography – justifies us asking questions about why they were produced in the first place, what interests and concerns they reflected, and who found them useful. This chapter will explore the ways in which looking at these ‘boring’ chronicles can deepen our understanding of universal historiography as a cultural, and especially a social, phenomenon. My case study is the eleventh-century Chronicon Vedastinum or Chronicle of Saint-Vaast, an anonymous narrative written at the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Vaast in the northern French town of Arras. In the first part of the chapter I explain the chronicle’s lack of appeal to modern specialists, and show how this derives from prioritizing originality over the social and intellectual context in which a text was produced. I then go on to demonstrate how an analysis of the original passages allows us to hypothesize that the Chronicon was written as part of Abbot Leduin’s efforts at institutional expansion and the formation of communal identity at the abbeys of Saint-Vaast and Marchiennes. Finally, I show how this attempt at contextualization actually yields inadequate results, in that it ignores indications of how the chronicle in its present form bears traces of a creation process spanning several generations.

Previous attempts at understanding, and evaluating, the Chronicon Vedastinum The Chronicon Vedastinum has puzzled scholars since it was first edited in the late nineteenth century.1 Covering the history of mankind from Creation until the year 899, it is described by the editor Georg Waitz as a narrative that has ‘many peculiarities and brings up many questions that are not easily resolved’.2 The answers that scholars have offered to three of these questions have crucially – and negatively – influenced the chronicle’s reputation. The first question concerns the chronicle’s relationship to the historiographical tradition and, directly related to this, its intended purpose. In

1 The

chronicle has been edited twice, first by C. A. Dehaisnes in Les annales de Saint-Bertin et de Saint-Vaast, suivies de fragments d’une chronique inédite (Paris, 1871), pp. 361–404, then by G. Waitz in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores 13 (Hannover, 1881), pp. 674–709. Both are partial editions; Waitz’s, although preferable to that of Dehaisnes, is complete only from the time of Theodosius onwards. 2 Chronicon Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, Introduction, p. 674: ‘multa habet peculiaria et quae dubitationem praebent non facile extricandam.’

44

9781903153734.indd 44

08/05/2017 08:29

The Chronicle Of Saint-Vaast her survey of medieval universal historiography, Anne-Dorothee von den Brincken presented the Chronicon Vedastinum as an example of a new trend in tenth and early eleventh century universal historiography, distinguished from earlier traditions by a somewhat business-like style and a focus on political history, showing significantly less concern about the Translatio imperii question, chronology, or indeed reflections on the nature of divine Creation and its significance for human history. Her analysis revealed that the author relied on an extensive library of historical narratives from a relatively broad range of typologies.3 For the earlier parts of the text, he used Isidore (whose principle of giving anni mundi dates is also retained until 690), and particularly Bede (whose division of world history into six ages is strictly respected). Bede’s influence is also revealed through the addition of Hebrew years up to Noah’s time. Greek and Roman history are discussed relatively briefly, but from early Christian times, the author’s set of sources significantly broadens: textual references include Jordanes’s Romana and Getica, Jerome’s chronicle and that of Orosius, Nennius’s Historia Brittonum, the works of Marcellinus Comes, Gregory of Tours, Pseudo-Fredegarius and his continuators, Fasti consulares, a list of popes, and a set of annales minores. From Carolingian times we have the Annals of Metz, and a version of the Royal Frankish Annals with additions drawn from the Annals of Saint-Bertin and the Annals of Saint-Vaast. Flodoard’s Deeds of the bishops of Reims appears to have served on a few occasions as a source of information. Finally, certain passages are based on information retrieved from local libraries and archives, most notably those of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Vaast.4 Von den Brincken’s explanation for the creation of the text – even though it is only formulated implicitly – is that the anonymous author felt there was a need for a continuation of earlier traditions up to the present, or at least the near present. In his brief prologue, the chronicler seems to confirm this by arguing in favour of a division of world history into six ages, corresponding to the days of the Creation,5 and by referring to himself explicitly as successor to a series of universal chroniclers beginning with Julius Africanus and continuing successively with Eusebius, Jerome, Victor of Tonnonna, Orosius, Isidore and Bede.6 Other scholars have, however, argued that the Chronicon Vedastinum adds very little to existing traditions, positing that the text essentially constitutes a re-edition of the Annals of Saint-Vaast, which, like the Chronicon itself, end 3 A.-D.

von den Brincken, Studien zur lateinischen Weltchronistik bis in das Zeitalter Ottos von Freising (Düsseldorf, 1957), pp. 142–44. 4 From the latter institution the author certainly used a list of abbots, miscellaneous hagiographical traditions, and an unknown text referenced in the chronicle as Artenses libri (Chronicon Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, p. 700). 5 Ibid., p. 677: ‘Ortodoxi patres divinis disciplinis veteris et novae legis eruditi omne tempus istius seculi in sex aetatibus secundum sex priorum dierum opera distinctis principibus et annis diviserunt sequentes…’ 6 Ibid.

45

9781903153734.indd 45

08/05/2017 08:29

Steven Vanderputten in 899 and are reprised almost verbatim.7 At the beginning of the twentieth century, for example, Auguste Molinier speculated that the chronicle originated strictly to give the Annals (a prestigious work describing the turbulent history of Western Francia in the final quarter of the ninth century) a grand beginning, and to frame the abbey’s and the region’s history in that of Creation in general.8 With the notable exception of von den Brincken’s work, Molinier’s tepid appreciation of the text established a consensus concerning the Chronicon’s lack of intellectual merit, and its purpose as an ‘upgrade’ of the famous Annals of Saint-Vaast. In 1973, the authors of Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter contributed to the chronicle’s further devaluation by speculating that it had resulted from an attempt to reconcile not one, but two pre-existing narratives: the aforementioned Annals of Saint-Vaast, and an otherwise undocumented compilation of universal history that presumably ran up to the sixth century and was based on the works of Jerome, Heraclius, Cassiodore, Isidore and Bede.9 While the evidence presented to support this hypothesis is far from conclusive, it certainly did little to stir historians’ interest in the text. A second question concerns dating. In parallel to discussions about originality, the Chronicon’s reputation was compromised by the observation, made early on in the text’s study, that it had not originated close to the dating of its final entry. For his edition, Waitz had worked from the only known manuscript of the chronicle, Douai, Bibliothèque Municipale 795 (formerly 753), which he assumed to be the autograph.10 In it, he recognized different hands, the first of which he dated to the later tenth or early eleventh century, while subsequent ones seemed to belong to the latter decades of the eleventh century. This, combined with the assumption that certain passages seemed

7 Annales

Vedastini, ed. B. De Simson, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores in usum scholarium 12 (Hannover, 1909), pp. 40–82. 8 A. Molinier, Les sources de l’histoire de France depuis des origines jusqu’en 1815. 1,1 Des origines aux guerres d’Italie (1494). I. Epoque primitive, Mérovingiens et Carolingiens (Paris, 1901), p. 246. 9 W. Wattenbach, W. Levison, and H. Löwe, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter, Vorzeit und Karolinger. V. Heft, Die Karolinger vom Vertrag von Verdun bis zum Herrschaftsantritt der Herrscher aus dem sächsischen Hause. Das westfränkische Reich (Weimar, 1973), p. 536, n. 169. The key argument for this hypothesis is a passage that follows the presumed end of that compilation, mentioning once again Orosius, Isidore, Bede, and others (Chronicon Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, p. 678: ‘quorum optabilem retexentes lineam, subnexuimus ea quae a modernis post illorum tempora notata sunt’). 10 For a description of the manuscript, which also includes the Annales Regni Francorum, the Annals of Saint-Bertin, a fragment from the Liber Argenteus of Saint-Amé in Douai, the Annals of Saint-Vaast, a fragment of a historical notice entitled Quaedam de Francorum origine et de Hugone Capucio et ejus filio and a later addition regarding relics brought to Marchiennes in 1172, see Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques des départements, 6: Douai (Paris, 1878), pp. 484–87.

46

9781903153734.indd 46

08/05/2017 08:29

The Chronicle Of Saint-Vaast to be based upon information found in the Deeds of the bishops of Cambrai from 1024/25, led him to date the text to the late eleventh century.11 Auguste Molinier concurred with this dating.12 In 1948, however, Heinrich Sproemberg showed that the verbal correspondences with the aforementioned Deeds were far from conclusive evidence to support a late eleventh century dating, and that in fact the most recent text that was used as a source for compiling the chronicle was Flodoard’s Deeds of the bishops of Metz, finished in 948. He therefore suggested a dating in the later tenth or early eleventh century, pointing to two abbots of Saint-Vaast, Falrad (c. 980–1004) and Leduin (1022–1046/47), as possible commissioners of the work.13 While Sproemberg thus succeeded in moving the chronicle’s redaction considerably closer to the date of its final entry, there remained a gap of at least eight decades between the final entry and the time of writing. He also observed that it was likely that the monks of Saint-Vaast had kept local annals since the early tenth century.14 The fact that this latter text (which is lost but appears to have been used at the beginning of the eleventh century by the neighbouring monks of Saint-Amand while compiling the Annales Elnonenses) had not been integrated into the Chronicon as a way of bringing the story up to date, seemed to confirm Molinier’s interpretation of the original purpose of the Chronicon and his overall impression that it was, and had been even at the time of its creation, of little consequence. A final question was that of impact. The limited scope of the text, the aforementioned fact that the chronicle relies so heavily on other sources and adds little in terms of ideology or technique, and finally the fact that nearly all of the sources the author had used were in heavy circulation anyway, all explain why the text does not seem to have resonated much beyond SaintVaast’s walls. The only documented occasion when a monk of Saint-Vaast actually used the text was in 1170, when Guimann compiled a cartulary of the abbey’s charters and notoriously relied on the Chronicon’s version of a forged 11 Chronicon

Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, Introduction, p. 674. Les sources, p. 246. 13 H. Sproemberg’s comments are in W. Wattenbach and R. Holtzmann, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter. Deutsche Kaiserzeit (Berlin and Tübingen, 1948), I/1, 119–20. Von den Brincken subsequently dated the chronicle to the later tenth century, presumably before 984, on the basis that the text appears to refer to the Carolingians as the reigning dynasty (Von den Brincken, Studien, p. 142, with reference to Chronicon Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, pp. 689 and 692). In 1973, Wattenbach and Levison’s standard work accepted the dating to the second half of the tenth century (Wattenbach, Levison and Löwe, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, V, 536). However, Sproemberg’s and several other authors’ suggestion of a possible creation in the early eleventh century was broadly overlooked (see further, at note 41). 14 Wattenbach and Holtzmann, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter I/1, pp. 119–20, with reference to Les annales de Saint-Pierre de Gand et de Saint-Amand: Annales Blandinienses, Annales Elmarenses, Annales Formoselenses, Annales Elnonenses, ed. P. Grierson (Brussels, 1937), p. 182 onwards. 12 Molinier,

47

9781903153734.indd 47

08/05/2017 08:29

Steven Vanderputten charter by the seventh-century Bishop Vindicianus to include a revised copy of it in the collection.15 The only surviving witness of the Chronicon, Douai, BM 795, seems to have ended up in the nearby abbey of Marchiennes in the early twelfth century. This manuscript was likely used in the early 1140s by the noted chronicler Herman of Tournai, who referred to it as a chronographia composita a quodam monacho Marcianensi;16 the local hagiographer and historian Andreas of Marchiennes (d. c. 1201) apparently also relied on it.17 And in the early thirteenth century, a canon regular of Saint-Amé in Douai appears to have made use of it to compile a history of his institution.18 The medieval legacy of the narrative was therefore, at best, modest, for the simple reason that it added little to the general canon of universal historiography bar some fragments on local history. Over a century of erudite scholarship on the sources and intended purpose of the Chronicon Vedastinum, its dating, and its reception in medieval times gave the text the reputation of being a vanity project of no particular consequence and even less intellectual merit. However limited its contribution to the genre or to our understanding of the centuries of human history it covers may be, though, this seems too easy an answer to one fundamental question that, so far, has not been addressed by modern specialists. The mere fact that someone apparently had been willing to make the considerable effort to produce a text of this length, do all the research for it, and invest in the production of at least one manuscript copy, is worth investigating. Furthermore, while the aforementioned studies are revealing in some respects, they tell us next to nothing about the specific circumstances – intellectual, cultural, and political – in which the Chronicon originated. To find an answer to these questions, we need to turn our attention to the ‘original’ parts of the text, and to the problem of dating.

15 Guimann,

Cartulaire de l’abbaye de St.-Vaast d’Arras rédigé au XIIe siècle, ed. E. Van Drival (Arras, 1875). See also below, at n. 62. 16 Herman of Tournai, Liber de restauratione ecclesie Sancti Martini Tornacensis, ed. R.B.C. Huygens, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis 236 (Turnhout, 2010), p. 93. 17 Les annales, ed. Dehaisnes, p. 395. 18 Chronicon Sancti Amati Duacensis, ed. F. Brassart, ‘Note sur le Breve Chronicon S. Amati Duacensis conservé autrefois dans le Liber argenteus Amatensis’, Souvenirs de la Flandre wallonne, 12 (1872), 104–13. I also refer to T. Mommsen’s discussion of a later medieval universal chronicle that appears to have been based on the Chronicon Vedastinum; ‘Zu den Annales Vedastini’, Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für Ältere Deutsche Geschichtskunde, 16 (1891), 430–31.

48

9781903153734.indd 48

08/05/2017 08:29

The Chronicle Of Saint-Vaast

Local history and the policies of Leduin, abbot of Saint-Vaast and Marchiennes The sections of the Chronicon concerning local and regional history are clear indicators of the geographical and institutional context in which the text originated. The geographical focus is squarely on the bishopric of Cambrai/Arras, particularly the cathedral town of Arras. The prologue mentions the death of St Vedastus or Vaast (dated here 533), the first bishop of Arras,19 and the main body of the text retraces the history of the diocese’s organization to the second-century Pope Dionysius, who reportedly appointed bishops in this region, and to the missionary activity of Saint Servatius (d. c. 384) in the Low Countries.20 Vaast re-emerges in the text in paraphrased sections of Gregory of Tours’s Historia Francorum, and is awarded an extensive description of his local missionary activities and of his involvement in resurrecting the two dioceses of Arras and Cambrai, described here as ‘sisters’.21 The latter passage, which reveals distinct literary ambitions on the part of the author, uniquely includes a section in verse that strongly reminds us of the metric hagiography that was being produced in several of the region’s religious houses throughout the tenth and early eleventh centuries. It also contains an unusually specific – and therefore revealing as to the subject’s significance to the author and his audience – dating for Vaast’s ordination as bishop of the two dioceses, including the indiction, epact, concurrent, moon cycle, ab urbe condita date, and a regiae urbis date.22 Following Vaast’s death, his legacy as recorded in the Chronicon splits into a diocesan and a monastic component. Various saintly bishops of Cambrai/ Arras are commemorated, including Gaugericus,23 Autbertus, Vindicianus and Hadulfus,24 most likely for reasons that, as I will show later, relate to specific developments in the bishopric and at the abbey of Saint-Vaast at the beginning of the second millennium AD.25 However, the monastic references are the most reliable pointer to the institutional origins of the narrative. More specifically, a Benedictine context becomes evident through the emphatic references to the life and achievements of St Benedict of Nursia (described 19 Chronicon

Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, p. 678. respectively pp. 678 and 682. 21 Ibid., pp. 684–85. 22 On epic hagiography in the tenth and eleventh centuries, see most recently Anna Lisa Taylor, Epic Lives and Monasticism in the Middle Ages, 800–1050 (Cambridge, 2013). 23 Chronicon Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, p. 689. 24 Ibid., p. 700. The only reason I could find for the early eighth-century Bishop Hadulfus’s inclusion in the text is the fact that he had combined the offices of abbot of Saint-Vaast and bishop; Henri Platelle, ‘Hadulf’, in Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, 22 (Paris, 1988), col. 1497. 25 Chronicon Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, p. 693. 20 Ibid.,

49

9781903153734.indd 49

08/05/2017 08:29

Steven Vanderputten as monachorum pater et dux sanctissimus),26 Columbanus27 and in particular those of a group of regional, seventh-century monastic saints. Thus there is reference to Bavo, patron of Saint-Bavo in Ghent, and indirectly to his mentor Amandus;28 Wandregisilus, founder of Fontenelle;29 Leodegarius of Luxeuil;30 Bertinus of Saint-Bertin; Richarius of Saint-Riquier; and Wulmarus of Saint-Wulmer, all of whom, along with a series of contemporary bishops, were responsible for a ‘resplendent Gaul’ (Gallia irradiata).31 The foundation of the abbey of Saint-Vaast is commemorated by a reference to the translation of that saint’s relics by Bishops Autbertus of Cambrai and Audomarus of Rouen in the later seventh century.32 From this point in the chronicle onwards, the ‘original’ additions concerning regional history mostly relate to the abbey of Saint-Vaast.33 It is in one of these earlier passages that the author inserted the charter, presumably given by Bishop Vindicianus of Arras/Cambrai to the monks of Saint-Vaast, granting them extensive exemptions from episcopal power.34 Here also is it that he references the fact that the Merovingian king Theodericus (694) was buried at Saint-Vaast, and mentions how, following a fire in 783,35 Abbot Rado had been able to rebuild the destroyed monastery.36 Further parts of the text contain few other local additions except for the deaths of Saint-Vaast’s successive abbots. The appointment of Matfrid, the abbey’s first lay abbot, in 843 is noted,37 but with no specific comments. For the final decades of the ninth century, we have a few references to the impact of the Norman attacks, in particular the translation to Douai of the relics of St Amatus or Amé from a village named Breuil (Menriville), and to how King Charles, Count Arnulf and Bishop John of Cambrai subsequently formalized their permanent deposition there.38 A translation of the relics of St Vaast is also mentioned, as is the subsequent attack on Saint-Vaast by the Normans in 881.39 Upon first inspection, additions such as these are exactly what one would expect from a somewhat underachieving chronicler seeking to insert some references to local history and to his home institution into an account of

26 Ibid.,

pp. 684, 686. p. 691. 28 Ibid., pp. 692–3. 29 Ibid., p. 694. 30 Ibid., p. 695. 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid., p. 696. 33 Ibid., pp. 696 onwards. 34 Ibid., pp. 697–8. 35 Ibid., pp. 698, 705. 36 Ibid., p. 706 (this passage also includes Rado’s tomb inscription). 37 Ibid., p. 708. 38 Ibid., pp. 708–9. 39 Ibid., p. 709. 27 Ibid.,

50

9781903153734.indd 50

08/05/2017 08:29

The Chronicle Of Saint-Vaast universal history. But as we shall see, many of these seemingly obligatory entries can be related to the specific concerns and interests of the monks of Saint-Vaast and their leadership in the eleventh century, which is why we need to return first to the question of dating. According to Dehaisnes, Fournier and Gerzaguet, study of the ‘original’ parts of the Chronicon Vedastinum indicates that the compilation in its present form originated sometime in the 1020s to 1050s.40 The evidence brought forward by all three scholars to support this argument is that the text references Saint-Vaast’s possession in the early Middle Ages of an estate in Anglicourt, not far from the Norman abbey of Jumièges.41 All three consider this an allusion to an exchange of 1023, when Bishop Gerard I of Cambrai/Arras had more or less compelled Abbot Leduin to accept the trade of a priory situated on the Anglicourt estate for the priory of Haspres, which was within the territory of their home bishopric and belonged to the monks of Jumièges. As a move apparently inspired by Gerard’s attempt to rationalize the management of Saint-Vaast’s holdings, it was not well received by the monks of that institution, and especially not by Abbot Leduin. According to the contemporary Deeds of the bishops of Cambrai, Leduin did not conceal his resentment over this intervention, particularly since the monks regarded Anglicourt as inalienable, belonging to its primitive estate apparently by virtue of a donation made by the aforementioned King Lothar.42 The reference in the Chronicon Vedastinum to his original ownership of the estate is likely an allusion to these sentiments. The lack of explicit comment on the trade is not difficult to understand, particularly when it is framed in the early phase of Leduin’s abbacy. In the aforementioned Deeds, Gerard of Cambrai/Arras (1012–1051) emerges as an ecclesiastical ruler intent on tightly controlling the development of organized religious life in his diocese. With the occasional collaboration of secular rulers and the assistance of a number of reformist abbots, Gerard, over the course of his early career (roughly the years between 1012 and the mid-1020s), intervened in the internal and external affairs of numerous communities of monks, nuns, and secular and regular canons within his territory. At SaintVaast, Gerard had enjoyed the support of the noted reformer Richard of Saint-Vanne, appointed in 1008 to that institution by Gerard’s predecessor Erluin.43 However, in 1021, Richard and his prior Frederic obtained a very significant papal privilege for their abbey, laying, so it seemed, the 40 Les

annales, ed. Dehaisnes, p. 377; E. Fournier, ‘Sur quelques-uns des plus anciens documents de l’histoire d’Arras,’ Bulletin de la Commission Départementale des monuments historiques du Pas-de-Calais, 8 (1946), 331–7; and J.-P. Gerzaguet, ‘Chronicon Vedastinum’, in Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle, ed. G. Dunphy et al. (Leiden, 2010), pp. 442–3. 41 Chronicon Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, p. 686. 42 S. Vanderputten, Monastic Reform as Process. Realities and Representations in Medieval Flanders, 900–1100 (Ithaca NY, 2013), pp. 97, 106–7. 43 Ibid., pp. 83–90.

51

9781903153734.indd 51

08/05/2017 08:29

Steven Vanderputten foundations for a more emancipated position with regard to episcopal authority.44 Undoubtedly fearing a rekindling of the conflicts over exemption, which had soured relations between the abbey and the bishopric at the end of the tenth century and the very beginning of the eleventh, following Richard’s abdication in January 1022 Gerard selected Leduin, a candidate of considerably lesser influence. In the Deeds, written in a first version in 1024/25, it is evident that as far as Gerard was concerned, Leduin’s stature was rather modest: he is described in derogatory terms as a man with limited education, someone whose personal opinion could easily be cast aside whenever it suited the bishop.45 The trade of the estate in Anglicourt for that of Haspres is quoted as one such example. It seems more than likely that, in real life too, the trade constituted an act of great significance, marking the symbolic restoration of Gerard’s lordship over the abbey. Leduin, for his part, was probably not in a position to commit his indignation to permanent record so early in his tenure. Yet the passage in the Chronicon regarding the Anglicourt estate was clearly a reference to be understood by those in the know: Gerard had intervened, destructively so, in the primitive estate of the abbey, and had severed one of the permanent links to the monks’ holy ancestry. For those who did miss the message, the Chronicon’s author even inserted a second allusive remark. A few paragraphs further on in the text, he returns to the matter by indicating that Fredegunde, Clovis’s wife, had originated from the same village in which the monks’ former estate was situated.46 That these two passages were as clear a statement of the monks’ catastrophic assessment of the forced exchange as the chronicler could afford suggests a dating close to the events, in other words during the abbacy of Leduin. Paradoxically, it was in no small part because of Gerard’s interventionist attitudes that Leduin’s abbey emerged in the later 1020s and early 1030s as a thriving monastic institution, and that his own stature in regional ecclesiastical politics also changed dramatically.47 Saint-Vaast’s newly won liberties may have been temporarily curtailed, but Gerard’s dominant presence had ended many decades of tensions between the abbey and the bishops, and ensured that the former could fully establish itself as a major economic force in the then-booming commerce centre that was the city of Arras. Thanks to this, and thanks to a more general context of political stability, the abbey’s wealth is likely to have increased exponentially, as witnessed by a toll regulation

44 Ibid.,

pp. 94–5.

45 For a discussion of Leduin’s reputation in contemporary sources, see S. Vanderputten

and B. Meijns, ‘Realities of Reformist Leadership in Early Eleventh-Century Flanders. The Case of Leduin, Abbot of Saint-Vaast’, Traditio, 65 (2010), 47–74. 46 Chronicon Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, p. 687. 47 Vanderputten, Monastic Reform, pp. 103–13.

52

9781903153734.indd 52

08/05/2017 08:29

The Chronicle Of Saint-Vaast issued early on in Leduin’s tenure.48 This led to two significant developments, both of which are reflected in the Chronicon Vedastinum – specifically, in the passages which appear to be centred on Leduin’s agency as a monastic leader and reformer, and those that focus on his personal networks. The first development concerned a significant expansion of the responsibilities of Saint-Vaast’s leadership, and the subsequent promotion by Leduin of a stronger sense of communal identity in the monastic communities put under his care. In 1024, Gerard and Baldwin, Count of Flanders, commissioned Leduin to lead the reform of the former female house of Marchiennes and staff it with a new community of monks.49 It is now well documented that Leduin subsequently gave a powerful stimulus towards shaping a sense of collective identity, not only by commissioning the production of a manuscript dedicated to the hagiographic traditions regarding patron Saint Rictrudis and her daughter Eusebia, patroness of Marchiennes’ priory of Hamage, but also by promoting the cult of several of the male saints associated with Rictrudis. In particular St Maurontus, Rictrudis’s son, was a focus of attention for Leduin and his associates. Over the next few decades, a Life, a small collection of Miracles, and an office dedicated to the saint were produced. Even though this does not seem to have generated much interest outside of the monastic community, manuscript and other witnesses of the emergence of this new cult in the second quarter of the eleventh century remain a significant testimony to how a new male community tried to deal with their institution’s female past. The Chronicon Vedastinum seems to reflect exactly such a phase of hagiographic transition: in the text, Marchiennes’s patroness Rictrudis is not even mentioned, but her husband Adalbaldus is, and so – emphatically – is her son Maurontus. Throughout the text, Maurontus is commemorated several times, at one point in association with the abbey of Marchiennes,50 and is given a brief, hagiographic eulogy marking his death.51 Given the fact that the only documented episode in the history of Marchiennes in which Maurontus’s cult was actively promoted roughly coincides with Leduin’s abbacy and the two subsequent decades, dating these parts of the Chronicon Vedastinum to that period again seems reasonable. But Leduin’s hagiographical campaigning was not limited to Marchiennes, and this too is apparently reflected in the chronicle. At Saint-Vaast, as part of a sustained policy in which the monastic community participated in the production of over twenty new manuscripts, a monk named Alberic produced a sumptuous volume dedicated entirely to patron St Vedastus.52 The main text of this manuscript, the Life of St Vedastus, bears traces of the 48 Ibid.,

p. 105. the reform of Marchiennes, see ibid., p. 135–42. 50 Chronicon Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, p. 695. 51 Ibid., p. 699. 52 Vanderputten, Monastic Reform, pp. 145–6. 49 On

53

9781903153734.indd 53

08/05/2017 08:29

Steven Vanderputten intervention of Leduin, or one of his monks, in omitting a reference to the story, common in previous hagiographic material regarding the saint, that Vedastus had specifically indicated that he wished to be buried outside Arras’s walls, a version that no doubt found little favour with the subjects of Saint-Vaast, situated well within the city’s limits. While the Chronicon does not reflect this modification of hagiographical tradition, it does show an unusual interest in hagiographic writing, in that it contains an extensive, apparently original, discussion of St Vaast’s achievements, with an added passage in metrical verse.53 This indicates that the passage emerged from a context of active intervention in hagiographical traditions, or at least of intensive study of these and related texts, where an author such as the one responsible for the Chronicon Vedastinum, or perhaps one of his fellow monks, could produce new material for inclusion in a universal chronicle. A second development reflected in the chronicle concerns the process of consolidating the rights and estates of Marchiennes and Saint-Vaast. Let us first look at Marchiennes. We saw previously that Leduin’s leadership at Marchiennes was marked by a campaign to present Maurontus as that institution’s principal male tutelary saint. There is, in fact, an additional perspective for interpreting the chronicle’s particular interest in Maurontus, which again may be related to events taking place during or around the time of Leduin’s tenure at Marchiennes. Karine Ugé states that the monks of Marchiennes quickly abandoned their claims on the cult of St Maurontus, and in particular their ownership of his remains, when this was challenged by the canons of Saint Amé in Douai.54 Even though there seems to be no direct evidence for such a dispute, it is certain that already at the beginning of the eleventh century, links between the canons regular of Saint-Amé and Marchiennes went back a long time,55 and that St Maurontus occupied a key place in the historical tradition connecting the two institutions. According to local tradition, the chapter of Saint-Amé had been founded by Maurontus himself, on lands in the village of Merville that had originally been owned by his uncle Erchinoald, the mayor of the Merovingian king. From at least the later eleventh century onwards, two different accounts circulated of what subsequently happened to the estate. In one, Maurontus gave his estate to the church, before the fratres of Saint-Amé occupied it; in another, he gave it directly to the fratres of Saint-Amé and, when they fled Merville before the Norman invaders and resettled in Douai in the early 870s, they did so on property that either belonged to the church of Merville or to Marchiennes itself.56 The Chronicon’s version of the foundation of Saint 53 Chronicon

Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, pp. 683–5. Ugé, Creating the Monastic Past in Medieval Flanders (York, 2005), pp. 131–2. 55 B. Meijns, Aken of Jeruzalem? Het ontstaan en de hervorming van de kanonikale instellingen in Vlaanderen tot circa 1155, 2 vols. (Louvain, 2000), I, 362–82. 56 On these events, A. D’Haenens, Les invasions normandes en Belgique au IXe siècle 54 K.

54

9781903153734.indd 54

08/05/2017 08:29

The Chronicle Of Saint-Vaast Amé, as well as the fratres’ escape from the Normans, has been shown to be muddled, with dates, locations and even protagonists of the story mixed up, misidentified and generally misrepresented.57 More confusingly, the Chronicon corroborates the second version of the story of Maurontus’ donation, raising the question of how it served the interests of the Marchiennes monks to emphasize that Saint-Amé had, in fact, been an independent foundation. But it may be that any account documenting Maurontus’s legacy to Marchiennes was considered appropriate for gaining the upper hand, if only symbolically, over Saint-Amé. It is worth remembering in this context that the aforementioned monastery of Hamage had not been independent but rather a priory of Marchiennes since at least the tenth century; a similar conflict over SaintAmé’s status is potentially revealed through these references in the Chronicon Vedastinum. The fact that a near-contemporary manuscript from Marchiennes that contains the aforementioned office for St Maurontus also includes a Life of Amatus certainly suggests that some fairly aggressive institutional competition was going on around this time.58 Alternatively, one might speculate that the passages concerning Saint-Amé were in fact later interpolations, as appears to be the case with at least one part of the story, where John, bishop of Cambrai, is represented as having executed a formal translation of Amatus’s relics at Notre-Dame of Douai.59 Perhaps this passage was adapted to accommodate the contents of a charter issued to Saint-Amé by King Philip of France in 1076; there is no way of knowing for certain.60 The material situation of Saint-Vaast itself is also relevant here. Sproemberg has suggested that the insertion of a forged charter by the seventh-century Bishop Vindicianus, granting extensive liberties to the monks, indicates a dating for the chronicle in the later tenth century.61 According to the Deeds

(Louvain, 1967), pp. 248–51. Aken of Jeruzalem, I, 373–4. 58 Brussels, Bibliothèque des Bollandistes, 506, fol. 25v-34r. On this manuscript and its version of the Vita Amati, see F. Dolbeau, ‘Le dossier hagiographique de SaintAmé, vénéré a Douai. Nouvelles recherches sur Hucbald de Saint-Amand’, Analecta Bollandiana, 97 (1979), 89–110; also Vanderputten and Snijders, ‘Echoes of Benedictine Reform in an Eleventh-Century Booklist from Marchiennes’, Scriptorium, 63 (2009), 79-88. 59 Chronicon Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, p. 709. 60 There are, in fact, two charters dated 1076. The one that concerns us here is edited in Recueil des actes de Philippe Ier, roi de France (1059–1108), ed. M. Prou (Paris, 1908), pp. 207–10. For comments on this and the other document, see Meijns, Aken of Jeruzalem, pp. 368–82. 61 Two versions of the charter have been preserved, one from the Chronicon Vedastinum, and one given in Guimann’s late twelfth century cartulary. These are compared in J.-F. Lemarignier, ‘L’exemption monastique et les origines de la réforme grégorienne’, in A Cluny. Congrès scientifique, Fêtes et Cérémonies liturgiques en l’honneur des saints Abbés Odon et Odilon, 9–11 juillet 1949 ed. Société des Amis de Cluny (Dijon, 1950), pp. 288–340, pp. 335–40. 57 Meijns,

55

9781903153734.indd 55

08/05/2017 08:29

Steven Vanderputten of the bishops of Cambrai, it was at this time that a fierce dispute erupted with the bishop over the abbey’s status, particularly within Arras.62 Apparently Abbot Falrad had relied on the forgery to make his point, and so it seemed reasonable to speculate that the chronicle as a whole had been written in this period. We do, however, know that Leduin also relied on Vindicianus’s charter to obtain an exceptionally generous granting of liberties from Gerard, issued probably in 1031.63 The defiant insertion of the charter in the Chronicon may therefore echo the fact that, long after Falrad’s disappearance, the agenda behind the creation of the forged charter had been revived. A secondary motive may have been to demonstrate exactly how drastically Leduin’s stature had changed over the previous decade. The above observations, one relating to hagiographic policies and the other to institutional government, suggest that a significant part of the ‘original’ material inserted into the chronicle’s main account served the purpose of documenting Saint-Vaast’s, and especially Leduin’s, meteoric rise in the third and fourth decades of the eleventh century. Telling, as regards a specific focus on Leduin, are some additional hagiographical passages. From c. 1015 onwards, Bishop Gerard had been promoting the cult of several of his saintly predecessors, most notably Bishops Autbertus and Gaugericus, both of whom were commemorated in hagiographic narratives, the first in a text written, it seems, between 1015 and 1023, the second around 1023–1025.64 While Gaugericus had been the subject of two previous hagiographic efforts, Autbertus’s hagiography was entirely new, and thus the saint’s appearance in the Chronicon Vedastinum could be taken as a clue for dating the latter after Autbertus’s Life.65 But it is the figure of Gaugericus that possibly connects these episcopal efforts at hagiographic commemoration to the reform networks in which Leduin was involved. In the chronicle, Gaugericus is specifically mentioned as being a disciple of St Magneric, bishop of Trier. Even though this statement derived from local hagiographical traditions, the fact that it was singled out for mention in the chronicle is surprising, for it is unlikely to have been of much concern to the monks of Saint-Vaast, or those of Marchiennes. It was, however, highly relevant to Leduin himself – more particularly, to his membership of the literate community of reformist agents that clustered around Richard of Saint-Vanne. As is now well documented, 62 On

this dispute, see Vanderputten, Monastic Reform, p. 57 (with references). charter from 1031 is edited in Les chartes de Gérard Ier, Liébert et Gérard II, évêques de Cambrai et d’Arras, comtes du Cambrésis (1012–1092/93), ed. E. Van Mingroot (Leuven, 2005), pp. 54–6. The charter contains a passage mentioning that Leduin and his monks had shown Gerard a libellus by Bishop Vindicianus regarding the abbey’s immunities. 64 See the respective introductions in Acta Synodi Atrebatensis, Vitae Autberti et Gaugerici episcoporum Cameracensium et varia scripta relicta ex officina Gerardi episcopi Cameracensis, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 270 (Turnhout, 2014). 65 Chronicon Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, p. 696. 63 Gerard’s

56

9781903153734.indd 56

08/05/2017 08:29

The Chronicle Of Saint-Vaast St Magneric was honoured in a Life written probably sometime during the early 1020s by Abbot Eberwin of Tholey, a close associate of Richard of SaintVanne.66 While it is unclear to what extent Richard was involved in the latter text’s creation, we do know that he showed considerable interest in its contents, and that he or one of his associates relied on it while writing the Life of St Rodingus of Beaulieu, a thinly disguised commentary on Richard’s life from the mid-1020s.67 Given that Leduin spent some time at Saint-Vanne, and given indications of exchange of certain texts within the reformist circles around Richard, it is possible that the chronicle’s reference to Gaugericus’s association with Magneric was a way of referring to Leduin’s continued involvement in these circles. Similar observations about the relevance of Leduin’s personal associations for interpreting some of the ‘original’ parts of the Chronicon can be made about the text’s treatment of two further saints, namely Bavo, patron of the abbey of Saint-Bavo in Ghent (where Leduin briefly was abbot in the early 1030s),68 and Bertinus of Saint-Bertin (where Roderic, a former monk of Saint-Vaast, was abbot between 1021 and 1042).69 Neither institution had particularly close links to either Saint-Vaast or Marchiennes, whereas the personal association for Leduin, particularly with the latter institution, was strong. He and Roderic exchanged several manuscripts during their respective tenures, and that book illumination from the later tenth and early eleventh centuries very likely influenced artistic endeavours at Marchiennes.70 Looking at the exceptionally accomplished artists, scribes and authors at work in over twenty manuscripts dating from the abbacy of Odbert of Saint-Bertin (c. 986–1007), and particularly at the inserted metrical poetry dedicated to Bertinus and Odbert,71 the reasons for the appearance of a eulogy of Bertinus in the Chronicon Vedastinum do not seem difficult to guess. Seemingly innocuous references to regional saints, therefore, in fact reveal a network of reformist agents – a coalition, that is, that transcended the mere monastic sphere. But it also shows how potentially ephemeral the converging interests in this text actually were: we have no indication whatsoever that after Leduin’s death the monks of Saint-Vaast had any interest in sustaining privileged relations with Saint-Bertin, let alone in supporting Gerard’s campaign of episcopal sainthood. Leduin’s close connection to Saint-Bertin, and his involvement in a literate community of reformist leaders, also provides a credible explanation for the 66 W.

Haubrichs, Die Tholeyer Abtslisten des Mittelalters. Philologische, onomastische und chronologische Untersuchungen (Saarbrücken, 1986), pp. 164, 173. 67 On the influence of the Vita Magnerici on the Life of Roding of Beaulieu, Steven Vanderputten, Imagining Religious Leadership in the Middle Ages: Richard of SaintVanne and the Politics of Reform (Ithaca, N.Y., 2015), p. 60. 68 Chronicon Vedastinum, ed. Waitz, p. 698. 69 Ibid. 70 Vanderputten, Monastic Reform, pp. 146–8. 71 Ibid., pp. 68–70.

57

9781903153734.indd 57

08/05/2017 08:29

Steven Vanderputten convoluted origins of at least one of the other transcribed texts in Douai, BM 795, and indeed of the Chronicon Vedastinum itself. On fols. 101–119r, the manuscript contains a version of the Annals of Saint-Bertin that has been shown to derive from a copy made some time in the later tenth or early eleventh century at Saint-Bertin and now preserved as Saint-Omer, BM 706. The latter version in all likelihood was made on a now-lost copy from Saint-Vaast, where the monks had added their transcription of Hincmar of Reims’s copy of the original Saint-Bertin annals with their own Annales of Saint-Vaast.72 Its reconstructed contents (original parts of the manuscript are now preserved separately as Saint-Omer, MS BM 697, Saint-Omer, MS BM 706, and Brussels, Royal Library, MS 15835)73 reveal a number of remarkable correspondences with the sources used by the compiler of the Chronicon Vedastinum. This similarity is also present in a late eleventh-century manuscript, Brussels, Royal Library, MS 6439–51, ostensibly a copy of the Saint-Bertin volume.74 At least eight out of the seventeen texts that von den Brincken identified as sources for the Chronicon Vedastinum are attested in Brussels, Royal Library, MS 6349–51, with most of the missing texts describing the period prior to the sixth century (Isidore, Jordanes, Jerome, Orosius and Nennius, Fasti consulares). Exactly why Saint-Vaast’s eleventh-century copies of the Annals of SaintBertin and Annals of Saint-Vaast were not made directly from the tenth-century manuscript from the monks’ own book collection is unclear. As far as we can judge from the now-fragmentary Saint-Omer, BM 697 and 706, the SaintBertin copy did not add substantial new material compared to the Saint-Vaast tradition.75 The only relevant indicator of a need for a new copy at eleventhcentury Saint-Vaast – taking into account that the history of this institution around the year 1000 is severely obscured by a lack of reliable sources – would be the devastation of the abbey by the king of France’s troops in 987, possibly

72 R.

McKitterick, History and Memory in the Carolingian World (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 50–51; also J. Nelson, The Annals of St-Bertin (Manchester, 1991), pp. 15–16. 73 A. Derolez, The Autograph Manuscript of the Liber Floridus: A Key to the Encyclopedia of Lambert of Saint-Omer (Turnhout, 1998), p. 191. 74 J. Van den Gheyn, Catalogue des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, 13 vols. (Brussels, 1906), VI, 36–7. On the attribution of this manuscript to the scriptorium of Saint-Bertin, J. Van den Gheyn, ‘La provenance du manuscrit N° 9439–51 de la Bibliothèque Nationale de Belgique’, Revue des archives et bibliothèques de Belgique, 2 (1904), 296–304; F.-L. Ganshof, ‘Notes critiques sur les “Annales Bertiniani”’, in Mélanges dédiés à la mémoire de Félix Grat, 2 vols. (Paris, 1949), II, 160–1; and Derolez, The Autograph Manuscript, pp. 191–2. 75 Ganshof, Notes, pp. 164–5 states that the Saint-Vaast tradition of the Annals of Saint-Bertin (incompletely represented in the Douai manuscript because of a loss of at least one quire following the year 844) seems slightly different, perhaps even superior, to those represented in the two manuscripts from Saint-Bertin, but remarks that this may be due to the chronicler’s interventions in the original text.

58

9781903153734.indd 58

08/05/2017 08:29

The Chronicle Of Saint-Vaast Table 1: Comparison of historiography attested in eleventh-century manuscripts from Saint-Vaast and Saint-Bertin

Lost SaintVaast manuscript Eutropius, Breviarium ab urbe condita Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon Notitia Galliarum Liber provinciarum imperii Romani Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, continuations (including PseudoFredegarius) Bede, Chronicon Annales Regni Francorum Annales Laureshamenses Annales Bertiniani Annales Vedastini Fragmentum chronici (later addition) Genealogy of the kings of France (later addition)

Saint-Omer, BM 697 and 706

Brussels, RL 6349–51

x

x

x

x

x

x?

x x

x

x

x

x

x x

x x

x x

x

x

x

x x

x x x

x x

x

x x

Chronicon Vedastinum (sources used)

x

affecting the library.76 Perhaps it was during the exchanges between Leduin and Roderic that the monastic library of Saint-Vaast acquired a substitute copy of its missing Annals of Saint-Vaast and that, on the occasion of this transaction, an opportunity arose to acquire additional works of historiography.77 76 Vanderputten, 77 A

Monastic Reform, p. 57. twelfth-century booklist from Saint-Vaast mentions two gesta Francorum, one or

59

9781903153734.indd 59

08/05/2017 08:29

Steven Vanderputten

Universal historiography as process? Leduin’s achievement as abbot of Saint-Vaast, and of Marchiennes, make the dating of the Chronicon Vedastinum to his tenure at these institutions very attractive as a hypothesis. The impressive activity at both institutions as regards book production and, to a lesser extent, text production and rewriting of older texts,78 combined with Leduin’s considerable achievements as regards his public reputation and his ability to expand and consolidate his abbey’s institutions, draw us almost naturally to him as the chronological focus for interpreting the circumstances in, and reasons for which, the text was created. As we have seen, a significant number of allusions to cultural, hagiographical and political developments taking place in the 1010s to 1030s do seem to suggest that the text, or at least its author, needs placing in the time frame of Leduin’s tenures as abbot of Saint-Vaast and Marchiennes. At this point there was reason to celebrate both the emergence of Saint-Vaast as a major institution and a centre of book and text production, and the role of Leduin’s leadership in broadening the intellectual horizons of the Marchiennes and Saint-Vaast communities. The act of commissioning a new universal chronicle would have appropriately reflected Leduin’s ambitions, even if the end product pales in comparison with other examples from the time. Several of the Chronicon’s passages allude to networks, relations and policies that, after the middle of the eleventh century, had very likely lost their interest for the monks of Saint-Vaast and Marchiennes. Yet trying to interpret the chronicle in its present form, the one preserved in the Douai manuscript, based on these observations likely does injustice to the complexity of the text. Several passages cited earlier on do not necessarily connect only to Leduin or his time. For instance, as regards relations with Saint-Amé in Douai, for the time of Leduin we only know for certain that Maurontus was being presented as a secondary patron saint of Marchiennes. Textual production in honour of the saint, including the all-important Life, turns out to be difficult to date. Palaeographically, the office for Maurontus can only be narrowed to the second quarter of the eleventh century; and the Miracles are datable only on the basis that they contain an account placed in the abbacy of Leduin’s successor Alberic (1033–1048).79 And although Ugé

both of which may have contained Gregory of Tours’ Historia Francorum, PseudoFredegarius’ continuation, or some other compilation; P. Grierson, ‘La bibliothèque de Saint-Vaast d’Arras au XIIe siècle’, Revue Bénédictine 52 (1940), 131. 78 On hagiographic rewriting at both institutions, Vanderputten, Monastic Reform, Chapter V, and T. Snijders, ‘Textual Diversity and Textual Community in a Monastic Context: The Case of Eleventh-Century Marchiennes’, Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 107 (2012), 897–930. 79 Ugé, Creating, p. 132.

60

9781903153734.indd 60

08/05/2017 08:29

The Chronicle Of Saint-Vaast states that the canons of Saint-Amé claimed to hold the body of the saint at their institution, there is no indication in the Marchiennes texts from Leduin’s time that the monks were disputing this. Since this is the only hint of possible tensions between the two communities, one wonders what exactly justifies dating the references and claims regarding Marchiennes to a time removed possibly half a century from the first-documented reference to a possible conflict, the aforementioned 1076 charter. To such criticism one might object that, following Leduin’s death and the dissolution of the personal union between Saint-Vaast and Marchiennes, the monks of Saint-Vaast would not have had any interest in inserting references to a later conflict into a local work of historiography. But this argument also fails to convince, particularly because we know that all successors of Leduin at Marchiennes up to the early 1090s were in fact recruited from the abbey of Saint-Vaast and that, therefore, links between the two institutions, or at least between those who governed them, must have remained strong.80 We know nothing, or virtually nothing, about how this interaction affected life at Saint-Vaast or Marchiennes, let alone on historiographical production. But that it must have had some effect seems beyond question. And so the notion that certain elements in the text may post-date the 1020s or 1030s is one that demands consideration. The only reliable terminus ante quem seems to be a mention in the chronicle that the dioceses of Cambrai and Arras were ‘like sisters’ – the acrimonious division of the double bishopric in 1093/94 definitively put an end to this and similar claims.81 Likewise, there is a need to acknowledge that the parts of the chronicle that do seem to belong in the time frame of Leduin’s abbacy, in at least some cases may well refer to concerns that emerged prior to his tenure. A good case in point is Vindicianus’s forged charter, which likely originated in the late tenth century but was relied upon by Leduin to obtain Gerard of Cambrai’s 1031 charter. Other issues that occupied Leduin and his subjects’ minds may also have been on Saint-Vaast’s or Marchiennes’s agenda prior to his appointment. Returning to the manuscript of the Chronicon Vedastinum helps us understand this apparent tension between the seemingly reliable indicators for dating parts of the text, and other indicators that suggest a date any time between the 1020s and the final decade of the eleventh century. Although several authors seem to agree that this is the autograph of the chronicle, Bethmann and others have observed that there are curious inconsistencies in the approximate dating of the hands. Based upon the analysis of Jean Porcher, keeper of manuscripts at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Jean Lemarignier observed that, whereas folios 57–70 at least seem to originate from the first half of the eleventh century, the inserted charter of Vindicianus at folios

80 See

Vanderputten, Monastic Reform, Appendix 1, pp. 295–6. Kéry, Die Errichtung des Bistums Arras 1093/1094 (Thorbeke, 1994).

81 Lotte

61

9781903153734.indd 61

08/05/2017 08:29

Steven Vanderputten 67v–69r belongs to a different, possibly later, hand. Another hand, possibly from the mid-eleventh century, added the part contained on folios 71–78, in other words the period from the end of the seventh century onwards.82 It is therefore possible that the present version of the text is not a composition that originated during a single campaign of writing, but derived from a base text produced during or shortly after Leduin’s abbacy and then updated, expanded and possibly even revised as certain questions needed addressing. Certainly there is no lack of similar texts from the period, including, crucially, the Deeds of the bishops of Cambrai, originating in 1024/25 and added to and revised in the 1040s or early 1050s.83 The Deeds, which was unquestionably known to the monks of Saint-Vaast, displays the same flexible attitude with regard to historiographical prose. It is in part because we still also have the ‘autograph’ version that we are aware of this, and quite possibly a similar process of revising and adding took place in the Chronicon Vedastinum. It is therefore possible, I even think likely, that scholarly understanding of the present version of the chronicle as a compilation that originated at a single moment in time, through the effort of a single author or group of contemporary authors, is based on false assumptions. Much as Van Mingroot and Riches have argued for the Deeds,84 but also as I have argued for the process of reformist government and the shaping of collective historical identities in monastic groups of this region, the Chronicon Vedastinum may represent a form of universal historiography subject to evolution over several decades. How exactly this process worked is difficult to say – I refer here to my earlier discussion of how scholars have attempted to reconstruct the way in which the text relied on earlier works of universal and local historiography – but we at least need to allow for the possibility that it did take place. Does that mean we must also hypothesize about a possible ‘first version’, finished during Leduin’s abbacy and ending at Vindicianus’s charter, intended primarily for use in the negotiations leading up to the granting of Gerard of Cambrai’s 1031 charter, and fully consolidated for publication? Not necessarily: the Deeds of the bishops of Cambrai also functioned as an ongoing project for much of the eleventh century and indeed the twelfth. But given the short time frame between Leduin’s accession to the abbatial throne (1022) and the granting of the charter, that might indeed have been how far the monks working under Leduin’s supervision had attempted to push the project. If this hypothesis were to be proven correct, this would mean that the

82 Lemarignier,

‘L’exemption’, p. 336, n. 2 and Kéry, Die Errichtung, p. 219, n. 49 and pp. 258–9. 83 Erik Van Mingroot, ‘Kritisch onderzoek omtrent de datering van de Gesta episcoporum Cameracensium’, Revue Belge de philologie et d’histoire, 53 (1975), 281–328. 84 Ibid. and Theo Riches, ‘Episcopal Historiography as Archive: Some Reflections on the Autograph of the Gesta Episcoporum Cameracensium (MS Den Haag, KB 17 F 15)’, Jaarboek voor Middeleeuwse Geschiedenis, 10 (2007), 7–46.

62

9781903153734.indd 62

08/05/2017 08:29

The Chronicle Of Saint-Vaast Chronicon Vedastinum functioned, for a good part of the eleventh century, as an ongoing project of commemoration, and that its present form is the result of a subsequent process of adding and revising. It would also mean that the centrality of the Annals of Saint-Vaast to the entire project is less clearly established than scholars have so far assumed, and that the text’s ending in the late ninth century was realized only close to when the sole manuscript of the text was produced. Perhaps that explains why the next text in that same volume is precisely the Annals of Saint-Vaast, as if its insertion there was intended to provide insight into a compilation process that had only recently been finished. A revised reconstruction would yield the following scheme: But even this manner of representing the possible continuous updating and revising of the Chronicon Vedastinum between the 1020s and the later eleventh century is inadequate, for it still suggests two clearly delineated phases of production. What it does show, however, is that speculating about the date of this text is only relevant up to a certain point, and that the chronicle, despite

Table 2: Situation following first compilation, 1020s–1030s (?)

Chronicon Vedastinum ‘1’

Annals of Saint-Vaast

Lost annals of Saint-Vaast

Creation – late seventh century?

874–899

c. 900–11th century

Compilation of universal historiography, annals, local historiography, hagiography and sources from Saint-Vaast abbey’s archives, combined possibly with a universal chronicle of unknown origin, running from Creation until the beginning of the sixth century

Original work

Original work

Table 3: Evolution in the mid- to later eleventh century, as attested in Douai BM 795

Chronicon Vedastinum ‘2’, mid-to-later eleventh century (?) Chronicon Vedastinum ‘1’

Original additions (late seventh–late ninth century) and revised passages

Lost annals of Saint-Vaast

Annals of Saint-Vaast

63

9781903153734.indd 63

08/05/2017 08:29

Steven Vanderputten having all the appearances of a one-off project, full of topical references to a specific phase in Saint-Vaast’s history, may in fact conceal several layers of redaction. In my view, realizing that the text may have been directly relevant to the monks of two institutions for considerably longer, and for reasons more diverse than previously thought, is far more important than trying to pinpoint the exact chronology of each revision, addition and interpolation.

Conclusion At the end of this brief investigation of the local interests and issues referenced in the Chronicon Vedastinum, the text surfaces as a narrative that was potentially studied, revised and added to throughout a good part of the eleventh century, and in the process may indeed have changed considerably in chronological and thematic scope. This suggests efforts on the part of the monks of not one but two institutions (Saint-Vaast and Marchiennes) to retain the relevance of the text over several decades. Despite the fact that it ends in 899, its analysis may reveal how, in monastic communities of the eleventh century, even the more distant non-hagiographic past was subject to a continuous reflection in the light of communal identity. Equally important is the observation that we, as scholars, need to reflect on how we look at the creation and context of universal historiography in this period – that we may be focussed too much on criteria of originality and on the notion that the creation of a work can be represented as a single, finite event in the development of medieval literate communities.

64

9781903153734.indd 64

08/05/2017 08:29

3 Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England: Cotton Tiberius B. i, German Imperial History-writing and Vernacular Lay Literacy Elizabeth M. Tyler

London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius B. i contains an early eleventh century copy of the Old English Orosius (fols. 3r–111v) which was joined, c. 1045, with the C version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC) (fols. 115v–164r). The C Chronicle is prefaced by two Old English poems known as the Menologium (fols. 112r–114v), a calendar poem and Maxims II (fols. 115r–115v), a collection of precepts offering proverbial wisdom.1 The aim of this chapter is to open up the political and intellectual impetuses behind this mid eleventh century act of compilation. Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, the most recent editor of C, incisively characterized the product of this compiling as ‘a book of histories’.2 Tiberius B. i, although produced in England and in the vernacular, will emerge as poised on the cutting edge of wider developments in eleventhand twelfth-century European historiography – and in particular in relation to developments in universal history, which we more readily associate with Latin history-writers of the German Empire. The methodology of this chapter entails the tight integration of codicological and textual analysis with evidence of the political and intellectual engagements of the compiler of Tiberius B. i to argue that the additions of poetry and chronicle to the Orosius c. 1045 produced a coherent and unified text. I will build on Stephen Baxter’s persuasive study of how ASC C promoted the interests of Earl Leofric of Mercia and his family amidst the

1 The

Old English Orosius, ed. J. Bately, EETS SS 6 (London, 1980); M. R. Godden, ed. and trans., The Old English History of the World: An Anglo-Saxon Rewriting of Orosius (Cambridge MA, 2016); The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition, vol. 5, MS. C, ed. K. O’Brien O’Keeffe (Cambridge, 2001); D. Whitelock, with D. C. Douglas and S. I. Tucker (ed. and trans.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Revised Translation (London, 1961); The Old English Metrical Calendar (Menologium), ed. and trans. K. Karasawa (Cambridge, 2015); and Maxims II, in Old English Shorter Poems, ed. and trans. R. Bjork, vol. 2, Wisdom and Lyric (Cambridge MA, 2014), pp. 174–9. 2 O’Brien O’Keeffe, MS. C, p. xlii.

65

9781903153734.indd 65

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler bitter factionalism of the mid eleventh century to consider very precisely how the whole Orosius–poetry–ASC compilation, and not just C, aimed to intervene directly in politics on behalf of Leofric in the specific context of the Anglo-Saxon court of the mid 1040s.3 That innovative and intellectually demanding history-writing, such as Tiberius B. i’s creation of a vernacular universal chronicle, was an active and effective political discourse has much to tell us about pre-Conquest English literary culture and its place within a wider European context. Within that wider European context, Tiberius B. i does not lose relevance as a result of its vernacularity. Set alongside contemporary German Imperial texts, it brings insight into the relationship of universal chronicles to the politics of empire and the place of compilation in the writing of history. Tiberius B. i also opens up to view the unusually authoritative place of the vernacular in pre-Conquest England, a matter of European consequence given the importance the ASC plays in the production of the first surviving history-writing in French, Gaimer’s early twelfth century universal history, the Estoire des Engleis.4

The Old English Orosius and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle England, even more than Ireland, was distinctive in the early and central Middle Ages for its wide use of the vernacular, which featured in almost every domain. Not only history-writing but law, documents, poetry, political theory, homilies, the bible, saints’ lives and translations of key late antique Roman texts, including Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae, Gregory the Great’s Dialogi and Augustine’s Soliloquia, as well as Orosius’s Historiae adversum paganos all circulated in English and were copied in the eleventh century. Latin and English, moreover, were not binaries, rather English was deeply immersed in Latin literary culture. Both the Old English Orosius and the ASC illustrate the Latinate character of history-writing in English. The Old English Orosius is an abbreviation, in six books, of Orosius’s Latin text. It is likely that it was made from a glossed manuscript of East Frankish origin.5 If not translated specifically for King Alfred’s late ninth century court, it was very quickly drawn into the orbit of the West Saxon kings, with the earliest surviving copy (London, British Library, MS Additional 47967) probably coming from Winchester in the first three decades of the tenth

3 S.

Baxter, ‘MS. C of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Politics of Mid EleventhCentury England’, English Historical Review 122 (2007), 1189–227. 4 E. M. Tyler, ‘From Old English to Old French’, in Language and Culture in Medieval Britain: The French of England, c. 1100 – c. 1500, ed. J. Wogan-Browne et al. (York, 2009), pp. 164–78. 5 M. R. Godden, ‘The Old English Orosius and its Sources’, Anglia 129 (2011), 297–320.

66

9781903153734.indd 66

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England century.6 Like Orosius’s Historiae, the Orosius offers a providential view of history to defend Christians against claims that the abandonment of the pagan gods threatened the survival of the Roman Empire. Ranging across the Babylonian, Carthaginian, Macedonian and Roman empires, the Orosius follows the Latin text in providing a far-reaching history of the ancient world, which gives a Christian account of secular, rather than ecclesiastical, history.7 While remaining faithful in broad outline to the Historiae, the Orosius especially foreshortens its extensive material on the Roman Empire.8 As a result, there is a more balanced focus, with Rome in proportion, across the four empires of Antiquity, than we find in Orosius’s text. Orosius’s Christian apologetics, though reduced, remain a defining feature of the Old English version and are a clear dimension of the text’s message. Thus the text does not become simply an account of the past empires; it retains its historical specificity, aiming to convey Orosius’s perception of the particular situation of the Roman Empire in the years after Alaric’s sack of Rome. Indeed, the translator emphasizes the very situated nature of Orosius’s narrative by frequently injecting the phrase, not found in the Latin, ‘Orosius cwæð’ (‘Orosius said’).9 The translation ends with Alaric’s sack of Rome and the marriage of his kinsman, Athaulf, to the daughter of the Emperor Honorius, rather than continuing, as Orosius did, with further barbarian depredations throughout the Roman provinces, which take the Goths away from Rome itself. As a result, the translator reframes Orosius’s final chapters to adumbrate the end of the Roman Empire and a translatio imperii westward to the Goths (an outcome which, in the Latin text, Orosius has Athaulf explicitly reject).10 The vision of a Roman past and a Gothic future articulated in the Old English Orosius was of specific relevance to the Anglo-Saxons. They viewed themselves as related to the Goths via the supposedly Gothic descent of 6 For

the date of MS. A, Bately, Orosius, pp. xxiii–xxiv and H. Gneuss and M. Lapidge, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist (Toronto, 2014), pp. 227–8. On the date of the translation: Bately, Orosius, pp. lxxxvi–xciii and ‘The Old English Orosius’ in A Companion to Alfred the Great (Leiden, 2014), pp. 313–43 (p. 342); and Godden, ‘Sources’, p. 297 and ‘The Old English Orosius and its Context: Who Wrote it, for Whom, and Why?’, Quaestio Insularis: Selected Proceedings of the Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic 12 (2011), 1–30 (p. 9). 7 Pauli Orosii Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII, ed. K. F. W. Zangemeister, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 5 (Leipzig, 1899); A. T. Fear, trans., Seven Books of History against the Pagans (Liverpool, 2010) pp. 13–14; M. S. Kempshall, Rhetoric and the Writing of History (Manchester, 2011), pp. 64–79. 8 Bately, Orosius, pp. xciii-xcviii; Godden, ‘Sources’, pp. 318–19; Godden, ‘Context’, p. 12. 9 M. R. Godden, ‘The Anglo-Saxons and the Goths: Rewriting the Sack of Rome’, Anglo-Saxon England 31 (2002), 47–68 (pp. 60–2) and ‘Context’, pp. 20–2. 10 Orosius, Historiae, VII.40–3 and Orosius, VI.38; Godden, ‘Anglo-Saxons and Goths’, pp. 59–62.

67

9781903153734.indd 67

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler the Jutes who were said to have settled Kent and the Isle of Wight from what is now Denmark. Asser identifies Alfred’s own mother as of Jutish descent.11 Whereas Orosius’s Alaric, although gentle in his sack of Rome and respectful of Christians and their churches, was a heretical Arian Christian, the Anglo-Saxon Alaric had become a straightforwardly good Catholic king and a worthwhile kinsman. Looking beyond an Alfredian context, Francis Leneghan has recently argued moreover that the whole model of translation imperii, which the Old English Orosius strengthens, was especially attractive to the West Saxons of the early tenth century, seeing themselves as successors of the now collapsed Carolingian Empire.12 The Old English version’s foreshortening of Orosius’s seven books reveals not exhaustion or inadequacy in the face of Orosius’s at times unruly and not always coherent text, but rather a serious re-reading, which includes recastings and additions, of the text in light of the needs and perspectives of an AngloSaxon audience.13 Significantly, the abridgement of the Historiae in the Orosius does not separate it from contemporary approaches to the Latin text. In the ninth century, at just the point when the Latin text was being most intensively read, it was most likely to be shortened. These Carolingian abbreviations have not been well studied but they appear to reveal a different emphasis from that of the Old English text with the Latin abbreviations retaining a greater interest in Roman history than the Old English and removing more of the apologetic and theoretical material.14 The Old English text takes over the abbreviating mode but uses it for different purposes, which retains and enhances Orosius’s universal character by cutting down the Roman material and thus putting Rome in perspective with regard to earlier empires. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle survives in seven manuscripts and fragments which are identified with letters (A to H). The different versions of the Chronicle share a ‘common stock’ of annals which were written in King Alfred’s court in the early 890s and which are indebted to Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica, especially, among other sources. Their focus lies with the West Saxon dynasty which at this point ruled much of the South of England, having expanded from Wessex at the expense of other kingdoms.15 Although written in the vernacular, the ‘common stock’ shared the Northumbrian historian’s 11 Asser,

Vita Alfredi, ed. W. H. Stevenson (Oxford, 1959), II; Godden, ‘Anglo-Saxons and Goths’, p. 68. 12 F. Leneghan, ‘Translatio Imperii: The Old English Orosius and the Rise of Wessex’, Anglia 133 (2015), 656–705. 13 D. Whitelock, ‘The Prose of Alfred’s Reign’, in Continuations and Beginnings: Studies in Old English Literature, ed. E. G. Stanley (London, 1966), pp. 67–103 (p. 90); and Godden, ‘Context’, pp. 12–13. 14 L. B. Mortensen, ‘The Diffusion of Roman Histories in the Middle Ages: A List of Orosius, Eutropius, Paulus Diaconus and Landolfus Sagax Manuscripts’, Filologia mediolatina 6–7 (1999–2000), 101–200 (p. 113); Bately, Orosius, p. lx. 15 For a recent introduction to the ASC, see S. D. Keynes, ‘Manuscripts of the

68

9781903153734.indd 68

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England view that Anglo-Saxon history did not begin with the Adventus Saxonum, the mid fifth century arrival of Germanic invaders in Britain. Rather, as for Bede, history begins with Julius Caesar’s first attempt to conquer Britain in 60 BC: that is, history begins with the incorporation of Britain into the Roman Empire.16 Thus from the outset, the ASC assertively projects history-writing as a very Roman project. The different versions of the ASC, which continued to receive annals from the court throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, supplemented with other material of a more regional or partisan perspective, were kept in different monastic centres. Although the interests of these monasteries left their imprints, the ASCs were not monastic but dynastic chronicles. The different versions of the Chronicle have complex transmission histories and obscure relationships with their exemplars. In addition, as will become especially evident when we consider C, alongside D and E in more detail, the different versions interact with and cross-fertilize each other.17 The similarities between the Annales regni Francorum (ARF) and the ASC are illustrative of the way the latter participates in a wider Latinate historiographical culture. The ARF, which recount the rise of the Carolingians and cover the years 741–829 are, like the ASC, an ‘official history’ written at court and distributed from there.18 Also, like the ASC, they continued after the production of a ‘common stock’ with different versions circulating, most notably, after the divisions of the Empire, those focused on the West Frankish kingdom (known as the Annales Bertiniani) and those focused on the East Frankish kingdom (Annales Fuldenses).19 Close ties between the West Saxons and the West Frankish court and church – especially under Charles the Bald, but continuing after his reign – make it likely, as Anton Scharer argues, that a Carolingian historical compilation that included the ARF was known in Alfred’s court.20 Likewise, Grimbald of Saint-Bertin, sent by Archbishop Fulco of Reims as an adviser to Alfred, may have known Hincmar’s Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’, in The Book in Britain, vol. 1, c. 400–1100, ed. R. Gameson (Cambridge, 2012), pp. 537–52. 16 ASC C, s.a. 60 BC and Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum, ed. and trans. B. Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969), I.2. 17 O’Brien O’Keeffe, MS. C, p. lvii; and Keynes, ‘Manuscripts’. 18 A. Scharer, ‘The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Continental Annal-Writing’, in Reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Language, Literature and History, ed. A. Jorgensen (Turnhout, 2010), pp. 161–6 (esp. p. 162); and N. P. Brooks, ‘Why is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle about Kings?’, Anglo-Saxon England 39 (2010), 43–70. 19 Annales Bertiniani, ed. G. Waitz, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum 5 (Hannover, 1883); and Annales Fuldenses, ed. F. Kurze, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum 7 (Hannover, 1891); R. McKitterick, History and Memory in the Carolingian World (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 19–20 and 101–119 and Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity (Cambridge, 2008), pp. 31–56. 20 Scharer, ‘ASC’, pp. 165–6.

69

9781903153734.indd 69

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler continuation of ARF.21 Being part of a shared Latinate historiographical culture does not, however, render the ASC slavish or even derivative with regard to Carolingian models. Whereas the ARF do not begin until Pepin becomes mayor of the palace in 741 (he would become the first Carolingian king a decade later), the ASC begins with Caesar’s attempt to conquer Britain. From its inception, the ASC thus stands out as a more ‘self-contained’ text, as Scharer says, capable of covering Anglo-Saxon history without being compiled with other texts.22

Competing Narratives: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ‘C’, ‘D’ and ‘E’ and the Encomium Emmae reginae With these preliminaries regarding the vernacular in England and the Old English Orosius and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in place, I will turn now to the mid-eleventh century, more precisely (and this precision will be important) to c. 1045, when Tiberius B. i was compiled by adding the two poems and the ASC to an earlier eleventh-century copy of the Old English Orosius. The C Chronicle was copied by one hand from the beginning to 490. This same hand had copied the two poems, the Menologium and Maxims II. A second hand then copies the annals from 491 to 1044 as one unit. After 1044, this hand continues to up to 1048, but the entries are added on a year-by-year basis. After 1048, C continues to the entry for 1056 which ends eleven lines down folio 163v with the rest of the page left blank (we will return, below, to 1056). Then after almost a decade-long hiatus, annals are added, on a new folio, for the fateful years 1065 and 1066, which culminated in the Norman Conquest. The ruling of the manuscript for the two poems and the Chronicle follows that established earlier in the century for the Orosius, even though it is awkward for the Chronicle.23 Thus, it is from Orosius to the annal for 1044 that Tiberius B. i is conceived of as a whole; this whole and its conceptualization is the focus of this current piece. Here, the mid-century annals in ASC C, alongside D and E, will be read in relation to each other and the Encomium Emmae reginae, an account of the Anglo-Danish dynasty, written by a monk of Saint-Bertin at the behest of Cnut’s widow, the Norman princess, Queen Emma.24 Focus will lie with the intertwined political and intellectual context 21 M.

B. Parkes, ‘The Palaeography of the Parker Manuscript of the Chronicle, Laws and Sedulius, and Historiography at Winchester in the Late Ninth and Tenth Centuries’, Anglo-Saxon England 5 (1976), 149–71 (pp. 161–68). 22 Scharer, ‘ASC’, p. 165. 23 O’Brien O’Keefe, MS C, pp. xx-xxxviii and xl. 24 Encomium Emmae reginae, ed. and trans. A. Campbell, with a supplementary introduction by S. Keynes (Cambridge, 1998); P. Stafford, Queen Emma and Queen Edith: Queenship and Women’s Power in Eleventh-Century England (Oxford 1997), pp. 28–40; Keynes, 'Introduction', in Encomium Emma reginae, ed. and trans. Campbell

70

9781903153734.indd 70

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England of Tiberius B. i, an ambitious manuscript whose compilers, it will be argued, set out to craft a politically engaged universal history. The historical writing of mid-eleventh century England, including the C version of the ASC as present in Tiberius B. i, was energized and shaped by bitter factional politics which engulfed the Anglo-Saxon court as a result of the succession crisis following Cnut’s death in 1035. Cnut had had two wives. His first wife, Ælfgifu of Northampton, bore him two sons, Swein and Harold Harefoot. Without putting her aside (she went on to govern Norway as regent for Harold), Cnut married the defeated Anglo-Saxon king Æthelred’s Norman widow Emma, by whom he had a further son, Harthacnut. Emma had already had two sons, Edward and Alfred, by Æthelred. After Cnut’s death, the succession was violently contested among factions backing Harold or Harthacnut and yet others looking for the restoration of the West Saxon dynasty. Harold succeeded first, ruling until his death in 1040, when Harthacnut came to the throne. Towards the end of his brief reign, he was joined by his half-brother Edward. When Harthacnut died in 1042, Edward succeeded to the throne in his own right. The factions who had once backed different claimants now both supported Edward, the only candidate to survive; they remained, however, each other’s rivals, with Godwine, Earl of Wessex, and Leofric, Earl of Mercia, being most prominent. Both men had risen to power under Cnut and neither had initially supported the return of the West Saxon dynasty after the Danish king’s death. Both were thus eager to remake themselves as loyal supporters of Edward. Edward, who had spent his adolescence and adulthood up to his late thirties in Normandy and northern France, was himself insecure, not having cultivated his own alliances in England. As a result he was, reluctantly, reliant on Godwine.25 These politics are grippingly and partisanly represented in three different versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, C, D and E, as well as in the Latin Encomium Emmae reginae. The relationship of these three versions of the Chronicle is highly complex, involving shared sources and/or exemplars and divergences and gaps which are motivated more by politics than by the absence of material. This complexity is made all the more acute because the manuscripts which contain these different versions have different dates and draw on and compile layers of earlier and later annals. At our point of pp.  xxxv–xxxvi, xxxix–xli, lix, lxix; A. Orchard, ‘Literary Background to the Encomium Emmae Reginae’, Journal of Medieval Latin 11 (2001), 156–83 (esp. p. 158); E. M. Tyler ‘Fictions of Family: The Encomium Emmae Reginae and Virgil’s Aeneid’, Viator 36 (2005), 149–79; E. M. Tyler, ‘Talking about History in Eleventh-Century England: The Encomium Emmae Reginae and the Court of Harthacnut’, Early Medieval Europe 13 (2005), 359–83 (esp. pp. 361–2); and E. M. Tyler, England in Europe: English Royal Women and Literary Patronage, c. 1000 – c.1150 (Toronto, 2017), pp. 20–164. 25 S. Baxter, The Earls of Mercia (Oxford, 2007), pp. 38–40 and 162–3; and F. Barlow, Edward the Confessor (Berkeley, 1970), pp. 54–95 and The Godwins (Harlow, 2002), pp. 27–50.

71

9781903153734.indd 71

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler interest, c. 1045, when Tiberius B. i was compiled, only the annals for C in Tiberius B. i survive in a contemporary manuscript. However, the annals for the mid-eleventh century in D and E, covering the period after the death of Cnut, draw on material that was composed contemporaneously, including material also found in C.26 As Baxter has convincingly argued, C, for the period of our interest, c. 1035–44, and beyond, promotes Leofric of Mercia; this association holds despite the absence of consensus about where these annals were composed, where they were compiled as C, and where C was added into Tiberius B. i (not necessarily the same place, though equally not necessarily not the same place). C has long been associated with Abingdon, which O’Brien O’Keeffe questions in favour of Canterbury, while Baxter suggests a West Midlands origin, perhaps Coventry, at least for the composition of the Leofrician annals. The surviving manuscript of E dates from twelfth-century Peterborough and thus it is difficult to be precise about the stages of its composition, compilation and copying in the mid-eleventh century. However, it remains evident, as has long been recognized, that the account for this period is decidedly in favour of Earl Godwine, and his sons, a stance it continues to the Conquest. Likewise, it has long been recognized that there is a close relationship between C and E in the period from Cnut’s death to the early years of Edward’s reign, with some annals being completely divergent and others being very close, even word for word close. They appear to be drawing on at least some of the same material but using them for their own distinct purposes.27 Thus E’s strong support for Godwine can be seen as in dialogue, or more accurately in competition with, C’s support for Leofric. Those responsible for the annals in C and E were aware that there were other Chronicle versions of events which supported very different interests. D draws on material either available to or in C and E in order to produce an account that deliberately steers a course between the two rival earls.28 Alongside C and E, the annals present in D attest to the competing nature of the mid-eleventh century chronicles.

26 O’Brien

O’Keefe, MS. C, pp lvii-lxxiv; The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition, vol. 6, MS. D, ed. G. P. Cubbin (Cambridge, 1996), pp. xxxix-lv; The AngloSaxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition, vol. 7, MS. E, ed. S. Irvine (Cambridge, 2004), pp. lxiv-lxxxvii; Baxter, ‘MS. C’, pp. 1191–4; and Keynes, ‘Manuscripts’, pp. 546–8. 27 O’Brien O’Keefe, MS. C, pp. lxxiv-xcii; Baxter ‘MS. C’, pp. 1189–94, 1215–23; and Keynes, ‘Manuscripts’, pp. 546–8. Earlier scholarship is cited in these works. 28 The date of D’s compilation is contested. D. Dumville, ‘Some Aspects of Annalistic Writing at Canterbury in the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries’, Peritia 2 (1983), 23–57 (p. 33) (after 1080, as late as 1100); Cubbin, MS. D, p. lxxix (1050s); Keynes, ‘Manuscripts’, p. 547 (1040s); P. Stafford. ‘Archbishop Ealdred and the D Chronicle’, in Normandy and Its Neighbours, 900–1250: Essays for David Bates, ed. D. Crouch and K. Thompson (Turnhout, 2011), pp. 135–56 (esp. pp. 147–8). (D includes annals written in 1040s which are recopied, with possible revision, after 1080; D and C could have the same source, rather than D being copied from C.)

72

9781903153734.indd 72

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England While Baxter very illuminatingly argues for this close relationship between C, D and E, he does not bring in the contemporary Encomium Emmae reginae, a text whose Latin narrative, rather than vernacular annal, form and Flemish author have made it seem of a wholly different order from the ASC. Although the Encomium is a sophisticated Latin text, engaged with the classicism emanating from Reims, in whose archdiocese Saint-Bertin lay, it is also very much a part of this picture of competing histories. Written across 1040–42, that is the period of Harthacnut’s reign, some of it shared with Edward, it was produced to protect Emma amid precisely those factional politics which so engaged C, D and E. The Encomium has been shown to have been written for and from within Harthacnut’s divided court, whose members included those whom rival versions of the Chronicle would support: Godwine, Leofric and Edward, none of whom were natural allies of Emma. The Encomium’s value as very directly active political intervention is evident in the hasty rewriting of its conclusion to proclaim Edward as the restoration of the West Saxon dynasty on the death of Harthacnut.29 Our perception of the Encomium as a text produced for court consumption, capable in its Latinity of being explicated across all the languages (English, Danish and French) of its factions, draws attention to the issue of audience of eleventh-century English history-writing more broadly. While audience has been a central issue in scholarship on the Encomium, it has not been a central concern of Chronicle studies, which focus more on sources, textual relations and where annals and manuscripts were produced, compiled and copied. Comparison with the Encomium opens up the issue of audience. The supporters of Godwine and Leofric (or perhaps the earl himself) were not producing chronicles for posterity, they were writing to persuade and promote in the present and for a very specific court audience, with Edward at its centre. Comparison to the Encomium also alerts us, crucially, to the meaning of the form (including language) of the Chronicle. Where Emma chose classicizing narrative history written in Latin, a genre and language not associated with the West Saxon dynastic history, to promote the AngloDanish dynasty, those writing to promote Leofric (and Godwine) chose the potentially excluding vernacular Chronicle, whose raison d’être was the West Saxon dynasty and which had been largely silent about the reigns of Cnut and his sons. The political allegiances of each version of the Chronicle and the potential audience for their messages can begin to be considered by looking at their well studied entries for 1036, the first year after Cnut’s death. Looking at 1036 29 See

footnote 25; T. Bolton, ‘A Newly Emergent Mediaeval Manuscript Containing Encomium Emmae Reginae with the Only Known Complete Text of the Recension Prepared for King Edward the Confessor’, Mediaeval Scandinavia 19 (2009), 205–21; and S. Keynes and R. Love, ‘Earl Godwine’s Ship’, Anglo-Saxon England 38 (2010), 185–223 (pp. 193–4).

73

9781903153734.indd 73

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler will also give a more concrete sense of some of the points made above about the convergences and divergences between different versions of the chronicle. Alfred, younger brother of Edward, hoping to advance West Saxon claims to the throne after the death of Cnut, returned to England in 1036, apparently at the behest of his mother, Emma. His subsequent murder was a shocking event which reverberated through Anglo-Saxon politics for decades, with William the Conqueror claiming he sought the crown of England to avenge the death of his cousin. C includes a poem, in distinctively memorable rhyming verse (an unusual meter for Old English), which, along with the preceding prose, unequivocally blames Godwine for the death: Her com Ælfred se unsceððiga æþeling Æþelrædes sunu cinges hider inn and wolde to his meder þe on Wincestre sæt, ac hit him ne geþafode Godwine eorl ne ec oþre men þe mycel mihton wealdan, forðan hit hleoðrode þa swiðe toward Haraldes, þeh hit unriht wære. Ac Godwine hine þa gelette   and hine on hæft sette and his geferan he todraf   and sume mislice ofsloh. Sume hi man wið feo sealde,   sume hreowlice acwealde, sume hi man bende,   sume hi man blende, sume hamelode,   sume hættode. In this year the innocent ætheling Alfred, son of King Æthelred, came hither and he wanted to go to his mother, who was in Winchester, but Earl Godwine did not allow him to, nor other men who wielded great power, because Harold was very much acclaimed for, although this was unjust. But Godwine then stopped him   and put him in captivity And he drove away his followers   and some he killed variously. Some were sold for money,   some were cruelly killed, Some were fettered,   some were blinded, Some were mutilated,   some were scalped.

The poem does not appear at all in E – despite the many common entries between C and E – which chooses instead to remain silent about the episode; indeed the year is blank as the best way to support Godwine. Meanwhile D, with its studied avoidance of Leofric or Godwine partisanship, removes both mentions of Godwine, in the process ruining the meter, in order to clear the earl. The murder of Alfred is also a pivotal event in the Encomium, which takes pains to exonerate Emma from claims that she lured Alfred to England so that he could be killed. The blame, says the Encomiast (while only hinting at the involvement of Godwine), lies fully with Harold Harefoot.30 All four texts, the three vernacular chronicles and the Encomium, give carefully nuanced accounts of Alfred’s death, intended to exonerate and/or lay blame within

30 Encomium

III.2–6; William of Poitiers, Gesta Guillelmi, ed. R. H. C. Davis and M. Chibnall (Oxford, 1998), I.2–4; Keynes, ‘Introduction’, p. xlv; and Baxter, ‘MS. C’, p. 1200.

74

9781903153734.indd 74

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England a small circle of leading players in the event: Emma, Godwine and Harold Harefoot. The partisanship of the chronicles remains evident as they build up their narratives of the complex successions after Cnut’s death. For example, in addition to its direct implication of Godwine in Alfred’s murder, C makes several other interventions in favour of Leofric. Among these interventions, the most telling regards Harold Harefoot. E portrays Leofric as the leading supporter of Harold, as he in fact was, while pointedly representing Godwine as the most loyal supporter of Emma and Harthacnut. C meanwhile makes no mention of Leofric’s support for Harold but rather tries to associate Godwine with Harold’s succession. As C sees very clearly, the early years of Edward’s reign were no time to remind anyone of Leofric’s initial support for Harold Harefoot.31 The final part of C’s entry for 1044, very likely the last annal which was part of the compilation of the Chronicle with the Orosius, offers particularly sharp insight into the context in which not just C but Tiberius B. i was conceived. Indeed when we realize that this entry for 1044 is at the end of the compilation, it takes on greater significance within the narrative and in terms of thinking more specifically about audience. C records at the end of 1044 the marriage of Edith, Godwine’s daughter, to Edward: ‘and on þam ylcan gere Eadward cing nam Eadgyþe Godwines eorles dohtor him to wife .x. nihtum ær Candelmæssan’ [and in the same year, King Edward took Edith, Earl Godwine’s daughter, as his wife, ten nights after Candlemas]. This marriage was a victory for Godwine in his efforts to dominate the king and a (temporary) resolution of the rife factionalism of the previous years. It is precisely at this point of Godwine’s triumph that Leofric, or those close to him, see it necessary to offer an account of 1035–44 which presents his actions in the best possible light in relation to the succession of Edward. The ending of Tiberius B. i – in the form conceived of as a whole – with the marriage of Edith and Edward puts its compilation firmly within the context of Godwine’s early triumph is the struggle for influence over the king and represents a point when Leofric may have been particularly pressed to commend himself to Edward. After 1044, C and E continue their partisanship, but although they report some of the same information, they no longer do this in almost identical words. This parting of the ways at 1045 emphasizes how directly competing and how closely entwined C and E were at the point at which Tiberius B. i was completed. Meanwhile, still with regard to the marriage, we can note additionally that the Orosius ended with the marriage of Althauf and Honorius’s sister and that Tiberius B. i’s ending with the marriage of Edward and Edith suggests very strongly that the ASC in Tiberius B. i was shaped

31 ASC

C and E s.a. 1036. Baxter, ‘MS. C’, p. 1200.

75

9781903153734.indd 75

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler to mirror the narrative pattern of the Orosius, bolstering a sense of narrative coherence across Tiberius B. i. Our sense of C and E as competing accounts of the aftermath of Cnut’s reign comes into sharper focus still when we consider them in the context of the Encomium – a move which may also begin to help us address the key issue of audiences for C and E. Who were these texts aimed at persuading? The Encomium not only had the court more generally as its audience, it had a special concern for Edward. In many ways we see Emma trying to persuade Edward, co-ruling with Harthacnut, to see himself as part of the AngloDanish dynasty, even going so far as to present him as Cnut’s son: a symbolic and persuasive rather than literal claim.32 Emma’s Encomium was especially concerned to exonerate her from Alfred’s death in front of Edward, his full brother.33 The ending of the second recension, with its joy at Edward’s restoration of the Anglo-Saxon dynasty of his father, makes especially clear his central place in the text’s intended audience. Likewise, C and E seem particularly concerned to present themselves in the best light specifically to Edward. We will return to this perspective and add further layers to the argument that Edward is central to the audience when we look at the way in which the compiler of Tiberius B. i has fashioned a king-centered prologue for C with the Menologium and Maxims II.

Theorizing universal history Turning now to look at C within its manuscript context, along with the Orosius, Menologium and Maxims II, will allow a two-tiered argument to be developed. Firstly, that all of Tiberius B. i, especially up to the end of 1044, is engaged with promoting Leofric’s case to Edward. Second, that Tiberius B. i is an intellectually ambitious universal chronicle which functions as a highly coherent text. Throughout, reference to the Encomium will prove critical for recognizing that intellectual ambition. On a very basic level, bringing together the Chronicle with the Orosius created a universal history, which begins with the reign of the Assyrian king Ninus and extends up to the present day. Tiberius B. i incorporates AngloSaxon history into the triple universality associated with universal chronicles, including Orosius’s Historiae: of divine providence, of time and of space or geography.34 Like other eleventh- and twelfth-century universal chronicles, such as those by Hermann of Reichenau (d. 1054), Marianus Scotus (d. 1082/3), Sigebert of Gembloux (d. 1112) and, later, Otto of Freising (d. 1158), 32 Encomium

II.18; Tyler, ‘Fictions’, p. 153 and ‘Talking’, p. 361. III.2–7. 34 H. W. Goetz, ‘On the Universality of Universal History’, in L’Historiographie médiévale en Europe, ed. J.-Ph. Genet (Paris, 1991), pp. 247–61 (p. 248). 33 Encomium

76

9781903153734.indd 76

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England the perspective of Tiberius B. i narrows from the universal to the local as the chronicle becomes more contemporary.35 While the German chronicles engage with a translatio imperii to the German Empire which might seem to evade the vernacular universal chronicle that is Tiberius B. i, culminating as it does with the small kingdom of England, Tiberius B. i, as we shall see when we look further at the inclusion of poetry, displays decidedly imperial pretensions for the English king. Tiberius B. i is not a de novo composition of universal history (like Hermann, Marianus and Sigebert) but rather achieves a universal history by combining the Orosius with a dynastic history. In so doing, the compiler was very much at the forefront. Rather than being a weak vernacular echo of European historywriting, Tiberius B. i is an early example of a new and important phenomenon in the use of Orosius’s Histories in this period. It is in the eleventh century that the Latin Orosius first began to be combined with other texts in order to bring its account more closely up to the present day.36 In this regard, Tiberius B. i shares some traits with Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, MS 5424–25, an early example of these new compilations and roughly contemporary with Tiberius B. i. 5424–25 is a mid eleventh century Gembloux manuscript containing Orosius’s Historiae followed by Frechulf’s Historiae, written c. 825–830 and covering history from Adam to 607. Frechulf’s dedication of Book 2, which begins with the rule of Octavian, to the Empress Judith, invoked as the wife of a caesar invictus and for the education of Charles the Bald, makes very plain its imperial context.37 These two texts were copied separately and bound together during the abbacy (1012–1048) of Olbert. The link, however, between such a compilation and the composition of universal history is evident in the subsequent use of 5424–25: Sigebert used this manuscript when he made his universal chronicle later in the century.38 But the Brussels manuscript is a much cruder compilation than Tiberius B. i. It simply combines two universal histories and includes a very substantial chronological overlap between the two (after reference to Creation, Orosius begins with Ninus, Frechulf with Creation). Furthermore, the Brussels manuscript does not show the efforts which Tiberius B. i does to use layout to integrate visually the Orosius and the ASC. The contrast between the two manuscripts can help us see what is

35 Goetz,

‘Universality’; H. W. Goetz, ‘The Concept of Time in the Historiography of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, in Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory, Historiography, ed. G. Althoff, J. Fried, and P. J. Geary (Cambridge, 2002), pp. 139–65. 36 Mortensen, ‘Diffusion’, pp. 119–65; and L. B. Mortensen, ‘Working with Ancient Roman History: A Comparison of Carolingian and Twelfth-Century Scholarly Endeavours’, in Gli Umanesimi medievali, ed. C. Leonardi (Florence, 1998), pp. 411–21 (pp. 416–8). 37 Frechulf, Historiae, ed. M. I. Allen, in Frechulfi Lexoviensis episcopi opera omnia, 2 vols. (Turnhout, 2002), Book II.prol. 38 Allen, Opera omnia II.124*-131*.

77

9781903153734.indd 77

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler at stake in Tiberius B. i and to look for how it uses the addition of poetry, the Menologium and Maxims II, to theorize universal history. The way the Old English Orosius and the Chronicle overlap, with Orosius ending in 410 and the Chronicle beginning in 60 bc, might been seen as clumsy or contradictory, a sign that they were not carefully joined. Not only in comparison to the Gembloux manuscript, considered above, but also given the structure of Orosius’s own Historiae, this perception would be incorrect. Orosius’s Historiae combine narratives of one Empire overlapping with and succeeding the previous in a steady translatio imperii from East to West with a repeated instruction (much of which is carried over into the Old English) to those living in the Christian present to compare their experiences to those of the pagan past; Tiberius B. i continues this pattern into Anglo-Saxon England. In Tiberius B. i, at the end of the Old English Orosius, the Catholic Goths replace Roman rule in Rome, while in Britain, in the Chronicle, Roman dominion is followed by Anglo-Saxon rule and then conversion. Thus the copying together of the Orosius and the Chronicle shows not only Roman history being related to the Anglo-Saxon, but Anglo-Saxon history being situated within an understanding of the succession of empires within providential history which goes back to the reign of the Assyrian king Ninus and culminates in the conversion of the barbarians, Goths in Orosius and AngloSaxons in the ASC. By chronologically overlapping his account of Britain and England with that of the Roman Empire, the compiler of Tiberius B. i perpetuated Orosius’s own method of telling intermingled or interwoven history. He appears to have grasped on a conceptual level what Orosius was doing, though this view must be tempered by the recognition that the Orosius was the only ancient history available in English.39 Looking to the Encomium and the poems of Tiberius B. i, will confirm the compiler’s intellectual sophistication. The combination of the Orosius and the Chronicle, although creating a history which ranges well beyond Rome, also connects with the growing interest in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the Roman past and its relationship with the present; this well-studied phenomenon, of course, marks our notions of the twelfth-century Renaissance. Earlier we discussed the Encomium as a factional account of the years after Cnut’s reign in close dialogue with the Chronicle. Now we can return to the Encomium, a reference point which will bring sharp insight into thinking about why the compiler of Tiberius B. i might have been so keen to fit Anglo-Saxon England into an imperial scheme as a successor to Rome. Rome, it will emerge, had a special place in the factional history-writing of eleventh-century England. 39 On

the contradictory way in which the Old English Orosius represents the Goths as, at least potentially, replacing the Romans, while maintaining the Latin Historiae’s representation of Rome as the last Empire, see Godden, ‘Anglo-Saxons and Goths’, pp. 66–7.

78

9781903153734.indd 78

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England The Encomium, in its attempt to rally support for the Anglo-Danish dynasty, presents Cnut as a second Aeneas while the Encomiast explicitly presents himself as doing for Emma what Virgil did for Octavian: praising her by praising her family.40 This framework brings together elite lay AngloSaxon knowledge of Roman history and the Trojan legend, facilitated by the circulation in the vernacular not only of the Orosius but also of the Old English Boethius, both texts which assume that the Trojan foundation of Rome is already known, with the classicizing learning, more typical of Reims, which the Encomiast brought with him from Saint-Bertin.41 The contemporary political weight and impetus for this classicism is evident in the assertive representation of Svein, Cnut and Harthacnut as emperors and of England itself as an empire.42 The classicizing of the Encomium did not fall on deaf ears and was picked up a generation later when another anonymous cleric, probably also from Saint-Bertin, used Virgil’s Aeneid, Lucan’s De bello civili, Statius’s Thebaid and Ovid’s Metamorphoses to make sense of the political chaos which engulfed the kingdom as Edward died without an heir. He wrote for the court and the royal nunnery at Wilton. The resulting Vita Ædwardi also rewrites the Encomium’s account of Cnut, thus showing that both the Encomium and classicizing history were and remained current in the AngloSaxon court.43 Tiberius B. i, in its combining of the Orosius and the Chronicle, illustrates that vernacular history-writing was also using Rome and ideas of Empire to think with and to expand the parameters of history. The Encomium contextualizes Tiberius B. i’s turn to Antiquity, reminding us that this had already been deployed in the Anglo-Saxon court and that this turn to Antiquity was at the forefront of European history-writing, even if this status is obscured by its use of English. In return, Tiberius B. i illustrates that the Encomium, and later the Vita Ædwardi, were not marginalized by their classicizing Latinity but rather an integral and influential part of the court-focussed literary culture of late Anglo-Saxon England, which was not structured around a binary between Latin and vernacular. The centrality of Roman epic poetry to the Encomium and then to the Vita Ædwardi also helps us to see why the compiler of Tiberius B. i fashioned two Old English poems into a prologue for the C. Although we have thus far set aside these two poems, they are central to the way Tiberius B. i pushes the boundaries of contemporary history-writing and to how the whole manuscripts seeks to engage Edward’s favour. The poems may seem

40 Encomium,

Argument and II.4. M. Tyler, ‘Trojans in Anglo-Saxon England: Precedence without Descent,’ Review of English Studies 64 (2013), 1–20; and Tyler, England in Europe, pp. 22–38. 42 Encomium, Argument, I.1, II.14, II.16, II.17, III.3, III.14. Imperium is the last word in the text. 43 E. M. Tyler, ‘The Vita Ædwardi: The Politics of Poetry at Wilton Abbey’, AngloNorman Studies 31 (2009), 136–56; and Tyler, England in Europe, pp. 135–259. 41 E.

79

9781903153734.indd 79

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler an awkward break, suggesting a disjunction between the Orosius and the Chronicle. On the contrary, they do just the opposite and underscore our sense of the close involvement of Tiberius B. i in the lively historiographic and poetic culture of the eleventh century, especially that emanating from Reims, known both for classicizing history (Richer) and poetry (Godfrey).44 Both the Encomium and the Vita Ædwardi take up the question of the relationship of history and poetry. The Encomiast not only figured Emma as Octavian and himself as Virgil, his prologue – an early example of theoretical thinking about fiction – considers the possibility of writing for Emma in poetry, before turning to prose.45 The Vita Ædwardi meanwhile, not only explores the utility of Roman epics as interpretative frameworks for Anglo-Saxon history, it is a prosimetrum which explicitly invokes Boethius’s Consolatio and the complex poetics involved in Lady Philosophy’s banishment of the poetic muses.46 The receptiveness of the Anglo-Saxon court, which included Leofric, Godwine and Edward, to the new learning of Encomium and Vita Ædwardi from Saint-Bertin and Reims, reveals an openness, ambition and internationalism which we see also in Tiberius B. i. This politically active intellectualism is, in contrast, absent from Flemish and French courts at this time, though it is a prominent feature of the German imperial court.47 The Menologium is likely to have been composed c. 1000 in the context of the Benedictine Reform. Its 231 lines commemorate the immovable feasts of the Christian year which are fitted into a year beginning at Christmas. Maxims II is generally considered to be composed much earlier than the Menologium, although the conservative nature of Old English verse makes it difficult to date. Maxims II take the form of proverbs about the Christian aristocratic life. Fred Robinson, Nicholas Howe, Pauline Head and Kazutomo Karasawa have opened up how both poems share the catalogue form of Orosius and the Chronicle and the preoccupation of these texts with the interconnected subjects of history and time. Likewise, the place of poetry within the Chronicle has been invoked with regard to arguing for the Menologium and Maxims II as a poetic prologue to C.48 This line of inquiry can be pursued

44 J.

R. Williams, ‘Godfrey of Rheims: A Humanist of the Eleventh Century’, Speculum 22 (1947), 29–45; and J. Lake, Richer of Saint-Rémi: The Methods and Mentality of a Tenth-Century Historian (Washington, DC, 2013). 45 Encomium, Prologue and Argument; and Tyler, ‘Fiction’. 46 The Life of King Edward who Rests at Westminster, ed. F. Barlow, 2nd edn. (Oxford, 1992), I, Prologue. Tyler, England in Europe, pp. 147–9 and 198–200. 47 Tyler, England in Europe, pp. 120–1 and 247–8. 48 F. C. Robinson, ‘Old English Literature in Its Most Immediate Context’, in Old English Literature in Context: Ten Essays, ed. J. D. Niles (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 11–29 (pp. 27–8); N. Howe, The Old English Catalogue Poems (Copenhagen, 1985), pp. 73–86 and 154–63; P. Head, ‘Perpetual History in the Old English Menologium’, in The Medieval Chronicle, ed. E. Kooper (Amsterdam, 1999), pp. 155–62; and Karasawa, Calendar, pp. 5–15, 33–44, 52–4.

80

9781903153734.indd 80

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England more specifically in light of the contemporaneity of the Encomium and with specific reference to how the how whole manuscript, and not just C, works as political intervention. Although all the main versions of the Chronicle have included occasional poetry since the 937 entry marking the Battle of Brunanburh, only C has a poetic prologue. D and E begin with geographical prologues, while A has a genealogical prologue. Manuscript layout and thematic links, as O’Brien O’Keefe and Karasawa have demonstrated, show that the poems and C are not only a unit but also indicate that the poems act as a bridge between the Orosius and the Chronicle.49 Thus the addition of the Menologium and Maxims II does not form a barrier between the Orosius and C, but rather extends the prosimetrical dimension of C to the whole of Tiberius B. i. The Encomiast’s claim to be Emma’s Virgil and the prosimetrical nature of the Vita Ædwardi illustrate that the poetic prologue to C draws Tiberius B. i into wider debates in the Anglo-Saxon court and beyond about prose and poetry and the writing of history.50 Both the Menologium and Maxims II, moreover, articulate a link between Rome, ecclesiastical and secular, and Anglo-Saxon England. Apart from Christ and the Apostles, all the saints remembered in the Menologium are Roman, with Augustine of Canterbury (line 97) and Gregory the Great (lines 39 and 101) bringing England into the Roman church. Throughout the poem, the names of the month are given both in English and in Latin, so that the poet repeatedly underlines the parallel between what is English and what is Roman. England, meanwhile, is imagined as imperial: English is represented as the language of Britain, rather than of England (line 14), Gregory and Augustine are apostles of Britain, again rather than of England (lines 40, 98 and 104) and, in a view that is hegemonic and imperializing, the rule of the king of the Saxons is not contained within England but spreads out to other parts of Britain (line 230). The choice of the Menologium as part of the Chronicle’s prologue thus fits England into the Roman world of Orosius before the Chronicle even begins and continues the mode of translatio imperii already set up at the end of the Orosius. Likewise, it speaks to a preoccupation with empire, which, as we saw, marked the Encomium. The opening of Maxims II continues the Roman theme but switches into a secular space. The poem begins with what initially seems a well-known Old English poetic topos of Roman ruins as the work of giants: Cyning sceal rice healdan.   Ceastra beoð feorran gesyne, orðanc enta geweorc,   þa þe on þysse eorðan syndon, wrætlic weallstana geweorc.

49 O’Brien O’Keefe, MS. C, pp. xx, xxii-iii, xliii and l and Karasawa, Calendar, pp. 10–15. 50 T.

Bredehoft, Textual Histories: Readings in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Toronto, 2001), pp. 72–118; and Tyler, England in Europe, pp. 51–100 and 135–201.

81

9781903153734.indd 81

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler (Iines 1–3) A king must rule the kingdom.   Cities are seen far and wide, the skilful work of giants,   those (cities) that are on this earth, wondrous work of wallstones.

But there is a subtle difference here. Unlike in the Ruin, Beowulf or the Wanderer, for example, the stone built cities – ceastra – are not ruined but still present in a landscape, ruled by kings. Like the Goths who ruled Rome at the end of the Old English Orosius, English kings also inhabit a Roman space, rather than a Roman ruin. This is a figure of continuity or translatio imperii rather than of destruction, hiatus and a new order. The rest of the poem does not maintain the interest in Rome as the focus shifts to the natural landscape and the court, depicted according to the conventions of Old English verse rather than Roman history, raising the possibility that the first lines, which are hypermetric unlike the rest of the poem, were added specifically to speak to the thematic concerns of Tiberius B. i. The switch from Rome to the more native environment also contributes to the transition from the Roman subject matter of the Orosius to the English subject matter of the ASC. Finally, Maxims II, draws to a close on a strongly providential note: Is seo forðgesceaft digol and dyrne;   drihten ana wat, nergende fæder. (II.62–4) The future is dark and hidden;   the lord alone knows, the saving father.

This ending extends an Orosian historical paradigm to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where this aspect of salvation history, while present, is not strongly articulated. Both the Menologium and Maxims II ensure that the vision of history offered in Tiberius B. i is aimed at celebrating Anglo-Saxon kingship. In the opening line of the Menologium, Christ the king is invoked: ‘Crist wæs acennyd, cyninga wuldor’ (‘Christ was born, glory of kings’). This view is echoed through the poem (lines 21 and 95). The final line of the poem, with the king of the Saxons ruling Britain, switches attention to temporal rulership. Christ the King and the king of the Saxons are the envelope within which the poem and the Christian year are contained. Like the Menologium, Maxims II begins with kingship; cyning is its first word and it remains focused on the world of the king throughout.51 This opening word occurs in the hypermetric lines which I earlier suggested were potentially added to Maxims II in order to create a link between Rome and England. Here the added lines function to foreground 51 Robinson,

‘Manuscript Context’, pp. 27–8.

82

9781903153734.indd 82

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England kingship. The focus on kingship in Maxims II is much more marked than in the similarly proverbial poem Maxims I, underscoring the careful selection of this poem and these proverbs to forward the thematic concerns of Tiberius B. i. The kingly theme of both poems also chimes well with the almost exclusive preoccupation of the poetry of the Chronicle with the kings of the West Saxon dynasty thus further drawing the whole of Tiberius B. i into the prosimetrical mode of the Chronicle.52 And looking back to the beginning of the Old English Orosius, we see that this text is ideally suited as the beginning of a compilation that addresses kingship and is for a king. After its geographical preface, the Orosius begins with Ninus, who is identified in the opening sentence as the first king to rule in this world.53 While this beginning with a king is typical in many chronicles, within the context of Tiberius B. i and its intended audience, this aspect of Orosius contributes to the thematic unity of the manuscript. Tiberius B. i is very specifically shaped to please a king, by a compiler who has carefully read, chosen and edited the texts it contains. The picture that the Menologium and Maxims II paint of imperial English kingship was one, furthermore, specifically attractive to Edward and those around him. As with earlier English kings, especially from his grandfather Edgar onwards, Edward aspired to dominion over all of Britain, to be an English king who ruled over a number of peoples. This aspiration was expressed in his charters, in the Vita Ædwardi and even in the C version of the Chronicle which includes an Old English poem on the death of Edward (1066) which laments the passing of a king who ruled the Welsh, the Britons and the Scots, as well as the Angles and Saxons. Occasionally, this kingship of Britain is expressed in explicitly imperial terms, as when Edward is termed basileus in charters.54 Tiberius B. i offers the grandest vision of Edward’s kingship, expressed in terms which pointedly reclaim an imperially conceived kingship from the Anglo-Danish dynasty, thus rivalling the Encomiast’s representation of Cnut as a second Aeneas only three years earlier. The imperial kingship of Tiberius B. i must also be seen in the context of the links between the Edwardian and the German Imperial courts. Like Cnut before him, Edward brought imperial clerics to England where they were royal chaplains who went on to find preferment as bishops.55 Among Edward’s companions when he returned from exile was a cleric named Leofric (English or Cornish, later Bishop of Exeter) who had been educated 52 Bredehoft,

Textual Histories, pp. 71–118. I.2. 54 E. John, Orbis Britanniae and Other Studies (Leicester, 1966), pp. 1–63; Barlow, Edward, pp. 135–7; R. R. Davies, The First English Empire: Power and Identities in the British Isles, 1093–1343 (Oxford, 2000), pp. 8–10 and 36–8; J. Crick, ‘Edgar, Albion and Insular Dominion’, in Edgar, King of the English, 959–975, ed. D. Scragg (Woodbridge, 2008), pp. 158–70; and Leneghan, ‘Translatio Imperii’, pp. 669–73. 55 S. Keynes, ‘Regenbald the Chancellor (sic)’, Anglo-Norman Studies 10 (1988), 185–222 and ‘Giso, Bishop of Wells (1061–1088)’, Anglo-Norman Studies 19 (1996), 203–71. 53 Orosius

83

9781903153734.indd 83

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler in the Empire. Imperial clerics were at the heart of Edward’s court and close to the king himself. Meanwhile, Edward’s half-sister, Gunnhild, daughter of Emma and Cnut, had married the future Henry III. They had a daughter who became abbess of Quedlinberg and Gandersheim. Gunnhild died before Henry became emperor but the Life of Edward remembers Henry III as a kinsman. Meanwhile the childless Edward had sent Ealdred, then Bishop of Worcester, to Cologne, in search of his nephew and heir; the bishop spent a year there as the guest of both the archbishop, Hermann, and Henry III and returned intent on remembering the ecclesiastical practices he encountered in Cologne so that they could be observed in England. These links made literary connections, as well as the better-known liturgical ones evident in Ealdred’s introduction of the Romano-German pontifical into England. The Carmina Cantabrigiensia, Latin poems collected in the court of Henry III, travelled to England in the mid-eleventh century, where they were copied at St Augustine’s, Canterbury. The reference to the death of Gunnhild (d. 1038) in Carmen 33 and thematic links between the Songs and both the Encomium and the Vita Ædwardi illustrates that the Carmina Cantabrigiensia were a part of Anglo-Saxon literary culture, rather than simply accidentally preserved in England.56 The form of Tiberius B. i is another outcome of those imperial connections and one which the Anglo-Saxon court and Edward in particular was well placed to appreciate. The Menologium also works between the Orosius and the Chronicle to smooth over any sense of an awkward chronological clash between the two, with the Orosius dating years from the foundation of Rome and the Chronicle from the incarnation. The Menologium begins with the birth of Christ; the poem combines several kinds of ways of measuring time, natural and solar, liturgical and historical, thus bringing forth the multiplex nature of time and its measurement while situating them all firmly within God’s providence. The Menologium, between the Orosius and the Chronicle, both resolves and foregrounds this issue of chronology, a subject which Tiberius B. i as a whole can thus been seen to explore.57 The fascination for time evinced in Tiberius B. i has further implications for the wider European intellectual context of the manuscript and for the place of mid eleventh-century England within that wider context. The late eleventh and early twelfth century saw chronicle writers working across computus and chronology to correct systems of dating in the Latin church, particularly as it impacts on the date of Christ’s birth, and thus on the dating

56 The

Cambridge Songs (Carmina Cantabrigiensia), ed. J. Ziolkowski (New York, 1994); E. M. Tyler, ‘German Imperial Bishops and Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture on the Eve of the Conquest: The Cambridge Songs and Leofric’s Exeter Book’, in Latinity and Identity in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. E. Thornbury and R. Stephenson (Toronto, 2016), pp. 177–201. 57 Karasawa, Calendar, pp. 13, 33–9, 54; and Head, ‘Perpetual History’, pp. 255–9.

84

9781903153734.indd 84

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England of subsequent history in any Chronicle using AD dating. Hermann, Marianus and Sigebert all, famously and influentially, addressed problems of dating and the calendar in their histories.58 The inclusion of the Menologium brings an exciting theoretical level to thinking about time and the keeping of history into Tiberius B. i. Later in the twelfth century, John of Worcester (d. 1140) would, like the compilers of Tiberius B. i, turn to the ASC when he wanted to bring English history into new modes of imperial history-writing, translating it into Latin and combining it with Marianus’s chronicle. We can wonder if John had seen Tiberius B. i; he certainly used multiple versions of the ASC and knew material now found only in C.59 While the compiler of Tiberius B. i does not have the technical and scholarly sophistication of Marianus and John, when it comes to thinking about time, he is working in this same space where different systems of computus and chronology demanded exploration and resolution. Importantly for considering audience, Tiberius B. i’s exploration of time, which the Menologium makes so explicit, is distinctively accessible. The Menologium is not a scholar’s debate about computus and dating or even an introduction on the level of Ælfric’s vernacular De Temporibus Anni or Byrhtferth’s bilingual Enchridion, both aimed at clerics, monastic as well as secular.60 Christopher A. Jones has characterized the Menologium as aimed at ‘less educated audiences’ who ‘did not have to calculate for themselves when fasts and saints’ days would occur’.61 Lapidge suggests it was originally written not only for a lay audience but for the king, thus making it attractive for a later compilation directed at a king.62 While Tiberius B. i as a whole is not a scholarly compilation (and in this respect it is of a piece with the Menologium), within a lay context it is intellectually demanding in a way which speaks to the Encomium. The computistical character of the Menologium with its concerns for a Christian year full of feasts – fixed and movable – to be celebrated, draws out how central religion, as well as imperial aspiration, was to the learning, to the intellectual culture of the mid eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon court. Tiberius B. i’s preoccupation with empire and time again

58 Goetz,

‘Universality’ and ‘Concepts of Time’; and P. Verbist, Duelling with the Past: Medieval Authors and the Problem of the Christian Era (c. 990–1135) (Turnhout, 2010). 59 D. Whitelock, ed. English Historical Documents, vol. 1 (500–1042), 2nd edn (London, 1979), p. 120. 60 Ælfric’s De Temporibus anni, ed. and trans. M. Blake (Cambridge, 2009), pp. 38–46; and R. Stephenson, ‘Byrhtferth’s Enchiridion: The Effectiveness of Hermeneutic Latin’, in Conceptualizing Multilingualism in England, c. 800 – c. 1250, ed. E. M. Tyler (Turnhout, 2011), pp. 121–43. 61 C. A. Jones, ed., Old English Shorter Poems, vol. 1, Religious and Didactic (Cambridge MA, 2012), p. xxviii. 62 M. Lapidge, ‘The Saintly Life in Anglo-Saxon England’, in The Cambridge Companion to Old English, ed. M. Godden and M. Lapidge, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 2013), pp. 251–72 (p. 257).

85

9781903153734.indd 85

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler underscores the ostentatious intellectual ambition and internationalism of the Anglo-Saxon court in this period.

Earl Leofric and Tiberius B. i To conclude this study, I want to open up the possibility of Earl Leofric’s own agency in the production of C and Tiberius B. i and to consider why Leofric and a group of men around him would think to use a vernacular chronicle to make his case to the king. In this regard, we should register the coincidence of his death in 1057 and the cessation of the C version of the Chronicle in 1056. This coincidence may suggest that Leofric himself was the main impetus behind the keeping of C, and thus of the compilation of Tiberius B. i, which stopped with his death.63 Considering the possibility that Leofric and some of his associates were literate in English will further contextualize Leofric’s agency. This move deepens our sense of the Chronicle as active political discourse. On a parochial level, it provides insight into why C, specifically in its engagement with Leofric, was brought together with the Orosius, the Menologium and Maxims II. On a wider level, looking at lay literacy in the reign of Edward the Confessor brings into view the links between the intellectual ambition of the Tiberius B. i and the cultivation of lay piety at court. In this regard it is worth emphasizing too that Tiberius B. i offers an emphatically more religious notion of imperial kingship than that found in the Encomium. James Campbell, Simon Keynes, Susan Kelly and Catherine Cubitt have adduced substantial evidence for vernacular lay literacy in late Anglo-Saxon England, specifically in Æthelred’s court, the long-term consequence of the Alfredian vernacular education programme. These literate men are most readily visible in the generation before Leofric when Ealdorman Æthelweard and his son, Ealdorman Æthelmær, acted as patrons to Ælfric’s vernacular homilies and biblical translations. Æthelmær founded both of Ælfric’s monasteries, Cerne Abbas and Eynsham.64 Ælfric’s protestations that he translated the Bible against his own wishes at the insistence of Ealdorman Æthelweard and the thegn Sigeweard very explicitly illustrates the investment of laymen 63 O’Brien

O’Keefe, MS. C, pp. lxxii–lxxiv.

64 S. Keynes, ‘Royal Government and the Written Word in Late Anglo-Saxon England’,

in The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe, ed. R. McKitterick (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 226–57; S. Kelly, ‘Anglo-Saxon Lay Society and the Written Word’, in McKitterick, Uses of Literacy, pp. 36–62; J. Campbell, ‘Observations on English Government from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century’, in his Essays on Anglo-Saxon History (London, 1986), pp. 155–70; J. Campbell, ‘England, c. 991,’ in his The AngloSaxon State (London, 2000), pp. 157–78; C. Cubitt, ‘Ælfric’s Lay Patrons’, in A Companion to Ælfric, ed. H. Magennis and M. Swan (Leiden, 2009), pp. 165–92; and M. Gretsch, ‘Historiography and Literary Patronage in Late Anglo-Saxon England: The Evidence of Æthelweard’s Chronicon’, Anglo-Saxon England 41 (2012), 205–48.

86

9781903153734.indd 86

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England in religious learning and pastoral care.65 Æthelweard’s literacy extended into Latin as we know from his translation of the Chronicle into Latin, a translation which also attests also to his direct interest in the Chronicle, much as I argue here for Leofric a generation later. Ordwulf, the king’s uncle, and an associate of Æthelweard and Æthelmær, owned a text by Rabanus Maurus; he too was a monastic founder, endowing Tavistock, where he retired.66 Wulfric Spot, also associated with this group of men, was the founder of Burton Abbey, a foundation, as a twelfth-century booklist attests, known for having Old English books, including the Old English Bede and Apollonius of Tyre.67 This group stands out for its investment in monasticism and literacy, in both Latin and English – as well, of course and importantly, for its political influence. Approaching the literacy of these men within a textual community model, whereby the personal literacy of a limited number of people can transform the place of the written word within the wider social group, furthermore reminds us that no particular individual needs to be literate in order for them to participate in the production and reception of written texts.68 Turning to Leofric, we find a similar conjunction of suggestions of vernacular literacy with prominent piety and political influence. Alongside Tiberius B. i and the providential perspective of its universal history, we find a further Old English text, the Vision of Leofric, associated with the earl.69 This text draws a portrait of an intensely religious earl, and also details the political context of that religiousness. The Vision was written shortly after the earl’s death in 1057 and recounts four visions.70 The first vision, one of heaven and hell, which he experienced in his sleep, is similar to the Visio Pauli and visions found in Gregory the Great’s Dialogi, both late antique texts which had been translated into Old English.71 That the Blickling homilist probably drew on the Visio Pauli tradition and on Beowulf to describe the souls of sinners hanging from icy trees illustrates that the Vision of Leofric was

65 Ælfric,

‘Praefatio Genesis anglice’ and ‘Libellus de veteri testamento et novo’, in The Old English Heptateuch and Ælfric’s Libellus de veteri testamento et novo, ed. R. Marsden, vol 1. EETS OS 330 (Oxford, 2008), pp. 3–7 and 201–30. 66 A. Williams, Æthelred the Unready: The Ill-Counseled King (London, 2003), pp. 38, 177, n. 136. 67 M. Lapidge, The Anglo-Saxon Library (Oxford, 2006), p. 72; and Tyler, England in Europe. 68 B. Stock, The Implications of Literacy: Written Language and Models of Interpretation in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Princeton, 1983); and N. Howe, ‘The Cultural Construction of Reading in Anglo-Saxon England’, in The Ethnography of Reading, ed. J. Boyarin (Berkeley, 1993), pp. 58–79. 69 Vision of Leofric, ed. and trans. P. Stokes, ‘The Vision of Leofric: Manuscript: Text and Context’, Review of English Studies, 63 (2012), 529–50 (pp. 547–50); Baxter, Earls of Mercia, pp. 1–4. 70 Baxter, Earls of Mercia, p. 1. 71 P. Pulsiano, ‘Hortatory Purpose in the Visio Leofrici’, Medium Aevum 54 (1985), 109–16 (pp. 110–11).

87

9781903153734.indd 87

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler embedded in a lively vernacular literary culture.72 The connections to the Visio Pauli and Gregory’s Dialogi also flag up a bookishness underpinning the Vision of Leofric. The visions also portray Leofric as a monastic supporter. Two take place in Christ Church, a monastic cathedral. In one of these visions he is depicted praying at the tomb of St Dunstan, a saint celebrated in England as a monastic reformer.73 Leofric’s monastic patronage may have gone along with the cultivation of book learning, as we saw in the previous generation of literate noblemen, especially Æthelweard. Leofric’s last three visions are critical to the argument of this chapter that Tiberius B. i makes the case for Leofric to the king. In this regard, it is useful to underscore Edward’s well-known reputation for piety, including the claim that the famously childless king was celibate. The weight of the Vision is not only spiritual but also political, entwining the two. Each of these three visions conspicuously depicts Leofric as being near to or in the company of the king. Edward is present at Christ Church (though not in the church itself) for the two visions that take place there. The final vision occurs when Leofric and Edward are praying together in the church of St Clement in Sandwich. This location is important. It was from Sandwich that, as C itself tells us, Edward launched a fleet against Godwine in 1052. Reference to Sandwich in the Vision is a prominent intervention in the rivalry between the House of Leofric and the House of Godwine, carried on by their sons after the deaths of these two earls.74 The Vision of Leofric, with its depiction of earl and king praying together, projects a picture of Edward and Leofric’s shared piety which accords not only with Leofric’s promotion of himself as an ecclesiastical benefactor but also with Baxter’s suggestion that the earl founded the monastery at Coventry in 1043 as part of a strategy to distance himself from the Anglo-Danish regime and to commend himself to Edward.75 Both Tiberius B. i, intervening as it did in the court politics of the 1040s and contributing to the rehabilitation of Leofric, and the Vision suggest that shared piety drew king and earl together. The C version of the Chronicle itself helps us to see the possibility of literate laymen around Leofric. The last event recorded in C, in the 1056 annal, is the death of Earl Odda of Deerhurst, a man whose own career and connections with Leofric provides evidence of literate laymen within the Earl of Mercia’s circle. Probably a kinsman of Edward, Odda, like Leofric, was an enemy of Godwine; indeed, he was the leader of the fleet gathered at

72 A.

DiPaolo Healey, ed. The Old English Vision of St. Paul (Cambridge MA, 1978), p. 52. 73 M. McC. Gatch, ‘Piety and Liturgy in the Old English Vision of Leofric’ in Words, Texts and Manuscripts: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Culture Presented to Helmut Gneuss on his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. M. Kohlhammer (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 159–79. 74 Stokes, ‘Vision of Leofric’, p. 547. 75 Baxter, Earls of Mercia, pp. 38–9.

88

9781903153734.indd 88

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England Sandwich against Godwine in 1052, the fleet which may account for Leofric’s presence in Sandwich in the Vision. Odda was himself drawn to the monastic life, as the C version itself tells us: he was buried at Pershore where he was consecrated as a monk before his death. Whereas Leofric was married to the famous Lady Godiva and had children, Odda had no heirs and is remembered, like Edward, as a celibate. He, like Leofric, can been linked back to the circle of literate men in Æthelred’s court. Ann Williams argues that he was probably a nephew of Æthelweard and cousin of Æthelmær, Ælfric’s patrons. She shows him in the company of Ordgar, probably the son of Ordwulf.76 There is, in fact, stronger, evidence for Odda’s personal literacy than we have been able to adduce for Leofric. A Worcester booklist, of almost exclusively vernacular manuscripts, includes one ‘Oddan boc’ (Odda’s book). The list reads: Ðeo englissce passionale 7 .ii. englissce dialogas 7 Oddan boc 7 þe englisca martirlogium 7 .ii. englisce salteras 7 .ii. pastorales englisce 7 þe englisca regol 7 Barontus

Lapidge identifies the named books as follows: an Old English legendary, possibly a copy of Ælfric’s Lives of Saints; two copies of the Old English translation of Gregory’s Dialogi; the Old English Martyrology; two psalters in or glossed in Old English; two copies of the Old English translation of Gregory’s Regula pastoralis; probably a copy of Bishop Æthelwold’s translation of the Regula of St Benedict; Visio S. Baronti monachi, more likely in Latin than Old English.77 ‘Oddan boc’ may well refer to a donation to Worcester by Odda (whose deathbed monastic consecration by Bishop Ealdred could account for a donation to Worcester rather than Pershore).78 That booklist occurs at the top of the page of folio 101v of Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 367, in which the Vision of Leofric itself is copied. The Vision follows immediately after the booklist and the two, although not copied by the same hand, are visually associated with each other by layout. The ascender of the ‘h’, which opens the vision of Leofric (‘her gesutelað ða gesihðe…’), starts in the margin next 76 A.

Williams, Land, Power and Politics: The Family and Career of Odda of Deerhurst, Deerhurst Lecture 1996 (Deerhurst, 1997), esp. pp. 11, 14. 77 M. Lapidge, ‘Surviving Booklists from Anglo-Saxon England’, in Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies Presented to Peter Clemoes on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. M. Lapidge and H. Gneuss (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 33–89 (pp. 63–4). 78 Williams rejects Lapidge’s claim that Odda was a monk of Worcester; the charter evidence is spurious: Land, Power and Politics pp. 30–1, n. 80.

89

9781903153734.indd 89

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 1: Worcester booklist and opening of Visio Leofrici. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 367, fol. 101v.

90

9781903153734.indd 90

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England to the final item of the booklist ‘barontus’. (Figure 1). It is clear that Worcester associated the memory of the two earls later in the eleventh century when the two texts were copied.79 Thematic links also tie together the booklist and the Vision of Leofric. Gregory’s Dialogues contain visions of heaven and hell very similar, as we have seen, to the first one of the Vision. Moreover, Lapidge has identified British Library, Cotton Otho, MS C i, vol. 2 (probably Worcester, s. xiin and s. ximed) and as one of the two copies in the list.80 In addition to the Dialogues and three homilies by Ælfric, this manuscript also contains a cluster of texts (Vita Patrum, Vita Malchi and ‘Evil Tongues’) concerned with the monastic life and another vision of heaven and hell, the Old English version of Boniface’s letter to Eadburg.81 The presence of the vernacular Rule of St Benedict makes very plain the monastic preoccupations of this list of books, but also the accessibility of the monastic life to those with vernacular literacy. The list ends with a reference to Barontus, written alone on the last line, in a lighter ink from the rest of the booklist but probably in the same hand.82 Although it is not clear if this text is in English or Latin (though except for Odda’s book it is the only text not said to be in English), the Vita Baronti fits into the monastic and visionary themes we have already seen emerging from the booklist. Barontus, who had three wives before repenting and becoming a monk, had a vision of heaven and hell during which he is saved from death by St Peter. This seventh-century vision shares motifs with the Dialogues and Visio Pauli.83 The cessation of the Leofrician C Chronicle with the deaths of Odda and Leofric and the links between the booklist containing Odda’s book and the Vision of Leofric open up to view not only the possibility of Leofric’s vernacular literacy, or at least his close participation in vernacular literacy, but also a group of laymen whose engagement with monasticism and political support drew them close to the king, especially in his struggles against Godwine. The links between the list and the Vision bolster the suggestion of Leofric’s role in Tiberius B. i and points to an audience of laymen, including the king, for the compilation and its dialogue with German imperial history-writing. Finally, Odda allows us to see the links between these laymen and the Empire. In the spring of 1056, just months before his death, Ealdred consecrated a chapel for Odda which was furnished with a Latin inscription, whose lettering imitates classical Roman forms. The form and content of this inscription draw 79 Stokes,

‘Vision of Leofric’, pp. 534–5. ‘Booklists’, p. 63; and Gneuss and Lapidge, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, no.

80 Lapidge,

359. Sisam, Studies in the History of Old English Literature (Oxford, 1953), pp. 199–224. 82 Stokes, ‘Vision of Leofric’, pp. 533–4. 83 Visio Baronti monachi Longoretensis, ed. W. Levinson, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum 5 (Hannover, 1910), pp. 368–94; J. J. Contreni, ‘“Building Mansions in Heaven”: The Visio Baronti, Archangel Raphael, and a Carolingian King,’ Speculum 78 (2003), 673–706. 81 K.

91

9781903153734.indd 91

08/05/2017 08:29

Elizabeth M. Tyler directly on German examples, illustrating the wider currency of Edward and Ealdred’s imperial horizons, in which Odda’s dedication stone proclaimed his place, from the banks of the Severn at the western reach of the English kingdom.84

Conclusion The vernacularity of Tiberius B. i has hidden from view its place in the development of universal history: this is true as much for the twenty-first century, where disciplinary formations keep the study of Anglo-Saxon literary and historiographical culture separate from that of Imperial Germany, as for the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Just as Tiberius B. i does not figure in Karl Heinrich Krüger’s tables in his volume on universal chronicles in the Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental series, Sigebert of Gembloux leaves Anglo-Saxon history between the death of Bede and the Conquest out of his synoptic account of history from 381–1111.85 Sigebert’s reason for leaving out Anglo-Saxon England after Bede is explicitly the lack of sources. He writes: ‘Abhinc regnum Anglorum annotare supersedeo, quia hystorias maiorum, quas sequar, non habeo.’86 It is not, of course, that there was not English historical writing in this period; the Chronicle flourished but because it did so in English it was confined to England. As Ealdorman Æthelweard recognized when he translated the Chronicle into Latin at the behest of his cousin the abbess Matilda of Essen, English history had to be in Latin to be accessible on the Continent. Shortly after the Conquest, there is a concerted effort to make Anglo-Saxon history accessible by translating it and producing it in Latin as we see with the bilingual version of the Chronicle (F) and the Cronica imperfecta (itself a universal history), and the histories of William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon which all draw on the ASC. Latin opened English history up not only to Norman churchmen, but also to those writing on the Continent. Early in the twelfth century, Lambert of Saint-Omer drew on the Latin annals found in F to include Anglo-Saxon history in his encyclopaedic Liber Floridus.87 The extraordinary intellectual ambition of Tiberius B. i alerts scholars of continental Europe not to leave out pre-Conquest England simply because 84 J.

Higgitt, Odda, Orm and Others: Patrons and Inscriptions in Later Anglo-Saxon England, Deerhurst Lecture 1999 (Deerhurst, 2004), pp. 6–7, 17–18; and C. R. J. Currie, ‘Odda’s Chapel, Ealdred’s Inscriptions? The Deerhurst Inscriptions in Some Continental Contexts’, Historical Research 83 (2010), 1–45. 85 K. H. Krüger, Die Universalchroniken (Turnhout, 1976). 86 Sigebert of Gembloux, Chronica, ed. D. L. C. Bethmann, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum 6 (Hannover, 1844), pp. 300–74 (s. a. 735); Goetz, ‘Universality’, p. 253. 87 Dumville, ‘Annalistic Writing’, pp. 44–9.

92

9781903153734.indd 92

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Eleventh-Century England its use of English makes it seem insular; it was not. Indeed the contours of universal history-writing in the eleventh and twelfth centuries cannot be understood apart from Tiberius B. i. Looking from Hermann of Reichenau to Otto of Freising suggests that universal history is a specifically German imperial phenomenon, as Goetz’s study of universal history argues. Goetz links the genre of universal history to the German Empire’s understanding of itself as the latest in a series of empires, to translatio imperii.88 The importance Goetz assigns to imperial identity as an impetus for the production of universal history draws our attention to the Romanizing of history that we see in Tiberius B. i as the chief impetus behinds its striking universal character. While the English court did not have the imperial grandeur of the German court or the same claim to be the successors of Rome, the West Saxon kings saw themselves as ruling a once-Roman space, and Romanized history was a living political discourse at court. Taking Tiberius B. i into account illustrates that it is a specifically imperial phenomenon, thus casting light, for example, on its absence in France in the eleventh century. At this stage, France was still in post-Carolingian disarray, for all of the advent of the Capetian dynasty, and thus a polity without imperial pretensions.89 Meanwhile, Tiberius B. i, with its strongly imperial mode and its concern for systems of time was at the cutting edge of wider European developments in history-writing.90

88 Goetz,

‘Universality’, esp. p. 260. that when Hugh of Fleury writes universal history in the early twelfth century, it is not dedicated to a Capetian, nor is the sweep from antiquity to the present offered in one work. Part I is dedicated to Adela of Blois, Part II, which ends with the death of the Capetian Philip I, is dedicated to the Empress Matilda, wife of Henry IV. Hugh of Fleury, Historia ecclesiastica [Chronicon], ed. B. Rottendorf (Münster, 1638); and Liber qui modernorum regum Francorum continet actus ad 1108, ed. G. Waitz, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum 9 (Hannover, 1851), pp. 376–95. 90 This chapter greatly benefits from discussion with Lars Boje Mortensen, Thomas O’Donnell and George Younge. Versions were read at the York conference ‘Finding your place in history and politics: the life of universal chronicles in the high Middle Ages’, organiszd by Michele Campopiano with the support of the British Academy, at Harvard University and at the University of the Basque Country and I am grateful for the comments received. The research for this chapter was supported by the Danish National Research Foundation (project DNRF102ID). 89 Note

93

9781903153734.indd 93

08/05/2017 08:29

9781903153734.indd 94

08/05/2017 08:29

4 Political Didacticism in the Twelfth Century: the Middle-High German Kaiserchronik Claudia Wittig

The Middle High German Kaiserchronik, the chronicle of the emperors, is the first extensive verse chronicle in the Middle Ages in any European language, including Latin.1 Probably composed in Regensburg in Southern Germany around 1150, it soon became enormously popular: forty-nine manuscripts and fragments survive from the period between its composition and 1549.2 The poem covers the period from the founding of Rome to the reign of Conrad III in 1146. It contains a history of kings and popes, in a somewhat erratic order, with episodes from the reigns of thirty-six ‘Roman’ and nineteen ‘German kings’ (some of whom are ahistorical), told alongside stories of various popes.3 Often, the stories are introduced with a formula: ‘The book tells us that X then held the Empire’4 and most end with the length of the ruler’s reign in years, months, and days, which are in most cases invented by the author. The stories differ considerably in length: the shortest are accounts of the king’s reign articulated in just a few lines, the longest include long narratives (Claudius-Faustinian, for example, stretches to 2863 lines), entire 1 E.

F. Ohly, Sage und Legende in der Kaiserchronik. Untersuchungen über Quellen und Aufbau der Dichtung (Darmstadt, 1968), p. 7. See also M. Chinca and C. Young, ‘Uses of the Past in Twelfth-Century Germany: The Case of the Middle High German Kaiserchronik’, Central European History 49 (2016), 19–38 (p. 19) for a range of developments which are first recorded in the Kaiserchronik. 2 E. Nellmann, ‘Kaiserchronik’, Verfasserlexikon IV, 2nd edn (Berlin, 1983), cols. 926–964. 3 This is the traditional representation of the older scholarship, which counts all emperors before Charlemagne ‘Roman’ (including the Greek ones), and all subsequent ones German (see Nellmann, ‘Kaiserchronik’, 930). See also note 26 below. 4 E.g. ‘Daz buoch kundet uns sus: daz rîche besaz duo Philippus’ (6097–98) All quotations from the Kaiserchronik refer to the edition Die Kaiserchronik eines Regensburger Geistlichen, ed. E. Schröder, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, H Dt. Chroniken 1,1 (Hannover, 1892). Numbers in parenthesis refer to lines in this edition. I maintain Schröder’s punctuation. All translations are by H. A. Myers (trans.), The Book of the Emperors. A Translation of the Middle High German Kaiserchronik (Morgantown, 2013) unless otherwise stated.

95

9781903153734.indd 95

08/05/2017 08:29

Claudia Wittig legends (such as those about Sylvester and Veronica), short hagiographies, descriptions of pagan religion, exempla, long dialogues and debates (such as the dispute between St. Peter and Simon Magus in the Faustinian story). The Kaiserchronik offers imperial history written in a vernacular language, composed at a time when the writing of universal histories in Latin was prolific. It draws extensively from a variety of sources, both Latin and vernacular.5 The chronicle attracted scholarly attention early on and keeps scholars busy to this day.6 The reason for this ongoing attention is that the chronicle, criticized by many for its lack of coherence,7 its many ‘errors’ and its sometimes inartistic narrative, is a unique work that has not yet been fully understood. A vast field of questions remains open, ranging from the author,8 to the place and circumstances of its composition,9 its use of sources,10 its genre,11 its target audience and its actual readership,12 the intention behind its composition13 and its literary context. The immense success of the work, despite what its modern readers sometimes consider its problematic composition, makes understanding the Kaiserchronik all the more important for what it reveals about literary consumption from the twelfth century onwards.14 5 See

Ohly, Sage und Legende, for the sources of the narratives up until Charlemagne. See also the comprehensive commentary in Der keiser und der kunige buoch oder die sogenannte Kaiserchronik, ed. H. F. Massmann, vol. 3 (Quedlingburg/Leipzig, 1854). 6 For instance the copious Kaiserchronik Project at Cambridge University http:// hercules.mml.cam.ac.uk/german/research/kaiserchronik. 7 E. Nellmann, Die Reichsidee in der deutschen Literatur der Salier- und frühen Stauferzeit. Annolied – Kaiserchronik – Rolandslied – Eraclius, Philologische Studien und Quellen 16 (Berlin 1963). 8 Though it is not clear whether the work was composed by one author or a group (see Nellmann, ‘Kaiserchronik’, col. 951–52), I will refer to the author in the singular in this work, always implying a possible plural. 9 Schröder, Kaiserchronik, p. 45. 10 Most extensively dealt with by Ohly, Sage und Legende, p. 14. 11 For instance, C. Gellinek, Die deutsche Kaiserchronik: Erzähltechnik und Kritik (Frankfurt am Main, 1971) does not consider the poem a chronicle at all but a fictional epos. E. Stutz, ‘Frühe deutsche Novellenkunst’. (unpublished inaugural dissertation, University of Heidelberg, 1950) regards it a novella. Goerlitz (2007, pp. 124–25) shows that the Kaiserchronik, despite its inaccuracies and usage of legendary material, can still be seen in the tradition of Latin universal chronicles. A. Matthews, The Kaiserchronik: A Medieval Narrative (Oxford, 2012), pp. 16–20 reflects on the line between history and fiction which shapes the book. 12 Curiously, no one has dealt with this question extensively so far, which is probably due to the uncertainty of the question. For a discussion see Gellinek, Kaiserchronik, p. 5. 13 See Nellmann, ‘Kaiserchronik’, cols 957–960, for a summary and literature. 14 Much of the more recent scholarship is concerned with the Kaiserchronik’s literary character. Against this tendency Chinca and Young make a case for a more historical analysis of the text as a document for the sense of identity of German secular and ecclesiastical elites. Precisely this perspective will be taken in this chapter, which

96

9781903153734.indd 96

08/05/2017 08:29

The Middle-High German Kaiserchronik This chapter will contribute to a better understanding of the chronicle by outlining two contextual fields which brought about the unique phenomenon that is the Kaiserchronik. One field is the contemporary political discourse about the Empire, including notions of its continuity and unity, and the relation between secular and ecclesiastical elites. This discourse also informs the Latin historiography of the time, though it goes back much further, to patristic literature, the Bible and pre-Christian classical writing.15 I will investigate examples of Latin historiography of the mid twelfth century in order to reveal the complexity of the political theories with which it engaged, and explore the way different theorists employed the same material for their respective purposes. The other field this paper will address is the state of vernacular writing in twelfth-century Germany, especially with regards to didactic poetry. The interface between these two fields – the political agenda and the literary context – shapes the chronicle and explains much of its unique character. It is to the literary side of that interface that this chapter now turns.

Vernacular didactic literature in the twelfth century Vernacular writing expanded immensely, both in volume and scope, from the eleventh century in Germany. Not only was more literature written in German, but new discourses, which had previously been articulated only in Latin, entered vernacular writing. Learned discussions continued to be led in Latin, the language of the intellectuals who had gone through clerical training. Vernacular literature of the time offered simplified versions of many discourses to lay audiences of noble men and women for orientation rather than for nuanced reflexion.16 These lay people needed information beyond their basic religious instruction and the values handed down orally through their social sphere. One of the new discourses in vernacular writing was therefore moral-didactic conduct literature, often in the form of didactic poetry.

analyses the Kaiserchronik as a result of cultural and political developments of the twelfth century. Chinca and Young, ‘Uses of the Past’, pp. 19–38. The recent study by G. Mierke, Riskante Ordnungen: Von der Kaiserchronik zu Jans von Wien (Berlin, 2014), is interested in the representation and construction of order in medieval verse chronicles, among them the Kaiserchronik, and can be situated in the middle of the spectrum which ranges from literary to historical analysis of the text. 15 See the book by W. Goetz, Translatio imperii. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Geschichtsdenkens und der politischen Theorien im Mittelalter und der frühen Neuzeit (Tübingen, 1958), which is still the most concise treatment of the topic. 16 G. Vollmann-Profe and B. K. Vollmann, ‘Die unruhige Generation. Deutsche und lateinische Literatur in der zweiten Hälfte des 11. Jahrhunderts’, in Deutsche Texte der Salierzeit – Neuanfänge und Kontinuitäten im 11. Jahrhundert, ed. S. Müller and J. Schneider, MittelalterStudien 20 (Munich, 2010), pp. 11–28 (p. 19).

97

9781903153734.indd 97

08/05/2017 08:29

Claudia Wittig The didactic poem was a widely used genre throughout the Classical period and was employed by Christian writers to teach the essentials of Christian philosophy to a learned audience in Latin.17 Up until the eleventh century, didactic poetry in German dealt almost exclusively with questions of Christian dogma. Texts were often highly paraenetic and focused on the afterlife, applying rhetoric strategies known from sermons or homilies. These pious exhortations were often incompatible with the realities of noble life, where warfare, wealth and personal reputation were cornerstones of individual success. With a growing lay audience in the twelfth century, however – and with the rising number of lay patrons – the poets needed to make their teaching applicable to the lay nobility. This resulted in a new kind of Middle High German didactic poetry, which offered advice for living in the secular world, but in accordance with Christian values. Because of the long Christian tradition of didactic poetry, combined with German authors’ close contact with Roman literacy and learning, those authors were able to adapt various Latin models of didactic poetry to their own purpose. They used them in highly creative ways, resulting in a broad variety of forms. Poems like the Rittersitte (The Manners of the Knight) and the Tugendspiegel (The Mirror of Virtues) arose from the interface between Latinate Christian learning and vernacular religious writing, and they are distinctly experimental in their didactic approach. The Tugendspiegel was written c. 1170–1180 by Wernher, chaplain at the provost church of Elmendorf. It draws on a Latin moral treatise, rearranges it entirely, and thus, in a less structured but much more accessible form, makes its Latin learning available to an untrained audience.18 It is, in this way, not so different from the Kaiserchronik, which clearly states its didactic program in the prologue: In des almähtigen gotes minnen/ so wil ich des liedes beginnen./ das scult ir gezogenlîche vernemen:/ jâ mac iuh vil wole gezemen/ ze hôren älliu frumichait./die tumben dunchet iz arebait,/ sculn si iemer iht gelernen/ od ir wîstuom gemêren./die sint unnuzze/unt phlegent niht guoter wizze,/ daz si ungerne hôrent sagen/dannen si mahten haben/wîstuom unt êre; unt wære iedoch frum der sêle. (1–14) In the love of the Almighty God, I shall begin this song, which you should pay decent attention to. You really would do well to listen and learn about all the great and true deeds. Ignorant people think it is hard labour whenever they are to learn anything to broaden their knowledge. Unwilling to hear things to help them gain wisdom and honour – things that would help their souls as well – they are useless and show their lack of good sense.

17 See

T. Haye, Das Lateinische Lehrgedicht im Mittelalter. Analyse einer Gattung, Mittellateinische Studien und Text 22 (Leiden, 1997). 18 See J. Bumke, Wernher von Elmendorf: Untersuchung, Text, Kommentar (Heidelberg, 1953), pp. 1–7 for information about the author and his use of the Latin sources.

98

9781903153734.indd 98

08/05/2017 08:29

The Middle-High German Kaiserchronik The reminder to take the advice well, the benefits for one’s reputation and the benefits for the soul, the comparison with the ignorant who do not want to take advice – all of these are typical motifs of contemporary didactic poetry.19 Usefulness is, of course, a literary topos found in many genres, and was fundamental to the rhetoric of history-writing.20 However this does not mean that the author is not serious about his didactic aim. He wants to instruct the audience by telling them about the good and bad kings and popes in the history of the Empire: Ein buoch ist ze diute getihtet,/ daz uns Rômisces rîches wol berihtet,/ gehaizzen ist iz crônicâ./ iz chundet uns dâ/ von den bâbesen unt von den chunigen,/ baidiu guoten unt ubelen,/ die vor uns wâren/ unt Rômisces rîches phlâgen/ unze an disen hiutegen tac./ sô ich aller beste mac/ sô wil ich iz iu vor zellen./ iz verneme swer der welle. (15–26) A book has been written in German that tells us all about the Roman Empire. It is called Crônicâ, and it tells us about the popes and the kings – both good and bad – who lived before us and guided the Roman Empire down to this very day. I will tell you what it says just as well as I can. Anyone who wants to hear it may do so.

Even at this early stage in the text, the Empire is described as being continuous, existing uninterrupted from its foundation to the poet’s own time. Moreover, both kings and popes are its designated caretakers. This is precisely the intention of the poem: to teach the audience about the mutual responsibility of both secular and religious rulers for the existence of the Empire. To this end it demonstrates how a bad king can endanger the continuity of the Empire and how a good king, working closely together with the pope, can secure its continuous existence. In the aftermath of the Investiture Controversy and dynastic struggles in Germany, good – and joint – rule of the Empire for the sake of its stability was of absolutely central importance.

19 For

a demarcation of didactic poetry from historiographic writing and the common use of topoi in the two genres, see the paragraph on ‘Lehrgedicht und historiographische Dichtung’, in Haye, Lehrgedicht, pp. 276–81.Though Haye examines specifically Latin poems his findings are in this case equally relevant for the German texts. 20 The Horatian notion that authors aim to prodesse aut delectare (please and be useful) underpins much medieval literature, not least history-writing. See now M. Kempshall, Rhetoric and the Writing of History (Manchester, 2011), esp. pp. 87–8, 113. This combination of usefulness and pleasant literary form marks didactic literature as yet another case of ‘serious entertainment’, a term coined by N. F. Partner for chronicles written in England in the twelfth century, is equally fitting to much vernacular literature in high medieval Europe. See N. F. Partner, Serious Entertainment: The Writing of History in Twelfth-Century England (Chicago, 1977).

99

9781903153734.indd 99

08/05/2017 08:29

Claudia Wittig

Conceptions of translatio and renovatio imperii in the twelfth century The emphasis on the continuity of the Empire early in the Kaiserchronik has encouraged scholars to consider the concept of translatio imperii to be its overall structuring principle. According to this view, the thirty-six ‘Roman’ emperors are to be seen as separate from the nineteen ‘German’ ones, with Charlemagne being the connecting link and the actual ‘translator’ of imperial rule. This view was long uncontested, partly because of the particularly distinct representation of some of the key figures in the chronicle (Caesar, Constantine, Charlemagne) and partly because the twelfth century did in fact see a shift in political discourse from a renovatio, the reinstallation of imperial power after a temporal interruption, to a translatio imperii, the notion of the continuity of the empire which passes uninterrupted from one people to another, typically in a westward movement.21 The example of Otto of Freising’s Chronica is frequently adduced as evidence for this latter interpretation. Otto’s universal chronicle from the same period is strongly based on the idea that a translatio imperii shapes the history of the world, with the imperial power passing to the Germans who lead the empire until the end of days.22 Given this context, it is hardly surprising that scholars have viewed the Kaiserchronik – the first extensive historiographical work in the German language – as a history of the Roman Empire with a strong emphasis on the role of the Germans. That role apparently begins with the Germans’ influence on Caesar’s unification of the kingdoms and extends to Charlemagne, whom scholars have often seen as the key figure of the translatio of the Empire to the Germans. Early twentieth-century scholarship focused particularly on the German character of Charlemagne and therefore regarded the poem as an expression of, and evidence for, strong German national sentiments.23 Even after the recent turn in research on nations, which regards ‘nation’ rather as a bundle of criteria than as a clearly defined category and acknowledges a

21 Goez,

Translatio imperii, pp. 104–5 and 117. See also the essay by H. W. Goetz, ‘Historical Consciousness and Institutional Concern in European Medieval Historiography (11th and 12th centuries)’, in Making Sense of Global History. The 19th International Congress of the Historical Sciences, Oslo 2000. Commemorative Volume, ed. S. Sogner (Oslo, 2001), pp. 349–65. 22 Otto von Freising, Chronica sive Historia duabus civitatibus, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum 45 (Hannover, 1912). 23 E.g. E. Klassen, Geschichts- und Reichsbetrachtungen in der Epik des 12. Jahrhunderts, Bonner Beiträge zur deutschen Philologie 4 (Würzburg, 1930); F. Landsberg, ‘Das Bild der alten Geschichte in den mittelalterlichen Weltchroniken’. (unpublished dissertation, Basel, 1934). See Goerlitz, Literarische Konstruktion, pp. 112–14 for more detailed information on the early scholarship.

100

9781903153734.indd 100

08/05/2017 08:29

The Middle-High German Kaiserchronik subjective sense of belonging,24 the poem nevertheless encouraged scholars to view the entire chronicle as aiming to make Germany’s ‘accession to imperial power […] shine in a bright light’.25 In the Kaiserchronik’s narrative of the period after the reign of Charlemagne, the text was thought to offer a history of the German Emperors (as opposed to the Roman Emperors who preceded it). This idea of separating the chronicle into Roman and German history has been so strong that a number of scholars dealt with only one of the supposed two parts.26 This division of scholarly focus is partly explained because the narrative in the ‘second’ part of the text is denser and seemingly more historical than in the first.27 But it also came about because most scholars perceived the chronicle after Charlemagne’s time as a history of the German Empire, with Charlemagne being ‘particularly German’. Ohly, for example, describes the transition from Constantine VI to Charlemagne in a chapter called ‘Translatio imperii ad Francos’.28 According to Ohly’s reading of the Kaiserchronik, imperial rule is taken from the Greeks after the emperor Constantine (Constantîus) and his mother Irene (Herêna) were blinded and mutilated by the Romans outside Rome. The Romans swore an oath never to accept a Greek emperor again, and would only accept a ruler who would acknowledge Rome’s superiority. Ohly (and others following him) see a distinctly anti-Greek attitude in the chronicle: ‘Wherever Greekness as such appears and is denoted in the chronicle, it stands for neglect of Rome and therefore danger to the Empire.’29 Nellmann detects something similar, arguing that the Kaiserchronik presents Zeno and Dietrich of Bern as the last 24 See

Goerlitz, Literarische Konstruktion, pp. 21–9 for a discussion of recent developments in the research on nations and their relevance for the analysis of the Kaiserchronik. 25 O. Neudeck, ‘Karl der Große – der beste aller werltkunige. Zur Verbindung von exegetischen Deutungsmustern und heldenepischem Erzählen in der Kaiserchronik’, in Germanisch-romanische Monatsschrift Ser. NF, 53 (2003): 273–94, (p. 282), my translation. 26 Ohly’s influential book (Sage und Legende) deals with the emperors until Charlemagne, as the stories of the German emperors offer less mythical and legendary material, which is the focus of his book. The study by M. Pohl, ‘Untersuchungen zur Darstellung mittelalterlicher Herrscher in der deutschen Kaiserchronik des 12. Jahrhunderts’, (unpublished PhD dissertation, Munich, 2004) on the representation of rulers in the chronicle begins with Louis the Pius and his representation as Charlemagne’s successor and examines all the rulers who follow him in the line, ending with Conrad III. 27 Nellmann, Kaiserchronik, col. 954; Gellinek, Kaiserchronik, p. 181 assumes that the author was bored with the telling of the more recent German history of the Empire. 28 Ohly, Sage und Legende, p. 224. See also A. Rubel, ‘Caesar und Karl der Große in der Kaiserchronik. Typologische Struktur und translatio imperii ad Francos’, in Antike und Abendland 47 (2001): 146–63. 29 Ohly, Sage und Legende, p. 226. ‘Wo immer Griechisches auftaucht und in der Chronik als solches bezeichnet wird bedeutet es Vernachlässigung Roms und daher Gefährdung Europas.’ (my translation).

101

9781903153734.indd 101

08/05/2017 08:29

Claudia Wittig rightful rulers of the Roman part and that Zeno’s successor Constanti(n)us is not counted among the kings and emperors listed in the Kaiserchronik.30 To Nellmann, this indicates that the author wanted to reject the entire period of the Eastern Roman Empire: to him, it is not part of the imperial history. Similarly, Ohly claims that a translatio imperii ad Graecos does not take place.31 If there is no recognition of the Eastern Roman Empire and no translatio ad Graecos, how does imperial rule then come to the Germans? Goerlitz has shown in her book on literary construction of (pre-)national identity that the question is based on incorrect premises. In a meticulous study, Goerlitz demonstrates that both the assumption that the key figure Charlemagne exhibited a particularly ‘German’ character, and that the ‘Germans’ played a leading role throughout the chronicle more generally, are made on the basis of a modern definition of the word German. Goerlitz proves that the use of the word dutisk (German) indicates more diversity than unity, and that the lemmas appear only when the people or regnum in question are seen from the outside.32 Diut(i)sc(h), according to Goerlitz, is a collective term that can be used to stress the ‘non-Romanness’, if such a perspective is needed.33 This has profound implications for understanding the role of translatio imperii in the chronicle. It is, however, necessary to look at how the concept is used in other works of the twelfth century before its relevance in the understanding of the Kaiserchronik can be fully assessed. The Chronica or Historia de duabus civitatibus by Otto of Freising was written at almost exactly the same time as the Kaiserchronik, making it an especially valuable point of comparison regarding contemporary views on the history of the Empire, but also ruling out the possibility that the Kaiserchronik-writer(s) had a familiarity with the Latin work (or vice versa).34 Otto’s Chronica tells the story of the world from the creation to Otto’s own time in seven books, the eighth book continuing the history of the world up until Judgment Day. The

30 Nellmann

Reichsidee, p. 113, similarly Ohly, Sage und Legende, p. 227. On the other hand M. Cometta, ‘Il problema della translatio imperii nella Kaiserchronik’, in Imperatori, re e principi fra storie mitopoiesi germanica, ed. G. G. Simone and A. Zironi (Bologna, 2013), pp. 29–48 argues that the election of Constantius is not only represented as a glorious moment in imperial history, as his reign ends the vacancy of the imperial throne and marks also one of the most striking moments of collaboration between pope and emperor. Moreover, according to Cometta, Constantius’ reign is part of the translatio imperii ad Francos as an intermediate, second step, in the transfer to Byzantium (Cometta, Il problema, pp. 32–33). Cometta seems to have the fourempire scheme in mind, which, as Neudeck has demonstrated, does not provide the structural basis for the Kaiserchronik but features only in the Dream of Daniel. 31 Ohly, Sage und Legende, p. 227. 32 Goerlitz, Literarische Konstruktion, pp. 130–71, esp. 171. 33 Ibid., p. 111. 34 See Nellmann, Reichsidee, pp. 82–4.

102

9781903153734.indd 102

08/05/2017 08:29

The Middle-High German Kaiserchronik notion of a translatio imperii is the major structuring principle of the work and it is employed on several layers of composition.35 Like many other medieval writers, and like the Kaiserchronik itself, Otto connects the vision of the Prophet Daniel (book VII) with the idea of a translation of imperial power. The vision itself is commonly connected to the dream of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel’s interpretation of it. In the vision, Daniel sees four beasts rising from an ocean: a lioness, a bear, a leopard and one other, which is unnamed but which is often associated with a boar following Jerome’s commentary on the book.36 These animals sport several unusual features, such as wings, multiple heads, iron teeth and huge horns, which are the subject of many different exegetical interpretations. Jerome was not the first to associate the beasts with the empires of Babylon, Persia, Macedonia and Rome, but it was through his commentary that this order became influential in the Middle Ages: around 1100 it was included in the Glossa ordinaria.37 This did not mean, however, that it became a fixed or unaltered concept. From Eusebius to Orosius and up until the time of Otto of Freising, the attribution of the beasts to empires and the number of empires in the conceptions of translatio imperii underwent changes. When limiting the number to four, according to Augustinus’ scheme of universal history, some empires had to be summarized as one to ensure that the numbers add up. For instance, Orosius combines the Assyrian, Median and Persian empires into one (the first), he puts a Greek-Macedonian empire in the second place, adds an African empire as a third and positions the Roman Empire as the last.38 In an attempt to align the four empires with the four cardinal directions, he alters the concept of translatio imperii to suit his own purpose. As the last empire is, according to Jerome, the Roman Empire, the end of days will come with the fall of Rome. This eschatological perspective shapes Otto’s chronicle through and through. In his interpretation the last beast no longer refers to Rome; it is the antichrist himself, whose arrival he expects any moment. However clear the notion of translatio is in the work of the bishop, his terminology is not so straightforward. Otto uses the various terms in several contexts and employs verbs like derivare, mutare, etc. side by side with transferre.39 Moreover, Otto uses translatio on two structural layers of the work. 35 Goez,

Translatio imperii, p. 112. Commentariorum in Danielem libri III, ed. F. Glorie, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 75A (Turnhout, 1964). 37 Goez, Translatio imperii, p. 369. 38 Orosius, Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII, ed. C. Zangenmeister (Leipzig, 1889), I.1.4: ‘a principio Babylonium et deinde Macedonicum fuit, post etiam Africanum atque in fine Romanum’. 39 von Freising, Chronica: ‘imperium transferre’, 26.35; also ‘regnum transferre’, 223.25; ‘imperium in Germaniam transit’, 482.10; ‘imperium destruxit et ad Medos transtulit’, 98.15; etc., but ‘imperium Romanum ad Teutonicos vel iuxta alios orientales Francos derivatur’, 29.20; ‘ad Medos derivatur imperium’, 66.2. Forms 36 Hieronymus,

103

9781903153734.indd 103

08/05/2017 08:29

Claudia Wittig First, he employs it to limit the number of world monarchies to four as power passes from one to the next in a process of translatio.40 Second, in a more general sense, it refers to a process in the history of the world by which all human secular power moves from east to west in a translatio imperii et studii.41 Even the paradigmatic example of translatio imperii as a structuring historiographical principle does not treat it as an immutable concept.

Translatio/Renovatio in the Kaiserchronik Goerlitz argues, against Ohly, that the Kaiserchronik does not employ a translatio imperii model but rather sees Charlemagne as renovator.42 Goez points out that the emerging idea of translatio in connection with Charlemagne is not radically different from the older notion of renovatio. Both are part of the same historical consciousness.43 While a translatio signifies a ‘formal transformation of the Empire with temporal continuity’, a renovatio is characterized by the re-establishment of the ‘Empire’s formal identity’ after a temporal disruption.44 The foundation of the Empire: Caesar and the dream of Daniel Unlike Otto’s work, the Kaiserchronik’s aim of teaching the importance of just rule does not employ an end-of-days conception as its structuring principle. If the noble audience was to accept its responsibility for the continuity of the Empire, the arrival of the antichrist needed to be postponed for as long as the Empire persists. For this reason, the Kaiserchronik includes the vision of Daniel in a prominent place, immediately after Caesar has unified the Roman Empire. Caesar conquers the German tribes,45 whose origin stories are told: the Franks are depicted as relatives of the Romans, due to their common of ‘mutare’ occur most often with ‘regnum’ or ‘sedes’, e.g. ‘mutationes regni’ 9.15, 259.10 or ‘mutare sedes’, 89.5, 91.15; or 223,20. See also Gellinek, Kaiserchronik, p. 167. 40 Goez, Translatio imperii, p. 112. 41 See Ulrike Krämer, Translatio Imperii et Studii. Zum Geschichts- und Kulturverständnis in der französischen Literatur des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit, Abhandlungen zur Sprache und Literatur 98 (Bonn, 1996), especially chapter 4, ‘Das Geschichtsverständnis des 12. Jahrhunderts in Frankreich und Deutschland’. 42 U. Goerlitz, ‘Karl Was ein Wârer Gottes Wîgant. Problems of Interpreting the Figure of Charlemagne in the Early Middle High German Kaiserchronik’. Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 70 (2013): 195–208 (p. 206). 43 Goez, Translatio imperii, p. 104, annotation 1. 44 Ibid, p. 81, my translation. See also Goerlitz, Literarische Konstruktion, pp. 171–4. 45 For an interpretation of the origin myths of the German tribes in the contexts of the Roman Empire see U. Goerlitz, ‘Narrative Construction of origin in the Early Middle High German Kaiserchronik (‘Chronicle of the Emperors’)’, in Mythes a la cour, myths pour la cour, ed. Alain Carbellari (Genève, 2007), pp. 155–64.

104

9781903153734.indd 104

08/05/2017 08:29

The Middle-High German Kaiserchronik Trojan origin. After the conquest, the ‘Tûtisce[ ] rîterscephte’ (German knights, 480) help Caesar unite the Empire. ‘Duo frouwete sih der junge man, daz er diu rîche elliu under sih gewan’ (It pleased the young man that he had succeeded in bringing all the dominions under his rule, 515/16). At this point the vision of Daniel is introduced in order to show that what was described earlier was all in accordance with the divine plan: In den zîten es gescach/ dannen der wîssage Dânîêl dâ vor sprach/ daz der chunic Nabuchodonosor sîne troume sagete/ die er gesehen habete:/ wie vier winde/in dem mere vuoren vehtende/ unt ûz dem mer giengen/ vier tier wilde./ diu bezaichent vier chunige rîche/ die alle dise werlt solten begrifen./ Daz êrste tier was ain liebarte;/ der vier arenvetech habete,/ der bezaichinet den Chrîchisken Alexandrum,/ der mit vier hern vuor after lande,/ unz er der werlt ende rechande. [...] vil manic wunder relait der selbe man, ain dritteil er der werlte under sih gewan. Daz ander tier was ain pere wilde,/ der habete drîvalde zende./ der bezaichenet driu kunincrîche,/ diu wider aim solten grîfen./ der pere was alsô fraissam:/ von mensken sinne nemaht er niemer werden zam./ Daz dritte ein fraislich eber was,/ den tiurlîchen Juljum bezaichenet daz./ der selbe eber zehen horn truoc,/ dâ mit er sîne vîande alle nider sluoc./ Juljus bedwanch elliu lant,/ si dienten elliu sîner hant./ wol bezaichenet uns das wilde swîn/ daz daz rîche ze Rôme sol iemer frî sîn./ Daz vierde tier was ain lewin,/ iz hête mennisclîchen sin,/ iz hête mennisken ougen unt munt:/ sulhes tieres newart uns ê niht kunt./ im wuohs ain horn gegen dem himele,/ die sternen vâhten im ingegene./ daz bezeichinet aver den Antichrist,/ der noh in die werlt kunftig ist,/ den got mit sîner gewelte/ hin ze der helle sol senden. (526–588) In those days was fulfilled that which the Prophet Daniel foretold when King Nabuchodonosor told him what he had seen in his dreams: how four winds contended the sea and from the sea emerged four wild animals. These symbolize four mighty kings, who were to hold all of this world in their grasp. The first animal was a leopard, which had four eagle’s wings, symbolizing the Greek Alexander, who led four armies across the lands until he found himself at the end of the world. […] This same man encountered a great many wonders, and he brought a third of the world under his rule. The second animal Daniel saw was a wild bear that had three rows of teeth, symbolizing three kingdoms that were to wage war against one another. The bear was so fierce that no man could ever hope to tame him. The third animal was a ferocious boar, symbolizing the noble Julius. The same boar carried ten horns, with which he struck down all his enemies. Julius conquered all the lands, and they all served at his beck and call. The wild boar is a telling symbol for the fact that the Roman Empire shall always be free. The fourth animal was a lioness with human understanding as well as human eyes and mouth: such an animal was entirely unknown to us before. One of its horns grew up towards heaven and the stars fought

105

9781903153734.indd 105

08/05/2017 08:29

Claudia Wittig against it. This signified the antichrist, who is yet to come into this world; God with His power will send him down to hell.

The entire passage, as well as the section about the origin of the German tribes, is taken from the Song of Anno (Annolied), the early Middle High German historical poem about the bishop of Cologne. The Kaiserchronik poet copies parts of it almost word for word.46 The real differences between the Kaiserchronik and its source are the position of the vision and the order and interpretation of the beasts. The Kaiserchronik poet lets the line begin with Alexander, who, according to the poem (564), wins one third of the world for himself. Because the bear that follows is commonly associated with the Median-Persian Empire,47 which in fact preceded Alexander’s rule, it remains unnamed in the text. The boar, which refers to the Romans, remains associated with Caesar, but loses his antichrist feature, the eleventh horn, to the lioness, who now takes the last place in the line to represent the rule of the antichrist.48 The Kaiserchronik also changes Jerome’s interpretation of the boar. In his influential exegesis of the passage, Jerome had concluded that the unnamed animal must refer to the Romans, because no animal can be compared to them in strength and fearsomeness; the Romans combine all the ferocious, animalistic characteristics.49 The animal in Daniel’s vision will ‘devour, trample and destroy all lands’ (Daniel 7. 23), and Jerome connects this animal with the psalm about the boar in the wine yard (Psalms 79. 14). This interpretation of the unnamed animal as a boar signifying the Romans became normative in the Middle Ages. In fact, it was so widely known that the author of the Kaiserchronik could ascribe a whole new meaning to boar and Romans alike: in its description of the vision, the Middle High German text interprets the boar as a sign of the Roman people’s freedom. The lioness, following the Roman boar, gains with the features of the antichrist also its eschatological meaning. Table 1 shows how two writers from the same period alter the interpretation of

46 S.

Müller, Vom Annolied zur Kaiserchronik. Zu Text und Forschungsgeschichte einer verlorenen deutschen Reimchronik, Beiträge zur älteren Literaturgeschichte (Heidelberg, 1999) assumes, against all previous scholarship (e.g. Ohly, Massmann) a common source for both Annolied and Kaiserchronik, rather than one being the source for the other. 47 The source for this paragraph, the Song of Anno, has ‘three kingdoms, that, together, all began to attack at the time when Cyrus and Darius conquered Chaldaea.’ (AL 13/5–8). Das Annolied. Mittelhochdeutsch und Neuhochdeutsch., ed. E. Nellmann, Universal-Bibliothek 1416 (Stuttgart, 1975). English translation by J. A. Schultz (trans.), Sovereignty and Salvation in the Vernacular, 1050–1150, Medieval German Texts in Bilingual Editions I (Kalamazoo, 2000), pp. 56–103, p. 67. 48 Ohly, Sage und Legende, p. 48. 49 For an overview of the Dream of Daniel in the Middle Ages, see A. Fiebig, ‘vier tier wilde. Weltdeutung nach Daniel in der ›Kaiserchronik‹’, in Deutsche Literatur und Sprache von 1050 bis 1200. Festschrift für Ursula Hennig zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. A. Fiebig and H.-J. Schiewer (Berlin, 1995), pp. 27–49 (pp. 31–8).

106

9781903153734.indd 106

08/05/2017 08:29

The Middle-High German Kaiserchronik Table 1: Two interpretations of the dream

Book of Daniel, II & VII, interpretation by Jerome (world monarchies)

Historia de duabus civitatibus, Otto of Freising (world monarchies/ peoples)

Annolied (world monarchies/kings / peoples)

Kaiserchronik (kings)

Lioness: Babylon

Lioness: Babylon-MediaPersia

Lioness: Babylon

Leopard: Alexander

Bear: Media-Persia

Bear: Rome-Byzantium

Bear: Cyrus/ Darius [Media-Persian]

Bear: -

Leopard: Greece

Leopard: Franks

Leopard: Alexander [Greece]

Boar: Cesar

[Boar]:Rome

Boar: Antichrist

Boar: Romans

Lioness: Antichrist

the dream according to their respective aims. The first column shows Jerome’s ‘canonical’ interpretation. The second shows how Otto of Freising applied this interpretation to his eschatological idea of a translatio imperii. For Otto, the reign of the Franks bears signs of the coming of the antichrist, like the leopard. The wild boar depicts the reign of the antichrist, which is the fourth imperium. The author of the Song of Anno stays faithful to Jerome’s interpretation, but here individual kings or a ruling people can metonymically stand in for a monarchy. The alterations in the Kaiserchronik are significant, since the Song of Anno is used as a direct source and – normally – the chronicle stays very close to its source, changing little or nothing. By altering the order of the visionary animals a conscious choice has been made in order to convey not only a different picture of world history but, more specifically, of the Roman Empire within the universal framework.50 The continuity of the Empire sustains the continuity of the world. The successors of Caesar, who founded the Empire, are responsible for the course of history.

50 Similarly

Fiebig, ‘vier tiere wilde’, p. 46. She argues that the Dream of Daniel does not serve the purpose to divide history in four empires in the Kaiserchonik, as it does in Otto’s work, but to emphasis the caesura in world history made with the reign of Caesar and thus to justify the time frame covered in the chronicle.

107

9781903153734.indd 107

08/05/2017 08:29

Claudia Wittig

The forging of a Christian Empire: Constantine and Sylvester The second aspect of the didactic programme, the importance of a common rule of pope and emperor, cannot come into play until the narrative has reached the point at which the Roman Empire was Christianized. With the introduction of Christianity to Rome, the Empire was ‘complete’. The entire story of Constantine in the chronicle emphasises the success of a common rule of pope and emperor: Constantine, suffering from leprosy, learns from the saints Peter and Paul in a dream that only the pope can save his life. Sylvester baptises Constantine, who is healed from his ailment and converts to Christianity. The following introduction of Christianity as the official religion of the Empire is narrated as a joint venture between pope and king: Duo der segen wart getân,/ bihanden nam in der hailige man./ er wîst in an daz gerihte./ dô sazten si die pfahte,/der chunich gebôt sîn edicta alse si ze Rôme stânt gescriben dâ. […] An dem fiunften tage/ der bâbes […]hiez im scrîben von rehte: Constantînus Augustus/ – daz was sîn titulus – / unt swer der haidenscefte mêr phlæge,/ daz der des chuniges vîant wære/ unt aller Rômære./ er nam den bâbes bî der hant,/er lêh im ain grôzen gewalt/ […] Dô chom iz an den sunnentach:/ der bâbes des ambahtes phlach,/ der gotes êwarte./ den chunich er duo garte:/ er segent im sîne regalia,/ ûf sazt er im sâ/ ain tiurlîche crône. (7986–8124) When the final blessing was said the holy man took the king by the hand, leading him to his court chamber. There they set down the Imperial Laws with the king writing down his edicts just as they can still be seen in writing in Rome.. […] On the fifth day […] the pope told him to write as a decree in his name – Constantine Augustus was his title – that who worshipped in pagan rites from then on was an enemy of the king and all Romans. He took the pope by the hand and entrusted a great power to him. […] When Sunday came, the pope officiated at the service as priest of God. At that time he prepared the king for his duties. He blessed the symbols of his office and set a splendid crown on his head.

Over the course of seven days, each beginning with a mass celebrated by the pope, Constantine lays down the laws for the Christian empire, the ‘pfahte’, hand in hand with the pope. He introduces Christianity as a state religion, organizes the structure of the papal court and the duties of all professions, from farmers to knights. The latter, the text states, have the duty to protect the church from this day on.51 Thus, the function of aristocracy (herzogen unt […] graven) as a militia spiritualis is established and the knights (rîteren) firmly integrated in the new Christian empire (8103–04). The pope receives a great

51 ‘die

christenhait ze bescirmen und ze bevogeten’ (8110)

108

9781903153734.indd 108

08/05/2017 08:29

The Middle-High German Kaiserchronik power (grozen gewalt, 8056) from Constantine, which is not further specified.52 In return, the pope gives him the title Augustus and crowns him emperor. The custom of a king receiving the imperial crown from the hands of the pope is thus established. According to the Kaiserchronik, crowning the emperor is part of the pope’s ‘office’ (ambahte, 8117). The controversial Donatio Constantini, the alleged transferral of authority over Rome and the Western Empire to the church, is only mentioned implicitly and should probably be seen in connection to the custody of the pope over the Empire in Constantine’s absence.53 According to the Kaiserchronik, Constantine entrusts the Empire to the pope’s custody when he travels to Byzantium. The text’s representation of the ‘donation of Constantine,’ however, is more complex than has hitherto been realized. Firstly, as Ohly mentioned,54 Constantine travels out of sheer necessity, since there is a famine in the Empire. Before he leaves, he gives the Empire to the pope: lieber vater und maister,/ daz liut suochet unsich;/ nû ist vil pillîch,/ daz ich dir von entwîche./ ich bevilhe dir mîn rîche,/ unz ich wider zuo dir chom./ maister, ich getrûwe dir wol:/ der getregede ist dir tiure;/nû habe dir ze stiure/ alle mînes rîches gewinne,/ durch des wâren gotes minne,/ und beruoche mir wol mîn liut. (10406–10418) Dear father and master, the people are looking to us. Now must be the right time for me to leave you. I entrust my Empire here to you until I shall return. Master, I have complete trust in you. Grain will be expensive for you to buy, but I am placing all the revenues of the Empire at your disposal for the love of the true God. This will enable you to take care of my people well.

52 This

may be the only reference to the Donatio constantini. Goerlitz, Literarische Konstruktion, p. 178 sees no reference to the donation at all. Similarly, Nellmann, Kaiserchronik, p. 95 points out critical implications of the donation for the popes, as they would owe their position to an emperor’s generosity. Nellmann also claims that for this reason the popes hardly ever used the donation as an argument. On the other had Goez, Translatio imperii, p. 168, shows how the popes use the donation in a curial interpretation of a translatio-conception. 53 The implications of the donation are disputable: despite the widespread suspicions that the Constitutum Constantini was a forgery, it could also be interpreted as a translatio imperii from Rome to Byzantium by Constantine ( see Constitutum Constantini, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Diplomata, II.820, pp. 13–15). This representation, however, could not be the author’s intent in the Kaiserchronik. Another interpretation of the Constitutum Constantini was the continuation of the Empire by the church. Through the donation of the power over the Western Empire, the pope became the emperor’s successor. The Constitutum regulates that popes shall carry the Emperor’s insignia. Gregory’s VII Dictatus papae (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Episolae 4, Epistolae selectae 2.1) confirms this claim. (Goez, Translatio imperii, pp. 53–54, 80, see also Nellmann, Kaiserchronik, p. 113.) 54 Ohly, Sage und Legende, p. 227

109

9781903153734.indd 109

08/05/2017 08:29

Claudia Wittig Constantine emphasises several times here that the Empire is his and that the pope shall rule it only until he returns. Similarly, he insists that imperial revenues are only to be used for the sake of the pope’s temporary imperial rule. The pope agrees to these terms. The narrative goes on to describe how Constantine asked Roman citizens to accompany him ‘to the Greek lands’ for one year in order to build a ‘new Troy’ there (10428/29). When they reach the Greek lands, an angel directs him to the place where he should build his capital, Constantinople. The emperor does as he is told. After a year has passed, the Romans want to return home as they were promised. Constantine tricks them into staying: he has brought their wives to Constantinople together with soil from Rome. When the Romans want to leave, he tells them: ‘iz nemag iu sô niht ergân./ iz sî iu liep oder lait,/ ih behabe hie mîne wârhait:/ ir stêt ûf rômischer erde,/ Rôme gesehet ir aver niemer mêre’ (You can’t just go home like that. Whether you like it or not, I have kept my promise. You are standing here on Roman earth, and you will never see Rome again, 10492–96). The story goes on to describe how Constantine founded many other cities after Constantinople, and how ‘he served God with energy and good will’ until his soul is carried away by angels (10505–10510). The Kaiserchronik thus depicts Constantine’s journey as if it were in accordance with divine providence: angels point Constantine to the place and order him to build his capital there. He brings part of the Roman population and even Roman soil to Constantinople: as he says, he brought Rome to former Byzantium, which is now the new capital of the Roman Empire. Nowhere does the Kaiserchronik indicate any illegitimacy in the proceedings; even the trick with the soil is apparently unproblematic (the trick is, after all, a recurrent narrative topos; one just has to think of the mythical foundation of Carthage by Dido, using trickery).55 As others have noted before, the afterlife of an emperor’s soul in the Kaiserchronik clearly marks his rule as good or bad.56 Constantine’s soul is taken by the angels; the transferral of the Empire’s capital from Rome to Constantinople is thus legitimized, receiving, as it does, divine sanction. How does Constantine’s trick align with the order he gave to the pope before his departure? The answer becomes apparent when the Constantine story is viewed in its entirety within the context of the chronicle. From the moment of Constantine’s conversion, power over the Empire is imagined to lie jointly in the hands of pope and emperor. Together they establish the organization of the Empire, the court, and the social roles of the citizens. Together they make Christianity an imperial religion and thus closely connect secular rule with a religious foundation. The emperor gave the pope special power and later on entrusted him with the rule of the Empire. Meanwhile, he

55 E.g. Virgil, Aeneid, 1.297–304 (C. Pharr, Virgil’s Aeneid (Wauconda IL, 1996), 2nd edn). 56 E.g.

Gellinek, Kaiserchronik, p. 17.

110

9781903153734.indd 110

08/05/2017 08:29

The Middle-High German Kaiserchronik could transfer the capital to Byzantium, which becomes part of Rome: the new name, the Roman people and even the Roman soil confirm this connection. It is a translatio regni sedis rather than a translatio imperii.57 Rome remains where it is, but with the pope in charge. This division of power becomes clear when the narrative continues with Sylvester after the death of the emperor. As a final legitimation he receives the keys from St. Peter and, when his time on earth is over, the Kaiserchronik author records the length of his reign and gives him an epitaph, the former being reserved for secular rulers in all other cases in the chronicle, the latter only for the most exceptional characters in the chronicle (e.g Caesar, Charlemagne, Lothair): Die haiden er bechêrte,/ die christenhait er wol lêrte – / uns saget daz buoch vur wâr: /vier und zwênzec jâr,/ sehs mânode und fiunf tage./ swer daz liet vernomen habe,/ der sol einen pater noster singen/ in des hailigen gaistes minne:/ ze lobe sancte Silvester dem hailigen hêrren,/ und ze wegen sîner armen sêle/ der des liedes alre êrist began;/ sancte Silvester der hailige man/ der ist im genædiclîchen bî/ ante tronum dei,/ und helfe allen den/ diez gezogenlîche vernemen,/ lebendigen und tôten,/ den genâde got der guote,/ der himelische hêrre,/ hie an dem lîbe, dort an der sêle! (10614–10633) [Saint Sylvester] converted the heathens and taught Christendom well, the book tells us truly, twenty-four years, six months and five days. Let everyone who listens to this song chant a pater noster in the love of the Holy Ghost to praise Saint Sylvester, the holy lord, and for the help of the poor soul who was first to begin this song. Saint Sylvester, that holy man, is full of grace before the throne of God and helps all those who listen to it politely, both the living and the dead. Let God the good show them his grace, here for the body, there for the soul!58

It has been stated that the Kaiserchronik does not mention the Investiture Controversy at all.59 But since the relations between pope and emperor and the situation of the divided Empire are so central to the chronicle, the poet takes a position nonetheless. Though the authenticity of the Constitutum was doubted early on, it was still used as an argument in the Controversy.60 An author writing a history of the Empire in this context could hardly ignore the document. Instead, he made use of it: he could allude to its contents without commenting on the undesirable implications of the donation,61 and use it as a narrative element in a story of continuation and collaboration.

57 Contra

Ohly, Sage und Legende, p. 228. the epitaph of Lothair, 17161–81. 59 Most recently Goerlitz, Literarische Konstruktion, p. 72. 60 Goez, Translatio imperii, p. 78, see also Krämer, Translatio imperii, pp. 126–7. 61 The Donatio was not unambiguously useful for the papacy, as it implied that the 58 See

111

9781903153734.indd 111

08/05/2017 08:29

Claudia Wittig

Translatio or renovatio: Charlemagne This relation between papacy and emperors becomes even clearer when it comes to the ascension of Charlemagne. His narrative is preluded by the episode of Greek imperial rule. After the failed attempt of ‘Constantius’ (the historical Constantine VI) and his mother ‘Herêna’ (Irene of Athens) to buy the Romans’ favour with gold and the mutilation of the emperor and his mother, the Roman Empire is ‘separated from that of the Greek, so they never again would lay claim to the imperial right to be judge or to any imperial honours. The Empire remained without a head. They set the crown on Saint Peter’s altar. The nobles of Rome all met together and swore before the people that never again would they choose a king – nor a judge nor anyone to rule them – from the kin of the preceding house for they had proven unable to maintain relations of faith (triuwe) and honour (êre) with them. They wanted to have kings from other lands. The Greek line would have to yield its place to them’.62 These lines provide some difficulties in interpretation. Ohly and Nellmann conclude that the Greek proved to be unsuitable for imperial rule and, therefore, the subsequent translatio ad Francos became a necessity.63 Goerlitz considers this a reading that is not covered by the text.64 What becomes clear is that the Kaiserchronik poet perceives the rule of the last emperors as destructive for the Roman citizens who felt that their power was diminished by a ruler who was not loyal to the empire and would not defend its honour. Êre and triuwe are the two key concepts for high-medieval courtly society that the chronicle addresses. A bad ruler who is disloyal to the lords and does not acknowledge the honor imperii distorts the social order and endangers the persistence of the Empire. Therefore the crown is kept by the one authority in the Empire that is capable of preserving it in honour and is officially in charge of the Empire during the absence of an emperor: the papacy. Thus, in the Kaiserchronik, there is indeed a translatio regni sedis and

papal power derived from a generous act of an emperor, not from God. See Goez, Translatio imperii, p. 80. 62 ‘Von dannen wart Rômisc rîche/gesceiden von den Criechen,/daz si niemer mêre/gevorderten daz gerihte noch die êre./Daz rîche stuont dô lære./ûf sante Pêters altâre/sazten si die chrône./die hêrren von Rôme/kômen alle zesamene,/si swuoren vor der menige,/daz si von ir chunne/niemer mêr chunich gewunnen,/ noch rihtære noch hêrren./si nemahten ir triwe noch ir êre/an in niht wol bewarn./ si wollten kunige haben/ûz anderen rîchen,/die von in mahten entwîchen’ (14278–95). 63 Ohly, Sage und Legende, p. 227; Nellmann, Kaiserchronik, p. 958. Similarly Neudeck, Exegetische Deutungsmuster, p. 282, who sees Charlemagne’s ascension to power as the typological fulfilment of Caesar’s establishment of the Empire. To him, Constantius’ disastrous rule serves to contrast Charles’s ascension in accordance with divine will. 64 Goerlitz, Literarische Konstruktion, p. 158.

112

9781903153734.indd 112

08/05/2017 08:29

The Middle-High German Kaiserchronik the pope takes part in the ruling of the Empire, more explicitly so in the case of the emperor’s absence or a vacancy of the imperial throne. The duration of the vacancy is not specified in the Kaiserchronik. The narrative continues with Charlemagne’s accession, and his story is a narrative of restoration, both of the Empire itself and of the mutual support of pope and emperor in governing it. The Kaiserchronik presents Charles and pope Leo (III) as brothers. One night, it narrates, Charles, son of ‘the mighty king Pippin of Karlingen’,65 has a dream in which a voice calls him to Rome to support Leo. Charles immediately takes his leave, but it is stated that he goes to Rome for pious reasons too. He wants to pray, the text says, ‘in the capital of Rome’.66 Charles’s entire journey is thus depicted as a pilgrimage. Upon his arrival in Rome, he first of all attends the mass that his brother sings. He then visits churches without talking to anyone for four whole weeks. After this, he receives the imperial crown from the hands of his brother, to the delight of all Romans. Only afterwards does he hear his brother’s complaints. However, before he punishes the Romans they too are offered the chance to be heard in the case. His reaction shows him as a rex iustus, moreover a particularly pious one, who lays the last decision in the hands of St Peter (14403–14408).67 After his return to the Riflanden, the Romans oppose the pope again and blind him. The pope heads to Charles’s lands in the manner of a pilgrim, on the back of a donkey. In his speech to Charles he presents the assault as an attack against the king: ‘This was done to shame you’.68 Charles, in his reply, takes the events as assaults against the whole of Christendom, and sees it as his duty to defend Christianity by means of the sword (14530–14537). Charles assembles an army from all Christian lands and besieges Rome for seven days. When the city gates are opened for him, he proves to be a mild and just ruler. The innocent are spared, the guilty receive a just trial. After all opposition is subdued, Charles orders (!) God to restore the pope’s eyesight on the threat of destroying his church, whereupon Leo can immediately see again. To fully re-establish order in the empire, Charles ‘promulgated the law as the angels tell him’.69 This law was the ‘imperial law by Constantine which had been forgotten since’.70 A renovatio imperii, in

65 ‘von

Karlingen Pippînus,/ ain chunich rîche’ (14309–10). Rôme in der houbetstete’ (14327). 67 See also Goerlitz, Karl, p. 204. See also C. Händl, ʻRechtsvorstellungen und Rechtsterminologie in der deutschsprachigen mittelalterlichen Karlsdichtung. Das Beispiel der Karlsvita in der Kaiserchronik’, in Text Analyses and Interpretations. In Memory of Joachim Bumke, ed. S. Jefferis, Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik 776 (Göppingen, 2013), p. 57. 68 ‘daz ist dir ze laster getân’ (14501). 69 ‘Karl sazte dô die pfahte, der engel si im vor tihte’ (14757–8). 70 ‘jâ was vergezzen harte/ der pfahte Constantînî’ (14783–4). For the juridical terminology in the narrative of Charlemagne in the Kaiserchronik, see Händl, Rechtsvorstellungen, pp. 43–84. 66 ‘ze

113

9781903153734.indd 113

08/05/2017 08:29

Claudia Wittig accordance with divine providence, executed by Charles, is thus completed. Charles becomes ‘the first emperor in Rome from German lands.’71 As the story clearly refers back to Constantine’s imperial law, it seems to have wider implications. What Constantine set up as imperial law in the course of a week was not only the order of the Empire but also the authority of the pope. Charles’s confirmation of this clearly resembles the Donation of Pepin the Short, Charles’s father, in 754/756.72 Pepin is referred to as king in the beginning of Charles’s narrative and it would not be the first time that events, which occurred during the reign of two (succeeding or similarly named) rulers are told as the story of one ruler in the Kaiserchronik. The narrative continues with Charles’s military successes and his foundation of a church. The end of his reign is marked by an epitaph: Karl was ain wârer gotes wîgant,/ die haiden er ze der cristenhaite getwanc./ Karl was chuone,/ Karl was scône,/ Karl was genædic,/ Karl was sælic,/ Karl was teumuote,/ Karl was stæte,/ unt hête iedoch die guote./ Karl was lobelîch,/ Karl was vorhtlîch,/ Karlen lobete man pillîche/ in Rômiscen rîchen/ vor allen werltkunigen:/ er habete die aller maisten tugende. (15073–15087) (Charles was a true warrior of God, who compelled the heathens to Christianity. Charles was brave, Charles was handsome, Charles was merciful, Charles was blessed by fortune, Charles was humble, Charles was constant, and his goodness lasted him his whole life through. Charles earned great praise, Charles was to be feared, and, in the Roman domains, Charles was exalted with good reason above all other kings of the world for he had the most virtues of all.)

Charles is depicted as a fighter for God and the Empire, successful in military endeavours, just, steady but indulgent – the ideal ruler. Under his reign the Empire is restored to its former glory, the imperial law re-established along with good order. At the very beginning of his reign, Charles’s successor, Louis, orders the princes to have every young lord taught the Roman imperial law (15100–15104). Here, the Kaiserchronik emphasises its claim that ever since Charles’s reign this law prevailed in the Empire. After a succession of bad rulers, the good ruler arrives to ensure the continued existence of the Empire and to defend Christianity. The pope no longer needs to administer the Western Roman Empire, the domains of spiritual and secular ruler are divided again, though mutual responsibility for the Empire and Christendom remains.

71 ‘daz

er der êrste kaiser wart ze Rôme/von Diutisken landen’ (14818–9). F.-X. Noble, The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal State, 680–825, The Middle Ages (Pennsylvania, 1984), pp. 212–16.

72 T.

114

9781903153734.indd 114

08/05/2017 08:29

The Middle-High German Kaiserchronik

The pious ruler restores order: Lothair of Supplinburg The responsibility of pope and emperor for each other and for the Empire becomes apparent again in the narrative of Lothair of Supplingburg’s reign, which is marked by his struggles with the Hohenstaufen brothers, Frederick II of Swabia and Conrad of Franconia, and his support for the pope against an anti-pope. The narrative of Lothair’s accession has to be seen in context with the struggles of Henry IV, both with the pope and with his son Henry V. According to the Kaiserchronik, Henry IV was elected king by the princes because of his father’s merits, but early in his reign he proves unworthy: Dô wuohs der chunich Hainrîch:/ vil harte versûmte er sich,/ hart er sich vergâhte./ die vursten er versmâhte,/ er bespotte ie die edelen,/ den wîstuom liez er im enfremeden,/ unkûsce er sich underwant:/ er rait hovescen in diu lant,/ er hônde di edelen frouwen,/ di sîne liez er rouben./ frîhait underwant er sich;/ vil dike saz er obe spil,/ so er solte rihten daz rîche. (16548–16560) (When King Henry grew a little older, he sadly neglected his duties and let himself become reckless. He ignored the princes and treated the nobility with contempt, allowing himself to become a stranger to learning and committing offences against chastity. He would ride through the countryside with a great courtly display, which ended in treating noble ladies shamefully, sometimes allowing men to strip them. He constantly gave himself over to excess and often sat at the gaming table when he was supposed to be governing the Empire.)

When Henry IV is on a crusade his son rises against him, together with a group of princes. They defeat the king, but Henry V loses part of his support from the princes. ‘The kingdom began to divide’ between secular rulers who supported Henry and clerical rulers who opposed him (16860). Even before the struggles with the pope really begin, the harmonious interaction between ecclesiastical and secular elites, the promotion of which is so central to the Kaiserchronik, ceases. Henry’s reaction to the divided loyalties in his kingdom exacerbates the situation. In order to gain legitimacy he travels to Rome to become emperor. He abducts the pope and, when the Romans rescue him, the king ravages the land with robbery and arson. Eventually, the pope crowns him emperor and releases him from the ban he had imposed on him. All the princes who had previously opposed his rule now have to accept him and depend on his mercy. The Kaiserchronik characterizes the situation starkly: ‘Christianity had never suffered more damage’ (16929). The rule of Henry V is depicted as illegitimate, since it is against the will of both the pope and the princes, and moreover: ‘that a son would act against his father was painful for

115

9781903153734.indd 115

08/05/2017 08:29

Claudia Wittig all clerical lords’.73 Again, the Empire is in distress because of an unjust and illegitimate ruler who does not act in agreement with the ecclesiastical elites. This simplified report of the final struggles of the Investiture Controversy sets the background against which the rule of Lothair must stand out. He must be the one to restore order in the Empire. After Henry’s death the princes gather and discuss who would be a suitable ruler for the Empire. As they hear praise for Lothair they invite him with all due honour. Initially, Lothair declines the offer of the crown (a classical humility topos) but is eventually convinced. He starts his reign with the sort of modesty and respect towards the princes that a good ruler should demonstrate. Only two dukes oppose his rule, the brothers Friedrich and Conrad. Nothing is mentioned of the Hohenstaufen brothers’ relation to the Salians or their heritage, the most important factors in support of their own claim to the crown. They are presented throughout the passage as opposing Lothair simply out of arrogance. While the brothers ravage the land, Lothair and his wife frequently seek divine support: ‘The king and, yes, the blessed queen also, often implored Our Lord for aid. Through long hours they prayed to God that for his mother’s sake he would let the outcome be decided according to whose souls were right and true and also according to what would bring honour to the empire’.74 When a group of princes elect Conrad as a counter-king the spiritual lords oppose this. Lothair fights Conrad, who flees to Milan, and ‘day by day, God multiplied all King Lothair’s worldly honours’.75 When Rome is in turmoil over the papal schism, Lothair helps settle the dispute and is consecrated emperor by the successful claimant, Innocent II. In his subsequent campaign against Roger of Sicily, Conrad joins Lothair and carries his banner. The former opponent is now fully integrated in the Empire’s social order. The narrative continues with a series of military victories until the end of Lothair’s reign: Jâ rihte der kaiser Liuther –/ daz saget das buoch vur wâr –/ rehte zwelf jâr,/ zwelf wochen unde zwelf tage./ swer das liet vernomen habe,/ der sol ain ‘pater noster’ singen/ dem almähtigen got ze minnen/des chaiser Liuthêres sêle./ er was wol des rîches hêrre/ bî im was der fride guot,/ diu erde wol ir wuocher truoch,/ er minnete alle gotelîche lêre/ unt behielt ouch wertlîch êre./ er vorhte mînen trêhtin,/ sam tet diu sælige chunigîn:/ die armen si bewâten,/ die nôtigen si berieten,/ die haidenscaft si bedwungen./ swas si an dem rîche gewunnen,/ daz was gotes êre./ nu genâde got ir baider sêle! (17161–17181)

73 ‘daz

der sun ie wider dem vater gegraif,/ daz was gaistlîchen hêrren lait’ (16936–7). chunich joch diu sælige chunigîn,/vil dicke flêgeten si mînen trehtîn,/ baide wîle unt stunde/manten si got dar umbe/durch sîner muoter liebe/daz erz genædiclîch sciede/nâch gewarhait der sêle/ unt louch nâch des rîches êre’ (17031–8). 75 ‘ja gemêrte got tägelîche/dem chunige Liuthêre/alle sîn wertlich êre’ (17070–2). 74 ‘der

116

9781903153734.indd 116

08/05/2017 08:29

The Middle-High German Kaiserchronik Emperor Lothair served as judge – the book tells us truly – exactly twelve years, twelve weeks and twelve days. Let him who hears this song pray a pater noster for the love of God Almighty and Emperor Lothair’s soul. When he rules the empire, the earth bore plenty of fruit. He loved all divine teaching and retained all worldly honour. He feared Our Lord, as did the blessed queen. They clothed the poor and took care of others in need. They overcame heathendom, and what they gained for the Empire honoured God. God’s grace upon the souls of both of them!

Again, as in the cases of Caesar, Sylvester, and Charlemagne, the epitaph for the ideal ruler marks a caesura in the poem. The last lines resemble closely the typical call for prayer at the end of Middle High German didactic genres, marking the narrative of his reign as particularly instructive for the audience.76 The Kaiserchronik thus aligns Lothair with the most outstanding rulers in the history of the Empire. His deeds are described as just and peaceful. According to the Kaiserchronik, which clearly sides with him in the Hohenstaufen–Welf conflict, Lothair consults God before taking anything for himself, whereas his opponents are said to destroy the Empire out of sheer greed. But the just ruler not only overcomes his enemies with the help of God, he manages to integrate them fully and restore order. The same goes for his support for the pope: like Charles he is supporting the pope in distress, and in return he receives the highest worldly honour, the imperial crown. Since Lothair uses his power to defend God’s honour, so God ensures the emperor’s praise in his days on earth. The length of his reign emphasises this: twelve years, weeks and days he rules the Empire. In Christian numerology, twelve is the number of cosmic order, the unity of the spiritual (3) and the corporeal world (4).77 Compared to Charlemagne, Lothair is a much more devout ruler. While Charles was described as pious, he nonetheless dictates his terms to God. Moreover, it is described that he had committed a sin, which the Kaiserchronik does not explicate.78 Lothair’s narrative depicts him as devout and humble from the first moment. He is the ideal ruler, who combined Christian virtues and political power.79 With such an outstanding ruler who acts in accordance with divine providence the Empire can persist and the days of the lioness can be delayed.

76 E.g.

in the didactic poems ‘Von des todes gehugde’ (mid-twelfth century) or ‘Der Winsbecke’ (c. 1220–30). The common prayer as a form of conclusion to a didactic work confirms the Christian legitimation of the teachings, evokes religious instruction known from sermons and homilies, and creates a Christian community. All these aspects can help to enhance the reception of the instruction. 77 V. F. Hopper, Medieval Number Symbolism. Its Sources, Meaning, and Influence on Thought and Expression (New York, 1938), p. 102. 78 ‘Kârl hête ain sunde getân’, (l. 15015). 79 The land recognises the good king as well. The Kaiserchronik tells us that in his reign the land was fertile (17176). The notion of the king being responsible for the fertility of the land was deeply ingrained into Judaic and Christian conceptions of legitimacy and power. See F. Oakley, Empty Bottles of Gentilism. Kingship and the Divine in

117

9781903153734.indd 117

08/05/2017 08:29

Claudia Wittig

Conclusion: unity and continuity in the Empire If we take the author’s claim in the prologue seriously, then the Kaiserchronik is a didactic text that aims to teach its audience about the rule of the Empire. Language, form and content suggest that this didactic purpose is directed towards an audience of noble laymen.80 The means of teaching is mostly by example. The poem tells of good and bad rulers and how their rule affected the Empire. More than this, however, it teaches its audience about the very foundations of this Empire: the unification of various kingdoms by Caesar, the introduction of Christianity, and its joint rule by Constantine and Sylvester. Figures like Charlemagne serve to show how, after a period of infamy, the Empire can be restored to its old glory by a ruler who acts in accordance with divine will and supports the pope. The relevance of the pope for the ongoing existence of the Empire is clearly shown in cases of the emperor’s absence from Rome or the vacancy of the throne. Support for the pope, therefore, also means stability and security for the Empire. For this didactic purpose and this particular audience, it is not important to follow precisely only one conception of history: dates, reigns, the order of rulers and historical events, even the order of the animals in the vision of Daniel, all can be altered to fit this end. The intended audience might or might not know the ‘correct’ order of things; it does not seem to affect the Kaiserchronik. In the great scheme of salvation history historical facts can be altered to demonstrate the development of the divine plan: history becomes wâreit (truth).81 Similarly, the Kaiserchronik changes historical fact, and history becomes lêre (instruction). Apparently no discrepancy was perceived between the form of the chronicle and the legendary and ahistorical material it includes: the Vorau manuscript contains the Kaiserchronik, followed by Otto of Freising’s Gesta Frederici as its continuation. Neither its use of the vernacular nor its many inconsistencies prevented it from being seen as a proper piece of history-writing. Not only does the Kaiserchronik suggest that the conception of history in this period was flexible, but this chapter has also shown how its particular invocation of the four world monarchies – and the notions of a translatio imperii, translatio regni sedis, or renovatio imperii – are permeable. All these notions belong to the same kind of conception of history, in which the history of the world and salvation history are identical, continuous and finite. The often quoted definitions of renovatio or translatio are modern ones. A

Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (to 1050), The Emergence of Western Political Thought in the Latin Middle Ages 1 (New Haven, 2010), p. 156. 80 The relevance of historical works for lay noble society has been pointed out by H. Wenzel, Höfische Geschichte: Literarische Tradition und Gegenwartsdeutung in den volkssprachlichen Chroniken des hohen und späten Mittelalters (Bern, 1980), pp. 14–28. 81 Wenzel, Höfische Geschichten, pp. 66.

118

9781903153734.indd 118

08/05/2017 08:29

The Middle-High German Kaiserchronik mandatory association of the four beasts with certain monarchies did not exist in the Middle Ages. The concepts are more flexible than we, from a modern point of view, tend to think. The author of the Kaiserchronik clearly intended to show that the Empire was rightfully passed on to the Franks, who inherited it and re-established it. A temporal disruption of the imperial rule since its establishment does not contradict the idea, nor does a translatio regni sedis. As long as the pope is in charge of the Empire, it will not perish. It can only flourish, however, under the joint rule of the secular and spiritual powers. The centre of the Empire remains Rome, no matter where the residence of the emperor might be. This is enough to show the continuous existence of the Empire. It has been noted that in the Kaiserchronik the Investiture Controversy passes unmentioned.82 In fact, the chronicle is in itself a reaction to the controversy. The relation between imperium and sacerdotium, the joint responsibility of pope and emperor for the Empire, had never before been discussed in vernacular literature. The strong emphasis on this aspect of imperial rule that can be seen in the Kaiserchronik is a reaction to the uncertainty about this relation that arose from the conflict. The Kaiserchronik is an experiment in interfacing vernacular didactic poetry and political discourses. It makes use of aspects of both fields in order to meet its aim and reach its audience. And apparently, it did so very successfully, as the large number of manuscripts indicates. The inconsistencies in structure and conception of history did not seem to hinder its success.

82 Goerlitz,

Literarische Konstruktion, p. 172.

119

9781903153734.indd 119

08/05/2017 08:29

9781903153734.indd 120

08/05/2017 08:29

5 Cosmology, Theology of History and Ideologyin Godfrey of Viterbo’s Pantheon Michele Campopiano

This article discusses the complex relationship between the cosmology, the philosophy of history, and the political ideology of the Pantheon, a ponderous universal chronicle written in prosimetrum (prose and verse) in the twelfth century by Godfrey of Viterbo. To understand the context in which this work should be placed, it is helpful to give a short account of the life of this littleknown medieval author.1 Godfrey was born around 1125 and refers to the Italian city of Viterbo, north of Rome, as his own patria.2 He was probably of German descent, as his own name, and those of his brother Werner and nephew Reimbert, suggests.3 Godfrey most likely had connections with the imperial family, and was sent by the emperor Lothar III to the cathedral school of Bamberg in 1133.4 Under Conrad III (1137–1152) he assumed the position of chaplain and notary at the imperial court in 1151, a post which he still held in the days of Henry VI (1191–1197). He was a member of the first Italian expedition of Frederick Barbarossa (1154–1155).5 He rose to a position of some importance in the imperial chancery, since he appears among the witnesses of the Treaty of Constance with Pope Eugene III in 1153 and in its renewal in 1155.6 He is called ‘Gotefredus Viterbensis capellanus regis 1 For

an overview of the past scholarship on Gottfried of Viterbo, the best points of departure are: T. Foerster, ‘Godfrey of Viterbo and his Readers: Introduction’, and M. E. Dorninger, ‘Modern Readers of Godfrey’ both in Godfrey of Viterbo and his Readers: Imperial Tradition and Universal History in Late Medieval Europe, ed. by T. Foerster (Dorchester, 2015), pp. 1–12 and 13–35. 2 L. J. Weber, ‘Godfrey of Viterbo’s “Pantheon”: Origin, evolution and later transmission’, PhD dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1993, p. 11; L. J. Weber, ‘The Historical Importance of Godfrey of Viterbo’, Viator, 25 (1994), 153–95; O. Killgus, Studien zum Liber Universalis Gottfrieds von Viterbo (Augsburg, 2001), p. 20. 3 Weber, ‘Godfrey of Viterbo’s “Pantheon”’, p. 12. 4 Killgus, Studien, p. 20. 5 M. E. Dorninger, Gottfried von Viterbo. Ein Autor in der Umgebung der frühen Staufer (Stuttgart, 1997). 6 Weber, ‘Godfrey of Viterbo’s “Pantheon”’, p. 19.

121

9781903153734.indd 121

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano (Godfrey of Viterbo, king’s chaplain)’ in the Treaty of Constance (1153).7 He was probably also in Italy with Barbarossa in 1158, since he presents himself as an eyewitness to the conflict between Barbarossa and Milan. Between 1158 and 1162, Godfrey seems to have travelled several times between Italy and Germany.8 Godfrey was in Frederick Barbarossa’s entourage at Dôle when he attempted to meet with Louis VII in 1162.9 He was again with Barbarossa in Italy in 1163 (with the third Italian expedition of this German emperor) and was present in Barbarossa’s fourth and fifth expeditions to Italy (1166–1168 and 1174–1178).10 An imperial charter from October 1169 is worth noting, in which Frederick Barbarossa bestows on Godfrey, his brother Werner and his nephew Reimbert a palatium built by the recipients themselves, which the emperor promises to reimburse, and grants them several exemptions and privileges, including exemption from the authority of the consul and people of Viterbo.11 Charters witness his presence in Germany for the last time in 1181, suggesting he was likely in his palace in Viterbo after this date. He appears to be mentioned in an inscription on Porta Sonza in Viterbo from 1189. In his works he cites historical events happening up to the year 1191.12 Godfrey clearly had a strong connection with the imperial court and was, to a certain extent, a key player in the affairs of the Empire in the second half of the twelfth century. However, we must refrain from treating his historiographical work as an ‘official’ historiography of the empire.13 The imperial political context from which Godfrey’s historical work emerged, however, is nonetheless clear. Godfrey left his first historical work, the Speculum regum, which he had dedicated to Henry VI, unfinished in 1183.14 Godfrey also dedicated his subsequent work, Memoria seculorum or Liber memorialis, to Henry VI.15 For the second version of his work Godfrey probably preferred the title Liber universalis.16 With the third version (designated in scholarship as C – two 7 Ibid.,

p. 20. Studien, p. 20. 9 Gotefridi Viterbensis, Gesta Friderici, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores 22 (Hannover, 1872), pp. 307–34 (pp. 319–20); Weber, ‘Godfrey of Viterbo’s “Pantheon”’, p. 16. 10 Dorninger, Gottfried von Viterbo, pp. 39–46; Weber, ‘Godfrey of Viterbo’s “Pantheon”’, p. 16. 11 G. Baaken, ‘Zur Beurteilung Gottfrieds von Viterbo’, in Geschichtsschreibung und geistiges Leben im Mittelalter. Festschrift für Heinz Löwe zum 65. Geburstag, ed. by Karl Hauck and Hubert Mordel (Cologne, 1978), pp. 373–96 (p. 377). 12 Killgus, Studien, p. 21. 13 Weber, ‘The Historical Importance’, pp. 173–9. 14 Dorninger, Gottfried von Viterbo, pp. 60–5. 15 Weber, ‘The Historical Importance’, pp. 174–5; Dorninger, Gottfried von Viterbo, pp. 68–76. 16 Weber, ‘Godfrey of Viterbo’s “Pantheon”’, p. 94. 8 Killgus,

122

9781903153734.indd 122

08/05/2017 08:29

Cosmology, Theology of History and Ideology more redactions, D and E, would follow), written between 1185 and 1187, the dedications switched to the popes Urban III and Gregory VIII, and the title of Godfrey’s magnum opus settled as Pantheon.17 This summary represents, however, a simplification of the lengthy work of revision and modification made by Godfrey to his work. The development of these recensions cannot be put in a strict succession of phases: it is likely that Godfrey was able to return to manuscripts of previous ‘versions’ of his work, and different layers of compilation and correction, whose chronological order cannot be easily disentangled.18 Although several scholars have been working on the redactional practices of Godfrey and the manuscripts of his works, starting with the partial edition of Godfrey’s works by Waitz for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica and continuing with the more recent studies by Dorninger and Weber, we are still in need of a complete edition of the Pantheon.19 As has been stressed by Weber, it is an absolute priority for the study of medieval historiography that critical editions of the different recensions of the Pantheon be supplied.20 This is, however, a task that surpasses the resources of a single scholar and should be the work of an international team. This contribution focuses on the Pantheon, which exhibits the full cosmological, theological, and physical scope of Godfrey’s intellectual aspirations,21 but we will be referring to the other versions as well to show some constants in the development of Godfrey’s thought. The connection between Godfrey of Viterbo’s work and the scientific and philosophical thought of his time has been the object of some important contributions,22 and has been discussed in connection with the study of other thinkers and works. It is the purpose of this paper to try to connect the analysis of Godfrey’s work as a piece of historiography to some of the philosophical and scientific aspects of the Pantheon, in line with the proposed aim of this book to see High Medieval Universal Chronicles in connection with the organization of knowledge of 17 Ibid.,

p. 43–6. the analysis of similar complex layers of compilation, see Weiler’s and Vanderputten’s chapters in this volume. 19 The seminal research by Waitz is published in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores 22 (Hannover, 1872), pp. 1–20; Weber, ‘Godfrey of Viterbo’s “Pantheon”’, pp. 52–214; Weber, ‘The Historical Importance’, pp. 179–191; Dorninger, Gottfried von Viterbo, pp. 60–115. 20 Weber, ‘Godfrey of Viterbo’s “Pantheon”’, pp. 40–1. 21 L. Sturlese, Die deutsche Philosophie im Mittelalter. Von Bonifatius bis zu Albert dem Grossen 748–1280 (München, 1993), p. 237. 22 See in particular E. Garin, ‘Il Pantheon di Goffredo da Viterbo’, in L’età nuova. Ricerche di storia della cultura dal XII al XVI secolo (Naples, 1969), pp. 41–2; D. Gottschalk, ‘Marius Salernitanus und Gottfried von Viterbo’, Sudhoffs Archiv 75 (1991), 111–13; C. Burnett, ‘The works of Petrus Alfonsi. Questions of authenticity’, Medium Aevum 66 (1997), 42–79; C. Burnett,, ‘Physics before the Physics: Early Translations from Arabic of Texts concerning Nature in MSS British Library, Additional 22719 and Cotton Galba E IV’, Medioevo 27 (2002), 53–109. 18 For

123

9781903153734.indd 123

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano twelfth-century culture. We will primarily be using Editio princeps of the Pantheon, printed in Basilea in 1559, a witness of recension C, but we will also have recourse to the partial edition of this work by Waitz to check on previous versions of Godfrey’s magnum opus.

Philosophy and history as preparation for government Godfrey states that his work consists in reducing into a single compendium contents originating from both holy writings and historical works: ‘hoc opusculum longo tempore simplicitatis meae studiis aggregatum, et de Veteri et Novo testamento atque de omnibus fere historiis, in unum volumen sub compendio redactum (this little work assembled over a long time by the strivings of my simplicity from both the Old and New Testaments and from almost all the histories, reduced into one volume under a compendium)’.23 Godfrey assigns specific didactic tasks to his work, which he believes could contribute to the education of the ruler. He writes: ‘Impossibile enim est, perfecti regiminis et regiae potestatis excellentiam convenienter attingere his, qui mundi cursum et originem aut scripturarum dogmata ignorant (for it is impossible conveniently to achieve excellence of perfect government and royal power for those who ignore the course and origin of the world and the teachings of the scriptures)’.24 An emperor who is ignorant of philosophy is seen more often to err than to reign (‘errare saepius quam regnare’).25 This connection between political rule and knowledge of philosophy had been already established by Godfrey in the Speculum regum, the first version of his protean historical work, in the dedicatory letter to Henry VI: ‘imperator enim expers philosophie, cum omnibus hominibus solus preesse credatur, ipse, si fuerit philosophie nescius, errare potius quam regnare videtur (the emperor indeed, destitute of philosophy, whereas he is believed alone to command all men, if he is ignorant of philosophy, seems to err rather than to reign)’.26 Knowledge of mankind is essentially knowledge of history; it is through knowledge transmitted in books that we are able to know about the past and therefore the future as well: ‘Nam presentis vite homines presentia tantum cognoscunt, librorum vero continentia ab ineuntibus seculis omnia legentibus representant et te de futuris ac preteritis faciet illa cognoscere, que omnes viventes homines nequeunt edocere 23 Gottofridus

Viterbiensis, Pantheon sive universitatis libri qui Chronicon appellantur XX (Basileae, 1559), p. 2. 24 Ibid., p. 2. 25 Ibid., p. 2. 26 Gotefridi Viterbensis, Speculum regum, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores 22 (Hannover, 1872), p. 21.

124

9781903153734.indd 124

08/05/2017 08:29

Cosmology, Theology of History and Ideology (for men of the present time know all the present things; the content of books represents everything from the beginning of time to the readers and causes you to know about the future and past events those things, which all living men cannot teach)’.27

Godfrey defends the ‘pedagogic’ value of history. In the Speculum regum he affirms how his book could be read in schools, since the pupils can be properly educated more by reading the deeds of emperors and kings than by reading Virgil’s Eclogae.28 A similar attitude is confirmed in the later Memoria saeculorum, in which, talking to a young Henry VI, Godfrey says that his book has not been composed for the highest professors and philosophers: ‘sed tibi layco moderate philosophanti et aliis quasi pueris tibi coetaneis (but for you, a layman, who applies himself moderately to philosophy, and to others who are almost boys, coetaneous to you)’.29 This pedagogic value is intrinsically related to the ruling position of monarchs. Kings are not bound by law; they are responsible only before God.30 They need, therefore, to know what happened in the past: ‘antiquorum regum vitam et gesta atque historias oportet eos cognoscere: ut causae praecedentium fiant eis in posterum cautio futurorum (it is suitable for them to know the life and deeds and the histories of the ancient kings: so that the causes of the preceding things may later be to them a caution of future events)’.31 The topos of the role of historical knowledge as preparing the king to rule is not new to medieval historiography – it is clearly expressed by Otto of Freising, Godfrey’s predecessor as author of a universal chronicle in the Empire.32 In his dedication to Frederick Barbarossa of the Historia de duabus civitatibus, Otto (as Godfrey later did) explains that the kings are not subject to law. Otto explains that kings therefore need to know history: ‘Honesta ergo erit et utilis excellentiae vestrae historiarum cognitio, qua et virorum fortium gesta, Deique regna mutantis et cui voluerit dantis, rerumque mutationem patientis, virtutem ac potentiam considerando, sub eius metu semper degatis, ac prospere procedendo per multa temporum curricula regnetis (the knowledge of history will therefore be honest and useful to your excellence, by which considering the deeds of the strong men and the virtue and

27 Ibid.;

Sturlese, Die deutsche Philosophie, pp. 231–2.

28 Gotefridi Viterbensis, Speculum regum, p. 22; Sturlese, Die deutsche Philosophie, p. 232. 29 Gotefridi

Viterbensis, Memoria seculorum, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores 22 (Hannover, 1872), p. 105; Sturlese, Die deutsche Philosophie, p. 233. 30 J. Dunbabin, ‘The Distinctive Elements Among Godfrey of Viterbo’s Political Ideas’, in Foerster ed., Godfrey of Viterbo, pp. 37–47 (pp. 44–5). 31 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, p. 2. 32 See also M. S. Kempshall, Rhetoric and the Writing of History, 400–1500 (Manchester, 2011), pp. 117–20.

125

9781903153734.indd 125

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano power of God, changing kingdoms and granting them to whomever He wants, experiencing the mutation of things, you may always live in fear of Him, and proceeding in prosperity you may reign throughout long ages)’.33

Godfrey shows a particular concern about the didactic function of his work, elaborating on the differing roles of prose and verse in achieving his purposes of instruction. The Pantheon is a prosimetrum work.34 Godfrey explains: ‘Hoc autem opus, non tantum in prosis, sed versibus annotavi, ut lectores eius, si aliquando prosas legendo fuerint fatigati, quum versus sequentes inspexerint, consonantia et delectatione metrorum ad legendum ulterius provocentur (I wrote down this work, however, not just in prose, but also in verse, so that its readers, if they should sometimes be wearied by reading prose, when they will have looked into the subsequent verses, may be stimulated to read further by the harmony and delight of the meters)’.35

Didacticism and theology: the use of the Elucidarium Part of Godfrey’s didactic program also includes an analysis of theological and philosophical issues. Godfrey’s philosophical and theological engagement is shown first and foremost by his decision to discuss the essence of God, which is before all time, and then to proceed to discuss the ages of the world, its kingdoms, and kings: ‘De Mundi principio et omnibus eius aetatibus et regnis et regibus (authore Domino) tractaturi, ante omnia de ipso Deo aliquid prelibare intendimus (Being about to discuss the origin of the world, of all its ages and kingdoms and kings (whose author is the Lord), before all we intend to mention something about God himself)’.36 His narrative will therefore start before the Creation: ‘scilicet a divina essentia quae est ante tempora (namely from the divine essence which is before all time)’.37 The idea of God as existing before time recalls the philosophical positions expressed in Augustine’s Confessiones, to which Godfrey surely alludes.38 33 Ottonis

Episcopi Frisigensis, Chronica sive historia de duabus civitatibus (Darmstadt, 1961), Dedicatio, p. 3. 34 P. Dronke, Verse with Prose from Petronius to Dante: the Art and Scope of the Mixed Form (Cambridge, Mass., 1994), pp. 1–25. 35 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, p. 2. On the didactic role of poetry, see T. Haye, Das Lateinische Lehrgedicht im Mittelalter: Analyse einer Gattung (Leiden, 1997), pp. 45–77. See also N. F. Partner, Serious Entertainment: The Writing of History in TwelfthCentury England (Chicago and London, 1977). 36 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, col. 6. 37 Ibid. 38 See for example: Augustinus, Confessionum libri XIII, ed. L. Verheijen, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 27 (Turnhout, 1981), XI.xxx.40.

126

9781903153734.indd 126

08/05/2017 08:29

Cosmology, Theology of History and Ideology However, Godfrey’s discussion of the divine essence is largely based on a simpler, but popular text, the Elucidarium by Honorius Augustodunensis, which has didactic purposes similar to those of Godfrey’s Pantheon. The structure of this part of the Pantheon is very close to that of the Elucidarium, which it often follows word for word, even occasionally reproducing the mechanism of question and answer which structures the Elucidarium. We can see the definition of God: ‘Dicimus igitur absque praeiudicio melioris sententiae quod Deus est substantia spiritualis, incircumscripta, omnipotens, incommensurabilis et inaestimabilis, et aeterna, et tam incompatibilis pulchritudinis, atque tam ineffabilis suavitatis, ut angeli qui solem in septuplum sua pulchritudine vincunt, iugiter desiderent in eum aspicere, et insatiabiliter gloriae suae presentiam desiderare (We say therefore without the example of a better opinion that God is a spiritual substance, without limits, almighty, incommensurable and beyond valuation, and eternal, of such a beauty, without comparison, and such an ineffable suavity, that the angels who conquer the sun seven times with their beauty, continuously wish to look at him, and wish for the glory of his presence)’.39

Let us compare this definition with its source passage in the Elucidarium: ‘M. Quantum homini licet scire, Deus est substantia spiritualis tam inestimabilis pulchritudinis, tam ineffabilis suavitatis, ut angeli, qui solem septuplo sua vincunt pulchritudine, iugiter desiderent in eum insatiabiliter prospicere (Master: in so far as it is allowed for a human being to know, God is a spiritual substance, of such an invaluable beauty, and ineffable suavity, that the angels, who conquer the sun seven times with their beauty, wish continuously to look into him)’.40

Other parts of the theological section of the Pantheon closely follow the Elucidarium. We can see this, for example, in the section on the angels. God had also given free will to the angels. According to the Elucidarium, the angels who did not sin were confirmed in their good will, and they cannot now fall ‘post lapsum illorum mox ita confirmati sunt, ut numquam cadere nec peccare possint (after the fall of the others they have been now confirmed in this way, that they can never fall nor sin)’.41 Again Godfrey follows the same line of argument: ‘Boni angeli in bono ita confirmati sunt, ut numquam cadere 39 Gottofridus

Viterbiensis, Pantheon, col. 7. Lefèvre, L’Elucidarium et les lucidaires. Contributions, par l’histoire d’un texte, à l’histoire des croyances religieuses en France au Moyen Age (Paris, 1954), I.2, p. 361. 41 Lefèvre, L’Elucidarium, I.50, p. 370. 40 Y.

127

9781903153734.indd 127

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano nec peccare possint (the good angels have been confirmed in the good in such a way that they can never fall nor sin)’.42 Godfrey even maintains part of the question-and-answer structure of Honorius’ treatise: ‘Quod si queris, qualem formam habeant Angeli: dicimus quia quasi formam Dei, sicut enim cera, sigillo impressa, recipit sigilli signaculum, sic impressa est eis per signaculum similitudo Dei (because if you ask, which form the angels have: we say almost the form of God, for like the wax impressed by the seal has received the sign of the seal, likewise the likeness of God is impressed on them by the seal)’.43

This passage directly echoes that of Honorius: ‘D.- Qualem formam habent angeli? M.- Quodammodo Dei. Ut enim imago cerae imprimitur signaculo, sic expressa est in eis Dei similitudo (What form do the Angels have? Master: in a certain way, that of God. For as the image of the wax is impressed by the seal, in this way is expressed in them the likeness of God)’.44 Man is worthier than angels, because the soul of the human being has been created ‘ad imaginem et similitudinem Dei (in the image and likeness of God)’.45 The Elucidarium also stresses that the soul has the image of the Trinity ‘Divinitas consistit in Trinitate; huius imaginem tenet anima (the divinity consists in the Trinity; the soul has its image)’.46 This links to another crucial aspect of Godfrey’s anthropology – for the historian, the human being is the Microcosmos (again Godfrey is following Honorius here): ‘corpoream substantiam dico, de corpore hominis, quod constat ex quatuor elementis. Unde et microcosmos, id est minor mundus vocatur (I say corporeal substance concerning the body of the man, which consists of four elements. Whence it is also called Microcosmos, that is to say, minor world)’.47 Honorius says that the substantia corporalis of the human being is composed of four elements: ‘unde et microcosmus, id est minor mundus, dicitur (whence it is also called microcosmos, that is to say, minor world)’.48 By referring to this doctrine of the man as microcosmos Godfrey confirms his broader engagement with Platonism and its Christian reincarnations.49 His cosmology clearly connects to this Platonic vision of the universe and its constitution. The universe always existed in the mind of the Creator, as archetype:

42 Gottofridus

Viterbiensis, Pantheon, col. 22. col. 23. 44 Lefèvre, L’Elucidarium I.54, p. 370. Honorii Augustodunensis, Elucidarium, col. 1116. 45 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, col. 23; Sturlese, Die deutsche Philosophie, p. 176. 46 Lefèvre, L’Elucidarium I.61, p. 371. Honorii Augustodunensis Elucidarium, col. 1116. 47 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, col. 23. 48 Lefèvre, L’Elucidarium I.59, p. 371. Honorii Augustodunensis Elucidarium, col. 1116. 49 Garin, ‘Il Pantheon di Goffredo da Viterbo’, pp. 41–3. 43 Ibid.,

128

9781903153734.indd 128

08/05/2017 08:29

Cosmology, Theology of History and Ideology ‘Per hoc patet, omnem creaturam in Dei previdentia semper fuisse visibilem, quae postea per formam apparuit visibilis in creatione ipsi creaturae, quemadmodum et arca uel domus concepta in mente artificis, et ad effectum perducta in formam: talis constat in forma, qualem eam artifex in mente gestabat. Unde dicitur, Deus non esse antiquior sua creatura tempore, sed dignitate, et semper in se mundum habuisse. Quem mundum philosophi vocant archetypum, id est figurativum (through this it is evident that every creature has always been visible in God’s foresight, which later appeared visible to the creature herself in the creation. Just as an arch or house conceived in the mind of the maker and brought to execution in the form: this consists in the form, which the maker carried in his mind. Hence it is said that God is not older than his creature in time, but in dignity, and always had the world in Himself. Which world the philosophers call an archetype, i.e. figurativum)’.50

This doctrine agrees with the interpretation of the Platonic doctrine of the Timaeus given by Chalcidius: ‘archetypus quippe omni aevo semper existens est, hic sensibilis imagoque eius is est qui per omne tempus fuerit, quippe et futurus sit (the archetype in fact is always existing in all time, here sensible and its image is such which has been for all time, and it will certainly be in future)’.51 Godfrey embraces Augustinian arguments on the harmony of the creation, of neo-Platonic origin but used to justify a Christian theodicy and theology of history.52 This can be seen in the arguments brought forward to justify the creation of the Devil by God: ‘sed forte dices, o lector: quare creavit Deus diabolum, cum sciret eum malum esse futurum: respondeo quia propter operis sui ornatum. Sicut pictor nigrum colorem substernit, ut albus apparentior fiat: sic per praevaricationem malorum, iusti clariores fiunt (but perhaps you say, o reader: why did God create the Devil, when he knew he was going to be evil: I reply for the embellishment of his work. Like a painter lays the black colour beneath, so that the white would become more visible, likewise through the prevarication of the evils, the just are made brighter)’.53 50 Gottofridus

Viterbiensis, Pantheon, col. 7. Waszink, Timaeus a Calcidio translatus commentarioque instructus (London and Leiden, 1975), I.clix, p. 140. 52 See for example Augustine, De natura boni, in La morale chrétienne de moribus ecclesiae catholicae, de agone christiano, de natura boni, ed. by B. Roland-Gosselin (Paris, 1949), pp. 189–231, 37 (p. 226); Enchiridion ad Laurentium de fide et spe et caritate, III.10, in Aurelii Augustini Opera, XIII, 2, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 46, ed. E. Evans (Turnhout, 1969), pp. 49–114 (p. 53); De civitate Dei, XI.22, in Aurelii Augustini Opera, XIV, 2, ed. by B. Dombart and A. Kalb, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 48 (Turnhout, 1955), p. 340. 53 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, col. 22. 51 H.

129

9781903153734.indd 129

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano

Godfrey and science in the twelfth century: anthropology Godfrey did not remain bound to traditional ways of thinking. He extended his interests to scientific texts based on new, recently translated learning, which allowed him to elaborate on the scientific and theological themes on which his vision of the world was founded. His quest also involves the study of new scientific and philosophic literature emerging from the world of twelfth-century translations. Godfrey also refers to medical treatises such as those by Constantine the African and Stephen of Antioch, the eleventhand twelfth-century translators of ‘Ali ibn al-’Abbās al-Majūsī’s medical encyclopedia Kitāb al-Malikī (respectively entitled Pantegni, and Liber regalis dispositionis, trans. 1127).54 William of Conches, an author of the so-called School of Chartres, is also used, especially in cosmological sections.55 Godfrey simply puts some parts of the Philosophia into verse, as in this citation on the impossibility of the birth of visible things from invisible: ‘At ex invisibili nihil potest esse visibile, unde Lucretius: “Ex insensibili ne credas sensibile nasci” et Macrobius: “Omnis qualitas geminata crescit, numquam contrarium operatur” (But from the invisible there cannot be anything visible, hence Lucretius: “from the insensible do not believe that the sensible is born” and Macrobius: “all quality is grows redoubled, and never operates its opposite”)’;56 which corresponds in Godfrey to: ‘Ex incorporeo non dicas corpora nasci, / ex insensibili, non dicas sensibile nasci, / Haec loquor exempla Macrobiana bona (do not say that bodies are born from the incorporeal, from what cannot be perceived, do not say that what can be perceived is born. I say these examples, Macrobian good things)’.57 Godfrey clearly uses the De natura hominis by Nemesius of Emesa in the translation by Alfanus of Salerno.58 His anthropological discussion in the Pantheon is largely indebted to Alfanus’s translation.59 It is worth mentioning that Nemesius’s anthropological vision is also embedded within a vision of the human being as microcosmos: similarly as for Godfrey, for Nemesius the 54 Sturlese,

Die deutsche Philosophie, p. 238; on these two translations, see in particular: Constantine the African and Ali ibn al-Abbas al-Maǧusi: The Pantegni and Related Texts, ed. C. Burnett and D. Jacquart, Studies in Ancient Medicine, 10 (Leiden, 1994) and C. Burnett, ‘Humanism and Orientalism in the Translations from Arabic into Latin in the Middle Ages’, in Wissen über Grenzen: Arabisches Wissen und lateinisches Mittelalter, ed. A. Speer and L. Wegener, Miscellanea Mediaevalia 33 (Berlin and New York, 2006), pp. 22–31. 55 Sturlese, Die deutsche Philosophie, p. 239–240; Garin, ‘Il Pantheon di Goffredo da Viterbo’, pp. 41–2. 56 Wilhelm von Conches: Philosophia, ed. G. Maurach (Pretoria 1980), I.12, 40, p. 36. 57 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, col. 30. 58 Sturlese, Die deutsche Philosophie, p. 237. 59 On medical literature as foundation for philosophical anthropology, see M. Jordan, ‘The Construction of a Philosophical Medicine: Exegesis and Argument in Salernitan Teaching on the Soul’, Osiris 6 (1990), 42–61 (p. 45).

130

9781903153734.indd 130

08/05/2017 08:29

Cosmology, Theology of History and Ideology human being combines in himself mortal and immortal aspects, and rational and irrational aspects, bringing in himself the image of the entire creation, and therefore can be seen as microcosmos.60 The section De creatione primi hominis et de essentia ipsius of the Pantheon largely copies parts of the work by Nemesius. Godfrey begins: ‘A multis prudentibus confirmatum est, hominem ex anima intelligibili et corpore tam bene compositum, ut nequaquam oportuerit eum aliter fieri vel consistere (it is confirmed by many wise men, that the man is so well formed by the intelligible soul and body, that it is by no means right that he is made or formed in any other way)’.61 This follows almost word for word Alfanus’s translation of Nemesius. ‘A multis et prudentibus viris confirmatum est hominem ex anima intellegibili et corpore tam bene compositum, ut nequaquam oportuerit eum aliter fieri vel consistere (it is confirmed by many and wise men that the man is so well composed from intelligible soul and body, that it may be by no means right that he is made or formed in any other way)’.62 Also taken almost word for word from Nemesius is the section on Plato’s ideas on the human being,63 and the ideas of the Jews on the human being and the physical needs of the body,64 and the comparison between the nature of man and angels.65 Similarly the part in which he discusses the connection between the rational and the irrational in the human being, and the Incarnation of God, is taken from Nemesius.66 Godfrey also follows Nemesius’ discussion on the soul,67 including his criticism of the theory that the soul is a body,68 that it is blood or spirit,69 air or water,70 and those which says it is harmony,71 that the soul is entelechy (opposing the Aristotelian theory),72 the idea that the soul is number,73 against the idea the soul is created with the body,74 against Manichean positions,75 and

60 Nemesius

episcopus, Premnon Physicon a N. Alfano Achiepiscopo Salerni in Latinu translatus, ed. C. Burkhard (Lipsiae, 1917), p. 22. 61 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, col. 38. 62 Nemesius episcopus, Premnon Physicon, p. 5. 63 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, cols. 38–42; compare Nemesius episcopus, Premnon Physicon, pp. 6–11. 64 Nemesius episcopus, Premnon Physicon, p. 11–16. 65 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, cols. 46–8; compare Nemesius episcopus, Premnon Physicon, pp. 16–18. 66 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, cols. 48–52; compare Nemesius episcopus, Premnon Physicon, pp. 18–23. 67 Nemesius episcopus, Premnon Physicon, pp. 23–51. 68 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, cols. 52–3 and 56–8. 69 Ibid., col. 55. 70 Ibid., col. 56. 71 Ibid., cols. 58–62. 72 Ibid., cols. 62–5. 73 Ibid., cols. 65–6. 74 Ibid., cols. 66–8. 75 Ibid., cols. 68–9.

131

9781903153734.indd 131

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano the Platonic idea of the world soul.76 The section on the union of soul and body is apparently taken from Nemesius as well.77 This is a very important issue in understanding the relationship between anthropology and theology in the Pantheon. Godfrey, following Nemesius, criticizes Plato’s idea that the soul uses the body. Referring to a theory attributed to Ammonius Sacca, the teacher of Plotinus, Godfrey (again following Nemesius) establishes that there is union of soul and body, rather than the first using the second. This union does not change the soul: the intelligible substances are immutable by nature. They remain therefore incorruptible.78 This also allows the mystery of the Incarnation allowing for the presence of both human and divine nature in Christ – the divine virtues (virtutes) blend with the virtues of the body, which, according to Aristotle, are the senses. This allows the Incarnation to be possible and to conform to the nature of both the body and God, without needing a beneplacitum Dei.79 The Incarnation of God in history is therefore entirely possible according to the nature of the cosmos itself. In my view, this strengthens the sense of the existence of an order in the cosmos, preceding the creation, since Godfrey explains that the archetype existed in God before the creation. The providential order of history is grounded in the nature of the universe itself.

Godfrey and twelfth-century science: physics As we have seen, the use of Alfanus’s translation of Nemesius demonstrates that Godfrey had an important connection with the translation movement which took place in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It shows, more specifically, an intellectual connection with Salerno, a flourishing scientific centre. Salerno largely contributed to spreading new scientific ideas across Europe.80 An example of this diffusion could be the manuscript London, British Library, MS Cotton Galba E. IV, a manuscript copied in England at the end of the twelfth century that contains some treatises clearly connected to the southern Italian centre, such as the translation by Alfanus of Salerno of the De natura hominis and the Liber Marii de elementis.81 The connection with the intellectual 76 Ibid.,

cols. 69–74. cols. 74–9; see Nemesius episcopus, Premnon Physicon, pp. 52–8. 78 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, col. 75. 79 Ibid., cols. 78–9. 80 P. O. Kristeller, ‘The school of Salerno’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 17 (1945), 138–94; M. Harold Saffron, ‘Maurus of Salerno: Twelfth-Century ‘Optimus Physicus’. With His Commentary on the Prognostics of Hippocrates’, Transactions of the American Philosophial Society 62 (1972), 1–104. La Scuola Medica Salernitana. Gli autori e i testi, ed. D. Jacquart and A. Paravicini Bagliani (Firenze, 2007); Salerno e la sua scuola medica, ed. I. Gallo (Napoli, 2008). 81 R. M. Thomson, ‘Liber Marii de elementis: the work of a hitherto unknown Salernitan 77 Ibid.,

132

9781903153734.indd 132

08/05/2017 08:29

Cosmology, Theology of History and Ideology milieu of Salerno, and in particular with Marius, the author of the work on elements transmitted by the Cotton Galba manuscript, has been clearly made by Godfrey himself in the Pantheon. In the final version of his Pantheon, the E, Godfrey adds the following annotations: Hec secundum Lucidarium et secundum Augustinum et Originem superius dicta sunt. Notandum est quod Alfanus Salernitanus Archiepiscopus et Marius Salernitanus preceptor meus in contrarium sentiunt dictum. Dicunt enim superiora corpora, firmamentum scilicet, Solem et Lunam et omnia sydera, non ex elementis constare. Composita subiacent corrupcioni et dissolucioni, ipsa quoque elementa permutantur et corrumpuntur, ideoque ex elementis nam non constant. Talia enim cuncta sunt hodie quanta et talia ab inicio mundi fuerunt. Et quamvis ipsa videantur calefacere et infrigorare et humectare et desiccare, ipsa in se neque calida neque fridiga neque humida neque sicca sunt et non sunt in ipsis qualitates ille, sed naturales virtutes quibus peragunt actiones suas. Exempli causa motus calefacit, sed ipse calidus non est. Aqua frigida et nix calefaciunt et ipse in se calorem naturalem non habent. Ego cum Alfano et cum Mario sentio.82 These things are said above according to the Elucidarium and Origen. It ought to be noted that Archbishop Alfanus of Salerno and Marius of Salerno, my teacher, judge in an opposite way. For they say that the superior bodies, the firmament evidently, the sun, the moon, and all the stars, are not composed of elements. Composite things are subjected to corruption and dissolution, the elements themselves are also changed completely and corrupted, and therefore they are not composed of elements. All of them are indeed today as many and as such as they were from the beginning of the world. And although they are seen to heat and to cool down and to moisten and to dry out, they are in themselves not warm, nor cold, nor humid, nor dry, and those qualities are not in them, but rather natural virtues by which they accomplish their actions. For example, the movement warms up, but itself is not warm. Cold water and snow become warm and they have no natural warmth in themselves. I agree with Alfanus and Marius.

As noted by Charles Burnett, the theories Godfrey refers to in this text are to be found in Marius’ De elementis.83 Burnett further observed that Godfrey specifies these doctrines in terms that suggest a knowledge of either the Liber de orbe – a work of peripatetic physics and cosmology attributed to Māshā’allāh (fl. 762 – c. 815), identified by a manuscript now in New York as Liber Alcantari Caldeorum philosophi,84 and circulating as early as 1140 in a

master?’, Viator 3 (1972), 179–90. annotation has been copied in Würzburg, Universitätsbibliothek, ms M.ch.f.23. Gottschalk, ‘Marius und Gottfried’, p. 113. 83 Burnett, ‘The works of Petrus Alfonsi’, pp. 59–61. See also Burnett, ‘Physics before the Physics’, pp. 76–7. 84 New York, Columbia University, Rare Books and Manuscript Library, MS Plimpton 82 This

133

9781903153734.indd 133

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano translation probably made in Spain – or of Apex phisice (also called De secretis philosophie or Tractatus compendiosus de philosophia et eius secretis), a work influenced by the Liber de orbe,85 for it includes the very distinctive assertion that, following its creation, the heavenly sphere has not undergone any change.86 Burnett shows that the Liber de orbe deals with the fact that: ‘1) the firmamentum is not made of the four elements; 2) it is not subject to generation and corruption; 3) it is not different today as it was at the beginning of the world; 4) the planets seem to heat and cool, moisten, and dry without being hot, cold, wet, or dry themselves’.87 De secretis philosophie originated probably in southern Italy: the second book addresses ‘Domine Roberte, Dei gratia cancellari regis Ytalie (Lord Robert, by the grace of God chancellor of the King of Italy)’, probably Robert of Selby, chancellor of Roger II between 1137–1151.88 Part of the treatise, the section on Divinity, is said to have been added at the suggestion of the chancellor.89 Concerning the Liber de orbe, it seems unlikely that, had Godfrey known it in any direct way, he would have acknowledged it as a source any more than other authors who used it, such as William of Conches or the author of De secretis philosophie.90 That Godfrey may indeed have known Apex and its presumed author Marius Salernitanus is suggested by the similarities between the opening sections of the Pantheon and Apex.91 This work includes paragraphs on the Creator and the Trinity, as the Pantheon has paragraphs on the divina essentia and the Trinity. In the Apex they are followed by a paragraph on the creation and on the angels (including Lucifer), as in the Pantheon (De creatione et ordinibus angelorum).92 There follows in the Apex a chapter on the Human Being (De homine),93 while the Pantheon has first a section on the hýlē and the creation,94 and one on De creation primi hominis.95 They both discuss the

161, f. 30v; see also B. Obrist, ‘Twelfth-Century Cosmography, the De Secretis Philosophie and Māshā’allāh (attr. to), Liber de orbe’, Traditio 67 (2012), 235–76 (pp. 235–6). 85 Obrist, ‘Twelth-Century Cosmography’, p. 236. 86 Burnett, ‘The works of Petrus Alphonsi’, p. 60. 87 Ibid. 88 Obrist, ‘Twelth-Century Cosmography’, p. 241. 89 Ibid., p. 239. 90 B. Obrist, ‘William of Conches, Māshā’allāh, and Twelfth-Century Cosmology’, Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Age 76 (2009), 29–88. 91 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, cols. 6–12. 92 Ibid., cols. 12–24. 93 H. Lehmke, G. Maurach, O. Riha and A. Walter, ‘Apex Physice Anonymi’, Abhandlungen der Braunschweigischen Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft 45 (1994), 171–263 (p. 210). 94 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, coll. 22–35. 95 Ibid., cols. 38–46.

134

9781903153734.indd 134

08/05/2017 08:29

Cosmology, Theology of History and Ideology difference between men and angels, the fall and the Incarnation.96 However, the Apex carries on with a discussion on Yle (hýlē)97 and on the skies (firmamentum).98 There are, therefore, structural similarities that reveal similar metaphysical and physical interests, which could be due to a direct influence but also to a cultural atmosphere that connects different philosophical works of this time. Godfrey is more likely to have assimilated the doctrines of the Liber de orbe through his teacher, Marius Salernitanus, rather than by direct reading. Obrist has also reminded the reader that the Liber de orbe does not employ hylomorphism or the neo-Platonic oriented theory of the differentiation of elementary bodies generated by the movement of the heavenly spheres.99 On the contrary, Godfrey’s position in the Pantheon is clearly related to this Platonic tradition: De massa hyle. Ex qua omnis creatura corporea facta est a lunari circulo inferius Corporeum quoddam prius a deitate creatum, confusum, formaque carens fuit, hyle vocatum, Qua Deus ex massa cuncta creasse datur. Dum confusa foret gravis indigestaque moles, conditor ex more formas dedit absque labore, Dixit et illico sunt quae iubet esse Deus.100 On the matter. From which every corporeal creature is made from below the lunar sphere Some corporeal body previously created from the Divinity, It was confused, and lacking of form, called hýlē From which mass God is said to have created everything. Although it was a heavy and disordered shapeless mass The Creator as usual gave forms without effort, God spoke and immediately the things He orders to be exist.

The Apex phisice, which as we have said has been hypothesized as another possible source of Godfrey, specifies that hýlē is created, not generated.101 The forms were not coeternal, but rather flowed from God in the process of creation. The hýlē had form, but was forma confusionis, not dispositionis.102 However, Godfrey says, as we have seen, that the archetype already existed in God, and is called the hyle forma carens. There does not seem to be a direct influence of these ‘new’ texts on the physics on Godfrey: on the contrary, he 96 Cf.

ibid., cols. 46–52. et al., ‘Apex’, pp. 212–13. 98 Ibid., pp. 214–16. 99 Obrist, ‘Twelth-Century Cosmography’, p. 250. 100 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, col. 26. 101 Lehmke et al., ‘Apex’, p. 212. 102 Ibid. 97 Lehmke

135

9781903153734.indd 135

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano seems to follow much more closely the theoretical position of the Latin partial version (and commentary) of the Timaeus (due to Chalcidius), as Sturlese has shown. Chalcidius translates hýlē as silva and identifies it with Chaos.103 He writes in his commentary ‘chaos, quam Graeci hylen, nos siluam uocamus (Chaos, which the Greeks call hýlē, we call silva [wood or matter])’.104 He specifies that hýlē /silva, without changing its own nature: ‘diversis tamen et contrariis speciebus eorum quae intra se recipit formisque variatur (is changed, however, into different and contrary shapes, which she receives in her, and in forms)’.105 The following passage from Chalcidius’s commentary shows even more clearly how Godfrey is following him: ‘Silva corporea, uetus mundi substantia, prius quam effecta dei opificis sollertia sumeret formas, etiam tunc decolor et omni carens qualitate (the corporeal matter, old substance of the world, before she, worked out by the ingenuity of God the Maker, took up forms, was also discoloured and missing any quality)’.106 It is also clear that Godfrey is alluding to Ovid’s passage on Chaos in the first book of the Metamorphoses, as we can infer from the expression indigestaque moles: Ante mare et terras et, quod tetigit omnia, caelum Unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe, Quem dixere Chaos, rudis indigestaque moles Nec quicquam nisi pondus iners congestaque eodem non bene iunctarum discordia semina rerum.107 Ere land and sea and the all-covering sky Were made, in the whole world the countenance Of nature was the same, all one, well named Chaos, a raw and undivided mass, Naught but a lifeless bulk, with warring seeds Of ill-joined elements compressed together.108

It is clear that for Godfrey the indigesta moles receives forms from God, and these exist eternally in him as archetype. I believe the more radical idea of a co-eternal archetypum can be more easily reconciled with the harmonic vision of the universe expressed by Godfrey, and therefore with his world vision.

103 N.

Van Deusen, ‘In and Out of a Latin “Forst”: the Timaeus latinus, its concept of silva, and music as a discipline in the Middle Ages’, Musica Disciplina 53 (2003– 2008), 51–70 (p. 55). 104 Waszink, Timaeus, II.cxxiii, p. 167. 105 Waszink, Timaeus II.cclxviii, p. 273. 106 Ibid., p. 282. 107 Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoseon libri, I.5–9. 108 Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. A.D. Melville (Oxford, 2008), p. 1.

136

9781903153734.indd 136

08/05/2017 08:29

Cosmology, Theology of History and Ideology

Metaphysics and physics in a universal chronicle Godfrey is not the only eleventh-century author who associates theological, cosmographical, and historiographical material. The Imago mundi, whose third book is a universal chronicle,109 includes a paragraph on the form of the world, another on the creation of the world, and another on the elements.110 It does not include anything similar to Godfrey’s well-developed theological section on the essence of God, the Trinity, the angels and the nature of the human being, nor for the modern sources he is able to use. The Liber floridus by Lambert of Saint-Omer (Gent, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Ms. 92) also includes texts on the Catholic faith and the divine essence (De essentia divina) as well as on the description of the cosmos (e.g. fols. 87v–88r) and on the heavens and the zodiac (fols. 88v–92r), as well on the angels (fol. 144r) and the Cur Deus homo (Why God became man, a text on Christ’s redeeming death on the Cross) by Anselm (fols. 144v–152v).111 Moreover, the text includes an outline of world history, such as the ‘Fretulfus episcopus historiographus de Mundi exordio, de filiis Adę et Noe et regnorum regibus usque ad Christum (Bishop Fretulfus, historian, on the beginning of the world, the sons of Adam and Noah, and the kings of the reigns till Jesus Christ)’, which includes a description of the Translatio imperii from the regnum Assiriorum to the regnum Medorum, the regnum Persarum, and the regnum Romanorum;112 or the Chronica Ysidori de Vque ętatibus, with the addition on the Roman emperors in the sixth age.113 Godfrey, nevertheless, can be distinguished from his predecessors both in the way the cosmological parts are integrated in the well-designed architecture of his universal chronicle, introducing the historical narration and creating an organic, harmonious construction, and the way in which he is able to connect to the changing landscape of twelfth-century science. From this perspective, he also differs radically from Otto of Freising. Otto of Freising’s eighth book of the Historia de duabus civitatibus includes a description of the hierarchies of angels.114 This however, has to be understood as part of a description of the state of the Heavenly Jerusalem and its ‘inhabitants’ after

109 V.

I. J. Flint, ‘Honorius Augustodunensis Imago mundi’, Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 49 (1982), 48–151 (pp. 123–151). 110 Flint, ‘Honorius Augustodunensis’, pp. 49–50. 111 See in particular K. De Coene, ‘Lambert and the Scholarly Culture. The Intellectual World of the Liber Floridus’, in K. De Coene, M. De Reu, Ph. De Maeyer (eds.), Liber Floridus 1121. The World in a Book (Tielt, 2011), pp. 57–73. 112 Gent, UB, Ms. 92, ff. 21r-21v. 113 Gent, UB, Ms. 92, ff. 32v-46r and ff. 46v-47r. 114 Otto von Freising, Chronica sive Historia duabus civitatibus, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum 45 (Hannover, 1912), VIII.29–33.

137

9781903153734.indd 137

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano the apocalypse: the historical section to a certain extent as an introduction to the description of the end of time and the City of God.115 Godfrey’s approach to universal history differs from that of Otto, although Otto still represents an important source and model for the author of the Pantheon. The theological and cosmographical sections of the Pantheon precede the historical narration. They give a foundation to the order of the world that finds its development in history. The ideological implications, as well as the philosophy of history in general, are radically different. I believe the reason for this strengthening of the cosmological apparatus in the work of Godfrey of Viterbo needs to be found in the quest for new forms of political legitimations for the Empire. As has been argued by Odilo Engels,116 Godfrey’s work belongs to a new phase of legitimation policy among the Hohenstaufen, where the legitimation based on the ‘inheritance’ of Rome was not sufficient any more: eschatological elements are brought to the forefront. We can point to the famous Ludus de Antichristo as one of the works expressing this ideology, in which the Emperor, having defeated the King of Babylon, enters the Temple and offers the Crown and the Sceptre, and all his authority, to God, and returns to the see of his Empire.117 Godfrey, for example, connects to the tradition of Sibylline texts, stressing how the Holy Roman Empire can be seen as the last empire, which implies a crucial eschatological role.118 This eschatological role is shown very clearly in the section of the Pantheon dedicated to Alexander the Great.119 Alexander is the protagonist of another moment in the articulation of world history: the succession of the four world monarchies as supported by the notion of Translatio imperii: we talk about the fall of the Persian Empire and the creation of the Greek monarchy, the moment in which the second world monarchy ends and the third begins. The section on Alexander is actually preceded by a chapter on the names, origins, and deeds of the Sibyls.120 In discussing the enclosure of the unclean nations Gog and Magog by Alexander, Godfrey explains how these nations will fight for the Antichrist at the end of time. The king of the Romans (rex Romanus, the emperor) will defeat them as witnessed by the Sibyl: ‘Tunc rex Romanus surget, testante sybilla,/Viribus imperii qui gentem destruet illam (Then the Roman king will 115 Ibid,

VIII.prol. Engels, Studien zum Liber Universalis Gottfrieds von Viterbo (Augsburg, 2001), pp. 126–9. 117 Der Ludus de Antichristo, ed. F. Wilhelm (München, 19122), p. 11; see also, A. A. Latowsky, Emperor of the World: Charlemagne and the Construction of Imperial Authority, 800–1229 (Ithaca, N.Y, 2013), pp. 142–61. 118 Engels, Studien, pp. 156–7. 119 M. Campopiano, ‘Parcours de la légende d’Alexandre en Italie. Réflexions sur la réception italienne de l’Historia de Preliis, recensio J2 (XIIe-XVe siècles)’, in L’historiographie médiévale d’Alexandre le Grand (Turnhout, 2011), pp. 65–83. 120 Gottofridus Viterbiensis, Pantheon, cols. 248–259. 116 O.

138

9781903153734.indd 138

08/05/2017 08:29

Cosmology, Theology of History and Ideology arise, as the Sibyl testifies,/Who will destroy those people with the strength of the Empire)’.121 The emperor will then leave Rome, and remain in Jerusalem, where he will leave his crown (in a scene clearly similar to that of the Ludus de Antichristo), and the Jews will finally be converted, anticipating the end of the world: Denique pro Christo statuet dimittere Romam, Religione bona deponet in urbe coronam, stare Hierosolymis, vivere mente bona. Huius erit constans animus longaque vita, Tunc convertetur Iudaeus et Israelita, Annis centenis rex remanebit ita.122 Finally, he will decide to leave Rome He will lay down the crown in the city through good religion To stay in Jerusalem, to live well. His personality will be constant, and his life long, Then the Jew and the Israelite will be converted The King will remain in this state for a hundred years.

The empire is therefore clearly associated with the fulfilment of an eschatological role.123 The world history mirrors an order: the harmony that reigns throughout the cosmos must also be understood as diachronic principles, organizing the events of history. God gave form to matter, and this form should not be understood simply as a physical principle of organization, but as a providential order developing itself throughout history.

Conclusions The Pantheon creates a perfect circularity between its metaphysical assumptions and its theology of history. The archetype of the world is eternally present in God. From his creation the history of the world develops as a harmonic construct, where even the creation and fall of the Devil can be seen as a harmonic design, comparable, as we have seen, with the harmony of colours in a painting. Man in himself is a microcosmos, and he reproduces in himself this harmony. The story develops in the succession of the four world monarchies. We are living in the last of them, the Roman Empire, which will play an eschatological role. The rule of the world, which is in the hand of the Emperor, will be returned at the end of time to God, a cycle perfectly closed. 121 Ibid.,

col. 267. col. 267. 1 23 A. B. Mulder-Bakker, ‘A Pantheon full of examples: the world chronicle of Godfrey of Viterbo’ in Exemplum et similitudo. Alexander the Great and Other Heroes as Points of Reference in Medieval Literature, ed. W. J. Aerts and M. Gosman (Groningen, 1988), pp. 85–98 (p. 92). 122 Ibid.,

139

9781903153734.indd 139

08/05/2017 08:29

Michele Campopiano Thus the Pantheon confirms the cosmic role of the Empire. This is a very strong ideological argument, which would support the claims to universal power by giving to them metaphysical foundations. Godfrey has managed to fuse perfectly metaphysics and world history. As modern readers we struggle to understand the principles that structure this ponderous world history. Crossing the boundaries between historiography, metaphysics, and theology reveals the geniality of Godfrey’s construction.

140

9781903153734.indd 140

08/05/2017 08:29

6 Écrire l’histoire universelle à la cour de Konrad IV de Hohenstaufen: la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems (milieu du XIIIe siècle) Christophe Thierry

This chapter continues this book’s reflections on historiographical writing in the imperial milieu. It focuses on Rudolf of Ems’s Weltchronik, written in the first half of the thirteenth century and dedicated to King Konrad IV, the son of the emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. The Weltchronik is a crucial work in the development of Middle High German historiography. This chapter interrogates its social background (including Rudolf’s close ties with the Hohenstaufen family), exploring the traces it left in the author’s organization of his material. The chapter delineates some characteristics of early vernacular historiography in the Empire to show how it asserted itself in relation to Latin literature. L’exposé qui suit consiste en une présentation, nécessairement très incomplète, de la première chronique universelle rimée en langue allemande affichant l’ambition d’englober l’ensemble de l’histoire de l’humanité ainsi qu’un véritable savoir encyclopédique. Deux textes, l’Annolied composé vers la fin du XIe siècle et dont la réception fut probablement assez limitée, et la Kaiserchronik, beaucoup plus célèbre que ce dernier et datée de 1150 environ, lui ont ouvert la voie. La Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems est à peu près contemporaine de la Sächsische Weltchronik, en prose, et de la Christherre-Chronik, dont la perspective est plus clairement théologique. Bien que restée à l’état de fragment, elle témoigne d’une ambition sans précédent dans le domaine de l’historiographie en langue vernaculaire, ce qui s’explique en grande partie par le fait que son commanditaire, Konrad IV, appartenait à une brillante dynastie royale, celle des Hohenstaufen, qui fut aussi la plus controversée de son temps. Cette image à double face de la dynastie souabe n’est sans doute pas étrangère à son succès: le texte de Rudolf a été l’objet d’un intérêt sans cesse renouvelé, non seulement au Moyen Âge où il engendra une tradition historiographique très riche, par le biais de nombreuses compilations incluant la Christherre-Chronik et la Weltchronik du Viennois Jans Enikel, et dont la Weltchronik attribuée à Heinrich von München est, au xive siècle, l’un des 141

9781903153734.indd 141

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry représentants les plus spectaculaires,1 mais aussi à l’époque contemporaine, dans la recherche, où elle a suscité des études très denses. Il est par ailleurs impossible de rendre compte de tout ce qui, dans la tradition manuscrite de la Weltchronik de Rudolf, dans ses remplois et prolongations, renvoie à l’image problématique de la lignée royale qui présida aux destinées de l’Empire pendant un peu plus d’un siècle.2 Ainsi, des indices d’une réticence à se réclamer du patronage politique des Hohenstaufen ont-ils été décelés dans certaines branches de cette tradition; Danielle Jaurant a traité de cet aspect dans sa riche monographie.3 Nous avons aussi complètement éludé un volet essentiel de la technique de réécriture des sources par Rudolf, la greffe 1 Studien

zur ‘Weltchronik’ Heinrichs von München, t. 1, Überlieferung, Forschungsbericht, Untersuchungen, Texte, éd. H. Brunner (Wiesbaden, 1998). 2 La Weltchronik est le texte en moyen haut allemand pour lequel nous disposons du plus grand nombre de manuscrits et de fragments, soit plus de cent: voir la liste sur le site du Marburger Handschriftencensus: http://www.handschriftencensus. de/werke/322; A. F. C. Vilmar, Die zwei Rezensionen und die Handschriftenfamilien der Weltchronik Rudolfs von Ems, mit Auszügen aus den noch ungedruckten Theilen beider Bearbeitungen (Marburg, 1839), distingue cinq groupes dans la tradition manuscrite de la Weltchronik: 1) un premier groupe de manuscrits, environ vingtcinq, dans lesquels la Weltchronik est très majoritaire; 2) un deuxième groupe dans lequel c’est au contraire la Christherre-Chronik qui est majoritaire; 3) les manuscrits de la Weltchronik dont le début est celui de la Christherre-Chronik; 4) la Christherre-Chronik complétée par la deuxième partie de la Weltchronik, soit, la plupart du temps, à partir du premier Livre des Rois; 5) les manuscrits de la Weltchronik de Heinrich von München (xive siècle). On peut ajouter à cela la réception de la Weltchronik sous forme dérimée dans les bibles historiales du Moyen Âge tardif (voir W. Walliczek, ‘Rudolf von Ems’, dans Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon (Berlin, 1992), VIII, col. 339; D. Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form. Überlieferungsstruktur und Weltgeschichte (Tubingue, 1995), pp. 28–40; O. Doberentz, Die Erd- und Völkerkunde in der Weltchronik des Rudolf von Hohen-Ems (Diss. Halle, 1880), publié dans Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, 12 (1881), 257–301 (p. 259), consultable à l’adresse internet https://archive.org/ stream/zeitschriftfrdph12berluoft#page/256/mode/2up, dernière consultation en novembre 2014: il s’agit du groupe ‘IIa’ des bibles historiales). D. Klein offre un panorama de la tradition manuscrite (‘Heinrich von München und die Tradition der gereimten deutschen Weltchronistik’, dans Studien zur Weltchronik Heinrichs von München, I, 1–112 (pp. 74–109)); pour un panorama, voir aussi l’introduction à l’édition de G. Ehrismann, Rudolfs von Ems Weltchronik. Aus der Wernigeroder Handschrift, mit drei Tafeln (Francfort-sur-le-Main, 1967), pp. vi–x, et Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, pp. 61–271, ainsi que les annexes de l’ouvrage, pp. 395–9 (‘Handschriftenregister’); de même, K. Gärtner, ‘Überlieferungstypen mittelhochdeutscher Weltchroniken’, dans Geschichtsbewusstsein in der deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters, éd. C. Gerhardt, N. F. Palmer et B. Wachinger (London, 1985), pp. 110–18. Voir aussi, en complément, ces deux articles, postérieurs à la publication de l’ouvrage de D. Jaurant: R. G. Dunphy, ‘Ein neues Weltchronik-Fragment in Engelthal’, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 140 (2011), 353–8; R. G. Dunphy, ‘Zwei Fragmente aus der Weltchronik Rudolfs von Ems’, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 143 (2014), 220–3. 3 Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, pp. 359–60.

142

9781903153734.indd 142

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 1: Rudolf von Ems, Weltchronik. La construction de la tour de Babel. Bibliothèque municipale de Colmar, MS 305, cliché IRHT.

143

9781903153734.indd 143

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry de motifs caractéristiques de la littérature courtoise sur le récit proprement historiographique, un procédé dont Horst Wenzel a rendu compte.4 Il s’agit pourtant là d’un aspect qui, parce qu’il touche à la culture chevaleresque en général, est intrinsèquement lié au milieu dans lequel la Weltchronik a vu le jour. Ces choix une fois opérés, nous nous en tenons au plan suivant, dont le fil directeur reste néanmoins les liens de l’auteur Rudolf avec le milieu de cour, et plus spécifiquement, avec le milieu impérial: 1. – Entre l’exigence de brevitas et la tentation du commentaire savant; 2. – Médiévalisation des sources: s’adresser à un public de cour du xiiie siècle; 3. – Heurématographie, savoir encyclopédique et évhémérisme: la formation intellectuelle du prince; 4. – Procédés de structuration; 5. – Histoire universelle et idéologie impériale. On verra en quoi la Weltchronik, en dépit de son programme très ambitieux et de l’érudition qu’elle manifeste de la part de son auteur, tente de répondre aux attentes spécifiques d’un public de cour. Ce programme est en effet, a priori, peu susceptible de captiver un auditoire chevaleresque, en dehors du cadre très particulier d’une lecture solitaire et régulière, qui suppose elle-même une ferme volonté de se cultiver en embrassant l’ensemble du savoir historique disponible au temps de Konrad IV. C’est bien à la commande d’une personnalité hors du commun, celle d’un roi, certes très jeune mais conscient des exigences de sa fonction et soucieux de représentation, que répond Rudolf. Telle qu’elle se présente à nous, c’est-à-dire inachevée, la Weltchronik est principalement consacrée à l’histoire d’Israël, puisqu’elle suit le récit biblique. Elle est divisée en cinq ‘âges’ d’après une périodisation de l’histoire proche de celle de saint Augustin. Le cinquième âge est placé par Rudolf sous l’égide de David; le statut de modèle conféré au règne de ce roi bénéficiant du soutien divin, mais surtout l’actualité politique du règne de David aux yeux de Rudolf, sont confirmés par le remarquable éloge du roi Konrad que l’auteur insère à cet endroit du texte.5 Rudolf entrecoupe l’histoire sainte de développements sur l’histoire profane, ceux-ci se faisant plus importants à la fin des différents ‘âges’, à l’exception du premier âge, qui n’en contient pas, et du deuxième, où ils occupent toute la partie centrale.6 Le contenu de ces ‘digressions’ est en partie annoncé dans le prologue: destruction de Troie, fondation de Rome, domination mondiale de l’Empire romain (v. 164–88).7 Le premier développement de ce genre se situe dans le deuxième âge, après 4 H.

Wenzel, Höfische Geschichte, Beiträge zur älteren deutschen Literaturgeschichte 5 (Berne, Francfort-sur-le-Main, Las Vegas, 1980). Voir aussi W. H. Jackson, ‘Chivalric vocabulary in the works of Rudolf von Ems’, dans Blütezeit. Festschrift für L. Peter Johnson, éd. M. Chinca, J. Heinzle und C. Young (Tubingue, 2000), pp. 427–43. 5 H. Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex als literarhistorisches Monument’, dans Rudolf von Ems, Weltchronik. Der Stricker, Karl der Große. Kommentar zu Ms 302 Vad. (Lucerne, 1987), pp. 127–273 (p. 186). 6 Sur cette structuration, voir infra, chapitre 4: ‘Procédés de structuration’. 7 Numérotation de l’édition d’Ehrismann (cf. note 2). Le texte édité par Ehrismann

144

9781903153734.indd 144

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems le récit de la construction de la Tour de Babel et consiste en une description des trois continents (v. 1357–3088); il est question dans le deuxième des dieux de l’Antiquité européenne (v. 3200–46), et dans le troisième de l’Assyrie, de l’Égypte, de Sicyone, de Nemrod, de la fondation de Trèves et de Sémiramis (v. 3322–745, ces deux autres développements se situant dans le deuxième âge également);8 le quatrième, situé dans le troisième âge de l’humanité, traite des rois d’Assyrie, de Sicyone, d’Argolide, de Grèce et d’Égypte (v. 8591–777); le cinquième, le sixième et le septième relèvent du quatrième âge et traitent respectivement de la fondation des cités grecques (v. 10436–99), des rois d’Assyrie, de Sycione, d’Égypte, d’Argolide, de Troie et d’Athènes (v. 15722–87), des rois athéniens, à nouveau des rois sicyoniens, des rois d’Argolide, d’Assyrie, d’Égypte, de Troie, de Grèce, d’Italie, de Crète, de la destruction de Troie (v. 19656–20381).9 Le dernier développement sur l’histoire profane relève du cinquième ‘âge’: il y est question des rois d’Italie, de France, à nouveau des rois d’Italie, puis de ceux de Grande Bretagne, d’Assyrie, de Sicyone, d’Athènes, de Sparte, de Corinthe (v. 26379–804). Cet aperçu fait apparaître combien la notion de continuité monarchique et dynastique préoccupe Rudolf von Ems.

Entre l’exigence de brevitas et la tentation du commentaire savant À une époque qui correspond à celle de la rédaction de la Weltchronik, l’intérêt de Rudolf pour l’histoire se manifeste également à travers la composition d’un Alexander, inspiré en partie des Historiae de Quinte-Curce.10 Or, c’est aussi, dans une certaine mesure, le style qui unit l’Alexander et la Weltchronik. Lors de la phase de rédaction qui correspond à ce que la recherche appelle l’Alexander II, celle où, précisément, les Historiae deviennent sa source prépondérante, les caractéristiques stylistiques de l’Alexander sont peu ou prou celles de la Weltchronik: excepté dans les prologues de l’Alexander, qui sont

est celui du manuscrit de Munich (Z: Munich, Staatsbibliothek, Cgm. 8345), qui était autrefois à Wernigerode (Fürstliche Stolbergische Bibliothek, Cod. Zb 34). 8 La source est le Speculum regum de Godefroi de Viterbe pour cet épisode;  H. Brackert, Rudolf von Ems. Dichtung und Geschichte (Heidelberg, 1968), p. 174, n. 74. 9 Pour ce développement, Rudolf met aussi à profit, entre autres, le Panthéon de Godefroi de Viterbe, parallèlement à l’Historia scholastica. Voir Brackert, Rudolf von Ems, p. 175, n. 77. 10 Voir, au sujet de l’Alexander de Rudolf, nos développements dans la Fascination pour Alexandre le Grand dans les littératures européennes (XE–XVIE siècle). Réinventions d’un mythe, éd. C. Gaullier-Bougassas, 4 vols. (Turnhout, 2014), I (conscience d’auteur, technique de réécritures des sources, question du genre),  496–8, 51320, 545–51, II (image du souverain), 1098–119, III (l’Alexandre scientifique et aventurier), 1615–38, IV (fiche technique), 423–31. Une édition a été procurée par V. Junk: Rudolf von Ems, Alexander. Ein höfischer Versroman des 13. Jahrhunderts, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1928–9).

145

9781903153734.indd 145

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry très ornés, Rudolf opte pour la simplicité de l’écriture biblique, pour le stilus ou sermo humilis11, tout en composant en vers, contrairement à l’auteur de la Sächsische Weltchronik qui adopte la prose.12 Le choix du dépouillement procède de l’imitation du style biblique, mais Rudolf peut aussi se réclamer, dans ce domaine, de l’avis de saint Augustin.13 Comme Cicéron avant lui, Augustin préconise le recours au moins élevé des trois niveaux de style, celui qui ne présente pas d’ornement, pour le sermon, l’enseignement et le commentaire des Écritures, puisque sa fonction est d’expliquer.14 Par ailleurs, la volonté de réduire au maximum le commentaire savant et de ne retenir de l’histoire que ce qui est essentiel à la compréhension des faits est explicitée par Rudolf. C’est ainsi qu’on trouve sur cette exigence de brevitas un passage – relativement long ! – au début du troisième âge, celui d’Abraham.15 On perçoit, dans ce développement, que les notions de vérité et de brevitas sont liées,16 et qu’à ces deux notions se surajoute celle de clarté 11 E.

Auerbach, Literatursprache und Publikum in der lateinischen Spätantike und im Mittelalter (Berne, 1958), p. 25 au sujet du sermo humilis; I. von Tippelskirch, Die ‘Weltchronik’ des Rudolf von Ems. Studien zur Geschichtsauffassung und politischen Intention (Göppingen, 1979), pp. 72–8. Ce sont surtout les prologues du livre I et du livre V qui sont très ornés. 12 Sächsische Weltchronik, éd. L. Weiland (Munich, 2001). 13 Patrologia Latina (ci-après PL) 34, 99: ‘Cujus evidentiæ diligens appetitus aliquando negligit verba cultiora, nec curat quid bene sonet, sed quid bene indiquet atque intimet quod ostendere intendit (…). Hæc tamen sic detrahit ornatum, ut sordes non contrahat’ (De doctrina christiana IV.x.24). 14 Auerbach, Literatursprache und Publikum, p. 29. 15 L’exigence de brevitas était particulièrement forte au Moyen Âge dans le domaine de l’historiographie et dans le domaine juridique (von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 64). Voir aussi E. R. Curtius, Europäische Literatur und lateinisches Mittelalter (Berne, 1965), p. 479 (‘Exkurs III: Kürze als Stilideal’). Von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 67–8, cite un certain nombre de passages de la Bible que Rudolf a abrégés en supprimant les redoublements: création d’Ève, enlèvement de Sarah, double mention de l’ordre du Pharaon dans le Livre de l’Exode (5.6 et 5.10). Le Lévitique, les Nombres et le Deutéronome sont abrégés, Rudolf s’en explique (v. 11976–84). 16 Sur ce lien, voir les passages suivants: ‘das han ih můt und gůtin wan, / ob mir Got der tage so vil / gan, das ih diz alliz wil / tihtin mit warheit, doh kúrzeklike (…)’ (v. 174–7: ‘J’ai la ferme intention et l’espoir, si Dieu me prête vie, de raconter tout cela en vérité et sans digression (…)’), et v. 877–8: ‘das han ih al hie geseit / kúrzeliche und ouh mit warheit’ (‘Tout cela, je l’ai raconté en respectant l’exigence de brièveté et en m’en tenant à la vérité’), ainsi que les v. 8803–25. Voir Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, pp. 291–2. Von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 62, attire l’attention sur le fait que la revendication de la vérité relève de l’exorde dans la rhétorique antique et est un topos répandu au Moyen Âge (littérature afférente p. 62, n. 5). Ce sont la Bible et les ‘livres de vérité’ qui garantissent à Rudolf un récit en tout point conforme à cette exigence d’authenticité (v. 181–4: ‘als uns mit rehte warheit / dú bůh der warheit hant geseit, / dú mit der heiligen schrift / sint des geloubin rehtú stift’, ‘comme nous l’ont raconté en toute vérité les livres de vérité qui sont, tout comme les Saintes Écritures, le fondement de la foi’).

146

9781903153734.indd 146

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems du style (c’est ainsi que nous interprétons le terme moyen haut allemand de slihte17) dans l’idée que se fait Rudolf de l’écriture historiographique: An disin meren der ih han Begunnen unde hergetan Rehte in rehtir rihte An umbekreiz mit slihte, Han ich kúrzecliche her geseit Ane valsch die warheit Mit kurzin wortin zu gesniten und al die umberede vermittin, davon dú mere lengent sich. der chúrzze flizzich gerne mich, das deste balder vollebraht werdin, als ich han gedaht, dú mere dú ich tihtin wil: der rede wrde anders gar ze vil ob ich, darnah ich solte, gar vollesagin wolte dú mere dú mit warheit dú heiligú scrift darinne seit (…).    v. 3794–811 ‘J’ai rendu compte de manière concise de tous les événements, j’ai commencé et mené jusqu’ici le récit, sans digression aucune, sans dévier de ma route et en des termes simples et vrais, j’ai formulé les choses sans les travestir et avec concision, prenant soin d’éviter tous les commentaires qui allongent le récit. Je me soumets d’autant plus volontiers à cette exigence de brièveté que le récit que je veux composer sera terminé plus tôt, comme je le souhaite: le récit serait trop long si, comme je le devrais cependant, je racontais absolument toute l’histoire transmise en toute vérité par les Écritures.’

L’explication se poursuit sur une dizaine de vers; elle est finalement si longue qu’on ne peut s’empêcher de penser que Rudolf y a mis une bonne dose d’humour.18 Il justifie ailleurs le fait qu’il ne reprenne pas les lois du Deutéronome par un autre argument: leur énumération ne pourrait susciter que du désagrément et causer une perte de temps, puisque Dieu a depuis cette époque fait don aux hommes de la vie et de la loi de la Grâce, une loi 17 Ce

terme recoupe un des aspects, semble-t-il, de la narratio aperta; voir H. Lausberg, Handbuch der literarischen Rhetorik: Eine Grundlegung der Literaturwissenschaft (Stuttgart, 1990), p. 177. On peut considérer que le terme de slihte est synonyme de stilus humilis dans l’esprit de Rudolf. Ehrismann pense pour sa part qu’il est synonyme de ‘vérité’ (voir le lexique de l’édition de la Weltchronik, p. 594). 18 Selon Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, p. 291, Rudolf renonce dans ce prologue à la brevitas pour ne plus revendiquer que la warheit et la slihte. D’une manière générale, il ne retient que les faits bruts, utilise de préférence la langue courante, et veille à ce que l’interprétation théologique ne prenne jamais le pas sur le récit des événements. Voir aussi, sur ce point, Vilmar, Die zwei Recensionen, p. 13.

147

9781903153734.indd 147

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry moins rigide qui n’accable pas les hommes par le sentiment de leur propre culpabilité (v. 12876–909). Il s’avère cependant, en fin de compte, que le commentaire didactique n’est pas totalement exclu, loin de là, et que les principes énoncés dans le passage cité ici ne sont pas strictement respectés dès lors qu’il s’agit de mettre en valeur la supériorité du message chrétien. En effet, l’ambition didactique, toujours sous-jacente, explique que Rudolf ne s’interdise pas de se livrer, de façon certes sporadique, à une interprétation théologique des événements qu’il relate ou des objets qu’il décrit. La question est bien sûr de savoir pour quelles raisons l’auteur de la Weltchronik s’attache dans certains cas au sens spirituel alors qu’il ne le fait pas habituellement. Danielle Jaurant note que les passages en question illustrent tous le lien typologique entre Judaïsme et Christianisme:19 il s’agit de l’interprétation cosmologique de la tente de la rencontre,20 sur laquelle nous allons revenir; de l’interprétation tropologique ou ‘allégorico-typologique’ du sacrifice du prêtre-roi Melkisédeq,21 qui annonce à la fois David et le Christ, et, à ce titre, renvoie directement à la royauté messianique des Hohenstaufen et donc de Konrad, le commanditaire de la Weltchronik;22 de la fête juive de Passah,23 qui commémore le jour où Dieu libéra les juifs d’Égypte, est interprétée comme la préfiguration de la Passion et de la Résurrection et manifeste l’importance capitale de ces événements pour le salut de l’humanité; de la traversée de la Mer rouge et du destin de Pharaon,24 que Rudolf interprète, de manière traditionnelle, comme une figure du baptême lors duquel les péchés sont noyés; du bâton fleuri d’Aaron,25 renvoyant quant à lui à la maternité de Marie, non

19 Jaurant,

Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, p. 291, n. 1031. 26; Weltchronik, v. 12487–620, pour l’interprétation fournie par Rudolf. 21 Genèse 14.18–20; Hébreux 7; v. 4317–47 pour le commentaire de Rudolf. 22 Voir, infra, chap. 5, l’hymne à Konrad dans la Weltchronik. 23 Phase (la Pâque juive), v. 10525; Exode 12 (v. 10500–31 de la Weltchronik); Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 216. 24 Exode 14 (v. 10932–11088 de la Weltchronik); Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 217. 25 Nombres 17.16–28 (v. 14046–73 de la Weltchronik); Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, pp. 216–17. L’interprétation figurale du bâton d’Aaron permet à Rudolf d’exposer une des multiples généalogies de la Weltchronik, la plus prestigieuse puisqu’elle est symbolisée par l’arbre de Jessé, dont Marie est l’un des derniers rameaux (voir von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 114). Dans un sermon à la gloire des Staufen prononcé entre 1229 et 1237, le diacre Nicolas de Bari a comparé le grand-père de Frédéric II, Frédéric Barberousse, au bâton d’Aaron. Le texte de Nicolas de Bari a été édité et commenté par R. M. Kloos, ‘Nikolaus von Bari, eine neue Quelle zur Entwicklung der Kaiseridee unter Friedrich II.’, dans Stupor mundi. Zur Geschichte Friedrichs II. von Hohenstaufen, dir. G. G. Wolf, 2e édition (Darmstadt, 1982), pp. 130–60, avec une traduction allemande (pp. 543–51). H. M. Schaller suppose que c’est ce texte qui a fourni le motif d’un bas-relief gravé sur le côté extérieur de l’escalier menant à la chaire de la cathédrale de Bitonto, et qui représente Frédéric Ier, Henri VI, Frédéric II et Konrad IV (H. M. Schaller, Das Relief 20 Exode

148

9781903153734.indd 148

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems entachée de péché; des serpents brûlants et du serpent d’airain,26 symbolisant les péchés mortels et le sacrifice rédempteur du Christ. Rudolf explique du reste quelle importance il faut accorder selon lui à ces événements – la citation se trouve dans le passage de la Weltchronik consacré à la construction de la tente de la rencontre et à l’interprétation de cette description, mais la formulation est volontairement générale et vaut pour l’ensemble de l’Ancien Testament: swas in der selben tage frist in der e wart von Gote geboten und von Gotis gebote, das was und ist bezeichenlich und bezeichinde sich uf kristenliche ê, dú nu ist, die Got unser herre Crist uns in sinir menscheit mit siner lere hat uf geleit alse ez dú gotheit gebot.’    v. 12621–30 ‘Ce que Dieu ordonna à cette époque par la Loi, tout cela avait et a une signification symbolique et se rapporte à la Nouvelle Alliance, qui vaut à présent pour nous, celle que Dieu, notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ, nous a offerte en se faisant homme et par son enseignement comme Dieu le Père l’avait ordonné.’

Dans ce passage, Rudolf met ensuite en parallèle le don de la Loi sur le Mont Sinaï le cinquantième jour après la sortie d’Égypte et le don de l’Esprit Saint aux apôtres le jour de la Pentecôte. L’intérêt que peut trouver Rudolf à commenter ces événements ressort dès lors plus nettement: ils éclairent d’une lumière particulièrement intense la dimension prophétique, universelle et sacrée du pouvoir. C’est bien la royauté incarnée par les Hohenstaufen qui s’en trouve glorifiée, ces derniers étant héritiers, comme y insiste le texte, de la sagesse de Moïse et d’Aaron, et, par suite, de celle des rois bibliques ayant eux-mêmes annoncé la royauté du Christ. À titre d’exemple, le passage sur la construction de l’arche de l’alliance et celle de la tente de la rencontre27 fera ici l’objet d’une présentation un peu plus approfondie. Il comporte un commentaire sur le sens caché des éléments constitutifs de l’arche et de la tente, qui ne figure pas dans la Bible: Rudolf puise ici dans une tradition exégétique très ancienne, transmise par la littérature rabbinique, par Philon d’Alexandrie et par Flavius Josèphe

an der Kanzel der Kathedrale von Bitonto. Ein Denkmal der Kaiseridee Friedrichs II., dans Stupor Mundi, pp. 299–324 (pp. 309–24)). 26 Nombres 21.4–9 (v. 14331–59); Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 215. 27 Exode 16.32–34 (vase pour la Manne), Exode 25–7, 35–8.

149

9781903153734.indd 149

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry entre autres.28 Il mentionne la partie de la tente qui n’est accessible qu’au grand prêtre et précise qu’elle signifie le ciel où Dieu réside avec ses anges (v. 12516–20), le saint des saints, qui symbolise la terre et la mer ainsi que toutes les créatures (v. 12528–35),29 le rideau en lin richement orné de plantes figurées en couleur ainsi que le ciel et les étoiles (v. 12528–52), le baldaquin sur lequel sont représentés les nuages, la tenture située au-dessus du baldaquin, en peau teinte de rouge, symbolisant le feu du ciel où vivent les anges et les élus de Dieu (v. 12553–67), les quatre couleurs du toit de la tente le plus élevé, symbolisant les cieux, où vit Dieu dont la sagesse contrôle les quatre éléments (v. 12568–95), la table sur laquelle sont déposés les pains, qui symbolise quant à elle le temps qui s’écoule, les sept cierges du chandelier, symbole des sept planètes (v. 12596–605). Les soixante-dix-sept pièces constituant la tente signifient l’harmonie des sphères et l’harmonie de l’univers telle qu’elles ont été voulues par Dieu (‘dú decamonie / und och dú armonie’; v. 12606–20). La description de la tente en genéral renvoie à l’ordre cosmique et à l’harmonie des sphères;30 Rudolf semble vouloir se limiter, pour l’essentiel, à l’interprétation cosmique et ne fait qu’effleurer le sens allégorico-tropologique ou moral du dispositif.31 La précision avec laquelle il fait état de ces éléments prend une signification toute particulière quand on sait l’importance accordée par les souverains médiévaux aux représentations de l’univers, notamment sous la forme d’automates, et la puissance symbolique qu’ils leur attribuaient. Ces objets furent à la fois des instruments de la représentation du pouvoir et des instruments de la diplomatie, comme l’atteste par exemple une lettre de Théodoric le Grand à Boèce, auquel il demande de pourvoir à la fabrication d’automates destinés au roi burgonde Gondebaud.32 Parmi les inventions de Boèce auxquelles Théodoric se réfère dans ce document, on trouve un planétarium composé d’un soleil et d’étoiles mobiles. D’autres témoignages montrent combien certains souverains médiévaux aimaient à se mettre en scène par le biais d’inventions de ce genre, particulièrement en Orient. Lorsque l’empereur byzantin Héraclius 28 Herkommer,

‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, pp. 203–18. semble considérer comme deux parties distinctes de la tente celle dans laquelle seul le grand prêtre a le droit d’entrer une fois par an et le saint des saints (‘heilige heiligheit’, v. 12528), alors que les deux ne font théoriquement qu’un. Quant à ce que Rudolf désigne par le terme de heiligheite (v. 12485: ‘saint’, ‘sanctuaire’), il semble qu’il s’agisse de l’ensemble du tabernacle. Dans la Weltchronik, son symbolisme est légèrement différent de celui du saint et de celui du saint des saints: ‘le ciel et la Terre et toutes les créatures de Dieu, dans toute leur variété’ (v. 12495–8). 30 Voir Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, pp. 211–12, au sujet de la conception de l’univers qui sous-tend cette description. Cette conception concilie le système aristotélicien et ptoléméen avec le dogme chrétien. Le cosmos serait constitué de sphères concentriques qui produisent par leur mouvement le ‘chant de l’univers’. 31 Herkommer, ibid., p. 212. 32 R. Hammerstein, Macht und Klang. Tönende Automaten als Realität und Fiktion in der alten und mittelalterlichen Welt (Berne, 1986), p. 27. 29 Rudolf

150

9781903153734.indd 150

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems Ier, vainqueur des troupes du roi sassanide Khosrō II, pénètre en 628 dans le palais de ce dernier, il découvre, dans la salle du trône, une représentation du roi perse adorant un système animé figurant les planètes, la lune et les étoiles, capable de reproduire le bruit du tonnerre et de simuler la pluie. De nombreux textes relatent cette découverte, qui fit sensation, certains d’entre eux sont d’ailleurs en circulation en Occident au xiie siècle.33 La fonction de ce système, outre qu’il reproduisait le trône des souverains achéménides détruit par Alexandre le Grand, consistait à ‘représenter la dimension cosmologique de la royauté, à représenter le roi lui-même en tant que cosmocrator, maître de l’univers et des éléments’34. On ne pouvait être insensible, à la cour de Konrad et à la cour sicilienne de Frédéric II, à une telle définition du pouvoir royal. Frédéric disait de lui-même qu’il gouvernait ‘par les quatre éléments’35 et un sermon de Nicolas de Bari, prononcé après l’auto-couronnement de Frédéric dans l’église du Saint-Sépulcre de Jérusalem, se réfère à une prophétie de David concernant l’empereur céleste, ‘qui ventis et mari imperat’, ainsi qu’à Frédéric, son successeur terrestre; dans le même texte, Frédéric est désigné par l’expression ‘sol in firmamento mundi, quo illuminantur homines gratia et exemplo’ et comme celui à qui est soumis l’univers entier: ‘Ipse est, cui flectitur omne genu celestium, id est regnum, terrestrium, id est militum, et infernorum, id est omnium subditorum’.36 Outre la salle du trône de Khosrō II, celle des empereurs de Byzance aux ixe–xe siècles était connue des souverains occidentaux du xiiie siècle; le trône se voulait une imitation de celui de Salomon et a été décrit notamment par Luitprand de Crémone, qui eut l’occasion de le voir lors d’une mission diplomatique auprès de l’empereur Constantin VII Porphyrogénète en 949. C’est également la puissance du cosmocrator qui était suggérée par le dispositif, mais des animaux, oiseaux et lions, et le trône lui-même, qui s’élevait dans les airs, concouraient à cette représentation.37 On comprend donc que le commanditaire de la Weltchronik, Konrad IV, ait été intéressé par la signification du Tabernacle et de ses diverses 33 Ibid.,

pp. 40–1. p. 41. Au sujet de Frédéric II cosmocrator, voir E. H. Kantorowicz, Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite (Stuttgart, 2010), p. 158. 35 F. Rapp, Le Saint Empire romain germanique (Paris, 2000), p. 192 (sans références malheureusement); Kantorowicz, Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite, pp. 397, 485–6: Frédéric II faisait exécuter les traîtres et les conspirateurs ‘par les quatre éléments’. 36 Erlangen, Universitätsbibliothek, MS 642, fols. 233–6. Voir supra, n. 25 et l’édition procurée par Kloos, ‘Nikolaus von Bari II’, pp. 130–60, première parution dans Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters (1954/55), pp. 166–90, ici p. 135 (sol; voir aussi à ce sujet les pp. 158–9), p. 134: ‘Citharedus mirabilis et prophetarum eximius rex David in premissa auctoritate de duobus imperatoribus prophetavit, videlicet de celesti imperatore, qui ventis et mari imperat, qui dixit et facta sunt, mandavit et creata sunt universa, et de terrestri domino Fr[iderico] imperatore magnifico uncto oleo leticie pre regibus universis; primo prophetavit de filio, secundo de successore in regnum’. 37 Hammerstein, Macht und Klang, pp. 43–58.

34 Ibid.,

151

9781903153734.indd 151

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry composantes. Le Tabernacle a été édifié sur les ordres du législateur Moïse, chef charismatique jouant le rôle d’intermédiaire entre Dieu et son peuple; à ce titre déjà, il suscite naturellement l’attention d’un pouvoir royal aspirant à la domination universelle. Enfin, il convient de rappeler, afin de souligner plus encore la pertinence de ce développement au sein de la Weltchronik, que l’exégèse typologique était mise à contribution dans l’Empire au xiiie siècle dans le but d’exalter la nature messianique du pouvoir de Frédéric II et des Hohenstaufen en général.38 Dans ce contexte, l’exemple de Moïse prend toute sa signification. Par ailleurs, d’une façon beaucoup plus générale, l’épisode commenté ici illustre la grande culture de l’auteur, de même que l’habileté souveraine avec laquelle il sollicite ces sources.

Médiévalisation des sources: s’adresser à un public de cour du xiiie siècle Ces sources sont principalement, pour la Weltchronik, la Vulgate et l’Historia scholastica.39 Rudolf utilise dans une moindre mesure le Panthéon et le Speculum regum de Godefroi de Viterbe,40 l’Imago mundi d’Honoré d’Autun,41 les Étymologies d’Isidore de Séville et les Chronologies d’Eusèbe retravaillées

38 Kloos,

‘Nikolaus von Bari II’, pp. 158–9; von Tippelskirch, Die ‘Weltchronik’ des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 154–5. 39 Dans l’Alexander comme dans la Weltchronik, Rudolf ne mentionne jamais le nom de Pierre le Mangeur, ni celui de Godefroi de Viterbe, alors qu’il le fait pour la plupart de ses sources. Il en va de même, dans l’Alexander, de l’Alexandreis de Gautier de Châtillon. 40 Au sujet du Panthéon, voir Ehrismann, édition de la Weltchronik, p. xxxvii. Von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 27, pense qu’il a peut-être utilisé ce texte. Brackert affirme que le Panthéon est la source principale de Rudolf (Rudolf von Ems, pp. 232–3): ce dernier lui aurait emprunté le contenu des développements sur l’histoire profane et la conception de l’œuvre elle-même, si bien que la Weltchronik constitue selon Brackert le pendant en langue vernaculaire du Panthéon; voir von Tippelskirch à ce sujet, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 59. Le Speculum regum est une source secondaire, Rudolf y puise des informations sur Sémiramis (v. 3575–712); voir von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 55–6. 41 Sur la manière dont Rudolf retravaille cette source, voir Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, pp. 294–5. Voir aussi O. Doberentz, Die Erd- und Völkerkunde in der Weltchronik des Rudolf von Hohen-Ems (Diss. Halle, 1880), publié dans Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, 12 (1881), 257–301 et 387–454 (I = première partie; voir supra, n. 2) et Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, 13 (1882), 29–57 et 165–223 (II = deuxième partie). Quand nous citons ces articles de la Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, nous employons désormais par commodité les références suivantes: ‘Doberentz, 1881’ pour le vol. 12, ‘Doberentz, 1882’ pour le vol. 13.

152

9781903153734.indd 152

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems par saint Jérôme.42 Les sources utilisées par Rudolf, qui s’intéresse de façon croissante à l’eschatologie, se font semble-t-il plus nombreuses au fil du temps.43 Rudolf ne fait pas appel directement aux Revelationes du PseudoMéthode pour la Weltchronik;44 quand il se réfère à ce texte, il le fait de manière indirecte, à partir de l’Historia scholastica. Il est possible qu’il ait utilisé directement les Antiquitates Judaicae de Flavius Josèphe, mais ce n’est pas certain; le recours à cette source semble la plupart du temps indirect, comme pour les Revelationes.45 Il est en revanche probable qu’il ait eu recours à l’Historia de duabus civitatibus (Cronica) d’Othon de Freising46 pour l’épisode de Ninus, le roi assyrien, et de sa femme Sémiramis, ainsi que pour la légende de la fondation de Trèves. Quant à la source de certains passages ayant trait à la mythologie grecque, elle est inconnue.47 Concernant le traitement de ces sources, on constate une indépendance assez grande de la part de Rudolf.48 Sa chronique se distingue en cela de la Christherre-Chronik, qui se montre plus fidèle à l’Historia scholastica, notamment à ses commentaires théologiques.49 L’auteur de cette chronique thuringienne plus tardive, dans laquelle on a vu un projet hostile à la famille des Hohenstaufen,50 a puisé dans les œuvres de Godefroi de Viterbe et de Pierre le Mangeur, c’est-à-dire, pour une bonne part, dans les sources de Rudolf.51 La continuation de la Weltchronik éditée par Ehrismann est elle aussi beaucoup plus fidèle à l’Historia scholastica que ne l’est le texte de Rudolf.52 Maria C. Sherwood-Smith a mis en lumière l’usage que fait Rudolf

42 Ces

deux dernières sources sont également signalées par Ehrismann, Weltchronik, p. xxxvii. 43 Von Tippelskirch, Die ‘Weltchronik’ des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 167–71. 44 Ibid., pp. 29–33, 197. 45 Ibid., pp. 43–5; M. C. Sherwood-Smith, Studies in the Reception of the Historia Scholastica of Peter Comestor. The Schwarzwälder Predigten, the Weltchronik of Rudolf von Ems, the Scholastica of Jacob van Maerlant and the Historiebijbel van 1360 (Oxford, 2000), p. 85. 46 Von Tippelskirch argumente en faveur de cette thèse (Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 48–60), mais Herkommer (‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 183, et n. 276) ne la suit qu’avec de fortes réticences. 47 Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, pp. 184–7, 196–200; Sherwood-Smith, Studies in the Reception of the Historia Scholastica, p. 132, n. 65. 48 Von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 24. 49 Doberentz, 1881, p. 258, n. 3, p. 259. 50 L’œuvre est dédiée à Henri III l’Illustre (Heinrich III. der Erlauchte), margrave de Misnie (environ 1215–1288). Henri fut le successeur de Heinrich Raspe, élu roi pendant le règne même de Konrad. 51 Von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 12. Sur les liens entre la Weltchronik et la Christherre-Chronik, voir aussi H. F. Maßmann, Heidelberger Jahrbücher der Literatur (1826), 11–26, et (1828), pp. 199–201. Nous n’avons pas pu consulter cette publication, signalée par von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 15, n. 48, sans indication du titre. 52 R. Wisbey, ‘Zur relativen Chronologie und Entstehungsgeschichte von Rudolfs

153

9781903153734.indd 153

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry de l’Historia scholastica:53 en contrepoint de la Vulgate, le texte de Pierre le Mangeur lui fournit tout ce qui permet de rendre son récit plus ‘historique’, c’est-à-dire des noms de personnes et de lieux, des descriptions ou encore des anecdotes que le Mangeur a lui-même puisées dans le fonds du Midrash. En contrepartie, Rudolf sait mettre de la vie dans le récit de l’Historia, en faisant appel aux émotions et aux sens, particulièrement à la peinture des personnes et des objets, par exemple dans l’épisode où le narrateur s’implique dans la description hyperbolique de la beauté du nouveau-né Moïse (v. 8908–13);54 il sait donner davantage de vie et de relief au récit prémonitoire d’origine midrashique, rapporté par l’Historia scholastica, dans lequel l’enfant Moïse saisit la couronne de Pharaon et la jette par terre. La splendeur de la couronne et l’idole qui la surplombe, l’émerveillement attentionné du roi prenant l’enfant sur ses genoux avant que ce dernier ne lui arrache la couronne de la tête (v. 9015–40): tous ces détails, ajoutés par l’auteur allemand, contribuent à la dramatisation du récit.55 Sans doute par égard envers son lecteur, Rudolf évite de mentionner que la fille de Pharaon est venue près du fleuve pour laver du linge; la raison de sa venue est qu’elle veut se rafraîchir dans le Nil (v. 8953–4).56 Il arrive aussi que le récit de Rudolf soit plus dépendant de l’Historia, par exemple quand Pierre le Mangeur a déjà réalisé un important travail d’analyse et de synthèse à partir du texte biblique: c’est le cas pour la législation mosaïque ou pour les passages correspondant aux Livres des Rois et aux Chroniques.57 Enfin, on verra dans le chapitre consacré aux procédés de structuration que l’Historia scholastica a pu fournir le modèle d’une bipartition du récit entre histoire sainte et histoire profane. Cette indépendance relative vis-à-vis des sources va de pair avec une imitation ponctuelle de la jeune littérature en langue allemande. L’écriture de Rudolf trahit en effet une forme de syncrétisme, inédit dans le domaine de l’historiographie. La chronique s’ouvre aux thèmes fondateurs et aux motifs de la littérature courtoise.58 Parler d’amour et de combat pour la renommée chevaleresque, c’est rendre pertinents, du point de vue de son public aristocratique, les événements abordés.59 À ce titre, la Weltchronik peut être qualifiée de ‘post-courtoise’, dans la mesure où son auteur puise efficacement, selon le but recherché, dans les motifs et les formules de l’épopée, du roman courtois, mais aussi de textes plus anciens relevant de la littérature religieuse-didactique, Alexander’, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum 87 (1956/57), 77; Brackert, Rudolf von Ems, p. 185, n. 118. 53 Sherwood-Smith, Studies in the Reception of the Historia Scholastica, pp. 83–132. 54 Ibid., p. 102. 55 Ibid., p. 106. 56 Ibid., p. 105. 57 Ibid., pp. 131–2. 58 Wenzel, Höfische Geschichte, pp. 71–87: ‘[Die Weltchronik] öffnet sich für die Leitbilder und Motive der höfischen Dichtung’. 59 Walliczek, ‘Rudolf von Ems’, col. 342.

154

9781903153734.indd 154

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems qui hésitaient encore à parler d’amour et, a fortiori, à élever le service d’amour au rang de valeur morale.60 Une digression de l’Alexander sur les grands auteurs du xiie et du début du xiiie siècle atteste la forte conscience d’auteur qui est celle de Rudolf. D’une part, les modèles qu’il allègue sont les récits d’Antiquité, le roman arthurien et le Tristan de Gottfried von Straßburg, ainsi que d’autres textes plus tardifs qui ne peuvent toutefois pas les égaler.61 D’autre part, dans l’Alexander, Rudolf affirme son indépendance vis-à-vis des ‘genres’ et clame son intention de raconter l’histoire d’Alexandre sur un mode nouveau.62 Il ne s’agit pas là d’une vaine déclaration puisque Rudolf remet en cause, dans cette œuvre, la conception traditionnelle de la fortuna vitrea et fait d’Alexandre le souverain idéal, auquel une vertu indéfectible assure un succès ininterrompu. Compte tenu de l’ampleur du programme qu’il se fixe, son ambition est tout aussi grande quand il entreprend de composer la Weltchronik, et les valeurs qu’il défend sont de toute évidence les mêmes. C’est du moins la conclusion que nous pouvons tirer des commentaires érudits fournis par Rudolf au sujet des passages de la Bible cités plus haut; comme dans l’Alexander, Rudolf y affirme le primat de la raison, prône la maîtrise des affects et le respect absolu des règles en matière de pratique religieuse.63 Il est donc évident que Rudolf prend en compte, dans sa réécriture des sources, les attentes d’un public cultivé, sensible aux formes que la littérature courtoise a canonisées. Les caractéristiques de cette réécriture tendent à montrer que son lecteur est ouvert à tous les aspects de ce qu’on appelle la culture chevaleresque. Mais son ambition va évidemment au-delà de cette mise en forme, déjà bien lourde d’implications.

Heurématographie, savoir encyclopédique et évhémérisme: la formation intellectuelle du prince L’auteur de la Weltchronik, qui intègre à sa présentation des faits historiques une somme de connaissances sur la nature et sur les sciences, nous semble un témoin typique de l’esprit qui animait les intellectuels de l’entourage

60 Wenzel,

Höfische Geschichte, pp. 72–82. Nous reprenons ici, dans ses grandes lignes, l’argumentation de H. Wenzel. 61 Alexander, v. 3036–3274. Voir Thierry, La Fascination pour Alexandre le Grand, I, 488–90. 62 Alexander, v. 20621–88. 63 Wenzel donne raison à Brackert quand il souligne la dimension didactique de la Weltchronik, mais il insiste sur le ‘caractère indubitablement courtois’ du texte (p.  75). Dans son ouvrage Rudolf von Ems. Untersuchungen zum höfischen Roman im 13. Jahrhundert (Munich, 1967), pp. 106–8, 150–1, Xenia von Ertzdorff nie que la visée didactique et l’enseignement moral soient prépondérants dans la Weltchronik, qu’elle assimile à un roman courtois. L’ambition de l’auteur serait avant tout de divertir le roi.

155

9781903153734.indd 155

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry des Hohenstaufen. En dépit de son intérêt pour un savoir que nous dirions aujourd’hui ‘objectif’, il ne renonce pas aux mirabilia et mentionne une série de peuples à la morphologie et aux mœurs étranges, qu’il trouve dans la description du monde que lui livre l’Imago mundi d’Honoré d’Autun: les Macrobii en butte aux attaques des griffons, une peuplade qui pratique le meurtre des pères et des mères dès qu’ils commencent à vieillir, ou encore cette autre qui ne se nourrit que de poisson et de viande crus et ne boit que de l’eau de mer; il mentionne aussi les sciapodes, les cynocéphales, les cyclopes, les cénopodes qui se protègent des rigueurs du climat grâce à leur pied surdimensionné et se déplacent à une vitesse prodigieuse, les hommes sans tête. S’agit-il d’une concession pleine de révérence à la culture livresque léguée par l’Antiquité ou, plus précisément, d’un hommage à saint Augustin, qui voyait dans ces bizarreries l’expression d’une sagesse supérieure, Dieu seul sachant ce qu’il est bon de créer et où il est bon de le créer?64 Les deux sans doute. Une tendance à l’encyclopédisme se fait ainsi jour, qui pousse Rudolf à s’intéresser également aux origines des religions anciennes. La Weltchronik fournit une explication rationalisante de l’origine et du développement de la civilisation dans la péninsule italique, mettant en jeu, comme c’est le cas dans l’Énéide, une personnalité mythologique, le dieu Saturne,65 dont Rudolf fait ainsi un grand précurseur, promu par la suite au rang de divinité en raison de ses qualités hors du commun (v. 20055–7). Certes, Rudolf ne fait pas réellement preuve d’originalité dans ce passage: le courant évhémériste plonge ses racines dans l’Antiquité. C’est dans cette lignée que se situe Frutolf de Michelsberg au xie siècle, qui tire la substance d’un développement comparable, dans sa chronique universelle, de l’Historia romana de Paul le Diacre (viiie siècle); Rudolf ne suit ici en tout cas ni Pierre le Mangeur ni Godefroi de Viterbe, chez qui l’on trouve des passages équivalents.66 Un autre passage illustre, relativement tôt dans la Weltchronik, la représentation que se fait l’auteur du polythéisme. Rudolf, afin de rendre plus claire l’opposition entre ‘voie juste’ (histoire biblique) et ‘voies parallèles’ (histoire des peuples païens), qui structure son récit, distingue la descendance de Phaleg de celle

64 Herkommer,

‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 230; voir, entre autres, le livre XVI, chap. 8, du De civitate Dei (PL 41, 485–7, par exemple col. 486: ‘Qualis autem ratio redditur de monstrosis apud nos hominum partubus, talis de monstrosis quibusdam gentibus reddi potest. Deus enim creator est omnium, qui ubi et quando creari quid oporteat vel oportuerit, ipse novit, sciens universitatis pulchritunem quarum partium vel similitudine vel diversitate contexat’). 65 Virgile, Énéide VIII, v. 319–24: ‘Primus ab aetherio venit Saturnus Olympo, / Arma Iouis fugiens et regnis exsul ademptis. / Is genus indocile ac dispersum montibus altis / Composuit legesque dedit Latiumque uocari / Maluit, his quoniam latuisset tutus in oris.’ Cité d’après Bibliothèque Latine-Française, t. 3 Œuvres complètes de Virgile, éd. C. L. F. Panckoucke (Paris, 1834). 66 Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 198.

156

9781903153734.indd 156

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems des autres peuples, qui ne respectent pas la loi de Dieu; il en vient à expliquer comment naquirent les anciens dieux: e

das lút was virtoret so das si des alle haten wan, e si soltin die ce gottin han die rich uf der erde leptin mit hohim werde, und namin nah des tievils spote die hohsten undir in ze gote, und mahtin in dú selbin zil richir bette húsir vil da si fúr got si betten an. in swelhin dingin ie der man was uf der erde vollekomin, darubir wart er sa genomin ze gote von der tumbin diet, als in des túvils spot geriet.    v. 3173–87 ‘Les peuples erraient à ce point qu’ils imaginaient devoir considérer comme des divinités ceux qui vivaient en ce monde dans la puissance et les honneurs, et, se laissant abuser par le diable, ils firent des plus grands d’entre eux leurs dieux et construisirent dans le même temps beaucoup de temples somptueux où ils les adoraient. Quel que fût le domaine où ils avaient excellé, ils étaient élevés au rang de dieu par le peuple, qui manquait de discernement et suivait les conseils du diable.’

De semblables explications sont fournies concernant l’introduction de la culture des céréales en Grèce et celle de la viticulture, qui serait originaire d’Égypte, en Grèce également.67 Des procédés de ce type permettent de suggérer la profondeur des temps et l’ancienneté de la culture. Héritier des Pères de l’Église, qui eux-mêmes puisent dans l’heurématographie antique, Rudolf expose le premier en langue vulgaire, pour un public de cour, une histoire des inventions, recense les découvertes qui changèrent la vie des hommes.68 Cependant, la technique de l’auteur est encore profondément ancrée dans la mentalité de son époque: de manière quelque peu paradoxale, Rudolf fait allégeance à cette perception 67 V.

8660–74: début de la culture du blé sous le règne d’Argos et sur les instructions de Cérès, dont Rudolf affirme là aussi qu’elle fut divinisée par le peuple pour cette raison, de même qu’Argos. Quant à l’œuvre civilisatrice de Bacchus (Bachus Dionisius), qui vaut à ce dernier de devenir lui aussi un dieu, elle est mentionnée aux vers 10466–78: Bacchus fonde Argos, introduit la viticulture en Grèce et est ensuite divinisé. 68 Il semble bien être le premier auteur à le faire en langue allemande; voir Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 196. Les auteurs dont s’inspire Rudolf dans ces passages sont difficiles à déterminer; il s’agit de Pierre le Mangeur, de Frutolf, et de Godefroi de Viterbe probablement. Voir Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, pp. 197–8, n. 341.

157

9781903153734.indd 157

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry médiévale de l’histoire qui se passe en partie de la notion d’évolution des civilisations. C’est non pas l’évolution des techniques et le progrès dans ce domaine qui l’intéressent au premier chef, mais le point d’origine de celles-ci. Il n’en demeure pas moins qu’il distingue l’idée qui surgit dans l’esprit de l’inventeur (list) et le savoir (kunst) qui se développe à partir d’elle. Au sujet de Tubalcaim, le premier forgeron, on lit: ‘von dem selbin wisin / wart dirre hohe list irdaht / und zeinir kunst der welt braht.’ (v. 536–8: ‘C’est par ce sage que fut inventée cette technique et grâce à lui qu’elle devint un savoir qui fut transmis au monde.’). Rudolf passe donc en revue les primi inventores et, comme Othon de Freising avant lui, associe l’idée de translatio artium à celle de succession des empires mondiaux:69 les études s’établissent à Athènes (v. 15766–73)70 avant de migrer vers l’Ouest. Les termes qu’emploie Rudolf mettent l’accent sur le rôle déterminant des individualités, des personnalités, dans l’histoire des inventions, et, très généralement, dans l’origine des sciences et des techniques: ‘Jonicus71 zem ersten vant / astronomie den list / von dem gestirne (v. 1169–71: ‘Jonithus découvrit le premier l’astronomie, la science des astres.’). L’aspect technique retient l’attention de Rudolf, qui ne cherche pas à savoir d’où vient l’inspiration et pour qui l’invention consiste avant tout à mettre au 69 Voir

F. J. Worstbrock, ‘Translatio artium’, Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 47 (1965), 1–22, ici p. 2 au sujet d’Othon de Freising, et p. 7 pour l’interprétation du verbe ‘brâhte dar’ (‘“brâhte dar” – dahinter steht ein lateinisches intulit oder transtulit.’); Walliczek, ‘Rudolf von Ems’, col. 342. Les Pères de l’Église ont tendance à minorer le rôle des Grecs dans la transmission des savoirs et des techniques. Le plus souvent au Moyen Âge, on n’accorde aux Grecs l’antériorité que dans le trivium (les principales sources de F. J. Worstbrock sont les Institutiones de Cassiodore, les Etymologiae d’Isidore de Séville, le Dialogus super auctores de Konrad von Hirsau, l’Eruditio didascalica de Hugues de Saint-Victor, le Liber exceptionum de Richard de Saint-Victor, le Speculum historiale de Vincent de Beauvais, ce dernier accordant toutefois la prééminence à la Grèce, Sigebert de Gembloux et Philippe de Harvengt; ‘Translatio artium’, p. 15). L’influence de la translatio imperii sur ces représentations est incontestable. Mais c’est Othon de Freising qui lierait pour la première fois les deux conceptions, translatio imperii et translatio sapientiae, de manière explicite (‘Translatio artium’, p. 14). L’origine de la Sagesse est égyptienne et orientale chez Othon. 70 Dans l’Alexander, Rudolf explique comme suit l’origine de l’astronomie; le verbe ‘brâhte dar’ (‘transmit’) évoque l’idée d’une translation des savoirs: ‘swaz irdischiu wîsheit / von astronomîe geseit / unde von der sternen kraft, / daz kunden sie nâch meisterschaft / von Abrahâmes lêre gar, / als er sî lêrte und brâhte dar.’ (v. 171–6; ‘ce que la science des hommes a dit au sujet de l’astronomie et de la puissance des astres, c’est l’enseignement d’Abraham qui le leur a appris et transmis à la perfection.’). 71 Ce quatrième fils de Noé est mentionné par Pierre le Mangeur, qui s’inspire lui-même du Pseudo-Méthode, lequel fait de lui l’héritier de l’Orient après la dispersion des hommes et la confusion des langues; voir Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 220, n. 443. Rudolf dit citer le Pseudo-Méthode: ‘als úns seit Metodius’ (v. 1167: ‘comme nous l’apprend Méthode’).

158

9781903153734.indd 158

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems point un ‘procédé’, un ‘artifice’ (funt, v. 516, 527): Yabal (Jabel) fut le premier qui construisit des huttes et des tentes pour le confort des hommes travaillant dans les champs (v. 512–15), son frère Youbal (Jubal) inventa la musique et les instruments à cordes, qui adoucissent les mœurs (v. 525), son demi-frère Toubal-Caïn (Tubalcaim) le premier fondit et forgea le métal (v. 530–1). Les formulations sont parfois redondantes et vont toujours dans le même sens, celui de la mise en valeur du génie individuel et du caractère exceptionnel et fondateur de l’acte: Nahama (Neoma, v. 539), sœur de Toubal-Caïn, fut la première qui, à l’origine, inventa la technique féminine de la couture et du filage (‘dú was von erst dú mit begunst / irdahte wipliche kunst / mit nadiln und mit drihin’, v. 541–543). Dans les parties non bibliques de la chronique, les savoirs évoqués peuvent avoir un caractère inquiétant ou douteux. Ninus invente les idoles, certes sans le savoir (unwizzinde, v. 3526) mais poussé par le diable (‘mit des túvils kraft’, v. 3526) et en raison d’un amour pour son défunt père qui confine à la démence. Rudolf consacre un très long passage à cette ‘invention’ particulièrement néfaste pour l’humanité. Zoroastre invente la magie72 (v. 3533–6). Certaines de ces inventions sont prudemment rejetées dans le domaine de la ‘fable’; Rudolf emploie alors le terme péjoratif de fabil (v. 15783), qu’il réserve aux sources mythologiques.73 Tel est le cas de l’invention du char hippomobile par le roi d’Athènes Erictonius, dont Rudolf ne prend pas la peine de nous dire qu’il était destiné à la course, dans le cadre des jeux panathéniens instaurés par ce même roi. Toutefois, c’est à des païens que revient l’honneur d’avoir contribué à l’organisation et au bon fonctionnement des cités et à la transmission des connaissances: le roi d’Argos Phoronée est l’inventeur des tribunaux et des marchés (v. 8637–43)74 et Nicostrata, la mère de Latinus, passe pour avoir mis au point l’alphabet latin (v. 20077–8).75 Cependant, l’auteur réserve à d’autres souverains un éloge plus

72 Si

l’on compare sa version à celle de l’Historia scholastica, Rudolf minore le rôle d’inventeur de Zoroastre; son texte est ici plus proche de celui de Frutolf, qui adopte la version d’Orose (Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 197, n. 338). 73 Sur le terme de fabil, voir Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 184, n. 281: Rudolf se conforme à l’usage des historiographes chrétiens. Herkommer relève les quatorze occurrences du terme fabil dans le passage sur l’histoire profane inséré dans le ‘Livre des Juges’ (v. 19656–20376). La fabil et les écrits fiables (bibliques par exemple, comme on peut le supposer) peuvent participer conjointement à l’établissement de la vérité, comme le montrent les v. 19895–9 au sujet du nom de ‘Danaéens’ qu’on attribue aux Grecs. Rudolf utilise dans ce passage également le terme hẏstorie(n): v. 19959, au sujet des puissances qui règnent sur l’Italie non civilisée avant l’arrivée de Saturne, Laurente étant en quelque sorte la capitale; v. 20336 au sujet du roi d’Égypte Vesoces, battu par les Scythes. Quant à l’histoire de la destruction de Troie, elle serait parvenue à la connaissance de Rudolf par l’intermédiaire d’une Cronice (v. 20303). 74 Le Mangeur évoque encore le forum antique. Rudolf remplace ce terme par celui de merget (‘marché’). Voir Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 197, n. 339. 75 Ces passages sont cités par Worstbrock, ‘Translatio artium’, p. 20, n. 81 et par

159

9781903153734.indd 159

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry efficace: si la capacité d’invention de Salomon dans le domaine du surnaturel est soulignée, c’est pour montrer, par un effet de contraste, que cette magie devient bienfaisante; Salomon en use à des fins philanthropiques, il délivre les humains de l’emprise des démons et les enferme grâce à un sceau de son invention (v. 32430–40). Il est également intéressant de constater, compte tenu de l’importance accordée à l’observation empirique à la cour de Frédéric II, que Salomon est un adepte de la description objective des espèces végétales et animales (v. 32411–29), et qu’il se refuse à les décrire ‘nah menschen troume’, c’est-à-dire ‘comme les hommes veulent bien se les imaginer’ (v. 32417). La méfiance vis-à-vis de l’irrationnel est donc indéniable, du moins quand il constitue un danger pour la civilisation. De cette manière, le texte de Rudolf affirme son ambition encyclopédique. L’optique est ici à nouveau celle de saint Augustin dans le De doctrina christiana, ou celle de Cassiodore, des théologiens selon lesquels seules des connaissances approfondies en géographie, en histoire et en sciences naturelles permettent d’accéder à une véritable intelligence des Écritures.76 Or, c’est bien le texte biblique qui fournit l’essentiel de sa matière à la Weltchronik, une œuvre destinée à un public impatient d’acquérir un savoir à la hauteur de l’image élitiste qu’il a de lui-même: l’idéal d’une synthèse entre clergie et chevalerie transparaît à travers le projet de Rudolf. Cet idéal était formulé très clairement dans le prologue du Cligès de Chrétien de Troyes,77 et il sous-tend l’ensemble du programme de la Weltchronik, avec d’autant plus de vigueur que celle-ci, nous l’avons vu, s’adresse non seulement à un public chevaleresque, mais en particulier à un membre de la famille impériale. Il fallait, pour qu’une telle entreprise vît le jour, que la conscience de classe de la chevalerie, galvanisée par l’ambition politique et culturelle de la famille impériale, s’affirmât avec force. L’ambition de faire de la chevalerie, en tant que classe sociale, le dépositaire d’un tel savoir n’est certes pas originale en Allemagne; on la trouve exprimée de façon radicale dans le Moriz von Craûn,78 une œuvre datant vraisemblablement de la fin du xiie siècle, peut-être des premières années du xiiie, soit de la période

Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, pp. 196–7. Voir aussi les passages suivants dans l’Alexander: v. 17046–51, 17100–2 (invention de la métallurgie, de la musique et des instruments à cordes; invention de l’astronomie par Jônitus). 76 PL 34, 56 (au sujet de la narration): ‘In quo genere sunt quæcumque de locorum situ, naturisque animalium, lignorum, herbarum, aliorumve corporum scripta sunt. De quo genere superius egimus, eamque cognitionem valere ad ænigmata Scripturarum solvenda docuimus’ (De doctrina christiana II.xxix.45). Voir à ce sujet Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, pp. 219–20. 77 ‘Ce nos ont nostre livre apris / Q’an Grece ot de chevalerie / Le premier los et de clergie. / Puis vint chevalerie a Rome / Et de la clergie la some, / Qui or est an France venue.’ Chrétien de Troyes, Cligès, dans Chrétien de Troyes, Œuvres complètes, dir. D. Poirion (Paris, 1994), p. 174, v. 30–5. 78 Ritter Mauritius von Crun und Gräfinn Beamunt, dans Germania, éd. F. H. von der Hagen (Berlin, 1850), IX, 105–35.

160

9781903153734.indd 160

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems 1180–1230. Franz Josef Worstbrock note que l’histoire de l’humanité, celle de la chevalerie et celle de la culture se confondent dans l’esprit de l’auteur anonyme de Moriz von Craûn: ‘Er identifiziert den Gang der Geschichte, Blüte und Verfall der Reiche und Völker seit dem trojanischen Krieg, schlechthin mit dem Schicksal der ritterlichen Kultur.79’ Un tel idéal trouve bien entendu un écho favorable à la cour de Frédéric II, mais Rudolf paraît vouloir rappeler que c’est au prix d’une discipline constante que s’acquiert le véritable savoir. De façon significative, il traduit par vlîz, un terme mettant l’accent sur l’effort que requiert l’acquisition des connaissances, le concept de studium (clergie en ancien français): der vliz darnach ze Attene was, da man sit lerte unde las der sibin liste hohe kunst: der was dú erste begunst.    v. 15766–8 ‘Les études élirent ensuite domicile à Athènes, où l’on enseigna dès lors les sept Arts libéraux: ce fut le tout début de ces sciences, que bien des hommes commencèrent à étudier en Grèce avec sagesse, celle-ci étant depuis cette époque enseignée à Athènes.’

Ce qui est en jeu ici, c’est bien la visée fondamentalement didactique de l’œuvre, qui relève de la catégorie de la Fürstenunterweisung: la Weltchronik se conçoit aisément comme une sorte de manuel de culture générale ad usum Delphini.80 Elle ambitionne de livrer au roi-chevalier Konrad les bases d’une culture aussi large que possible et utile à l’exercice de sa fonction. Dans ce contexte, le goût pour l’heurématographie permet non seulement de créer des repères concrets dans le déroulement de l’histoire, mais aussi de souligner l’importance du développement des sciences et des techniques. Accessoirement, et toujours à des fins pédagogiques, Rudolf amène probablement son commanditaire à envisager sous un angle neuf les valeurs qui fondent l’idéologie royale de sa famille. C’est de cette manière que peut s’expliquer, dans son œuvre, l’affleurement d’une conscience ethnographique, timide encore, qui contribue en tout cas à faire de la Weltchronik un document d’une valeur particulière. Ainsi, dans sa présentation des grandes figures de l’histoire biblique, Jacob, Joseph, Moïse, David, Rudolf prend-il soin d’expliquer que la puissance, la richesse et le prestige social se fondaient à leur époque sur la possession du bétail, ce dont nul n’avait honte, alors qu’ils résultent à son époque de l’ampleur des possessions territoriales (v. 9350–64).81

79 Worstbrock,

‘Translatio artium’, p. 21. ‘Rudolf von Ems’, col. 342. 81 Mentionné par Jackson, ‘Chivalric vocabulary in the works of Rudolf von Ems’, pp. 427–43 (p. 441). Il est question chez Jackson de ‘[Rudolf’s] awareness of cultural differences’. 80 Walliczek,

161

9781903153734.indd 161

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry Visant lui aussi l’enrichissement personnel du lecteur tout autant que la glorification du pouvoir des Hohenstaufen, le passage consacré à la géographie mondiale, et notamment à celle de l’Europe, est d’un intérêt capital et d’une densité extraordinaire;82 il est situé immédiatement après le récit de la construction de la Tour de Babel et de la confusion des langues, c’est-à-dire là où Pierre le Mangeur le place lui aussi, à ceci près que Rudolf l’accroît considérablement en recourant à une source secondaire, l’Imago mundi d’Honoré d’Autun, dont la réception est vivace en Allemagne au xiie et au xiiie siècle.83 Le lien avec la section qui précède découle naturellement de l’impossibilité dans laquelle se trouvent les peuples de se comprendre. Ceux-ci doivent subir les conséquences de leur éloignement de Dieu, qui se traduit par l’usage de langues ‘confuses’ (‘virirte zungen’, v. 1345), ils quittent Babylone, ‘dont le nom signifie “honte”’ (v. 1340),84 et se dispersent à travers le monde. Cependant, l’encyclopédisme vient contrebalancer l’idée de dispersion et de confusion; de même, cette information, au début et à la fin de la ‘Géographie’, qui semble motiver la description du monde, dont le point d’orgue est celle de l’Empire: Pèleg (Phalech), descendant de Sem, est le seul qui continue à pratiquer la langue que Dieu avait donnée aux hommes lors de la création du monde, celle d’Adam, l’hébreu en l’occurrence; c’est sa descendance que choisira Dieu pour se faire homme.85 Tout le développement sur la géographie du monde est ainsi encadré par cette figure tutélaire de la ‘rehtiu ban’ (v. 3103), la voie qui mène à l’Empire de Rome, la voie de Pèleg, le ‘héros de Dieu’ (‘der Gotis wigant’, v. 3094) – dont Konrad de Hohenstaufen assume l’héritage, bien que le texte ne le précise pas. L’abrégé de géographie, soit, tout de même, environ mille six-cents vers, est d’ailleurs marqué par une conception antique héritée de sa source;86 le fait

82 Sur

les prédécesseurs de Rudolf dans ce ‘genre’ de la ‘géographie’, Orose, Fréchulf de Lisieux, Othon de Freising (qui se contente toutefois d’annoncer un développement de ce type dans la Cronica sive Historia de duabus civitatibus), voir Doberentz, 1881. Sur les liens entre le contenu de la ‘Géographie’ de la Weltchronik et les cartes d’Erbstdorf (1235 environ) et de Hereford (1290 environ) ainsi que celle figurant dans la copie de l’Imago mundi par le chanoine Heinrich de Mayence (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 66), voir Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, pp. 224–5. 83 Doberentz, 1881, pp. 298–301. 84 Pierre le Mangeur utilise le terme de confusio. En optant pour schande, Rudolf se conforme à l’interprétation patristique du terme confusio, qui équivaut à ignominia. Voir Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 221, n. 448. 85 v. 1325–35, 3094–101. 86 Sur la réécriture de l’Imago mundi par Rudolf, voir Doberentz, 1881, pp. 441–6. Doberentz (1881, pp. 437–41), compare la traduction de l’Imago par Rudolf à celles qu’on trouve dans d’autres œuvres contemporaines, notamment en langue vernaculaire (Lucidarius, Mappa mundi, Image du Monde, Otia imperialia) et conclut à un intérêt spécifique de Rudolf pour les données géographiques concrètes et à une relative indifférence pour les mirabilia et autres récits fabuleux. Toutefois, Rudolf

162

9781903153734.indd 162

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems que Rudolf conserve pour la plupart des régions de l’Europe la terminologie antique n’est sans doute pas innocent: il ravive ainsi le souvenir de l’imperium romanum, dont ont hérité les souverains allemands.87 Le monde est divisé en trois parties: Asia, Europa et Affrica, dont Rudolf cite les anciennes provinces et villes romaines (Libẏa, Cirenaica, Pentapolis, Ptolomaida, Leptis, Kartago, Numidia, Mauritania, etc; v. 2770–808). Rudolf achève sa description du monde en revenant à l’Europe, mentionnant la Grèce et ses îles, la Sicile, Venise, la Sardaigne, la Corse. Japhet hérite de l’Europe (v. 2181–758). C’est dans cette partie que Rudolf est le plus autonome, se livrant en premier lieu, comme on a pu le dire, à une médiévalisation de la carte de l’Europe.88 La géographie de ce continent s’organise en fonction du cours des grands fleuves; le Danube, le Rhin et l’Elbe89 délimitent la Germania superior (‘dú obir Germanie’, v. 2224), et l’auteur réserve à la Souabe, ‘qui s’appelait autrefois Alemannia’ (‘das Alemannia hiez ê’, v. 2236), une mention particulière, sans toutefois préciser qu’elle est la terre d’origine de ses maîtres, les Staufen; après un éloge des villes rhénanes, il est à nouveau question de la Souabe (v. 2395–409). Le Lac de Constance (boden se, v. 2237) et le Rhin la fertilisent: le fleuve ‘au cours puissant’ (‘mit richim fluze’, v. 2239) se dirige vers la Mer du Nord (‘untz in das groze nort mer’, v. 2244).90 Le texte cite scrupuleusement les régions de l’Allemagne, de l’Europe du Nord, Scandinavie incluse, de l’Europe centrale et méridionale, la Pannonie, la Bulgarie, la Roumanie, la Thrace; la Grèce est décrite de façon détaillée. Le découpage de l’espace européen se fait en suivant les chaînes de montagnes, Alpes, Apennins, qui séparent des peuples de culture et de langue différentes (v. 2529–47), et la frontière extérieure des pays allemands (‘tútschú lant’, v. 2572), en l’occurrence les ‘marches’ (marckin, v. 2571) de Styrie et d’Autriche d’une part et la Hongrie d’autre part, assimilée ici aux ‘pays slaves’ (v. 2572), est dûment précisée. Les limites orientales de l’Empire, les provinces de la ‘marche slave’ (v. 2580: ‘windischer lande marche’), sont énumérées: Bohême, Moravie, Pologne, Livonie, pays des Prusses, Carinthie (v. 2578–82). Rudolf

ajoute quelques vers sur la manière de chasser la licorne (v. 1782–99: l’animal se montrera doux à l’égard d’une vierge et posera sa tête dans son giron; si une femme non vierge se présente à lui, il la transperce de sa corne), sur l’alimentation de la panthère (v. 1802–12: la pureté de son souffle, qui guérit les autres animaux, s’explique par une alimentation très sélective, constituée des essences végétales les plus pures); voir sur ce point Doberentz, 1881, pp. 438–9, et Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 206. 87 Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, pp. 233, 237–8; c’était un privilège royal que de chanter pendant la messe de Noël les paroles de l’Évangile selon Luc (2.1–14): ‘Exiit edictum a Caesare Augusto, ut describeretur universus orbis’. 88 Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, p. 295. 89 Tůnovwe, v. 2220, ou Tůnou, v. 2397; Rin, v. 2230, Elbe, v. 2231. 90 Le passage est repris d’Honoré d’Autun: ‘Rhenus ab Alpibus nacitur, et contra aquilonem vergens, sinu Oceani excipitur.’ (cité d’après Doberentz, 1882, p. 215).

163

9781903153734.indd 163

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry renonce à tout commentaire et se réclame ici simplement de sa source (‘dú scrift’, v. 2586) en précisant qu’elle aussi s’applique à bien distinguer les pays en question; on peut voir là s’exprimer un souci de vérité, mais c’est plus vraisemblablement, à travers cette remarque, l’importance politique de cette région de l’Europe qu’il suggère:91 théâtre d’importantes mutations politiques au xiiie siècle, elle est un enjeu très important dans le conflit d’influence entre l’empereur et ses feudataires locaux.92 En février 1237 à Vienne, Frédéric, qui a banni le duc Frédéric II d’Autriche, dit le Querelleur, fait couronner son fils Konrad selon un décret qui le déclare ‘regem romanorum et in futurum imperatorem nostrum post obitum patris habendum’.93 L’élection est confirmée en juillet par les princes réunis à Spire.94 Frédéric parvient pour un temps à placer l’Autriche et la Styrie sous la tutelle administrative de l’Empire. Ce succès est de courte durée, le Přemyslide Venceslas Ier, roi de Bohême, nommant son fils Otakar gouverneur en Autriche vers la fin de l’année 1251. Son pouvoir y est certes contesté, mais Konrad se désintéresse de la situation en Autriche.95 À l’intérieur de cette section sur l’Europe, l’auteur souligne, dans le passage sur l’Italie, que cette dernière est le pays où l’Empire vit le jour: ‘Italia, dú mit dem mer / und mit den bergin ist ze wer / beslozzen vestekliche, / darinne ro̊mesch riche / den urhap sinis namin hat (…).’ (v. 2590–4: ‘l’Italie, que la mer et les montagnes entourent et défendent comme un bastion, c’est de là que l’Empire de Rome tient son nom (…)’.96 Cette description (v. 2588–629) fait l’objet d’un redoublement dans le texte, puisque l’Italie est à nouveau décrite avant qu’il ne soit question de l’œuvre civilisatrice de Saturne (v. 19958–88) dans l’un des biwege ou passages sur l’histoire profane rattachés au Livre des Juges, les noms des régions de ce pays étant quasiment identiques dans les deux passages.97 Il va de soi que le passage sur la géographie de l’Italie est, à l’époque où Rudolf compose la Weltchronik, d’une actualité brûlante, et ce, en dépit du style apparemment dénué d’intention polémique. Le rétablissement de l’autorité impériale en Italie est, depuis le règne de Frédéric Ier, 91 La

fréquence de ces formules d’authentification dans la ‘Géographie’, de même que leur caractère topique, incitent néanmoins à la prudence. Voir à ce sujet Doberentz, 1881, pp. 432–7, qui envisage pour la ‘Géographie’ des sources annexes et des connaissances qui auraient été transmises oralement à l’auteur. 92 Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, p. 296. 93 Von Ertzdorff, Rudolf von Ems, p. 105. Konrad est intitulé, dans les documents datés d’après 1237, ‘Conradus divi augusti imperatoris Friderici filius dei gratia Romanorum in regem electus semper augustus, Jerusalem et Siciliae rex’; voir Brackert, Rudolf von Ems, p. 85. 94 Voir P. Thorau, ‘Konrad IV’, dans Lexikon des Mittelalters (Munich, 2003), V, col. 1340–1. 95 J. K. Hoensch, Histoire de la Bohême. Des origines à la Révolution de velours (Paris, 1995), pp. 83–4. 96 Sur ce passage, voir infra, chap. 5, ‘Histoire universelle et idéologie impériale’. 97 v. 19971–9. Rudolf commence cette fois l’énumération par le Nord.

164

9781903153734.indd 164

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems la préoccupation majeure des Hohenstaufen. Aussi n’est-il pas surprenant que Rudolf tienne au sujet de Rome un discours différent de celui d’Honoré d’Autun. Ce dernier précisait: ‘[In] hac est urbs Roma, a Romulo constructa, et sic dicta. Antiqui civitates secundum praecipuas feras, ob significationem formabant. Unde Roma formam leonis habet, qui caeteris bestiis quasi rex praeest’98 (‘Là-bas – en Italie – se trouve la ville de Rome, fondée par Romulus et de qui son nom est dérivé; les Anciens donnaient à leurs cités la forme de bêtes sauvages, en raison de la signification de ces dernières; de là la forme d’un lion qui est celle de Rome, qui est comme le roi à la tête des autres bêtes’).

Rudolf, quant à lui, profite de ce passage pour retracer à grands traits les étapes de la restauration de l’autorité impériale en Italie. L’autre objectif de Rudolf est de séparer clairement, dans sa présentation de l’Italie, l’Empire de Rome, c’est-à-dire le pouvoir terrestre, et la papauté: après avoir comparé l’Italie à une forteresse comme nous l’avons mentionné, il précise quant à lui, dans un second temps, que c’est dans ce pays que se trouve le saint Siège, dont la fonction – et cette précision, elle non plus, n’est pas innocente – consiste ‘à donner l’exemple à toute la chrétienté par son enseignement et par son mode de vie, dont, conformément à la volonté divine, on doit trouver à Rome une illustration concrète dans le domaine spirituel.’ (v. 2596–9: ‘da man der kristenheit sol gebin / lere und kristenlichis lebin, / die man nah Gotis gebote wol / geistliche da vindin sol.’). Rudolf limite ici le rôle du pape au domaine spirituel, ce qui revient à prendre fait et cause pour les Hohenstaufen dans la lutte qui les oppose au Sacerdoce.99 Mais nous verrons qu’en faisant de Konrad l’héritier de la royauté sacrée de David, il fait voler en éclats cette répartition des rôles, qu’il ne met en avant que pour mieux la réfuter.100 Le passage consacré à la géographie du monde n’est certes qu’un élément parmi d’autres dans la somme des connaissances transmises par le texte; quant à l’éloge des villes rhénanes, il ne peut influer de façon décisive sur la lecture de l’œuvre. Cependant, marqués, nous semble-t-il, par le souci de mettre en valeur le pouvoir des mécènes de Rudolf, ces sections doivent être considérées comme participant à la structuration d’un texte sous-tendu par cette visée encomiastique. Ce sont maintenant, plus particulièrement, les procédés de structuration du récit et des connaissances qui retiendrons notre attention.

98 Doberentz,

1882, p. 215; également cité par Brackert, Rudolf von Ems, p. 90. lecture de Brackert (Rudolf von Ems, p. 90) semble pertinente. 1 00 Voir, infra, la place attribuée à l’éloge de Konrad au tout début du quatrième âge de l’humanité, que Rudolf place sous le patronage de David (chap. 5). 99 La

165

9781903153734.indd 165

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry

Procédés de structuration Parmi les procédés de structuration mis en œuvre par Rudolf von Ems dans la Weltchronik, le prologue remplit sa traditionnelle fonction d’annonce. Les prologues suivants, introduisant chacun des ‘âges’ de l’humanité, reprennent et prolongent une partie du premier.101 On voit cette fonction d’annonce illustrée de façon particulièrement efficace dès les premiers vers de l’œuvre, dans lesquels Rudolf évoque la Création proclamant elle-même la gloire de Dieu, invite la fontaine de la Sagesse à se répandre sur son esprit, afin qu’il puisse mettre en forme le savoir immense qu’elle met à sa disposition (v. 61–79), et annonce très probablement de cette manière son désir d’intégrer à la chronique des connaissances d’ordre encyclopédique; ce sont ensuite les six âges de l’humanité qui sont énumérés (v. 80–146), sous une forme que ne respectera pas complètement l’auteur, comme nous le verrons. Rudolf fait ensuite allusion à la dispersion des peuples et à la division du monde entre les fils de Noé, qui fourniront, quelque mille deux cents vers plus tard, le prétexte à l’exposition de la ‘Géographie’ (v. 147–60). Il aborde ensuite brièvement la fondation des monarchies par les lignées issues de Noé, mais en focalisant l’intérêt sur l’Empire de Rome (v. 161–80).102 C’est la diaspora troyenne qui est à l’origine de la fondation de l’Empire de Rome, dont la puissance s’est transmise jusqu’aux souverains de son époque, c’est-à-dire jusqu’aux empereurs allemands (‘biz an úns herren’, v. 180: ‘jusqu’à nos souverains’). En dépit de cette déclaration d’intention, la Weltchronik n’est guère prolixe concernant les regna païens. Rudolf annonce certes à plusieurs reprises une histoire des regna (v. 161–3, 3366–83), mais il ne fait que suivre ici ses deux sources, Pierre le Mangeur et Godefroi de Viterbe.103 On ne trouve dans la Weltchronik qu’une seule mention de la théorie des regna (v. 1862–76); Rudolf y relève l’importance de l’Assyrie, de la Perse et de la Médie dans l’histoire des monarchies.104 À la théorie des regna, Rudolf préfère, comme principe structurant, celle des deux cités. L’opposition augustinienne entre civitas Dei et civitas terrena est formulée dans la Weltchronik de manière novatrice. On vient de le voir: Rudolf annonce, dans le prologue de l’œuvre, qu’il va traiter, parallèlement à l’histoire sainte, de la herschaft, c’est-à-dire des empires mondiaux, ceux ‘dar sih sit zinsten ellú lant’ (v. 160: ‘dont tous les pays furent tributaires’). Or, il ne 101

Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, pp. 289–97. Sur les échos lexicaux et les répétitions parfois littérales entre le premier prologue et les autres, voir Jaurant, ibid, p. 293, n. 1036. 103 Von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 102. 104 Le passage est inspiré de l’Imago mundi où cette mention ne figure cependant pas; voir Doberentz, 1882, p. 210,  et von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 102–3. Selon von Tippelskirch, ibid., p. 104, la théorie des empires n’avait pas sa place dans cette œuvre car elle aurait déplacé l’accent vers l’histoire profane alors que Rudolf souhaitait manifestement centrer son propos sur l’histoire sainte. 102

166

9781903153734.indd 166

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems se tient à ce projet que dans la mesure où il sépare très distinctement l’histoire du peuple de Dieu de celle des autres peuples. On le sait, l’histoire sainte, celle de l’humanité dans laquelle Dieu décida de s’incarner (v. 3110–12), est désignée par l’expression rehtiu ban (‘voie droite’; ‘der rechtin mere ban’, v. 3786), les digressions sur l’histoire profane par le terme biwege (v. 3781) ou nebinganc, (v. 3117, ‘voies secondaires’).105 Cette autre histoire commence avec la confusion des langues et la dispersion des peuples. Ici, Rudolf s’appuie sur la conception classique, augustinienne et othonienne, sans chercher à s’en distinguer vraiment: comme Augustin, il conçoit la construction de la tour de Babel comme le moment de l’histoire où se concrétise pour la première fois l’opposition entre les deux cités, qui toutefois préexistent avant cet événement décisif.106 À l’opposition classique entre civitas Dei et civitas terrena correspond donc plus précisément chez Rudolf celle entre les Gotes burgeren (‘membres de la Cité de Dieu’) et les welte burgeren (‘membre de la cité terrestre’). Ces deux expressions n’ont pas d’équivalents exacts chez Augustin; on trouve toutefois dans la Cronica sive historia de duabus civitatibus d’Othon de Freising celles de cives Christi et de cives mundi, ce qui pourrait laisser supposer que le texte d’Othon est une des sources de Rudolf dans le domaine qui nous intéresse ici.107 Le principe d’organisation consistant à faire alterner histoire sainte et développements sur l’histoire profane est semble-t-il repris de Pierre le Mangeur, qui l’applique néanmoins avec beaucoup moins de rigueur:108 la division très nette et systématique de la matière en deux parties109 n’existe ni dans l’Historia scholastica ni dans la Christherre-Chronik, qui, on le sait, suit de beaucoup plus près l’Historia scholastica que ne le fait Rudolf. 105

Les vers 3102–22 proposent également une définition de la différence entre rehtiu ban et biwege. Voir von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 91–2, et Brackert, Rudolf von Ems, p. 180. 106 Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’,  p. 182, n. 269; voir PL 41, 489: ‘Fortassis enim, quod profecto est credibilius, et in filiis duorum illorum jam tunc antequam Babylonia cœpisset institui, fuerunt contemptores Dei, et in filiis Cham cultores Dei: utrumque tamen hominum genus terris nunquam defuisse credendum est.’ (De civitate Dei XVI.10). Brackert, Rudolf von Ems, p. 179, attire l’attention sur ce qu’il estime être une modification opérée par Rudolf par rapport au schéma de la tradition augustinienne, l’histoire des deux cités commençant chez Augustin (selon Brackert !) dès le meurtre d’Abel; Rudolf procéderait de la sorte afin de ne pas lier le concept de cité terrestre avec celui de péché. Sur ce point, voir la contradiction de von Tippelskirch (Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 89). 107 Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 183, envisage cette hypothèse mais ne la retient pas. 108 Von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 91, n. 31: le premier dévelop­ pement de ce type se trouve dans l’Historia scholastica à peu près au même endroit que chez Rudolf (Ninus et Sémiramis; l’histoire de Ninus inaugure généralement au Moyen Âge l’histoire profane). 109 Sur les techniques permettant à Rudolf d’assouplir cette présentation et de créer des liens, voir Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, pp. 184–6.

167

9781903153734.indd 167

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry Plus encore, Rudolf, en organisant ainsi la matière qu’il transmet en deux ‘flux’ parallèles, non seulement systématise, mais simplifie la présentation d’Augustin et celle d’Othon de Freising: l’un et l’autre n’identifiaient jamais exactement civitas Dei et Israël d’une part, civitas terrena et histoire profane d’autre part.110 Chez ces deux auteurs, les deux cités ne s’actualisaient pas de manière séparée dans l’histoire. Pour Othon, les communautés humaines se présentent sous une forme spécifique, celle de la civitas permixta.111 Othon, cependant, marquait une certaine indépendance vis-à-vis de l’évêque d’Hippone, dans la mesure où il rendait compte de manière plus systématique qu’Augustin de l’histoire des païens. Rudolf va plus loin et ne recule pas devant la possibilité de présenter explicitement les deux cités comme bien distinctes l’une de l’autre. Revenons brièvement sur les définitions que propose Rudolf de chacune des deux cités dans son texte. Elles ne laissent en effet planer aucun doute sur la manière dont il conçoit les choses. La civitas Dei est définie comme suit:   Nah dén heiligen scriftin wilih dén meren stiftin zwo stete edil und riche, darzů gewaltecliche uf al der erde ellú lant dienstis můstin sin benant. der wirt dú einú Gotis stat, dú vesteclich und wol besat wirt an disin meren mit dén Gotis burgeren: das sint Semis nahkomin, uz dén allin ist genomen Phalech in der schidunge zit und nah im sin geslehte sit, als iuh ir namen gennennet sint. v. 3746–60 ‘Conformément aux Écritures saintes, je vais raconter l’histoire de deux splendides et puissantes cités auxquelles tous les pays de la Terre devaient être soumis. L’une d’elles est la cité de Dieu, bien fortifiée et occupée par les hommes de Dieu: ce sont les descendants de Sem; au moment où commence l’opposition entre les deux cités, Pèleg est élevé au-dessus d’eux, puis toute sa lignée, dont vous avez entendu les noms.’

Voici ce qu’il en est dans son texte de la civitas terrena: die do und noh der jare zil mit grozir kúneglichir kraft

110

Von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 83, 198; Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, pp. 182–3; Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, p. 293. 111 Von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 84–5.

168

9781903153734.indd 168

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems kúnege in al der heidinschaft waren unde hiezin und sich da nidir liezin in heidenischú riche, die nennich al geliche der welte burgere: swas von dén hie dú mere sagint, das sint die biwege nebint der rehtin mere pflege, die uns hie suln bemeren von dén Gotis burgeren fúr sih der rehtin mere ban.    v. 3773–86 ‘Tous ceux qui, maintenant et jusqu’à la fin des temps, furent des rois puissants dans le monde païen et fondèrent des royaumes païens, je les appelle tous de la même façon ‘membres de la Cité terrestre’; tout ce qui, dans le récit, se rapporte à eux, ce sont les voies secondaires, qui se situent à côté du cours habituel de la ‘voie droite’, dont le sujet est constitué par les membres de la cité de Dieu.’

On l’a vu, une telle conception est de nature à faciliter la présentation des choses et à fournir au texte des articulations claires. Contrairement à ce que l’on constate chez Othon de Freising, la bipartition de la matière traitée reste, une fois mise en place, un cadre relativement rigide. Rudolf ne semble pas vraiment envisager de développement, d’évolution concernant la nature même des deux cités.112 Il estime simplement que le rapport entre puissance et excellence morale est inverse dès l’origine, par définition pour ainsi dire: ‘dú stat was an edelkeit / dú richir, und an herschaft / dú mindir dannoh an ir kraft, / und wart doh sit dú herer, / swie jene were merer / die ih der welte stiftin wil.’ (v. 3767–72: ‘Cette cité [i.e. celle de Dieu] était la plus excellente, quoique inférieure du point de vue de la puissance; et pourtant elle s’éleva à un plus haut degré de noblesse, bien que la cité terrestre dont je vais parler fût plus grande.’). Outre l’utilisation novatrice d’un schéma faisant autorité depuis saint Augustin, Rudolf a recours à celui des six âges de l’humanité, qui fournira à toutes les chroniques universelles allemandes du Moyen Âge tardif leur structure de base.113 Elle est héritée de saint Irénée, mais c’est là encore saint Augustin qui a établi un lien d’ordre typologique entre les six âges et les six jours de la Création.114 Rudolf donne une définition du terme welt (‘âge’) aux v. 3822–37, c’est-à-dire au début de l’âge d’Abraham: un nouvel âge 112 113

114

Ibid., p. 91. C’est le schéma adopté dans les chroniques de langue allemande jusqu’à Heinrich von München (Walliczek, ‘Rudolf von Ems’, col. 340). On la trouve également chez Hartmann Schedel au xve siècle. Von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 94–5.

169

9781903153734.indd 169

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry commence quand Dieu décide de ‘renouveler le monde’ (v. 3835: ‘der welte ein núwes machin’) en créant quelque chose de nouveau, qui n’a jamais existé auparavant (v. 3836–7). Une autre, plus concrète, se trouve au début du cinquième âge, dont la figure tutélaire est David, un âge qui revêt dans sa conception de l’histoire une importance particulière: Rudolf précise alors que l’action de Moïse renouvela l’Alliance par l’enseignement de la Loi et que David incarna ensuite un nouveau type de rois préfigurant la royauté du Christ (v. 21524–55). La division en six âges annoncée par Rudolf dans le prologue n’a pas été suivie à la lettre lors de la composition ultérieure. Le découpage auquel Rudolf fait initialement référence dans le prologue, analogue à celui de saint Augustin,115 n’est pas respecté dans le corps de l’œuvre. Dans le prologue, Rudolf divise l’histoire de la manière suivante: d’Adam à Noé, de Noé à Abraham, d’Abraham à David, de David à la captivité à Babylone, de la captivité à Babylone jusqu’à l’Incarnation,116 à partir de la naissance du Christ. Or, la division que nous trouvons au sein du texte est différente, puisque les jalons en sont Adam, Noé, Abraham, Moïse, David [, Christ].117 Les prologues correspondant à chacun des âges sont pourvus d’un acrostiche révélant le nom de la figure tutélaire de la période en question, le premier âge, celui de la Création, faisant exception à la règle – si toutefois on ne prend pas en compte l’humour de l’auteur, car il y a bien un acrostiche à cet endroit, celui qui forme son propre nom. On a trouvé à ce changement de programme différentes raisons, en expliquant par exemple que Rudolf souhaitait renoncer à faire de la captivité à Babylone un tournant de l’histoire: si Rudolf élimine cet événement en tant que césure, ce peut être en effet par souci de cohérence: selon sa définition des âges, qui met l’accent sur l’originalité, cette étape rappellerait par trop l’exil en Égypte.118 On a fait valoir également que le modèle adopté par Rudolf dans le corps du texte est celui de la Vulgate, qui s’impose de plus en plus dans les chroniques universelles, peut-être en raison du succès de l’Historia scholastica119: le livre V de Rudolf commence non par David, mais, comme le premier Livre des Rois dans la Vulgate, par Samuel et Saül (1 Samuel). L’explication vaut aussi pour la nouvelle séparation introduite par Rudolf dans le corps du texte120 et, donc, pour la mise en exergue du nom de Moïse: cette nouvelle césure concorde dans la Weltchronik avec la séparation entre la 115

PL 41, 804 (De civitate Dei XXII.30). v. 80–146. 117 v. 189–866, 867–3793, 3794–8797, 8798–21517. Voir aussi P. Gichtel, Die Weltchronik Heinrichs von München in der Runkelsteiner Handschrift des Heinz Sentlinger (Munich, 1937), pp. 26–9; Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’, p. 176, n. 239. 118 Brackert, Rudolf von Ems, p. 173; von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 99–100. 119 von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 100. 120 Ibid., pp. 100, 198. 116

170

9781903153734.indd 170

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems Genèse et l’Exode, l’Exode étant, comme on le sait, tout entier placé sous l’égide de Moïse.121 L’apparition du nom de Moïse dans le second schéma intrigue cependant. Cette réévaluation de Moïse est peut-être à mettre en relation avec le fait qu’il est le premier grand législateur, un rôle sur lequel insistent à la fois Othon de Freising, dans la Cronica (8, 14), et l’iconographie du Liber ad honorem Augusti, un panégyrique composé par Pierre d’Éboli à la gloire d’Henri VI,122 des textes, donc, qui étaient connus de Rudolf. Le nom de Moïse apparaît dans des périodisations plus anciennes que celle de saint Augustin: chez Origène (Adam, Noé, Abraham, Moïse, Christ) et chez Hippolyte de Rome, qui propose une division identique à celle de Rudolf: Adam, Noé, Abraham, Moïse, David, Christ.123 Il se pourrait aussi que la seconde division, celle du texte lui-même, permette de rendre plus évidente la relation typologique entre David et le Christ, puis entre le David vétérotestamentaire et le David novus, c’est-à-dire Konrad.124 Cette hypothèse de Hubert Herkommer nous ramène vers ce qui pourrait être le centre névralgique du texte de Rudolf, l’hymne à Konrad. Dans ce passage, Rudolf énumère les rois de la dynastie des Hohenstaufen en soulignant leurs mérites en tant que promoteurs du Sacrum imperium.125 Ce faisant, il se réfère implicitement à l’idée d’hérédité de l’empire (Erbreichsgedanke);126 de là, certainement, sa tendance très forte à légitimer le pouvoir en invoquant une généalogie prestigieuse. Nous avons affaire ici à un autre procédé de structuration caractéristique du travail de Rudolf dans la Weltchronik. Les autres généalogies auxquelles Rudolf fait référence proviennent, pour l’histoire sainte, de l’Ancien Testament, de l’Évangile selon Matthieu et sans doute d’un compendium proche des généalogies de Pierre de Poitiers, du Panthéon de Godefroi de Viterbe127 et de l’Historia scholastica pour l’histoire profane.128 Mais la source la plus utilisée au Moyen Âge était

121

Un autre point de vue est exprimé par von Tippelskirch dans la conclusion de son ouvrage, ibid., p. 197: Rudolf a pu être été influencé par la Chronica d’Othon de Freising. 122 Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, p. 300, n. 1056. 123 Rudolf semble prendre position contre la division adoptée par Eusèbe de Césaréesaint Jérôme (von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 97). Il y a aussi un âge allant de Moïse à David chez Honoré d’Autun. Selon Brackert, les similitudes avec d’autres divisions antérieures à celle de Rudolf sont fortuites (Rudolf von Ems, p. 173). 124 Herkommer, ‘Der St. Galler Kodex’ p. 176. 125 L’appellation est en usage à la chancellerie impériale depuis 1157. 126 Von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 199. 127 Par exemple pour les v. 8591–626: la source serait, selon von Tippelskirch, ibid., p. 117, la fin du Panthéon: voir PL 198, 1021–7 (Catalogus regum Italicorum, Assyriorum, Medorum, Persarum, Hebrærum, Trojanorum, Græcorum, Sycioniorum, Ægyptiorum, Ægypti et Antiochiæ post mortem Alexandri Magni, Argivorum, Bayloniorum). 128 Voir von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 26, 116, et pp. 105–6 sur l’importance de la notion de Sippe, ‘famille’ au sens très large du terme, ou

171

9781903153734.indd 171

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry les Canons chronologiques d’Eusèbe retravaillés par saint Jérôme. L’exposé de telles généalogies fait contrepoids au perpétuel renouvellement des royaumes et permet de réintroduire une forme de stabilité dans le fil narratif, en montrant qu’une continuité a été garantie par les lignées royales.129 Summum de cet art, qui trahit bien sûr une véritable obsession de la légitimité, la dernière de ces généalogies, celle des Hohenstaufen, couronne le texte. Le modèle de cette généalogie, qui trône au centre de l’éloge de Konrad IV, pourrait être celle d’Henri VI composée par Godefroi de Viterbe dans la première de ses œuvres qui nous soit parvenue, le Speculum regum.130 Nous sommes là au cœur d’une fabrique de l’idéologie impériale, à laquelle la Weltchronik de Rudolf prend part de façon évidente. L’inscription de cette idéologie dans la Weltchronik, dans une période très tendue sur le plan politique, mérite par conséquent un bref examen.

Histoire universelle et idéologie impériale L’entreprise que représente la Weltchronik prend tout son sens si l’on tient compte de l’ambition des Hohenstaufen, qui était de définir la supériorité de leur pouvoir en dehors du cadre que prétendait lui imposer la curie romaine et en lui donnant malgré tout un fondement à la fois chrétien et courtois.131 Cette tendance devient de plus en plus forte à partir de 1228–1229, époque à laquelle on constate une sacralisation du discours impérial sur la royauté. Frédéric en tout cas conçoit de façon croissante sa mission et la nature même de son pouvoir comme étant de type davidien.132 Il concurrence le pape dans des domaines aussi sensibles que celui de la défense de l’orthodoxie

‘tribu’, chez les peuples germaniques et l’influence qu’elle peut avoir eue sur la Weltchronik. 129 Ibid., p. 123. 130 Ibid., pp. 55, 128–30. Godefroi a servi Konrad III, Frédéric Ier et Henri VI. Voir la contribution de Michele Campopiano dans ce volume. Selon le texte de Godefroi, les Hohenstaufen descendraient d’un certain ‘Jupiter’, lui-même descendant de Nimrod, roi d’Athènes dont les lois devaient mettre un terme au chaos dans lequel avait sombré le monde abandonné de Dieu (dans le Liber ad honorem Augusti, Pierre d’Éboli nomme Frédéric ‘Iovis proles’). Dans cette version évhémériste de l’histoire de Jupiter, les Hohenstaufen ont également pour ancêtre Charlemagne, lui-même directement issu de la lignée de Jupiter. Comme Rudolf dans l’hymne à Konrad, Godefroi feint d’ignorer la Reichsverfassung et donc le fait que l’empereur est élu. 131 Wenzel, Höfische Geschichte, p. 85. 132 Ibid., p. 74 (Konrad comme successeur du Christ, importance de David au Moyen Âge, lien entre Konrad et David). Voir aussi Brackert, Rudolf von Ems, pp. 84–5, au sujet du fait que, à partir de 1237, Konrad se désigne et est désigné comme roi de Jérusalem. Nicolas de Bari qualifie Frédéric de novus David, d’empereur de la maison de David, de roi d’Israël, etc. (voir à ce sujet supra, n. 25); sur la royauté davidienne, voir Kantorowicz, Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite, pp. 157–8.

172

9781903153734.indd 172

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems et de la lutte contre les hérésies. C’est donc assez naturellement au début du cinquième livre, celui dédié à David, que Rudolf intègre à son œuvre un éloge de Konrad.133 Ce qui est moins naturel en revanche, c’est l’importance extraordinaire prise par cet éloge: c’est en effet uniquement à Konrad, et non à David, que revient, dans le prologue du livre V, malgré l’acrostiche (DAVID, v. 21518–22), l’honneur de donner des traits concrets à la fonction royale.134 Konrad est ici très clairement le successeur des rois d’Israël. Le vers 21654 montre que cet éloge a été composé après la mort de Frédéric, donc après 1250:135 ‘solter fúrbaz gelept han’ (‘s’il avait vécu plus longtemps’). Konrad est le roi à qui rendent hommage Jérusalem, la Sicile,136 et le royaume d’Arles (‘das Arelat’, v. 21585–94), en d’autres termes des possessions incontestées de la famille des Hohenstaufen. En effet, en tant que fils d’Isabelle de Brienne, il peut revendiquer la couronne de Jérusalem, et, en tant que petitfils de Constance, l’épouse normande d’Henri VI, la couronne de Sicile.137 C’est son titre de roi de Jérusalem qui permet à l’auteur de la Weltchronik de placer Konrad dans la lignée de David. Quant à Arles, la chose est moins évidente, mais ce ‘détail’ renvoie aux développements récents de la politique impériale dans cette région. Le nom officiel en est ‘regnum Arelatense’;138 la Provence et le Jura en font partie, il fut conquis en 1032–33 par Konrad II et constituait avec l’Italie et l’Allemagne ce qu’on appela les tria regna, dont le gouvernement revenait au détenteur du pouvoir impérial. C’est l’arrièregrand-père de Konrad, Frédéric Ier Barberousse, couronné roi de Bourgogne à Arles en 1178, qui renforça la présence des Hohenstaufen dans ce royaume,139 mais cette politique n’eut semble-t-il pas beaucoup de succès.140 Toujours est-il que le discours de Rudolf consiste à faire en sorte que Konrad tire profit de l’aura de Barberousse dans l’histoire récente de cette région et de la trace qu’y avait laissé son règne, dans une optique qui est celle de la glorification de la famille impériale dans son ensemble. Dans ce passage, Rudolf fait allusion au titre d’empereur que ne possède pas Konrad: ‘der da ist herre und kúnig genant / (…) der ouh von der hohsten 133

Sur ce passage, voir p. ex. Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, pp. 298–302 (‘III. Die „Weltchronik“ als Instrument staufischer Propaganda’). 134 Danielle Jaurant souligne avec raison ce fait (ibid., p. 300, n. 1057, p. 301). 135 Von Ertzdorff, Rudolf von Ems, p. 102. 136 Au sujet de la Sicile (v. 21586–7), la formulation est identique à celle des v. 19974–5 (‘Siciliæ und al dú lant / dú dar ze dienste sint benant’; ‘la Sicile et tous les pays qui sont destinés à la servir’). 137 Au sujet de cet éloge, voir von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 124–7, 141–54, en l’occurrence p. 150. 138 H. Bitsch, ‘Arelat’, Lexikon des Mittelalters (2003), I, 916–17. 139 H. Bitsch mentionne ses nombreux séjours en Bourgogne, son mariage avec Beatrix de Bourgogne en 1156 et la diète de Besançon en 1157. 140 Bitsch, ‘Arelat’, col. 917; les mariages du roi de France Louis IX et de son frère avec des femmes de la famille des comtes de Provence (filles de Raimond Bérenger V de Provence) affaiblissent la position de l’Empire dans cette région.

173

9781903153734.indd 173

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry hant, / dú Gotes zeswe ist genant, / noh wartet ro̊meschir krone’ (v. 21585–93: ‘on l’appelle seigneur et roi (…) celui qui attend encore des plus hautes instances, c’est-à-dire de la main droite de Dieu, la couronne de Rome’). Les événements auxquels Rudolf fait ici allusion sont, entre autres, l’élection de Heinrich Raspe, puis, après la mort prématurée de ce dernier en 1247, celle de Guillaume de Hollande, couronné à Aix-la-Chapelle par l’archevêque de Mayence.141 On sait que la chancellerie tente de faire pièce à ces manœuvres en fourbissant un arsenal formulaire très précis. Rudolf ne fait que lui emboîter le pas. Depuis 1237, Konrad se fait appeler couramment ‘Conradus divi augusti imperatoris Friderici filius dei gratia Romanorum in regem electus semper augustus’.142 Il n’a cependant jamais été couronné, ni à Aix-laChapelle ni à Rome. Si Rudolf souligne ici de manière voyante sa qualité de futur empereur, c’est bien entendu aussi parce qu’elle justifie le projet de la Weltchronik, un texte voué à la légitimation du pouvoir impérial. Le fait que la Weltchronik soit une commande personnelle du roi rend le plaidoyer de Rudolf en faveur du titre de roi de Rome d’autant plus incontournable (v. 21656–74). Rudolf essayant ici de pallier une carence dans le portrait politique de Konrad, on ne s’étonnera pas de le voir souligner la généalogie prestigieuse de son mécène; ce faisant, son texte fait inévitablement écho à la politique des Hohenstaufen, qui s’efforcent d’assurer à leur descendant un droit héréditaire au gouvernement de l’Italie.143 Ne mentionnant qu’en passant les règnes, peu glorieux, de Konrad III et de Philippe de Souabe (v. 21629–40), il insiste au contraire sur la politique italienne très active du successeur de Konrad III, Frédéric Ier.144 Une partie des régions mentionnées dans la ‘Géographie’ réapparaît ici, dont les noms commémorent la mémoire

141

Konrad fut excommunié deux fois, en 1248 et en 1251. Lorsqu’il excommunie Frédéric en 1239, Grégoire IX veut transférer le pouvoir impérial au roi de France. Voir Brackert, Rudolf von Ems, p 89. 142 Ibid., p. 85. 143 Sur le projet de succession héréditaire à la charge impériale (Erbreichsplan), voir K. Jordan, Investiturstreit und frühe Stauferzeit, dans Gebhardt, Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte (Stuttgart, 1973), IV, pp. 172–6; von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 130–40; O. Engels, ‘Erbreichsplan’, dans Lexikon des Mittelalters (2003), III col. 2117.  L’Église était partisan du principe d’idonéité et s’opposa à ce projet, qui remettait en question l’élection. Godefroi de Viterbe était l’un des promoteurs du projet. 144 Von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 199, mentionne la formule topique utilisée par Rudolf au sujet de Konrad III: ‘das erste was kúnig Chůnrat, / der in dem geslehte schone / die ro̊mesche krone / trůg gewaltecliche / ubir ro̊mesche riche’ (v. 21624–8: ‘Le premier de cette magnifique lignée fut le roi Konrad, qui porta la couronne de Rome et régna avec puissance sur l’empire de Rome’). Au xiiie siècle, on associe le titre de roi allemand à la ville de Rome; cet usage est bien établi. Le premier roi à avoir été appelé rex Romanorum est Henri III en 1040. Depuis le XIIe siècle, c’est l’appellation officielle du roi allemand. Voir références chez von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, p. 144.

174

9781903153734.indd 174

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems de Barberousse et de sa politique de restauration de l’honor imperii en Italie (v. 21631–2):145 la Lombardie (Lamparten) soumise en 1177, la Toscane (Tuscan) qu’avait réorganisée Barberousse, Rome et Milan (Meilan), l’une fugitivement conquise en 1167, l’autre anéantie en 1162 par l’empereur allemand.146 Il est d’autant plus opportun d’évoquer ici ces souvenirs que Frédéric II, en raison de son conflit avec la Ligue lombarde, se voit privé des bénéfices du traité de Constance (1138), qui avait réglé pour un temps la question de la présence impériale en Italie, et que le soulèvement de Florence en 1250 met en cause son autorité en Toscane, pourtant rétablie après la victoire de Cortenuova. Les v. 21654–5 font allusion au tournant favorable que prirent les événements pour Frédéric peu avant sa mort: ‘solter fúrbas gelept han, / er hete druz geslo̊zit sih’ (‘S’il avait vécu encore, il serait venu à bout de ces difficultés’).147 C’est certainement pour la même raison que Rudolf ne mentionne du règne d’Henri VI que la férule qu’il imposa aux pays soumis et la conquête de la Sicile, et qu’il omet la révolte des barons: ‘das dritte keiser Heinrich was, / keiserlichir kraft ein adamas, / der Sicilie das lant / und al dú lant mit sinir hant, / dú noh ho̊rent dar, betwanc, / das si im dienden ane wanc.’ (v. 21635–40: ‘Le troisième empereur fut Henri, quintessence de la puissance impériale, qui soumit la Sicile et toutes ses possessions, si bien qu’elles lui obéirent sans interruption’). Quant au titre ‘naturel’ de roi de Jérusalem, il constitue à n’en point douter un temps fort de l’hymne à Konrad. La perspective typologique a bien entendu pour fonction de souligner une fois encore le point commun essentiel des deux souverains, leur double statut de roi et de prophète. Si l’éloge de Konrad est situé au début de la section de la Weltchronik correspondant globalement aux Livres des Rois, c’est pour montrer que Konrad est l’élu de Dieu, le David rex et le Vicarius Christi.148 Dans ce rapprochement entre les deux figures de rois se cristallise tout le propos de Rudolf, qui peut ainsi opposer aux prétentions du pape à régler aussi les affaires temporelles celles des Hohenstaufen à représenter directement Dieu sur Terre.149 La

145

Sur la rénovation de l’Empire par Frédéric Ier Barberousse, voir O. Engels, ‘Friedrich I. (Friedrich Barbarossa)’, dans Lexikon des Mittelalters (2003), IV, 931–33 (col. 932): le programme politique de Frédéric consiste à intégrer la Sicile à l’Empire (ce projet existe depuis le Carolingien Louis II), à établir une présence durable de l’Empire en Bourgogne et en Italie, à renforcer le pouvoir royal en Allemagne. 146 Voir Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, p. 299; Jordan, Investiturstreit und frühe Stauferzeit, pp. 133, 140. 147 Ces vers sont donc composés après la mort de Frédéric. La rédaction de ce passage est à situer après le 13 décembre 1250, peut-être même après février 1251, date à laquelle la nouvelle de la mort de l’empereur parvint en Allemagne. Brackert évoque cette deuxième date (Rudolf von Ems, p. 83, n. 1). 148 Brackert, Rudolf von Ems, p. 90. Sur la royauté spirituelle des Hohenstaufen, voir Kantorowicz, Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite, pp. 395–401. 149 Brackert, Rudolf von Ems, pp. 90–1, n. 47. Selon Brackert, ces deux vers renvoient au

175

9781903153734.indd 175

08/05/2017 08:29

Christophe Thierry revendication de Gottunmittelbarkeit met au goût du jour une conception qui s’est maintenue, plus vivace, dans l’Empire romain d’Orient150 et qui se perpétue dans les réflexions médiévales sur le pouvoir royal, notamment à travers l’évocation du Psaume 109 (110).151 Rudolf a depuis très longtemps mis en lumière la nature sacrée de l’ascendance et de la royauté de David, dont l’aura illumine le Hohenstaufen Konrad.152 Ainsi, évocant la traversée de la Mer rouge, il développe le passage très lapidaire de l’Historia scholastica où la tribu de Juda entraîne à sa suite les autres, prises de peur devant le spectacle des eaux qui s’ouvrent, celles de Ruben, de Siméon et de Lévi:153 selon Rudolf, la tribu de Juda gagne dès lors le droit, par son mérite, d’engendrer les rois; son chef (‘houbet man’, v. 10915), se distingue des autres chefs de tribus par le fait qu’il enseigne la parole de Dieu (v. 10917), et Rudolf précise que de sa lignée sortira ‘Dauid der Gotis erwelter helt’ (v. 10909, ‘David le héros choisi par Dieu’), associant par cette expression le courage dans le domaine militaire et la dimension spirituelle, deux aspects fondamentaux d’une royauté idéale dont peut se réclamer Konrad.

Conclusion Paradoxalement, ces repères savamment disposés au sein du texte et qui en orientent nécessairement la lecture n’ont pas influé directement sur sa diffusion. Le succès de la Weltchronik de Rudolf tient avant tout, pour autant qu’on puisse le supposer, à son caractère encyclopédique, susceptible de satisfaire la curiosité d’un grand nombre de lecteurs. Par ailleurs, il était possible d’occulter en grande partie, dans les copies de l’œuvre, la référence explicite aux Hohenstaufen, pour peu qu’elle fût ressentie comme gênante. Ce fait est d’autant plus remarquable que la Weltchronik fut aussi vraisemblablement, à l’origine, un instrument au service de la propagande des Hohenstaufen154. Enfin, malgré le fort ancrage de Rudolf dans la tradition cléricale, celle-ci n’imprègne pas son écriture au point d’occulter le plaisir pris à la transmission

psaume 109 (110, ‘De David’), souvent convoqué au Moyen Âge dans la réflexion sur le pouvoir royal. 150 Lex animata et rex mediator; E. H. Kantorowicz, ‘Kaiser Friedrich II. und das Königsbild des Hellenismus. Marginalia miscellanea’, dans Stupor mundi, pp. 95–129 (pp. 98–103). Voir Thierry, La Fascination pour Alexandre le Grand, II, 1102–3. 151 Brackert, Rudolf von Ems, p. 91. 152 Voir par exemple Walliczek, ‘Rudolf von Ems’, col. 341. 153 PL 198, 1158 (Liber Exodi): Cumque timuissent intrare Ruben, Simeon et Levi, Iudas primus aggressus est iter post eum, unde et ibi meruit regnum. Voir Brackert, Rudolf von Ems, p. 183. 154 Jaurant, Rudolfs Weltchronik als offene Form, p. 199. Pour un avis plus nuancé sur la question, voir von Tippelskirch, Die Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems, pp. 160–2.

176

9781903153734.indd 176

08/05/2017 08:29

la Weltchronik de Rudolf von Ems des connaissances, à la synthèse de sources diverses et à l’élaboration d’une somme qui réponde aux attentes de son public profane. C’est que, en dehors de certains passages que les copistes n’avaient guère de mal à localiser, Rudolf propose dans ce texte une vision somme toute relativement sécularisée de l’histoire,155 dans laquelle le conflit entre l’Empire et la papauté n’a justement pas l’occasion de s’exprimer; le point de vue adopté par le narrateur, celui du poète de cour se plaçant au-dessus des partis et embrassant l’histoire de l’humanité sans a priori déclaré, parvient par sa hauteur de vue à gommer les antagonismes.156

155

Wenzel, Höfische Geschichte, p. 84. Est-ce pour cette raison que Rudolf ne mentionne pas l’origine ‘biblique’ de la chevalerie, contrairement à Honoré d’Autun, l’une de ses sources (cf. De imagine mundi, PL 172, 166, au sujet du deuxième âge: ‘Hujus tempore divisum est genus humanum in tria: in liberos, milites, servos. Liberi de Sem, milites de Japhet, servi de Cham.’), au Lucidarius (éd. Heidlauf (Berlin, 1915), p. 8) et à Jans Enikel à la fin du xiiie siècle (Weltchronik, éd. P. Strauch (Hanovre, 1891), v. 3033–4)  ? Rudolf mentionne cependant que la chrétienté est issue de la descendance de Japhet (Weltchronik, v. 993–8). 1 56 Wenzel, Höfische Geschichte, pp. 71–87, ici en particulier pp. 85, 87.

177

9781903153734.indd 177

08/05/2017 08:29

9781903153734.indd 178

08/05/2017 08:29

7 Écrire la première histoire universelle en français: l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César de Wauchier de Denain et l’adaptation du modèle latin de l’histoire universelle à un public de laïcs Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas

At the beginning of the thirteenth century, Wauchier de Denain wrote the oldest extant universal chronicle in French, the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César. He was the first author we know to have borrowed this prestigious genre from Latin literature, transferring it to the French vernacular. In choosing to address a lay audience – the court of Flanders and the lord of Lille, Roger IV, who valued the use of French above all for political reasons – the author spearheaded a profound change in the refashioning and reinterpretation of ancient history at a time when the royal court was still deeply attached to the use of Latin. La première histoire universelle écrite en langue française nous est connue sous le titre Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César: il s’agit d’un intitulé moderne, qui fait référence à l’interruption du récit au beau milieu de la conquête de la Gaule Belgique par César, puisque l’œuvre est en effet inachevée, bien que déjà très longue. Dans l’un des manuscrits les plus anciens, le manuscrit de Paris, BnF, fr. 20125, où elle occupe 375 folios, elle est introduite par la rubrique ‘Ci comence li prologues ou livre des estories Rogier et la porsivance’, qui contient le nom du mécène de l’auteur, Roger IV de Lille, d’où le second titre donné par la critique moderne: Estoires Roger ou Histoires pour Roger.1 L’auteur de l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César ou Estoires Roger est le premier auteur français à transposer en langue vernaculaire ce genre prestigieux de l’écriture latine qu’est l’histoire universelle, en s’appuyant essentiellement sur

1 Le

titre Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César a été attribué par P. Meyer dès son étude de 1885 (‘Les premières compilations françaises d’histoire ancienne’, Romania 14 (1885), 1–81 (pp. 59–62)). Le second titre Estoires Rogier a été ajouté par M. de Visser-van Terwisga dans son édition des sections ‘Assyrie, Thèbes, le Minotaure, les Amazones, Hercule’ (L’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (Estoires Rogier), 2 vols. (Orléans, 1999), II).

179

9781903153734.indd 179

08/05/2017 08:29

Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas le texte qui représente sans nul doute l’un de ses plus éminents modèles, les Historiae adversus paganos d’Orose, l’historien le plus lu au Moyen Âge selon B. Guenée.2 Le changement de langue et le choix d’un nouveau public, qui, au-delà d’un désir de connaissance et de divertissement, apprécie sans doute aussi pour des raisons politiques l’usage du français, s’accompagnent de modifications profondes dans la recomposition et l’interprétation de l’histoire antique, ainsi que d’une transformation des liens entre histoire et théologie. Wauchier de Denain, originaire du nord de la France – Denain est une petite ville proche de Valenciennes –, écrit au début du xiiie siècle pour la cour de Flandre et aussi pour le châtelain de Lille, Roger IV. De cet auteur polygraphe nous conservons d’abord des traductions de textes religieux – les Vies des Pères et plusieurs livres des Dialogues de Grégoire, une Vie seint Marcel de Lymoges, une Vie mon signeur seint Nicholas le beneoit confessor et sans doute une Vie de sainte Marthe. On lui attribue donc aussi l’histoire universelle qu’est l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, ainsi que la Seconde Continuation du Conte du Graal de Chrétien de Troyes.3 Selon toute vraisemblance, il était un clerc séculier, et non un moine. Mais il s’est fait connaître et apprécier d’abord pour ses textes religieux – d’autant qu’il est l’auteur des plus anciennes vies de saint en prose –, avant d’en venir à l’histoire universelle, une autre forme d’écriture très marquée par le didactisme religieux et dont il est le créateur en langue française. Dans son Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, il prend souvent la posture d’un prédicateur et émaille son texte de petits sermons, écrits en vers ou en prose, pour tirer la leçon chrétienne des événements de l’histoire antique rapportée. Ce sont d’ailleurs ces ‘moralisations’ qui, par leur proximité avec celles de ses vies de saint, sont à l’origine de l’attribution de l’histoire universelle à sa personne.4 Plutôt que de vulgariser fidèlement la

2 B.

Guenée, Histoire et culture historique dans l’Occident médiéval (Paris, 1980).

3 Les études pionnières sont celles de P. Meyer, ‘Les premières compilations françaises

d’histoire ancienne’, Romania 14 (1885),  1–81; P. Meyer, ‘Wauchier de Denain’, Romania 32 (1903), 583–6; P. Meyer, ‘Versions en vers et en prose des Vies des Pères’, Histoire littéraire de la France 33 (1906), 254–92. Voir aussi F. Lot, ‘Compte rendu de Jean Frappier, Étude sur la Mort le roi Artu’, Romania 64 (1938), 111–22; G. Raynaud de Lage, ‘L’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César et les Faits des Romains’, ‘Les romans antiques dans l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César’, dans idem, Les premiers romans français et autres études littéraires et linguistiques (Genève, 1976), pp. 5–13, pp. 55–86; C. Corley, ‘Wauchier de Denain et la deuxième continuation de Perceval’, Romania 105 (1984), pp.  351–9, ainsi que les éditions suivantes: Wauchier de Denain, L’Histoire des moines d’Égypte, suivie de La vie de saint Paul le Simple, éd. M. Szkilnik (Genève, 1993); La Vie mon signeur seint Nicholas le beneoit confessor, éd. J. J. Thompson (Genève, 1999); La Vie seint Marcel de Lymoges, éd. M. Lynde-Recchia (Genève, 2005). 4 Éditées par M. de Visser-van Terwisga (L’Histoire, II, 291–308), elles sont l’aspect le plus étudié de l’œuvre: R. Blumenfeld-Kosinski, ‘Moralization and History: Verse and Prose in the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (BnF fr. 20125)’, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 97 (1981), 41–6; M. Szkilnik, ‘Écrire en vers, écrire en prose: le choix de Wauchier de Denain’, Romania 107 (1986), 208–30; M. de Visser-van

180

9781903153734.indd 180

08/05/2017 08:29

La première histoire universelle en français vision qu’a Orose de l’histoire et de son sens, et de reprendre en français son apologie du christianisme par la dénonciation du paganisme et des malheurs qu’il entraîne, il préfère utiliser le récit historique comme support d’exempla à destination des laïcs. Dans ces exempla, il se met en avant en intervenant comme un sermonnaire sur certains des thèmes obsessionnels des prédicateurs du Moyen Âge dans leur jugement du monde terrestre:5 il s’agit avant tout d’une dénonciation de l’orgueil et de la convoitise, de mises en garde contre la vanité de la puissance et des biens temporels, la fragilité humaine et l’omniprésence de la mort. Parallèlement et en lien avec cette nouvelle orientation religieuse, il modifie la vision de l’histoire qu’il hérite d’Orose et procède autrement dans la sélection des événements historiques qu’il recompose à titre de mémoire collective pour son auditoire ou lectorat laïc, ainsi que dans leur interprétation. C’est sans nul doute à relier au public visé, l’élite aristocratique et urbaine du nord de la France, qui apprécie et commande des œuvres en langue vernaculaire. Dès le début du xiiie siècle, cette aristocratie promeut en effet la langue française et l’exploite particulièrement à des fins politiques, à la différence de la royauté française, avec laquelle elle est très souvent en conflit et qui, viscéralement attachée au latin, ne s’intéresse toujours pas à l’écriture en français.6 Wauchier de Denain, dont le nom apparaît dans l’adaptation d’un des dialogues de Grégoire,7 a semble-t-il servi trois mécènes successifs. Le premier est Philippe de Namur, le frère du comte de Flandre Baudouin IX – l’éphémère empereur de Constantinople – qui assure la régence pendant la quatrième Croisade. Ce sont ensuite le châtelain de Lille Roger IV, puis, pour ses dernières œuvres, Jeanne, comtesse de Flandre. Dans le choix de la langue et l’exploitation de l’écriture de l’histoire comme instrument de prestige et de propagande se jouent sans nul doute des enjeux politiques importants, bien qu’ils soient difficiles de les reconstituer très précisément vu les lacunes de nos connaissances sur les auteurs du nord de la France et particulièrement sur Wauchier de Denain. Tout en satisfaisant les désirs vraisemblables de son public laïc, la transposition en langue française du genre de l’histoire universelle permet au clerc d’imposer son autorité sur ces laïcs en adoptant

Terwisga, ‘Récits mythiques et moralisations dans l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (Paris, BnF fr. 20125)’, dans Europäische Literaturen im Mittelalter, Mélanges W. Spiewok, éd. D. Buschinger (Greifswald, 1994), pp. 143–51. 5 Sur la prédication en langue vernaculaire, voir M. Zink, La prédication en langue romane avant 1300 (Paris, 1976). 6 S. Lusignan, Parler vulgairement. Les intellectuels et la langue française aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles (Montréal, 1986); S. Lusignan, La langue des rois au Moyen Âge. Le français en France et en Angleterre (Paris, 2004); G. Spiegel, Romancing the Past. The Rise of Vernacular Prose, Historiography in Thirtheenth-Century France (Berkeley et Los Angeles, 1993). 7 P. Meyer, ‘Versions en vers et en prose des Vies des Pères’, Histoire littéraire de la France 33 (1906), 254–92, p. 271.

181

9781903153734.indd 181

08/05/2017 08:29

Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas la posture du prédicateur, même si l’importance de l’enseignement religieux s’affaiblit progressivement au fil du texte, comme nous le verrons. L’historia est toujours magistra vitae, mais selon des perspectives différentes du projet d’Orose et un lien autre avec l’interprétation théologique.

La diffusion de l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César L’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César a joui d’une diffusion considérable: nous en avons pour preuves le très grand nombre de manuscrits conservés, leur réalisation en France, à Saint-Jean-d’Acre et en Italie, ses traductions en vernaculaire italien8 et aussi, pour partie, en castillan dans la General estoria,9 les deux réécritures françaises d’ensemble qu’elle a suscitées aux xive et xiiie siècles (traditionnellement appelées seconde et troisième rédactions), ainsi que les imprimés à la Renaissance, sans compter son influence diffuse et très durable sur les histoires françaises ultérieures, à commencer par la seconde d’entre elles, la Chronique dite de Baudouin d’Avesnes,10 et sur d’innombrables œuvres jusqu’au xve siècle et sans doute au xvie siècle: mentionnons, pour nous limiter à quelques exemples, des textes aussi divers que l’Alexandre en prose du xiiie siècle, le Traité des Neuf Preux et des Neuf Preuses de Sébastien Mamerot, le Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune de Christine de Pizan ou le Florimont en prose bourguignon du xve siècle. Les listes de manuscrits données par P. Meyer, D. Oltrogge, M.-R. Jung, M. de Visser-van Terwisga, M.-L. Palermi et A. Rochebouet11 font état 8 Voir

les articles de G. Ronchi, ‘Un nuovo volgarizzamento dell’Histoire ancienne attribuito a Zucchero Bencivenni’, La Parola del Testo 8 (2004), 169–94 et ‘I volgarizzamenti italiani dell’Histoire ancienne. La sezione tebana’, dans Studi su volgarizzamenti italiani due-trecenteschi, éd. P. Rinoldi et G. Ronchi (Rome, 2005), pp. 99–165. 9 Voir les articles de P. Gracia Alonso, ‘Singularidad y extrañeza en algunos lugares de la Estoria de Tesas (General estoria, parte II), a la luz de la Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César’, Bulletin hispanique 105 (2003),  7–17; ‘Hacia el modelo de la General estoria. París, la translatio imperii et studii y la Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César’, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 122/1 (2006), 17–27; ‘Menolipo y Meleagro, ¿fratricidas?: a propósito de un episodio de la segunda parte de la General estoria y de su fuente en la Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César’, dans Le français face aux défis actuels: histoire, langue et culture, éd. R. López Carrillo et J. Suso López (Grenade, 2004), II, 263–70; ‘A vueltas con el modelo subyacente o lo que los originales franceses pueden aportar a la edición de sus derivados españoles: el caso de la sección tebana de la II parte de la General Estoria’, dans La fractura historiográfica: las investigaciones de Edad Media y Renacimiento desde el Tercer Milenio, éd. J. San José Lera, F. Javier Burguillo López et L. Mier Pérez (Salamanque, 2008), pp. 331–40. 10 Voir la contribution d’Elena Koroleva dans ce volume. 11 Meyer, ‘Les premières compilations françaises’, pp. 49–51; D. Oltrogge, Die Illustrationszyklen zur Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (1250–1400) (Frankfurt, 1989), pp. 229–327 (‘catalogue et description des manuscrits antérieurs à 1400’); M.-R. Jung, La légende de Troie en France au Moyen Âge, Analyse des versions françaises et

182

9781903153734.indd 182

08/05/2017 08:29

La première histoire universelle en français de soixante-treize manuscrits du texte de Wauchier de Denain, soit de la ‘première rédaction’ de l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, dont neuf fragments.12 Il convient d’ajouter le manuscrit 2331 de la Bibliothèque municipale de Rennes (xve siècle). Aucun manuscrit du début du xiiie siècle ne nous est parvenu. Parmi les plus anciens manuscrits conservés, plusieurs sont réalisés dans le nord de la France, sans doute dans les années 1260–1270: La Haye, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 78 D 47; Londres, British Library, Add. 19669; Pommersfelden, Schloss Bibliothek, 295. On peut leur adjoindre le manuscrit de Paris, BnF, fr. 17177, de la fin du xiiie siècle. Supprimant le prologue et la plupart des moralisations en vers, effaçant de nombreuses adresses aux auditeurs, ils ne reflètent néanmoins pas l’état le plus ancien du texte. De cet état ancien sont sans nul doute plus proches le manuscrit de Paris, BnF, fr. 20125, dont l’origine, Saint-Jean-d’Acre ou la France, est discutée, et les manuscrits réalisés à Saint-Jean-d’Acre dans la dernière moitié du xiiie siècle – Bruxelles, Bibliothèque royale, 10175; Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale, 562; Londres, British Library, Add. 15268 –, ainsi que la copie en France et au xive siècle de l’un d’entre eux, le manuscrit de Paris, BnF, fr. 9682. Un atelier parisien du second quart du xive siècle aurait ensuite réalisé les manuscrits de Bruxelles, Bibliothèque royale, 9104–05, de Kobenhavn, Kongelige Bibliothek, Thott 431, 2e, de Londres, British Library, Add. 12029 et 19669, ainsi que de Paris, BnF, fr. 246 et 251. À la fin du xiiie siècle et surtout au xive siècle, c’est aussi en Italie que l’œuvre a souvent été copiée, comme l’illustrent le manuscrit de Chantilly, musée Condé, 726 (dernier quart du xiiie siècle), celui de Vienne, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, 2576 (Venise, milieu du xive siècle), ceux de Paris, BnF, fr. 686 (Bologne vers 1330), BnF, fr. 821 (Italie du Nord, début du xive siècle), BnF, fr. 1386 (première moitié du xive siècle, sans doute Italie du Sud) et celui de Venise, Biblioteca nazionale Marciana, fr. II (223), réalisé à Mantoue pour Francesco Gonzaga à la fin du xive siècle. bibliographie raisonnée des manuscrits (Bâle et Tübingen, 1996), pp. 353–7; L’Histoire, éd. de Visser-van Terwisga, II, p. 11–31; M.-L. Palermi, ‘Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César: forme e percorsi’, Critica del Testo 7 (2004), 213–56; A. Rochebouet, ‘“D’une pel toute entiere sans nulle cousture”: la cinquième mise en prose du Roman de Troie de Benoît de Sainte Maure: édition critique et commentaire (thèse de l’Université de Paris IV, 2009), pp. 199–206 (‘Relevés des manuscrits et pièces complémentaires’). 12 Les études d’un nombre important de ces manuscrits, principalement des xiiie et xive siècles sont nombreuses: H. Buchthal, Miniature Painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, with Liturgical and Paleographical Chapters by Francis Wormald (Oxford, 1957), pp.  68–87; J. Folda, Crusader Manuscript Illumination at Saint-Jean d’Acre, 1275–1291 (Princeton, 1976); J. Folda, Crusader Art in the Holy Land, from the Third Crusade to the Fall of Acre, 1187–1291 (Cambridge, 2005); Jung, La légende de Troie, pp. 331–352; K. Koshi, Die Wiener Histoire universelle (Codex 2576), unter Berücksichtigung der sogenannten Cottongenesis-Rezension (Vienne, 1979); Oltrogge, Die Illustrationszyklen.

183

9781903153734.indd 183

08/05/2017 08:29

Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas Quant à la seconde ‘rédaction’ de l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, elle voit le jour en Italie, à la cour angevine de Naples, sans doute vers 1330–1340, et elle est notamment conservée dans les manuscrits de Londres, British Library, Royal 20. D. I. et de Paris, BnF, fr. 301. Elle supprime le long récit sur Alexandre (exception faite du manuscrit de Chantilly, musée Condé, 727) et privilégie Troie et Rome.13 La première rédaction de l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, celle de Wauchier de Denain, continue néanmoins à circuler jusqu’à la fin du Moyen Âge, copiée dans de nombreux manuscrits. D’après les listes établies, nous conservons ainsi 20 manuscrits du xive siècle réalisés en France, 23 du xve siècle et un du xvie siècle. Enfin, la fortune de l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César ne s’arrête pas au xve siècle. L’œuvre a continué à être diffusée au xvie siècle, plusieurs fois imprimée par Antoine Vérard, en 1491, 1503 et 1509, avec des modifications et pour titre Le premier volume / le second volume d’Orose, puis par Michel le Noir en 1515 et Philippe le Noir en 1526.14 Malgré son rayonnement considérable, l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César n’a pas encore fait l’objet d’une édition moderne complète. Seuls sont édités les récits: • sur la Genèse, éd. M. Coker Joslin, The Heard Word: A Moralized History (the Genesis Section of the Histoire ancienne in a Text from Saint-Jean-d’Acre) (University of Mississippi, 1986). • sur ‘Assyrie, Thèbes, Le Minotaure, les Amazones, Hercule’, éd. M. de Visser-van Terwisga, L’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (Estoires Rogier) (Orléans, 1999), II. • sur Troie, éd. M.-R. Jung, La légende de Troie en France au Moyen Âge. Analyse des versions françaises et bibliographie raisonnée des manuscrits (Bâle et Tübingen, 1996), pp. 334–430. • sur la Macédoine et Alexandre, éd. C. Gaullier-Bougassas, L’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César ou Histoires pour Roger, châtelain de Lille, de Wauchier de Denain, l’histoire de la Macédoine et d’Alexandre le Grand, éditions critiques du texte de Wauchier de Denain et du remaniement franco-italien du codex 2576 de Vienne; Le Premier Volume d’Orose, Antoine Vérard, 1491, texte (Turnhout, 2012).

13 F.

Avril, ‘Trois manuscrits napolitains des collections de Charles V et de Jean de Berry’, Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes 137 (1969),  291–328. Voir la liste des manuscrits dans Jung, La légende de Troie, pp. 506–7. 14 Sur l’édition de Vérard, nous renvoyons à notre article ‘Les renouvellements de l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César dans l’imprimé d’Antoine Vérard, le Volume d’Orose (1491)’, à paraître dans les actes du colloque de Turin de 2014, Raconter en prose (xive–xvie siècle), éd. P. Cifarelli, M. Colombo Timelli, A. Schoysman et M. Milani, à paraître chez Classiques Garnier en 2017.

184

9781903153734.indd 184

08/05/2017 08:29

La première histoire universelle en français • sur la Perse, éd. A. Rochebouet, L’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César ou Histoires pour Roger, châtelain de Lille, de Wauchier de Denain, l’histoire de la Perse, éditions critiques du texte de Wauchier de Denain et du remaniement franco-italien du codex 2576 de Vienne ; Le Premier Volume d’Orose, Antoine Vérard, 1491 (Turnhout, 2016).

Le prologue et le contexte historique de l’écriture de Wauchier de Denain Wauchier de Denain écrit un long prologue en vers, dans lequel il expose son projet et que seuls deux manuscrits conservent, les manuscrits de Paris, BnF, fr. 20125 et de Vienne, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, 2576. Son modèle est bien celui de l’histoire universelle en latin, même si, étrangement, il ne donne aucune précision sur sa ou ses sources dans cette ouverture. Il évoque de manière floue une traduction du latin et n’inscrit pas le nom d’Orose, bien que ce dernier eût apporté une caution prestigieuse à une époque où le besoin de s’abriter derrière une autorité est si impérieux: Car j’ai entrepris un afaire A traitier selonc l’Escriture Ou mout aura sens et mesure. Qui la matiere porsivra E de cuer i entendera Oïr porra la plus haute ovre (Qui encor pas ne s’i descuevre) C’onques fust en nos lengue traite. Mes n’ai encor mensïon faite Ou, ne a cui, comencerai. (v. 102–111, éd. M. Coker Joslin) L’uevre iert mout bone et delitable E d’estoire sans nulle fable, Por ce iert plaisans et creüe Que de verité iert creüe. La verité fet bon entendre, Oïr, retenir et aprendre. Qui verité aime et retient As comans Damedeu se tient. Je n’i veull fors verité dire. Longue en iert assés la matire Qu’en pensee ai contier a plain Por qu’il plaise le chastelain De Lisle, Rogier, mon segnor Cui Deus doint santé et honor, Joie, paradis en la fin. S’il veut, en romans dou latin, Li cuic si traire lonc la letre

185

9781903153734.indd 185

08/05/2017 08:29

Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas Que plus ne mains n’i sera metre (v. 251–268)

Ces vers assurent la publicité de son œuvre et celle de la langue française qu’il choisit. Si rapide soit-elle, la revendication est ferme: il affirme avoir composé la ‘plus haute œuvre qui ait été réalisée en langue française’, parce qu’elle se fonderait sur le texte de l’écriture sainte et en constituerait le prolongement, à l’instar de la conception de l’Histoire par Orose.15 De fait, pour la première section, consacrée à la Genèse, il adapte principalement le récit de Pierre le Mangeur dans son Historia scolastica et la Vulgate.16 Plus loin il cite plusieurs fois le nom d’Orose, qui devient l’une de ses sources principales. Le récit de son histoire universelle montre qu’au-delà d’Orose, il a encore utilisé plusieurs autres sources historiques en latin, les chroniques d’EusèbeJérôme et de Justin, l’abrégé d’histoire romaine d’Eutrope et à nouveau l’Historia scholastica de Pierre le Mangeur. Ce sont donc des œuvres latines alors relativement anciennes, à l’exception bien sûr de l’Historia scholastica. L’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César est en effet légèrement antérieure au grand renouveau, en France, du genre de la chronique universelle latine, à partir du xiiie siècle, surtout avec la Chronique d’Hélinand de Froidmont, source de Vincent de Beauvais. Hélinand de Froidmont écrit en effet sa chronique sans doute peu après Wauchier de Denain.17 Il serait d’ailleurs très intéressant de comparer leurs deux reconstructions de l’histoire antique, leurs deux regards sur l’Antiquité. Mais dans son long prologue de 284 vers, aucun auteur latin n’a droit de cité. Wauchier de Denain préfère mettre en avant l’autorité de son œuvre en langue française. Il annonce alors dans son récit à venir le déroulement de toute l’histoire de l’humanité depuis la Création jusqu’au temps de l’écriture. L’entrelacement de l’histoire sacrée et de l’histoire profane qu’il prévoit s’accompagne d’une très nette insistance sur l’enseignement spirituel que son public trouvera dans l’histoire biblique, l’histoire de l’Église et celle des souverains chrétiens. Voici les premiers vers de cette prolepse du contenu de l’œuvre: Or fetes pais, jel vos dirai. De Deu est bons li comenciers. A lui comencerai premiers,

15 Voir K. F. Werner, ‘Dieu, les rois et l’Histoire’, dans La France de l’an Mil, éd. R. Delort

(Paris, 1990), pp. 264–81.

16 Voir l’étude des sources de la section de la Genèse par Coker Joslin dans l’introduction

de son édition, The Heard Word: A Moralized History (the Genesis Section of the Histoire ancienne in a Text from Saint-Jean-d’Acre (University of Mississippi, 1986). 17 Le récit de l’histoire antique que donne la chronique d’Hélinand, inédite, se lit dans le manuscrit du Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reginensi latini 535. Sur le renouveau de la chronique universelle latine en France, voir M. Chazan, L’empire et l’histoire universelle, de Sigebert de Gembloux à Jean de Saint-Victor (xiie–xive siècle) (Paris, 1999).

186

9781903153734.indd 186

08/05/2017 08:29

La première histoire universelle en français Coment Adan forma e fist, Coment en Paradis le mist, E com Adans entra en paine, Por quoi nos vestons dras de laine, Coment Adans ot sa lignee Dont la terre fu alignee. N’i lairai riens que d’oir en oir Ne doie dire a mon pooir Trosqu’al doloive sans faillance (v. 112–123)

Puis il se consacrera à Babylone, Thèbes, Troie et Rome, au premier peuplement de la France, à la naissance du christianisme et à la vie du Christ, à l’action des apôtres, des saints, aux règnes des empereurs, puis des rois de France, aux Normands, et, pour finir, à la Flandre: Des quels gens Flandres fu puplee Vos iert l’estoire bien contee, Com se proverent, quel il furent, Com il firent que fere durent. Ce vos sera trestout retrait Tot si a point et tot a trait Que, qui voudra raison entendre, Petit i avra a reprendre. (v. 243–250)

Le récit devait donc se dérouler depuis le temps de la Genèse jusqu’au présent de l’auteur et, après l’évocation des grandes puissances temporelles du monde qui se sont succédées, s’achever sur l’histoire de la Flandre, elle aussi retracée de ses origines jusqu’au temps de l’écriture. Cet aboutissement annoncé du récit, prévu mais non réalisé, répondait sans doute aux désirs et peut-être aux ambitions du mécène dont il inscrit le nom, Roger IV de Lille, et du public d’aristocrates laïques qui l’entourait et qui souhaitait s’approprier le modèle prestigieux de l’histoire universelle latine et en même temps célébrer la Flandre. L’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César est en effet l’un des témoins majeurs de l’engouement que connaît au xiiie siècle l’aristocratie du nord de la France pour l’écriture de l’histoire en langue française. Après l’affirmation de la cour de Flandre comme centre littéraire éminent sous le gouvernement de Philippe d’Alsace, comte de Flandre de 1168 à 1191, la noblesse de Flandre, dans le contexte de ses actions de croisade et aussi de ses conflits avec Philippe Auguste, promeut la langue française pour l’écriture de l’histoire afin d’affirmer son propre pouvoir et de se donner un plus grand prestige. Elle semble avoir pris conscience très tôt du rôle d’instrument politique que pouvaient jouer des écrits en langue française. Dès le début du xiiie siècle, ce sont aussi cette aristocratie du Nord et dans le même temps les institutions urbaines naissantes de ces mêmes régions qui font écrire dans leurs chancelleries les premières chartes en langue française, ainsi que les premiers 187

9781903153734.indd 187

08/05/2017 08:29

Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas recueils de coutumes en langue française.18 Une diversité d’usages politiques et juridiques du français se fait donc jour, pour la première fois; avec et grâce à eux, ces instances de pouvoir se différencient de la royauté française, qui reste très attachée à l’historiographie en latin et n’encourage quasiment jamais le choix du français avant la fin du xiiie siècle. On assiste ainsi, dans le nord de la France, à la naissance d’une multiplicité de formes de l’écriture de l’histoire en langue française, que ce soit en prose ou en vers. Si l’on pouvait s’attendre à une prédominance de chroniques généalogiques familiales ou de chroniques centrées sur le passé de la région, il n’en est rien. L’œuvre historique en langue française appelée à la plus grande postérité est sans nul doute l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, suivie de la Chronique dite de Baudouin d’Avesnes. Mais le genre de la chronique universelle n’est pas le seul représenté. On compte aussi des adaptations françaises de la chronique du Pseudo-Turpin, la chronique de la quatrième Croisade de Robert de Clari et plusieurs chroniques sur la royauté anglaise et la royauté française, dont l’Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois d’Angleterre et la Chronique des rois de France de l’anonyme de Béthune. Une chronique en prose du règne de Philippe Auguste aurait aussi été écrite pour Gilles de Flagi, châtelain de Sens: seul son prologue en vers est conservé. Ce sont enfin la Chronique rimée de Philippe Mousket et peut-être la Chronique des rois de France, anonyme, des manuscrits de Chantilly et du Vatican, qui aurait été commandée par Michel de Harnes. Dans leur politique de prestige et leur rivalité avec la royauté française, les mécènes cherchent sans nul doute à prouver leur maîtrise d’un passé bien plus large que celui de leur région ou de leur famille: aussi s’approprient-ils l’histoire des monarchies française et anglaise, l’histoire des croisades et celle de toute l’humanité depuis la création du monde. La monarchie française, a contrario, ne met en chantier qu’à la fin du xiiie siècle la composition en français de sa première historiographie officielle, avec l’œuvre de Primat, le Roman des Rois, qui donnera naissance aux Grandes Chroniques de France, et ce n’est qu’au début du xive siècle qu’elle s’intéresse pour la première fois, d’assez loin, à l’écriture d’une histoire universelle en français, avec la traduction du Speculum historiale de Vincent de Beauvais par Jean de Vignay dans son Miroir historial et avec le Manuel d’histoire dit de Philippe de Valois. Pour revenir à Wauchier de Denain, il est plus particulièrement au service de Roger IV, qui exerce la charge de châtelain de Lille pour le comte de Flandre entre 1208–1211 (dates proposées pour sa majorité) et 1229 ou 1230 (date de sa mort). Nous savons peu de choses sur cet aristocrate, qui aurait été proche à la fois des comtes de Flandre et du roi de France, dans un contexte politique très troublé, la régence de Philippe de Namur en Flandre, puis le conflit entre Philippe Auguste et Ferrand du Portugal, époux de Jeanne de Flandre, qui

18 Spiegel,

Romancing the Past; Lusignan, La langue des rois au Moyen Âge.

188

9781903153734.indd 188

08/05/2017 08:29

La première histoire universelle en français conduit à la bataille de Bouvines en 1214. Les années 1212–1214 sont donc un temps de violents conflits en Flandre, jusqu’au sac de Lille en 1213 par Philippe Auguste et la victoire du roi français à Bouvines. Nous ignorons le rôle exact de Roger IV, mais il est vraisemblable que, confronté à une situation juridique personnelle inextricable, il ait été contraint à l’impuissance.19 Ce contexte politique a sans nul doute eu une influence sur la fin de l’écriture de Wauchier de Denain. La critique admet maintenant que son travail s’est interrompu dans les années 1213–1214. La première explication qui en a été donnée ne nous semble pas très convaincante: Wauchier aurait été victime de la concurrence des Faits des Romains, qui, écrits justement dans les années 1213–1214, auraient compromis la poursuite de son récit sur l’histoire de Rome. Néanmoins, B. Guenée a montré que les Faits des Romains n’ont enregistré un grand succès qu’à partir de la fin du xiiie siècle, ils ne semblent pas avoir été écrits dans le nord de la France et il est peu vraisemblable qu’ils aient pu, dès leur composition, entraver le projet de Wauchier.20 Une deuxième explication a été proposée, mais sans être argumentée longuement à partir du texte: on a dit qu’il serait peu vraisemblable que les éloges de la paix sur lesquels il se termine aient été écrits après les horreurs de 1213 et de 1214. L’analyse de la dernière section, celle sur César, non éditée, permet d’étayer plus précisément cette hypothèse. Que l’écriture soit interrompue en 1213 ou 1214 au beau milieu du récit de la conquête de la Gaule Belgique par César ne nous semble pas être un hasard. Relatant les débuts de l’avancée de César et la reddition de plusieurs villes du Nord, Wauchier se confronte à la nécessité de montrer la défaite humiliante des ‘ancêtres’ des habitants de la Flandre. Dans le récit des derniers folios du manuscrit de Paris, BnF fr. 20125 (fol. 373r–375v), il s’affranchit alors souvent d’Orose et d’Eutrope pour ajouter des interventions personnelles d’un type nouveau. Ce sont d’abord des commentaires géographiques et toponymiques sur la Gaule Belgique. On remarque aussi combien il défend les Gaulois, insistant sur leur force guerrière et leur goût pour la liberté. Il célèbre même les Soissonnais en se référant au temps présent et en affirmant que leur courage est toujours aussi fort (fol. 373r), ce qui peut s’interpréter comme une allusion à leur participation à la bataille de Bouvines.21 Cette 19 Nous

avons fait une synthèse des données historiques connues dans notre édition, L’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César ou Histoires pour Roger, châtelain de Lille, de Wauchier de Denain: L’histoire de la Macédoine et d’Alexandre le Grand, éd. C. Gaullier-Bougassas (Turnhout, 2012), pp. 12–16. 20 B. Guenée, ‘La culture historique des nobles: le succès des Faits des Romains (xiiie– xve siècle)’, dans La noblesse au Moyen Âge, xie–xve siècle, éd. P. Contamine (Paris, 1976), pp. 261–88. 21 Nous avons développé ces analyses dans ‘Histoires universelles et variations sur deux figures du pouvoir: ‘Alexandre et César dans ‘l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, Renart le Contrefait et le Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune de Christine de Pizan’, Cahiers de Recherches médiévales 14 spécial (2007), 7–28.

189

9781903153734.indd 189

08/05/2017 08:29

Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas célébration s’accompagne d’un portrait peu élogieux de César, derrière lequel se cache, selon toute vraisemblance, une critique du roi de France, lui qui se dit aussi Auguste. Le désir de célébrer la Flandre butte ainsi sur la réalité de sa défaite sous les attaques du roi de France au temps même de l’écriture. La conquête de César rappellerait-elle la victoire de Philippe au point qu’il en devienne impossible à l’auteur de continuer le récit? C’est l’hypothèse que nous avons développée plus précisément ailleurs.22 L’interruption de la narration au temps de César et donc l’absence de l’évocation de la naissance du christianisme et des premiers temps de l’Église seraient ainsi une adaptation contrainte au contexte de l’écriture, sans doute non prévue. Néanmoins, dès les débuts de l’œuvre, d’autres écarts par rapport au modèle latin de l’histoire universelle et à sa finalité théologique sont librement choisis et manifestent une volonté de faire évoluer le genre pour satisfaire un nouveau public, répondre à son désir de connaissances profanes et à ses ambitions politiques bien temporelles. Ils montrent aussi comment l’auteur cherche à délivrer un enseignement religieux à la forme et au contenu différents, un enseignement qui, mieux adapté à cette élite aristocratique, puisse la toucher plus directement que les diatribes d’Orose contre le paganisme antique, même si nous constatons progressivement, au fil de l’œuvre, un affaiblissement de ce didactisme religieux que la critique n’a pas encore étudié.

Une vision différente de l’Histoire, la promotion de l’Antiquité païenne et l’écriture du sermon Wauchier reste en apparence fidèle à un mode récurrent de structuration de l’histoire universelle latine, puisqu’il s’approprie la théorie de la translatio imperii et des quatre regna qui informe les Historiae adversus paganos d’Orose et qu’il retrace l’histoire des grandes puissances du monde, dans leur succession et aussi leurs synchronismes. La structure de l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César a ainsi été mise en lumière par P. Meyer, puis M.-R. Jung.23 • prologue: fol. 1r–2v (les numéros donnés des folios sont ceux du manuscrit de Paris, BnF, fr. 20125) • section 1: Genèse, fol. 3r–83r • section 2: L’Orient assyrien, fol. 83r–89r • section 3: Thèbes, fol. 89r–117v 22 Voir

Gaullier-Bougassas, ‘Histoires universelles et variations’ et l’introduction à notre édition, L’Histoire, éd. Gaullier-Bougassas, pp. 12–16. 23 Meyer, ‘Les premières compilations françaises’, pp. 38–49 ; Jung, La légende de Troie, pp. 337–9.

190

9781903153734.indd 190

08/05/2017 08:29

La première histoire universelle en français • • • • • • • •

section 4: Grecs et Amazones, fol. 117v–123v section 5: Troie, fol. 123v–148r section 6: Énée, fol. 148r–179r section 7: Rome, de la fondation de la ville jusqu’aux guerres contre les Gaulois et les Samnites, fol. 179r–199r section 8: L’Orient perse, fol. 199r–220v section 9: La Macédoine et Alexandre le Grand, fol. 221r–258v section 10: Suite de l’histoire de Rome sous les consuls et aussi de l’histoire de l’Orient et de la Macédoine, fol. 258v–369v section 11: Conquête de la Gaule par Jules César, fol. 369v–375v

Après une première section inspirée avant tout de la Vulgate, de Flavius Josèphe et de Pierre le Mangeur, l’influence d’Orose s’impose principalement pour l’Orient assyrien (section 2), Rome (sections 7 et 10), l’Orient perse et les Macédoniens (sections 8 et 9), bien que Wauchier recoure aussi à d’autres autorités latines, Justin et Eutrope et, pour Alexandre, les dérivés latins du Pseudo-Callisthène, l’Épitomé de Julius Valère et l’Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem. Mais, en dépit de la soumission de l’ordre narratif au principe de la translatio imperii, du transfert du pouvoir de l’Est à l’Ouest, on constate la présence de longs récits complètements absents de l’œuvre d’Orose: ce sont les longues sections sur l’Antiquité païenne de Thèbes, de Troie puis d’Énée, villes et personnage que l’historien latin se contente de mentionner en quelques mots. Qui plus est, pour ces trois sections 3, 5 et 6, Wauchier de Denain s’inspire de sources profondément différentes, qui contribuent encore davantage à modifier la vision du devenir historique. La première d’entre elles est d’autant plus frappante qu’il s’agit d’une œuvre écrite en langue française au xiie siècle, l’anonyme Roman de Thèbes. Pour Troie et Énée, ce sont les textes latins de Darès et de Virgile, c’est-à-dire les sources de deux autres romans français du xiie siècle, les Romans de Troie et d’Énéas: ils lui permettent de donner une image de l’Antiquité païenne bien différente de celle d’Orose, car largement positive. Ce mouvement de mise en valeur de l’Antiquité païenne se poursuit avec l’histoire d’Alexandre qui, comme nous le verrons, est plus longuement relatée encore que dans les Historiae adversus paganos. En outre, la confrontation avec le jugement d’Orose est alors brutale, puisque Wauchier de Denain adapte à la fois des passages d’Orose et de longs fragments de l’Epitomé de Julius Valère et de l’Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem, qui, à l’inverse même du réquisitoire violent d’Orose, dressent un portrait flatteur du conquérant macédonien. Un écart majeur sépare ainsi Wauchier de Denain d’Orose dans la représentation de l’Antiquité, de ses héros et de ses souverains. On est loin de l’incessante et monotone succession de fléaux, de calamités et de malheurs retracée par l’historien latin et interprétée systématiquement comme la conséquence de la propension au mal attribuée aux païens et de leur châtiment par le dieu de vengeance de l’Ancien Testament. Ce discours théologique est certes parfois présent au début de l’œuvre (par exemple entre 191

9781903153734.indd 191

08/05/2017 08:29

Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas les sections ‘Assyrie’ et ‘Thèbes’, § 22, éd. de Visser-van Terwisga, I) et peut y être associé à une dénonciation des croyances païennes selon une pensée évhémériste, comme c’est le cas au sujet des dieux égyptiens et notamment de Sérapis, dans la section de la Genèse (éd. Coker Joslin, pp. 182–4), mais il tend à disparaître au fil de la narration. L’auteur lillois semble garder la théorie des regna avant tout pour rendre claire la succession temporelle et il efface la conception de l’Histoire qu’elle induit chez Orose, c’est-à-dire son interprétation théologique, d’autant que, du fait de l’interruption du récit, il ne retrace pas l’avènement du christianisme. Ce n’est ainsi pas un hasard si les évocations synthétiques des empires se trouvent souvent aux charnières entre deux sections, leur rôle étant de faciliter la lecture en donnant des points de repère aux auditeurs. La section sur Énée, encore inédite, se clôt par exemple sur des rappels concernant les rois assyriens et sur l’évocation du transfert du regnum d’Assyrie en Médie (fol. 177–178 du manuscrit de Paris, BnF, fr. 20125). S’il ne célèbre plus le christianisme en déplorant systématiquement les malheurs de l’Antiquité au temps du paganisme – nous allons voir au contraire qu’il tire argument du paganisme d’Alexandre le Grand pour, lors de sa visite à Jérusalem, célébrer la puissance du dieu chrétien –, s’il s’écarte aussi de l’histoire biblique, Wauchier de Denain n’abandonne certes pas pour autant tout discours de moraliste chrétien. Au contraire, il émaille sa narration d’interventions auxquelles il donne le contenu et la fonction de sermons. Les plus visibles et les plus étudiées par la critique sont ses moralisations en vers24, mais il écrit aussi des jugements comparables en prose. Ces interventions s’inscrivent dans la continuité de son long prologue de 284 vers, une ouverture originale qui ne conserve rien de celle d’Orose et où il prend d’emblée la posture d’un prédicateur exhortant à faire le bien et à servir Dieu dans l’espoir de sa grâce (v. 1–100). En employant la première personne du pluriel, il tend à se rapprocher de son public pour s’inclure dans la condamnation de ceux qui, dit-il, servent le diable.25 Ainsi dénonce-t-il l’impiété de ses contemporains: Ne creons mes ni clerc ni prestre Tant nos sachent verité dire. Li siecles chascun jor enpire, C’est grans dolors et grans tristece. Chascuns de bien fere a perece, Ne nus ne redoute la mort Que si aigrement pince et mort, Que la dolor ne puet descrire 24 M.

de Visser-van Terwisga les a éditées et réunies dans le tome 2 de son édition de la section ‘Assyrie, Thèbes, le Minotaure, les Amazones, Hercule’, L’Histoire, éd. de Visser-van Terwisga, II, 291–308. Voir les études citées plus haut. 25 Sur la prédication en langue vulgaire au xiiie siècle, voir Zink, La prédication.

192

9781903153734.indd 192

08/05/2017 08:29

La première histoire universelle en français Sains ni sainte, tant sache dire. C’est merveille que ne cremons Ce qu’a nos propres oils veons. C’est ce que la mort aprochomes E nos cors acompaigneromes. As vers de terre sans orgoill N’en porterons c’un soul lensuel Dont nos avromes vesteüre. (v. 76–91)

Le récit est ensuite à maintes reprises exploité comme le support de petits exemples homilétiques destinés à détourner ses lecteurs du péché.26 Vingt moralisations sont écrites en vers et elles s’organisent autour de déplorations de la mort et de la vanité de la vie humaine, de condamnations de la cupidité et de l’orgueil. De fait on n’y trouve jamais la dénonciation du paganisme ni l’apologie du christianisme qui préoccupaient Orose. Un passage nous intéresse même particulièrement à cet égard: ce sont, dans la section de la Genèse (éd. Coker Joslin, p. 182–185), les vers qui suivent la démystification des dieux égyptiens, et surtout de Sérapis, selon une pensée évhémériste. L’exposé en prose à ce sujet s’achève ainsi: Que adonques esteient foles gens Or poés oïr e entendre com poi de sens les gens avoient adonques que d’un haut home il estoit trespassés de cest siecle faisoient lor deu e si l’aoroient e avoient creance qu’il avoit en ciel e en terre poësté e segnorie. (éd. Coker Joslin, p. 184)

La moralisation qui s’enchaîne, loin d’évoquer la question du paganisme, développe alors sans la moindre tentative de transition une réflexion très générale sur la peur nécessaire face à la mort (pp. 184–5). En outre, à l’intérieur de l’œuvre, on constate une évolution et surtout une raréfaction de ces sermons en vers, parallèlement à l’effacement dans la narration de l’histoire biblique. Le long récit de la destinée d’Alexandre le Grand semble à cet égard marquer un tournant.

Le portrait élogieux d’Alexandre et l’évolution de l’écriture de l’histoire et du sermon Même si Wauchier de Denain ne passe pas sous silence les guerres de l’Antiquité et déplore plusieurs fois les malheurs qu’elles entraînent, il s’éloigne donc de l’interprétation univoque d’Orose, selon laquelle le paganisme serait l’origine

26 J.

Berlioz, ‘L’exemplum homilétique’, dans Comprendre le Lorcin (Lyon, 1995), pp. 87–96.

xiiie

siècle. Mélanges M.-T.

193

9781903153734.indd 193

08/05/2017 08:29

Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas de tous les maux. L’exemple d’Alexandre est le plus net et le plus éclairant27 pour illustrer le changement dans la vision du devenir historique et la modification du lien entre l’écriture de l’histoire et la réflexion théologique. Sans le revendiquer, Wauchier se livre à une profonde réhabilitation du personnage par rapport à la condamnation virulente d’Orose, qui ne voit en lui qu’un tyran sanguinaire, le pire fléau de toute l’Antiquité, dévastateur de toutes les terres qu’il a conquises. Nous n’évoquerons pas en détail son portrait du conquérant, que nous avons analysé longuement ailleurs,28 mais résumerons les principaux aspects qui nous semblent en lien avec la transformation du regard sur l’Antiquité païenne, ainsi qu’avec l’évolution de l’écriture de l’histoire universelle et de celle du sermon. Bien que Wauchier de Denain rapporte pour la première fois en langue française plusieurs des crimes du Macédonien et s’éloigne ainsi de la célébration qui dominait les Romans d’Alexandre en vers du xiie siècle,29 il concilie tout de même la compilation de fragments des Historiae adversus paganos d’Orose avec la reprise de très longs passages des dérivés du Pseudo-Callisthène et de leur portrait idéalisant du roi et du conquérant, et il s’inspire aussi du témoignage très flatteur de Pierre le Mangeur. L’Historica scholastica de ce dernier30 jouissait du succès colossal que l’on sait et inversait le jugement négatif dominant des théologiens sur Alexandre en le célébrant comme un serviteur du dieu des juifs: son évocation de la visite du conquérant à Jérusalem puis de son enfermement des tribus juives maudites était appelée à une longue postérité. Or ce sont justement ces deux épisodes que Wauchier de Denain exploite avec insistance comme supports de sermon en prose (§ 34–38, § 57–59). En voici un court extrait significatif:

27 Dans

sa thèse, Sandrine Legrand a aussi montré la tendance à effacer les traits négatifs du portrait d’Hector dans son récit de la guerre de Troie (Hector au Moyen Âge. Définition et évolution d’un personnage épique et romanesque, 2 vols. (thèse de l’Université de Lille 3, 2014), I, 208–13). 28 C. Gaullier-Bougassas, ‘Le mythe d’Alexandre le Grand dans l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (BnF, fr. 20125)’, dans Vérité poétique, vérité politique, mythes, modèles et idéologies politiques au Moyen Âge, éd. E. Gaucher, J.-Ch. Cassard et J. Kerhervé (Brest, 2007), pp.  193–207; C. Gaullier-Bougassas, ‘Histoire et moralisation: interpréter la vie Alexandre dans les histoires universelles françaises du xiie au xve siècle (l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, la Chronique de Baudouin d’Avesnes, le Miroir historial et la Bouquechardière)’, dans L’Historiographie médiévale d’Alexandre le Grand, éd. C. Gaullier-Bougassas (Turnhout, 2011), pp.  244–51. Voir aussi nos analyses dans la Fascination pour Alexandre le Grand dans les littératures européennes (xe-xvie siècles). Réinventions d’un mythe, dir. C. Gaullier-Bougassas, 4 vols. (Turnhout, 2014), I, 244–5; II, 830–6; IV, 233–42. 29 C. Gaullier-Bougassas, Les Romans d’Alexandre. Aux frontières de l’épique et du romanesque (Paris, 1998). 30 Historia scholastica, PL 198, 1055–722.

194

9781903153734.indd 194

08/05/2017 08:29

La première histoire universelle en français 36. Que mout se doivent humilier li crestiein vers Deu Segnor et dames, or poés oïr et entendre que Alixandres li rois de Macedonie qui onques de Deu n’avoit oï parler ne il tornés n’estoit a sa creance et qui fiers estoit et de si grant puissance qu’il cuidoit que toz li mons li fust petis por a lui souffire, s’umelia tant que il aora et enclina l’evesque des juis por ce que il Deu servoit qui en vision li avoit honor promise. Et vos segnor, por deu, qui crestiein estes et qui la loi Deu tenés qui vos est donee et otroiee par la grace de Deu en l’aigue dou saint babtisme et qui bons pleges i avés mis de maintenir la loi et la creance que il nos a donee et comandee [fol. 233r], esgardés coment vos l’onorés et servés tuit ou comencement et de com fin corage, et si esguardés por Deu coment vos honorés ses ministres qui nuit et jor le servent por la soie amor et por la soie doutance.

C’est bien là le discours d’un prédicateur qu’il tient, appelant ses lecteurs à l’humilité et au service de Dieu sur le modèle d’Alexandre. Il le développe dans la continuité avec le texte de Pierre le Mangeur et – insistons sur cet aspect décisif – en opposition au point de vue d’Orose et des théologiens sur Alexandre.31 L’originalité de son interprétation est qu’au moment même où il loue l’humilité du Macédonien et sa prosternation devant le représentant du dieu des juifs, il insiste sur son appartenance à l’Antiquité païenne et son polythéisme.32 On peut lire ici l’affirmation d’un historien qui, soucieux de la vérité, s’éloigne des anachronismes que pratiquent les auteurs des Romans d’Alexandre en vers du xiie siècle, rejette toute tentation d’assimilation du conquérant aux valeurs chrétiennes et toute fiction de sa conversion. Mais pas seulement. Il y a bien plus encore, car Wauchier tire argument de son paganisme pour mieux prouver la toute-puissance du dieu chrétien. L’association automatique du paganisme au mal est ainsi implicitement contestée. C’est un païen qui donne une leçon spirituelle aux chrétiens. Rappelons la transition entre les sections ‘Assyrie’ et ‘Thèbes’ citée plus haut: 22. Que li siecles estoit mout mauvais adonques Segnor, adonques en celui tans bien .v c. ans devant ce que Rome fust comencee a faire ne que Romolus fust nés, par cui ele fu fundee premerement, et Remus ses freres, n’estoit nus regnes […] ou il n’eüst batailles o murtres desloiaus entre rois et princes. Luxures desloiaus i estoient maintenues, toz estoit li siecles abandonés a pechés et a malaventures. Et por ce venoient sor eaus les tempestes et les destructions en maintes manieres. Segnor, nus n’estoit en Deu creans adonques, fors un poi de gent de la lignee des Hebrius, et ne mie tuit cil encore qui de la lignee des fiz Israel venu estoient.

31 Sur le point de vue des théologiens, voir G. Cary, The Medieval Alexander (Cambridge,

1956). aussi plus loin ‘Crestiein somes apelé aprés lui qui Jhesus Crist a nom’ (§ 37), ‘[Alexandre] fu sarrasins toz les jors de sa vie’ (§ 59).

32 Voir

195

9781903153734.indd 195

08/05/2017 08:29

Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas Et por ce estoit li siecles toz en tribulation et en meslees, qu’il en Deu n’avoient fiance ne creance. (éd. M. de Visser-van Terwisga, I)

À la lecture de la section sur Alexandre, on mesure la transformation du regard sur l’Antiquité païenne. Dans le manuscrit de Paris, BnF, fr. 20125, le chapitre 37, qui prolonge l’exemplum d’Alexandre à Jérusalem, est d’ailleurs précédé par la rubrique ‘De ce meïsmement encore por demoustrer example’. Cette dernière rappelle notamment celle qui annonce la sixième moralisation en vers,33 ‘Essamples de bien fere’, introduite bien plus haut à propos d’Abraham et des ‘prodomes’: la vie d’un souverain païen pourrait donc donner un enseignement chrétien à l’image de celui que délivrait un pa­triarche de la Bible. Si ces deux premiers sermons de la section sur Alexandre sont écrits en prose, Wauchier de Denain revient aux vers pour la moralisation qui suit le récit de la mort d’Alexandre. Dans la continuité de ses moralisations en vers précédentes, le lecteur s’attend alors à une condamnation des biens et de la puissance terrestre, à une affirmation de la vanité humaine et du contemptus mundi, et / ou à une dénonciation de l’orgueil, de la démesure et de la cupidité du conquérant. Or aucun de ces thèmes n’apparaît, bien au contraire. L’action politique d’Alexandre est à nouveau louée à travers la célébration de tous les rois et de tous les puissants qui se mettent au service de Dieu et qui peuvent ainsi espérer le paradis (§ 93). La condamnation du moraliste frappe en revanche ses successeurs et ses héritiers, destructeurs de son empire par leurs guerres, et derrière elle se lit une inquiétude sur le devenir de la Flandre à son époque, puisqu’il évoque les morts du comte de Flandre Baudouin IX, empereur de Constantinople, et de sa mère Marguerite de Flandre, ainsi que celle d’un roi de France qu’il ne nomme pas et dont il mentionne la seule piété, et qui eux aussi ont été victimes selon lui de la cupidité de leurs héritiers. Wauchier de Denain est le premier auteur à relater en français les guerres des diadoques et le démantèlement de l’empire d’Alexandre: nul doute qu’ils devaient entrer en résonance avec sa perception des troubles politiques en Flandre.34 Ces vers qui clôturent le récit de la vie d’Alexandre et qui offrent sans doute l’acmé de la célébration de l’Antiquité païenne illustrent un changement dans l’écriture des moralisations en vers: pour la première fois35 un passage de ce

33 Coker

Joslin, The Heard Word, p. 151–3. à ce sujet nos analyses dans l’introduction de notre édition, L’Histoire, éd. Gaullier-Bougassas, pp. 16–19. 35 Du moins dans des termes aussi insistants et pour une figure païenne de roi qui durant ses conquêtes entre en relation avec le peuple juif et qui, en dépit de son paganisme, offre des modèles de comportement chrétien. Wauchier de Denain a célébré plus haut la générosité de Romulus au moment de la fondation de Rome (fol. 180v). 34 Voir

196

9781903153734.indd 196

08/05/2017 08:29

La première histoire universelle en français type est consacré à la célébration d’un roi païen, avec de surcroît la suggestion audacieuse de son accès possible au paradis terrestre. Le moraliste ne déplore plus la vanité de toute entreprise humaine, mais célèbre les détenteurs du pouvoir temporel qui savent le subordonner au pouvoir spirituel. Par ailleurs et pour la première fois aussi, dans le sermon du prédicateur fait irruption l’histoire politique qui lui est contemporaine, pour une réflexion tant politique que spirituelle. Dans la très longue section sur Rome et sur l’Orient que Wauchier de Denain développe ensuite et qui est encore inédite, les sermons en vers du prédicateur deviennent de moins en moins nombreux – on n’en compte plus que cinq, parfois brefs – et le texte tend ainsi à perdre sa forme de prosimètre. Les liens entre l’écriture de l’histoire et l’écriture du sermon se distendent, comme si toute interprétation théologique de l’histoire s’effaçait progressivement. Dans le même temps, on constate la disparition dans le récit de l’histoire de la Bible et du peuple juif. Après le premier récit sur la Genèse, cette histoire biblique a déjà été très peu présente.36 On relève surtout, dans la section sur l’histoire perse, les récits sur Judith et Esther. Le long récit sur Alexandre est le dernier à contenir des chapitres sur l’histoire du peuple juif. Qui plus est, comme nous venons de l’évoquer, ce sont la visite d’Alexandre à Jérusalem et son enfermement des tribus juives maudites, et ces séquences ne sont pas d’origine biblique. Par ailleurs, Wauchier de Denain montre qu’il est conscient de cette absence de l’histoire du peuple hébreu dans son œuvre, puisqu’il annonce à plusieurs reprises des récits à son sujet et qu’il ne les écrit ensuite jamais.37 Il la justifie parfois en s’abritant derrière la volonté de son mécène, qui préférerait l’histoire profane: Or seroit drois et mesure que je avant des fiz Israel, c’est de la lignee les fiz Jacob, vos deïsse et contasse avant et continuasse l’estorie coment et par quele ochoison il issirent d’Egypte, et comant et par com grant paine il conquisterent la terre de Chanance. Mes non ferai ore, ains dirai premerement des paiens qui adonques regnerent, et comencerai au meaus que je porrai des rois et des regnes trosques a la destruction de Troies, quar si le veut, ce me sembla et comande mes sires. Et lores, après ce, revendrai et repairerai as Ebrius, coment il issirent d’Egypte, quar d’aus est et doit estre plus droiturere et plus amee l’estorie, quar il en nasqui et issi la dame gloriouse qui porta et alaita en terre le Sauveor dou munde (fol. 82v-83r)

Les annonces sur l’histoire des Hébreux se multiplient dans la section 10, avant que les attentes ainsi créées ne soient toujours déçues. Ainsi, lorsqu’il

36 Jung, 37 Jung,

n. 88.

La légende de Troie, p. 336–7. La légende de Troie, p. 335–6 et L’Histoire, éd. de Viser-van Terwisga, II, 228, 231,

197

9781903153734.indd 197

08/05/2017 08:29

Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas évoque dans la section romaine l’histoire des successeurs des diadoques,38 Wauchier de Denain n’écrit aucun développement précis sur Jérusalem. Le lecteur peut s’étonner qu’il passe sous silence même la révolte des Maccabées contre Antiochus Épiphane. Ce sont l’histoire politique de Rome, de ses relations avec l’Orient et de ses guerres avec Carthage, puis le début de la carrière de César qui l’intéressent alors exclusivement.

Conclusions Cet effacement de l’histoire des Hébreux constitue donc un écart frappant avec l’histoire ecclésiastique latine, qu’on ne retrouve pas dans la seconde histoire universelle en langue française, la Chronique dite de Baudouin d’Avesnes, plus respectueuse du modèle. L’écriture de petits sermons en vers comme en prose est néanmoins l’une des finalités affichées de l’écriture historique de Wauchier de Denain, mais elle se concilie avec une célébration de l’Antiquité païenne, qui, nous dit-il, séduit son mécène et son lectorat et qui, contrairement aux affirmations d’Orose, peut véhiculer des modèles de comportement, y compris chrétien. De surcroît seuls quelques épisodes dans son œuvre si longue deviennent les supports d’exempla homilétiques et on est très loin de la glose moralisante continue qui sera greffée sur une compilation historique française plus tardive, la Bouquechardière de Jean de Courcy.39 Dans l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, l’écriture de l’histoire de l’Antiquité païenne se passe très souvent de toute justification théologique: c’est déjà le cas dans le récit sur Troie et cet effacement se renforce au fil du texte, particulièrement dans la dernière et longue section romaine. Bien qu’elle ne soit pas toujours linéaire, une évolution de l’écriture de l’histoire marque donc bien l’œuvre, en lien sans doute avec les intérêts et les goûts du public, avec aussi le poids de l’histoire contemporaine, et elle trahit un affranchissement du modèle chrétien de l’écriture de l’histoire universelle. Le texte de Wauchier de Denain se métamorphosera ensuite au gré des réécritures et il reste à étudier les évolutions des liens entre histoire et théologie qui voient alors le jour. À la toute fin du xve siècle, c’est bien à la ‘première rédaction’ de l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, celle de Wauchier de Denain, que recourt l’auteur de l’imprimé d’Antoine Vérard, le Volume d’Orose (1491), qui, lui, cherche à revenir au projet apologétique d’Orose dès la longue ouverture.

38 Voir

à ce sujet l’introduction à notre édition, L’Histoire, éd. Gaullier-Bougassas, pp. 21–31. 39 Voir sur ce texte inédit notre article ‘Histoire et moralisation’ et nos analyses dans la Fascination pour Alexandre le Grand, I, 145–51; II, 842–56; IV, 145–51.

198

9781903153734.indd 198

08/05/2017 08:29

8 How unusual was Matthew Paris? The writing of Universal History in Angevin England Björn Weiler

At the heart of this chapter stands a question about models. More specifically, I would like to sketch the English background to the historiographical endeavours of Matthew Paris (c.1200–1259), author of perhaps the most famous universal chronicle from medieval England: the Chronica majora (written c. 1240–59).1 My focus should not be misread as suggesting that there was no European dimension to Matthew’s writing – there manifestly was, as anyone who has read Matthew Paris can confirm.2 However, considering the Chronica’s English context raises some intriguing questions. Matthew’s was by no means the first universal chronicle to survive from postConquest England. So far, though, there has not been much of an attempt to situate Matthew within this insular context, beyond what is sometimes (mistakenly) referred to as the ‘St Albans School’ of historians (about which more below). Yet, by leaving unexplored the question of origins, we are in danger of overestimating the degree of innovation in Matthew Paris, and of underestimating the rich indigenous tradition on which he drew. Most importantly, Anglo-Norman and Angevin writers of history embraced a horizon of reporting that stretched well beyond what we would normally associate with a merely regnal (as opposed to universal) chronicle.3 Surveying that

1 The

standard edition is Matthew Paris, Chronica majora, ed. H. R. Luard, 7 vols. (London, 1872–84; hereafter: CM). Matthew Paris has been the subject of a vast literature. Key works are: R. Vaughan, Matthew Paris (Cambridge, 1958); S. Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica Majora (Berkeley, 1987); The Cambridge Companion to Matthew Paris, ed. J. Clark (Cambridge, forthcoming). 2 See B. Weiler, ‘Matthew Paris and Europe’, in Cambridge Companion, ed. Clark. 3 Curiously, Norbert Kersken, Geschichtsschreibung im Europa der “nationes”. Nationalgeschichtliche Gesamtdarstellungen im Mittelalter (Cologne, Weimar and Vienna, 1995), pp. 224–48, understood this to be a thirteenth-century phenomenon in which universal replaced regnal history. This, as will become clear, is not a view shared by the present author.

199

9781903153734.indd 199

08/05/2017 08:29

Björn Weiler tradition will help us to get a better sense of what was distinctive about Matthew, but also of the intellectual culture of Norman and Angevin England. Matthew’s example further helps highlight an odd gap in modern scholarship on medieval world chronicles. There seems, in fact, to be an implicit understanding that the genre fell into abeyance between the mid twelfth and very late thirteenth century. The standard point of reference on world histories in the later Middle Ages thus mentions neither Matthew Paris nor any of the other writers of universal history active between Sigebert of Gembloux (d. 1112) and Martin of Troppau (d. 1278): Roger of Wendover, Godfrey of Viterbo, Alberic of Troisfontaines, Helinand of Froidmont, Albert of Stade, or Vincent of Beauvais, to name but the most obvious, are all absent.4 Such neglect could, of course, partly reflect the fact that, Matthew’s Chronica apart, none of these works is available in anything resembling a critical edition. What we have are heavily truncated renditions, if a printed version exists at all. Add to this the number of surviving manuscripts, which is in some cases, like that of Vincent of Beauvais, enormous, and the fact that none of these are very short texts, and the lack of scholarly engagement becomes less surprising, though still lamentable. Just as significantly, we may be dealing with different definitions of what constitutes world history. Here, universal histories are understood to be narratives that traced the past from the Creation (or sometimes the birth of Christ) and sought to cover as much of the world as the sources at an author’s disposal would permit. While there would often be a distinct regional or even regnal dimension to them, the local never took centre stage. The end point could be conditioned by a scarcity of sources, an author running out of steam or support, and so on. It could occur at any point. Sometimes, as it did in Matthew Paris’s case, a text extended into the author’s lifetime. Sometimes it ended much earlier. Approached in this manner, the Chronica majora makes an ideal starting point for highlighting the continuing vitality and refinement of the genre well into the thirteenth century. What follows cannot, however, offer more than a sketch, an outline of questions rather than a definitive survey. Too little work has been done on the European dimension of English historical writing in the twelfth century to attempt otherwise.5 That dimension was, however, important and wide 4 R.

Sprandel, ‘World historiography in the later Middle Ages’, in Historiography in the Middle Ages, ed. D. M. Deliyannis (Leiden and Boston, 2003), pp. 157–80. See, though, A. Marsham, ‘Universal chronicles in Christendom and the Islamic world’, in The Oxford History of Historical Writing, volume 2: 400–1400, ed. S. Foot and C. F. Robinson (Oxford, 2012), pp. 431–56. 5 See, however, Elizabeth Tyler’s contribution to this volume and M. MünsterSwendsen, ‘Lost chronicle or elusive informers? Some thoughts on the source of Ralph Niger’s reports from twelfth-century Denmark’, in The Writing of History in Scandinavia, ed. T. Heebøll-Holm, M. Münster-Swendsen and S. O. Sønnesyn (Toronto, forthcoming).

200

9781903153734.indd 200

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Angevin England reaching. In high medieval England, insularity denoted geographical, not intellectual isolation: just because chroniclers had to wait for news to cross the Channel, it neither followed that they had not heard of nor that they were not curious about the affairs of Christendom at large. Similarly, authors, patrons and readers were embedded in, drew on and contributed to wider European cultural, religious and intellectual structures and institutions, such as universities, crusades, family bonds, clerical and sometimes secular careers, and so on.6 There never was a time when England did not form part of a larger European whole. Yet such networks and connections have hardly been explored in the context of historical writing. We lack much of the information that would allow us further to contextualize Matthew Paris. What can be done, though, is to use his example to show why these issues are worth exploring, and what seeking to tackle them will contribute in turn to our understanding not only of the St Albans monk, but also of Angevin intellectual culture. Bearing these provisos in mind, let us now turn to Matthew Paris: What do we know about him?

Matthew Paris and the writing of universal history The answer is: surprisingly little. Matthew was probably born c. 1200 and most likely died c. 1259. No mention of Matthew or his family is made in the records of either St Albans or the king’s administration. There is no reason even to believe that he had ever been to Paris – Parisiensis was by no means an uncommon surname.7 At best, there is circumstantial evidence to suggest that he may have formed part of a network of correspondents centring on Paris: ‘Parisiensis’ could have been a nickname, a mocking salute to his French connections and his interest in the affairs of Paris.8 In fact, the only foreign adventure of Matthew’s we know about (and that because Matthew wrote about it) was his visit to Norway in the late 1240s.9 Matthew joined the community of Benedictine monks at St Albans in Hertfordshire in 1217.10 He did not hold office, though it seems that the monks were fully supportive of his historiographical endeavours. He thus had access to the abbey’s monuments and library, and it appears that he had been provided

6 D.

Bates, The Normans and Empire (Oxford, 2013), pp. 57–9. Matthew Paris, p. 1. 8 M. Hall, ‘An Academic Call to Arms in 1252: John of Garland’s Crusading Epic De triumphis Ecclesiae’, Crusades 12 (2013), 152–174 (pp. 169–170); B. Weiler, ‘Historical writing and the Experience of Europeanization: the view from St Albans’, in The Europeanization of Europe. Essays in honour of Robert Bartlett, ed. J. G. H. Hudson (Leiden, forthcoming). 9 B. Weiler, ‘Matthew Paris in Norway’, Revue Bénédictine 122 (2012), 153–81. 10 Vaughan, Matthew Paris, p. 1. 7 Vaughan,

201

9781903153734.indd 201

08/05/2017 08:29

Björn Weiler with the services of at least one scribe to assist him in his efforts.11 What we do know about Matthew is thus contained entirely in his writings. It is there that Matthew the historian and monk appears most frequently, commenting on events, interacting with his informants, testifying to the truthfulness of sources, and so on. If, at times, it seems as if we know quite a lot about him, then that is almost entirely so because of the frequency with which he appears in his own writings. Matthew did, moreover, write a lot. In modern printed editions, his œuvre totals almost 7,000 pages, and not all his writings have been edited. He dabbled in many different genres: world history (the Chronica majora); regnal history (Historia Anglorum); combinations of both (the Abbreviatio chronicarum and the Flores historiarum); communal history (Gesta abbatum and the Lives of the Two Offas); saints’ lives (of SS Becket, Edmund Rich, Alban, Edward the Confessor); regnal lists; an annotated itinerary from England to the Holy Land; and short poems.12 All this was in addition to several works that he copied, sometimes in part, sometimes completely.13 And, as if all that were not enough, Matthew also produced maps (of Britain and the Holy Land), and provided many of his texts with lavish illustrations.14 The range of Matthew’s endeavours also tells us something about what he and his patrons may have deemed worth recording, and what they may have believed works of history should cover. Three aspects, in particular, stand out: a general refashioning and rewriting of already existing narratives; a strong focus on England; and a desire to provide nonetheless comprehensive, almost universal coverage. Most of Matthew’s works were redactions of earlier texts. His Life of St Edward was thus based on that by Ailred of Rievaulx, that of St Edmund Rich on texts produced for Edmund’s canonization, while that of St Alban incorporated and reworked already existing narratives.15 Similarly, the Gesta Abbatum was a revision of the text produced by Adam the Cellarer c. 1178, and the Chronica Majora was a continuation and redaction of Roger of Wendover’s Flores historiarum. It is worth keeping in mind, though, that he never simply copied an earlier text, nor did he simply append his continuation. Rather, Matthew edited, rewrote and refashioned. Such reworking ranged from changing the odd run of words to the complete revision of a text, dismissing much of what Matthew had found, adding new information and giving a narrative a wholly different meaning. In fact, a systematic study of revisions and changes in Matthew’s writing would be a worthwhile undertaking. Matthew, furthermore, continually rewrote and revised his own texts.

11 Vaughan,

Matthew Paris, pp. 229–30. Weiler, ‘Matthew Paris on the writing of history’, Journal of Medieval History 35 (2009), 254–78 (pp. 254–5) for bibliographical details. 13 Vaughan, Matthew Paris, pp. 186, 187, 207–8, 230, 239–40, 257–8. 14 The best survey remains Lewis, Art of Matthew Paris. 15 Vaughan, Matthew Paris, pp. 163–81. 12 B.

202

9781903153734.indd 202

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Angevin England The Historia Anglorum, a history of England from 1066 to 1254, for example, began as a redaction of the Chronica, while the Abbreviatio chronicarum and the Flores historiarum offered a shortened amalgamation of Chronica and Historia. In all this, Matthew’s focus remained resolutely English.16 Even in the Chronica, he frequently apologized for straying from English affairs, and he often judged events by their relevance for and impact on England: the Mongol invasions thus first merited recording because of their impact on the price of herring at Yarmouth.17 He equally tended to relate news back to St Albans: when Armenian visitors arrived in England in the 1250s, they did so above all to visit England’s premier monastic shrine (St Albans),18 while the abbey’s property disputes formed a major focus of the Chronica’s reporting. Indeed, a considerable part of Matthew’s writing concerned the history and the affairs of his fellow-brethren.19 What is surprising about this is less that Matthew was so strongly rooted in a specific local context, than the degree to which this connection shines through in his writing. In fact, as we will see, the prominence of St Albans even in the Chronica sets Matthew apart from many of his putative models. Simultaneously, Matthew wrote English history from a very international perspective (and we will return to this). In fact, he stands out precisely because of the range of his reporting, which ran geographically from Norway (fires at Bergen) to Iberia (the Reconquista), and from Scotland to Armenia. Along the way it encompassed France, Italy and Germany, made reference to Eastern Europe, and did not fail to mention India and Russia. Modern histories of Britain display far narrower horizons. Similarly, Matthew collected news, and copied partly or in summary (and sometimes heavily redacted) papal and imperial letters, accounts of the Mongols, news from the Holy Land, reports of Welsh monsters and marvels from the marches. Earthquakes in Savoy were as worthy of mention as the arrival of strange birds in the orchard of St Albans. This range, I suggest, clearly marks him out as part of a distinctly Anglo-Norman and Angevin tradition of writing about the English past, while simultaneously placing him firmly within a broader thirteenth-century context of writing history. Before we turn to either of these, though, we should first take a more thorough look at the Chronica itself.

Matthew Paris and the Chronica majora The Chronica majora presents a history of the world from its Creation to 1259. Up to 1235, it is based mostly on Roger of Wendover’s Flores historiarum. 16 CM

IV, 546; V, 92, 287, 294. See also Vaughan, Matthew Paris, pp. 111–12. III, 488. 18 CM V, 116, 340. 19 Vaughan, Matthew Paris, pp. 182–203. 17 CM

203

9781903153734.indd 203

08/05/2017 08:29

Björn Weiler Matthew initially brought the text to a close with the year 1250, but then – probably around 1254 – took up writing again, and continued the Chronica until his death in 1259.20 The Chronica proceeded in annalistic fashion. Within the entry for each year, Matthew alternated between thematic clusters – news items were grouped according to topic, moral message, informants, etc. – and attempts to reconstruct the proper sequence of events.21 The approach reflects the twin purposes of historical writing, outlined by Matthew: to provide a record of good deeds to emulate and of bad ones to shun, but also to enable the careful readers of the Chronica to detect God’s plan for humankind. This required the recording of signs and wonders, whose exact meaning could often be grasped only by subsequent generations: an act and its consequences could sometimes be separated by years, even decades. For them to be linked correctly, events had to be recorded in the order of their occurrence. Doing so was among the foremost duties of the historian.22 From this basic premise spring two further aspects of the Chronica; namely a close interest in chronology, and the sometimes disjointed nature of Matthew’s reporting. The former is most evident in a manuscript context. For instance, the Cambridge manuscript of the Chronica opens with a lavish movable Easter table, as well as several saints’ calendars.23 The disjointed narrative, in turn, simply reflects a desire to trace an event as it unfolded. This approach became more common later on in Matthew’s writing, and – as David Carpenter has shown – reached its apogee in 1258/9.24 Let me explain what this meant in practice. When Matthew drew the Chronica to a close with his account of the year 1250, he listed the key events of the past fifty years – of which, he remarked, there had been more than during any of the half-centuries preceding it.25 The passage recounted events relating to: • Britain: the interdict of 1208–13; the affairs of John; England becoming a papal fief; Prince Louis of France as King of England; Wales after Llewellyn ap Iowerth; Simon de Montfort in Gascony; Henry III’s inglorious campaigns in France; Italian money-lenders and usurers encouraged by Innocent IV to settle in England; Westminster Abbey rebuilt; the seven-year vacancy of Canterbury; and Robert Grosseteste’s visitation of monasteries.

20 Vaughan,

Matthew Paris, pp. 52–63. Carpenter, ‘Chronology and truth: Matthew Paris and his Chronica Majora’, http://www.finerollshenry3.org.uk/redist/pdf/Chronologyandtruth3.pdf (accessed 30 May 2015); Weiler, ‘Matthew Paris and the writing of history’, pp. 174–6. 22 CM I, 1–3. 23 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 26 f. vv; f. vir. 24 Carpenter, ‘Chronology and truth’. 25 CM V, 191–7. 21 D.

204

9781903153734.indd 204

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Angevin England • Scandinavia: Waldemar II of Denmark’s conquests in the Baltic; Håkon of Norway’s coronation and receiving of unction. • Germany: the fall of Otto IV; the dispute between Frederick II and successive popes; the death of Frederick II. • Iberia: the defeat of Mohammed Abdullah; the expansion of Christian territories under Fernando II. • Saints: Thomas Becket; Edmund Rich (twice); Elisabeth of Hungary (twice); Robert of Knaresborough; Bishop Roger of London; Hildegard of Bingen; and many (unnamed) more in England. • The Church: the renewed schism between Rome and the Greek Orthodox Church; two Church councils; the capture of cardinals by Frederick in the 1240s; the exile of Innocent IV; Robert Sumercote being suffocated as rivals feared he might become pope; the election of Innocent IV and his unsuccessful plots against the emperor; Innocent granting ecclesiastical benefices in England to corrupt relatives who never set foot in England; the emergence of numerous new groups of mendicants; Beguines in Cologne; the rise and moral decline of the Dominicans and Franciscans; and the papacy’s hostility towards established religious orders; Albigensians and other Italian heresies were destroyed; the Cistercians built a house in Paris but were displaced by the mendicants. • Christians and non-Christians: the Mongol invasions; the preaching by Oliver of Paderborn of the Fifth Crusade; the repeat defeat of the military orders; that Jerusalem had twice been destroyed; Gregory IX attacking Frederick while the latter campaigned in the Holy Land; the attempted betrayal of Frederick by the Templars during his crusade; the defeat of Louis IX; Henry III taking the Cross; the people’s crusade. • Portents: two solar eclipses within three years; signs in the sky; earthquakes; floods; meteor showers in various parts of Europe. This list does, in fact, offer a somewhat misleading picture. First, a considerably larger portion of the Chronica deals with matters English than Matthew’s summary would suggest. Second, I have, for the sake of readability, grouped events and individuals into geographical and thematic clusters (the Latin text runs to seven pages, and would thus be too long to quote in full). These are not entirely arbitrary, but are suggested by Matthew’s own organization of his summary, and have been more rigorously applied here. It is, though, worth keeping in mind that Matthew’s structure was more fluid, and combined a mixture of chronology, geographical focus and thematic connections (it was in fact reminiscent of Ralph Niger’s world chronicle, as we will see). Similarly, the way entries have been grouped here obscures the veiled criticisms that a careful reading of Matthew’s text reveals (Henry’s abortive campaigns, for instance, were immediately followed by the rather more successful exploits of Ferdinand of Castile and Waldemar of Denmark), and the degree to which good news was cited more frequently towards the end of Matthew’s account 205

9781903153734.indd 205

08/05/2017 08:29

Björn Weiler (that is, devastating as many of these events may have been, the possibility of redemption remained). Furthermore, several of the events reported could have been put under more than one heading. The account of Frederick II’s crusade could as easily have been listed among affairs of the ‘Church’ as under ‘Christians and non-Christians’, and it would similarly have been possible to create a whole sub category of ‘new religious movements (that were not Benedictine) and their subsequent decline’. Still, the summary provides a reasonable indication of what Matthew deemed to be the news that warranted recording. Most importantly, the Chronica was conceived as universal history. Its chief focus was on the expansion of Christendom (for which Waldemar and Fernando gained praise), on the threats facing it from within (notably the pontificate of Innocent IV) and on the means by which it might yet be saved (through the strenuous deeds of good kings and the many holy men and women in evidence across Christendom, but especially in England). England mattered as a mirror of these wider European developments and European developments mattered because of their impact on England and Englishmen abroad.26 How representative of Matthew’s writing was his summary of events in 1250? We have already noted the relative scarcity of references to English affairs. There also was a far greater emphasis on chronology in Matthew’s annals. Space will not allow the issue to be explored in detail, and I will thus limit myself to summarizing Matthew’s entry for just one year, 1247, chosen at random. This will provide a snapshot, and while snapshots have their shortcomings, in the present context three major advantages stand out: first, we will be able to see how far Matthew’s own summary reflects his practice of writing of history; we will, second, be able to grasp more easily some of the chronicler’s idiosyncrasies; and, third, have a useful starting point for sketching historiographical comparisons. Two points are instantly worth noting: the length of the section (64 pages in the nineteenth-century edition) and the formalized structure. The annal starts with an account of the 1246 royal Christmas (Matthew dated a year from 25 December),27 and it ended with a general summary of the year. Both were standard features of the Chronica.28 Particularly important in the present context is the close match between the type of events recorded in the entry for the 1247 and those listed in the summary of key events since 1200. We thus find references to events in Norway (William of St Sabina, Håkon),29

26 For

a more detailed exploration see Weiler, ‘Matthew Paris and Europe’. IV, 590. On which see also: L. Kjær, ‘Matthew Paris and the Royal Christmas: Ritualised Communication in Text and Practice’, Thirteenth-Century England 14 (2013), 141–54. 28 CM IV, 654. 29 CM IV, 626–7, 650–2. 27 CM

206

9781903153734.indd 206

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Angevin England the Holy Land (the disappearance of the Khwarizim Turks),30 Germany,31 Italy,32 France,33 England, Scotland34 and Wales.35 Matthew recorded the canonization of St Edmund Rich (who had died at Pontigny in France),36 and the transfer of the relic of the Holy Blood (secured, it was believed, by the king from the Holy Land).37 Matthew also recounted Louis IX’s preparations for crusade, including the truly international campaign he was seeking to pull together (involving an English earl and an English bishop, but extending to the king of Norway). Matthew, furthermore, dealt with truly trans-European developments and movements: not just the crusades, but both papal attempts at raising funds and the opposition towards them (with events recorded from France, England, Norway, Italy and Germany), or the effect of the king’s and queen’s family connections on England (the arrival of the queen’s relatives and of the king’s half-brothers).38 He finally dealt with the movement of individuals and goods: Flemish bankers in England,39 dealings between an English abbey and Rome,40 and (implicitly) the travels of an English monk: after all, Matthew Paris heard from Håkon himself why he would not join St Louis’s campaign and had delivered in person letters from the French king to his Norwegian counterpart. Still, the domestic affairs of St Albans featured prominently. Both the dispute with Durham over Tynemouth, and the abbey’s legal dealings at the papal court were recorded at length – in fact, in more detail than, for instance, Frederick II’s defeat at Parma.41 At the same time, the suffering of the Parmese was due to the fact that they had once robbed an English bishop. Other episodes similarly served to highlight the significance and standing of England within the world of Latin Christendom: hence Matthew’s highlighting of his own visit to Norway, or of the English participants in Louis IX’s crusade. Foreign news also contained veiled criticisms – as in the implicit comparisons between Louis IX and Henry III – as did the context within which news was recorded (stout Englishmen threatened the king’s impish relatives, which led the king to ban all tournaments). It would, at the same

30 CM

IV, 633, 638–9, 650–2. IV, 610–14, 624–5, 634–5. 32 CM IV, 605–7, 610–14, 638–9. 33 CM IV, 607–9, 617–19, 629–31, 650–2. 34 CM IV, 590–603; 653–4. 35 CM IV, 647. 36 CM IV, 631–2. See, for the most detailed account, W. C. Jordan, ‘The English Holy Men at Pontigny’, Cistercian Studies Quarterly 43 (2008), 63–75. 37 CM IV, 641–5. N. Vincent, The Holy Blood. King Henry III and the Westminster Blood Relic (Cambridge, 2001), 3–8. 38 CM IV, 599, 628–9 (Savoyard); 621–3, 650 (Lusignan). 39 CM IV, 631. 40 CM IV, 607–9, 620–2, 654. 41 CM IV, 607–9, 620–2, 654 (St Albans); 638–9 (Parma). 31 CM

207

9781903153734.indd 207

08/05/2017 08:29

Björn Weiler time, be mistaken to reduce his reporting to simply offering a veiled critique of the king or just praise of the English nation. Something more substantial was at play: we should, for instance, note Matthew’s desire to offer a chronologically accurate narrative. Thomas of Savoy’s arrival in England with potential foreign spouses for the sons and daughters of the English nobility was thus reported quite early on in the entry for the year.42 But the marriages did not occur until later, which was when Matthew recorded them.43 In other cases, too, it seems that Matthew sought to maintain a roughly sequential structure of reporting (though this did not militate against thematic clusters, as when the suffering of the Parmese and that of the Welsh were reported alongside each other). In short, Matthew was trying to do exactly what he promised to do in his introduction – provide the means for both the moral interpretation of events, and for hints about the future to be deduced. To do so successfully did, however, require a truly comprehensive coverage of the world – hence the range of topics covered within even just this one year. In doing so, Matthew both followed and transcended tradition.

Matthew Paris and the Anglo-Norman legacy The abbey of St Albans remains famous for its historiographical output. An older school of historians even proposed the idea of a St Albans School. There are several problems with this premise. Most of the output predating Matthew has been lost – thanks largely to Matthew’s efforts as a reviser and continuator. As far as we can judge, most of these texts seem to have been concerned with domestic history: the relics and cult of St Alban and his companions, and the history of the abbots.44 Universal history did not feature until the thirteenth century.45 Once it began to be written, however, it was written on a monumental scale. In fact, next to Matthew’s, the most important piece of historical writing to emerge from St Albans was the Flores historiarum by Roger of Wendover (d. 1236), a world chronicle largely based on Roger of Howden until c. 1201, when Roger of Wendover’s own narrative began. Still, to describe this sequence of writers – which also included Matthew’s assistant, John of Wallingford, and, in the fourteenth century, Thomas Walsingham – as a school would imply a degree of formalized continuity, of instruction and training, that is not supported by the surviving evidence. There certainly was an institutional interest in and support for writing about the past and – we

42 CM

IV, 599. IV, 628–9. 44 A. Gransden, Historical Writing in England, c. 550-c.1307 (London, 1974), pp. 356–79. 45 Though there is a possibility that Roger of Wendover may already have had at his disposal a world chronicle, the so-called ‘St Albans compilation’: Vaughan, Matthew Paris, pp. 22–3. 43 CM

208

9781903153734.indd 208

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Angevin England should remember – leaving for future use a record of current events. Yet it also seems that we are dealing with intermittent outbursts of activity. Sometimes these were triggered by specific events – like the discovery of the remains of St Amphibalus in 1178 – and sometimes they were born out of the initiative of a particular monk or abbot. This does not, of course, mean that authors did not ultimately form part of a tradition – they clearly did, though, at least initially, they seem to have done so simply by adopting a well-established pattern, a proven way of doing things. Roger’s Flores also constitutes a convenient starting point for exploring the tradition on which Matthew built. Detailed comparisons will, however, be difficult, not the least because we lack a critical edition of Roger’s Flores. All we have are partial and faulty renditions of a complex and rather sizeable text – even the truncated Rolls Series edition still runs to nearly 1,500 pages.46 The state of the texts we have to work with thus militates against an in-depth discussion. And as if all this were not bad enough, we also lack proper scholarly engagement with Roger: the last monograph treating the chronicler was published in 1974 and the last article-length investigation in 2002.47 Given just how little we know about Roger, I will thus limit myself to continuing with the approach already used in relation to Matthew and simply select one annal for consideration, 1231. Roger opened with recording where Henry III spent Christmas.48 He then reported on a dispute between Archbishop Richard of Canterbury and Hubert de Burgh, the marriage between Richard of Cornwall and Isabella Marshal and the death of William Marshal the Younger in May;49 unrest in Wales (in July);50 a truce with the king of France (June), the return from crusade of Peter des Roches (late July), Richard Marshal’s attempt to receive his brother’s estates and the death of Archbishop Richard;51 Henry III’s aborted plan to marry a Scottish princess (October) and Ralph de Neville’s squashed election to the archbishopric of 46 The

edition produced by Henry O. Coxe for English Historical Documents, Rogeri de Wendover Chronica sive Flores Historarium, published in five volumes in 1841–4, has the advantage of offering a complete text, beginning with the Creation, but lacks a critical apparatus, fails to indicate manuscript variations and contains quite a few errors. It will still be the one used here, simply because it is the only complete edition of Roger’s text (abbreviated RW). H. G. Hewlett’s edition for the Rolls Series (1886–9, 3 vols.) truncates the text and begins only in 1066. Luard’s edition of Matthew’s Chronica helpfully indicates where Matthew departed from his model, but the focus is – understandably – on Matthew’s text, not Roger’s. 47 K. Schnith, England in einer sich wandelnden Welt (1189–1259). Studien zu Roger Wendover und Matthäus Paris (Stuttgart, 1974); S. McGlynn, ‘Roger of Wendover and the wars of Henry III, 1216–1234’, in England and Europe in the Reign of Henry III (1216–1272), ed. I. W. Rowlands and B. Weiler (Aldershot, 2002), pp. 183–206. 48 RW IV, 218–19. 49 RW IV, 219–20. 50 RW IV, 220–3. 51 RW IV, 224–7.

209

9781903153734.indd 209

08/05/2017 08:29

Björn Weiler Canterbury (September);52 and, finally, complaints about the activities of Italian clerics holding benefices at English churches, including a parliament convened in late December 1231 and leading up to riots that broke out in 1232.53 At thirteen pages, it was among the shorter entries,54 and a mere faction of the average annal in the later sections of the Chronica. We can observe structural elements copied by Matthew (the ordering of events in sequence), as well as important differences. Most significantly, Roger’s reporting was rather more limited in its geographical range. Events outside England barely merited recording – in fact, throughout the Flores, Roger rarely gazed beyond Britain, unless the matter at hand was directly relevant to English matters (as in 1231 with the truce agreed with Louis IX or Peter des Roches’s return from crusade). The chief exceptions to this rule were the affairs of the Holy Land and the arrival of the Friars. Roger thus dealt at some length with both the Fifth Crusade and that of Frederick II,55 and his entry for 1225, for instance, also included several legends about pious Friars.56 Matthew may have shared with Roger a desire to sift news according to its relevance to England, but he defined such relevance as including patterns and contrasts, not just direct links and exchanges. In fact, it is striking just how much of Matthew’s rewriting of Roger consisted of adding information about European affairs. These additions can most easily be traced for the final years covered by Roger – obviously, enough eyewitnesses and sources survived for Matthew to incorporate their testimony.57 Especially striking examples include Matthew’s considerably expanded account of urban unrest in Rome in 122958 and of Frederick II’s campaign in the Holy Land.59 In short, the Flores obviously formed an immediate starting point for

52 RW

IV, 227–8. IV, 228–31. 54 See, for instance, 1220 (RW IV, 59–66) and 1225 (IV, 99–114). Perhaps more representative were 1215 (III, 295–350), 1216 (III, 350–86), 1229 (IV, 179–207) or 1233 (IV, 263–89). In some cases, the amount of information circulating and the importance of the events recorded certainly mattered: hence the relative length of entries for 1215 (Lateran IV and Magna Carta), 1216 (the civil war and the succession of Henry III) or 1229 (Frederick II’s crusade). There was, however, nothing automatic about this, as 1220, for instance, by far one of the shortest entries, also dealt with the second coronation of Henry III, the imperial coronation of Frederick II, and the translation of Thomas Becket. 55 Fifth Crusade: RW IV, 7–9, 33–4, 36–62, 72–9 (with much of the detail taken from Jacques de Vitry). Frederick II’s campaign: RW IV, 157–69, 188–200. 56 RW IV, 108–13. 57 Though a more detailed comparison of earlier sections in both the Chronica and the Flores could prove worthwhile. See, for instance, Matthew’s rewriting of Merlin’s prophecy (CM I, 208) and of Roger’s (and William of Tyre’s) account of Emperor Conrad III during the Second Crusade (CM II, 182, 189). 58 RW V, 255–7. 59 RW V, 259–65. 53 RW

210

9781903153734.indd 210

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Angevin England Matthew Paris: this was, after all, the text he revised, redacted and continued. Still, Matthew did not slavishly follow the model provided by Roger: his emphasis on chronology was rather firmer and its representation considerably more sophisticated. Matthew also took to highlighting the important characteristics of the years recorded (but then the average annal in the Chronica was considerably longer) and developed a finely tuned system of annotations and visual markers to guide readers through his text. Most significantly, though, Matthew considerably expanded the geographical horizon of reporting. Roger may have adopted the rough chronological framework of a universal chronicle (starting with the Creation), but his perspective remained resolutely English. That was not unusual as such: Sigebert of Gembloux maintained a similarly local focus, centring on the place of Lotharingia in the world.60 It does, however, make Matthew Paris all the more unusual, and thus brings us back to the question of his possible models: who or what encouraged him to go so far beyond Roger? I would like to suggest two closely entwined sources of inspiration for Matthew: a legacy of Anglo-Norman and Angevin historical writing, and an incipient insular tradition of universal history. Twelfth-century England witnessed a flourishing of historical production almost unparalleled in Latin Europe – this was the period when Eadmer, William of Malmesbury, Simeon of Durham, Henry of Huntingdon, Gervase of Canterbury and Roger of Howden composed their histories. These works stand out for a number of shared features. Chief among these must rank their size, horizons of reporting and focus on the royal court. What they did not offer was experimentation with the formal aspects of writing history or its interpretative framework (unlike, for instance, Vincent Kadlubek in Poland or Otto of Freising in Germany), though they demonstrate a remarkable degree of self-reflection on the method and purpose of writing history.61 None of these narratives was short. William of Malmesbury’s Gesta regum Anglorum (c. 1125), for instance, takes up two volumes in its Oxford Medieval Texts edition, and the printed editions of Roger of Howden and Gervase of Canterbury similarly stretch over several tomes. Long narratives were not, of course, peculiar to England, but the sheer number of such texts remains striking. In addition, English authors seem to have engaged with particular fervour in the writing of regnal histories.62 More importantly still, the focus on English affairs went hand in 60 M. Lauwers, ‘La “Vita Wicberti” de Sigebert de Gembloux: Modèles ecclésiologiques

et revendications locales en Lotharingie à la fin du XIe siècle’, in Guerriers et moines. Conversion et sainteté aristocratiques dans l’Occident médiéval (IXe – XIIe siècle), ed. M. Lauwers (Antibes, 2002), pp. 493–500. 61 On the issue of experimentation, a key text remains: R. W. Southern, ‘Aspects of the European Tradition of Historical Writing II: Hugh of St Victor and the Idea of Historical Development’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th s. 21 (1971), 159–79. 62 See, for points of comparison: L. B. Mortensen, ‘Sanctified Beginnings and

211

9781903153734.indd 211

08/05/2017 08:29

Björn Weiler hand with a broad European perspective: to those writing history under the Norman and Angevin kings, the English past was inextricably linked to a Latin Christian one. Finally, these texts frequently centred on the king and his actions. This does not mean that their authors were court based or court sponsored, but rather that the undertakings of the ruler provided the focus of reporting. Texts like the Cologne Königschronik (Chronica regia Coloniensis) may have been assigned their (modern) epithet because of a relative emphasis on the deeds and actions of emperors, but they still viewed those through a local, or at best regional, lens. What mattered were those imperial actions that most directly impinged on the affairs of the churches and community of Cologne, their patrons and dependants.63 In most English chronicles, by contrast, the local and regional rarely detracted from the regnal. In fact – with the partial exception of Cheshire – so central was the position of the king that there is no real English equivalent to the dynastic histories of aristocratic houses as they emerged across Latin Europe in the twelfth century, and that often formed the focus of local and regional historical writing.64 The history of England was that of its kings. Let me illustrate this general sketch with two examples. The Gesta regum Anglorum by William of Malmesbury, completed c. 1125, traced the history of English affairs from the arrival of the Saxons to the reign of Henry I (d. 1135). It was one of the most widely copied histories of twelfth-century England, and included Matthew Paris among its readers. We know this because the manuscript of William’s Gesta with Matthew’s annotations survives (British Library, Royal MS 4 D vii). William began the Gesta regum at the behest of Henry I’s queen and ended up dedicating copies to the king’s daughter, son and nephew, in the vain hope that they would support his abbey in its dispute with the bishop of Salisbury. The centrality of the king was thus a

Mythopoetic Moments. The First Wave of Writing on the Past in Norway, Denmark, and Hungary, c. 1000–1230’, in The Making of Christian Myths in the Periphery of Latin Christendom (c. 1000–1300), ed. L. B. Mortensen (Copenhagen, 2006), pp. 247–73; Kersken, Geschichtsschreibung; R. W. Southern, ‘Aspects of the European Tradition of Historical Writing IV: The Sense of the Past’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th s. 23 (1973), 243–63 (pp. 246–56). 63 See, for instance, M. Groten, ‘Klösterliche Geschichtsschreibung. Siegburg und die Kölner Königschronik’, Rheinische Vierteljahresblätter 61 (1997), 50–78; C.-A. Lückerath, ‘Coloniensis ecclesia, Coloniensis civitas, Coloniensis terra. Köln in der Chronica regia Coloniensis und in der Chronica S. Pantaleonis’, Jahrbuch des Kölnischen Geschichtsvereins 71 (2000), 1–41; N. Breuer, Geschichtsbild und politische Vorstellungswelt in der Kölner Königschronik sowie der ‘Cronica S. Pantaleonis’ (Würzburg, 1966). 64 B. Weiler, ‘Kingship and Lordship: Views of Kingship in “Dynastic” Chronicles’, in Gallus Anonymous and his Chronicle in the Context of Twelfth-century Historiography from the Perspective of the Latest Research, ed. K. Stopka (Krakow, 2010), pp. 103–24; R. Barrett, Against all England: Regional identity and Cheshire Writing, 1195–1656 (South Bend, 2009).

212

9781903153734.indd 212

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Angevin England matter of both patronage and power. Moreover, William drew heavily on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Eadmer’s Historia novorum, both of which similarly equated the news worth recording with the deeds and actions of the king.65 Just as importantly, William perceived his Gesta regum as the history of both England and Normandy. In fact, nearly one third of the text dealt with matters outside England, ranging from Norman affairs and the history of the papacy, to the investiture controversy and the First Crusade.66 Similarly, William’s account of ecclesiastical affairs sought to present the English Church as part of a broader European tradition of reformist zeal. Stigand, the archetypal corrupt prelate of post-Conquest tradition, was the exception, not the rule. Making that point, however, required William to report on Church affairs from the mainland, mostly so as to establish a clear contrast between the elevated standards of the pre-Conquest English Church and its morally far less pristine counterparts in Germany, Normandy and Rome. We thus find not only detailed accounts of the failings of successive Norman prelates – Robert I ‘committed many outrages and many crimes’,67 Mauger had spent his wealth on cockfighting and hunting68 and William had been so corrupt that, alone among the French bishops, he was willing to celebrate the adulterous marriage of the king of France69 – but also curious tales about Pope Sylvester II (and his illicit dealings with demons) or Emperor Henry III (and his handling of the Church).70 That is, the subject matter of William’s writing, the models on which he drew and the cultural context within which he wrote all called for a far deeper engagement with the world of Christendom than may have been necessary at Cologne. Roger of Howden (d.1200/01) wrote two major works of history: the Gesta Henrici II, completed c. 1192, centring on the affairs of the king (of whose household Roger had been a member), and the Chronica, an attempt to compose a definite history of England, drawing extensively on Simeon of Durham, the Melrose Chronicle and Roger’s Gesta.71 Both texts were 65 A

similar focus is evident even in texts that were less directly dependent on the royal court, such as John of Worcester or Simeon of Durham, but which equally relied on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Eadmer. 66 Kersken, Geschichtsschreibung, p. 176 n. 198; R. M. Thomson, ‘William of Malmesbury, Historian of the Crusade’, Reading Medieval Studies 23 (1997), 121–34. 67 William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. and trans. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1998–9), I, 306–7. 68 Malmesbury, Gesta regum I, 494–5. 69 Malmesbury, Gesta regum I, 732–3. 70 Malmesbury, Gesta regum I, 276–89 (Sylvester); 338–49 (Emperor Henry II). 71 D. Corner, ‘Howden, Roger of (d. 1201/2)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13880, accessed 1 June 2015]. Perhaps the best accounts of Roger are: J. Gillingham, ‘Writing the Biography of Roger of Howden, King’s Clerk and Chronicler’, in Writing Medieval Biography, 750 – 1250: Essays in Honour of Professor Frank Barlow, ed. D. Bates, J. Crick and S. Hamilton (Woodbridge, 2006), pp. 207–220; J. Gillingham, ‘Two Yorkshire historians

213

9781903153734.indd 213

08/05/2017 08:29

Björn Weiler consulted by Matthew Paris and Roger of Wendover (who modelled his Flores on Roger’s Chronica). Some of the parallels in structure and representation of events are indeed striking. Roger’s entries for the year 1176 in the Gesta and for 1197 in the Chronica may serve as examples. The former runs to twenty-four pages. It centres on England, though Roger also reported Frederick Barbarossa’s travails in Lombardy72 and one of his longest entries recounted a campaign led by the Byzantine Emperor Manuel Komnenos in Asia Minor.73 Frequently, the connecting link was English affairs, as in the case of Henry the Young King’s escape to the French royal court74 or plans for a Sicilian marriage for Henry II’s daughter.75 Like his Wendover namesake and Matthew Paris, Roger started the year on 25 December, and the first piece of news to record was where Henry II spent Christmas (Windsor).76 Another parallel is Roger’s attempt to narrate matters in a more strictly conceived chronological sequence. One of the important events of the year was a series of overlapping disputes concerning ecclesiastical organization: during a church council in January, the king of Scotland and his prelates attended. This soon resulted in claims made by both the archbishops of York and of Canterbury to oversight of the Scottish Church. These were, of course, rejected by the Scots, but the competing claims also brought to the fore the old rivalry between York and Canterbury. In 1176, this resulted in several synods, and involved two papal legates. Just like Matthew Paris would do, however, Roger reported the various stages of the conflict as they occurred, not as part of a unified narrative.77 The Chronica adopted a similar structure – the entry for 1197 begins with the 1196 Christmas parliament.78 The themes covered and the geographical scope were also modelled on the Gesta, though with a few important exceptions. Roger does, for instance, report how the cross of St Martial shed tears when the bishop of Ely died on his way to Rome79 and miracles that occurred in the crusading army of Emperor Henry VI.80 That is, unlike in the Gesta, the supernatural and sacred merited recording. The affairs of Durham (under the compared: Roger of Howden and William of Newburgh’, Haskins Society Journal 12 (2003), 15–37. 72 Roger of Howden, Gesta regis Henrici secundi Benedicti abbatis: The Chronicle of the Reigns of Henry II and Richard I, A.D. 1169–1192, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols., Rolls Series 49 (London, 1867), I, 127–8. 73 Howden, Gesta I, 128–30. 74 Howden, Gesta I, 121–3. 75 Howden, Gesta I, 116–17, 119–20. 76 Howden, Gesta I, 106. 77 Howden, Gesta I, 111–12, 116–17 120–1. The same was true, for instance, of the Sicilian marriage: I, 116–7, 119–20. 78 Roger of Howden, Chronica magistri Rogeri de Houdene, ed. William Stubbs, 4 vols., Rolls Series 51 (London, 1868–71), IV, 16. 79 Howden, Chronica IV, 17. 80 Howden, Chronica IV, 26–7.

214

9781903153734.indd 214

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Angevin England authority of whose bishop Howden fell) were also given some prominence.81 Still, the general geographical and thematic focus remained largely identical: Roger reported news from England, Ireland, Scotland, (to a lesser extent) Wales, Sicily and Germany, and he dealt with disputes before the papal court, the appointment of bishops, military campaigns and so on. We can observe several features also evident in Matthew Paris. Chief among them ranks the geographical horizon of reporting: William of Malmesbury as well as Roger of Howden placed England firmly in a European context. Equally, Matthew echoed William’s and Roger’s interest in the miraculous and supernatural and he closely followed Roger of Howden’s way of structuring information, at least as practised in the Gesta. That is, he began with the Christmas parliament and then proceeded in strictly chronological order. Somewhat like Matthew, Roger, too, combined the approach with thematic clustering: foreign news – in the sense that it was not directly linked to England – was clustered towards the end (though with enough leeway to allow for especially important events to be incorporated, as with Saladin’s campaigns in 1187 or that of Manuel Komnenos in 1176), as was news of episcopal appointments and so on. While missing in the entry for 1176, most of Roger’s accounts in the Gesta also ended with a summary of the year and its key features (an approach also used by Matthew Paris). William of Malmesbury and Roger of Howden do not, of course, exhaust the indigenous models on which Matthew could have drawn. Matthew also consulted the works of John of Worcester, Henry of Huntingdon, Geoffrey of Monmouth and Robert of Torigny.82 Moreover, to some extent William of Malmesbury and Roger of Howden represent outliers – they are the ideal types of the insular chronicle tradition sketched earlier. Not all texts fit my outline as well as these two. To some extent this is less important, as we know that both had been read by Matthew Paris and Roger of Wendover: while we cannot prove that they formed the basis of Matthew’s approach to writing history, we can plausibly assume that they were among the examples with which he would have been familiar. Yet we should also note how William and Roger represent two very different ways of representing the past: William offered a broad thematic survey, loosely embedded in a chronological framework, Roger a strictly chronological narrative of events. One allowed for meaning to be conveyed by clustering events, the other sought to offer a more accurate depiction of history as it unfolded. While we know which approach Matthew ultimately chose, it is worth reminding ourselves that there was a choice to be made. Furthermore, as important as these texts were, William of Malmesbury and Roger of Howden did not write world histories. The immediate impetus for

81 Howden,

82 Vaughan,

Chronica IV, 18–19. Matthew Paris, p. 129.

215

9781903153734.indd 215

08/05/2017 08:29

Björn Weiler them as well as for Henry of Huntingdon, Simeon of Durham or William of Newburgh had been to write (or rewrite) the history of England, to provide a narrative that variously began with Hengist and Horsa, the time immediately after Bede or 1066. That is, the geographical horizons of their reporting were conditioned by the very past they sought to describe. Much as they may have understood England to be part of a community of Christian nations, they wrote the history not of Christendom, but of England. English history, in turn, was the history of its kings and it was the affairs of the ruler that defined when history began. Events beyond Britain mattered because of their impact on England or because episodes like the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 were just too momentous not to be recorded. Universal history, in the sense that it sought to offer a record of the whole known world from the Creation, was rarely written. The Worcester chronicle may have drawn on Marianus Scotus,83 at least six copies of Hugh of St Victor’s world chronicle circulated in the twelfth century84 and John of Salisbury used Sigebert of Gembloux,85 but, as far as indigenous universal chronicles written in England are concerned, the works of only two authors survive: Ralph Niger and Ralph de Diceto. Both were altogether different beasts from Matthew Paris, but can still help us contextualize the tradition from which he emerged. Ralph Niger wrote his world chronicle c. 1195–7.86 There were important differences between him and Matthew: whereas about 60% of Matthew’s narrative dealt with events during his lifetime, only just over 10% of Ralph’s Chronica did.87 These works were also quite different in size: in their respective printed editions, Matthew’s Chronica majora totals c. 3,500 pages, Ralph’s 300. Finally, Ralph is, of course, known less as a chronicler than a theologian, renowned for his exegetical works and crusading treatise.88 In

83 M.

Brett, ‘The Use of Universal Chronicle at Worcester’, in L’historiographie médiévale en Europe. Actes du colloque organisé par la Fondation Européenne de la Science au Centre de Recherches Historiques et Juridiques de l’Université Paris I du 29 mars au 1er avril 1989, ed. J.-P. Genet (Paris, 1991), pp. 277–85. 84 J. Harrison, ‘The English Reception of Hugh of St. Victor’s Chronicle’, Electronic British Library Journal (2002), 1–33. 85 Gransden, Historical Writing, p. 219. 86 H. Krause, Radulfus Niger – Chronica. Eine englische Weltchronik des 12. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt, 1985), p. 24*; Kersken, Geschichtsschreibung, p. 131; A. J. Duggan, ‘Niger, Ralph (b. c.1140, d. in or before 1199?)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/20192, accessed 24 Sept 2014]. 87 Ralph was born c. 1140 (Krause, Radulfus, p. 5*). An alternative point would be the sections marked by Ralph as based on his own writing rather than excerpts from past historians (Krause, Radulfus, p. 259). The first event to be recorded was the foundation of the Cistercians (1098) and their patronage by the counts of Blois. This would increase the loosely defined contemporary portion to c. 15%. 88 P. Buc, ‘Exegèse et pensée politique: Radulphus Niger (vers 1190) et Nicolas de Lyre (vers 1330)’, in Représentation, pouvoir et royauté à la fin du Moyen Âge. Actes du

216

9781903153734.indd 216

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Angevin England fact, his Chronica may itself have been primarily a teaching tool, an attempt to reconstruct the past as a tool for interpreting and reading the Bible and Church fathers. Like William of Malmesbury, Ralph took a thematic approach. Let me take as example the second chapter from the fourth book of the Chronica.89 Ralph covered events roughly between 1135 (the succession of Stephen in England) and 1189 (the death of Henry II of England). Yet in the text, chronology remained subordinate to thematic clusters. The chapter thus opened with the calling of the Second Crusade by Bernard of Clairvaux. Ralph went on to list the leaders of the campaign, and subsequently followed that with a potted history of their respective realms: in the case of Conrad III, he mentioned the succession of Frederick Barbarossa in 1152, the Alexandrine Schism, Frederick’s Lombard Wars, the fall of Henry the Lion and so on. Ralph then returned to the Second Crusade, and narrated the closely entwined history of the kings of England and France, ending with the death of Henry II and a lament on the decline of the English Church. Ralph thus wrote history on a truly European scale: while centring on French and English affairs, he made detailed reference to Frederick Barbarossa and the papacy. However, much more so than in Matthew’s case, he focused on affairs that could be directly linked back to England: he included a lengthy list of marriage alliances, for instance, centring on English princesses or the descendants of English princesses. His world chronicle was really a history of England’s place in the world. Miracles, the sacred and the supernatural, on the other hand, did not feature; and papal politics were not reported beyond the conflict between Alexander III and his imperial lord. Ralph’s handling of chronology merits consideration. While closely related to William’s approach in its thematic structure, there also were noticeable differences. To begin, Ralph was much more concerned with highlighting patterns, with outlining how events and actors were connected. He was also indebted to the new wave of universal histories that began to be written in France in the second half of the twelfth century. These texts – with Peter Comestor’s Historia scholastica perhaps the most famous example – were primarily concerned with resolving issues of Biblical chronology, and with providing a factual framework that could be called upon in interpreting and understanding Scripture. Contemporary affairs were thus of considerably less importance than they were to writers like William of Malmesbury. More importantly still, the point of writing history was at least in part to gain an

colloque organisé par l’Université du Maine les 25 et 26 mars 1994, ed. Joël Blanchard (Paris, 1995), pp. 145–164; M. Münster-Swendsen, ‘How to prevent a War with a Theologico-Legal Treatise: The Intellectual Strategies of Sigebert of Gembloux and Ralph Niger’, in Liber amicorum Ditlev Tamm: law, history and culture, ed. P. Andersen, P. Letto-Vanamo, K. Å. Modéer, H. Vogt (Copenhagen, 2011), pp. 199–216. Most of his writings remain unedited, and would warrant further investigation. 89 Krause, Radulfus Niger, pp. 269–82.

217

9781903153734.indd 217

08/05/2017 08:29

Björn Weiler understanding as to what events signified, of how meaning could be distilled from the unordered mass of human affairs. Ralph’s example thus highlights how some of the questions driving Matthew were tackled by his predecessors: the need to understand history, to use it as starting point to divine God’s plan for humankind, but also to understand the moral dimension of human social organization, became a matter of increasing urgency in the second half of the twelfth century.90 Let me, as a final example, introduce Ralph de Diceto (d. 1199/1200).91 He was another writer whose works had been consulted by Matthew Paris (British Library, Royal MS 13 E vi). Ralph developed a system of manuscript annotation (a running header) that was copied by Matthew Paris. Ralph’s Abbreviatio chronicarum, a world-chronicle that was effectively a series of excerpts, ends in 1147, while his Ymagines historiarum, a contemporary chronicle, begins in 1149. Entries are relatively short. In the Abbreviatio chronicarum, the account of the year 1114 only recorded the election Ralph d’Escures as archbishop of Canterbury and of Thurstan as archbishop of York.92 Reports did, however, expand as the text continued. For 1138, Ralph thus dealt with the Battle of the Standard, the dispute between Richard of Belmeis and the dean of St Paul’s over the archdeaconry of Middlesex (including how the case was settled at the papal court), the appointment of Henry of Blois as vicar for the bishopric of London, the election of Theobald of Bec as archbishop of Canterbury and the death of the dean of St Paul’s.93 Entries in the Ymagines historiarum are more extensive. Like Roger of Howden, Ralph oscillated between a strictly chronological and a more thematic narrative. The account of the year 1193 thus opens with John, on hearing that his brother Richard had been imprisoned, planning to seize the throne himself and to exclude his nephew Arthur from the succession. It continues with recording the death of Saladin, Richard being delivered into the hands of Emperor Henry VI, the demand of a ransom and Richard’s transfer to Trifels Castle. Ralph inserted a short passage explaining how the king’s captivity was divine punishment for the revolt he had led against his father. Ralph then included a letter by Richard to the English bishops, before dealing at length with the election of a new archbishop of Canterbury. He then turned to the zeal with which funds were collected for Richard’s ransom, the astonishment of the Germans at the 90 The

topic awaits a more detailed investigation. See, for a preliminary outline, Weiler, ‘Historical writing’. The increasing popularity of prophecies in the period is also reflective of the degree to which prophecy was rooted in the past. I owe this point to Brett Whalen. 91 J. F. A. Mason, ‘Diceto, Ralph de (d. 1199/1200)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7591, accessed 24 Sept 2014]. 92 The Historical Works of Master Ralph de Diceto, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols., Rolls Series 68 (London, 1876), I, 240. 93 Historical Works of Ralph de Diceto I, 250–2.

218

9781903153734.indd 218

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Angevin England many bishops, abbots, counts and barons from diverse and distant nations who flocked to visit Richard during his imprisonment, an attack on the bishop of Chester perpetrated outside Canterbury, the marriage and divorce of Philipp Augustus, the enthronement as archbishop of Hubert Walter, the appointment of the archbishop of Rouen as justiciar, and his departure for Germany.94 Ralph forms part of a group of writers that allows us to consider in more detail the legacy on which Matthew could have drawn. In fact, we are dealing with a closely interrelated group of authors and narratives: William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon at least knew of each other, William and Geoffrey of Monmouth shared a patron, Simeon of Durham partly relied on William, Roger of Howden on Simeon and so on. Many – though not all – of the texts that have come down to us have emerged from interlocking circles of patrons, readers and writers. This helps explain the degree to which they share distinctive features: a focus on the king and a broad geographical outlook. As far as king is concerned, a number of factors came into play: there was the undoubted centrality of the monarch in the political affairs of England. William the Conqueror and his successors exercised a degree of power and an ability to intervene in the affairs of their subjects far exceeding that of any of their contemporaries (with the possible exception of their distant cousins in Sicily). Similarly, the models at the disposal of these authors – the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, but also texts like the Imperial Chronicle commissioned for Henry I’s daughter Matilda and now preserved at Cambridge – offered a strictly regnal history, where the affairs of the monarch took centre stage, where they were, in fact, synonymous with those of the people.95 The geographical scope, in turn, may well reflect the structure of the Anglo-Norman realm and its regular exchanges between Britain and the mainland (though those would have been even more pronounced in the case of the Holy Roman Empire, Sicily, or the Iberian peninsula).96 It is, one would suspect, also a reason why so few universal chronicles originated in England. Regnal history already provided much of the relevant information. Universal chronicles were copied, read and continued. But they did not inspire many imitators. To take stock: Matthew could build on an Anglo-Norman and Angevin tradition that contained many of the characteristic features of his writing. These include a strictly chronological narrative of events that centred on the affairs of the king and that placed the affairs of England in a far broader European context than many other regnal chronicles from the twelfth century. We may even surmise some direct lines of influence: Roger of Howden for 94 Historical

Works of Ralph de Diceto II,106–12. Dale, ‘Imperial Self-Representation and the Manipulation of History in Twelfthcentury Germany: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 373’, German History 29 (2011), 557–83. 96 Bates, Normans and Empire, pp. 128–59. 95 J.

219

9781903153734.indd 219

08/05/2017 08:29

Björn Weiler the structure of each annalistic entry, for instance, and certainly Ralph of Diceto for the manuscript design. Yet this short survey has also highlighted key differences. To begin, the examples of William of Malmesbury and Ralph Niger should alert us to the degree to which different ways of engaging with central questions of historical writing and historiographical practice could exist side by side. There was nothing inevitable about the approach a chronicler would choose. Further, in several respects Matthew clearly moved beyond familiar examples. Most importantly, the Chronica displayed far greater interest in the miraculous and supernatural.97 Equally significant was a widening of the social classes incorporated into Matthew’s reporting. And an attempt to broaden the universality of his coverage while simultaneously paying far greater attention to the particular and the local. The St Albans chronicler thus stands out for his willingness to report the deeds and opinions of merchants, townspeople, even moneylenders. He similarly built on an established tradition of placing England within a broader European context, but considerably expanded the range of such reporting. He did so not only by dealing at much greater length with regions such as, for instance, Armenia, but also, and rather curiously, by giving far greater prominence to the affairs of St Albans within those of the realm and of Christendom at large. In fact, even his own Norwegian adventure was fashioned as testimony to the greatness of St Albans. The degree to which the community of Matthew’s brethren intruded into his narrative of the world at large went well beyond the example of any of his predecessors. What drove these changes? Three factors may have played an especially prominent role: a changing social context of writing history, shifting cultural norms of engaging with the past and Matthew’s own predilections. Matthew wrote at a time when several institutions and movements had brought the component parts of Europe much more closely together: institutions like the mendicants, universities, the crusading movement of the thirteenth century and the imperial papacy post-1215 had fundamentally changed the social context within which the writing of history occurred. More news was circulating more widely. It was a lot easier, for instance, to gather news about Eastern Europe or Denmark or Armenia because routes and networks of communication had been transformed beyond anything imaginable in the previous century. These shifts furthermore coincided with a rapid economic and social transformation that centred increasingly on engaging with and serving the needs of a laity that, in the context of monastic houses, quickly moved from members of the local or regional aristocracy to growing ranks of merchants, royal officials and administrators (especially well documented in the case of St Albans). This broadening of news and recipients, in turn,

97 Nathan

Greasley is preparing a more detailed analysis of natural phenomena in the Chronica.

220

9781903153734.indd 220

08/05/2017 08:29

Writing Universal History in Angevin England required a refashioning and rewriting of the past and called for different ways of engaging with the writing of history.98 We thus find a renewed emphasis across Latin Europe on the importance of universal history, with writers like Albert of Stade or Alberic of Troisfontaines using a similar focus to – and sometimes drawing on the same channels of communication as – Matthew Paris. They all paid far greater attention to the supernatural and the sacred, expanded the range of social actors covered and similarly combined an increasing universality of reporting with a renewed focus on the regional and communal. Moreover, even some of the features that in the past had been so much more pronounced in England became part and parcel of a broader European tradition: most importantly perhaps in the combination of regnal with universal history by Saxo Grammaticus and Rodriguez Ximenez de Rada.99 In this respect, the St Albans monk formed part of a revival and refashioning of universal history that took place across Latin Christendom. Personal predilection and interest also came into play. We do, of course, face the problem that we do not actually know what Matthew thought or felt – beyond the clues that survive in his writings. There seems, though, to have been an especially strong interest in and concern for the role of history as a branch of prophecy. Matthew copied a number of prophetical texts as well as a fortune-telling manual and he added his own interpretation of the prophecy of Merlin. He also insisted that knowledge of the past would allow one to gain a better understanding of what events presaged for the future. Matthew was not, of course, the first historian to do so.100 Yet he approached the issue in a manner that went far beyond the tradition on which he built. Partly perhaps because he lived in a world that was so much bigger and more interconnected (much as he may have disliked the fact), Matthew may

98 This

summarizes Weiler, ‘Historical writing’. Rodrigo, see S. Jean-Marie, ‘L’Historia de rebus Hispaniae de Rodrigue Jiménez de Rada: éléments d’une poétique’, in Poétique de la chronique: l’écriture des textes historiographiques au Moyen age (péninsule Ibérique et France), ed. A. Arizaleta (Toulouse, 2008), pp. 135–152; X. Bonch-Bruevich, ‘A Philosophical History: Unity and Diversity in Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada’s Historia de rebus Hispanie’, Viator 36 (2006), 223–40; A. Ward, ‘Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada: auteur et acteur en Castille à la fin du XIIIe siècle’, Cahiers de linguistique et de civilisation hispaniques médiévales 26 (2003), 283–94. On Saxo: E. Mornet, ‘Saxo Grammaticus et l’écriture de l’histoire. Remarques sur le prologue des Gesta Danorum’, in Medeltidens mångfald: studier i samhällsliv, kultur och kommunikation tillägnade Olle Ferm på 60-årsdagen den 8 mars 2007, ed. G. Dahlbäck (Stockholm, 2008), pp. 283–301; T. Riis, Einführung in die Gesta Danorum des Saxo Grammaticus (Odense, 2006). 100 R. W. Southern, ‘Aspects of the European Tradition of Historical Writing III: History as Prophecy’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th s. 22 (1972), 159–80; G. Melville, ‘Geltungsgeschichten am Tor zur Ewigkeit. Zur Konstruktion von Vergangenheit und Zukunft im mittelalterlichen Religiosentum’, in Geltungsgeschichten. Über die Stabilisierung und Legitimierung institutioneller Ordnungen, ed. Gert Melville and Hans Vorländer (Cologne, 2002), pp. 75–108. 99 On

221

9781903153734.indd 221

08/05/2017 08:29

Björn Weiler have felt that the abundance of new information required an expansion of the horizons of his reporting. Precisely because England was intrinsically linked to the wider world of Latin Christendom, mysterious fires at Bergen and Cologne were as significant to English affairs as the regular appearance of strange creatures along the borders with Wales.

Conclusions Matthew clearly built on a well-established tradition. Yet he also transcended and, in the process, transformed it. He took seriously accounts that someone like Roger of Howden or Ralph Niger would not have deemed worthy of note. He wrote on a scale unimaginable, and, in fact, impossible only a couple of generations earlier. Yet by building on and reviving an established tradition of writing insular history in a universal vein, Matthew may also have destroyed that very tradition. Like that of so many of his contemporaries – with the important exception of Vincent of Beauvais – Matthew’s text was too big and cumbersome to circulate beyond his abbey. He did, in fact, kill off historical writing on an epic scale at St Albans for nearly a century and while the Flores historiarum were among the most widely copied chronicles of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries,101 the work was rarely associated with Matthew. In fact, by the later thirteenth century, the Flores faced stiff competition from the very type of text that Matthew had transcended and that, in the past, had been of so little interest to English writers of history: the pope and emperor chronicle in the mode of Martin of Troppau.102 Martin’s texts did, though, offer a degree of succinctness and accessibility, a focus on the truly universal, with which neither Matthew nor the Flores tradition were able to compete. In this sense, Matthew Paris’s Chronica majora represented both a late flowering and the demise of an insular tradition of writing regnal history in a universal key.103

101

A. Gransden, ‘The Continuations of the Flores historiarum from 1265 to 1327’, Mediaeval Studies 36 (1974), 472–92. 102 W.-V. Ikas, ‘Martinus Polonus’ Chronicle of the Popes and Emperors. A Medieval Bestseller and its Neglected Influence on English Medieval Chroniclers’, English Historical Review 116 (2001), 327–341; W.-V. Ikas, Martin von Troppau (Martinus Polonus), O.P. († 1278) in England: Überlieferungs- und wirkungsgeschichtliche Studien zu dessen Papst- und Kaiserchronik (Wiesbaden, 2002). 103 The difference with later thirteenth-century Latin and vernacular texts, especially the Brut tradition, is in fact striking: Kersken, Geschichtsschreibung, pp. 248–75.

222

9781903153734.indd 222

08/05/2017 08:29

9 The Pillars of Hercules: The Estoria de Espanna (Escorial, Y.I.2) as Universal Chronicle* Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto

To Helena de Carlos Villamarín

Infinite/Unfinished Books The Estoria de Espanna and the General Estoria, written under the supervision of Alfonso X of Castile roughly between 1270 and 1284, are two of the major historiographical enterprises of the Middle Ages.1 With them, the so-called Learned King attempted to offer a comprehensive view of human history with a special focus on Iberia, in support of his claims to the imperial throne and supremacy over the other Hispanic kingdoms. As such, the ‘estorias’ occupy a place of honour at the core of the vast Alfonsine manuscript production, encyclopedic enough to grant the king a sort Solomonic aura that resonated far beyond the Hispanic realm.2 The luxurious codices he commissioned not only bore witness to the king’s own life and ideals but also constituted an * This article was written with financial support from the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF102ID). I would like to express my gratitude to Michele Campopiano and Henry Bainton for the invitation to contribute to the present volume. All translations from Castilian are mine unless otherwise indicated. 1 For a brief introduction in English, see I. Fernández-Ordóñez, ‘Estoria de España’ and ‘General estoria’, in Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle, ed. G. Dunphy (Leiden, 2010), pp. 587–88, and 678–79. See infra for further bibliographic references. 2 An overview of his cultural enterprises can be found in R. I. Burns (ed.), The Worlds of Alfonso the Learned and James the Conqueror (Princeton NJ, 1985); R. I. Burns, Emperor of Culture: Alfonso X the Learned of Castile and His Thirteenth-century Renaissance (Philadelphia, 1990); J. Montoya Martínez and A. Domínguez Rodríguez, El scriptorium alfonsí: de los libros de astrología a las ‘Cantigas de Santa María’ (Madrid, 1999); and Francisco Márquez Villanueva, El concepto cultural alfonsí (Barcelona, 2004). On the ambivalence of the Alfonsine figure and his Solomonic overtones, see J.-P. Boudet, ‘Le modèle du roi sage aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles: Salomon, Alphonse X et Charles V’, Revue historique 3 (2008), 545–66 (pp. 547–52). Cf. P. Linehan, History and the Historians of Medieval Spain (Oxford, 1993), p. 498.

223

9781903153734.indd 223

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto intellectual legacy that his heirs had to confront. In this regard, the durable trace left by the General Estoria and, most specifically, the Estoria de Espanna can be discerned in all subsequent attempts to write a history of the Iberian Peninsula until recent times. But the same ambition was also the cause of their relative failure, since neither of these projects was finished. As a consequence, these royal manuscripts’ present condition seems to turn them into ‘libros infinidos’, at a time ‘without ending’ and ‘of impossible finalization’, to use the term coined by the infante don Juan Manuel, Alfonso X’s nephew.3 The General Estoria and the Estoria de Espanna were composed roughly in parallel, as if they were two sides of the same historiographical effort. Thus, the former was conceived as a world chronicle encompassing all human knowledge from the Creation until the time of writing, including not only the biblical episodes of the Old Testament but also a detailed account of pagan history.4 Conversely, the latter was focused on the Iberian Peninsula and on the successive peoples that settled the land, starting with Tubal, Noah’s son, and carrying on with the Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans until the time of Alfonso X himself, as it was clearly stated in the prologue: E por end Nos don Alfonsso, por la gracia de Dios rey de Castiella, de Toledo, de Leon, de Gallizia, de Seuilla, de Cordoua, de Murcia, de Jahen et dell Algarue, ffijo del muy noble rey don Ffernando et de la reyna donna Beatriz, mandamos ayuntar quantos libros pudimos auer de istorias en que alguna cosa contassen de los fechos dEspanna (...) et compusiemos este libro de todos los fechos que fallar se pudieron della, desde el tiempo de Noe fasta este nuestro.5 So we, Alfonso, by the grace of God King of Castile, Toledo, León, Galicia, 3 The

Castilian infante entitled his didactic treatise the Libro infinido, that is, as an ‘“obra sin acabamiento”, porque esto non sé cuándo se acabará’ [‘“work without ending” because I do not know when it will be finished’]. Don Juan Manuel, Obras completas, ed. C. Alvar and S. Finci (Madrid, 2007), p. 939. On the infinite quality of historical and legal works, destined to be updated, completed and corrected, see J. Rodríguez-Velasco, Order and Chivalry: Knighthood and Citizenship in Late Medieval Castile (Philadelphia, 2010), p. 226. Much in the same vein, Isabel de Barros Dias has emphasized the ‘babelic’ dimension of the Alfonsine historical enterprise in her Metamorfoses de Babel: A historiografía ibérica (sécs. XIII-XIV). Construções e estratégias textuais (Lisbon, 2003), pp. 9–38. 4 The first edition of the whole preserved text runs to more than 6000 printed pages, excluded the introductory texts by the scholars responsible for each section of the work. See Alfonso X el Sabio, General Estoria, ed. P. Sánchez-Prieto Borja, 10 vols. (Madrid, 2001–2009). All quotations and references to the Alfonsine work are from the most recent edition, unless otherwise noted. 5 Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Primera Crónica General de España que mandó componer Alfonso el Sabio, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1955), p. 4a21–47. All subsequent references to this edition will be made according to the formula PCG p(age)c(olumn)lines, used by previous scholarship. The first volume of Menéndez Pidal’s work faithfully transcribes royal MS Escorial, Y.I.2 which would be the main focus of the present chapter.

224

9781903153734.indd 224

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle Seville, Córdoba, Murcia, Jaén and the Algarve, son of the noblest King Fernando and of Queen Beatriz, commanded that all books related – however slightly – to the history of Spain should be gathered together (…) and we composed this work about all events that happened in this land from Noah to our own times.

With regard to the General Estoria, only the section related to the Sixth Age was left unfinished, although it is hard to ascertain how long and detailed it was going to be.6 Even so, an outline of the main contents found in every book of the work allows us to appreciate its all-inclusive approach (Table 1), since the sources used by the Alfonsine team included not only authoritative Christian writers and recent historical compilations – such as the Speculum historiale and the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César – but also several Arabic key texts, together with numerous classical authors such as Ovid, Lucan, Pliny, Josephus, or Statius.7 Table 1: Structure and main contents of the General Estoria.

1st Age

2nd Age

3rd Age

4th Age

5th Age

6th Age

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V–VI

--------------

I. Pentateuch. Description of the world. Ninus. Foundation of Athens. II. Biblical history from Abraham to David. History of Thebes. Queen Dido. Adventures of Hercules. The Trojan War. 6 Only

one manuscript preserves a fragment of the Sixth Part (Toledo, AC, MS 43–20). It is a draft of no more than 20 folios that starts its narrative with John the Baptist and Mary’s parents and ends abruptly after the birth of the Virgin. See F. Bautista, ‘El final de la General Estoria’, Revista de Filología Española 95.2 (2015), 215–78. 7 Among the vast bibliography devoted to the General Estoria, see M. R. Lida de Malkiel, ‘La General Estoria: notas literarias y filológicas (I)’, Romance Philology 12 (1958–1959), 111–42; D. Eisenberg, ‘The General Estoria: Sources and Source Treatment’, Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie 89.1/3 (1973), 205–27; F. Rico, Alfonso el Sabio y la ‘General Estoria’: tres lecciones (Barcelona, 1984); B. Brancaforte, Las ‘Metamorfosis’ y las ‘Heroidas’ en la ‘General Estoria’ de Alfonso el Sabio (Madison, 1990); I. Fernández-Ordóñez, Las ‘estorias’ de Alfonso el Sabio (Madrid, 1992); C. F. Fraker, The Scope of History: Studies in the Historiography of Alfonso el Sabio (Ann Arbor, 1996); and I. Salvo García, ‘Las Heroidas en la General Estoria de Alfonso X: texto y glosa en el proceso de traducción y resemantización de Ovidio’, Cahiers d’Études Hispaniques Médiévales 32 (2009), 205–28. On the Speculum Historiale and the Histoire ancienne and their role as precedents for Alfonsine historiography, see C. Domínguez, ‘Vincent of Beauvais and Alfonso the Learned’, Notes & Queries 45.2 (1998), 172–3; A. Punzi, Sulla sezione troiana della General Estoria di Alfonso X (Roma, 1995); J. Casas Rigall, La Materia de Troya en las letras romances del siglo XIII hispano (Santiago de Compostela, 1999); and P. Gracia, ‘Hacia el modelo de la General Estoria: Paris, la translatio imperii et studii y la Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César’, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 122.1 (2006), 17–27. For the Arabic sources of the Alfonsine estorias, see infra.

225

9781903153734.indd 225

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto III. From David to the Babylonian captivity. Nóstoi. King Salomon and his books. Origins of Rome. IV. History of the Kings of Persia and Macedonia. Alexander the Great. Marvels of Babylon. Prophets. Wars between Persians and Greeks. History of the Briton and Suevian Kings. The island of Sicily. V. From Ptolemy Philopator to Christian times. The Maccabees. Translation of Lucan’s Pharsalia. Victory of Augustus. VI. From the birth of Jesus to Alfonso X. None of these variegated sources were passively incorporated into the Alfonsine chronicle. They were discussed, amplified, reconciled and polished in successive redactions, until arriving at the final version to be authorized by the King, to the extent that the traces left by conflicting viewpoints regarding the value of mythological narratives – and the minor incoherencies introduced by changes in the general plan of the work – only become visible under close scrutiny.8 Preserved manuscripts also attest to the singularity of the compilatory criteria deployed by the scholars working under the supervision of the king, since, in their search for the most accurate and complete textual witness, they seem to have consulted diverse copies of the same work in order to check glosses and commentaries as well.9 Despite the unrivalled achievement of the Alfonsine compilers, the extraordinary length of the General Estoria and the use of the vernacular – prominent in all the intellectual projects undertaken by the Learned King – may have been the cause not only for the limited circulation of the work outside Iberia, but also for scholarship’s relative disregard for the text until recent times.10 8 See, among others, D. Catalán, ‘El taller historiográfico alfonsí: métodos y problemas

en el trabajo compilatorio’, Romania 84 (1963), 354–75 [repr. in La ‘Estoria de Espana’ de Alfonso X: creación y evolución (Madrid, 1992), pp. 45–60;] I. FernándezOrdóñez, ‘El taller de las Estorias’, in Alfonso X el Sabio y las Crónicas de España, ed. by I. Fernández-Ordóñez (Valladolid, 2000), pp. 61–82; I. Fernández-Ordóñez, ‘Ordinatio y compilatio en la prosa de Alfonso X el Sabio’, in Modelos latinos en la Castilla medieval, ed. M. Castillo Lluch and M. López Izquierdo (Madrid, 2010), pp. 239–70; I. Fernández-Ordóñez, Transmisión y metamorfosis: Hacia una tipología de mecanismos evolutivos en los textos medievales (Salamanca, 2012); G. Martin, ‘Cinq opérations fondamentales de la compilation. L’exemple de l’Histoire de Espagne (étude segmentaire)’, in L’historiographie médiévale en Europe, ed. J.-P. Genet (Paris, 1991), pp. 99–109 [repr. in Histoires de l’Espagne médiévale: historiographie, geste, romancero (Paris, 1997), pp. 107–21]. On Alfonso X’s authorial conciousness, see A. G. Solalinde, ‘Intervención de Alfonso X en la redacción de sus obras’, Revista de Filología Española 2 (1915), 283–8. 9 Although inaccurate in some respects, it remains useful to consult L. Rubio García, ‘En torno a la biblioteca de Alfonso X’, in La lengua y la literatura en tiempos de Alfonso X (Murcia, 1985), pp. 531–51. 10 Concerning the role of the vernacular in the Alfonsine cultural model, see Márquez Villanueva, El concepto, pp. 35–42; A. Pym, ‘The Price of Alfonso X’s Wisdom’, in The Medieval Translator / Traduire au Moyen Âge 5, ed. by R. Ellis and R. Tixier (Turnhout,

226

9781903153734.indd 226

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle It should be noted that the intricate manuscript transmission of the General Estoria made it arduous to produce a modern edition of the work, since extant copies betray the existence of different textual stages.11 Besides, only two codices produced under the supervision of the Learned King himself have been preserved, corresponding to Parts I and IV of the work. These are held, respectively, at the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid (MS 816) and the Vatican Library (Urb. Lat. 539).12 The Estoria de Espanna’s relative brevity compared to the General Estoria did not, however, grant this work a more simple manuscript transmission. Quite the contrary, in fact: the multiple re-elaborations of the local chronicle throughout the Middle Ages ended up generating a dense textual skein, truly a selva, selvaggia aspra e forte, as the late Menéndez Pidal termed it.13 The Estoria was redacted twice under the direction of King Alfonso X, first c. 1270–1274 and then again after 1282, when dramatic political circumstances – the unexpected death of the infante Fernando, heir to the throne of Castile, and the subsequent civil war between Alfonso and his elder surviving son, Sancho – forced the monarch to rewrite the past in order to find some light for understanding these reversals of fortune (Table 2).14 However, since the 1996), pp. 448–67; I. Fernández-Ordóñez, ‘Alfonso X el Sabio en la historia del español’, in Historia de la lengua española, ed. R. Cano (Barcelona, 2004), pp. 381–422. Cf. S. Lusignan, La langue des rois au Moyen Âge: le français en France et Anglaterre (Paris, 2004). 11 On the manuscript tradition of the General Estoria, see I. Fernández-Ordóñez, ‘General Estoria’, in Diccionario Filológico de la Literatura Medieval Española (Madrid, 2002), pp. 42–54. 12 Although further information will be offered about these manuscripts, a brief description can be found at Philobiblon database: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ philobiblon/. However, these manuscripts may not constitute part of a common set, as can be deduced by differences in scribal procedures and particulars of the illumination. 13 D. Catalán, De la silva textual al taller historiográfico alfonsí: Códices, crónicas, versiones y cuadernos de trabajo (Madrid, 1997), p. 14. For an overview on the Estoria de Espanna’s manuscript tradition, see I. Fernández-Ordóñez, ‘La transmission textual de la Estoria de Espanna y de las principales crónicas de ella derivadas’, in Alfonso X el Sabio y las Crónicas de España, ed. by I. Fernández-Ordóñez (Valladolid, 2000), pp. 219–60. 14 Together with Menéndez Pidal’s edition (as in n. 5), see I. Fernández-Ordóñez, Versión crítica de la ‘Estoria de Espanna’: estudio y edición desde Pelayo hasta Ordoño II (Madrid, 1993). See also Catalán, De la silva textual; La ‘Estoria de España’, pp. 121–37; F. Gómez Redondo, Historia de la prosa medieval castellana (Madrid, 1998–2007), I, pp. 645–86; and M. de la Campa, ‘Las versiones alfonsíes de la Estoria de España’, in Alfonso X el Sabio y las Crónicas de España, ed. I. Fernández-Ordóñez (Valladolid, 2000), pp. 83–106. On the dynastic conflict, see (in English) R. A. MacDonald, ‘Alfonso the Learned and Succession: A Father’s Dilemma’, Speculum 40.4 (1965), 647–53; J. R. Craddock, ‘Dynasty in Dispute: Alfonso X el Sabio and the Succession to the Throne of Castile and Leon in History and Legend’, Viator 17 (1986), 197–219; F. J. O’Callaghan, The Learned King: The Reign of Alfonso X of Castile (Philadelphia,

227

9781903153734.indd 227

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto Table 2: The manuscript transmission of the Estoria de Espanna (after I. Fernández-Ordóñez, Transmisión y metamorfosis: Hacia una tipología de mecanismos evolutivos en los textos medievales (Salamanca, 2012), p. 24, with slight modifications)

Estoria de Espanna Draft. First redaction (c. 1270–1274)

Versión primitiva MS Escorial, Y.I.2 (c. 1272–74)

Draft. Second redaction (after 1274)

Versión primitiva

Versión crítica (c. 1283)

Versión amplificada o de Sancho IV MS Escorial X.I.4 (c. 1288–1290 with later additions)

work had not reached its conclusion when Alfonso died in 1284 and the last ‘critical’ version was not acceptable for the new king Sancho IV either, it was extensively revised and completed under guiding principles that differed from those of the original Alfonsine presentation copy (Escorial, Y.I.2; c. 1272–1274). This is the case for both the text and the illustrations, as can be ascertained by examining the second royal volume of the Estoria (Escorial, X.I.4; c. 1288–1340).15 Despite the interest of a comparison between both royal manuscripts, I

1993), pp. 252–69; and B. Weiler, ‘Kings and sons: princely rebellions and the structures of revolt in western Europe, c. 1170-c.1280’, Historical Research 82.215 (2009), 17–40 (pp. 29–40). 15 A minute description of both royal volumes of the Estoria de Espanna is provided by D. Catalán, De Alfonso X al Conde de Barcelos: Cuatro estudios sobre el nacimiento de la historiografía romance en Castilla y Portugal (Madrid, 1962), pp. 19–93. See also F. Bautista, ‘Hacia una nueva “versión” de la Estoria de España: texto y forma de la Versión de Sancho IV’, Incipit 23 (2003), 1–59; F. Bautista, La ‘Estoria de España’ en época de Sancho IV: sobre los reyes de Asturias (London, 2006). Concerning the pictorial cycle of this manuscript, see F. Gutiérrez Baños, Las empresas artísticas de Sancho IV el Bravo (Valladolid, 1997), pp. 214–22; and R. M. Rodríguez Porto, ‘“Otros reyes de la su casa onde él venía”: Metáforas, diagramas y figuras en la historiografía castellana (1282–1332)’, Revista de Poética Medieval 27 (2013), 197–232 (pp. 209–225).

228

9781903153734.indd 228

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle will limit my inquiry to the original Alfonsine codex of the Estoria de Espanna, whose production can confidently be placed before May 1274, according to Diego Catalán.16 But this historiographical endeavour must have been underway by 1270 or even before, considering the vast range of sources gathered and reconciled in the chronicle. Due perhaps to the trouble of coordinating several compilers assigned to specific sections of the work, the copying process seems to have been carried out independently by different scribes in the first gatherings of the manuscript until a more standardized layout was fixed from fol. 61r onwards.17 The mise en page – two columns of 50–51 lines each and an average writing frame of 287 × 210 mm – is more or less retained throughout the whole manuscript, though, and does not differ in general terms from what one finds in the copies of the General Estoria made for the king.18 These similarities should not come as a surprise, since the Estoria de Espanna and the General Estoria were written as part of an all-inclusive historiographical design – albeit if by two separate teams – making use of multiple common sources and with frequent cross-references between both works.19 Nonetheless, Inés Fernández-Ordóñez has cogently argued that compilers approached the task of writing Iberian history in a completely different way because they did not seek to subject their narrative to the strict chronological grid provided by Eusebius and Jerome’s Canons, which had set the pattern for the universal chronicle.20 In the Estoria de Espanna, their account could be adapted instead to the needs imposed by the sequence of events retold in order to emplot diverse estorias unadas [‘unified (or coherent) narratives’].21 But the main difference between the two chronicles concerns images, since only the Estoria de Espanna was to be accompanied by a lavish pictorial cycle, as can be inferred by comparing Escorial, Y.I.2 to MS BAV Urb. Lat. 539.22 This marked distinction becomes evident when examining the single preserved miniature illustrating the General Estoria (Fig. 1), somewhat unexpectedly located at the beginning of Part IV, that is, just after the prologue

16 That

was the date of the translation of the remains of King Wamba ordered by the Learned King, about which nothing is said in Escorial, Y.I.2. Catalán, De la silva textual, pp. 137–8. 17 Ibid., pp. 41–7. 18 The writing frame in BNE MS 816 is 335 × 205 mm, with 50–4 lines per page, in two columns, whereas the equivalent measures for the Vatican manuscript are 290 × 215 mm with 51 lines per page, closer to those of the Escorial, Y.I.2. 19 Fernández-Ordóñez, Las ‘estorias’, pp. 71–202. 20 Ibid, pp. 97–103. See also Rico, Alfonso el Sabio, pp. 45–63. 21 This happened very rarely in the General Estoria, as when retelling Hercules’ labours (Part II, chapters 393–435) or the Trojan War (Part II, chapters 437–616). 22 Although this feature was already pointed out by A. Domínguez Rodríguez, ‘Hércules en la miniatura de Alfonso X el Sabio’, Anales de Historia del Arte 1 (1989), 91–103 (pp. 93–4), she did not push her argument forward.

229

9781903153734.indd 229

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto and index of the volume held in the Vatican Library (fol. 2v). There, under the opening scene of the King commissioning his assistants to write the book, the prodigious infancy of King Nebuchadnezzar was depicted according to the narrative found in the Pantheon by Godfrey of Viterbo.23 Traces left by the underdrawing that delineate the figures of the owl and the goat – which are mentioned in the text as custodians of the princely child – are barely visible now on the lower left side of the image, a detail which gives the impression that this scene was not finished.24 No other images can be found either in this manuscript or in the other manuscript of the General Estoria known to have been made for Alfonso X, not even in later witnesses copied in the orbit of the court, although it is a thorny issue to determine whether the Vatican manuscript’s frontispiece was an isolated occurrence or the sole survivor of a set of royal copies, each of them with a similar arrangement.25 Be that as it may, these miniatures would have been intended as an iconographical prelude to each volume, rather than as part of a coherent visual narrative of the kind displayed in the Estoria de Espanna. The latter pictorial cycle would have integrated 116 miniatures, including those related to the history of the Asturian kings in the last two gatherings that would later be torn apart and rebound in the Sanchine volume.26 Of this extensive pictorial cycle only six pictures were finished, all them in the first quire of the manuscript (fols. 3–10) and related to the mythical prehistory of Iberia (Fig. 2).27 Blank spaces were left for the remaining illustrations. Previous scholarship has never accounted for, or even described, these missing illustrations, even if their nature and contents can be deduced by looking at the adjacent texts, since every miniature was to be inserted between the rubric and the subsequent passage so as to introduce the chapter it related to. Therefore, it is possible to assert that most of these missing images would have depicted narrative scenes such as the destruction of Carthage, the 23 Alfonso

X el Sabio, General Estoria, Part IV, ch. II (vol. I, pp. 13–4). Cf. Godofredo da Viterbo, Pantheon, Particula XIV, ch. 2. See Pantheon Sive Vniversitatis Libri, qui Chronici apellatur… Gottofridum Viterbiensem (Basilea, 1559), p. 215. 24 The absence of any titulus in the space left in between the scene depicting the king and the lower miniature also points to the incomplete condition of the illustration, overlooked by previous scholarship. In addition to the article by Domínguez Rodríguez (n. 22), see J. Pijoán, ‘Miniaturas españolas en manuscritos de la Biblioteca Vaticana’, Cuadernos de Trabajos de la Escuela Española de Arqueología e Historia en Roma 2 (1914), 1–20 (15–20); R. Cómez Ramos, ‘La visión de la Antigüedad en las miniaturas de la Primera Crónica General’, in Homenaje al Dr. Muro Orejón, 2 vols. (Seville, 1979), I, 3–12 [repr. in Imagen y símbolo en la Edad Media andaluza (Seville, 1990), pp. 71–82]. 25 There is a small blank space in the Vatican manuscript (fol. 355v) but it does not seem to be intended for an illustration. 26 Catalán, De Alfonso X, pp. 35–8. 27 Other remarkable features of this gathering are the inclusion of illuminated letters instead of pen-flourished initials and the absence of rubrics in its initial chapters.

230

9781903153734.indd 230

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 1: Alfonso X of Castile, General Estoria. Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Urb. Lat. 539, fol. 2v. Seville, 1280.

231

9781903153734.indd 231

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 2: Alfonso X of Castile, Estoria de Espanna. Escorial, MS Y.I.2, fol. 4r. Seville, c. 1270–1274.

232

9781903153734.indd 232

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle triumph of Pompeius or the battle of the Catalaunian Plains, although a distinct type of illustration seems to have been intended for the section that starts with the emperor Tiberius and ends with the Suevic King Rechiar.28 In these cases, the deictic character of the rubrics – e.g. Dell Imperio de vespasiano ell emperador et luego de lo que contecio en el primer anno (fol. 81v) or, less often, De Galba ell emperador (fol. 79r) – might be a clue as to what kind of illustrations were to mark the beginning of each reign. As in the illustrated imperial chronicle, possibly composed at the behest of the Emperor Henry V (Cambridge, Corpus Christi, MS 373), it is likely that these sovereigns would have appeared enthroned and with their regalia.29 With due caution, further remarks should be made about the pictorial cycle of Escorial, Y.I.2 and about how – had its numerous miniatures been finished – that cycle might have shaped a particular reading of the Iberian past. One thing that can be assumed for certain is that the visual narrative would have underscored the succession of different peoples that had conquered Iberia and enjoyed the sennorio [imperium] over its land and indigenous population. However, the succession of these same empires – Greek, Carthaginian, Roman and German, among others – may have also allowed the audience to weave a sort of universal history. As a matter of fact, by paying closer attention to the likely contents of the unfinished illustrations (Table 3), it becomes clear that a substantial number of these pictures would have visualized historical events for which the Peninsula was a secondary scenario at best, and that were also included in the General Estoria.30 Consequently, any superficial assumption about the respective aims of the Estoria de Espanna and the General Estoria should be discarded in face of 28 See,

for instance: ‘Cuemo cipion desbarato la flota de annibal’ [‘How Scipio destroyed Hannibal’s navy’] (fol. 16r), ‘De cuemo fue recibido Ponpeyo en Roma et de la grand enuidia que ouo ende Julio Cesar’ [‘About the reception offered to Pompeius in Rome and how Julius Caesar grew envious of him’] (fol. 36v), ‘De como fue alçado por rey Gisalaygo et de lo que fizo la reyna Amalasuent’ [‘How Gesalec was recognized as king and what Queen Amalasuntha did afterwards’] (fol. 153v). Only Emperor Julian’s effigy would have not been depicted at the beginning of his reign. 29 The manuscript was probably made around 1112–1114 in Würzburg. See J. Dale, ‘Imperial Self-Representation and the Manipulation of History in Twelfth-Century Germany: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 373’, German History, 29.4 (2011), 557–83. Contemporary knowledge of these imperial models in the Leonese realm is attested by the Tumbo A (Santiago de Compostela, ACS, CF 34), a cartulary whose first section was illustrated ca. 1129–1134 with royal effigies modelled after those Salian precedents. See R. Sánchez Ameijeiras, ‘Sobre las modalidades y funciones de las imágenes en el Tumbo A’, in Tumbo A. Índice de los privilegios reales que contiene este libro intitulado de la letra A. Original conservado en la Catedral de Santiago, ed. M. C. Díaz y Díaz (Santiago de Compostela, 2008), II, 143–216 (pp. 167–8). 30 Something already pointed out by Menéndez Pidal, ‘La Primera Crónica General de España’, in Primera Crónica General, pp. xxxv-xxxvii; and Rico, Alfonso el Sabio, pp. 36–44 (pp. 40–1).

233

9781903153734.indd 233

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto Table 3: Illustrations in the Estoria de Espanna (Escorial, Y.I.2) listed and grouped according to their presumed content.

I. Frontispiece (1v)* [1] II. Genesis. Noah’s Ark (fol. 3r)* [1] III. Mythical pre-history of Iberia, including Hercules’ conquests (fols. 4r–v, 5r and 7v)* [4] IV. Deeds of the ‘emperor’ Hannibal (fol. 10r) [1] V. Punic Wars and Roman conquest of Iberia (fols. 15ra, 15rb, 16r, 17r–v, 19r and 21r) [7] VI. The story of Queen Dido (fols. 25v, 27r, 29v) [3] VII. End of the Punic Wars. Destruction of Carthage (fol. 32r) [1] VIII. War between Julius Cesar and Pompey retold after the Pharsalia (fols. 36v, 37r, 38r–v, 39r–v, 40r–v, 50r–v, 52v) [11] IX. Consuls and institutions of Rome. List of the consuls and princes of Rome (fols. 54v and 55v) [2] X. Triumph of Julius Cesar (fol. 57v) [1] XI. Augustus (fols. 61r, 64v, 67r, 68r–v) [5] XII. Roman Emperors (fols. 68v, 71v, 73r, 75r, 79r–v, 80r, 81v, 84v, 85r, 86v, 86bis r, 88r, 90v, 92r, 94r–v, 95r, 96r–v, 97r–v, 98r–v, 99r, 100v, 101r–v, 103r–v, 104r–v, 105v, 106r, 109r–v, 119v, 122r–v, 123v) [40] XIII. Vandal and Suevic Kings (fols. 129r–v, 130v) [3] XIV. The Goths (fols. 145r, 146v, 147v, 149v, 153v, 155v, 156r, 158v, 159r–v, 160v, 161r, 163r, 165ra, 165rb, 165v, 166v, 169r, 170v, 171r, 172ra, 172rb, 173v, 175v, 185r–v, 187r) [27] XV. King Roderick and the palace of Toledo (fol. 190r) [1] Note: The 8 miniatures devoted to the kings of Asturias (fols. 2r, 6r–v, 10v, 14ra, 14rb, 14v, 15r) were rebound in Escorial, X.I.4 (fols. 2r–17v). Only the sections marked with an asterisk were finished.

the ‘universalistic’ and imperial turn of the former’s pictorial cycle. It seems that, regardless of their specific targets, both the local and the universal chronicles would have supported on the one hand a Castilian expansionist agenda against the other Iberian kingdoms, and on the other the defence of Alfonso’s candidacy to succeed Frederick II as Holy Roman Emperor.31 31 A

nuanced vision of the interrelation between the fecho del imperio and the historiographical works of the Learned King can be found in Linehan, History and the Historians, pp. 413–65; G. Martin, ‘Alphonse X et le pouvoir historiographique’, in L’histoire et les noveaux publics dans l’Europe médiévale, ed. J.-P. Genet (Paris, 1997), pp. 229–40; Gómez Redondo, Historia de la prosa, I, 643–793; and B. Schlieben, Verspielte Macht: Politik und Wissen am Hof Alfons’ X, 1252–1284 (Berlin, 2009), pp. 116–273.

234

9781903153734.indd 234

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle This second aspiration may have been fulfilled by the Estoria de Espanna too, as Arnald Steiger and Charles F. Fraker claimed decades ago when they called attention to the extraordinary development of the section devoted to Roman history, and to the frequent and detailed references to Holy Roman Emperors and Byzantine sovereigns throughout.32 Nothing of the sort has been pointed out about the miniatures, although it is in the detailed visual narrative about the wars between Caesar and Pompey together with the long list of Roman emperors where this imperial claim is more emphatic.33 Yet the most intriguing question that can be posed about the extraordinary royal manuscript of the Estoria de Espanna concerns how Alfonso X unexpectedly made global history visible only through the lens of local history.

Displacements: The Estoria de Espanna and its illustrations Some other features in the pictorial cycle of Escorial, Y.I.2 further convey the idea that the ‘domestic’ chronicle was more important for the Learned King than his magnum opus. This shift in priorities can be ascertained by paying close attention to the image inserted as the frontispiece of the Estoria de Espanna (Fig. 3). There, the Learned King is presenting his heir Fernando de la Cerda with the book of the chronicle, a scene that departs from the operation of dictation – or correction – depicted in the General Estoria, where the writing of history is still in process.34 This gesture can be considered as a form of translatio imperii et studii, where the book is turned into a lieu de mémoire, a receptacle for the past, the present and even the future of the land.35 But its handing over to the young prince may have had a deeper meaning for Alfonso, since this gesture would have brought to an end the succession of

32 Fraker,

The Scope of History, pp. 155–73. See also A. Steiger, ‘Alfonso X el Sabio y la idea imperial’, Arbor 18 (1946), 389–402; L. Funes, ‘La crónica como hecho ideológico: el caso de la Estoria de España de Alfonso X’, La Corónica 32.3 (2004), 68–89 (pp. 73–81). 33 Cf. Cómez Ramos, Imagen y símbolo, pp. 71–2 and 79. 34 On the representation of the Learned King commissioning his manuscripts or dictating to his scribes, see A. Domínguez Rodríguez, ‘Imágenes de presentación en la miniature alfonsí’, Goya 131 (1976), 287–91; and, above all, L. Fernández Fernández, ‘Transmisión del Saber – Transmisión del Poder: La imagen de Alfonso X en la Estoria de España, Ms. Y-I-2, RBME’, Anales de Historia del Arte, volumen extraordinario (2010), 187–210. 35 R. M. Rodríguez Porto, ‘Inscribed / Effaced: The Estoria de Espanna after 1275’, Hispanic Research Journal 13.5 (2012), 387–406 (p. 395). See also A. J. Cárdenas, ‘Alfonso X’s Scriptorium and Chancery: The Role of the Prologue in Bonding the Translatio Studii to the Translatio Potestatis’, in Emperor of Culture: Alfonso X of Castile and his Thirteenth-Century Renaissance, ed. R. I. Burns (Philadelpia, PA, 1990), pp. 90–108.

235

9781903153734.indd 235

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 3: Alfonso X of Castile, Estoria de Espanna. Escorial, MS Y.I.2, fol. 1v. Seville, c. 1274.

236

9781903153734.indd 236

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle all previous empires in their course towards the West.36 Under the figure of Alfonso X and his lineage, power and cultural eminence would have reached the Pillars of Hercules – the very end of the known world – never to go elsewhere. As a more attentive investigation of the MS Escorial Y.I.2 reveals, that feature imposes a teleological scheme on the Estoria de Espanna in accordance with what was described before concerning the use of the sennorio as a structuring principle for the whole work. After praising in the prologue the wise men who in ancient times were able to trace the movements of heavenly bodies and their influence on human life – and, in doing so, to link macro- and microcosmic dimensions – the king proceeds in the second chapter to describe Europe following the trail of Shem, Ham and Japheth (the latter was responsible for populating the continent).37 This narrative about Noah’s progeny also sets the tone for the chapter about the origins of the Iberians, who are presented as sons of Tubal, Japheth’s son, the first man to travel to the edges of the known world.38 Their journey in the Iberian Peninsula, starting from the Pyrenees and advancing through the mainland towards the South, is a story of colonizing and naming the new territories.39 Therefore, Tubal, as the first king of the Peninsula, can be considered to be the source of legitimacy for all the subsequent holders of imperium up to Alfonso himself and his descendants. However, the biblical figure is soon superseded in the narrative – and in the images of the Estoria de Espanna – by Hercules, the Greek hero who appears in the royal chronicle as the greatest civilizing figure in ancient Iberia, a model for future kings and emperors.40 His deeds and the monuments he built (Figs. 2–3) are the focus of the visual narrative developed in the first gathering, whose epilogue follows the last Greek rulers of the Peninsula – the legendary Rocas and Tarcus, and their descendants.

36 This

frontispiece must have been completed just before Alfonso left for Beaucaire to meet the pope and claim the imperial title. On his journey to the Empire and subsequent failure, see O’Callaghan, The Learned King, pp. 231–3; Linehan, History and the Historians, pp. 514–5. 37 The historical narrative properly speaking is preceded by a miniature of the Ark where Noah and his sons and daughters in law are visible (fol. 3r). 38 Ch. 3. PCG 5a –7a . 51 17 39 See H. de Carlos Villamarín, Las Antigüedades de Hispania (Spoleto, 1996), pp. 46–60 (the role of eponymous founders and mythical kings in Iberian historiography), 148–52 (the origins of Spaniards according to Isidore of Seville) and 241–300 (the mythical prehistory of Iberia in the pre-Alfonsine historiography). See also, C. González, ‘Salvajismo y barbarie en la Estoria de España’, Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica 40 (1992), 63–71. 40 Ch. 4–8. PCG 7a –11a . See Fernández-Ordóñez, Las ‘estorias’, pp. 76–82; A. A. 22 7 Nascimento, ‘O mito de Hércules: Etimologia e recuperação do tempo antigo na historiografía hispánica medieval’, Humanitas 47 (1994), 671–84; A. J. Cárdenas, ‘The Myth of Hercules in the Works of Alfonso X: Narration in the Estoria de España and the General Estoria’, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 74 (1997), 5–20.

237

9781903153734.indd 237

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto But the pictorial cycle for this first quire would not have ended there. A large blank space in the manuscript (fol. 10r) was intended for the depiction of one of the fifteen battles fought by Hannibal against Spaniards and Romans. The Carthaginian general’s victorious campaign was to be the only illustrated episode in the section related to the sennorio de los de Africa, that is, the Phoenicians.41 From that point onwards, all the remaining miniatures would have been devoted to Roman and Visigothic history and, after that, to the first kings of Asturias. These images, therefore, would have made explicit the existence of a chain of uninterrupted power from which Arabs would have been excluded, since they were regarded as mere usurpers of the land from the rightful Christian lords. Much in the same way, the account of the fall of the Visigoth kingdom was originally followed in the text by the description of the first kings of Asturias and the beginning of the ‘Reconquest’, erasing any trace of structural fracture between these two sections.42 Besides, there was a further stream of authority – the linna – that linked past and present in the Estoria de Espanna, and partially overlapped with that of the imperium. The linna was a sort of blood tie that bound the Learned King together with Nimrod, Jupiter, the Trojan and Greek Kings, Aeneas, Romulus, and all the emperors until Frederick II – as Alfonso himself had explicitly stated in his universal chronicle: E del linage d’este Júpiter vino otrossí el grand Alexandre, ca este rey Júpiter fallamos que fue el rey d’este mundo fasta’l día d’oy que más fijos e más fijas ovo, e condes de muy grand guisa todos los más, e reínas, como vos contaremos en las estorias de las sus razones. E d’él vinieron todos los reyes de Troya e los de Grecia, e Eneas, e Rómulo, e los césares e los emperadores, e el primero don Frederico, que fue primero emperador de los romanos, e don Frederic su nieto el segundo. D’este don Frederic, que fue éste otrossí emperador de Roma que alcançó fasta’l nuestro tiempo, e los vienen del linage dond ellos e los sós. E todos los altos reyes del mundo d’él vienen.43 And from Jupiter’s lineage also came Alexander the Great, for this King Jupiter whom we are talking about was the king who from the beginning 41 Ch.

22. PCG 17b30–18a51. The section devoted to the almuiuces, the mysterious ‘worshippers of fire’ (ch. 14–5) was also left unillustrated. 42 See Fernández-Ordóñez, Las ‘estorias’, p. 20; Gómez Redondo, Historia de la prosa, I, pp. 657–665; and above all A. Deyermond, ‘The Death and Rebirth of Visigothic Spain in the Estoria de España’, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 9.3 (1985), 345–67. This scheme would have been undone by the rebinding, c. 1344, of the quires related to the Kings of Asturias into the second royal volume (Escorial, X.I.4), with the ‘loss of Spain’ acting as the turning point in Iberian history. 43 Alfonso X el Sabio, General Estoria, I/1, 392. See Rico, Alfonso el Sabio, pp. 97–120; and, more recently, I. Salvo García, ‘Autor frente a auctoritas: la recreación de Júpiter por Alfonso X en la General Estoria, Primera parte’, Cahiers d’Études Hispaniques Médiévales 33 (2010), 63–77.

238

9781903153734.indd 238

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle of time had more children – both sons and daughters – and almost all of them were earls of the superior nobility and queens, as we will tell you about. And from him came all the kings of Troy, and Greece, and Aeneas, and Romulus, as well as all Caesars and emperors, together with Frederick I, who was the first emperor of the Romans, and his grandson Frederick II. From the latter, who was the last emperor of Rome in our own times come from their lineage and that of their offspring. And all the greatest kings of the world descend from Jupiter.

Other characters, though, lingered at the intersections of this double lineage, such as the unfortunate Queen Dido, whose life is recounted in both the General Estoria and the Estoria de Espanna. Whereas in the former text her story finds its place in relation to Aeneas, in the latter she appears in her double role as ancestor of the Phoenician conquerors of Iberia and founder of Carthage.44 As such, these chapters are inserted just before the destruction of the Phoenician capital by Scipio, a crucial event in human history that marked the decline of Carthage and the ascent of Rome (as the beginning of the section on the African dominion of Iberia made clear).45 The instrumental character of this flashback would have been highlighted in visual terms by the inclusion of three miniatures. Two of them must have figured the death of the queen according to the divergent versions of the story, which stemmed from the works of Virgil and Timaeus of Tauromenium respectively.46 Even more strikingly, the image in fol. 27r would have depicted the queen writing the heartbreaking letter imagined by Ovid, in what would have constituted the earliest illustration of the Heroides in the West.47 The Learned King’s obsession for completeness would have anticipated, then, a trend to be followed only by the second redaction of the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, where some of

44 O.

T. Impey, ‘Un dechado de la prosa literaria alfonsí: el relato cronístico de los amores de Dido’, Romance Philology 34.1 (1980), 1–27; Fernández-Ordóñez, Las ‘estorias’, pp. 82–88. 45 Relying on Orosius, the estoria states that ‘fueron quatro los emperios que sennorearon el mundo: el primero de Babilionia a parte dOrient en el tiempo del rey Nino; el segundo a parte de Mediodia en Affrica, en Carthago la grand, en tiempo de la reyna Dido; el tercero en Macedonia a parte de Septentrion en el tiempo dAlexandre; el quarto en Roma a parte dOccident en tiempo de Julio Cezar’. [‘There were four empires that ruled the world: the first one that of Babylon on the East at the time of King Ninus; the second one in the South, that of the great Carthage in Africa at the time of Queen Dido; the third one in Macedonia in the North at the time of Alexander; the fourth one in Rome, in the West, at the time of Julius Caesar’]. PCG 15b9–17. 46 See H. de Carlos Villamarín, ‘Interpreting the Past: Some Medieval Texts on Trojan Matter’, The Journal of Medieval Latin 18 (2008), 39–58. 47 See I. Salvo García, ‘Las Heroidas’. On the illustration of the Heroides at the Alfonsine court, see also R. M. Rodríguez Porto, ‘El Libro de las Dueñas y la Historia Troyana Bilingüe (Santander, BMP, ms. 558). Palabras e imágenes para María Rosa Lida de Malkiel (1910–1962)’, Troianalexandrina 12 (2012), 9–62.

239

9781903153734.indd 239

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto the Ovidian letters were also interspersed in the narrative of the Trojan War and its aftermath.48 However, the most evident proof of the extent to which those political and genealogical lineages were intertwined would have been the four miniatures devoted to Julius Caesar and Augustus, much larger than the rest (fols. 40v, 50r–v and 61r). Their respective rubrics allow us confidently to identify the issues to be depicted in these blank spaces as the election of Caesar and Pompey as consuls, the first battle of the civil war (Fig. 6) and that of Pharsalia, in addition to the accession of Augustus.49 To a certain extent, the comprehensive visual narrative of the great Roman civil war in the estoria – eleven miniatures – may have been prompted by the interpolation of an abridged translation of Lucan’s Pharsalia (ch. 91–100, 102 and 104), although the remarkable emphasis on Julius Caesar and Augustus seems to have been due to the undisguised ambition of the Castilian monarch to be equated with them as the holder of, and ultimate heir to, the imperium.50 There were passages in the Alfonsine historiographical works, though, intended to favour this sort of mirror-like effect in relation to the Learned King. As with the portrayal of Jupiter in the General Estoria, the description of Hercules – the god/king’s son – as ‘tan buen maestro en el arte de las estrellas que dixieron los sabios que sostenie el cielo sobre los ombros’, might have evoked in the audience the memory of Alfonso X himself, whose renown as an astrologer had already spread throughout Europe.51 But ancient history had a crucial function at the core of Alfonsine cultural enterprises that went beyond the king’s claims to the Holy Roman Empire or his wish to be regarded on an 48 Cf.

L. Barbieri, Le ‘epistole delle dame di Grecia’ nel ‘Roman de Troie’ in prosa. La prima traduzione francese delle ‘Eroidi’ di Ovidio (Tübingen, 2005). 49 These illustrations would have been almost of the same size as the frontispiece. 50 The visual narrative about the Roman civil war would have started well before the interpolation, with the triumph of Pompey (fol. 36v). A comprehensive translation of the Pharsalia had been produced before and was to be inserted at the Part V of the General Estoria. See A. G. Solalinde, ‘Una fuente de la Primera Crónica General: Lucano’, Hispanic Review 9 (1941), 235–42; V. J. Herrero Llorente, ‘Influencia de Lucano en la obra de Alfonso el Sabio. Una traducción anónima e inédita’, Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos 67 (1959), 697–715; V. Almazán, Lucan in der ‘Primera Crónica General’ und der ‘General Estoria’ Alfons der Wiesen (Cologne, 1963); Fraker, The Scope of History, pp. 133–54; Fernández-Ordóñez, Las ‘estorias’, pp. 75 and 89–92; and B. Almeida, ‘Un nuevo testimonio manuscrito de la sección gentil de la Quinta Parte de la General Estoria’, Revista de Literatura Medieval 15.2 (2003), 9–41. 51 PCG 8a : ‘such a learned master in the art of astrology that (ancient) wise men 41–43 said that he bore the world on his shoulders’. Cárdenas, ‘The Myth of Hercules’, pp. 10–2. On the role of astrology in Alfonsine cultural enterprises, see A. García Avilés, ‘La cultura visual de la magia en la época de Alfonso X’, Alcanate 5 (2006–2007), 49–88; A. García Avilés, ‘The Philosopher and the Magician: On some medieval Allegories of Magic’, in L’Allegorie dans l’art du Moyen Âge. Formes et Fonctions. Héritages, creations, mutations, ed. Ch. Heck (Turnhout, 2011), pp. 241–52; and L. Fernández, Arte y ciencia en el scriptorium de Alfonso X el Sabio (Sevilla, 2013).

240

9781903153734.indd 240

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 4: Alfonso X of Castile, Estoria de Espanna. Escorial, Y.I.2, fol. 50r. Seville, c. 1270–1274.

241

9781903153734.indd 241

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto equal footing with the learned figures of the past. Not only were his ideas on kingship at stake, but also his very conception of knowledge as the ultimate source of legitimacy. The well-known Latin adage, ‘historia magistra vitae est’ certainly informs all historical writing in the Middle Ages, but for the Learned King it also entailed a very demanding epistemological excavation, by means of which it would have been possible to test the ‘exemplarity’ of the past and assess the value of ancient knowledge and mores.52 Therefore, both texts and images from Antiquity had to be subjected to close scrutiny in order to uncover the different layers of meaning superimposed on objects and words as time went by. For instance, it was necessary to trace back the names of the places that had changed in the re-mapping and redefinition of borders associated with successive processes of conquest and colonization, as in fol. 184r. There, the cities mentioned in the old Visigothic councils had to be newly identified with their present names – many of which derived from Arabic – and all the transformations of the diocesan map and structure had to be made explicit.53 This is but a minor testimony to the Alfonsine obsession with the proper use of language. As Jesús Rodríguez-Velasco pointed out, ‘uncertainty, that is to say, the ambiguity in the interpretation of the relation between words and things, appears to be one of the great targets of Alfonsine juridical science’.54 The same can be said about his historiographical production, where the exhaustive elucidation of every past event and institution – as well as the smoothing of contradictory meanings – seems to have been the guiding principle for the compilers.55 Awareness of the profound association between landscape and memory turned the physical remains of the past – either imposing monuments, ruins or artefacts of any kind – into interfaces between past and present. Their representation in the pages of the royal chronicle as the product of an alien civilization forced readers to confront these objects and to accept the challenge of decoding a message sent by someone far away from them in time, space and culture.

52 As

an introduction to this broad topic, see K. Stierle, ‘L’Histoire comme exemple, l’exemple comme histoire’, Poétique 10 (1972), 176–98; and G. M. Spiegel, ‘History, Historicism and the Social Logic of the Text in the Middle Ages’, Speculum 65.1 (1990), 59–86. On the Alfonsine chronicles as magistrae principum, see FernándezOrdóñez, Las ‘estorias’, pp. 40–5. 53 The accompanying rubric reads: De las cibdades que an los nombres camiados ¶ Estas son las cibdades et los castiellos a que son los nombres camiados en ell otro tiempo [‘About these cities whose names have changed. ¶ These are the cities and castles whose names have changed in the course of time’]. Ch. 537. PCG 299a26–47b1–6. 54 J. Rodríguez-Velasco, ‘Theorizing the Language of Law’, diacritics 36.3–4 (2006), 64–86 (p. 64). 55 In addition to the works referenced in n. 8, see I. Salvo García, ‘El mito y la escritura de la historia en el taller de Alfonso X’, e-Spania, 19 (2014) [http://e-spania.revues. org/23948 (last accessed 16 December 2014)].

242

9781903153734.indd 242

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle The extraordinary ‘heraldic’ depiction of Hercules (Fig. 2), a sophisticated example of the rinascita dell’antico before the canonical Renaissance, is a case in point of this attitude towards ancient culture.56 Instead of including an anachronistic image able to bridge the gap between past and present, as was customary in medieval illustrated chronicles and romans antiques, the miniaturists working for the king decided to construct a figure who was both purposefully pagan and archeologically ‘accurate’ – and for whom no parallel in the Iberian realm can be singled out.57 Even if Ramón Corzo suggested that the symmetrical arrangement of the figure could have been inspired by examples of late Roman terra sigillata depicting Daniel in the lions’s den, I feel that there was also a conscious evocation of imperial prototypes, above all from the time of Emperor Trajan, such as the thoracatae statue found in Sancti Petri (Museo Arqueológico de Cádiz) or the bust figures preserved in the area of the old province of the Betica coming from places such as Acci, Baelo Claudia, or Italica.58 It should be noted that Trajan was born in the latter of those cities, not far from Seville where this manuscript was probably copied.59 Part of the remains of both Itálica (present day Santiponce) and Hispalis (Roman Seville) must have been visible, as attested by the continuous reusing of classical materials that can be detected throughout the centuries in the area.60 This long-term familiarity with Roman works may well explain the 56 On this iconographic theme coined by the Estoria de Espanna and its fortune until the

present day, see R. Corzo Sánchez, ‘Hércules heráldico’, Laboratorio de arte 18 (2005), 25–42. 57 As pointed out by Domínguez Rodríguez, ‘Hércules’, p. 97. Cf. A. D. Hedeman, ‘Presenting the Past: Visual Translation in Thirteenth- to Fifteenth-Century France’, in Imagining the Past in France. History in Manuscript Painting, 1250–1350, ed. E. Morrison and A. D. Hedeman (Los Angeles, 2010, pp. 69–85. On the uses of anachronism in medieval historiographical works and romans antiques, see R. J. Cormier, ‘The Problem of Anachronism: Recent Scholarship on the French Medieval Romances of Antiquity’, Philological Quarterly 53.2 (1974), 145–57; G. M. Spiegel, Romancing the Past: The Rise of Vernacular Prose Historiography in Thirteenth-Century France (Berkeley, 1993), pp. 99–151; and R. M. Rodríguez Porto, ‘El territorio del códice: Presencias, resistencias e incertidumbres’, Revista de Poética Medieval 20 (2008), 127–62 (pp. 139–46). 58 Corzo Sánchez, ‘Hércules’, pp. 29–32. For what regards to the portraits of Trajan found in the Iberian realm, see J. Beltrán Fortes, ‘Algunas notas sobre los retratos de Trajano en la Bética’, Habis 29 (1998), 159–72; D. Ojeda, ‘Las representaciones estatuarias y los retratos de Trajano en Hispania: una revisión’, Archivo Español de Arqueología 83 (2010), 267–80. No doubt, there would have been Roman remains still visible at that time other than the ones known to us. 59 On the positive image of the emperor in the Alfonsine chronicle, see A. Biglieri, ‘Trajano en la Estoria de Espanna de Alfonso X’, Auster 10–11 (2006), 119–41 and 12 (2007), 81–101. 60 For instance, see C. Márquez, ‘Los restos romanos de la calle mármoles en Sevilla’, Rómula 2 (2003), 127–48; and S. Calvo Capilla, ‘The Reuse of Classical Antiquity in the Palace of Madinat al-Zahra’ and its Role in the Construction of Caliphal Legitimacy’, Muqarnas 31 (2014), 1–33.

243

9781903153734.indd 243

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto minute representation of the lorica squamata worn by Hercules and even the peculiar appearance of this image, that might have been devised so as to evoke the idea of a painted marble sculpture or, if I push my argument a bit further, a statue come to life. The ancient past was certainly not a dead and remote entity for late thirteenth century Castilian courtiers. The impressive ruins of Roman cities such as the aforementioned Italica or those of Gades (Cádiz), recently conquered by Alfonso X himself, were a conspicuous element of the surroundings where both artists and audience spend much of their time.61 The Learned King and his entourage inhabited a mythical landscape whose many elements – ruins, paths, and settlements – testified to the enduring presence of the past, and functioned as clues for unearthing Iberian history. Sometimes it was even possible to feel the actual proximity of past figures, as in the extant remains of the sanctuary of Hercules Gaditanus in Sancti Petri, one of the most famous pilgrimage sites in Antiquity.62 According to the Estoria de Espanna, the remains of the Greek hero had been brought back to Cádiz by the Phoenician colonizers, since they ‘worshiped Hercules as if he were a saint’.63

The King Who Bore a World on His Shoulders As in the Iberian landscape, the illustrations of the Estoria de Espanna would have revealed the existence of different ‘strata’ of meanings to be unfolded by viewers, further nuancing the reading process in a way that surpassed the mere indexical or allusive role of pictorial cycles in most contemporary historiographical works. Nevertheless, it was not only their epistemological subtlety but their general conception and arrangement as a whole that turned these miniatures into an unicum in late thirteenth century book production. As mentioned already, one of the most impressive features of the manuscript would have been the uncommon attention paid to ancient history, not only in the text but also in the illustrations. I cannot but emphasize that its 74 miniatures on Greek and Roman history would have woven one of the longest pictorial cycles on Classical history ever produced since Antiquity, without 61 See

R. Corzo Sánchez, ‘Sobre la topografía de Cádiz en la Edad Media’, Estudios de Historia y Arqueología Medievales 2 (1982), 147–54; M. González Jiménez, ‘Cádiz frente al mar: De los proyectos alfonsíes al privilegio de 1493’, Estudios de Historia y Arqueología Medievales 10 (1994), 83–99. 62 See A. García Bellido, ‘Hercvles Gaditanus’, Archivo Español de Arqueología 36 (1963), 70–154; J. Gómez Espelosín, ‘Iberia in the Greek Geographical Imagination’, in Colonial Encounters in Ancient Iberia: Phoenician Encounters in Ancient Iberia, ed. M. Dietler and C. López-Ruiz (Chicago, 2009), pp. 281–97; and A. Fear, ‘A Journey to the End of the World’, in Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman & Early Christian Antiquity: Seeing the Gods, ed. J. Elsner and I. Rutherford (Oxford, 2005), pp. 319–31. 63 PCG 15b . 21–30

244

9781903153734.indd 244

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle any precedent in Latin or vernacular works such as the Speculum historiale, the Historia de preliis, or even the lavishly illustrated copies of the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César and the Faits des Romains.64 Yet, regardless of their differences in scope, there are other similarities between the Histoire ancienne and the royal estorias that deserve to be mentioned here, since they could shed some light on the creative process of MS Escorial, Y.I.2. In fact, this Flemish universal compilation (c. 1210) dedicated to Roger IV, châtelain of Lille, seems to have been used by the Alfonsine historians a sort of structural frame for crafting the Theban and Trojan sections of the General Estoria.65 Besides, it may well be that the Histoire ancienne, as the earliest universal chronicle written in the vernacular, provided Alfonso X with a suitable point of departure for his own historiographical venture, as Paloma Gracia suggests.66 However, it is through looking at the Estoria de Espanna that the parallelism with the Histoire ancienne becomes most evident. If completed, the appearance of the royal codex – with the text written in two columns, framed miniatures and pen-flourished initials of diverse size structuring the text – would not have differed much from that of some copies of the Histoire ancienne illustrated in the Holy Land such as MSS Dijon, BM 562 (c. 1260–1270), Paris, BnF Fr. 20125 (c. 1270–1280) or London, BL, Add. 15268 (c. 1285).67 Only in these lavish manuscripts made for a secular audience was pagan

64 For

an overview, see E. Morrison, ‘From Sacred to Secular: The Origins of History Illumination in France’, in Imagining the Past in France. History in Manuscript Painting, 1250–1350, ed. E. Morrison and A. D. Hedeman (Los Angeles, 2010), pp.  9–25. Concerning MSS BnF Lat. 5003 and 8501 – two extraordinary illustrated copies of Godfrey of Viterbo’s Pantheon and the Historia de Preliis made in Southern Italy at the end of the thirteenth century – see D. J. A. Ross, ‘Nectanebus in His Palace: A Problem of Alexander Iconography’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 15.1–2 (1952), 67–87. On the Histoire ancienne and its illustration, see D. Oltrogge, Die Illustrationszyklen zur ‘Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César’, 1250–1400 (Frankfurt, 1989). 65 See note 7. 66 Gracia, ‘Hacia el modelo’. On the Histoire ancienne, one of the earliest universal chronicles in the vernacular tentatively attributed to Wauchier Denain, see P. Meyer, ‘Les premières compilations françaises d’histoire ancienne’, Romania 14 (1885), 1–81; Spiegel, Romancing the Past, pp. 99–152; C. Croizy-Naquet, Écrire l’histoire romaine au début du XIIIe siècle: l’‘Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César’ et les ‘Faits des Romains’ (Paris, 1999); and M. L. Palermi, ‘Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César: forme e percorsi del testo’, Critica del testo 7.1 (2004), 213–56. 67 Dimensions of copies in Dijon and London are, respectively, 370 × 240 and 370 × 247 mm, that is, closer to the 420 × 315 mm of Escorial, Y.I.2 than other contemporary historiographical manuscripts. In addition to Oltrogge’s work (as in n. 64), see H. Buchthal, Miniature Painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, with Liturgical and Paleographical Chapters by Francis Wormald (Oxford, 1957), pp. 68–87; J. Folda, Crusader Art in the Holy Land, from the Third Crusade to the Fall of Acre, 1187–1291 (Cambridge, 2005), pp. 408–12 and 419–24; and L. Mahoney, ‘The Histoire ancienne and Dialectical Identity in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem’, Gesta 49.1 (2010), 31–51.

245

9781903153734.indd 245

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto history equated to biblical narrative in regard to the volume and distribution of pictures throughout, a distinctive feature that might have brought the Estoria de Espanna closer to the Histoire ancienne model. But the Alfonsine achievements would have seemed even more unique and against the grain when compared to the other ‘national’ chronicle in the vernacular illustrated around 1270, the Grandes Chroniques de France. In the royal presentation copy of the work, made in 1274 for King Philippe III, references to ancient history were limited to just one of the first miniatures (fol. 2v), where the abduction of Helen was included as a visual allusion to the origins of the Capetians, considered to be descendants from Priam.68 Differences would have also been noticeable in format and general design, since the French volume was smaller than the Castilian chronicle and its more limited pictorial cycle – 38 illustrations – was arranged with historiated initials and miniatures one-column wide.69 Much in the same way, comparison to the other major historiographical work of the second half of the thirteenth century, such as the illustrated works of Matthew Paris, aligns again the Estoria de Espanna with the pictorial cycles in Crusader manuscripts of the Histoire ancienne, no matter how much the former would have outshone the latter.70 The pictorial system devised by the English polymath in his Chronica Majora (Cambridge, Corpus Christi, MSS 16 and 26; ca. 1254–1259) or in the Historia Anglorum (London, London, BL Royal 14 C VII; ca. 1250–1259) displays scenes and signs all around the margins in such a way as to make them visual indices and tokens for authentication, at the same time conveying a precise moralized reading of these events. In Suzanne Lewis’ words, these illustrations were intended to provide ‘a reservoir of images in which a visual memory of past events could be retained’, to the extent that ‘turning the pages of Matthew’s Chronica Majora is like opening the door of a great abbey cupboard form which spills forth a rich succession of disparate images and objects, each conjuring up its own compelling story from the past, so that each event again becomes visually “present” to the viewer’s eye’.71 This ability of texts to bring the past alive in the present was also an issue Alfonso X explicitly dealt with in the prologue of the General Estoria.72 However, the illustrations in his ‘local’ chronicle would have made past deeds even more memorable than words, encouraging the audience to look

68 See

A. D. Hedeman, The Royal Image: Illustrations of the Grandes Chroniques de France (Berkeley, 1991), pp. 9–30 (pp. 12–3). 69 Ibid., pp. 257–8. 70 See, in general, R. Vaughan, Matthew Paris (Cambridge, 1958), and B. Weiler, ‘Matthew Paris on the writing of history’, Journal of Medieval History 35 (2009), 254–78. 71 S. Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris in the ‘Chronica Majora’ (Aldershot, 1987), p. 45. 72 Cf. Alfonso X el Sabio, General Estoria, I/1, 5.

246

9781903153734.indd 246

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle for deeper affinities between past and present. Not inadvertently, the king is praised as a ‘treasury of philosophy’ [‘Rex, decus Hesperie, thesaurus philosphie’] in the panegyric poem placed at the top of frontispiece of the Estoria de Espanna. The ethical and prophetical values of the estoria are also emphasized, as it would have allowed readers to ‘see’ the past and anticipate the future.73 With its emphasis on vision and divination, this particular formulation goes well beyond the Augustinian idea of history as prophecy, since the royal statement is not uttered in a theological context and does not make any reference to the history of salvation either.74 It is my contention that it may have rather more to do with the privileged place accorded to astrology in the Alfonsine scheme of knowledge and to the exceptional power that it supposedly conferred to kings who were able to master its secrets, such as Solomon.75 Indeed, the role played by Almohadan models in crafting Alfonsine ideals of kingship should not be discarded either since, according to Maribel Fierro’s suggestive hypothesis, the Almohad caliphs – from Ibn Tūmart onwards – were presented as gifted with prophetic wisdom and even infallibility.76 With the poem as a backdrop, Alfonso X’s profound interest in astrology may be analysed under a different light and the same can be said about the section concerning the Greek dominion of the Iberian Peninsula, where traces and portents were the elements articulating the narrative and the completed illustrations. These chapters display a deferred dialogue, delayed in time and carried out in displacement, which is conducted through images. The most carefully crafted passage of this section is related to the foundation of Seville, where Alfonsine compilers were able to weave legends of divergent origin together in order to shroud the city – always favoured by the king – in an aura of predestination.77 In chapter 5 the narrative recounts how Hercules had consulted the ‘astrologer’ Atlas before founding a new city in southern Iberia, only to find that he was not the chosen one for that fate but ‘someone greater than him’.78 Despite his initial disappointment, he was comforted by

73 ‘[Alfonso]

Hesperie gesta dat in hoc libro manifesta, / Ut ualeat plura quis scire per ipsa futura. / Hinc per preterita quisquis uult scire future / Non dedignetur opus istud, sed memoretur / Sepius hoc legere, quia quibit plura uidere / Per que proficiet et doctus ad ardua fiet’. PCG 27–13. 74 Cf. the classical essays by E. Auerbach, ‘Figura’, in Time, History and Literature: Selected Essays by Erich Auerbach, ed. James I. Porter (Princeton, 2014), pp. 65–113; and R. W. Southern, ‘History as Prophecy’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, fifth s. 22 (1972), pp. 159–80. 75 I refer the reader to the already mentioned articles by Boudet and García Avilés (as in notes 2 and 51). 76 M. Fierro, ‘Alfonso X “The Wise”: The Last Almohad Caliph?’, Medieval Encounters 15 (2009), 175–98. 77 Fernández-Ordóñez, Las ‘estorias’, pp. 119–38; Funes, ‘La crónica’, pp. 76–80. 78 Ch. 6. PCG 8b . 20–32

247

9781903153734.indd 247

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto the thought of his mediating role in this future endeavour and left a marble slab over six stone pillars as a reminder, indicating where the city of Seville should be erected (Fig. 5).79 The recipient of these mandates was none other than Julius Caesar, who would have subsequently settled Seville after finding the remains of the Herculean monument. This chain of prophecies and fulfilments would not have ended with the foundation of the Andalusian city, since the same chapter describes how Caesar’s visit to Hercules’ temple in Cádiz – and his contemplation of a statue of Alexander the Great erected there – was to be the trigger for a prophetic dream announcing the Roman general’s future dominion over all the world, confirming once more the crucial role of the Iberian peninsula in universal history.80 Although this last anecdote is recounted by Suetonius – probably known after the Speculum historiale – most of the elements in these chapters of the estoria belonged to a completely different historiographical tradition.81 Referred to as *Arabic history vulgata, this hypothetical chronicle of the Iberian Peninsula can be partially reconstructed through works such as the Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-Mamālik by Abū ‘Ubayd al-Bakrī (d. 1094) and the highly problematic Akhbār mulūk al-Andalus by Ahmad al-Rāzī (d. 955).82 It was precisely al-Rāzī who first attributed the foundation of Seville to Hercules and laid emphasis on the magical nature of the postes [‘poles’] left there by the Greek hero.83 However, some of the oldest formulations of the themes and legends compiled in the Alfonsine chronicle can be traced back to eighthcentury Egyptian historians for whom Iberia was a mysterious land on the outer fringes of the Islamic empire.84 79 According to the text, a figure is depicted in the miniature at the top of the marble slab

pointing towards the inscription: ‘:AQVI:SERA:POBLADA:LA:GRANT:CIBDAT:’ [‘THE GREAT CITY WILL BE SETTLED HERE’]. See I. de Barros Dias, ‘Complementaridade e analogias entre retórica verbal e não verbal na historiografía ibérica dos sécs. XIII e XIV’, in Estudos Literários / Estudos Culturais. Actas do IV Congresso Internacional da Associação Portuguesa de Literatura Comparada, ed. C. J. F. Jorge and Ch. Zurbach (Évora, 2004), pp. 1–11. 80 PCG 9a . Funes, ‘La crónica’, p. 80. 30–55 81 It is mistakenly attributed to Lucan in the text. Solalinde, ‘Una fuente’, p. 237. Cf. García Bellido, ‘Hercvles Gaditanus’, pp. 14–8. 82 That is, the History of the Kings of al-Andalus or Crónica del moro Rasis [‘Chronicle by the Moor Rasis’], as is titled in the surviving Castilian translation made after a now lost Portuguese version. See Crónica del moro Rasis, ed. D. Catalán and M. Soledad de Andrés (Madrid, 1974), with the collaboration of M. García-Arenal, for the translation and analysis of the Arabic texts related to al-Rāzī’s. As pointed out by Fernández-Ordóñez, Las ‘estorias’, p. 193, the precise source used by the Alfonsine compilers has not yet been identified. 83 Crónica del moro Rasis, p. 95. Cf. Fernández-Ordóñez, Las ‘estorias’, pp. 124–6; Carlos Villamarín, Las Antigüedades, pp. 260–2. 84 In regard to the Egyptian origin of the legend of the locked palace in Toledo about which more will be told, see J. Hernández Juberías, La Península imaginaria. Mitos y leyendas sobre al-Andalus (Madrid, 1996), pp. 194–95; N. Clarke, The Muslim Conquest

248

9781903153734.indd 248

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 5: Alfonso X of Castile, Estoria de Espanna. Escorial, MS Y.I.2, fol. 5r. Seville, c. 1270–1274.

Considering the reliance of these Arabic writers on all kind of legendary elements, it should not come as a surprise that two of the most emotionally charged episodes in the Estoria de Espanna – those related to the prophecies of Iberia: Medieval Arabic Narratives (Abingdon, 2012), pp. 29–35. Both this episode and that about the ‘idol of Cádiz’ were included in the One Thousand and One Nights (nos. 271–272).

249

9781903153734.indd 249

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto about the Muslim conquest – derive from the *Arabic history vulgata, as does the passage related to the Pillars of Hercules in chapter 5. It is recounted how Hercules arrived on an island in the Strait where he placed his landmark, a high tower with a statue at the top pointing towards the East with his left hand and holding a key in his right hand as a symbol of the end of the known world.85 According to the apocalyptic Chronica Muzarabica (c. 754), written shortly after the Muslim conquest, this statue marked the entrance for Tāriq and Musa.86 In subsequent Arabic texts, the ‘idol of Cadiz’ was turned into a magical token of Islamic rule over Iberia, so attractive for writers and travellers that its fame spread throughout medieval Europe even well after its destruction in the twelfth century. The actual source of these folkloric tales seems to have been a Roman monument that stood in the area, something that Alfonso X may have been aware of, given the classicizing appearance of the figure depicted in the corresponding miniature (Fig. 4).87 Again, archaeological accuracy could have been a means for asserting continuity from the times of Greek dominion to those of the Learned King, but this obliteration of the meanings associated with the idol by the Arabic sources – together with the invocation of its ancient origin – would have deprived the Muslim conquest of any sort of inevitability.88 Nevertheless, it was not so easy to escape from the allure of the *Arabic history vulgata and its fatidic tone. As I have tried to argue, text and images in the Estoria de Espanna betray the influence of this conception of history as a succession of prophecies and their fulfilments, either for the better or for the worse, as when the wise Tarcus predicts both the fall of Troy and the creation of Rome.89 The ‘fall of Spain’ and the Islamic conquest were also surrounded by prodigies in the Alfonsine chronicle, but they only lay blame on King Roderick – the last of the Visigothic rulers – who, driven by curiosity and greed, had decided to open the padlocks of a palace in Toledo sealed off for centuries under penalty of destruction of the whole kingdom. To their chagrin, what Roderick and his company found inside was a painted

85 PCG

8b2–16. Hercules arrives at Cádiz ‘where the West begins’ from the Atlas Mountains, accompanied by the ‘astrologer’Allas. 86 Cf. Chronica Muzarabica, ed. and trans. E. López Pereira (Zaragoza, 1980), p. 71. See Hernández Juberías, La Península imaginaria, pp. 68–108; J. Carracedo Fraga, ‘La torre de Cádiz: un monumento de la antigüedad clásica en textos medievales’, Evphrosine 19 (1991), 201–30; J. Anguita Jaén, ‘Salam Cadis: El ídolo de Cádiz según el Pseudo-Turpín (c. IV): Hércules, Salomón y Mahoma’, Iacobus 1–12 (2001), 95–127. Cf. also L. Torres Balbás, ‘Gibraltar, llave y guarda del reino de España’, Al-Andalus 7 (1942), 168–219. 87 García Bellido, ‘Hercvles Gaditanus’, pp. 82–93; Carracedo Fraga, ‘La torre de Cádiz’, p. 229. 88 See my ‘Por pieças quebrada: Ruinas, visión y profecía en la Estoria de Espanna’ (forthcoming). 89 PCG 13a . 1–25

250

9781903153734.indd 250

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 6: Alfonso X of Castile, Estoria de Espanna. Escorial, MS Y.I.2, fol. 4v. Seville, c. 1270–1274.

veil with some Latin script explaining that Iberia would be conquered by the people depicted on the canvas, ‘very similar to present-day Arabs’.90 This episode now occupies the last folios of the royal manuscript of the Estoria de Espanna (fols. 190r–v) and was to be illustrated by a miniature – not even outlined – whose content is possible to figure out by reading the adjacent text. The same version of this episode was included in the De Rebus Hispaniae, a Latin chronicle written by Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada (c. 1243–1246), which can be considered the main referent for the Estoria de Espanna. However, both Jiménez de Rada and Alfonso X decided to omit a substantial detail in al-Rāzī’s account, the likely source for this passage: the Herculean origin of 90 Ch.

553. PCG 307a21–b24.

251

9781903153734.indd 251

08/05/2017 08:29

Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto the mysterious Toledan palace, explicitly acknowledged in the Portuguese Crónica Geral de Espanha de 1344 that follows the Portuguese version of the Akhbār mulūk al-Andalus at this point.91 Perhaps it was discomforting for Alfonso X to imagine that Hercules had anticipated not only the glory of empire but also the ruin of the Visigoth kingdom. Whatever his feelings might have been, the second volume of the Estoria de Espanna (Escorial, X.I.4) was finished and completed with the addition of the quires related to the Kings of Asturias that had been part of the Alfonsine manuscript at more or less the same time as the Portuguese Crónica Geral was written by Pedro de Barcelos. Even for those not acquainted with al-Rāzī’s version of the Herculean palace in Toledo, a sort of circular plot of creation and destruction would have been superimposed on the previous volume in striking contrast to the Learned King’s original scheme. And, ironically, it was the last blank space of MS Escorial, Y.I.2 – instead of the lavish miniatures of the Greek section – that would keep on haunting the readers of the Estoria de Espanna, as the multiple fifteenth-century versions of the legend suggest.92

Conclusions Written originally in the first decades of the tenth century, al-Rāzī’s amazed description of a landscape populated by the scattered remains of Roman times conveyed the response of the earlier Muslim conquerors in face of the marvels found in the furthest region of the Islamic realm.93 The need to understand the origin and meaning of ancient remains paved the way for its interpretation as the monumental trail left behind by Hercules in his travels from East to West.94 Likewise, the Crónica del moro Rasis also set the pattern for the Alfonsine enterprise, as the first historiographic work devoted to the Iberian Peninsula as a defined socio-geographical realm.95 This had also been the scheme followed by Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, although the emphasis laid there on the Visigothic period had firmly rooted the De Rebus Hispaniae on the

91 ‘[A]

casa que Hercolles fez em Tolledo’ [‘The house erected by Hercules in Toledo’]. Crónica Geral de Espanha de 1344, ed. L. F. Lidley Cintra (Lisbon, 1954), II, 309–12. See J. Menéndez Pidal, Leyendas del último rey godo: Notas é investigaciones (Madrid, 1906), pp. 11–54 (pp. 18–20). 92 These re-elaborations can be found in the Crónica sarracina (c. 1430), in El Victorial (c. 1436) by Gutierre de Díez de Games, and the Atalaya de las Crónicas (c. 1443) by the Arcipreste de Talavera, among others. 93 Catalán and Andrés, ‘Introducción’, in Crónica del moro Rasis, pp. lxxi-ci. 94 Earlier legends about eponymous founders of cities and kingdoms also may have had a part in the development of this literary tradition. See Carlos Villamarín, Las Antigüedades, pp. 67–110. 95 Catalán, La ‘Estoria de España’, pp. 30–1.

252

9781903153734.indd 252

08/05/2017 08:29

The Estoria De Espanna as Universal Chronicle Iberian soil. Conversely, the interest in Roman history in the Estoria de Espanna led the Learned King to an imprecise territory – in between local and global – so as to disclose the role of the Peninsula at the core of European history and culture. Images were an integral part of a historiographical enterprise that also involved the creation of a new type of book for which the closest model could only be found in the lavishly illustrated copies of the Histoire ancienne. Thus, miniatures in the Estoria de Espanna were not only the vibrant expression of a new courtly culture but also a manifestation of royal auctoritas: that of bringing the past into the present and of anticipating future events. Yet the melancholy distilled by the frontispiece (Fig. 3), partially erased in a gesture of despair perhaps by the Learned King himself, move us to consider prophecies that did not come true.96 After the death of his eldest son, the manuscript was left unfinished. Forced to renounce his dreams of Empire and abandoned by most of his family, Alfonso X died in Seville, the city of Hercules and Julius Caesar and the only spot in the map of Castile still loyal to the king. Maybe he felt the heavy strain of the world on his shoulders. His blotted face in the Estoria de Espanna speaks about the frailty of human creations but also about the burden of these images, testimony of the past and the imagined future of individuals as far away from us as Hercules’ signs were from them.

96 Rodríguez

Porto, ‘Inscribed/Effaced’.

253

9781903153734.indd 253

08/05/2017 08:29

9781903153734.indd 254

08/05/2017 08:29

10 La vie d’Alexandre dans la Chronique dite de Baudouin d’Avesnes Elena Koroleva

The Chronique dite de Baudouin d’Avesnes, composed between 1278 and 1281 in Northern France, is the second universal chronicle to be written in French after the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César. Its first version covers the history of the world from the creation till the execution of Philip the Bold’s favourite Pierre de la Broce in 1278. This work, however, remains little known by researchers and is still unpublished. This chapter examines the life of Alexander the Great inserted in the chronicle, as it appears in Cambrai, Bibliothèque municipal, MS 683 – which offers one of the earliest versions of the text. The author combines a large number of different sources and gives his account of Alexander's life a didactic tone by inserting a treaty on the virtues inspired by Brunetto Latini’s Livre du trésor. This chapter addresses the structure of the Chronique’s historical account, the choice and use of sources, the way they are referred to in the text and the role of the didactic discourse in the author’s project.

La chronique et le manuscrit de base La Chronique dite de Baudouin d’Avesnes1 composée entre 1278 et 1281 au Nord de la France est la deuxième chronique universelle en langue française après l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César de Wauchier de Denain, elle aussi rédigée dans cette région. La chronique d’un auteur anonyme fut commandée par Baudouin d’Avesnes, seigneur de Beaumont (le Hainaut), un membre de la famille impliquée dans une des plus importantes querelles d’héritage du XIIIe siècle opposant les Avesnes et les Dampierre.2 La première rédaction de la CBA couvre l’histoire du monde depuis la Création divine jusqu’à la pendaison, en 1278, de Pierre de la Broce, le favori de Philippe III le Hardi; elle raconte aussi les événements de l’histoire du Hainaut et de la Flandre,

1 Ci-après

abrégée CBA. La querelle des Avesnes et des Dampierre (Bruxelles-Paris, 1894).

2 C. Duvivier,

255

9781903153734.indd 255

08/05/2017 08:29

Elena Koroleva avec les généalogies des familles issues de ces comtés. Jusqu’à récemment,3 c’est cet aspect régional qui a surtout intéressé les chercheurs,4 tandis que l’histoire universelle a souvent été négligée. Malgré son statut important de deuxième chronique universelle en français, malgré une diffusion considérable (elle nous est parvenue dans une cinquantaine de manuscrits), la CBA est aujourd’hui encore peu connue des chercheurs et reste inédite. Nous avons utilisé comme manuscrit de base le ms. 683 de la Bibliothèque municipale de Cambrai provenant de l’abbaye de Saint-Sépulcre à Cambrai. L’avantage de cette copie est indéniable, car il s’agit de l’un des plus anciens exemplaires de la chronique (xiiie siècle) qui provient de la région où l’ouvrage fut écrit. Mieux encore, il est probable que Cambrai 683 est directement lié à la famille du commanditaire de la chronique, Baudouin d’Avesnes: en effet, c’est Guillaume d’Avesnes, fils de Jean Ier d’Avesnes et d’Adélaïde de Hollande, neveu de Baudouin d’Avesnes, qui fut évêque de Cambrai entre 1286 et 1296. De même que son oncle, Guillaume d’Avesnes n’était pas étranger au patronage littéraire. Comme nous l’apprend son testament rédigé le 7 août 1296, il lègue aux moines de Saint-Sépulcre à Cambrai un certain ‘livre de gestes’ qu’ils ont fait pour lui.5 A.  Stones identifie ce manuscrit avec Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bibliothèque municipale 192 contenant le cycle de Guillaume d’Orange,6 ce qui confirmerait l’intérêt de l’évêque pour la littérature profane en langue française. D’autres livres se trouvaient aussi en sa

3 Parmi

les travaux récents, il faut noter ceux de C.  Gaullier-Bougassas (voir n.  30 ainsi que ses contributions à l’ouvrage en quatre volumes intitulé La fascination pour Alexandre le Grand dans les littératures européennes (Xe-XVIe siècle). Réinventions d’un mythe, éd. C. Gaullier-Bougassas, 4 vols. (Turnhout, 2014), I, 249–52; II, 848–52; IV, 114–18) ainsi que la thèse inédite de F.  Noirfalise (‘Family Feuds and the (Re) writing of Universal History: The Chronique dite de Baudouin d’Avesnes (1278–84)’ (Université de Liverpool, 2009)) qui m’était indisponible et son article ‘ContextBased Compilation? The Use of the Histoire Ancienne jusqu’à César and the Function of the Alexander the Great Matter in the Chronique de Baudouin d’Avesnes’ qu’il m’a aimablement permis de consulter avant sa parution dans Medieval Francophone Literary Culture Outside France, éd. D. Schoenaers, N. Morato (Turnhout, 2016). 4 Voir, par exemple, F.  Hachez, ‘Notice sur les généalogies tirées du recueil des chroniques du Hainaut de maître Bauduin d’Avesnes’, Annales du Cercle archéologique de Mons 4 (1863), 183–92; J.  Heller, ‘Über die Herrn Balduin von Avesnes zugeschriebene Hennegauer Chronik und verwandte Quellen’, Neues Archiv 6 (1881), 129–51; G. Croenen, ‘Princely and Noble Genealogies, 12th to 14th century: Form and Function’, dans The Medieval Chronicle: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle, Driebergen/ Utrecht, 13–16 July 1996, éd. E. Kooper (Amsterdam, 1999), pp. 84–95. 5 C. Dehaisnes, Documents et extraits divers concernant l’histoire de l’art dans la Flandre, l’Artois et le Hainaut avant le XVe siècle. Première partie: 627–1373 (Lille, 1886), p. 89. 6 A.  Stones, ‘La production de manuscrits littéraires aux environs de 1300: entre Cambrai et Saint-Omer, les mécènes et les liens stylistiques de leurs peintres’, dans La moisson des lettres: l’invention littéraire autour de 1300, éd. H.  Bellon-Méguelle, O. Collet, Y. Foehr-Janssens et L. Jacquiéry (Turnhout, 2011), pp. 81–104 (pp. 85–6).

256

9781903153734.indd 256

08/05/2017 08:29

La Vie d’Alexandre possession, comme le manuscrit BnF lat. 16433 qui est une copie du traité sur les vices et les vertus Flos summarum et comporte également cinquante vers du roman Athis et Prophilias transcrits sur le même feuillet et par la même main que la directive de Guillaume d’Avesnes adressée à Arnoul, écolâtre de Saint-Géry.7 D’après Richard et Mary Rouse qui ont étudié les manuscrits d’Athis et Prophilias, les vers contenus dans BnF lat. 16433 furent directement copiés à partir du BnF fr.  793, le manuscrit B d’Athis et Prophilias, ce qui suggère que cette copie du roman avait elle aussi appartenu à l’évêque de Cambrai.8 Saint-Géry de Cambrai est par ailleurs mentionné à côté du SaintSépulcre dans le testament de Guillaume d’Avesnes où celui-ci demande de restituer à Saint-Géry ‘un breviaire nouviel en deus parties’,9 probablement les manuscrits 102–103 de la Bibliothèque municipale de Cambrai.10 Le testament de l’évêque témoigne ainsi de son goût prononcé pour la culture livresque, et il ne paraît que logique qu’il ait voulu avoir un exemplaire de la chronique réalisée pour son oncle et étroitement liée à l’histoire familiale. Il n’aurait pas été le seul membre de la famille à en posséder une copie: ainsi, l’inventaire de la bibliothèque de Jean d’Avesnes, frère de Guillaume d’Avesnes, dressé en 1304 contient entre autres un livre que l’on a identifié comme la deuxième partie de la CBA.11 Si l’évêque de Cambrai avait en effet été le commanditaire ou du moins le possesseur de Cambrai 683, cela permet de dater plus précisément ce manuscrit: il faudrait placer sa réalisation avant le 8 août 1296, date de la mort de Guillaume d’Avesnes. Le texte de Cambrai 683 va jusqu’à l’an 1090; il forme sans doute un ensemble avec le manuscrit BnF fr.  2633 qui reprend au moment où s’interrompt le récit de Cambrai et semble issu du même scriptorium, si l’on en juge par l’écriture, la mise en page et la décoration.12 Les deux offrent ainsi une version complète de la première rédaction de la chronique et il serait

7 L.

Delisle, ‘Inventaire des manuscrits de la Sorbonne conservés à la Bibliothèque impériale sous les numéros 15176–16718’ (Paris, 1870), p.  60, dans L. Delisle, Inventaire des manuscrits latins conservés à la Bibliothèque nationale sous les numéros 8823–18613 (Paris, 1863–1874); R.  et M.  Rouse, ‘The  Crusade as Context: The Manuscripts of Athis et Prophilias’, in Courtly Arts and the Art of Courtliness: Selected Papers from the Eleventh Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, éd. K. Busby, C. Kleinhenz (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 49–103 (p. 61). 8 Rouse, ‘The Crusade as Context’, p. 61. 9 Dehaisnes, Documents et extraits, p. 89. 10 L. M. C. Randall, ‘The Fiesche Psalter’, Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 23 (1960), pp. 27–47 (p. 34). 11 J. van der Meulen, ‘Avesnes en Dampierre of “De kunst der liefde”: Over boeken, bisschoppen en Henegouwse ambities’, in 1299: één graaf, drie graafschappen: de vereniging van Holland, Zeeland en Henegouwen, éd. D. E. H. de Boer, E. H. P. Cordfunke, and H. Sarfatij (Hilversum, 2000), pp. 47–72 (p. 53). 12 Voir aussi H.  Meyer-Zimmermann, La Chronique dite de Baudouin d’Avesnes. Erste volkssprachliche Geschichtsenzyklopädie. Eine adlige Nachahmung des Speculum historiale von Vinzenz von Beauvais ? (Zurich, 1989), p. 42.

257

9781903153734.indd 257

08/05/2017 08:29

Elena Koroleva souhaitable d’utiliser ces deux copies comme manuscrits de base pour une future édition critique de la CBA. Dans le présent article, je propose d’étudier plus en détail la partie consacrée à la vie d’Alexandre le Grand intégrée à l’histoire de l’Antiquité racontée dans la chronique. Dans Cambrai 683, la vie d’Alexandre occupe les folios 82v – 107v auxquels il faut ajouter l’histoire des diadoques aux folios 109v – 111v.

Les sources de la vie d’Alexandre En rédigeant sa chronique, l’auteur préfère travailler à partir des sources latines, même s’il n’ignore pas l’œuvre de son prédécesseur français, l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César. Pour le récit d’Alexandre, la CBA s’appuie sur les informations que l’on trouve dans de nombreux textes latins connus à l’époque, comme, entre autres, l’Abrégé des Histoires Philippiques de Trogue Pompée par Justin, les Histoires contre les païens d’Orose, l’Épitomé de Julius Valère et l’Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem. L’auteur lui-même n’hésite pas à citer certains ouvrages en s’y référant par des formules typiques comme ‘Justins dist en son onsime livre ke…’ (fol. 101r) ou ‘Valerius raconte en son sieptime livre ke…’ (fol.  98v). Justin, dont le nom est mentionné douze fois dans la section Alexandre, est de loin sa référence préférée, avec Quinte-Curce qui est nettement en arrière avec cinq mentions, les autres auteurs n’étant cités que deux ou trois fois, comme ‘Fricon’ que l’on peut identifier avec Fréculfe de Lisieux,13 saint Augustin, Valère Maxime, Orose, Solin et Isidore de Séville. Mais devrait-on croire qu’il a en effet lu tous les ouvrages cités ? Prenons par exemple les références à Quinte-Curce (fols.  83v, 98v, 101r,  102v): les passages empruntés se retrouvent tous dans le Speculum historiale de Vincent de Beauvais14 (IV.5, 23, 34, 44, 38) que l’auteur de notre chronique connaissait certainement; il est aussi révélateur que dans trois cas sur cinq QuinteCurce est évoqué avec Justin, tout comme chez Vincent. De même, les deux références à Valère Maxime (fols. 98v et 101r) sont selon toute vraisemblance elles aussi puisées au Speculum historiale (IV.19, 33), ainsi que celles à saint Augustin (fol. 99v, cf. Speculum IV.32 et fols. 106r–106v, cf. Speculum IV.51) et Isidore de Séville (fol. 103r, cf. Speculum IV.42). Que notre auteur ne connaissait souvent les sources que par l’intermédiaire de Vincent de Beauvais est vrai non seulement pour les textes mineurs

13 C.  Gaullier-Bougassas

a supposé que le mystérieux ‘Fricon’ pourrait être Julius Africanus ou bien Fréculfe de Lisieux (La fascination pour Alexandre le Grand dans les littératures européennes (voir n. 3), I, 250). Ayant confronté les ouvrages en question, je suis persuadée qu’il s’agit bien de Fréculfe. Je compte développer ailleurs les arguments concernant cette identification. 14 Pour le Speculum historiale, j’utilise l’édition de Douai: Vincent de Beauvais, Speculum Historiale (Douai, 1624).

258

9781903153734.indd 258

08/05/2017 08:29

La Vie d’Alexandre du point de vue de leur importance pour le récit, mais aussi pour les ouvrages majeurs qui peuvent au premier abord paraître essentiels pour notre chronique. Tel est le cas de Justin et son Abrégé de Trogue-Pompée, l’Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi. Le texte de la CBA nous livre une preuve de la connaissance uniquement indirecte de Justin par le biais de la citation suivante: ‘Justins dist en son livre ke cis mons s’estendist a moitié parmi tout le monde, se les mers ne l’ariestaissent’ (fol.  103r). Cette phrase correspond au chapitre 42 du livre IV du Speculum historiale: ‘Caucasus autem ipse est mons Taurus, qui pene mediatenus orbis conscius, quem peragrasset, nisi maria restitissent’. Elle fait partie du paragraphe que Vincent attribue à Justin, mais en réalité il l’a puisée à un autre ouvrage célèbre, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii de Martianus Capella (VI.683).15 Que l’auteur de la CBA l’assigne lui aussi à Justin confirme la véritable provenance de la citation.16 De toute évidence, même si l’ouvrage de Vincent de Beauvais n’est jamais mentionné par l’auteur de notre chronique, il lui a servi de source majeure et il est très probable qu’il n’ait jamais eu sous la main la plupart des textes référencés. Tout comme il passe sous silence l’utilisation du Speculum historiale, l’auteur ne nomme pas non plus ses sources françaises, l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César pour les chapitres finaux de la vie d’Alexandre, de sa rencontre avec Candace jusqu’à la mort, et le Livre du trésor de Brunetto Latini pour les enseignements d’Aristote insérés dans les enfances d’Alexandre. Ce choix électif des références est loin d’être un cas unique dans la matière alexandrine: pour n’en citer qu’un exemple, Thomas de Kent adapte, dans son Roman de toute chevalerie,17 l’Épitomé de Julius Valère et l’Epistola d’Alexandri ad Aristotelem, mais n’allègue jamais l’Épitomé, tout en évoquant à trois reprises l’Epistola comme une de ses sources (str. 194, 195, 414). L’auteur de

15 Vincent

de Beauvais reproduit en effet sans le modifier le passage quelque peu confus de Martianus: ‘Verum Pamphyliae iuncta Lycia, a qua incipit mons Taurus paene mediatenus orbis conscius, quem peragraret nisi maria restitissent’ (Martianus Capella, Les noces de Philologie et de Mercure, éd. B. Ferré, VI: La Géométrie (Paris, 2007), p. 683). Pour les essais de conjecture de ‘mediatenus orbis conscius’ voir l’édition indiquée ci-dessus ainsi que les éditions plus anciennes: Martianus Capella, éd.  J.  Willis (Leipzig, 1983), VI.683, p.  242 et Martianus Capella, De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii et de septem artibus liberalibus libri novem, éd. U. Kopp (Frankfurt, 1836), VI.683, p.  554. Dans ce passage, Martianus s’est inspiré de l’Histoire naturelle de Pline (V.97). 16 Nous tenons donc à nuancer les propos de C.  Gaullier-Bougassas qui remarque que ‘pour la vie d’Alexandre, la source principale [de la CBA] est le récit de Justin’, La fascination pour Alexandre le Grand dans les littératures européennes (voir n.  3), IV, 116. Étant donné que Vincent de Beauvais utilisa Justin, celui-ci reste une source indirecte de la CBA. 17 Thomas de Kent, Le Roman d’Alexandre ou Le Roman de toute chevalerie, trad., prés. et notes de C. Gaullier-Bougassas et L. Harf-Lancner, texte éd. par B. Foster et I. Short (Paris, 2003).

259

9781903153734.indd 259

08/05/2017 08:29

Elena Koroleva l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César fait de même, en omettant l’Épitomé alors qu’il mentionne l’Epistola au chapitre 42.18 Si certains textes sont donc probablement à exclure des sources directes de la CBA, d’autres sont au contraire susceptibles d’y être ajoutées, comme le montre par exemple la description de la mort du roi indien Porus: ‘A tel jour fu li rois Porrus vaincus et Alixandres li caupa la teste, car il li avoit tant de fois menti k’il ne le vaut plus croire’ (fol.  105v). Chez Orose, Justin et dans l’Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem, cette victoire d’Alexandre sur Porus n’est point racontée. Vincent de Beauvais (IV.49) suit avec fidélité l’Épitomé de Julius Valère (éd. Zacher, 1867, III, 4): les deux auteurs parlent d’un coup à l’aine qu’Alexandre porte à Porus. Dans Nativitas et victoria Alexandri Magni de Léon de Naples, la mention de l’aine disparaît et le texte ne précise pas où Porus est atteint: ‘Audiens Porus vociferationem suorum tornavit caput. Impetum faciens Alexander plicatis pedibus exiliens super eum percutiensque illum gladio et vitam finivit’ (éd. Pfister, 1913, III, 4). C’est dans la version J1 de l’Historia de preliis que la blessure à la tête semble faire sa première apparition: ‘Audiens autem Porus vociferationem suorum tornavit caput. Statimque Alexander impetum faciens et plicatis pedibus exiliens super eum percutiensque caput eius gladio extinxit eum’ (éd. Hilka/ Steffens, 1979, III, 4, p. 166). La version J2 reproduit presque mot à mot ce passage (éd. Hilka, 1977, II, 89, p. 52). L’auteur de la CBA, connaissait-il alors l’une des deux recensions de l’Historia de preliis ou bien une version en vers du Roman d’Alexandre qui puise ce détail au texte latin19 ? Cet exemple montre qu’un travail approfondi sur les sources est encore à faire afin de déterminer de quels textes exactement pouvait disposer l’auteur de la CBA. Sans que je puisse le démontrer en détail dans le cadre de cet article, il semble que les seules sources directes établies de la vie d’Alexandre de la CBA20 soient le Speculum historiale de Vincent de Beauvais, l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César ainsi que les Histoires contre les païens d’Orose et la Chronique universelle de Fréculfe de Lisieux, ces deux derniers ouvrages probablement disponibles en un seul manuscrit.21 Il reste à voir si

18 C. 

Gaullier-Bougassas, ‘Introduction’, dans L’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César ou Histoires pour Roger, châtelain de Lille, de Wauchier de Denain: L’histoire de la Macédoine et d’Alexandre le Grand, éd. C. Gaullier-Bougassas (Turnhout, 2012), p. 36. 19 Noirfalise (‘Context-Based Compilation?’) remarque à ce propos, en renvoyant aux strophes du Roman d’Alexandre d’Alexandre de Paris: ‘Literary traditions doubtless shaped small details of the narrative, e.g. Porus’ flight to Bactria (fols. 104ra–b) and beheading (fol. 105va)’. 20 Je laisse pour le moment de côté le traité sur les vertus incorporé dans la vie d’Alexandre. 21 Trois manuscrits nous sont parvenus qui contiennent à la fois Orose et Fréculfe (plus précisément, la première partie de son ouvrage comportant aussi la vie d’Alexandre): Bruxelles, Bibliothèque royale, 9531–2, 5424–5, 9170–3. Les trois proviennent de la région du nord de la France. Voir L. B. Mortensen, ‘The Texts and Contexts of Ancient Roman History in Twelfth-Century Western Scholarship’, dans

260

9781903153734.indd 260

08/05/2017 08:29

La Vie d’Alexandre l’Épitomé de Julius Valère et l’Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem ont été utilisés directement, mais il est bien possible que l’auteur de la CBA ne les ait connus que par le biais de l’ouvrage de Vincent de Beauvais.

La brièveté comme principe organisateur du récit Tout en utilisant diverses sources pour compiler son récit, l’auteur de la chronique les abrège avec une régularité rigoureuse. Le souci de brièveté est déjà déclaré dans le prologue de la chronique: Mais pour chou ke memoire s’esleeche en brieté, et les giestes temporaus sont priés sans fin et sans nombre et avoec chou les escritures sont longhes et les hystoires fortes et pesans, et li liseur parecheus et negligent a l’estude, j’ai compillé pluisours hystoires des fais anchiiens a brief parolle par coi li entendemens de chascun le puist legierement entendre et en memoire retenir. Et ai mis .iii. choses briement et ordeneement: che sont les personnes,22 li tans et li liu, par cui et quant et ou les choses furent faites (fol. 1r)

Le prologue est en soi un premier exercice de brièveté pour l’auteur, car il se constitue des excerpta du prologue de De tribus maximis circumstantiis gestorum, un manuel d’histoire scolaire composé par Hugues de Saint Victor,23 auxquels l’auteur de la CBA ajoute une définition de l’histoire provenant de Cicéron.24 L’auteur remplit sa promesse de brièveté, faisant de l’abrègement son principal outil de composition. Un des cas les plus frappants est la description des batailles et des combats individuels que l’on trouve dans la vie d’Alexandre.25 Prenons comme exemple les trois affrontements d’Alexandre contre le roi de l’Inde Porrus, dont les deux premiers sont des batailles et le troisième un duel: (1) En s’ost avoit, si com Alixandres le manda puis a Aristotle son maistre, .xvi. mil curres et .ix. cens a faus trenchans et .iiii. cens ilfans et de gent a pié sans nombre. Quant les os furent aprochiés, il ferirent des esperons et fu la bataille grans et perilleuse, mais en la fin fu li rois Porrus vaincus et The Perception of the Past in Twelfth-Century Europe, éd. P. Magdalino (London, 1992), pp. 99–116 (p. 113). 22 Cambrai 683: parolles, corrigé d’après d’autres manuscrits. 23 Meyer-Zimmermann, La Chronique dite de Baudouin d’Avesnes. Erste volkssprachliche Geschichtsenzyklopädie, pp. 12–13. Le texte du prologue de De tribus maximis circumstantiis gestorum est édité: W. M. Green, ‘Hugo of St. Victor. De tribus maximis circumstantiis gestorum’, Speculum 18.4 (1943), 484–93. 24 Cicéron, De oratore II.ix.36 (éd. Courbaud, 1927): ‘historia uero testis temporum, lux ueritatis, uita memoriae, magistra uitae, nuntia uetustatis’. 25 Noirfalise (‘Context-Based Compilation?’) a pu constater la même tendance dans les autres parties de la chronique.

261

9781903153734.indd 261

08/05/2017 08:29

Elena Koroleva s’enfuit a tout le remanant de sa gent. La conquisent li Machedoniien26 or et argent et riqueches a grant plenté. (fol. 104r) (2) Lendemain ordena Alixandres ses batailles et chevauça vers les Yndiiens. Quant Porrus entendi ke Alixandres venoit sour lui a bataille, il fist sa gent apparellier et fu la bataille grans et perilleuse, mais en la fin furent li Yndiien vaincu et Porus navrés et pris. (fol. 104v)

Comme on peut s’en apercevoir, la similitude entre les deux représentations va jusqu’à l’emploi des mêmes expressions. La description de la bataille même se fait à l’aide de formules répétitives (dans les deux cas, on trouve ‘fu la bataille grans et perilleuse’) et est suivie des deux éléments obligatoires, la mention de l’issue de la bataille (le vaincu) ainsi que le bilan des pertes et des gains (les morts et les blessés, l’importance des biens conquis). Le modèle peut aussi comprendre une énumération des troupes avant la bataille, qui est toutefois facultative et n’apparaît que dans des représentations un peu plus détaillées, comme celle du premier exemple cité. Somme toute, on constate un désintérêt profond pour le déroulement des faits de guerre; ce sont les répercussions de la bataille qui attirent davantage l’attention de l’auteur de la CBA. Il en est de même dans le cas du combat particulier entre Alexandre et Porrus: (3)  Quant Alixandres s’em perchut, il dist a Porrus ke ja ne fust en souspechon ke s’il voloit a lui combatre cors a cors ou gent a gent, il se combateroit volentiers. Porrus ki grant joie ot de ceste parole dist k’il voloit la bataille cors a cors. Dont prisent jour de bataille faire. A cel jour fu li rois Porrus vaincus et Alixandres li caupa la teste, car il li avoit tant de fois menti k’il ne le vaut plus croire. Dont ot Alixandres toute Ynde a son commandement. (fols. 105r–v)

De nouveau, l’intérêt pour le combat même est minime au point qu’on n’apprend rien sur les événements qui conduisent à la victoire d’Alexandre: comment a-t-il réussi à couper la tête à Porus  ? Le lecteur est laissé sans explication, à la différence des Romans d’Alexandre d’Alexandre de Paris27 (III.234–235) et de Thomas de Kent (500–502), qui, tout comme leur source probable, la version J1 ou J2 de l’Historia de Preliis, évoquent la blessure à la tête qu’Alexandre porte à Porus et l’expliquent par l’inattention du roi indien qui se laisse distraire par le bruit dans les troupes.28 Le contraste est aussi 26 Cambrai

683: Machoniien, corrigé d’après d’autres manuscrits. de Paris, Le Roman d’Alexandre, The Medieval French Roman d’Alexandre, t. 2, Version of Alexandre de Paris, Text, éd. E. C. Armstrong, D. L. Buffum, B. Edwards, L. F. H. Lowe (Princeton, 1937). 28 Les deux auteurs des romans en vers semblent soucieux de la réputation chevaleresque d’Alexandre. Ainsi, Alexandre de Paris prend soin de décrire la fureur guerrière qui anime le roi avant qu’il ne porte le coup mortel (III.235, v.  4245–9), tandis que Thomas de Kent présente l’inattention de Porus comme conséquence de son orgueil (502, v. 7437–40). 27 Alexandre

262

9781903153734.indd 262

08/05/2017 08:29

La Vie d’Alexandre palpable avec l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, le texte précurseur de notre chronique en la matière de l’historiographie en français: Au jour qui denomés estoit revindrent li dui roi ensamble, Alixandres et Porrus, armé de mout riches armes sor les riches destriers por la bataille faire et mout bien la chose devisee de lor gens et d’une part et d’autre que ja que lor avenist ne biens ne maus ensamble ne se movroient en nulle maniere. Et quant ceste choze fu bien devisee, il hurterent les chivaus des esperons, si assamblerent es lances premerainement de grant ravine et puis aprés as trenchans espees. Mais en la fin conquist li rois Alixandres Porrum et ocist, qui volontiers eüst merci demandee, se li rois Alixandres li vousist avoir otroiee et donee (ch. 83).

La scène de l’Histoire ancienne est bien typique, avec un combat à la lance qui précède celui à l’épée, et le texte ne souffle mot sur la façon dont Alexandre vainc Porus: aucune blessure n’est mentionnée et la formule ‘en la fin’ semble absorber la plus grande partie de l’action. Toujours est-il qu’on se retrouve face à un récit beaucoup plus circonstancié que dans la CBA et qui démontre un certain goût pour les scènes guerrières dont notre texte est totalement dépourvu.

Le découpage et la recomposition du texte Tout en privilégiant la brièveté, notre auteur n’en est pas moins un conteur ingénieux. En combinant ses sources, il n’hésite pas à les découper et à les ordener, ce qu’il considère, d’après le prologue, être son devoir de narrateur à côté de l’abrègement. Cet ordenement consiste, avant tout, à entrelacer les fils de la narration et les matières aussi bien à l’intérieur de la vie d’Alexandre qu’au niveau de la chronique en entier. Dans une perspective plus étroite, dans le cadre de la vie d’Alexandre, c’est particulièrement visible dans le traitement du conflit d’Alexandre avec le roi de Perse Darius, que l’auteur de la CBA s’efforce de placer au cœur de son récit. Voici comment on peut présenter le déroulement de cette majeure partie du récit sous la forme d’un tableau: Autres événements

Alexandre vs Darius

Naissance d’Alexandre, ses précepteurs Traité sur les vertus

‘Il [Alexandre] dist k’il plouroit la viellece son pere ki li sambloit k’il ne se pooit mais desfendre contre l’empire de Perse’. (fol. 84r)

263

9781903153734.indd 263

08/05/2017 08:29

Elena Koroleva Autres événements

Alexandre vs Darius

Première participation d’Alexandre à une bataille avec Philippe

‘En che tans envoia li rois Daires de Perse au roi Phelippe pour demander le treü ke si ancisseur avoient rendu as rois de Perse. Quant Alixandres le sot, il renvoia les messages sans treü et lour deffendi sour paine de mort k’il ne revenissent plus. Donc rassambla li rois moult grant ost’. (fol. 98v)

Mort de Philippe, Alexandre accède au pouvoir, siège de Tyr

‘Alixandres envoia a Jaddi l’eveske de Jherusalem et li manda k’il li envoiast viandes et cel treü k’il soloit rendre au roi Daire de Perse. Jaddis respondi ke tant con Daires viveroit, il ne seroit contre lui’. (fol. 99r)

Prise de Tyr

Lettre de Darius et réponse d’Alexandre, première bataille

Visite à Jérusalem

Prophétie de la victoire d’Alexandre sur Darius

Conquête de la Grèce (Thèbes, Corinthe, Athènes, Sparte)

‘Entretant Daires ki em Perse estoit assembla grignour ost k’il n’avoit eüe devant’. (fol. 100r)

Bain et maladie d’Alexandre

Deuxième bataille contre Darius

Alexandre en Égypte

Troisième bataille, mort de Darius, vengeance d’Alexandre

Rébellion en Grèce

Alexandre adopte les mœurs des Perses, portrait négatif du roi

On voit comment l’auteur prend soin d’anticiper et de préparer la conquête de la Perse. L’enfant Alexandre est déjà accablé par la guerre à venir que son père n’est pas en mesure de gagner. C’est d’ailleurs cette angoisse d’Alexandre qui provoque l’insertion du long discours d’Aristote sur les vertus qui s’étale sur quatorze folios, en occupant la moitié de la biographie du roi (fol. 84r–97v). Du point de vue narratif, le seul but du traité sur les vertus semble de préparer le futur roi au conflit avec Darius. Avant que les deux souverains n’entrent finalement en guerre, Darius réapparaît à deux reprises. Quant à la première des deux mentions, il est significatif que ce soit Alexandre qui refuse de lui

264

9781903153734.indd 264

08/05/2017 08:29

La Vie d’Alexandre payer le tribut et renvoie ses messagers, alors qu’il vient à peine d’accomplir sa première expédition guerrière et qu’il n’est pas encore roi de Macédoine. La deuxième mention de Darius présente un nouveau cas du découpage et de l’entrelacement des épisodes puisés aux sources antérieures. L’auteur sépare notamment le refus des juifs d’obéir à Alexandre de sa visite à Jérusalem pour le placer au milieu du siège de Tyr et prévenir de cette façon la marche du roi sur la Judée. Ce déplacement n’est pas sans effet sur l’image d’Alexandre. Son expédition a par conséquent moins l’allure d’un coup de tête que celle d’une entreprise raisonnée, planifiée à l’avance, accomplie une fois le conflit précédent (le siège de Tyr) résolu. Par ailleurs, la visite à Jérusalem se situe avant les deux dernières batailles contre les Perses et la victoire définitive d’Alexandre sur Darius, ce qui accentue le caractère prophétique de l’épisode où l’auteur n’omet pas de faire mention des prophéties de Daniel, selon lesquelles la puissance perse sera anéantie par un souverain grec: ‘On li aporta les propheties Danyel et li lut on la ou il dist que uns rois de Gresce destruiroit la signourie des rois de Perse. Adont fu il moult liés et pensa ke ceste prophesie estoit de lui’ (fol. 99v). Si la visite à Jérusalem est également utilisée dans d’autres récits médiévaux pour annoncer le triomphe sur le royaume perse, ceci n’est par exemple pas le cas chez le prédécesseur de notre auteur, Wauchier de Denain: ainsi, malgré un récit bien plus long et détaillé de la visite à Jérusalem que contient l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (ch.  34–38), son auteur ne fait aucune allusion aux prophéties de Daniel et en revanche met l’accent sur la signification morale de l’épisode, en choisissant de souligner l’humilité d’Alexandre et non sa prédestination à vaincre Darius.29 La valeur prophétique y est également affaiblie par le fait que la visite à Jérusalem est placée après la mort du roi perse, de sorte que l’épisode, tout en nuançant l’image d’Alexandre, ne joue plus le rôle de pivot narratif qu’il a dans la CBA. Dans une perspective plus large, dans le cadre de la chronique entière, on constate le même souci de l’entrelacement, mais cette fois-ci des matières historiographiques, de sorte que les événements perçus comme simultanés dans l’histoire soient racontés en parallèle. L’exemple en est offert par la mort d’Alexandre et les événements qui lui succèdent. À la différence de l’auteur de l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César qui fait suivre le récit de la mort du roi par une longue narration sur les guerres intestines entre les successeurs d’Alexandre et ensuite par l’énumération des cités fondées par le roi macédonien (ch. 94–111), l’auteur de la CBA ne garde que le chapitre sur les cités (fol. 107v), mais déplace en revanche le récit sur les successeurs qui se trouve désormais après une partie de l’histoire de Rome et de Carthage. Bien que le texte soit généralement homogène au point qu’on ne distingue pas les parties provenant des sources différentes, cette même séquence

29 Voir

à ce propos Gaullier-Bougassas, ‘Introduction’, pp. 37–38.

265

9781903153734.indd 265

08/05/2017 08:29

Elena Koroleva montre que les jonctions entre les sources sont parfois visibles. Ainsi, l’auteur de la CBA reprend à l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (ch.  92) la réplique qui présente le refus de décrire davantage la mort d’Alexandre: Mais tout premierement vous dirai ki cil furent ki s’entreguerroiierent, es quels terres il se tinrent, car de la mort le roi Alixandre ne vous voel jou ore plus descrire, de la dolor ke si baron en demenerent, se tant non seulement ke moult le plainsent et plourerent durement et regreterent ses valours et ses grans proueches. (fols. 106r–107v)

Un lecteur attentif de la chronique serait en difficulté, car les guerres des successeurs d’Alexandre ne sont relatées que deux folios plus tard et non ‘tout premierement’, comme le promet le texte. On peut d’ailleurs se demander pourquoi l’auteur de la CBA s’est tourné vers le texte de son prédécesseur français dans la dernière partie de la vie d’Alexandre. Le travail de traduction et de compilation des sources latines se serait-il avéré trop chronophage et fastidieux ? Toujours est-il qu’après avoir raconté la mort du roi, il retourne aux textes latins, à savoir, dans ce cas précis, aux ouvrages d’Orose et de Fréculfe. Ces deux auteurs insèrent en effet une partie romaine (Orose, III.21–23; Fréculfe I, 4, 24) entre la vie d’Alexandre et les guerres des diadoques, et l’auteur de la CBA les suit en abandonnant le texte de l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à Сésar. De ce fait, il ne revient que plus loin sur sa promesse de raconter les événements qui suivirent la mort d’Alexandre, tout en gardant l’adverbe ‘premierement’ qui révèle une incohérence dans son récit.

L’ambition de l’auteur et le portrait d’Alexandre Comme le note C. Gaullier-Bougassas, l’auteur de la CBA renonce à la pratique du commentaire adaptée par Wauchier de Denain dans l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César; d’autres indices, comme ‘le montage des textes compilés, le choix des sources, la hiérarchie établie entre elles et les modalités de réécriture, et notamment les différents degrés de l’abrègement’ peuvent néanmoins nous révéler l’intention auctorielle.30 Nous avons constaté que l’auteur de la CBA préfère les sources latines à celles en langue vernaculaire, en passant sous silence ces dernières quand il les utilise; il veut aussi faire croire à son lecteur que son récit dérive directement des textes anciens plutôt que contemporains, en occultant l’utilisation non seulement des textes français, mais aussi du Speculum historiale de Vincent de Beauvais, l’une des 30 C. Gaullier-Bougassas,

‘Histoire et moralisation: interpréter la vie d’Alexandre dans les histoires universelles françaises du XIIe au XVe siècle (L’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, la Chronique de Baudouin d’Avesnes, le Miroir Historial et la Bouquechardière)’, dans L’Historiographie médiévale d’Alexandre le Grand, éd. C.  Gaullier-Bougassas (Turnhout, 2011), pp. 233–69 (p. 235).

266

9781903153734.indd 266

08/05/2017 08:29

La Vie d’Alexandre sources majeures de la CBA. Même si le prologue de la chronique, consacré essentiellement à la question de la mémoire et de la remembrance, n’insiste pas vraiment sur l’authenticité du récit, nous avons vu qu’on y trouve quand même une citation de De oratore de Cicéron (II.ix.36) proclamant que l’histoire est ‘tiesmoins des tempoires’ et ‘lumiere de verité’ (fol.  1r).31 Le choix et le référencement des sources sont eux aussi révélateurs du caractère véridique que revêt le texte. Par ailleurs, le travail de l’auteur avec les sources démontre son aspiration à l’objectivité. Ceci est le cas de l’épisode de la naissance d’Alexandre dont l’origine est, on le sait, problématique à cause de la filiation du héros avec Nectanébo établie dans les récits grecs du Pseudo-Callisthène. La bâtardise présumée du roi n’a pas toujours été accueillie avec bienveillance par les auteurs français. Si le roman de Thomas de Kent accepte l’origine douteuse d’Alexandre, il en va autrement des auteurs continentaux, comme Albéric de Pisançon, l’auteur de l’Alexandre décasyllabique et Alexandre de Paris qui rejettent tous la paternité de Nectanébo comme un mensonge et une calomnie.32 Wauchier de Denain semble aller dans la même direction, car il présente ces informations comme une rumeur qu’il tient toutefois à expliciter pour son lecteur: ‘…li pluisor content et dient et si cuident que il [Neptanabus] fust peres Alixandres…’ (ch. 1a); ‘…li pluisor cuidoient et cuident encore que cis Alixandres estoit fiz au roi Neptanabus d’Egypte et si vous dirai por quoi il le cuidoient et disoient et dient encore’ (ch.  17). Wauchier refuse de nier ou de confirmer la rumeur, l’interprétation étant finalement à la charge du lecteur.33 La démarche de l’auteur de la CBA se rapproche de ce qu’on trouve chez Wauchier. Voici le début de la description succincte de la naissance d’Alexandre dans la CBA: ‘Li rois Phelippes ot .i. fil de la roïne Olympias sa feme. Aucune hystoire raconte ke il fu fius Neptanabus, le roi de Egypte, que li rois Arthazersés de Perse ki fu sournoumés Occus chaça en escil quant il ot conquis Egypte, si con vous avés oï desus’ (fol. 83v). La formule ‘Aucune hystoire raconte’ rappelle celles qui sont employées dans l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (‘li pluisor content et dient’); si le mot ‘hystoire’ se réfère à une source écrite plutôt qu’à la transmission orale sur laquelle insiste Wauchier, les significations que ce terme peut revêtir sont trop diverses pour pouvoir prétendre qu’il désigne un texte obligatoirement véridique.34 L’emploi de l’adjectif ‘aucune’ semble d’ailleurs réfuter une telle hypothèse, en dénigrant

31 Voir

n. 24. à ce propos C.  Gaullier-Bougassas, Les Romans d’Alexandre: Aux frontières de l’épique et du romanesque (Paris, 1998), pp. 349–370. 33 Certains traits témoignent toutefois de sa réticence à l’égard de la filiation d’Alexandre avec Nectanébo. Voir Gaullier-Bougassas, ‘Introduction’, p. 36. 34 Pour un survol des significations du mot ‘estoire’, voir P. Gallais, ‘Recherches sur la mentalité des romanciers français du moyen âge (suite)’, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 13 (1970), 333–47 (en particulier pp. 339–42). 32 Voir

267

9781903153734.indd 267

08/05/2017 08:29

Elena Koroleva davantage l’importance de la source; il apparaît que les auteurs des deux chroniques ne considèrent pas leurs sources respectives comme entièrement dignes de confiance. On voit toutefois que le jugement de l’auteur de la CBA est encore moins transparent que celui de Wauchier, car il ne nous donne aucun indice supplémentaire à part l’histoire elle-même. Si l’on peut y voir une contradiction – les deux filiations d’Alexandre sont juxtaposées sans aucune explication – ou bien un manque de recul critique, il est aussi probable que son refus de prendre position est conscient et voulu: aspirant à une présentation objective, l’auteur veut procurer à son lecteur toutes les versions connues de l’histoire. Sans émettre de jugement, il signale l’existence d’un récit alternatif dont la véracité n’est pas discutée, ni contestée, ni confirmée. L’absence de commentaires de l’auteur ne signifie pas pour autant la disparition du didactisme propre aux chroniques médiévales. Rappelons que le prologue de la CBA provient d’un livre scolaire et que le processus de la mémorisation qui y est décrit porte un caractère éducatif par excellence: c’est ‘l’enseignement del sage’ qu’il faut inscrire dans son cœur et qui s’oppose à l’ignorance, et le lecteur, aussi ‘parecheus et negligent’ soit-il, est censé mémoriser et apprendre ce qui lui est raconté. De ce point de vue, la vie d’Alexandre est un témoignage précieux sur les intentions de l’auteur et une réalisation de la promesse d’enseignement donnée dans le prologue. Comme déjà évoqué ci-dessus, la biographie du roi contient un ajout important, un traité sur les vertus qui est constitué des enseignements d’Aristote et des dits de divers philosophes latins. Il s’agit principalement de la combinaison de deux textes: l’adaptation en français des vers 72–183 de l’Alexandreis de Gautier de Châtillon et le Livre du trésor de Brunetto Latini, auquel l’auteur emprunte en particulier le livre II qu’il décortique et recompose selon sa méthode habituelle. M.-R. Jung a également constaté quelques ajouts mineurs puisés au Livre de philosophie et de moralité d’Alard de Cambrai ainsi qu’à la traduction française du Moralia dogma datant du début du XIIIe siècle.35 Les sources du traité établies,36 on doit traiter la question des liens qu’il entretient avec le récit sur Alexandre. Avant tout, il est notable qu’à aucun moment la moralisation ne prenne une orientation religieuse; nous sommes face à un enseignement à caractère purement profane. L’auteur s’appuie sur les autorités antiques – Aristote, Sénèque, Cicéron, Horace, Juvénal entre autres – et s’intéresse aux vertus cardinales tournées vers la société (prudence, justice,

35 M.-R.  Jung,

‘La Morale d’Aristote: l’utilisation du  Livre du trésor  dans le  Trésor de sapience’, dans A scuola con ser Brunetto. Indagini sulla ricezione di Brunetto Latini dal medioevo al rinascimento, éd. I. Maffia Scariati (Firenze, 2008), pp. 93–117 (pp. 105–9). 36 Il reste toutefois à préciser la source de nombreuses citations de Sénèque incorporées dans le texte du traité. Viennent-elles également du Speculum historiale de Vincent de Beauvais ? Voir E. Ruhe, Les proverbes Seneke le philosophe (Munich, 1969), p. 23, n. 38.

268

9781903153734.indd 268

08/05/2017 08:29

La Vie d’Alexandre force, tempérance). Comme le note M.-R.  Jung, l’auteur de la CBA omet de nombreux passages chrétiens présents chez Brunetto.37 C’est là que réside le lien entre la vie d’Alexandre et le traité sur les vertus. À travers le texte de la chronique, Alexandre n’est pas représenté comme un élu de Dieu, ni pendant la visite à Jérusalem, ni lors de l’enfermement des dix tribus d’Israël, les deux épisodes utilisés traditionnellement pour montrer un Alexandre christianisé ou, du moins, agissant comme un instrument de la volonté divine. Réécrivant la visite à Jérusalem, l’auteur de la CBA semble mettre en valeur l’absence d’un sentiment religieux profond chez Alexandre. Même si celui-ci vénère le prêtre Jaddus (‘il sali jus de son cheval et l’aoura’, fol. 99v), l’auteur omet toutes les références à Dieu dans la réponse d’Alexandre à Parménion qui s’étonne de la conduite du roi. Dans le Speculum historiale qui servit de source pour la CBA, Alexandre emploie trois fois le mot ‘dieu’ dans son discours et semble conscient du fait que c’est le dieu des juifs, le dieu d’une religion monothéiste que représente le prêtre,38 tandis que le texte de la CBA ne propose qu’une formulation très vague où Dieu n’est pas mentionné: ‘Il dist ke le prestre n’avoit il pas aouré, mais chelui ki en cel fourme li estoit aparus en avision […]’ (fol. 99v). S’il sacrifie au temple, le roi macédonien ne suit plus les indications du prêtre juif, comme c’était le cas dans le texte latin,39 ce qui ne fait que renforcer l’éloignement d’Alexandre du monothéisme. En témoigne aussi l’insertion du passage de la Cité de Dieu de saint Augustin: ‘Sains Augustins dist el xviiime livre de la Cité diu k’il ne fu mie convertis en vraie foi, mais il le fist pour chou k’il cuidoit par sa fausse vanité c’on le deüst aourer aussi c’on faisoit les faus dius’ (fol.  99v). Cette citation était déjà présente chez Vincent de Beauvais, mais n’apparaissait qu’après le récit de la visite à Jérusalem, à la fin du chapitre IV, 32, alors que l’auteur de la CBA la déplace pour la mettre juste après le sacrifice au temple. De même, dans l’épisode de l’enfermement des peuples impurs, aucun miracle divin n’a lieu; c’est Alexandre lui-même qui fait construire des murs pour empêcher les peuples damnés de sortir de derrière les ‘mons de Capes’: ‘Si fist tous les destrois des mons par coi on pooit prendre voie ne sentier estouper de grans roches cymentees de bethym’ (fols. 103r–v). L’auteur de la CBA adapte ici un chapitre de Vincent de Beauvais et omet tout un passage qui contient la prière du roi adressée au Seigneur ainsi que la description de l’aide divine grâce à laquelle se rapprochent les montagnes: 37 Jung,

‘La Morale d’Aristote’, p. 111. respondit: Non hunc adoravi, sed Deum, qui principatum sacerdotij gerit. Nam per sompnum in tali habitu Deum aspexi, adhuc in Lycia civitate Macedoniae constitutus. […] Nunc autem vidi in hoc sacerdote ipsius effigiem et qui michi promisit, ventura, confido, et propterea Deum adoravi, et hominem veneratus sum’ (Speculum historiale IV.32). C’est moi qui souligne. 39 ‘Et ingressus est urbem Alexander et in templo sacrificavit deo secundum sacerdotis ostensionem’ (Speculum historiale IV.32). L’expression soulignée manque dans l’adaptation française: ‘Apriés entra en Jherusalem et sacrefia au temple’ (fol. 99v).

38 ’Et

269

9781903153734.indd 269

08/05/2017 08:29

Elena Koroleva ‘[…] et videret laborem humanum ad hoc non sufficere, oravit Dominum Deum Israel, ut opus illud compleret; et accesserunt ad se invicem praerupta montium; ex quo liquido apparet non esse voluntatem Dei ut exeant: egredientur tamen circa finem mundi magnam hominum stragem facturi: hic addit Iosephus dicens, Deus quid facturus est pro fidelibus suis, si tantum fecit pro infideli?’ (Speculum historiale IV.43).

Que l’épisode ait été repris à Vincent et non directement à l’Historia scholastica de Pierre le Mangeur (1498b), la source du chapitre du Speculum historiale, on peut être sûr grâce au passage sur les Portes Caspiennes emprunté à Collectanea rerum memorabilium, l’encyclopédie savante de Solin (ch. 47), qui se retrouve dans les deux textes, le Speculum historiale et la CBA. La conservation de l’extrait de Solin, qui n’a d’autre intérêt que purement scientifique, montre que l’absence du passage précédent comportant un miracle de Dieu ne vient pas du désir d’abrègement, mais est une omission consciente en accord avec le projet de l’Alexandre non-chrétien de l’auteur. Le héros n’est d’ailleurs jamais blâmé pour ses croyances religieuses, mise à part la citation de saint Augustin empruntée à Vincent de Beauvais (Speculum historiale IV.32). La critique que l’auteur fait de sa conduite est toutefois d’ordre moral et semble être en rapport avec les valeurs déclarées dans le traité. Ainsi, au début de son parcours, Alexandre n’est pas vu comme mauvais en soi et est plutôt conçu comme l’opposé de son père Philippe, un roi dépourvu des qualités dont a besoin un souverain juste. Contrairement à Alexandre, celui-là manque de largesse: ‘Valerius raconte en son sieptime livre ke Alixandres se pena d’aquerre l’amour d’aucuns prinches par dons. Quant ses peres le sot, il li demanda pour coi il s’embatoit en tel vaine gloire k’il cuidoit ke cil li deüssent estre loial k’il pooit avoir pour deniers’ (fol. 98v).

Par la suite, Alexandre est de nouveau opposé à Philippe, cette fois-ci par le biais de l’éducation qu’il a reçue d’Aristote. Celle-ci est valorisée dans l’épisode de la conquête d’Athènes: lorsque le roi demande aux Athéniens de lui payer un tribut et ensuite de lui envoyer les dix sages: ‘Eschines, li uns des .x. saiges, loa c’on obeïst au roi Alixandre parmi auchune condiction, car “se ses peres”, dist il, “avoit esté trop crueus de sa volenté suire, ne doit pas estre entendu d’Alixandre ki est de nostre doctrine. Par aventure hounouera il ses maistres de cui il a apris et muera son corage envers nous”’ (fol. 100v).

Le conseil d’Eschine que les Athéniens finissent par suivre malgré leur réticence initiale s’avère bon, car le roi n’a aucune intention de nuire aux habitants de la ville et explique sa demande de livrer les dix philosophes,

270

9781903153734.indd 270

08/05/2017 08:29

La Vie d’Alexandre dans laquelle un autre sage Démade soupçonnait une ruse militaire,40 par souci du ‘commun pourfit’ des Grecs (fol. 100v). La corruption d’Alexandre ne se manifeste que lors de la conquête de la Perse, qui est présentée, on l’a vu, comme l’événement central de sa vie. S’accumulent alors les remarques accusatrices qui montrent un roi enivré par ses propres succès et les richesses obtenues; il s’agit en particulier de cinq commentaires attribués à Valère Maxime (fol. 101v), Quinte-Curce (fol. 102v), Justin (fols. 102 v–103 r), Orose (fol. 103v) ainsi qu’à saint Augustin et Sénèque (fols. 106r–v), mais en réalité provenant sans doute tous, sauf celui d’Orose,41 du Speculum historiale de Vincent de Beauvais.42 Les passages énumérés se concentrent sur deux fautes d’Alexandre, à savoir l’orgueil du roi qui se croit fils de Dieu et s’habille à la manière perse et sa cruauté envers ses propres sujets. Le dernier des extraits attribué à saint Augustin et Sénèque soulève aussi un troisième problème important, l’injustice de la conquête d’Alexandre qui ne fait que ravir les terres des autres. Ce caractère illégitime des activités du roi est mis en exergue dans la reprise de la célèbre anecdote relatant la rencontre d’Alexandre avec le pirate: selon le ‘maistre roubeour de mer’ capturé par le roi macédonien, la seule différence entre eux deux consiste en ce que les crimes d’Alexandre sont commis sur une plus grande échelle (fol. 106v). Or, ces trois points – l’orgueil, la cruauté, l’injustice – sont aussi examinés dans le traité sur les vertus dont le but est entre autres de prévenir les souverains des dangers qui les attendent sur la voie de la vertu. Les remarques pertinentes se retrouvent tout au long du texte du traité; des sections à part sont consacrées à la justice (fols. 91v–92r) et à la cruauté (fols. 95v–96r), tandis que la critique de l’orgueil apparaît dans presque chaque chapitre consacré à une nouvelle vertu. La partie sur les ‘trois dons de fortunes’, ‘riqueche, signorie et gloire’ (fol.  87r), contient quant à elle tout un ensemble d’observations opportunes à la vie d’Alexandre (fols.  87r–89r). Ainsi, la richesse n’est pas vue d’un bon œil, mais comme une source de vices: ‘Et Possidiones dist que riqueche est43 cause de mal, non pas pour chou ke ele le faiche, mais ele l’esmuet a faire, car ele enfle le corage, ele enfante orguel et envie et les autres visces’ (fol.  88r). Or, dans le texte de la vie d’Alexandre proprement dit, le premier passage portant sur la corruption du roi macédonien et attribué à Valère Maxime (fol. 101v) suit l’acquisition des richesses après la victoire sur les Perses:

40 ‘Chou

ke Alixandres demande les .x. maistres n’est pour autre chose fors pour la cité desnuer de consel, par coi il la puist plus legierement prendre’ (fol. 100v). 41 Orose, Histoires contre les païens III.xviii.8–10. 42 Speculum historiale IV.33, 38, 42 pour Valère Maxime, Quinte-Curce et Justin respectivement et 51/61 pour saint Augustin et Sénèque. 43 Cambrai 683: estoit, corrigé d’après d’autres manuscrits.

271

9781903153734.indd 271

08/05/2017 08:29

Elena Koroleva ‘[Alexandre] s’en repaira as tentes des Persans et trouva or et argent a grant plenté et moult d’autres richoises. Justins dist en son onsime livre ke quant Alixandres vit si tres grans rikeches et si grant habondanche de choses es tentes le roi Dayre et les Persans que adont commencha il a vivre delicieusement et faire grans apparaus de douner biaus mangiers’ (fol. 101r).

La conquête de la Perse, tout en étant l’apogée de la carrière militaire d’Alexandre, constitue un point tournant dans son évolution vers le mal. La richesse n’est pas condamnée en soi dans le passage cité, mais étant donné sa dénonciation dans le traité sur les vertus, un lien implicite semble s’établir entre l’obtention des richesses perses et le vertige de la gloire auquel commence à succomber le roi. La cruauté d’Alexandre trouve elle aussi son écho dans la partie du traité sur les dons de la fortune. Dans la section consacrée à la signorie est développé le discours autour des relations entre le souverain et ses sujets: ‘Et Dyogenes dist que li sires n’est pas poissans ki n’a l’amour de ses houmes. Et Seneques dist: “Ki est crueus a ses sougis, il moustre as autres non pas defaute de volenté, mais de pooir” ’ (fol. 88v). Un souverain qui ne s’occupe que de son propre bien quitte le domaine de la seigneurie au profit de celui de la ‘tyrandise’ (fol. 88r), ce qui finit par lui nuire, car, selon Juvenal, ‘plus de tyrant muerent par occision ke par simple mort’ (fol.  88v). Il est vrai qu’Alexandre n’est jamais qualifié de tyran dans le texte de la CBA: même à la fin de sa vie, malgré toutes les remarques accusatrices, l’auteur parle de ‘la mort le bon roi Alixandre’ (fol.  107r), une expression puisée à l’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (ch.  92) d’où est empruntée une partie du récit de la mort du roi. Toutefois, dans les passages ajoutés par rapport à l’Histoire ancienne, c’est la cruauté d’Alexandre qui est dite être à l’origine de la décision des deux traîtres de l’empoisonner: ‘Dont orent Antipater et Divinuspater grant paour ke li rois ne les eüst en souspechon et pour chou k’il le savoient crueus, il amerent mius a pourchachier sa mort que estre en l’aventure de sa merchi’ (fol. 107v). Les soupçons des conspirateurs ne sont pas infondés: Alexandre a en effet tué plusieurs de ses amis et barons, comme nous le signalent les passages attribués à Justin (fol. 103r) et à Orose (fols. 103v–104r). Le roi macédonien meurt moins par trahison que par sa propre cruauté, ce qui amène à se demander si l’on ne pourrait tout de même pas le placer parmi les tyrans du traité dont la mort violente est causée par leur comportement. Ainsi, la vie d’Alexandre de la CBA retrace l’évolution d’un souverain bien éduqué et bon au début de son parcours, mais corrompu par la richesse et l’orgueil.

272

9781903153734.indd 272

08/05/2017 08:29

La Vie d’Alexandre

Conclusion Nous avons vu que l’étude des sources de la vie d’Alexandre incorporée dans la CBA n’a rien d’évident. L’image créée pour inspirer de la confiance aux lecteurs n’est qu’une réflexion imparfaite de la réalité et on doit appréhender avec prudence les déclarations de l’auteur qui tout en nommant des sources en cache d’autres et n’allègue pas les ouvrages qu’il utilise. Une attention particulière doit être portée aux détails mineurs, comme la blessure de Porus, qui peuvent nous révéler la connaissance par l’auteur des sources sur lesquelles il ne s’appuie pas nécessairement tout au long du récit, mais qu’il garde tout de même au fond de sa mémoire. Trois méthodes principales que l’auteur applique aux textes-sources sont l’abrègement, le découpage et la recomposition; on les retrouve aussi bien dans la vie d’Alexandre que dans l’ensemble de la chronique. Si l’abrègement lui permet d’adopter à un public peu savant de longues histoires que proposent ses sources, l’utilisation des deux autres méthodes a une influence profonde sur la structure et parfois le sens du récit. Ainsi, dans la vie d’Alexandre, elles lui servent à placer au cœur de l’histoire le conflit de son héros avec Darius, roi de Perse, qui est préparé tout au long de la première partie de la vie. En absence de presque tout commentaire personnel de l’auteur, nous sommes obligés d’interroger le récit lui-même pour pénétrer les intentions de l’auteur. Ce dernier semble aspirer à l’objectivité en juxtaposant par exemple les deux filiations d’Alexandre sans porter de jugement précis sur leur véracité. L’insertion du traité sur les vertus invite le lecteur à traiter la chronique comme un ouvrage didactique. La vie du roi macédonien, sans être présentée comme exemplaire, fonctionne toutefois comme un exemple afin de mettre le lecteur en garde contre les vices de l’orgueil, de la cruauté et de l’injustice, les trois fautes d’Alexandre qui transforment le bon roi en un souverain presque tyrannique et finissent par entraîner sa mort prématurée.

273

9781903153734.indd 273

08/05/2017 08:29

9781903153734.indd 274

08/05/2017 08:29

11 Universal Histories and their Geographies: Navigating the Maps and Texts of Higden’s Polychronicon Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley

Maps and texts: locating geographical knowledge in universal histories In medieval universal histories there is a long tradition of including geographical as well as historical content about the world.1 Sometimes this geographical information is solely in textual form, sometimes it is expressed in the form of a world map and sometimes it appears as both. The focus of this essay is one particular English example, the Polychronicon, compiled by Ranulph Higden in the second quarter of the fourteenth century, where, in a number of copies, a map and text are used to present a geographical description of the wider world.2 This provides an opportunity to look closely at the relationship between visual and textual geographies in Higden’s Polychronicon, to explore how connections between them can offer insights into how these universal histories formed a basis for engaging with world geographies. Higden’s Polychronicon exists in numerous manuscripts, and some of those from the fourteenth century that contain mappaemundi have long received scholarly recognition by historians of cartography and geography.3 Most studies have either focused on the maps or the Polychronicon text, rather than bringing the two together, yet of course they were read as an entity. This

1 See

e.g. A. Merrills, History and Geography in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, 2008); A. Gransden, Historical Writing in England II (London 1982); A.-D. v. den Brincken, ‘Mappa mundi und Chronographia,’ Deutsches Archiv 24 (1968): 118–86. 2 The key work on Higden’s life and the Polychronicon remains J. Taylor, The Universal Chronicle of Ranulf Higden (Oxford, 1966). 3 See R. A. Skelton, ‘Ranulf Higden’, in Mappemondes A.D. 1200–1500, ed. M. Destombes (Amsterdam, 1964), pp. 149-60. Most modern authors refer back to K. Miller, Mappaemundi: Die ältesten Weltkarten III (Stuttgart, 1895), pp. 94–109. An historiography of Polychronicon mappaemundi has yet to be written, however.

275

9781903153734.indd 275

08/05/2017 08:29

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley issue of medieval maps so often becoming detached from their contexts is something that has been identified by Evelyn Edson.4 The aim of this paper – focusing on one fourteenth-century manuscript of Higden’s Polychronicon, containing not just one but two maps – is to address Edson’s concern. It does so by examining a copy of the Polychronicon once in the possession of Ramsey Abbey, in Huntingdonshire, in eastern England, but now London, British Library, Royal MS 14 C IX.5 Putting maps back into their context – placing maps – is not just a useful way of revisiting questions of how the maps and texts worked together to form an image of the world, but also a means to explore another contextual dimension, the geographical context or locale within which the manuscripts were produced and consumed. While this spatial recontextualisation of medieval sources is becoming popular in literary and linguistic studies of medieval manuscripts, it has yet really to be adopted for medieval maps and their associated texts. Natalia Lozovksy demonstrates the potential of this approach in her recent study of geographical texts housed at St Gallen during the ninth and tenth centuries, showing how the place of St Gallen itself came to influence the geographies that were written and read there by those at the monastery.6 This approach has the potential to yield some interesting insights into the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies that characterize those maps that appear in some fourteenth-century English copies of the Polychronicon. To date, though widely known and illustrated in modern historical works, the maps that appear in copies of the Polychronicon have tended to be examined for what they reveal of the connections between manuscripts and for their genealogies. In John Taylor’s detailed study of Higden and the Polychronicon, he relied largely on the stemma that Konrad Miller had compiled for his Mappaemundi: Die ältesten Weltkarten.7 This places both Royal MS 14 C IX maps alongside three other versions, as if related to them. But there are grounds to question this, not least because the relationship between Royal MS 14 C IX’s two maps is not altogether clear and requires further assessment as shall be shown here. More recently, Peter Barber has offered a slightly different stemma for the so-called ‘Higden maps’ in his study of the late fourteenth century Evesham mappamundi (now London, College of Arms Muniment Room 18/19 verso), which shows some similarities in style to those maps found in some copies of the Polychronicon (though, unlike these, 4 E.

Edson, Mapping Time and Space. How Medieval Map Makers Viewed their World (London, 1997), p. 13. 5 For the British Library catalogue entry for Royal MS 14 C IX, see: http://www. bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=5577&CollID=16&N Start=140309 [accessed 23 March 2015]. 6 N. Lozovsky, ‘The uses of classical history and geography in medieval St Gall’, in Mapping Medieval Geographies. Geographical encounters in the Latin West and beyond, 300–1600, ed. K. D. Lilley (Cambridge 2013), pp. 65–82. 7 Taylor, Universal Chronicle, p. 67;. Miller, Mappaemundi, p. 95.

276

9781903153734.indd 276

08/05/2017 08:29

The Maps and Texts of Higden's Polychronicon the Evesham map did not form part of a codex).8 The stylistic similarities between maps found in copies of the Polychronicon, pointed to by Barber and others, largely derive from focusing on the shapes of the maps, appearing as an oval or mandorla form as described by David Woodward in the Chicago History of Cartography.9 So far, what is largely overlooked by these studies is the relationships of the maps to their manuscript context, and the significance that this might have in explaining their particular appearance and content, as well as the relevance of the provenances of particular manuscripts, their geographical locales and the bearing this might have on a particular version of the Polychonicon. This paper further explores these overlooked aspects of the geographies of Higden’s Polychronicon, and does so by first examining the relationship between map and text in British Library, Royal MS 14 C IX. Ranulph Higden, who wrote his universal chronicle at the Benedictine abbey in Chester,10 deemed geographical knowledge to be an important requirement for a thorough understanding of history.11 This is made evident by the first of the Polychronicon’s seven books, which provides a description of the world, its provinces and people. Higden’s rendition of universal history – and geography – became an influential narrative in Britain and stayed authoritative until the sixteenth century.12 To get an idea of how the author and his intended audience pictured the world, it is useful to examine the mappaemundi that were included in some Polychronicon manuscripts. Sixteen surviving examples include maps of the world in two distinct designs. Both the oval and the almond-shaped maps13 show the habitable world – that is 8 P.

Barber, ‘The Evesham world map: a late medieval English view of God and the world’, Imago Mundi 47 (1995), 13–33 (p. 20). 9 D. Woodward, ‘Medieval mappaemundi’, in The History of Cartography, vol. 1. Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, ed. J. B. Harley and D. Woodward (Chicago, 1987), pp. 286–370. 10 Ranulph Higden, Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis; together with the English Translation of John Trevisa and of an Unknown Writer of the fifteenth century, ed. C. Babington and J. R. Lumby, 9 vols., Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores or Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages 41 (London, 1865–86); V. H. Galbraith, ‘An Autograph MS of Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon’, The Huntington Library Quarterly 23 (1959), 1–18; Taylor, Universal Chronicle, p. 2. 11 Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 30 (book 1, chapter 4). 12 Taylor, Universal Chronicle, p. 3; A. S. G. Edwards, ‘The Influence and Audience of the Polychronicon: Some Observations’, Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society 17 (1980), 113–9. 13 See footnote 50 below; I. Baumgärtner, ‘Graphische Gestalt und Signifikanz. Europa in den Weltkarten des Beatus von Liébana und des Ranulf Higden’, in Europa im Weltbild des Mittelalters. Kartographische Konzepte, ed. I. Baumgärtner and H. Kugler (Berlin, 2008), pp. 81–132 (pp. 104–5, n. 60, 61). A third group, consisting of circular maps, has been proposed by Skelton, ‘Ranulf Higden’, pp. 150–2; J.-G. Arentzen, Imago mundi cartographica. Studien zur Bildlichkeit mittelalterlicher Welt- und Ökumenekarten unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Zusammenwirkens von Text und

277

9781903153734.indd 277

08/05/2017 08:29

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley Asia, Europe and Africa – oriented towards the east and surrounded by the Ocean. The maps generally occupy a single page near the beginning of the chronicle, a position held also by the oval mappamundi in Higden’s only extant autograph, now at the Huntington Library (Figure 7).14 The two maps that form the main focus of this discussion are positioned on the first pages of London, British Library, Royal MS 14 C IX − the only copy of the Polychronicon that contains more than one map (Figures 1 and 2).15 This manuscript’s maps are of particular interest for several reasons: first, one of them is rather different. It is a rare double-paged Polychronicon map and the only one with lengthy inscriptions. Of the group it has received the most scholarly attention, and has been reproduced widely. But its relation to the smaller map in the same manuscript and their dual purpose in regards to the chronicle remains unclear. Second, since past studies of the ‘Higden maps’ often focused on the double-paged map, its interpretation not only influenced the perception of all Polychronicon maps, but also of the chronicle’s content and even of Ranulph Higden and his attitude towards geography and historiography.16 Higden himself, however, was quite certainly not involved in the creation of these Ramsey Abbey maps.17 Finally, the larger map’s potential divergence from ideas expressed in the Polychronicon and differences between the two maps make this manuscript and its maps a compelling topic of study. The existence of the more typical Polychronicon map immediately following the double-paged one raises questions about their dual function and why it was that the Ramsey Abbey Polychronicon was different from others of the same period. To explain the presence of two maps, it has been assumed that the smaller map might be an excerpt or summary of the other.18 But why a summary would have been necessary remains an open question. Moreover, the supposed summary provides information that is missing from the doublepaged map. Another theory states that ‘a cartographically-minded scribe’ or ‘a careful reader’ created the larger map, which seems plausible. It is, however, difficult to believe that the smaller map would have been added later, after its maker encountered a single-paged Polychronicon map in another

Bild (Munich, 1984), pp. 58–9; Woodward, ‘Mappaemundi’, pp. 312–3. But only one circular map seems to be situated in a Polychronicon: Cambridge, University Library, Add. MS 3077, fol. 11r; Baumgärtner, ‘Gestalt und Signifikanz’, pp. 105–6; E. Edson, The World Map, 1300–1492. The Persistence of Tradition and Transformation (Baltimore, 2007), pp. 167, 267, n. 5. 14 San Marino CA, Huntington Library, MS HM 132, fol. 4v; Galbraith, ‘An Autograph MS’. 15 London, British Library, Royal MS 14 C IX, fols. 1v–2r and fol. 2v. 16 Miller, Mappaemundi, pp. 108–9; Skelton, ‘Ranulf Higden’, p. 150. 17 Edson, World Map, pp. 167, 169; Barber, ‘Evesham World Map’, p. 17. 18 Miller, Mappaemundi, p. 95; Skelton, ‘Ranulf Higden’, p. 151.

278

9781903153734.indd 278

08/05/2017 08:29

The Maps and Texts of Higden's Polychronicon

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 1: Higden, Polychronicon. London, British Library, Royal MS 14 C IX, fols. 1v–2r (map c. 46.5 × 34 cm). Ramsey Abbey, Huntingdonshire, 1340s. Reproduced by permission of the British Library. © British Library Board. All rights reserved.

279

9781903153734.indd 279

08/05/2017 08:29

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 2: Higden, Polychronicon. London, British Library, Royal MS 14 C IX, fol. 2v (map c. 28.5 × 21 cm). Ramsey Abbey, Huntingdonshire, 1340s. Reproduced by permission of the British Library. © British Library Board. All rights reserved.

280

9781903153734.indd 280

08/05/2017 08:29

The Maps and Texts of Higden's Polychronicon manuscript.19 In this scenario, the smaller map would have been copied simply as part of the Polychronicon’s design, not as a valuable depiction of the world in its own right. It is more likely that different interests informed the design of each map. The different emphasis on territory boundaries, for example, suggests that contrasting intentions on the part of the manuscript’s owners might have called for two maps.20

Ordering the world: Higden’s universal histories and world geographies The links forged by medieval authors between histories and geographies in their universal histories were a means of ‘ordering the world’, both spatially and temporally, as Kathy Lavezzo observes when she asks: ‘What does geography add to the understanding of the history of a people? The imbrication of space and time in Higden, Orosius and other chroniclers demonstrates, as Henri Lefebvre has taught us, that space plays a crucial role in the constitution of societies. To enable his [her] readers to imagine that cultures of the past actually existed, the medieval chronicler must project or inscribe those cultures within a definable space.’21 However, early research on Higden’s Polychronicon tended to be either interested in the chronicle’s text or in its maps, with little consideration for the other medium in each case. In studies on the maps, selected details were compared with other extant maps or with well-known medieval or ancient texts. Higden’s own writing was only later considered as a source for the Polychronicon maps.22 Some misconceptions about the maps that resulted from a disregard of the chronicle are still in effect today. They concern, for example, the shape of the Polychronicon maps and the supposed modernity of the double-paged map, which will be discussed shortly. Equally detrimental is another aspect of past interpretations of the maps: the almost exclusive focus on factual details and their presence or absence in maps and texts. As a result, the majority of less elaborate Polychronicon maps were dismissed in favour of the double-paged map found in Royal MS 14 C IX. The latter was thought to be either especially close to Higden’s text or to be quite independent, depending on which details 19 P.

Barber, ‘Medieval maps of the world’, in The Hereford World Map: Medieval World Maps and their Context, ed. P. D. A. Harvey (London, 2006), pp. 1–44 (pp. 33–4); Edson, World Map, pp. 167, 169; Edson, Mapping, pp. 129–30. Barber and Edson both maintain that the map on fols. 1v–2r was created first, the one on fol. 2v second, but do not reveal their evidence. 20 Baumgärtner, ‘Gestalt und Signifikanz’, p. 109. 21 K. Lavezzo, Angels on the Edge of the World. Geography, Literature, and English Community. 1000–1534 (Ithaca NY, 2006), p. 80. 22 By Arentzen, Imago mundi cartographica, in 1984 and Edson, Mapping in 1997, for example.

281

9781903153734.indd 281

08/05/2017 08:29

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley were examined. After a brief evaluation of the chronicle’s relevance for certain features of the maps in Royal MS 14 C IX, an alternative interpretation of both maps will be suggested. The Polychronicon’s text does not demand a map nor claim that one is part of the manuscript.23 Nevertheless, its author evidently had an east-oriented plan of the three parts of the world in mind and expected the same of his readers. This becomes evident, for example, when Higden describes the Mediterranean Sea by stating that its origin lies in the west at the columns of Hercules (in the Strait of Gibraltar), with Africa on its right and Europe on its left.24 The maps also imply that readers were expected already to be familiar with such a world-image, since they neglect to label the biggest bodies of land and water: Asia, Africa and Europe, the Mediterranean Sea and the Ocean. The shape of the maps can be attributed to the text’s instructions as well, which has not been acknowledged by past researchers. Instead it was suggested that ancient cosmography, the page format or iconographic meaning required their particular outline.25 An explanation of their form, however, is supplied by the chronicle itself: Ranulph Higden states in his chapter on the world’s dimensions that the latitude of the habitable world, that is, the distance from the south coast of Africa to the Tanais (or Don) in the north, is supposed to be shorter than its longitude, from India to the Strait of Gibraltar, by almost half the longitude’s length.26 The significance of this

23 Higden

summarizes his first book with: ‘In primo tamen hujus operis libro, more divisi generis in species, mappa mundi describitur’ (First then, in a book of this work, after the custom of dividing the general into specifics, the map of the world will be described). The context makes it obvious that he is not referring to a particular physical map, but declaring his intention to describe the world (Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 26; Royal 14 C IX, fol. 9v; Woodward, ‘Mappaemundi’, p. 287). A map is not mentioned anywhere else in the text either; cf. Barber, ‘Evesham World Map’, p. 15; Edson, Mapping, p. 128. 24 Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 52 (cf. Royal 14 C IX, fol. 10v): ‘Est itaque maris magni origo in occidente apud Herculis columnas, ubi oceanus Atlanticus irrumpens in terras facit Gaditanum fretum; […] ad sui dexteram habens Africam, ad laevam vero Europam’. 25 M. F. de Barros-Sousa Santarém, Essai sur l’historie de la cosmographie et de la cartographie pendant le moyen-age et sur les progrès de la géographie après les grandes découvertes du XVe siècle, 3 vols. (Paris 1849–52), III, 82–3; O. Baldacci, ‘L’ecumene a “mandorla” ’, Geografia 6 (1983), 132–8. Skelton, ‘Ranulf Higden’, pp. 150–1; Taylor, Universal Chronicle, p. 66; A.-D. von den Brincken, ‘Mappa mundi und Chronographia. Studien zur imago mundi des abendländischen Mittelalters’, Deutsches Archiv für die Erforschung des Mittelalters 24 (1968), 118–186 (p. 150). Woodward, ‘Mappaemundi’, p. 313; Barber, ‘Evesham World Map’, p. 19; Barber, ‘Medieval maps’, pp. 32, 34. 26 Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 44 (chapter V: De orbis dimensione; cf. Royal 14 C IX, fol. 10r): ‘Longitudo vero terræ habitabilis ab ortu usque ad occasum, id est, ab India usque ad columnas Herculis in Gaditano freto habet octies quinquies centena septuaginta octo milliaria. Cujus quidem longitudinis dimensio compendiosior est per mare quam per terras. Latidudo autem terræ ab australi littore oceani

282

9781903153734.indd 282

08/05/2017 08:29

The Maps and Texts of Higden's Polychronicon paragraph was recognized by Jörg-Geerd Arentzen in 1984. However, he did not suppose that the oval or almond-shaped outlines could have been derived from Higden’s Text.27 In proposing Higden’s description as grounds for the world’s shape on the maps, the probable iconographic significance of their form should not be discounted. The association of the oval Ecumene with Noah’s Ark or of the almond-shape with the Christian mandorla28 certainly added another layer of meaning. But such parallels would have been most compelling, if the elongated form was actually believed to represent the world’s approximate dimensions. On this subject, it should also be mentioned that the crucial difference between oval and almond-shaped Polychronicon maps does not lie in their outer contours but in their inner design. Oval maps depict land, territories and sea, while almond-shaped maps consist mainly of place names. Only a few topographies – usually the Red Sea, Paradise and Mount Atlas – are marked in the latter. Consequently, the classification of Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates MS 33.4.12, fol. 13v as a ‘transitional form’ is unconvincing.29 Its design corresponds to the oval maps, regardless of its outline, which is only slightly narrower at the top and bottom. The oval and almond-shaped Polychronicon maps represent two different approaches that may have originated independently. Another matter to reconsider is the claim that the double-paged map contains newer information compared to Higden’s text and the smaller Polychronicon maps.30 Apart from the fact that this would do little to explain the differences between the large map of Royal MS 14 C IX and other Polychronicon maps, the claim is also not justified in regard to the text. Most of the modern information that has been pointed out on the double-paged map also appears in the chronicle. The map’s two inscriptions on the Tartars, for example,31 can be linked to the seventh book of the chronicle. ‘Soldanus Æthiopici usque ad ostium Tanai fluminis in septentrione pene dimidio minor est quam prædicta longitudo, et continet quinquagies quatuor centena sexaginta duo milliaria’. 27 Arentzen thought that the maps adopted their shape from an unidentified early model; Arentzen, Imago mundi cartographica, p. 58, n. 119, 120. 28 Barber, ‘Medieval maps’, p. 34. 29 Baumgärtner, ‘Gestalt und Signifikanz’, p. 117. Skelton, ‘Ranulf Higden’, p. 152; Woodward, ‘Mappaemundi’, pp. 313, 365, fig. 18.21; Arentzen, Imago mundi cartographica, pp. 58–9. 30 W. L. Bevan and H. W. Phillott, Mediaeval Geography. An Essay in Illustration of the Hereford Mappa Mundi (London, 1873), p. xlv; Taylor, Universal Chronicle, pp. 65, 68; Arentzen, Imago mundi cartographica, p. 58, n. 117; Barber, ‘Evesham World Map’, pp. 28–9. 31 Other examples are place names in Anglia, the ‘Gens Arabea Ethiops’, Cyprus’s wine, Alexandria’s location ‘in tertio climate’, two islands in the Red Sea and information that can be found on the smaller map as well: European place names,

283

9781903153734.indd 283

08/05/2017 08:29

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley t’t’ic’ rex Armenie omnes reges orientalis fere sunt subiecti tartaris’32 (the sultan of Turkey, the king of Armenia and nearly all eastern rulers have been overthrown by the Tartars) appears on the map near Albania while the same is implied by the chronicle’s text: ‘Hoc anno gens Tartarorum, subactis orientalibus provinciis, […]’33 (In this year the Tartars, after they had overthrown the eastern provinces, …). An inscription placed in north-eastern Europe – ‘Ex parte aquilonis habitant Tartari, quorum rex fuit presbter Johannes’ (From the north live the Tartars, whose king was presbyter John) – can also be linked to a passage in the text: ‘Hi nempe sub montibus Indiæ in regione Tartara constituti dominum suum regem Indiæ David filium presbyteri Johannis occidentes, ad rapinas et deprædationes aliarum nationum processerunt.’ (Those [the Tartars] then, having settled at the foot of the Indian mountains in the Tartar region, killed their ruler, the king of India, David, the son of presbyter John, [and] proceeded with the robbing and plundering of other nations).34 Other supposedly new information on the double-paged map can be found in the chronicle as well. Brindisi in Italy, for example, an important harbour for travellers to the Holy Land, is mentioned there. This leaves, so far, Mount Gotthard in the Alps as the single new entry on the larger map that is missing from the chronicle’s text.35 The relationship between map and text needs further study, but it seems inaccurate to characterize the double-paged map as a modern image of the world in contrast to Higden’s text and the more concise Polychronicon maps. A more pressing concern is the apparent focus on isolated details in past scholarly interpretations of the maps. Quantity of detail seems to have served as a measurement of map quality. Not least because of its wealth of

Acon in Palestine and the islands between Ireland and Thule; Miller, Mappaemundi, p. 108; cf. A.-D. von den Brincken, Fines Terrae. Die Enden der Erde und der vierte Kontinent auf mittelalterlichen Weltkarten, MGH Schriften 36 (Hannover, 1992), p. 113; I. Baumgärtner, ‘Weltbild und Empirie. Die Erweiterung des kartographischen Weltbilds durch die Asienreisen des späten Mittelalters’, in Geschichte und historisches Lernen, ed. G. Henke-Bockschatz (Kassel, 1995), pp. 11–48 (p. 26, n. 49). On the use of old toponyms and Higden’s disregard of contemporary events, see Edson, Mapping, p. 131 and Edson, World Map, p. 167. 32 Royal MS 14 C IX, fols. 1v–2r; Miller, Mappaemundi, p. 101. The second word probably does not mean ‘tartaricus’ as Miller supposed (ibid.), but ‘turkiae’; cf. Roger Bacon in part IV of his Opus Majus: ‘Et Soldanus Turkiae, et rex Armeniae, et princeps Antiochiae, et omnes principes in oriente usque in Indiam sunt eis subjecti [...]’, ed. J. H. Bridges, The ‘Opus Majus’ of Roger Bacon, 2 vols. (London, 1900), I, 370. 33 Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, VIII, 212 (book 7, chapter 35). 34 Royal MS 14 C IX, fols. 1v–2r; cf. Miller, Mappaemundi, p. 101; Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, VIII, 176 (book 7, chapter 32). 35 Barber, ‘Medieval maps’, pp. 34–5 (on Brindisi and Mount Gotthard); Miller, Mappaemundi, p. 100. Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 200 (book 1, chapter 23).

284

9781903153734.indd 284

08/05/2017 08:29

The Maps and Texts of Higden's Polychronicon information, the double-paged map has been singled out among Polychronicon maps and was, at first, even regarded as the closest copy of an original by Higden.36 Later, it still received praise for its refinement and complexity, for its rich content and its numerous quotations from Higden’s writing. Based on the quantity of geographic and ethnographic information shared between the double-paged map and Higden’s chronicle, this atypical depiction has been perceived as superior to other Polychronicon maps. Of the two maps in Royal MS 14 C IX it was referred to as ‘the finer one’.37 Factors other than the amount of matching details should also be examined in regard to the Polychronicon maps. But a closer inspection of these details does not even reveal a great discrepancy between the two maps in Royal MS 14 C IX. Their general structure is similar and matches the chronicle’s description: the world’s three parts and the Mediterranean Sea are shown surrounded by the Ocean, the Red and Caspian Seas are depicted as bays and Paradise is located in the far east of Asia.38 Slight variations in proportions are owed to the schematic style of the maps. For the most part, maps and chronicle present similar geographic information. Counting only geographical names, there are 236 on the double-paged map – 89 of them appear (also) in one of 93 inscriptions – and 155 names on the smaller map, which features only one inscription (transitus hebreorum). 112 of the larger map’s names are absent from its smaller counterpart, but the latter shows in turn 29 names that do not appear on the former. So far there seem to be 32 names that are only referenced on the double-paged map and neither in the chronicle nor on the other map. Eight names are exclusive to the smaller map. Lastly, three islands can be found on both maps that are not mentioned in the chronicle.39 Those numbers indicate a substantial overlap of information, but there are also discrepancies between the two maps and between maps and text. In some instances the double-paged map fits the chronicle’s description more closely – in regard to the course of the rivers Tanais and Euphrates for example.40 Sometimes, as with the islands Colchos and Anglia, the smaller

36 Miller,

Mappaemundi, p. 95; Woodward, ‘Mappaemundi’, p. 312. ‘Evesham World Map’, pp. 15, 17; Edson, Mapping, pp. 128, 130; cf. Barber, ‘Medieval maps’, p. 34; Edson, World Map, p. 167. 38 Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 46–8, 52–78 (book 1, chapters 6, 8–10). 39 Royal MS 14 C IX, fols. 1v–2v; Miller, Mappaemundi, pp. 99–108; Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, esp. IX, 3–77 (Index Nominum). Only geographical names were counted (doubles only once), not terms for people (who are referenced often on the larger map and just once on the smaller map, i.e. amazonum) or other information. 40 As described in the chronicle, the Tanais connects the Ocean with the northern end of the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates reaches the Red Sea on fols. 1v–2r. The smaller map has the Tanais running from East to West and the Euphrates ending at Mount Libani. Royal MS 14 C IX, fols. 1v–2v; Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 68, 70. 37 Barber,

285

9781903153734.indd 285

08/05/2017 08:29

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley map is closer to the text.41 The maps differ when the chronicle either offers more than one possible location or none; examples are the Nile and the Ciclopes respectively.42 At times neither map fits the text in all details, which is the case with Zeeland.43 Aside from the fact that the chronicle’s maps and text must be examined more closely before their connections and differences can be analysed adequately, the question remains how those findings then should be interpreted. It has been argued that, since the majority of place names is shared among most medieval world maps and descriptions, similarities between text and map are not sufficient basis for assumptions about their relationship; instead, conclusions should be drawn from discrepancies. In the case of the Polychronicon and its double-paged map, Petra Ueberholz concluded, based on their differences, that image and text were created independently of each other, that is, by using different sources. The implication would be that either the map maker did not care about the resulting deviations between image and text, or that he intended them.44 The differences in question include the course of the Nile, inscriptions on various people in Africa, Sicily’s description and islands in the Ocean.45 The accuracy and the weight of this argument, however, can be called into question. The chronicle itself discusses, for instance, several alternatives for the Nile’s course.46 At least in one case, the description of a people – the Antipedes – can be found in the chronicle even though their name is not mentioned.47 On Sicily, map and text actually 41 Between

the islands Colchos and Patmos, which are mentioned together twice in the first book, the larger map opts to depict only Patmos, even though Colchos appears five more times in the chronicle, Patmos only once. The smaller map shows both islands. Royal MS 14 C IX, fols. 1v–2v; Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 56, 318; II, 362, 388, 402, 404, 406; IV, 472. On Anglia, see below. 42 Royal MS 14 C IX, fols. 1v–2v. On the Nile see Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 70, 132–4; cf. P. Ueberholz, ‘“Requiritur autem mapa duplex” – Die Darstellung Afrikas in der angelsächsischen Geschichtsschreibung und Kartographie des Mittelalters’, in Aus Überrest und Tradition, ed. P. Engels (Lauf an der Pegnitz, 1999), pp. 54–72 (pp. 62–3, 66). The Ciclopes are in Asia on fols. 1v–2r, in Africa on fol. 2v; Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, II, 202. 43 Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 262–4 (Selandia); Miller, Mappaemundi, p. 100; Royal MS 14 C IX, fols. 1v–2v. 44 Ueberholz, ‘Requiritur’, pp. 61, 63–5. 45 Ueberholz, ‘Requiritur’, pp. 63–4, 66; Edson, Mapping, p. 129. 46 Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 70, 132–4. 47 Ueberholz, ‘Requiritur’, p. 63. ‘Antipedes qui eversis plantis octentos habent digitos’ (Antipedes who have on their reversed feet eight digits) is the inscription on Royal MS 14 C IX, fols. 1v–2r; Miller, Mappaemundi, p. 105. The chronicle mentions in chapter 11 ‘In quibusdam Indiæ montibus sunt homines adversas plantas habentes et digitos octonos in manibus.’ (In these Indian mountains are people who have feet that are oriented backwards and eight fingers on their hands.); Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 82.

286

9781903153734.indd 286

08/05/2017 08:29

The Maps and Texts of Higden's Polychronicon give the same information.48 And lastly, the oceanic islands ought not to be regarded as a case of discrepancy between Royal MS 14 C IX’s maps and text. The islands exemplify, instead, how the selection of information follows different principles in texts and images. In his chapter on the islands of the Ocean, Higden begins his description with the Fortune Islands in the west, mentions Capraria and Canaria and then jumps to Denmark (Dacia) in the north. From there, he makes his way back towards the west, covers Wyntlandia, Island and Thule (Tile), remarks shortly on Scandia, Lingos and Vergion, as well as on Tilis near India, and ends with Norway.49 The oceanic islands that follow are discussed within their own chapters: Ireland merits five, Scotland and Wales one each and the remaining twenty-two chapters of the first book are reserved for Anglia. Consequently, three quarters of the Ocean are left out of Higden’s account. All known Polychronicon maps, but two, concur at this point with the text and show islands only in the north-west corner of the Ocean.50 It is remarkable that just on the two maps in Royal 14 C IX the Ocean is filled all around with toponyms and/or inscriptions. This representation, however, does not contradict Higden. He implied in an early chapter that there are more islands in the world then those mentioned by name in the Polychronicon, when he reported that Julius Caesar’s survey registered 72 islands.51

48 The

inscription on Royal MS 14 C IX, fols. 1v–2r reads ‘Sicilia insula […] habet Cillam et Caribdim et duos fontes natura contrarios’ (Miller, Mappaemundi, p. 106), which does not imply that Scylla and Charybdis are two springs of opposing nature (Edson, Mapping, p. 129), but that Sicily has ‘duo famosa et fabulosa monstra, Scyllam et Charybdim’ as well as ‘fontes duo, quorum unus sterilem fecundat, alter vero fecunduam sterilem reddit’ (two springs, one of which fertilizes the sterile, while the other renders the fertilized sterile again); Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 314, 316. 49 Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 320–9 (chapter 31). 50 Cf. seven oval maps – San Marino CA, Huntington Library, HM MS 132, fol. 4v (Fig.  7); Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates MS 33.4.12, fol. 13v; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Tanner 170, fol. 15v (Fig. 3); Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 89, fol. 13v (Fig. 4); Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 4922, fol. 2r (Fig. 5); London, Lambeth Palace, MS 112, fol. 2v (an oval sketch); London, College of Arms, MS Muniments 18/19 (Evesham map) – and eight almond-shaped maps – London, British Library, Add. MS 10104, fol. 8v; London, British Library, Royal MS 14 C XII, fol. 9v; Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 21, fol. 9r; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 196, fol. 195v; Warminster, Longleat House, Library of the Marquess of Bath, MS 50, fol. 7v; Winchester College, MS 15, fol. 14r; Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS reg. lat. 731, fol. 0v; Oxford, Magdalen College, MS 190, fol. 1v (without the framing Ocean) – and the circular map Cambridge, University Library, Add. MS 3077, fol. 11r (Miller, Mappaemundi, p. 99, fig. 37). (The almond-shaped Chester, Cathedral MS 2, fol. 6r was unavailable for examination.) 51 Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, I, 42 (book 1, chapter 5).

287

9781903153734.indd 287

08/05/2017 08:29

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley The text’s content follows the logic of its narrative. Higden provided a rich enough description of the world without further delaying his main topic, Anglia, by dwelling on islands that are inconsequential to his world history. A visual representation of the habitable world, on the other hand, would be expected to represent all regions equally. The Ocean might not be the most crucial area in this regard, but by offering information about its whole circumference the maps in Royal MS 14 C IX appear to present a more complete image. These examples might suffice to illustrate that interpretations based on the absence or presence of details in maps and texts remain wanting. Furthermore, such interpretations imply that the best map to accompany a text is the one that repeats as many of its names and facts as possible. This approach disregards the specific potential of a visual representation and also fails to explain the design of mappaemundi. In conclusion, while the various details of the maps are certainly important indicators of their sources and the ways in which geographical information circulated, they do not alone determine the relationship between text and map: other factors were at work.

Placing geographies I: the ‘spatial logic’ of the Ramsey Abbey Polychronicon To gain an understanding of the connection between a specific image and text, their function in the context of the chronicle and the message they each intend to convey require further consideration. The way in which a map-image seeks to order the world is based upon certain principles, a ‘spatial logic’, underpinning a map, or maps in the case of Royal MS 14 C IX. Even though the question of a map’s function has long been considered essential,52 Polychronicon maps, and especially the juxtaposition of the two maps in Royal MS 14 C IX, were rarely discussed from this perspective. A closer look at the design of both maps affords some insight into their ‘spatial logic’. The smaller map on fol. 2v (Figure 2) is drawn rather cursorily, with unsteady lines especially around the Ocean. Bodies of water were coloured unevenly or, in case of the Danube and the Caspian Sea, not at all. Coasts, provinces, rivers and mountains were sketched by a hand that was confident of the information, but not too concerned with clean draughtsmanship. Nine mountains or mountain ranges are marked by rounded shapes and only three cities – Jerusalem, Rome and Paris – have been emphasized. Apart 52 For

example, P. D. A. Harvey, ‘Medieval Maps: An Introduction’, in The History of Cartography, ed. J. B. Harley and D. Woodward (Chicago 1987), I, 283–5 (p. 284): ‘In assessing medieval maps we should thus always try to discover the intention of their maker and judge how far this was achieved; to compare them with the maps of later centuries is to apply a quite inappropriate set of standards.’

288

9781903153734.indd 288

08/05/2017 08:29

The Maps and Texts of Higden's Polychronicon from a sketch of Eve and Adam, indicating Paradise, no figurative elements appear on the map. The depicted land is for the most part clearly divided into territories and labelled with place names, leaving little unclaimed space. The names are, in general, legible when the book is held in the usual way. Only some vertical toponyms require the chronicle to be turned anticlockwise. The drawing style and script of the maps in Royal MS 14 C IX indicate that they were not done by the same hand. The execution of the doublepaged map is more precise (Figure 1). Its Ocean has been drawn with the aid of compasses or a template, the coloured sections were filled in meticulously. Numerous figurative elements in red and black adorn the map. While Paradise remained blank,53 many cities and places were marked with architectural vignettes or illustrations. Twelve faces in profile represent the winds along the Ocean, mountains and marches appear in blue-green. Most eye-catching are the areas tinted in red: the Red Sea, a medallion representing Jerusalem and, most unusual, a very large, red Anglia counterbalancing the Red Sea across the world. The larger map is, however, dominated by its inscriptions. The addition of illustrations and colours provides much-needed orientation for the viewer, since territory boundaries and place names do not create a clear structure. It often remains uncertain, especially in Africa, whether lines separate different territories or merely inscriptions.54 Writing covers the world’s image to such a degree that little space remains free. This must have been a deliberate choice. One indication is the map’s favouring of full or truncated sentences over names and symbols. As a result, inscriptions sometimes list provinces, describe geographies or name cities when a toponym or symbol would have been a more efficient way to impart knowledge.55 The double-paged map, crammed full with information, requires time to be read. In order to fit everything on the map, the drawing was spread over two pages with the book turned 90 degrees clockwise. In this position, its heavier part may rest on the table while the top half of the map could be propped up for a closer examination. Most of its inscriptions and drawings – with the exception of the twelve winds – are upright from this angle. There are,

53 The

square in the very East on the double-paged map ‘contains a faint outline sketch, almost certainly an illustration of Adam and Eve and Tree of Knowledge observed in other Polychronicon mappae mundi’ according to British Library, Digitised Manuscripts: Royal MS 14 C IX, http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay. aspx?ref=Royal_MS_14_C_IX [accessed 29 January 2016], which is not discernible in reproductions. 54 Baumgärtner, ‘Gestalt und Signifikanz’, p. 107. 55 Royal MS 14 C IX, fols. 1v–2r on Italy, for example: ‘Ytalia habet provincias videlicet Calabriam, Campaniam, Beneventanam, Tusciam, Emiliam, Liguriam et Lumbardiam, in Tuscia est Roma’, cf. Miller, Mappaemundi, p. 100. See also Hispania, Francia, Campania maior, Apulia, Germania, Saba (‘est pars Arabie’), Babilonia (‘est pars Caldee’), Partya, Numidia (‘Metropolis est Cartago’), ibid., pp. 99–104.

289

9781903153734.indd 289

08/05/2017 08:29

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley however, some remaining texts, mostly in the Ocean’s north and south, in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, that necessitate another 90 degree turn, leaving the manuscript upside down in relation to the chronicle’s text. The practical implications of each map’s design are unmistakable. A reader may either study the world on the double-paged map, or read the chronicle, but both is not possible at the same time. The smaller world map, on the other hand, can be examined and re-examined while reading the text, since it not only faces the same way, but it is also situated conveniently on a verso page at the beginning of the book. The different ways to access the maps correspond with the type of information provided in each one. On the double-paged map, a large amount of material, mostly in text form, demands extended attention. Through a substantial selection of detail, the map creates its own picture of the world, which seeks to be viewed independently. The smaller map, on the other hand, provides an overview of territories and place names, which requires readers to either have prior knowledge or access to additional information. The omission of the toponyms Germania in favour of its provinces and Francia in favour of Paris56 might serve as an example that the map’s content has not been reduced for simplicity but for clarity. The map was not meant to be studied by itself but to provide a frame of reference for readers of the Polychronicon. While the double-paged map produces a narrative space on its own,57 its smaller neighbour and other Polychronicon maps develop a narrative in cooperation with the chronicle’s text – and consequently do not need inscriptions of their own. Those findings match the design of both depictions of the world. The smaller map, a clear if not overly neat sketch, provides pertinent information but does not invite readers to linger. The larger map, on the other hand, intends to be a work of art in itself – despite all the content it derived from the chronicle. In this context, the script of each map is noteworthy as well. The names on the smaller example are written carefully and legibly, while text on the double-paged map is frequently hard to read.58 The writing seems to lend further evidence to the hypothesis that the double-paged map ‘was specifically created for private research and study’,59 while the smaller map was meant to serve readers of the Polychronicon in general. The creation of 56 Paris

appears rarely on Polychronicon maps (cf. Baumgärtner, ‘Gestalt und Signifikanz’, p. 113) and only Royal MS 14 C IX, fol. 2v labels the city instead of France (cf. London, British Library, Harley MS 3673, fol. 84r and Edson, World Map, p. 267, footnote 5). 57 I. Baumgärtner, ‘Erzählungen kartieren. Jerusalem in mittelalterlichen Karten­ räumen’, in Projektion – Reflexion – Ferne. Räumliche Vorstellungen und Denk­figuren im Mittelalter, ed. S. Glauch, S. Köbele and U. Störmer-Caysa (Berlin, 2011), pp. 193–223 (p. 206). 58 Miller, Mappaemundi, p. 96. 59 Barber, ‘Medieval maps’, p. 34.

290

9781903153734.indd 290

08/05/2017 08:29

The Maps and Texts of Higden's Polychronicon both versions was closely connected to Higden’s chronicle, but only the smaller example – which resembles the other extant Polychronicon maps in its conciseness – was supposed to be used together with the text.

Placing geographies II: the locales of Polychronicon manuscripts Of the two, the smaller map in Royal MS 14 C IX is, of course, the one that bears closest similarities to the maps that appear in other fourteenth-century English manuscripts of the Polychronicon. But by grouping these together as one, the differences between them risk being overlooked, differences that have significance for understanding the relationship between the maps and text. Just looking at how Britain is represented, for example, reveals some interesting variations between the maps in a small number of English manuscripts of the Polychronicon, namely Bodleian Library MS Tanner 170, Oxford Corpus Christi College MS 89, Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France MS lat. 4922, Huntington Library HM MS 132 and Royal MS 14 C IX (Figures 3, 4, 5, 7 and 2). Of these, starting with the earliest and likely autograph copy, Huntington Library HM MS 132 (Figure 6) shows Britain comprising England, Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man, all separated from the mainland of Europe and depicted by their names placed within rectangles, rendering each of the four discrete geographical entities. This form is evident also in the small map in Royal MS 14 C IX (fol. 2v) as well as the BNF manuscript (fol. 2r) and also the Bodleian Tanner version (Figures 2, 5 and 3).60 It differs, however, from the form chosen to represent parts of Britain in some other Polychronicon maps of the fourteenth century: particularly Corpus Christi College MS 89 (fol. 13v) (Figure 4), which instead shows England in an almond shape with eight places named. The island here dominates neighbouring Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Man, which are drawn as separate units in rectangles, much smaller than the almond shape for Anglia. This form for England is much more akin to the depiction used in the large map (fols. 1v–2r) in Royal MS 14 C IX, discussed above, with its castellated cities and curvilinear island outline (Figure 1). It would seem then there are two traditions for representing, mapping, England included within Royal MS 14 C IX, the smaller map reflecting one tradition with parallels with the autograph copy (Figure 6) and the larger one sharing something in common with the map in MS 89 (Figure 4). As Barber also demonstrates, with its large and more elongated shape for England and its depiction of named places, the double-paged map in Royal MS 14 C IX has some similarities with the Evesham Map (College of 60 There are four separate British islands as well on three almond-shaped Polychronicon

maps (British Library, Add. MS 10104, fol. 8v; British Library, Royal MS 14 C XII, fol. 9v; Corpus Christi College, MS 21, fol. 9r) and on the circular example (Cambridge University Library, Add. MS 3077, fol. 11r).

291

9781903153734.indd 291

08/05/2017 08:29

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 3: Higden, Polychronicon. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Tanner 170, fol. 15v (map c. 32.5 × 21.5 cm). Augustinian Priory of St Oswald, Gloucester, late 14th century. Reproduced by permission of the British Library. © British Library Board. All rights reserved.

292

9781903153734.indd 292

08/05/2017 08:29

The Maps and Texts of Higden's Polychronicon

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 4: Higden, Polychronicon. Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 89, fol. 13v (map c. 29.5 × 20.5 cm). Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter, Gloucester, c. 1400. Reproduced by permission of the Master and President, Corpus Christi College, Oxford. © Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 2017.

293

9781903153734.indd 293

08/05/2017 08:29

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 5: Higden, Polychronicon. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 4922, fol. 2r (map c. 27.5 × 20 cm). Norwich Cathedral Priory, c. 1390? By permission of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

294

9781903153734.indd 294

08/05/2017 08:29

The Maps and Texts of Higden's Polychronicon

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 6: The Atlantic coast and islands: Higden, Polychronicon. San Marino (California), Huntington Library, HM MS 132, fol. 4v. St Werburgh’s Abbey, Chester, c.1330. Reproduced by permission of the Huntington Library.

Arms, Muniment Room 18/19 verso), which he dates to around 1390, similar to the MS 89 and BNF Polychronicon maps (Figures 4 and 5).61 In Royal MS 14 C IX the two maps show, in one manuscript, two distinct ways of mapping the world in a fourteenth-century Polychronicon, something that might be explained through the very places that these map manuscripts themselves occupied, their locales. Higden wrote his chronicle in Chester on the geographical fringes of England. 62 He provided a global and universal narrative that ultimately advised its British audience about Britain’s place in the world and in history.63 Despite the central role that Anglia plays in the Polychronicon, Higden chose

61 Barber,

‘Evesham World Map’, p. 20. ed. Babington and Lumby, II, 76 (book 1, chapter 48). 63 P. Brown, ‘Higden’s Britain’, in Medieval Europeans. Studies in Ethnic Identity and National Perspectives in Medieval Europe, ed. A. P. Smyth (Houndmills, 1998), pp. 103–18 (p. 104–5); Lavezzo, Angels, pp. 71–92. 62 Polychronicon,

295

9781903153734.indd 295

08/05/2017 08:29

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley its marginality as the main theme in his portrayal of the island.64 The island’s position almost outside of the habitable world is a recurring topic that undergoes a whole range of interpretations. Higden describes Anglia as small and peripheral in contrast to a great centre like Rome, only to draw connections between the two, which underline Britain’s significance.65 He paints it as a rough and uncultured environment but also as a paradise of marvels and natural plenty. Its diversity and changeability is stressed alongside its permanence.66 In Higden’s opinion Britain is special, because it is different from any other place.67 In this regard, the double-paged map cannot serve as a suitable illustration. Its representation of Anglia deviates considerably from the chronicle and other Polychronicon maps. On most of the latter – including the small map in Royal MS 14 C IX – the writer’s and potential reader’s own locale is an island in the Ocean – a small rectangle north-west of the habitable world. But on the double-paged map Anglia is not only at least the size of Hispania or Francia, it is also pushed inside the circumference of the world’s three known parts, distorting a large portion of Europe. In this, the double-paged map is unique among Polychronicon maps. While Anglia is also of a considerable size in Corpus Christi College MS 89 (Figure 4) and on the Evesham map, it is there clearly placed in the Ocean, outside the Ecumene.68 Whereas on the larger map in Royal MS 14 C IX Anglia matches the Polychronicon’s description neither in terms of its position in relation to other territories, nor is it ‘quasi extra orbem posita’ (situated almost outside the world).69 Both the chronicle and the double-paged map place great emphasis on Anglia, but in a markedly different way. On the map, Anglia appears as a big, important part of Europe, which is a patriotic visualisation that could have been employed by any continental nation. The motive of marginality, from which Higden derives many of Britain’s qualities, is purposely negated in this image. In contrast, the smaller map in Royal MS 14 C IX and other Polychronicon maps opt to show Anglia’s remote position over any of its other characteristics. Those maps provide, not only in the case of Britain, a basic structure that is compatible with the text’s multifaceted content, while the double-paged map uses the Polychronicon as a starting point to create its own view of the world. The larger size of Anglia makes space for the representation of fourteen

64 Brown,

‘Higden’s Britain’; Lavezzo, Angels, pp. 73–5. Angels, pp. 88–90. 66 Lavezzo, Angels, pp. 74, 76, 84–7; Brown, ‘Higden’s Britain’, pp. 107–9. 67 Lavezzo, Angels, p. 82. 68 Skelton, ‘Ranulf Higden’, p. 152; Barber, ‘Evesham World Map’, pp. 19, 25. 69 Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, II, 10 (book 1, chapter 40); cf. A. Galloway, ‘Latin England’, in Imagining a Medieval English Nation, ed. K. Lavezzo, Medieval Cultures 37 (Minneapolis, 2004), pp. 41–95 (pp. 55–6). 65 Lavezzo,

296

9781903153734.indd 296

08/05/2017 08:29

The Maps and Texts of Higden's Polychronicon English cities (Figure 1).70 Chester is not among them, despite several references that Higden makes to his own city in the Polychronicon.71 Instead, Stamford appears on the map, a small yet significant detail in interpreting this particular version of the Polychronicon and its two maps, for Stamford was not a large urban centre at the time this copy of the manuscript was produced, yet it lay not too far from Ramsey Abbey.72 It would seem that the manuscript’s own geography has an importance in its particular placing of geographical knowledge. Returning to the other English fourteenth-century Polychronicon manuscripts with maps, there is one further and final way that thinking about place offers some insights into the presence of two maps in Royal MS 14 C IX. The group of four oval-shaped maps that all show England, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man as schematic rectangles of approximately equal size – Huntington Library HM MS 132, BNF MS lat. 4922, Bodleian Library Tanner 170 and Royal MS 14 C IX, fol. 2v (Figures 7, 5, 3 and 2) – provides a basis for thinking about where these particular manuscripts were produced and by whom, searching perhaps for common connections between them. Here, geography – and particularly physical distance – clearly separates these four examples: one manuscript was at Chester (Huntington HM 132), another at Norwich (BNF lat. 4922), a third at Gloucester (Bodleian, Tanner 170) and the fourth, of course, at Ramsey Abbey (Royal MS 14 C IX). The relative proximity of Ramsey Abbey with Norwich – both located in eastern England and some seventy miles (110 km) apart in adjoining counties – might be pointed to as a possible basis for explaining the shared traits between the two maps in these manuscripts, at least as far as their depiction of England is concerned. So too might the fact that Ramsey Abbey and Norwich Cathedral both belonged to the same religious order, since both were Benedictine monasteries. Such potential connections and links, between houses of the same order, might suggest why Ramsey Abbey felt inclined to include two maps in Royal MS 14 70 Peter

Barber (Barber, ‘Medieval maps’, p. 35) lists: ‘Cornwall […], London, Winchester, Exeter, Bristol, Gloucester, Worcester, Oxford, Northampton, Stamford, Nottingham, Lincoln, Durham, and York.’ Other transcriptions offer different readings: cf. R. Gough, British topography. Or, an historical account of what has been done for illustrating the topographical antiquities of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 vols. (London, 1780), I, 61; Miller, Mappaemundi, p. 106; British Library, Online Gallery: ‘Ramsey Abbey Higden World Map, Ca 1350’, http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ onlineex/unvbrit/r/001roy000014c09u00001vrb.html, and ‘Map Of The World, In Ranulph Higden’s ‘Polychronicon’ f.2r’, http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ onlineex/illmanus/roymanucoll/m/011roy000014c09u00002000.html [accessed 29 January 2016]. 71 Polychronicon, ed. Babington and Lumby, II, 76–80 (book 1, chapter 48). 72 ‘The placing of such a relatively unimportant town as Stamford near the middle of England may also be significant: the manuscript’s earliest recorded owner […] was abbot of Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire, not far distant from Stamford’, Barber, ‘Medieval maps’, p. 35.

297

9781903153734.indd 297

08/05/2017 08:29

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 7: Higden, Polychronicon. San Marino (California), Huntington Library, HM MS 132, fol. 4v (map c. 20,5 × 16 cm). St Werburgh’s Abbey, Chester, c.1330. Reproduced by permission of the Huntington Library.

298

9781903153734.indd 298

08/05/2017 08:29

The Maps and Texts of Higden's Polychronicon C IX. The larger map, with more details and with its comparatively dominant England, is comparable, for example, with that of another manuscript of the Polychronicon belonging to the Benedictine monastery, St Peter’s Abbey, at Gloucester, as well as Evesham Abbey with its mappamundi with England depicted in similarly elongated style, as Peter Barber discusses.73 Perhaps, then, the Ramsey Abbey Polychronicon, with its two maps, reflects a convergence, within one manuscript, of two Benedictine cartographic traditions, each reflecting the practices of composing and drawing mappaemundi established by different groups of monks yet collectively belonging to the same monastic order? Knowing more about the locales of the production and consumption of these manuscripts, and their myriad geographies, would help explore this hypothesis further, rather than taking an approach that instead simply puts them altogether as one single map ‘type’.

Navigating the Polychronicon and its myriad geographies Placing Polychronicon maps both geographically and denominationally clearly has some interpretative potential for deepening understanding not just of Royal MS 14 C IX and its two maps but other Polychronicon manuscripts. While historians of cartography have tended to draw their stemma of maps and manuscripts with attention to time and when maps originated, the ‘where’ has been overlooked, yet clearly has significance. In one city, then, two Polychronicon maps have completely different representations of Britain: at Gloucester, the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter chose the ovoid scheme for depicting Anglia in their manuscript (Corpus Christi College MS 89, fol. 13v) (Figure 4), while in the adjacent Augustinian Priory of St Oswald, a stone’s throw away from St Peter’s (Figure 8),74 the Polychronicon mappamundi uses the four separated rectangles to depict England, Wales, Scotland and Man, akin to the autograph version of Chester (Figures 3 and 7). So geographical proximity in itself was no prescriptive determinant in creating similar-looking maps, as far as the ones in the Polychronicon are concerned, and instead networks and links between religious houses of the same orders seem to have been more influential; something we are perhaps seeing in Royal MS 14 C IX, where both versions were included, one in the smaller map, the other in the larger map. Geography thus performs a two-fold role in explaining why Higden maps share certain stylistic traits and features. The manuscript ‘placing’ of Polychronicon maps in the text and as part of the narrative structure of

73 Barber,

‘The Evesham World Map’, pp. 23–24. Baker and R. Holt, Urban Growth and the Medieval Church. Gloucester and Worcester (London, 2004), p. 35.

74 N.

299

9781903153734.indd 299

08/05/2017 08:29

Cornelia Dreer and Keith D. Lilley

Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. To view the image on this page please refer to the printed version of the book.

Figure 8: Two adjoining monastic homes of the Polychronicon in fourteenthcentury Gloucester: St Oswald’s Priory and St Peter’s Abbey. Plan from N. Baker and R. Holt, Urban Growth and the Medieval Church. Gloucester and Worcester (London, 2004), 35. Reproduced by permission.

universal histories is one aspect of this.75 But important too is how place influenced Polychronicon maps and their particular cartographic represention of Britain. In navigating the geographical images and texts of English Polychronicon manuscripts there are patterns relating to locales of production and consumption that demand further enquiry. Tracing map circulation patterns, through stylistic similarities across a single and popular medieval chronicle, as with the Polychronicon, would help deepen our understanding of the otherwise unwritten processes that led to the creation of mappaemundi in fourteenth-century Britain. The two maps in Royal MS 14 C IX, with their idiosyncrasies and apparent differences, have been shown here to be a worthwhile starting point for conducting such an exploration in geographical history and navigating the texts and maps of Higden’s Polychronicon. They exemplified that much insight can be gained from a consideration of the practical and ideological implications of a map’s design within the context of its manuscript. There is also some interesting potential for connecting

75 See

also Brown, ‘Higden’s Britain’, pp. 103–118; Lavezzo, Angels.

300

9781903153734.indd 300

08/05/2017 08:29

The Maps and Texts of Higden's Polychronicon copies of the Polychronicon to each other and to different circuits of knowledge between monastic houses as centres of learning in fourteenth-century Britain. Thus, while a manuscript of the Polychronicon with two world maps is seemingly unusual, if not unique, and there is something particular and peculiar about the Royal MS 14 C IX manuscript, to understand its significance and its particularity requires consideration of the locale(s) of its usage and its provenance at Ramsey Abbey in eastern England. Placing a map in context, seeing how its visual and textual geographies relate to one another, as well as placing the map manuscripts in their local landscapes, are two strategies adopted in this paper that both underline the importance of thinking through the spaces that medieval maps were situated in. Of universal histories and their accompanying geographies, so numerous in the Middle Ages, the fourteenth-century manuscripts of the Polychronicon, with their relative close dating and particular characteristics, are ideal as a group for further comparative study in terms of their function, their expression and the ways they interact with text. To this end, the Polychronicon’s various manifestations in fourteenth-century Britain need to be analysed much more closely.

301

9781903153734.indd 301

08/05/2017 08:29

9781903153734.indd 302

08/05/2017 08:29

Index Aaron 148, 149 Abbreviatio chronicarum 202, 203, 218 ʿAbd al-Aʿlā b. ʿAbd al-Aʿlā 36 ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAmr 27 ʿAbd Allāh b. Maslama b. Qaʿnab 36 ʿAbd Allāh b. Shaqīq al-ʿUqaylī 32 ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr 27 ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Abī Ḥāzim 36 ʿAbd al-‘Azīz b. ʿImrān 35 ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Muḥammad 37 ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥabīb 24 ʿAbd al-Rahmān b. Mahdī 27 ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣan‘ānī 34 Abingdon 72 Abraham 35, 36, 145, 169, 170, 171, 196 Abū Bakr 25, 26, 32 Abū Ma’shar Abū Mikhnaf 31 Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī 36 Abū ‘Ubayd al-Bakarī’ 248 Achen 174 Acre 182, 183 Adalbaldus 57 Adam 7, 35, 137, 162, 170, 171 Adam the Cellarer 202 Ælfric 86 Æthelmær 86, 87, 89 Æthelred 71, 86, 89 Æthelwald 89 Æthelweard 86, 87, 89, 92 Aeneas 78, 83, 191, 192, 238, 239 Aeneid 8, 79, 156 Aemilius Sura 6 Affrica see Africa Africa 163, 239, 278, 282, 286, 289 Ahmad al-Rāzi 248, 251, 252 Akhbār mulūk al-Andalus 248, 249, 252 Ailred of Rievaulx 202 Aix-la-Chapelle see Achen Ajzā’ al-Qur’ān wa-a‘shāruhu wa-asbā‘uhu wa-ayātuhu 23 Alard de Cambrai 268 Alaric 67, 68 Alban, Saint 202 Albania 284 Alberic de Pisançon 61, 267 Alberic of Troisfontaines 200, 221

Albert of Stade 200, 221 Alexander (Rudolf of Ems) 145, 146, 155 Alexander III 217 Alexander the Great 4, 13, 35, 105, 107, 138, 151, 155, 184, 189, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 238, 255, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, 264, 266, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273 Alexandre de Paris 262, 267 Alexandre décasyllabique 267 Alexandre en prose du xiiie siècle 182 Alexandreis 268 Alfanus of Salerno 130, 131, 132, 133 Alfonso X of Castile 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 230, 235, 237, 238, 240, 242, 244, 245, 246, 247, 250, 251, 252, 253 Alfred, son of Cnut 71, 74 Alfred the Great 66, 68, 69, 70 ʿAlī 25, 27, 29, 32 ʿAli ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Majūsī 130 Allemagne see Germany Alpes see Alps Alps 163, 284 Amandus 50 Amatus of Aimé 50, 55 Al-Amīn al-Makhlū‘ 22, 27 ʿĀmir 36 Ammonius Sacca 132 Amphibalus, Saint 209 Andersson, Tobias 7 Anglia 285, 287, 288, 289, 291, 295, 296 Anglicourt 51, 52 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 91, 92, 213, 219 Annales Bertiniani 45, 58, 59, 89 Annales Fuldenses 69 Annales Laureshamenses 59 Annales Regni Francorum 45, 59, 69, 70 Annales Vedastini 45, 46, 58, 59, 60, 63 Annals of Metz 45 Annals of Saint-Bertin see Annales Bertiniani Annals of Saint-Vaast see Annales Vedastini Annolied 12, 106, 107, 141 Anselm of Canterbury 137 Antipater 272

303

9781903153734.indd 303

08/05/2017 08:29

Index Antiquitates Judaicae 154 Apex phisice 134, 135 Apollonius of Tyre 87 Appennins 163 Argolide see Argolis Argolis 145 Argos 159 Aristote see Aristotle Aristotle 5, 132, 259, 261, 264, 268, 270 Arles 173 Armenia 203, 220, 284 Arnoul, écolâtre de Saint-Géry 257 Aron, Raymond 9 Arras 49, 52, 54, 56, 61 Asia 163, 278, 282 Asia Minor 214 Assyria 145, 166, 184, 192, 195 Assyrie see Assyria Athaulf 67, 75, Athènes see Athens Athens 145, 158, 159, 161, 264, 270 Athis et Prophilias 257 Atlas 247 Audomarus of Rouen 50 Augustine 7, 9, 103, 126, 133, 144, 146, 156, 160, 168, 169, 170, 258, 269, 271 Augustine of Canterbury 81 Augustus 6, 77, 79, 240 Austria 163, 164 Autbertus of Cambrai 49, 50, 56 Autriche see Austria Babylon 138, 162, 170, 187 Babylone see Babylon Baghdād 30 Al-Balādhurī 20, 23 Baldwin, count of Flanders 53, 181, 196 Bamberg 121 Baqī b. Makhlad 22 Basilea 124 Basra 24, 29, 30, 38 Baudouin d’Avesnes, seigneur de Beaumont 255, 256 Bavo 50, 57 Baxter, Stephen 65, 72, 73, 88 Becket, Saint Thomas 202, 205 Bede 7, 15, 45, 59, 69, 216 Benedict of Nursia 49 Benjamin, Craig 2, 4 Beowulf 82, 87 Bergen 203, 222 Bernard of Clairvaux 217

Bertinus 50, 57 Al-Bidāya wa-l-nihāya 40 Bishr b. al-Mufaḍḍal 32 Boèce see Boethius Boethius 150 Bohême see Bohemia Bohemia 164 Bouquechardière 198 Book of Daniel 7, 102, 107, 118 Book of Kings 154, 170, 175 Book of Judges 164 Boulogne-sur-Mer 256 Bourgogne 173 Bouvines 189 Breisach, Ernst 8 Breuil 50 Breviarum ab urbe condita 59 Brincken, Anne-Dorothee von den 45, 46, 58 Brindisi 284 Britain 69, 70, 78, 81, 82, 202, 203, 216, 277, 291, 296, 300, 301 Brunetto Latini 255, 268, 269 Brussels 58, 183 Bruxelles see Brussels Bulgaria 163 Bulgarie see Bulgaria Burnett, Charles 133, 134 Byzance see Byzantium Byzantium 151 Cádiz 244, 248 Caesar 8, 10, 11, 69, 70, 100, 104, 107, 111, 112, 117, 118, 189, 190, 191, 198, 235, 240, 248, 253 Cambrai 49, 61, 255, 256, 257, 258 Cambridge 204 Campbel, James 86 Campopiano, Michele 7 Canaan 197 Canaria 287 Candace 259 Canterbury 72, 204, 210, 214, 218, 219 Capraria 287 Caspian Sea 288 Cardelle de Hartmann, Carmen 6 Carmina Cantabrigiensia 84 Carpenter, David 204 Carthage 110, 163, 198, 230, 239, 265 Caspian Gates 270 Cassiodore see Cassiodorus Cassiodorus 160

304

9781903153734.indd 304

08/05/2017 08:29

Index Castile 234 Catalán, Diego 229 Caucasus 259 Chalcidius 129, 136 Chanance see Canaan Chantilly 183, 184, 188 Charlemagne 8, 95, 96, 100, 102, 104, 111, 114, 117, 118 Charles, king 50 Charles the Bald 69, 77 Chazan, Mireille 7, 9 Cheshire 212 Chester 219, 277, 295, 296, 297, 299 Chrétien de Troyes 160, 180 Christian, D. 1 Christ 10, 14, 17, 137, 149, 170, 171 Christ Church 88 Christherre-Chronik 141, 142, 154, 167 Christine de Pizan 182 Chronica imperfecta 92 Chronica majora (Matthew Paris) 199, 200, 202, 203, 204, 206, 210, 211, 213, 214, 216, 217, 220, 222 Chronica Muzarabica 250 Chronica regia Coloniensis see Königschronik Chronicle (Eusebius) 6, 7, 153 Chronicle (Ta’rīkh) 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 38, 39, 40 Chronicles 154 Chronicon Vedastinum 15, 44, 45, 46, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64 Chronique des rois de France 188 Chronique dite de Badouin d’Avesnes 182, 188, 198, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 272, 273 Chronique rimée 188 Chroniques see Chronicles Cicero 146, 261, 267, 268 Cicéron see Cicero Cirenaica 163 city of God, The See De civitate dei Claudius, emperor 95 Cligès 160 Clovis 52 Cnut 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 79, 83, 84 Coker Joslin, Mary 184 Colchos 285 Collectanea rerum memorabilium 270 Cologne 84, 212, 222

Columbanus 50 Confessiones (Augustine) 126 Conrad III 95, 101, 115, 116, 121, 217 Constance 173, 175 Constantine I 100, 108, 110, 113, 114, 118 Constantine VI 101, 102, 112 Constantin VII Porphyrogénète see Constantine VII Constantine VII, emperor 151 Constantine the African 130 Constantinople 110, 181, 196 Conte du Graal 180 Copenhagen 183 Corinth 145, 264 Corinthe see Corinth Corse see Corsica Corsica 163 Cortenuova 175 Corzo, Ramón 243 Coventry 72, 88 Crete 145 Crète see Crete Crónica del moro Rasis 252 Crónica Geral 252 Cubitt, Catherine 86 Cur Deus homo (Anselm) 137 Cyrus 106, 107 Daniel 102, 107,118, 243 Danube 163, 288 Dares Phrygius 191 Darès see Dares Phrygius Darius 106, 107, 263, 264, 265, 273 David, king 144, 151, 161, 165, 170, 171, 172, 174, 175, 176 De Annis populi Romani 6 De bello civili (Lucan) 79, 226, 240 De civitate Dei (The city of God) 7, 8, 269 De consolatione philosophiae 66, 80 De doctrina christiana 160 De natura hominis (Nemesius of Emesa) 130, 132 De nuptiis Philogiae et Mercurii 259 De oratore 267 De rebus Hispaniae 252, 253 De secretis philosophie see Apex phisice De temporibus anni (Ælfric) 85 De tribus circumstantiis gestorum 16, 261 Decline of the West, The 1 Deeds of the bishops of Reims 45 Deeds of the bishops of Cambrai 47, 51, 55, 62

305

9781903153734.indd 305

08/05/2017 08:29

Index Deeds of the bishops of Metz 47 Dehaisnes, Charles 51 Denmark 68, 220, 287 Deutéronome See Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 147 Al-Dhahabī 40 Dialogi (Gregory the Great) 66, 87, 89, 91, 180 Dialogues see Dialogi Didascalicon 16 Dido 110, 239 Dietrich of Bern see Theodoric Dijon 183 Al-Dīnawarī 38, 40 Diodorus of Sicily 5 Diogenes 272 Dionysius (Pope) 49 Dionysius Periegetes 3 Divinuspater 272 Dôle 122 Don 282, 285 Donatio Constantini 109, 110, 112 Dorninger, Maria E. 123 Douai 46, 50, 54, 55, 60 Dreer, Cornelia 17 Durham 207, 214 Dyogenes see Diogenes Eadmer 211, 213 Ealdred, bishop of Worcester 84, 89, 91 Eberwin of Tholey 57 Eclogae (Virgil) 125 Edith 75 Edmund Rich, Saint 202, 205 Edward the Confessor, Saint 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 79, 80, 83, 84, 88, 91, 202 Egypt 145, 148, 157, 170, 197, 264, 267 Égypte see Egypt Ehrismann, Gustav 154 Ekkehard of Aura 8 Elbe 163 Elisabeth of Hungary, Saint 205 Elucidarium (Honorius Augustodunensis) 127, 128 Ely 214 Emma, queen 70, 71, 73, 74, 75, 76, 79, 80, 84 Enchridion (Byrhtferth) 85 Encomium Emmae reginae 70, 71, 73, 74, 76, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 86, Enée see Aeneas Énéide 156

Engels, Odilo 138 England 65, 66, 74, 77, 78, 81, 82, 84, 86, 91, 92, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, 214, 215, 216, 217, 291, 297, 299 Ephorus of Cyme 4 Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem 191, 258, 259, 260, 261 Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi 259 Epitome (Iulius Valerius) 191, 258, 260, 261 Erluin 51 Estoria de Espanna 16, 223, 224, 227, 228, 229, 230, 233, 234, 235, 237, 238, 239, 244, 245, 246, 247, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253 Esther 197 Estoire des Engleis 66 Eugene III 121 Euhemerus 5 Euphrates 285 Europa see Europe Europe 163, 203, 205, 220, 221, 237, 240, 278, 282, 284, 291, 296 Eusèbe see Eusebius Eusebia 53 Eusebius 6, 7, 45, 103, 152, 153, 172, 229 Eutropius 59, 186, 189, 191 Evesham Abbey 299 Exode see Exodus Exodus 171 Faits de Romais 189, 245 Falrad 47, 56 Fasti consulares 45, 58 Faustinian 95, 96 Ferdinand of Castille, king 205 Fernando II 205, 206, 227 Fernández-Ordóñez, Inés 229 Fierro, Maribel 247 Al-Fihrist 24 Flanders 187, 189, 190, 196, 255 Flandre see Flanders Flavius Josèphe see Josephus Flodoard 45, 47 Florence 175 Flores historiarum 202, 203, 208, 209, 210, 214, 222 Florimont en prose 182 Flos summarum 257 Fontenelle 50 Fournier, Emile 51

306

9781903153734.indd 306

08/05/2017 08:29

Index Fragmentum chronici 59 Fraker, Charles F. 235 France 93, 145, 180, 181, 182, 183, 187, 188, 203, 204, 207, 209, 217, 290 Fréculfe de Lisieux 77, 137, 258, 260, 266 Fredegunde 52 Frederic of Saint-Vanne 51 Frédéric Ier see Frederick I, emperor Frédéric II see Frederick II, emperor Frédéric II d’Autriche see Frederick II of Austria Frederick I, emperor 121, 122, 125 165, 173, 174, 175, 214, 217, 239 Frederick II, emperor 115, 151, 152, 160, 161, 164, 175, 205, 207, 210, 234, 238, 239 Frederick II of Austria 164 Fretulfus see Fréculfe de Lisieux Frutolf 8 Frutolf de Michelsberg 156 Fulco of Reims 69, 70 Gandersheim 84 Gascony 204 Gaugericus 49, 56 Gaullier-Bougassas, Catherine 12, 13, 185, 266 Gautier de Châtillon 268 Genealogies of the Tribal Notables (Ansāb al-ashrāf) 20 Genealogy of the kings of France 59 General estoria 182, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 229, 230, 233, 234, 235, 239, 240, 245, 246, 247 Genèse see Genesis Genesis 171, 184, 186, 187, 190, 192, 193, 197 Genesis against the Manicheans 7 Geoffrey of Monmouth 215, 219 Gerard I of Cambrai/Arras 51, 52, 53, 56, 57, 61, 62 Germania superior 163 Germany 65, 77, 92, 93, 138, 162, 163, 203, 205, 206, 207, 211, 213, 215, 219, 242, 290 Gervase of Canterbury 211 Gerzaguet, Jean Paul 51 Gesta abbatum 202 Gesta Frederici 118 Gesta Henrici II 213 Gesta regum Anglorum 211, 212, 213 Getica 45

Ghent 50, 57 Gibraltar 282 Gilles de Flagi 188 Glossa ordinaria 103 Gloucester 297, 299 Godefroi de Viterbe see Godfrey of Viterbo Godfrey of Rheims 80 Godfrey of Viterbo 12, 13, 14, 17, 121, 122, 124, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 140, 152, 153, 154, 156, 166, 171, 172, 200 Godwine of Wessex 71, 73, 74, 75, 80, 88, 91 Goetz, Hans-Werner 2, 8, 9, 14, 17, 92, 93 Gog 138 Gondebaud see Gundobad, king Gonzaga, Francesco 183 Gottfried von Straßburg 155 Grande Bretagne see Great Britain Grandes chroniques de France 188, 246 Great Britain 145 Grèce see Greece Greece 145, 157, 163, 264 Gregory of Tours 45, 49, 59, 81 Grégoire see Gregory Gregory VIII 123 Gregory IX 205 Gregory the Great 180, 181 Grifon des Flandres 3 Grimbald of St Bertin 69 Guenée, Bernard 180, 189 Guillaume d’Avesnes 256, 257 Guillaume de Holland 174 Guillaume d’Orange 256 Guimann 47 Gundobad, king 150 Gunnhild 84 Al-Hādī 22 Hadulfus 49 Hainaut 255 Håkon of Norway 205, 206, 207 Ham 237 Hamage 53, 55 Ḥammād b. Salama 27 Ḥammād b. Zayd 32 Hannibal 238 Harold Harefoot 71, 74, 75 Harthacnut 71, 73, 76, 79 Hārūn al-Rashīd 22, 27 Al-Ḥasan 26

307

9781903153734.indd 307

08/05/2017 08:29

Index Haspres 51 Al-Haytham b. ‘Adī Ḥayyān 36 Head, Paulin 80 Helen 246 Hélinand de Froidmont see Helinand of Froidmont Helinand of Froidmont 186, 200 Hengist 216 Henri VI see Henry VI Henry I 212, 219 Henry II 214, 217 Henry III 84, 204, 205, 207, 209, 213 Henry V, emperor 8, 115, 116, 233 Henry VI, emperor 115, 122, 124, 125, 171, 172, 173, 175, 214, 218 Henry of Huntigdon 92, 211, 215, 216, 219 Henry the Lion 217 Henry the Young 214 Heraclius 150 Héraclius see Heraclius Hercule see Hercules Hercules 184, 237, 243, 244, 247, 248, 252, 253 Herkommer, Hubert 171 Hermann of Reichnau 76, 77, 84, 92 Heroides 240 Hertfordshire 201 Higden, Ranulf 17, 275, 276, 277, 278, 281, 282, 285, 287, 288, 295, 296, 297 Hildegard of Bingen 205 Hincmar of Reims 58, 70 Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César 12, 13, 179, 180, 182, 183, 184, 186, 187, 188, 190, 198, 225, 239, 245, 246, 253, 255, 258, 259, 260, 263, 265, 266, 267, 272 Histoire des ducs de Normandie et de rois d’Angleterre 188 Historia Anglorum 202, 203, 246 Historia Brittonum 45 Historia de duabus civitatibus 8, 13, 100, 102, 104, 125, 137, 154, 167 Historia de Preliis 262 Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum 68, 87 Historia Francorum 49, 59 Historia novorum 213 Historia romana 156 Historia scholastica 152, 153, 154, 167, 170, 171, 176, 186, 194, 217, 270 Historiae (Quintus Curtius Rufus) 145

Historiae adversus paganos (Orosius, Histories) 7, 13, 16, 66, 67, 68, 76, 77, 78, 103, 180, 182, 186, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 198, 266 Historiai (Polybius) 4 History of Messengers and Kings (Ta’rīkh al-rusul wa-l-mulūk) 20 Hodgson, Marshal 33 Holy Land 202, 205, 206, 207, 210 Homilies (Ælfric) 91 Hongie see Hungary Honoré d’Autun see Honorius Augustodunensis Honorius, emperor 67, 75 Honorius Augustadunensis 127, 128, 153, 156, 162, 165 Horace 268 Horsa 216 Howden 215 Howe, Nicholas 80 Hubert de Burgh 209 Hubert Walter 219 Hugh of Saint Victor 11, 16, 216, 261 Hungary 163 Al-Ḥusayn 27 Husraw 151 Iberia 203, 223, 224, 234, 237, 239, 248, 250, 253 Iberian Peninsula see Iberia Ibn Abī Shayba 34 Ibn al-Athīr 40 Ibn ‘Awn 32 Ibn Isḥāq 24 Ibn Kathīr 40 Ibn Nadīm 24 Ibn Tūmart 247 Ibn ‘Umar 27 Imago mundi (Honorius Augustodunensis) 137, 153, 156, 162 Imperial Chronicle 219 Inde see India India 203, 262, 282 Inglebert, Hervé 3 Innocent IV 205, 206 Ireland 66, 214, 287, 291 Irene, empress 101, 112 Isabella Marshal 209 Isḥāq b. Idrīs 36 Isidore de Séville see Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville 7, 15, 17, 45, 58, 152, 153, 258

308

9781903153734.indd 308

08/05/2017 08:29

Index Isle of Man 291, 297, 299 Isle of Wight 68 Ismā‘īl b. Sinān 27 Italie see Italy Italy 122, 134, 145, 164, 165, 174, 182, 183, 203, 207 Iulius Valerius 191, 258, 261 Jacob 161 Jaddus 269 Jaʿfar b. Burqān 36 Japhet 163, 237 Jaurant, Danielle 144, 148 Jean d’Avesnes 257 Jean de Courcy 198 Jean de Saint-Victor 11 Jeanne, countess of Flanders 181 Jerome 7, 8, 17, 45, 58, 103, 106, 107, 153, 172, 229 Jerusalem 137, 138, 139, 151, 173, 175, 192, 198, 264, 265, 269, 288, 289 Jérusalem see Jerusalem John, bishop of Cambrai 55 John, king 204, 218 John of Salisbury 216 John of Worcester 85, 215 Jones, Christopher A. 85, Jordanes 45, 58 Joseph 160 Josephus 149, 154, 191, 225, 270 Juan Manuel 224 Judea 265 Judée see Judea Judith 197 Judith, empress 77 Julius Valère see Iulius Valerius Jumièges 51 Jung, Marc-René 183, 184, 190, 268, 269 Jupiter 238, 239, 240 Jura 173 Justin 6, 186, 259, 260, 271, 272 Juvenal 268 Juvénal see Juvenal Ka‘b b. Lu’ayy 36 Kaiserchronik 13, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119 Al-Kāmil fī-l-taʾrīkh 40 Karasawa, Kazutomo 80 Karbalā’ 27 Kartago see Carthage Kathīr b. Hishām 36

Kelly, Susan 86 Kent 68 Keynes, Simon 86 Khalīfa b. Khayyāt 7, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40 Khosrō see Husraw Kitāb al-Malikī 130 Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-Mamālik 248 Kitāb al-Tabaqāt 23 Kobenhavn see Copenhagen Königschronik (Chronica regia Coloniensis) 212 Konrad II 173 Konrad II 174 Konrad IV 12, 141, 144, 148, 151, 162, 165, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176 Koroleva, Elena 13 Krüger, Karl H. 2, 91 Lac de Constance see Lake Constance Lake Constance 163 Lake, Justin 14 Lambert of Saint-Omer 92, 137 Lapidge, Michael 85, 89, 91 Latinus 159 Leduin 44, 47, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63 Le Haye see The Hague Lemarignier, Jean 61 Leneghan, Francis 68 Leofric of Mercia 65, 66, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 80, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91 Leo III, pope 113 Leo of Naples 260 Leodegarius 50 Léon de Naples see Leo of Naples Leptis 163 Lewis, Suzanne 246 Liber ad honorem Augusti 171 Liber Alcantari Caldeorum philosophi 133 Liber de orbe 133, 134, 135 Liber floridus 92, 137 Liber Guidonis compositus de variis historiis 15 Liber historiarum Philippiccarum et totius mundi origines et terrae situs 6 Liber Marii de elementis 132, 133 Liber memorialis see Memoria seculorum Liber provinciarum imperii Romani 59 Liber regalis 130 Liber universalis 122

309

9781903153734.indd 309

08/05/2017 08:29

Index Libya 163 Lives of Saints (Ælfric) 89 Lives of the Two Offas 202 Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune 182 Livre de philosophie et de moralité 268 Livres des Juges see Book of Judges Livres des Rois see Book of Kings Livre du trésor 255, 268 Lille 12, 179, 180, 181, 189 Lilley, Keith 17 Livonia 164 Livonie see Livonia Llewellyn ap Iowerth 204 Lombardie see Lombardy Lombardy 174, 214 London 132, 183, 184, 218 Londres see London Lotharingia 211 Lothair II of Supplinburg, emperor 51, 111, 115, 117, 123 Louis VII 122 Louis IX, king 205, 207, 210 Louis of France 204 Lucan 225 Lucifer 134 Lucretius 130 Ludus de Antichristo 138, 139 Luxeuil 50 Maccabees 198 Maccabées see Maccabees Macedonia 191, 194, 195, 265 Macrobius 130 Magneric, Bishop of Trier 56, 57 Magog 138 Al-Ma’mūn 22, 24, 27 Al-Mahdī 22 Mainz 174 Mantoue see Mantua Mantua 184 Manuel d’histoire dit de Philippe de Valois 188 Manuel Komnenos 214, 215 Marcellinus Comes 45, 59 Marchiennes 44, 49, 53, 55, 57, 60, 61, 64 Marguerite de Flandres 196 Marianus Scotus 76, 77, 84, 85, 216 Marie see Mary Marius of Salerno 133, 134, 135 Marius Salernitanus see Marius of Salerno Marshé, Andrew 7

Martial, Saint 214 Martin of Troppau 200, 222 Martinus Capella 259 Mary 148 Māshā’allāh 133 Al-Masʿūdī 39, 40 Matfrid 50 Matilda 219 Matilda of Essen 92 Mauger 213 Mauritania 163 Maurontus 53, 54, 55, 60, 61 Mayence see Mainz Mecca 19, 37, 39 Media 166 Médie see Media Medina 19, 25, 37, 39 Melrose Chronicle 213 Memoria seculorum 122, 125 Menologium 65, 70, 76, 77, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86 Meyer, Paul 182, 190 Melchidesech 148 Meldisédeq see Melchidesech Mer Rouge see Red Sea Merlin 221 Merville 54 Metamorphoses (Ovid) 79, 136 Michel de Harnes 188 Michel le Noir 184 Middlesex 218 Midrash 154 Milan 116, 122, 175 Miroir historial 188 Miskawayh 40 Mohammed Abdullah 205 Moïse see Moses Molinier, Auguste 46, 47 Momigliano, Arnaldo 4 Mont Sinaï see Mount Sinai Moralia doma 268 Moravia 164 Moravie see Moravia Moritz von Craûn 160, 161 Mortensen, Lars Boje 14, 15 Moses 152, 154, 161, 170, 171 Mount Sinai 149 Mu‘āwiya b. Abī Sufyān 26, 32, 33 Muḥammad 19, 22, 25, 26, 31, 36, 37, 39, 41 Muḥammad b. Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī 23 Muḥammad b. al-Munkadir 27

310

9781903153734.indd 310

08/05/2017 08:29

Index Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr 36 Muḥammad b. Sīrīn 36 Mujālid 36 Munt, Harry 7 Al-Mu‘taṣim 24 Al-Mutawakkil 22, 25 Nahama 159 Naples 184 Nativitas et victoria Alexandri Magni 260 Nebuchadnezzar 103, 105, 230 Nemesius of Emesa 130, 131, 132 Nemrod 145 Neptanebus 267 New York 133 Nicostrata 159 Nil see Nile Nile 154, 286 Nimrod 145, 238 Nennius 45, 58 Nile 5 Ninus 5, 76, 77, 83, 159 Noah 35, 45, 137, 166, 170, 171 Normandy 213 Norway 203, 206, 207, 287 Norwich 297 Notitia Galliarum 59 Numidia 163 O’Brien O’Keeffe, Katherine 65, 72 Odbert of Saint-Bertin 57 Odda of Deerhurst 88, 89, 91 Olbert, abbot Gembloux 77 Old English Orosius 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 86 Oliver of Paderborn 205 Oltrogge, Doris 182 Ordgar 89 Ordwulf 87, 89 Origen 133 Orose see Orosius Orosius 7, 13, 15, 45, 58, 67, 68, 77, 78, 103, 180, 181, 182, 185, 186, 189, 190, 192, 193, 194, 195, 198, 258, 260, 271, 272, 281 Othon de Freising see Otto of Freising Otto IV, emperor 205 Otto of Freising 8, 13, 76, 92, 100, 102, 104, 107, 118, 125, 138, 154, 158, 167, 168, 169, 171, 211 Ovid 225, 240

Palermi, Maria Laura 182 Pannonia 163 Pannonie see Pannonia Pantegni 130 Pantheon 12, 13, 14, 123, 126, 130, 131, 133, 134, 138, 139, 140, 152, 153, 171, 230 Panthéon see Pantheon Paris 179, 183, 184, 201, 288, 290 Paris, Matthew 15, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 208, 210, 211, 212, 214, 215, 216, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 246 Parma 207 Parmenio 269 Parménion see Parmenio Paul, Saint 108 Paul le Diacre see Paul the Deacon Paul the Deacon 15, 156 Pedro de Barcelos 252 Péleg see Phalech Pentapolis 163 Pepin the Short 70, 113, 114 Perse see Persia Pershore 88 Persia 138, 166, 185, 264, 265, 271, 272, 273 Peter des Roches 209, 210 Peter of Eboli 171 Peter, Saint 96, 108, 111, 117, 118 Peterborough 72 Petrus comestor 154, 154, 162, 166, 171, 186, 191, 194, 195, 217, 270 Phalech 162, 168 Pharao 148, 154 Philippe, king 246, 264 Philippe Auguste see Philippe Augustus Philippe Augustus 187, 188, 190, 219 Philippe d’Alsace 187 Philippe de Namur 12, 181, 188 Philippe de Souabe see Philip of Swabia Philippe III le Hardi 255 Philippe le Noir 184 Philip of France 55 Philip of Swabia 174 Philo of Alexandria 149 Philon d’Alexandrie see Philo of Alexandria Phoronée see Phoroneus Phoroneus 159 Pidal, Menéndez 227 Pierre d’Eboli see Peter of Eboli Pierre de la Broce 255

311

9781903153734.indd 311

08/05/2017 08:29

Index Pierre le Mangeur see Petrus comestor Plato 5, 132 Pliny 225 Plotinus 132 Pologne see Poland Poland 164, 211 Polybius 4, 5 Polychronicon 17, 275, 276, 277, 278, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 287, 288, 290, 291, 295, 296, 297, 299, 300, 301 Pommersfelden 183 Pompeius Trogus 6, 258, 259 Pompey 233, 235 Pontigny 207 Porcher, Jean 61 Porrus 260, 261, 262, 263 Portes Caspiennes see Caspian Gates Priam 246 Provence 173 Pseudo-Callisthène 191, 194, 267 Pseudo-Fredgarius 45, 59 Pseudo-Méthode 153, 154 Pseudo-Turpin 188 Ptolomaida 163 Pyrenees 237 Quedlinberg 84 Quinte-Curce see Quintus Curtius Rufus Quintus Curtius Rufus 145, 258, 271 Qu’rān 19, 21 Qurra b. Khālid 36 Rabanus Maurus 87 Rado 50 Ralph de Diceto 216, 218 Ralph d’Escures 218 Ralph de Neville 209 Ralph Niger 205, 216, 217, 220, 222 Ramsey Abbey 276, 297, 301 Ranke, Leopold von 13 Raspe, Heinrich 174 Red Sea 148, 176, 289, 290 Regensburg 95 Regula pastoralis (Gregory the Great) 89 Reimbert 121, 122 Reims 73, 79, 80 Rennes 183 Revelationes 153, 154 Rhin see Rhine Rhine 163 Richard, king 218 Richard Marshal 209

Richard of Belmeis 218 Richard of Canterbury 209 Richard of Cornwall 209 Richard of Saint-Vanne 51, 52, 56, 57 Richer of Saint-Rémi 80 Riches, Theo 62 Rictrudis, Saint 53 Rittersitte 98 Robert de Cleri 188 Robert Grosseteste 204 Robert of Howden 215 Robert of Knaresborough 205 Robert Sumercote 205 Robinson, Fred 80 Rocas 237 Rochebouet, Anne 182, 185 Roderic 59 Roderick, king 250 Rodingus of Beaulieu, Saint 57 Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada 251, 252 Rodríguez Porto, Rosa 16 Rodríguez-Velasco, Jesús 242 Roger II of Sicily 116, 134 Roger IV 12, 179, 180, 181, 187, 189, 245 Roger of Howden 208, 211, 213, 215, 219, 222 Roger of London, Saint 205 Roger of Wendover 200, 202, 203, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 214 Robert d’Auxerre 10 Rodriguez Ximenez 221 Roman d’Alexandre 194, 260, 262 Roman d’Éneas 191 Roman de Thèbes 191 Roman de Troie 191 Roman des Rois 188 Romana 45 Romania 163 Rome 78, 82, 93, 95, 101, 103, 105, 107, 116, 118, 119, 121, 139, 145, 162, 165, 175, 184, 187, 189, 190, 207, 213, 239, 251, 265, 288, 296 Romulus 238, 239 Roumanie see Romania Rouse, Mary 257 Rouse, Richard 257 Royal Frankish Annals see Annales Regni Francorum Rudolf of Ems 12, 141, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175

312

9781903153734.indd 312

08/05/2017 08:29

Index Rudolf von Ems see Rudolf of Ems Ruin 82 Russia 203 Sächsische Weltchronik 141, 146 Sahl b. Saʿd al-Sāʿidī 36 Saʿīd b. al-Musayyib 37 Saint-Amand 47 Saint-Amé 54, 55, 60, 61 Saint-Bavo 50, 57 Saint-Bertin 50, 57, 58, 79 Saint-Jean-d’Acre see Acre Saint-Omer 58 Saint-Riquier 50 Saint-Vaast 44, 45, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 64 Saint-Vanne 57 Saint-Wulmar 50 Saladin 218 Salerno 132 Salomon 160 Sancho IV 227, 228 Santiponce 243 Sardaigne see Sardinia Sardinia 163 Saturne see Saturnus Saturnus 156, 164 Sayf b. ‘Umar 31 Saxo Grammaticus 221 Scandia 287 Scandinavia 163, 205 Scandinavie see Scandinavia Scharer, Anton 69, 70 Scipio 239 Scotland 203, 207, 215, 287, 291, 297, 299 Sébastien Mamerot 182 Seconde Continuation 180 Sem 162, 168, 237 Semiramis 145, 154 Sémiramis see Semiramis Seneca 268, 271, 272 Sénèque 268 Sens 188 Servatius 49 Seville 243, 248, 249, 253 Shem see Sem Sherwood-Smith, Maria C. 154 Siccard of Cremona 10 Sicile see Sicily Sicily 163, 173, 175, 215, 219, 286 Sigebert of Gembloux 11, 76, 77, 84, 92, 200, 211, 215

Sigeweard 86 Simeon of Durham 211, 213, 215, 219 Simon de Montfort 204 Simon Magus 96 Soliloquia (Augustine) 66 Solin see Solinus Solinus 258, 270 Solomon 247 Somers, Margaret 9 Souabe see Swabia Spain 134 Sparta 145, 264 Sparte see Sparta Speculum historiale 188, 225, 245, 247, 258, 259, 266, 269, 270 Speculum regum 12, 14, 124, 125, 152, 188 Spengler, Oswald 1 Spiegel, Gabrielle 9, 11 Sproemberg, Heinrich 47, 55 St Albans 199, 201, 207, 220, 221, 222 Stamford 297 Statius 225 St Augustine’s 84 St Clement in Sandwich 88 Steiger, Arnald 235 St Gallen 276 St Oswald 299 St Peters 299 Stephen, king 217 Stephen of Antioch 130 Stones, Alison 256 Strootman, Rolf 7 Study of History, A 1 Sturlese, Loris 136 Styria 163, 164 Styrie see Styria Subrahmanyam, Sanjay 3 Suetonius 248 Suevic 239 Sufyān 27 Svein 79 Sybil 138, 139 Sycion 145 Sycione see Sycion 145 Sylvester I, pope 96, 108, 111, 117, 118 Sylvester II, pope 213 Swabia 163 Al-Ṭabarī 20, 28, 39 Tabaqāt al-qurrā’ 23 Tarcus 237 Ta’rīkh (‘Abd al-Malik b. Ḥabīb) 24

313

9781903153734.indd 313

08/05/2017 08:29

Index Taʾrīkh al-Islām 40 Ta’rīkh al-khulafā’ 24 Ta’rīkh al-zamnā wa-l-‘urjān wa-l-marḍā wa-l-‘umyān 23 Tanais see Don Taurus 259 Tavistock 87 The Hague 183 Thebaid (Statius) 79 Thebes 184, 186, 191, 195, 264 Thèbes see Thebes Theobald of Bec 218 Théodoric le Grand see Theodoricus, king Theodoricus, king 50, 101, 150 Thierry, Christophe 12, 17 Thomas de Kent 262, 267 Thomas of Savoy 208 Thomas Walsingham 208 Thrace see Thracia Thracia 163 Thule 287 Thurstan, archbishop of York 218 Tiberius, emperor 233 Tilis 287 Timaeus (Plato) 129, 136 Timaeus of Tauromenium 239 Toledo 250 Toscane see Tuscany Toubal-Caïn see Tubal Toynbee, Arnold J. 1 Tractatus compendiosus de philosophia et eius secretis 134 Tractatus de divisione regnorum 11 Traité des neuf Preux et des neuf Preuses 182 Trajan, emperor 243 Trèves see Trier Trier 145, 154 Trifels Castle 218 Tristan (Gottfried von Straßburg) 155 Trogue Pompée see Pompeius Trogus Troie see Troy Troy (Troie) 144, 145, 184, 187, 191, 250 Tubal 224, 237, 259 Tugendspiegel 98 Tuscany 174 Tyler, Elizabeth 12, 15 Tynemouth 207 Tyr 264, 265 Ugé, Karine 54, 61 ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb 26, 32, 36, 37

Urban III 123 ʿUthmān b. ʿUbayd Allāh 25, 26, 32, 37 Vaast see Vedastus Valère Maxime see Valerius Maximus Valerius Maximus 258, 271 Vanderputten, Steven 14, 15 Van Mingroot, Erik 62 Vatican 188 Vedastus (Vaast) 49, 53, 54 Venceslas Ier 164 Venice 163, 183 Venise see Venice Vérard, Antoine 184, 198 Vergion 287 Veronia, Saint 96 Victor of Tonnonna 45 Vie de Sainte Marthe 180 Vie mon signeur seint Nicholas le beneoit confessor 180 Vie seint Marcel de Lymoges 180 Vienna 184, 185 Vienne see Vienna Vincent de Beauvais see Vincent of Beauvais Vincent Kadlubek 211 Vincent of Beauvais 186, 188, 200, 222, 258, 259, 260, 266, 269, 270 Vindicianus of Arras/Cambrai 49, 50, 55, 56, 61 Virgil 8, 79, 80, 125, 191, 239 Virgile see Virgil Visio Pauli 87, 91 Visio S. Baronti monachi 89, 91 Vision of Leofric 87, 88, 89, 91 de Visser-van Terswiga, Marijke 182, 184 Vita Ædwardi 79, 80, 81, 83, 84 Vita Amati 55 Viterbo 122 Vulgata 152, 153, 154, 170, 186, 191 Waitz, Georg 14, 44, 46, 123, 124 Waldemar II of Denmark 205, 206 Wales 204, 207, 209, 215, 287, 291, 297, 299 Wanderer 82 Wandregisilus 50 Wauchier de Denain 12, 13, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 188, 189, 191, 192, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 255, 265, 267, 268

314

9781903153734.indd 314

08/05/2017 08:29

Index Weber, Loren J. 123 Weiler, Björn 15 Weltchronik (Heinrich von München) 142 Weltchronik (Jans Enikel) 142 Weltchonik (Rudolf of Ems) 12, 141, 142, 144, 145, 146, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 160, 161, 164, 166, 172, 173, 175, 176 Wentzel, Horst 144 Werner 121, 122 Wernher of Elmendorf 98 Wessex 68 White, Hayden 2, 28 William, bishop 213 William Marshal the Younger 209 William of Conches 134 William of Malmesbury 92, 211, 212, 213, 215, 217, 219, 220 William of Newburgh 216 William the Conqueror 74 Williams, Ann 89 Winchester 66 Wittig, Claudia 13, 17

Worcester 89 Worcester chronicle 216 Worstbrock, Franz Josef 161 Wulfric Spot 87 Wulmarus 50 Wyntlandia 287 Yabal 158 Yaḥyā b. Muḥammad al-Ka‘bī 35 Ya‘lā b. ‘Aṭā’ 27 Al-Yaʿqūbī 39 Yarmouth 203 Yazdagird III 35 Yazīd b. Mu‘āwiya 26, 27, 32 Yazīd b. Zuray‘ 32, 34 Ymagines historiarum 218 Youbal 159 York 214, 218 Zeeland 286 Zeno, emperor 101, 102 Zoroaster 159 Zoroastre see Zoroaster

315

9781903153734.indd 315

08/05/2017 08:29

WRITING HISTORY IN THE MIDDLE AGES Dudo of Saint-Quentin’s Historia Normannorum: Tradition, Innovation and Memory, Benjamin Pohl (2015) The Classicist Writings of Thomas Walsingham: ‘Worldly Cares’ at St Albans Abbey in the Fourteenth Century, Sylvia Federico (2016) Medieval Cantors and their Craft: Music, Liturgy and the Shaping of History, 800–1500, edited by Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis, A.B. Kraebel and Margot E. Fassler (2017)

9781903153734.indd 316

08/05/2017 08:29

UniversalChronicles_PPC 28/03/2017 08:03 Page 1

F

MiChELE CaMpOpiaNO is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Latin Literature at the University of York. hENrY BaiNTON is Lecturer in high Medieval Literature at the University of York. CONTriBUTOrS: Tobias andersson, Michele Campopiano, Cornelia Dreer, Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas, Elena Koroleva, Keith Lilley, andrew Marsham, rosa M. rodriguez porto, Christophe Thierry, Elizabeth M.Tyler, Steven Vanderputten, Bjorn Weiler, Claudia Wittig. Front cover: rudolf von Ems, Weltchronik. The construction of the Tower of Babel. Bibliothèque municipale de Colmar, MS 305, cliché irhT.

C A MP OP IA NO, B A INTON (eds)

ound in pre-modern cultures of every era and across the world, from the ancient Near East to medieval Latin Christendom, the universal chronicle is simultaneously one of the most ubiquitous pre-modern cultural forms and one of the most overlooked. Universal chronicles narrate the history of the whole world from the time of its creation up to the then present day, treating the world’s affairs as though they were part of a single organic reality, and uniting various strands of history into a unified, coherent story. They reveal a great deal about how the societies that produced them understood their world and how historical narrative itself can work to produce that understanding. The essays here offer new perspectives on the genre, from a number of different disciplines, demonstrating their vitality, flexibility and cultural importance, They reveal them to be deeply political texts, which allowed history-writers and their audiences to locate themselves in space, time and in the created universe. Several chapters address the manuscript context, looking at the innovative techniques of compilation, structure and layout that placed them at the cutting edge of medieval book technology. Others analyse the background of universal chronicles, and identify their circulation amongst different social groups; there are also investigations into their literary discourse, patronage, authorship and diffusion.

UNIVERSAL CHRONICLES IN THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES

WriTiNG hiSTOrY iN ThE MiDDLE aGES

YOrK MEDiEVaL prESS

UNIVERSAL CHRONICLES IN THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES An imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge IP12 3DF (GB) and 668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620–2731 (US)

YOrK MEDiEVaL prESS

Edited by MICHEL E CAMPOPIANO and HENR Y BA INTON