History and Memory in the Carolingian World

This 2004 book looks at the writing and reading of history during the early middle ages.

Rosamond McKitterick (Author)

9780521827171, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 July 2004

354 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.69 kg

'This volume … raises central questions about the conscious and implicit functions of Carolingian historical texts, their setting in a broader and more fluid historical narrative, and the evidence for how they circulated. There are important demonstrations of how the manuscripts provide an amplification and a check on what a printed edition can reveal.' Institute of Historical Research

The writing and reading of history in the early Middle Ages form the key themes of this 2004 book. The primary focus is on the remarkable manifestations of historical writing in relation to historical memory in the Frankish kingdoms of the eighth and ninth centuries. It considers the audiences for history in the Frankish kingdoms, the recording of memory in new genres including narrative histories, cartularies and Libri memoriales, and thus particular perceptions of the Frankish and Christian past. It analyses both original manuscript material and key historical texts from the Carolingian period, a remarkably creative period in the history of European culture. Presentations of the past developed in this period were crucial in forming an historical understanding of the Greco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian past and, in subsequent centuries, of early medieval Europe. They also played an extraordinarily influential role in the formation of political ideologies and senses of identity within Europe.

1. Introduction: history and memory in the Carolingian world
2. Carolingian history books
3. Paul the Deacon's Historia langobardorum and the Franks
4. The Carolingians on their past
5. Politics and history
6. Kingship and the writing of history
7. Social memory, commemoration and the book
8. History and memory in early medieval Bavaria
9. The reading of history at Lorsch and St Amand
10. Texts, authority and the history of the church
11. Christianity as history
12. Conclusion: history and its audiences in the Carolingian world.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD], Palaeography [history of writing CFL]