The Medieval Chronicle II: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle. Driebergen/Utrecht 16-21 July 1999(144 Costerus New Series)

After the success of the first international conference on the medieval chronicle, it was decided that another would be in place. It was held in the summer of 1999, and again drew some 150 participants. There are several reasons why the chronicle is particularly suited as the topic of an international conference. In the first place there is its ubiquity: all over Europe and throughout the Middle Ages chronicles were written, both in Latin and in the vernacular, and not only in Europe but also in the countries neighbouring on it, like those of the Arabic world. Secondly, all chronicles raise such questions as by whom, for whom, or for what purpose were they written, how do they reconstruct the past, what determined the choice of verse or prose, or what kind of literary influences are discernable in them. Finally, many chronicles have been beautifully illuminated, and the relation between text and image leads to a wholly different set of questions. Like its predecessor this volume of conference papers aims to provide a representative survey of the on-going research in the field of chronicle studies, illustrated by examples from specific chronicles from a wide variety of countries, periods and cultural backgrounds. They are introduced by the opening address by David Dumville, on the question What is a chronicle?

Table of Contents:
Contributors Preface David DUMVILLE:.What is a Chronicle? Michael AGNEW: The Fact of Fiction as Fact in the Crónica sarracina and its Implications in Fifteenth Century Castile Brigitte BURRICHTER: Historisches Berichten und literarisches Erzählen in Geffrei Gaimars Estoire des Engleis Xavier DECTOT : ‘E las cayssas hubrir, e las vertutz ostar’: Les déprédations dans la cathédrale de Pampelune pendant la prise de la Navarrería selon les chroniques de l’époque Henk DRAGSTRA: ‘This myghti William’: Why did Lydgate write his ‘Verses on the Kings of England since William the Conqueror’? Olivier ELLENA : Temps, représentation, identité: l’image de la guerre dans les Chroniques de Froissart (ms. fr. 2643 à 2646 de Ia B.N.F., Paris) Isabelle GUYOT-BACHY : La diffusion du Roman des roys avant la Guerre de Cent Ans : le manuscrit de Pierre Honoré, serviteur de Charles de Valois Reinhard HÄRTEL: Echte Chroniken in unechten Urkunden Joachim KNAPE: .Historiography as Rhetoric Sjoerd LEVELT: ‘This book, attractively composed to form a consecutive and orderly narrative’: The Ambiguity of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britannie Purificación MARTÍNEZ: The Exaltation of the King in the Chronicle of Alfonso Xl Giedrė MICKŪNAITÉ: From Pamphlet to Origin Theory: The Establishment of Lithuanian Dynastic Tradition Jennifer NEVILLE: Making their own Sweet Time: The Scribes of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle A Peter NOBLE: Eyewitnesses of the Fourth Crusade: the Reign of Alexius V Gerrit J. REININK: Paideia: God’s Design in World History according to the East Syrian Monk John bar Penkaye Francesco SALVESTRINI: Giovanni Villani and the Aetiological Myth of Tuscan Cities Georg SCHEIBELREITER: Gegenwart und Vergangenheit in der Sicht Fredegars Ralf SCHLECHTWEG-JAHN: Monologisches und dialogisches Erzählen in deutschsprachigen Alexandertexten des Mittelalters Huguette TAVIANI-CAROZZI : Mythe et Histoire dans les Chroniques d’Italie du Sud (IXe- XIIe Siècles) Iliana TSCHEKOVA: Genese und kommunikative Funktion der altrussischen Nestor-chronik John WARD: From Chronicle and History to Satire, Travelogue and Sermo: the Decline of the Monastic Chronicle in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Europe

About the Author :
Erik Kooper is Senior Lecturer in Medieval English in the Departments of English and of Medieval Studies at Utrecht University. He has published widely on Middle English literature, both in English and in Dutch. In 1996 he organised the first international conference on the medieval chronicle with the aim to bring together scholars in the fields of history, literature and art history in an effort to combine research of this elusive but highly characteristic medieval genre.