History and Memory in the Carolingian World

Description

The writing and reading of history in the early Middle Ages form the key themes of this 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.

Rosamond McKitterick is Professor of Medieval History in the University of Cambridge. Her previous publications include The Carolingians and the Written Word (1989) (0521 315654), The Frankish Kings and Culture in the Early Middle Ages (1995) (0860 784584) and The New Cambridge Medieval History Vol II c.700-c.900 (ed. 1995) (0521 36292X). She has presented many conference papers and lectured extensively at universities throughout Britain, continental Europe, North America and Australia. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

'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