Andrea Worm & Laura Cleaver 
Writing History in the Anglo-Norman World 
Manuscripts, Makers and Readers, c.1066-c.1250

The contexts for the works of eleventh and twelfth-century historians are here brought to the fore.


History was a subject popular with authors and readers in the Anglo-Norman world. The volume and richness of historical writing in the lands controlled by the kings of England, particularly from the twelfth century, has long attracted the attention of historians and literary scholars, whilst editions of works by such writers as Orderic Vitalis, John of Worcester, Symeon of Durham, William of Malmesbury, Gerald of Wales, Roger of Howden, and Matthew Paris has made them well known. Yet the easy availability of modern editions obscures both the creation and circulation of histories in the Middle Ages.

This collection of essays returns to the processes involved in writing history, and in particular to the medieval manuscript sources in which the works of such historians survive. It explores the motivations of those writing about the past in the Middle Ages, and the evidence provided by manuscripts for the circumstances in which copies were made. It also addresses the selection of material for copying, combinations of text and imagery, and the demand for copies of particular works, shedding new light on how and why history was being read, reproduced, discussed, adapted, and written.


LAURA CLEAVER is Senior Lecturer in Manuscript Studies, Institute of English Studies, University of London; ANDREA WORM is an Assistant Professor at the Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Karl-Franzens-Universität, Graz.


Contributors: Stephen Church, Kathryn Gerry, Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Laura Pani, Charles C. Rozier, Gleb Schmidt, Laura Slater, Michael Staunton, Caoimhe Whelan

Table of Content

Introduction: Making and Reading History Books in the Anglo-Norman World

Did the Purpose of History Change in England in the Twelfth Century? – Michael Staunton

England’s Place within Salvation History: An Extended Version of Peter of Poitiers’
Compendium Historiae in London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII – Andrea Worm

Computus and Chronology in Anglo-Norman England – Anne Lawrence-Mathers

A Saint Petersburg Manuscript of
Excerptio Roberti Herefordensis de Chronica Mariani Scotti – Gleb Schmidt

Autograph History Books in the Twelfth Century – Laura Cleaver

Paul the Deacon’s
Historia Langobardorum in Anglo-Norman England – Laura Pani

Durham Cathedral Priory and its Library of History, c. 1090 – c. 1150 – Charles C. Rozier

King John’s Books and the Interdict in England and Wales – Stephen D. Church

Artistic Patronage and the Early Anglo-Norman Abbots of St Albans – Kathryn Gerry

Matthew Paris, Cecilia de Sanford and the Early Readership of the
Vie de Seint Auban – Laura Slater

New Readers, Old History: Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland – Caoimhe Whelan

Bibliography

About the author

Kathryn Gerry centres her research on the cult of saints and monastic culture in Anglo-Norman England. She has published on medieval manuscripts and the so-called minor arts, curated exhibitions at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, and the Bowdoin College Museum of art, Brunswick, Maine, and has taught at several colleges and universities in the US; she is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History at Bowdoin College.