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IMC 2013: Sessions

Session 830: Bec and Beyond: Monastic Cultures of Writing in Normandy and England, c. 1000-1200

Tuesday 2 July 2013, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies / Haskins Society for Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, Angevin & Viking History
Organiser:Benjamin Pohl, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg
Moderator/Chair:Charlie Rozier, Durham University Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Paper 830-aBec Authors Writing Biography, at Bec and Elsewhere
(Language: English)
Sally N. Vaughn, Department of History, University of Houston, Texas
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Monasticism, Religious Life
Paper 830-bWhy Did(n't) the Nuns at La Trinité Write?
(Language: English)
Laura Gathagan, Department of History, State University of New York, Cortland
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Monasticism, Religious Life
Paper 830-cThere and Back Again: Scribal Correspondence and Manuscript Exchange between the Abbey of Le Bec and Its Neighbours
(Language: English)
Benjamin Pohl, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Monasticism, Religious Life
Abstract

In 11th- and 12th-century Normandy, elaborate cultures of writing were developed on the basis of, as well as in response to, established monastic traditions. This session seeks to investigate the dynamics of these traditions through the lens of one particular monastic community and its literary relationships within the wider Anglo-Norman world. In the course of the central Middle Ages, the Norman abbey of Le Bec, founded in 1034 under the reign of Duke Robert I of Normandy, came to play an integral role in the development of Anglo-Norman literary culture and manuscript transmission. Bringing forth prominent writers such as, for example, Lanfranc of Bec (c.1010-89) and his pupil Anselm (c. 1033-1109), both of whom came to hold influential offices at Canterbury, as well as providing a home to the 12th-century historian Robert of Torigni (c. 1110-86), Bec represents an important centre of manuscript production and textual dissemination. The three papers included in this session will explore the different ways in which Bec and its writers served as a central hub for the wider literary and cultural networks which shaped the Anglo-Norman world and its historiography.