IMC 2019: Sessions

The first paper shall focus on the competing images of the Early Middle Ages shaped by Augustin Thierry: he sketched a political fresco putting the stress on the struggle for freedom and on the resistance against Frankish domination, but he also gave form to a fascinating social world regulated by the Merovingian mores. Particular attention will be given to Thierry's major work, the Récits des temps mérovingiens, and its reception. The second paper shall investigate how Walter Scott reconstructed and imagined the medieval past: the difficulties he encountered are underlined in the Dedicatory Epistle by Laurence Templeton in Ivanhoe, but these are apparent not only in his medieval novels, but also in his Essay on Romance in which he followed Mallet's vision of Early Denmark. Discussing Walter Scott's considerations and analysis also contribute to a more thorough understanding of the production of later historians such as Augustin Thierry and Jules Michelet. The third paper shall focus on Augustin Thierry's research methodology and on his exegesis of early medieval sources. The Archives of Blois preserve much of the preparatory material produced by the 19th-century historian in preparation of his works. His elaboration of a particular image of the Merovingian Age can be reconstructed by examining his notebooks, letters and corrected proofs. This allows us in turn to better comprehend and assess both the intellectual creative process and the writing, and re-writings, of the Récits des temps mérovingiens.