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IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 605: Writing Medieval History / Reading Medieval History, II

Tuesday 6 July 2021, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Haskins Society
Organiser:Giles Connolly, Department of History University of Birmingham
Moderator/Chair:Emily A. Winkler, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford / Department of History, University College London
Paper 605-aCreative Copying, Selective Omissions, and Rewriting the Past: Gervase of Canterbury's Actus Pontificum
(Language: English)
Stephanie Skenyon, Department of History, University of Miami, Florida
Index terms: Archives and Sources, Historiography - Medieval, Monasticism
Paper 605-bMastering Time in the Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis
(Language: English)
Charlie Rozier, Durham University Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Index terms: Archives and Sources, Historiography - Medieval
Paper 605-cThe Many Faces of Historical Culture in Late 12th-Century England: Sources and Contexts of the 'Sawley' Compilation (Cambridge, University Library Ff.1.27 and Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 66)
(Language: English)
Stanislav Mereminskiy, Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
Index terms: Hagiography, Historiography - Medieval, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Abstract

While medieval historical writing is a valuable tool for accessing the course of events in the past, it offers more than a causal narrative to be assessed for its accuracy. These texts reflect the institutional, geographical, political or literary context of their production, the attitudes of their authors and the expectations of their audiences. Analysing them demonstrates the processes of medieval historiography, turning events into comprehensible narratives, and reveals the relationship of medieval people with the past. This panel aims to provide new readings, interpretations and approaches to medieval historical works, through a discussion of the content and context of medieval historiography.