Writing History with Bede’s Martyrology, 800–1200
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Kate Falardeau
Abstract
Bede’s Martyrology is a calendrical list of saints, largely martyrs, composed by the Northumbrian monk and scholar Bede in the eighth century. The Martyrology is the earliest known historical martyrology, a martyrology that includes historical information about each martyrdom rather than only the names of the saints. The majority of the approximately thirty surviving manuscript copies is datable to the ninth century and was produced in Carolingian Europe. This chapter first defines Bede’s Martyrology as a history of sanctity that was well-suited for circulation within the Carolingian context, given Bede’s historical aims and Frankish interests in history and the saints. Subsequently, this chapter examines the interconnected manuscript making and manuscript reading activity evident in two ninth-century manuscript copies: Würzburg, Universitätsbibliothek, M.p.th.f.50 (mid-ninth-century, Mainz) and London, British Library, Add. MS 19725 (late ninth-century, eastern Francia). Each manuscript copy is shown to contain a particular construction of history, which is constituted by layers of accretion to Bede’s original text. This chapter argues that medieval European readers of the text manipulated the manuscript form to fashion their own senses of the past. Moreover, this construction of history was intimately related to Carolingian reforming activity and shifts in liturgical practice and their later influence. The material afterlife of Bede’s Martyrology therefore provides an avenue to think through the relationships between liturgy, history, and the material manuscript in medieval European religious culture.
Abstract
Bede’s Martyrology is a calendrical list of saints, largely martyrs, composed by the Northumbrian monk and scholar Bede in the eighth century. The Martyrology is the earliest known historical martyrology, a martyrology that includes historical information about each martyrdom rather than only the names of the saints. The majority of the approximately thirty surviving manuscript copies is datable to the ninth century and was produced in Carolingian Europe. This chapter first defines Bede’s Martyrology as a history of sanctity that was well-suited for circulation within the Carolingian context, given Bede’s historical aims and Frankish interests in history and the saints. Subsequently, this chapter examines the interconnected manuscript making and manuscript reading activity evident in two ninth-century manuscript copies: Würzburg, Universitätsbibliothek, M.p.th.f.50 (mid-ninth-century, Mainz) and London, British Library, Add. MS 19725 (late ninth-century, eastern Francia). Each manuscript copy is shown to contain a particular construction of history, which is constituted by layers of accretion to Bede’s original text. This chapter argues that medieval European readers of the text manipulated the manuscript form to fashion their own senses of the past. Moreover, this construction of history was intimately related to Carolingian reforming activity and shifts in liturgical practice and their later influence. The material afterlife of Bede’s Martyrology therefore provides an avenue to think through the relationships between liturgy, history, and the material manuscript in medieval European religious culture.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Abbreviations IX
- List of Figures XI
- Notes on Contributors XVII
- Introduction: History, Manuscripts, Making 1
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I Strategies of Production
- Assemblages and History in a Medieval French Manuscript from Corbie, ca. 1295: Copenhagen, Kongelige Biblioteket, GKS 487 f° 23
- Writing with the Book: History through the Codex and the Materiality of Autography 47
- Miscellanies of Histories: Perception of the Past and Historiographical Agency of Late Medieval Compilers 71
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II The Stakes of Adaptation
- Writing History with Bede’s Martyrology, 800–1200 95
- Adaptation and Affect in Orderic Vitalis’s Historia ecclesiastica 117
- From Little Egypt to Zurich: Chronicling Romani Immigrants with Late Medieval Manuscripts 141
- Making History in the Renaissance with Medieval Manuscripts: Jean Le Féron and the Grandes chroniques de France 171
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III Configuring History
- Medieval Monastic Manuscripts after the Middle Ages: The Case of St. Nikolaus in undis at Strasbourg 199
- History Branches Out: Narrative and Chronology in Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 147 225
- Fabulous History: Painting History in Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MS 5069 253
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IV Response
- Making History with Manuscripts: Response 287
- General Index 303
- Manuscripts Cited 315
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Abbreviations IX
- List of Figures XI
- Notes on Contributors XVII
- Introduction: History, Manuscripts, Making 1
-
I Strategies of Production
- Assemblages and History in a Medieval French Manuscript from Corbie, ca. 1295: Copenhagen, Kongelige Biblioteket, GKS 487 f° 23
- Writing with the Book: History through the Codex and the Materiality of Autography 47
- Miscellanies of Histories: Perception of the Past and Historiographical Agency of Late Medieval Compilers 71
-
II The Stakes of Adaptation
- Writing History with Bede’s Martyrology, 800–1200 95
- Adaptation and Affect in Orderic Vitalis’s Historia ecclesiastica 117
- From Little Egypt to Zurich: Chronicling Romani Immigrants with Late Medieval Manuscripts 141
- Making History in the Renaissance with Medieval Manuscripts: Jean Le Féron and the Grandes chroniques de France 171
-
III Configuring History
- Medieval Monastic Manuscripts after the Middle Ages: The Case of St. Nikolaus in undis at Strasbourg 199
- History Branches Out: Narrative and Chronology in Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 147 225
- Fabulous History: Painting History in Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MS 5069 253
-
IV Response
- Making History with Manuscripts: Response 287
- General Index 303
- Manuscripts Cited 315
