Adaptation and Affect in Orderic Vitalis’s Historia ecclesiastica
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Carolyn Cargile
Abstract
Orderic Vitalis’s twelfth-century chronicle, the Historia ecclesiastica, tells a universal history, in twelve books, of the Christian Church. It begins this universal history by narrating the history of the Church in Normandy, where Orderic lived the majority of his life as a monk at Saint-Évroul. This chapter focuses on Book V of the Historia, which includes a verse history of the bishops and archbishops of Rouen, interpolated with prose sections to create a prosimetrum. The verse history itself comes from two earlier manuscripts produced in eleventh-century Normandy, the Livre d’ivoire and the Livre noir. This chapter addresses Orderic’s crafting of history on the manuscript page with this verse history and makes two claims. Firstly, through the use of manuscript layout and the verse form, Orderic works to resolve competing claims to the origins of the Rouennais (arch)bishopric and to assert Normandy’s importance in a larger Christian history. Secondly, by drawing on the affective resonances associated with the verse form, Orderic uses literary form in the Historia to shape readers’ collectively felt responses towards the past and thereby mediate their understandings of it. This chapter invites us to consider the integral roles that literary form, manuscript layout, and affective response play in making history for medieval readers.
Abstract
Orderic Vitalis’s twelfth-century chronicle, the Historia ecclesiastica, tells a universal history, in twelve books, of the Christian Church. It begins this universal history by narrating the history of the Church in Normandy, where Orderic lived the majority of his life as a monk at Saint-Évroul. This chapter focuses on Book V of the Historia, which includes a verse history of the bishops and archbishops of Rouen, interpolated with prose sections to create a prosimetrum. The verse history itself comes from two earlier manuscripts produced in eleventh-century Normandy, the Livre d’ivoire and the Livre noir. This chapter addresses Orderic’s crafting of history on the manuscript page with this verse history and makes two claims. Firstly, through the use of manuscript layout and the verse form, Orderic works to resolve competing claims to the origins of the Rouennais (arch)bishopric and to assert Normandy’s importance in a larger Christian history. Secondly, by drawing on the affective resonances associated with the verse form, Orderic uses literary form in the Historia to shape readers’ collectively felt responses towards the past and thereby mediate their understandings of it. This chapter invites us to consider the integral roles that literary form, manuscript layout, and affective response play in making history for medieval readers.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- 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
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- 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
