Current Approaches to Medieval Historiography

Abstract

In recent decades a variety of approaches have been adopted to wring as much meaning as possible out of medieval chronicles and narrative histories. Moving past the use of these texts merely as source material to reconstruct the history of the Middle Ages, scholars have begun to focus to an increasing extent on topics such as authorial intention, social and political function, audience, and textual transmission. This essay charts the development of new approaches to medieval historiography, focusing on: 1) the analysis of fictional elements in history; 2) the relationship between politics and history; and 3) the return to manuscripts as primary sites of historical communication.

The Art of the Slender Line

“…The current view on historical documents is that they were written for specific contemporaneous audiences 126 , and with the church as part of the ruling order in society, within the context of the Christianization of Ireland, Gospel manuscripts must have had contemporaneous political and historical relevance 127 . Placing the Book of Kells in the context of contemporary secular literature, such as Audacht Morainn and the ninth abusio in De Duodecim Abusivis Saeculi, thought to reflect a growing power struggle in Ireland between the church and the Uí Néill dynasty 128 , means perhaps yet another layer to the abstractive use of the lozenge can be drawn from the miniature.…”