Truth, plausibility, and the virtues of narrative at the millennium

Repairing the loss of the past: the use of written, oral and physical evidence in the Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis ( c .1113−42)

“…Described by Justin Lake as 'the practice of "discovering" material appropriate to a narrative' and then 'adopting the standard of plausibility', the inventio concept had provided a defining characteristic of medieval history-writing. 87 Orderic's use of the convention in this part of his narrative provides evidence of his advanced historiographical knowledge, but also suggests that he may have been more comfortable working away from written sources than he had claimed in his earlier lamentations.…”