Written World

Amanda Jane Hingst

Description

The Anglo-Norman monk Orderic Vitalis (1075-c.1142) wrote his monumental, highly individual Historia Ecclesiastica as an exercise in monastic discipline intended to preserve the events and character of Christendom for future generations. Though cloistered since childhood in a Benedictine monastery near Normandy's southern border, Orderic gained access to an intellectual world that extended from Scotland to Jerusalem through his engagement with texts and travelers that made their way into his monastic milieu. His Historia Ecclesiastica, with a breadth of vision unparalleled in its time, is a particularly fertile source for an investigation of concepts of space and historiography in the high Middle Ages.

In The Written World: Past and Place in the Work of Orderic Vitalis, Amanda Jane Hingst draws on the blend of intellectual intimacy and historiographical breadth in Orderic's writings to investigate the ways in which high medieval historians understood geographical space to be a temporally meaningful framework for human affairs. Hingst explores Orderic's manipulation of the classical geographical tradition, his balancing of spatial scale between the local and the universal, and his sophisticated and original utilization of the new intellectual currents of the twelfth century. She argues that Orderic, along with some of his contemporaries, interpreted Christendom's terrain not merely as a static stage for human action but as a meaningful element in human history. Using a theoretical framework marrying modern spatial theory with medieval philosophical traditions, Hingst suggests that, at its most nuanced, medieval historiography affirmed the symbolic topography of Christendom by linking history and geography in such a way that they mutually forged and reinforced each other. With a clarity of style and ideas, Hingst makes available to both students and trained scholars a fascinating account of a heretofore underappreciated medieval figure and his work.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Historical Geography
• Medieval
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Escocia
• Edad Media
• Benedictine
• Historia Ecclesiastica
• Anglo-Norman
• Middle Ages
• Jerusalem
• Catholic
• Christendom
• Christianity
• Order of Saint Benedict
• Scotland
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268081591
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 18 Mo

Extrait

TheWrittenWorld p a s t a n d p l a c e i n t h e w o r k o f Orderic Vitalis a m a n d a j a n e h i n g s t

T H E W R I T T EN W O R L D

T H E WRITTEN WORLD

Past and Place in the Work of Orderic Vitalis

AMANDA JANE HINGST

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana

Copyright © 2009 by University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Hingst, Amanda Jane, 1976 – The written world : past and place in the work of Orderic Vitalis / by Amanda Jane Hingst. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-268-03086-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-268-03086-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Ordericus Vitalis, 1075 – 1143? 2. Ordericus Vitalis, 1075 – 1143? Historia ecclesiastica. 3. Church history — Middle Ages, 600 – 1500. 4. Religion and geography. 5. Normandy (France) — History — To 1515. 6. Great Britain — History — To 1485. 7. Crusades. 8. Normans. I. Title. BR252.H56 2009 270.4 — dc22 2009004363

∞The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

To My Parents

Touques l TOUQUES R.

Lisiuex l

Lillebonne l

RISLE R.

▲ St. Wandrille

▲ Jumièges

▲ Bec

l Bernay

Montreuil l’Argillé Pont-Échanfray l l Le Sap l Glos-la-Ferriè Anciens l re l ▲ l Ouche Gacé L’Aigle l l Exmes Échauffour l

Sées l

Bonsmoulins l l Moulins- la-Marche

l Conches

Breteuil l

Rouen l

l Evreux

▲

l

Major Monasteries

Towns

Tosny l SEINE R.

l Dreux

Map of France, twelfth century, detail of the environs of Orderic Vitalis. Map copyright © 2008 Digital Vector Maps.

Contents

Acknowledgments Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Entr’acte

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Ouche: The History of a Place

Classical Geography and theGens Normannorum

At Sea

Albion: Conquest, Hegemony, and the English Past

Jerusalem and the Ends of the Earth

Haunted Landscapes

Historians, Heretics, and the Body of Christ

Epilogue

Notes Bibliography Index

ix xi

1

19

42

51

70

92

110

129

137 215 260

Acknowledgments

Monks, Orderic Vitalis said, need only two things to survive: wood and water. Historians need three: money, books, and friends. The first was provided by a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship from the U.S. De- partment of Education, which supported four years of my graduate study, including two years of work on the dissertation that became this book. The University of California, Berkeley, also provided fi- nancial support through the Fletcher Jones Fellowship and the Dean’s Normative Time Fellowship. The books, medieval and modern, needed for this study came from libraries around the world. The Département des Manuscrits (division occidentale) at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, graciously allowed me access to Orderic Vitalis’s autograph manu- script of hisHistoria Ecclesiasticaas well as many other treasures. Thanks are also due to the staffs of the Bibliothèque de la ville in Rouen, of the Mediathèque de la communauté urbaine d’Alençon, and of the British Library, all of whom were consistently helpful and understanding. Catherine Hilliard, the librarian at St John’s Col- lege, Oxford, kindly gave me permission to use images from one of that library’s manuscripts and helped to provide me with photo- graphs. Back in the United States, staff members at the many ex- cellent libraries of the University of California, Berkeley, provided me with a wealth of assistance, as did those at the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and at the John M. Olin Library at Washington University in St. Louis. The Robbins Collection in the Law Library of the School of Law at

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