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Chronicles and historiography: the interrelationship of fact and fiction

2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 32; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jmedhist.2006.09.002

1873-1279

Sophia Menaché,

Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics

Abstract Notwithstanding the great progress in medieval historiography during the last century, a conceptual and methodological basis in regard to the analysis of narrative sources is still missing. This paper indicates some of the challenges posed by fourteenth-century chronicles while focusing on contemporary testimonies about Clement V, pope between 1305 and 1314. Discussion of the different testimonies allows drawing some conclusions and paves the way for a new approach to medieval narrative sources. Keywords: ChroniclesHistoriographyFourteenth centuryPapacyClement V Notes 1 An abridged version of this paper was presented at the Fourth conference on medieval chronicles (Reading, July 2005). For differing approaches to medieval chronicles, see, Bernard Guenée, ‘Histoire et chronique: nouvelles réflexions sur les genres historiques au moyen âge’, in: La chronique et l'histoire au moyen-âge, ed. Daniel Poirion (Paris, 1982), 10-11; Gabrielle M. Spiegel, ‘Theory into practice: reading medieval chronicles’, in: The medieval chronicle, ed. Erik Kooper (Amsterdam, 1999), 7. 2 See, for instance, Gordon Leff, ‘Heresy and the decline of the medieval church’, Past and Present, 20 (1961), 36-51; Carole Jeanne Dobson, ‘The thirteenth-century papacy as viewed by those outside the Roman curia’ (unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan, 1975), 171-216. 3 See, for instance, John A. Yunck, ‘Economic conservatism, papal finance, and the medieval satires on Rome’, Medieval Studies, 23 (1961), 334-51. 4 J. Christophe, Histoire de la papauté pendant le XIVe siècle (Paris, 1853), vol. 1, iv-v. Compare B. Guillemain, ‘Punti di vista sul papato avignonese’, Archivio storico Italiano, 111 (1953), 181-206; D. Waley, ‘Opinions of the Avignon papacy: a historiographical sketch’, in: Storiografia e storia: studi in onore di Eugenio Duprè Theseider (Rome, 1974), 175-80. 5 J. Muldoon, ‘The Avignon papacy and the frontiers of Christendom: the evidence of Vatican register 62’, Archivum Historiae Pontificae, 17 (1979), 126-9. 6 Norbert Kersken, ‘High and late medieval national historiography’, in: Historiography in the middle ages, ed. Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis (Leiden, 2003), 181-215. 7 Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, ‘Pour une approche prosopographique de la cour pontificale du XIIIe siècle: Problèmes de méthode’, in: Medieval lives and the historian: studies in medieval prosopography, ed. Neithard Bulst and Jean-Philippe Genet (Kalamazoo, 1986), 113-21. 8 Elisabeth M.C. van Houts, Local and regional chronicles (Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental, 74, Turnhout, 1995), 14. 9 On the propagandistic value of chronicles and the growing awareness by the political elite of this utilitarian feature, see, David Dumville, ‘What is a chronicle?’ in: The medieval chronicle II, ed. Erik Kooper (Amsterdam, 2002), 22-3. 10 R. Fédou, Les papes du moyen àge à Lyon (Lyon, 1988), 82. 11 Continuationis chronici Guillelmi de Nangiaco, pars prima, in Chronique latine de Guillaume de Nangis de 1113 à 1300 avec les continuations de cette chronique de 1300 à 1368, ed. H. Géraud, 2 vols (Paris, 1843), vol. 1, 350. 12 Foedera, conventiones, literae…inter reges Angliae…ab ineunte saeculo duodecimo… ad nostra usque tempora, ed. T. Rymer, 10 vols. (Hague 1739-45), vol. 1, part iv, 46. 13 Quarta Vita Clementis V (excerpta ex chronicis quae nuncupantur Flores chronicorum seu Cathalogus pontificum romanorum) auctore Bernardo Guidonis episcopo Lodovensi, in: Vitae Paparum Avenionensium hoc est historia pontificum romanorum…ab anno Christi 1305 usque ad annum 1394, ed. Etienne Baluze, new ed., Guillaume Mollat, 4 vols (Paris 1916-28), vol. 1, 61. 14 Secunda Vita Clementis V auctore Ptolemaeo Lucensi ordinis praedicatorum (excerpta ex Historia ecclesiastica), in: Vitae, vol. 1, 24-5. See, also, Prima Vita Clementis V auctore Joanne canonico Sancti Victoris Parisiensis, in: Vitae, vol. 1, 1-2; Chronographia regum Francorum, ed. H. Moranvillé, 3 vols (Société de l'histoire de France, Paris, 1891-97), vol. 1, 176; Continuatio chronici Girardi de Fracheto (RHGF, vol. 21), 26. 15 Chronique normande du XIVe siècle, ed. Auguste and Emile Molinier (Paris, 1882), 28; Jean d'Hocsem, Gesta pontificum Leodiensium, in: Gesta Pontificum Tungrensium, Traiectensium, et Leodiensium scripserunt auctores praecipui…, ed. Jean Chapeaville, 3 vols (Liège, 1612-16), vol. 2, 344. B. Schimmelpfennig, ‘Papal coronations in Avignon’, in: Coronations: medieval and early modern monarchic ritual, ed. Jànos M. Bak (Berkeley, 1990), 179-96. 16 Foedera, 1-4, 41, 42-3. Annales Londonienses, in: Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II, 2 vols (Rolls series, London, 1883), vol. 1, 143. 17 Adae Murimuth Continuatio chronicarum, ed. Edward M. Thompson, (Rolls series, London, 1889), 8; Flores historiarum, 123; Continuationis chronici Guillelmi de Nangiaco, 348-9; Continuatio chronici Girardi de Fracheto, 25; Gilles li Muisis, ‘Li estas des papes’, ed. A. Coville, Histoire littéraire de la France, 37 (1938), 298; Bernard Gui, Tertia Vita, in: Vitae, 54; Annales Parmenses Maiores, ed. Philippo Jaffé (MGH, SS, vol. 18), 733. 18 Extraits d'une chronique anonyme finissant en 1308-80, RHGF, vol. 21, 136; Jean de St Victor, Prima Vita, in: Vitae, 1; Iohannes Victoriensis [John of Viktring] 1211-1343 (FRG, vol. 1), 349. 19 Annales Lubicenses, ed. I. Lappenberg (MGH, SS, vol. 16), 419. On this particular source, see, Augusto Vasina, ‘Medieval urban historiography’, in: Historiography in the middle ages, 344-5. On historical writing in late medieval Germany, see, Rolf Sprandel, ‘World historiography in the Late middle ages’, ibid, 157-79. 20 Very popular in the Low Countries, it was written by a local chronicler, probably from St Omer, who was loyal to the Capetians. Henri Pirenne regarded the work as an abridged version of the Chronographia. The latter chronicle was probably written by a monk of St. Denys, and its final version – which is very close to the Grandes Chroniques and to the reports of Bernard Gui – dates to the fifteenth century. 21 Chronographia regum Francorum, 170; Extraits d'une chronique anonyme intitulée Anciennes chroniques de Flandre (RHGF, vol. 22), 396. 22 La Cronica di Dino Compagni delle cose occorrenti ne'tempi suoi, ed. Isidoro del Lungo (RIS, n.s. vol. 9-2, Città di Castello, 1913), 192-3. On the prolonged struggle between Boniface and the Colonnas and the latter's alliance with Philip the Fair, see S. Menache, ‘Un peuple qui a sa demeure à part: Boniface VIII et le sentiment national français’, 196-97. On historical writing in fourteenth-century Florence, see, Christian Bec, ‘Sur l'historiographie marchande à Florence au XIVe siècle’, in: La chronique et l'histoire au moyen-âge, ed. Poirion, 45-72. 23 …ut possem habere pontificem de regno, cupiens regi et regno esse provisum, et sperans quod quicumque regis sequeretur consilium, Urbem et orbem bene regeret et Ecclesiam reformaret. Et quoniam cum multis cautelis, quibus potuimus, hunc qui decessit elegimus, per quem credebamus regnum et regem magnifice exaltasse. Written between May and 24 July 1314. Collectio actorum veterum, ed. E. Baluze, in: Vitae, ed. Guillaume Mollat, vol. 3 (Paris, 1921), 237. 24 Francesco Salvestrini, ‘Giovanni Villani and the aetiological myth of Tuscan cities’, in: The medieval chronicle II, ed. Kooper, 199-211. 25 For a more accurate biography of the cardinal, see R. Fei, ‘Il Cardinale Niccolò da Prato (1250-1321)’, Mémoire dominicaine, 39 (1922), 467-83. 26 J. Bernard, ‘Le népotisme de Clément V et ses complaisances pour la Gascogne’, Annales du Midi, 61 (1949), 369-411. 27 Giovanni Villani, Istorie fiorentine, 8 vols (Società Tipografica de’ Classici Italiani, Milan, 1802-1803), vol. 1, viii, c. 80, vol. 4, 160-2; Cronica di Giovanni Villani a miglior lezione ridotta, ed. Franc. Gherardi Dragomanni, 4 vols. (Florence, 1845), vol. 1, viii, c. 80, vol. 2, 109-11; Cronaca Senese attribuita ad Agnolo di Tura del Grasso detta la Cronaca Maggiore, in: Cronache Senesi, ed. Alessandro Lisini and Fabio Iacometti, 2 vols. (RIS, n.s. 15-6, Bologna, 1934), 287-8. 28 M. Rabanis, Clément V et Philippe le Bel: Lettre à M. Charles Daremberg sur l'entrevue de Philippe le Bel et de Bertrand de Got à Saint Jean d'Angély (Paris, 1858), 18 and following; C.J. Hefèle and Dom H. Leclercq, Histoire des conciles d'après les documents originaux, 8 vols (Paris, 1909-17), vol. 6-1, 487-98. 29 L. Andrat, ‘L'entrevue de Bertrand de Got et de Philippe le Bel’, Bulletin de la société des archives historiques de la Saintonge et de l'Aunis, 5 (1885), 230-2. See, also, M. Rabanis, Clément V et Philippe le Bel, 152-9. 30 Annales Ecclesiastici ab anno 1198 ubi desinit Cardinal Baronius auctore Odorico Raynaldus, 24 vols (Lucca, 1738-50), vol. 15, 1-2; Annales Ecclesiastici, ed. G.D. Mansi, 34 vols (Lucca, 1738-59), vol. 4, 390n-391n. 31 Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, Paradiso, c. xxvii, v. 22-27, The John Ciardi Translation (New York, 1954). 32 Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, Paradiso, c. xxvii, v. 55-59. This section was probably written after Clement's death, since it also refers to the Cahorsins, a clear reference to the countrymen of John XXII. E. Gorra, ‘Dante e Clemente V’, Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, 69 (1917), 215. On the evolution of Dante's attitudes toward the papacy and the main role of Clement V's last years in his anti-papal approach, see G. Holmes, ‘Dante and the popes: his attitudes to Boniface VIII and Clement V and to Emperor Henry VII’, in: The world of Dante: essays on Dante and his times, ed. Cecil Grayson (Oxford, 1980), 40-1. 33 G. Villani, Istorie Fiorentine, vol. 1, ix, c. 58, 57. However, Raimond de Got died only in 1323. 34 Agnolo di Tura, Cronaca Senese, 343; Villani, Istorie Fiorentini, vol. 1, ix, c. 58, 56-57. 35 Bernard Gui, Quarta Vita, 60; id., Tertia Vita, 54; Amalric Auger, Sexta Vita, in: Vitae, 90. 36 La Chronique métrique attribuée à Geffroy de Paris, ed. Armel Divèrres (Strasbourg, 1956), 136, v. 2327-50. 37 Gervais du Bus, Le roman de Fauvel, ed. Arthur Langfors (Société des anciens textes français, Paris, 1914-1919), 23, v. 553-58. On Le roman de Fauvel and its place in medieval satire, see J.C. Mühlethler, Fauvel au pouvoir: Lire la satire médiévale (Paris, 1994), 17-29. 38 La chronique métrique attribuée à Geffroy de Paris, 175, v. 4444-48. 39 E. Baluze, Notae ad vitas, 39. 40 La chronique métrique attribuée à Geffroy de Paris, 137-144, v. 2379-2745; see, also, Thomas Jorz's letter to King Edward in January 1306 in C.V. Langlois, ‘Notices et documents relatifs à l'histoire du XIIIe et du XIVe siècles: Nova Curie’, Revue historique, 87 (1905), 71. 41 Willelmi Rishanger quondam monachi S. Albani Chronica, in Chronica monasterii S. Albani (London, 1865), 227; Chroniques de Sempringham, in: Le livere de reis de Brittanie e le livere de reis de Engleterre, ed. J. Glover (Rolls series, London, 1865), 326. Monastic chroniclers were still in the forefront of historiography in fourteenth-century England, while St. Albans maintained its primacy; see, John Taylor, English historical literature in the fourteenth century (Oxford, 1987), 8-9. 42 Jean Devaux, ‘From the court of Hainaut to the court of England: the example of Jean Froissart’, in: War, government and power in late medieval France, ed. Christopher Allmand (Liverpool, 2000), 1-20. 43 Jean Froissart, Chroniques, ed. G. Diller (Paris, 1972), 52. 44 T.F. Tout, The place of the reign of Edward II in English history, ed. Hilda Johnstone,. (2nd edition Westport, CN, 1976), 195. 45 Vita Edwardi Secundi Monachi Cuiusdam Malmesberiensis, ed. Noël Denholm-Young (London, 1957), 46. 46 S. Menache, Clement V (Cambridge, 1998), 247-278. 47 S. Menache, ‘Réflexions sur quelques papes français du bas moyen âge: Un problème d'origine’, Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique, 81 (1986), 117-130. 48 Chronique normande du XIVe siècle, ed. Auguste and Emile Molinier, 28. Dino Compagni, Cronica, 193; Annales Forolivienses, ed. Giuseppe Mazzatinti (RIS, n.s. vol. 22-2, Città di Castello, 1903), 63; Georgii et Iohannis Stellae, Annales Genuenses, ed. Giovanna Petti Balbi (RIS, n.s. vol. 17-2, Bologna, 1975), 72. 49 Villani, Istorie fiorentini, vol. 1. viii, c. 81, 165. 50 Heinrici Rebdorfensis Annales imperatorum et paparum, (FRG, vol. 4, Stuttgart, 1868), 552. Although there was a foundation of Augustinian canons at Rebdorf, Bavaria, the chronicle was in fact written by an anonymous writer in about 1346. 51 Jean de St. Victor, Prima Vita, 5-6; Dino Compagni, Cronica, 219-20. 52 Gefroi des Nès, ‘La desputaison de l’église de Romme et de l’église de France’, in: ‘Un débat inédit du quatorzième siècle’, ed. William Shepard, in: Mélanges de linguistique et de litterature offerts à A. Jeanroy par ses éléves et ses amis (Paris, 1928), 575 v. 37-40, 577 v. 99-101, 579 v. 158-60. 53 Monachi Fürstenfeldensis Chronica, (vulgo Volcmari) [Fürstenfeld] Chronica de gestis principum a tempore Ruldolfi regis usque ad tempora Ludwici imperatoris 1273-1326, FRG, vol. 1, 42-3; John of Viktring, 349. According to Sprandel, ‘we find [in the writing of Johann of Viktring] the closest approximation of a German national history’. Rolf Sprandel, ‘World historiography in the late middle ages’, 163. 54 Tolomeo da Lucca, Secunda Vita, 24; Marcha di Marco Battagli da Rimini, (1212-1354), ed. Aldo Francesco Massèra (RIS, n.s. vol. 16-3, Città di Castello, 1912), 65. In a report to James II of Aragon, mention was made of the papal summons to the cardinals to come to the Comtat-Venaissin and their assumption that the pope would stay there for the remainder of the year (16 September 1305). Acta Aragonensia: Quellen zur deutschen, italienischen, französischen, spanischen, Kirchen- und Kulturgeschichte aus der diplomatischen Korrespondenz Jaymes II. (1291-1327), ed. Heinrich Finke, 3 vols. (Münster-Berlin, 1908-22), vol. 1, nos 130, 198-9. 55 Corpus chronicorum Bononiensium, ed. Albano Sorbelli, 3 vols (RIS, n.s. vol. 18-1, Città di Castello, 1911), vol. 2, 270-1. 56 Flores historiarum, ed. R. H. Luard, 3 vols (Rolls series, London, 1890), vol. 3, ad annum 1305, appendix 322. 57 Acta Aragonensia, vol. 2, nos 341, 111-12. 58 Tractatus contra articulos inventos ad diffamandum sanctissimum patrem dominum Bonifacium papam sancte memorie et de commendacione eiusdem, in Heinrich Finke, Aus den Tagen Bonifaz VIII, (Funde und Forschungen, Münster, 1902), no. 18, xci-xciii. 59 Alvarus Pelagius, De statu et planctu Ecclesiae, in: N. Iung, Un franciscain théologien du pouvoir pontifical, Alvaro Pelayo (Paris, 1931), 111. 60 On Jean le Moine's attitude toward the papal monarchy, see J. Gaudemet, ‘Aspects de la primauté romaine du Ve au XVe siècle’, Ius Canonicum, 11 (1971), 126-9. Jesselin also wrote a commentary on the Clementinae, which he finished in 1323. Fournier, ‘Jesselin de Cassagnes, canoniste’, Histoire littéraire de la France, 35 (1921), 348-61. 61 B. Guillemain, La cour pontificale d'Avignon, (1309-1376), Etude d'une société (Paris, 1962), 90-1, 349-50. 62 See, for instance, ‘history’, Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary, 2 vols (New York, 1964), 599. 63 Georg G. Iggers, ‘The crisis of the conventional conception of ‘scientific’ history’, in New directions in European historiography (Middletown, CT., 1984), 3-42. 64 Arnaldo Momigliano, The classical foundations of modern historiography (Berkeley, 1990), 155-6. 65 Bernd Schneidmüller, ‘Constructing the past by means of the present: historiographical foundations of medieval institutions, dynasties, peoples, and communities’, in: Medieval concepts of the past: ritual, memory, historiography, ed. Gerd Althoff, Johannes Fried and Patrick J. Geary (Washington DC, 2002), 167-92. 66 Keith Winchschuttle, ‘A critique of the postmodern turn in western historiography’, in: Historiography: a cross cultural perspective, ed. Q. Edward Wang and Georg G. Iggers (Rochester, 2002), 271-85.