2004/07/29 by Rosamond McKitterick · 401 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Historical and Archaeological Studies #Kingdom #Narrative #Period (music) #Middle Ages #Ideology #History #Reading (process) #Relation (database) #Literature #Ninth #Politics #Identity (music) #Ancient history #Classics #Art #Aesthetics #Linguistics #Philosophy #Political science #Law
paper · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511617003
published in Cambridge University Press eBooks (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2004/07/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
The writing and reading of history in the early Middle Ages form the key themes of this 2004 book. The primary focus is on the remarkable manifestations of historical writing in relation to historical memory in the Frankish kingdoms of the eighth and ninth centuries. It considers the audiences for history in the Frankish kingdoms, the recording of memory in new genres including narrative histories, cartularies and Libri memoriales, and thus particular perceptions of the Frankish and Christian past. It analyses both original manuscript material and key historical texts from the Carolingian period, a remarkably creative period in the history of European culture. Presentations of the past developed in this period were crucial in forming an historical understanding of the Greco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian past and, in subsequent centuries, of early medieval Europe. They also played an extraordinarily influential role in the formation of political ideologies and senses of identity within Europe.