Alongside annals, chronicles were the main genre of historical writing in the Middle Ages. All chronicles raise such questions as by whom, for whom, or for what purpose they were written, how they reconstruct the past, or which literary influences are discernible in them. Their significance as sources for the study of history, literature, linguistics, and art is widely appreciated. The series The Medieval Chronicle, published in cooperation with the Medieval Chronicle Society (medievalchronicle.org), provides a representative survey of on-going research in the field of chronicle studies, illustrated by examples from a wide variety of countries, periods, and cultural backgrounds.

In the summer of 1996 the first international conference was held on the medieval chronicle, a genre which until then had received but scant attention from historians or specialists in literary history or art history. There are several reasons why the chronicle is particularly suited as the topic of an international conference. In the first place there is its ubiquity: all over Europe and throughout the Middle Ages chronicles were written, both in Latin and in the vernacular, and not only in Europe but also in the countries neighbouring on it, like those of the Arabic world. Secondly, all chronicles raise such questions as by whom, for whom, or for what purpose were they written, how do they reconstruct the past, what determined the choice of verse or prose, or what kind of literary influences are discernable in them. Finally, many chronicles have been beautifully illuminated, and the relation between text and image leads to a wholly different set of questions. It is the aim of the present volume to provide a representative survey of the on-going research in the field of chronicle studies, illustrated by examples from specific chronicles from a wide variety of countries, periods and cultural backgrounds.

A groundbreaking assessment of the use medieval English history-writers made of saints' lives. The past was ever present in later medieval England, as secular and religious institutions worked to recover (or create) originary narratives that could guarantee, they hoped, their political and spiritual legitimacy. Anglo-SaxonEngland, in particular, was imagined as a spiritual "golden age" and a rich source of precedent, for kings and for the monasteries that housed early English saints' remains. This book examines the vernacular hagiography produced in a monastic context, demonstrating how writers, illuminators, and policy-makers used English saints (including St Edmund) to re-envision the bonds between ancient spiritual purity and contemporary conditions. Treating history and ethical practice as inseparable, poets such as Osbern Bokenham, Henry Bradshaw, and John Lydgate reconfigured England's history through its saints, engaging with contemporary concerns about institutional identity, authority, and ethics. Cynthia Turner Camp is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Georgia.

There are several reasons why the chronicle is particularly suited as the topic of a yearbook. In the first place there is its ubiquity: all over Europe and throughout the Middle Ages chronicles were written, both in Latin and in the vernacular, and not only in Europe but also in the countries neighbouring on it, like those of the Arabic world. Secondly, all chronicles raise such questions as by whom, for whom, or for what purpose were they written, how do they reconstruct the past, what determined the choice of verse or prose, or what kind of literary influences are discernable in them. Finally, many chronicles have been beautifully illuminated, and the relation between text and image leads to a wholly different set of questions. The yearbook The Medieval Chronicle aims to provide a representative survey of the on-going research in the field of chronicle studies, illustrated by examples from specific chronicles from a wide variety of countries, periods and cultural backgrounds. The Medieval Chronicle is published in cooperation with the "Medieval Chronicle Society".

Essays on the medieval chronicle tradition, shedding light on history writing, manuscript studies and the history of the book, and the post-medieval reception of such texts. The histories of chronicles composed in England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and onwards, with a focus on texts belonging to or engaging with the Prose Brut tradition, are the focus of this volume. The contributors examine the composition, dissemination and reception of historical texts written in Anglo-Norman, Latin and English, including the Prose Brut chronicle (c. 1300 and later), Castleford's Chronicle (c. 1327), and Nicholas Trevet's Les Cronicles (c. 1334), looking at questions of the processes of writing, rewriting, printing and editing history. They cross traditional boundaries of subject and period, taking multi-disciplinary approaches to their studies in order to underscore the (shifting) historical, social and political contexts in which medieval English chronicles were used and read from the fourteenth century through to the present day. As such, the volume honours the pioneering work of the late Professor Lister M. Matheson, whose research in this area demonstrated that a full understanding of medieval historical literature demands attention to both the content of theworks in question and to the material circumstances of producing those works. JACLYN RAJSIC is a Lecturer in Medieval Literature in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London; ERIK KOOPER taughtOld and Middle English at Utrecht University until his retirement in 2007; DOMINIQUE HOCHE Is an Associate Professor at West Liberty University in West Virginia. Contributors: Elizabeth J. Bryan, Caroline D. Eckhardt, A.S.G. Edwards, Dan Embree, Alexander L. Kaufman, Edward Donald Kennedy, Erik Kooper, Julia Marvin, William Marx, Krista A. Murchison, Heather Pagan, Jaclyn Rajsic, Christine M. Rose, Neil Weijer

A major re-assessment of the Frankish historian Flodoard of Rheims, one of the tenth century's most intriguing but neglected narrators.

Contents Contributors Preface Julia Marvin: Latinity and Vernacularity in the Tradition of Geoffrey of Monmouth: Text, Apparatus and Readership Erik Kooper: Content Markers in the Manuscripts of Robert of Gloucester¿s Chronicle Dániel Bagi: Genealogische Fälschungen und Fiktionen als Legitimierungsmittel in narrativen Quellen des Östlichen Europas im 11¿13. Jahrhundert Isabel de Barros Dias: The Emperor, the Archbishop and the Saint: One Event Told in Different Textual Forms Anders Bengtsson: L¿Essor de la proposition participiale dans la prose historique Cristian Bratu : Translatio, autorité et affirmation de soi chez Gaimar, Wace et Benoît de Sainte-Maure R. W. Burgess and Michael Kulikowski: Medieval Historiographical Terminology: The Meaning of the Word Annales Nicholas Coureas: The Conquest of Cyprus during the Third Crusade according to Greek Chronicles from Cyprus Isabelle Guyot-Bachy : La Chronique abrégée des rois de France et les Grandes chroniques de France: concurrence ou complémentarité dans la construction d¿une culture historique en France à la fin du Moyen ge? Mihkel Mäesalu: A Crusader Conflict Mediated by a Papal Legate: The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia as a Legal Text Adrien Quéret-Podesta : Le Gallus anonymus et l¿abbaye de Saint Gilles du Gard Lisa M. Ruch: Digression or Discourse? William of Newburgh¿s Ghost Stories as Urban Legends Biörn Tjällén: Political Thought and Political Myth in Late Medieval National Histories: Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo (¿1470)