The Kaiserchronik
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The Kaiserchronik
Author: Alastair Matthews
language: en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date: 2012-07-26
This book presents a narratological analysis of the Kaiserchronik, or chronicle of the emperors, the first verse chronicle to have been written in any European vernacular language, which provides an account of the Roman and Holy Roman emperors from the foundation of Rome to the eve of the Second Crusade. Previous research has concentrated on the structure and sources of the work and emphasized its role as a Christian narrative of history, but this study shows that the Kaiserchronik does not simply illustrate a didactic religious message: it also provides an example of how story-telling techniques in the vernacular were developed and explored in twelfth-century Germany. Four aspects of narrative are described (time and space, motivation, perspective, and narrative strands), each of which is examined with reference to the story of a particular emperor (Constantine the Great, Charlemagne, Otto the Great, and Henry IV). Rather than imposing a single analytical framework on the Kaiserchronik, the book takes account of the fact that modern theory cannot always be applied directly to works from premodern periods: it draws critically on a variety of approaches, including those of Gérard Genette, Boris Uspensky, and Eberhard Lämmert. Throughout the book, the narrative techniques described are contextualized by means of comparisons with other texts in both Middle High German and Latin, making clear the place of the Kaiserchronik as a literary narrative in the twelfth century.
Astralabe
Two of the most notable figures from the Middle Ages–the volatile, brilliant Abelard and the equally brilliant Heloise–became the parents of their son Astralabe before Abelard’s infamous, brutal castration. The couple spent the rest of their lives as monastics, in each other’s orbits if not in shared presence, as they became movers in the glittering monastic world of the early twelfth-century France. What happened to their strangely named Astralabe? Astralabe: The Life and Times of the Son of Heloise and Abelard rescues the “lost son” from footnotes and fiction and attempts to tell instead the story of a real man living in Europe in the twelfth century. This book assembles the references to Astralabe, provides background in the history of France and Switzerland, uncovers Abelard’s relationships with his family, with the ruling house of Brittany and more, and most importantly draws together all that is known of Astralabe.
Universal Chronicles in the High Middle Ages
New perspectives on and interpretations of the popular medieval genre of the universal chronicle.