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Hagiography and the History of Latin Christendom, 500â1500
Series: - Reading Medieval Sources, Volume: 4
Volume Editor:
Hagiography and the History of Latin Christendom, 500â1500 shows the historical value of texts celebrating saintsâboth the most abundant medieval source material and among the most difficult to use. Hagiographical sources present many challenges: they are usually anonymous, often hard to date, full of topoi, and unstable. Moreover, they are generally not what we would consider factually accurate. The volumeâs twenty-one contributions draw on a range of disciplines and employ a variety of innovative methods to address these challenges and reach new discoveries about the medieval world that extend well beyond the study of sanctity. They show the rich potential of hagiography to enhance our knowledge of that world, and some of the ways to unlock it.
Contributors are Ellen Arnold, Helen Birkett, Edina Bozoky, Emma Campbell, Adrian Cornell du Houx, David Defries, Albrecht Diem, Cynthia Hahn, Samantha Kahn Herrick, J.K. Kitchen, Jamie Kreiner, Klaus Krönert, Mathew Kuefler, Katherine J. Lewis, Giovanni Paolo Maggioni, Charles Mériaux, Paul Oldfield, Sara Ritchey, Catherine Saucier, Laura Ackerman Smoller, and Ineke van ât Spijker.
See inside the book.
Contributors are Ellen Arnold, Helen Birkett, Edina Bozoky, Emma Campbell, Adrian Cornell du Houx, David Defries, Albrecht Diem, Cynthia Hahn, Samantha Kahn Herrick, J.K. Kitchen, Jamie Kreiner, Klaus Krönert, Mathew Kuefler, Katherine J. Lewis, Giovanni Paolo Maggioni, Charles Mériaux, Paul Oldfield, Sara Ritchey, Catherine Saucier, Laura Ackerman Smoller, and Ineke van ât Spijker.
See inside the book.
Samantha Kahn Herrick, Ph.D. (2002), Harvard University, is Associate Professor of History at Syracuse University. She has published widely on medieval hagiography, including Imagining the Sacred Past: Hagiography and Power in Early Normandy (Harvard, 2007).
"Bilan bienvenu des avancés de la recherche dans le domaine des textes hagiographiques, souvent anonymes et mal datés, mais qui nous renseignent sur la ville, la violence, lâautre, le monachisme ... et lâévolution de lâidéal de sainteté qui reflète lâévolution de la société.Les chapitres écrits par les spécialistes qui résument leurs travaux sâorganisent dans des thématiques: création des textes, développement des pratiques, efforts des hagiographes pour moraliser la politique, place des cités et de lâenvironnement". Anne Wagner, in Francia Recensio, 2020 | 3.
"In this book, Samantha Kahn Herrick offers a brief and invaluable introduction to modern critical encounters with the genre [of hagiography], starting with Hippolyte Delehaye, and collecting insights from Marc Bloch, Peter Brown, Patrick Geary, and Felice Lifschitz, to set a platform for the chapters to follow. The book doesnât disappoint in showcasing current trends in the study of the hagiography of Latin Christendom, understood in its broadest sense, from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries. [...] A strong theme of the book is that medieval politics was in considerable part a liturgical phenomenon, a fact that only increases our need to engage with this vast literature as evidence for political history, as well as ecclesiastical history and the history of religious cultures. In all three areas, the book makes a satisfying contribution." Simon Yarrow, in The Medieval Review, 23.03.21. See the full review here.
"In this book, Samantha Kahn Herrick offers a brief and invaluable introduction to modern critical encounters with the genre [of hagiography], starting with Hippolyte Delehaye, and collecting insights from Marc Bloch, Peter Brown, Patrick Geary, and Felice Lifschitz, to set a platform for the chapters to follow. The book doesnât disappoint in showcasing current trends in the study of the hagiography of Latin Christendom, understood in its broadest sense, from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries. [...] A strong theme of the book is that medieval politics was in considerable part a liturgical phenomenon, a fact that only increases our need to engage with this vast literature as evidence for political history, as well as ecclesiastical history and the history of religious cultures. In all three areas, the book makes a satisfying contribution." Simon Yarrow, in The Medieval Review, 23.03.21. See the full review here.
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
âSamantha Kahn Herrick
Part 1
Creating and Transmitting Texts
1 Constructing the Text:Â a Comparative Study of Two Saintsâ Lives Written c.1200
âHelen Birkett
2 From âReal Lifeâ to Saintâs Life:Â Biography and Hagiography in the Vitae of Bernardino of Siena and Vincent Ferrer
âLaura Ackerman Smoller
3 Understanding Pictorial Hagiography (with Comments on the Illustrated Life of Wandrille)
âCynthia Hahn
4 Saintsâ Lives on the Move:Â the Circulation of Apostolic Legends
âSamantha Kahn Herrick
5 Thirteenth-Century Legendae Novae and the Preaching Orders:Â a Communication System
âGiovanni Paolo Maggioni
Part 2
Constructing Religious Life, History and the Self
6 Vita Vel Regula:Â Multifunctional Hagiography in the Early Middle Ages
âAlbrecht Diem
7 Bishops, Monks and Priests:Â Defining Religious Institutions by Writing and Rewriting Saintsâ Lives (Francia, 6thâ11th centuries)
âCharles Mériaux
8 Singing the Lives of the Saints:Â Hagiographical-Historical Intersections in Music and Worship
âCatherine Saucier
9 âImpressed by Their Stampâ:Â Hagiography and the Cultivation of the Self
âIneke van ât Spijker
Part 3
Power and Violence
10 Gaulâs Insiders:Â Hagiography and Entitlement
âJamie Kreiner
11 St Gerald of Aurillac, Sex and Violence in Medieval Hagiography
âMathew Kuefler
12 The Unconvincing Martyrdom of William Longsword, Norman Count of Rouen (r. 928â42)
âDavid Defries
13 Hagiography, Relics and Secular Politics in Western Europe 6thâ13th Centuries
âEdina Bozóky
Part 4/b>
Urban Life and the Natural World
14 Hagiography and Inter-Urban Rivalry:Â the Vita of St Eucharius, First Bishop of Trier, and Its Use in âPoliticalâ Quarrels during the Tenth Century
âKlaus Krönert
15 Hagiography and Urban Life:Â Evidence from Southern Italy
âPaul Oldfield
16 Hagiography and the Exotic:Â âForeign Saintsâ in High Medieval Lucca
âAdrian Cornell du Houx
17 Environmental History and Hagiography
âEllen Arnold
Part 5/b>
Gender, Health and Beauty
18 Hagiography, Gender, and the Power of Social Norms
âEmma Campbell
19 A King, Not a Servant:Â the Prose Life of St Katherine of Alexandria and Ideologies of Masculinity in Late Medieval England
âKatherine J. Lewis
20 Health, Healing, and Salvation:Â Hagiography as a Source for Medieval Healthcare
âSara Ritchey
21 The Beautiful Dead:Â Materiality, Resurrection and the Aesthetics of Holy Corpses
âJ.K. Kitchen
Hagiography Index
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
âSamantha Kahn Herrick
Part 1
Creating and Transmitting Texts
1 Constructing the Text:Â a Comparative Study of Two Saintsâ Lives Written c.1200
âHelen Birkett
2 From âReal Lifeâ to Saintâs Life:Â Biography and Hagiography in the Vitae of Bernardino of Siena and Vincent Ferrer
âLaura Ackerman Smoller
3 Understanding Pictorial Hagiography (with Comments on the Illustrated Life of Wandrille)
âCynthia Hahn
4 Saintsâ Lives on the Move:Â the Circulation of Apostolic Legends
âSamantha Kahn Herrick
5 Thirteenth-Century Legendae Novae and the Preaching Orders:Â a Communication System
âGiovanni Paolo Maggioni
Part 2
Constructing Religious Life, History and the Self
6 Vita Vel Regula:Â Multifunctional Hagiography in the Early Middle Ages
âAlbrecht Diem
7 Bishops, Monks and Priests:Â Defining Religious Institutions by Writing and Rewriting Saintsâ Lives (Francia, 6thâ11th centuries)
âCharles Mériaux
8 Singing the Lives of the Saints:Â Hagiographical-Historical Intersections in Music and Worship
âCatherine Saucier
9 âImpressed by Their Stampâ:Â Hagiography and the Cultivation of the Self
âIneke van ât Spijker
Part 3
Power and Violence
10 Gaulâs Insiders:Â Hagiography and Entitlement
âJamie Kreiner
11 St Gerald of Aurillac, Sex and Violence in Medieval Hagiography
âMathew Kuefler
12 The Unconvincing Martyrdom of William Longsword, Norman Count of Rouen (r. 928â42)
âDavid Defries
13 Hagiography, Relics and Secular Politics in Western Europe 6thâ13th Centuries
âEdina Bozóky
Part 4/b>
Urban Life and the Natural World
14 Hagiography and Inter-Urban Rivalry:Â the Vita of St Eucharius, First Bishop of Trier, and Its Use in âPoliticalâ Quarrels during the Tenth Century
âKlaus Krönert
15 Hagiography and Urban Life:Â Evidence from Southern Italy
âPaul Oldfield
16 Hagiography and the Exotic:Â âForeign Saintsâ in High Medieval Lucca
âAdrian Cornell du Houx
17 Environmental History and Hagiography
âEllen Arnold
Part 5/b>
Gender, Health and Beauty
18 Hagiography, Gender, and the Power of Social Norms
âEmma Campbell
19 A King, Not a Servant:Â the Prose Life of St Katherine of Alexandria and Ideologies of Masculinity in Late Medieval England
âKatherine J. Lewis
20 Health, Healing, and Salvation:Â Hagiography as a Source for Medieval Healthcare
âSara Ritchey
21 The Beautiful Dead:Â Materiality, Resurrection and the Aesthetics of Holy Corpses
âJ.K. Kitchen
Hagiography Index
Medievalists and others interested in knowing what hagiographical sources may be used to investigate and how to overcome the challenges they pose.