Writing Normandy: Stories of Saints and Rulers

285 Pages·2020·2.766 MB·English

by  Felice Lifshitz

Writing Normandy
Writing Normandy brings together eighteen articles by historian Felice Lifshitz,
some of which are published here for the first time.
The articles examine the various ways in which local and regional narratives
about the past were created and revised in Normandy during the central Middle
Ages. These narratives are analyzed through a combination of both cultural
studies and manuscript studies in order to assess how they functioned, who they
benefitted, and the various contexts in which they were transmitted. The essays
pay particular attention to the narratives built around venerated saints and secular
rulers, and in doing so bring together narratives that have traditionally been
discussed separately by scholars.
The book will appeal to scholars and students of cultural history and medieval
history, as well as those interested in manuscript studies.
Felice Lifshitz is Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, and of Religious
Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada. Her publications include G ender in
Historical Film and Television (2018), co-edited with Carol Donelon and Siobhan
Craig, and Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia: A Study of Manuscript
Transmission and Monastic Culture (2014).

VARIORUM COLLECTED STUDIES
Writing Normandy

Felice Lifshitz
Writing Normandy
Stories of Saints and Rulers
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition © 2021 Felice Lifshitz
The right of Felice Lifshitz to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or regis-
tered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation with-
out intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-13953-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-02934-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
VARIORUM COLLECTED STUDIES SERIES CS1095
T his book is dedicated to the memory of Caroline Allen
Pripps Marin. May she rest in power and in peace.

CONTENTS
List of abbreviations xiii
Preface xvi
Part I: “Hagiography” and historical representation 1
1 Beyond positivism and genre: “hagiographical” texts
as historical narrative 3
Viator 25 (1994): 95–113, republished here with permission
of the University of California Press.
2 Still useless after all these years: the concept of “hagiography”
in the twenty-first century 26
Part II: Historiographic discourse and saintly relics:
the archbishops and Rouen 47
3 The “Privilege of St. Romanus”: provincial independence
and hagiographical legends at Rouen 49
Analecta Bollandiana 107 (1989):161–170, republished
here with permission of the Société des Bollandistes.
4 The Acta Archiepiscoporum Rotomagensium : a monastery
or cathedral product? 57
Analecta Bollandiana 108 (1990): 337–347, republished here
with permission of the Société des Bollandistes.
5 Eight men in: Rouennais traditions of archiepiscopal sanctity 67
The Haskins Society Journal: Studies in Medieval
History , vol. 2, ed. Robert B. Patterson (London: Hambledon
Continuum, 1990), pp. 63–74, used by permission
of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
ix