The Construction of Vernacular History in the Anglo-Norman Prose Brut Chronicle: The Manuscript Culture of Late Medieval England

Writing History in the Middle Ages

by Julia Marvin

The prose Brut chronicle was the most popular vernacular work of the late Middle Ages in England, setting a standard for vernacular historical writing well into the age of print, but until recently it has attracted little scholarly attention. This book combines a study of the chronicle's sources, content, and methods of composition, with its manuscript contexts. Using the Anglo-Norman Oldest Version as a touchstone, it investigates the chronicle's social ideals, its representation of women, and its distinctive versions of such elements of British history as the Trojan foundation myth, the ruin of the Britons, the Norman Conquest, and Arthur and Merlin, arguing that its humane, populist vision demands reassessment of medieval popular understandings of British history, and of the presumed dominance of imperialism, next-worldly piety, misogyny, and a taste for violence in late-medieval culture. The book also analyses evidence for the production of the Anglo-Norman Brut, and examines the ways in which its makers and users reconstructed British history through manuscript context, ordinatio>/ and apparatus, annotation and illustration. Julia Marvin is a Fellow of the Medieval Institute and Associate Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

314 pages, Hardcover

Published May 19, 2017

Reviews

[Liam Guilar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written, comprehensive, thought provoking, and well-illustrated. Marvin also edited and translated the earliest version of the Anglo-Norman Prose Brut so her expertise and knowledge are obvious.

If you're interested in the subject it's probably compulsory reading.

It's also a fine example of how an expert, writing about her field of specialisation, can make that expertise available to specialist and non specialist alike.