“…Not as History, But…”

The Cistercian Abbot Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167), A Writer of History in Many Genres

Bibliographic Data

ID21765831
AuthorsEarl Freeman (0000-0002-3062-7475, University of Tasmania, corresponding author), Elizabeth Freeman (0000-0003-2497-6780)
Year2023
Volume34
Publication date2023-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedievalista online (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1646-740X • E-ISSN: 1646-740X
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/medievalista.6974
OpenAlexW4385351191
LanguageEN
References cited26

What is a historical text, and what are the differences between such a text and other written genres? This question has occupied modern scholars of medieval Europe, medieval European authors themselves, and many others. Prompted by recent scholarship into the benefits, or otherwise, of trying to isolate distinct genres within what one scholar has referred to as “the whole mass of medieval historiography”, this article examines the so-called “historical” texts composed by the medieval English Cistercian abbot Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167). None of these seven texts fits into the classic genre of the history, and yet the article argues that all are indeed historiographical texts. Aelred wrote all these works while he was abbot of Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire, and the article suggests that Aelred’s experiences and responsibilities as abbot gave him both the skills to combine many literary genres – vita, genealogy, lament, relatio, translatio, exemplum, sermon, letter – when writing about the past as well as the desire to combine such genres so as to provide his readers with models of hope, and occasionally stern advice, from the past to use in the future

Art · Historiography · History of literature · Lament · Literature · Scholarship · Sermon · Classics · History · Medieval Literature and History

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