Medieval Letters: Between Fiction and Document

Description

Modern scholarship on medieval letters has often focused on the divide between fictionality and historicity. Attempts have been made to distinguish between ‘real’ letters and those that were used as stylistic models, and discussion has focused on how to make use of these texts as historical sources. In this volume, which draws on the proceedings of the ‘Medieval Letters between Fiction and Document’ conference held in Siena in 2013, scholars including Peter Dronke, Ronald Witt, Joan Ferrante, and Sylvie Lefèvre analyse the historical value of medieval letters in both Latin and other European languages and explore different disciplinary approaches to the field. Comprising contributions on methodology, Latin literature up to the fifteenth century, Byzantine and Romance literature, and courtly letters, this unique book also documents the debate on unedited texts - including women’s love letters - and on celebrated cases of disputed authorship such as the Epistolae duorum amantium and Dante’s Epistola to Cangrande. It thus offers a significant re-evaluation of the huge and partly unpublished heritage of medieval letters across Europe, and provides important insights into the use of these unique sources in social, literary, and legal history. Front Matter ("Editorial Board", "Title Page", "Copyright Page", Contents", "Abbreviations"), p. i Free Access Preface, p. 1 Francesco Stella, Lars Boje Mortensen https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105110 Part I: Methods Epistolary Voices and the Fiction of History, p. 9 Wim Verbaal https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105111 Medieval Letters and Letter Collections as Historical Sources: Methodological Questions, Reflections, and Research Perspectives (Sixth-Fifteenth Centuries), p. 33 Walter Ysebaert https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105112 Part II: Before ars dictaminis: The Early Middle Ages Lettere fittizie e lettere autentiche nel medioevo italiano (secoli xii-xiv), p. 63 Paolo Cammarosano https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105113 La lettera di Ermenrico tra finzione e realtà, p. 73 Francesco Mosetti Casaretto https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105114 Un precedente del ars dictaminis medieval: las epistolae de Eginardo, p. 85 Carlos Pérez González https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105115 Part III: The Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries: Ars Dictaminis and the 'epistolary turn' Il valore sociale dell’ars dictaminis e il self-fashioning dei dettatori comunali, p. 105 Florian Hartmann https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105116 Da Maestro Guido a Guido Faba: autobiografismo e lettera d’amore tra la seconda e la terza generazione di dettatori, p. 119 Elisabetta Bartoli https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105117 Il Registrum di Paolo Camaldolese: elementi contenutistici e stilistici, p. 131 Vito Sivo https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105118 Aegidius of Paris and His Two Letters to Bishop Odo, p. 153 Greti Dinkova-Bruun https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105119 Powerful Women in the Epistles of Hildebert of Lavardin, p. 167 Roberto Angelini https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105120 Part IV: Women and Love Letters What Really Matters in Medieval Women’s Correspondence, p. 179 Joan M. Ferrante https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105121 Il pubblico della Rota Veneris di Boncompagno di Signa, p. 201 Paolo Garbini https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105122 Women’s Love Letters from Tegernsee, p. 215 Peter Dronke https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105123 The Play of Ambiguity in the Medieval Latin Love Letters of the Ovidian Age (Baudri of Bourgueil and Gerald of Wales), p. 247 Marek Thue Kretschmer https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105124 Queen Kunhuta’s Epistles to Her Husband, p. 265 Francesca Battista https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105125 Irony and Subtext in Latin Letters of the Eleventh and Twelfth Century, p. 277 C. Stephen Jaeger https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105126 Part V: Documents, Literary Letters and Collections in Byzantium and Beyond From Letter to Literature: A Byzantine Story of Transformation, p. 291 Michael Grünbart https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105127 The Actual Words of Theodore Graptos: A Byzantine Saint’s Letter as Inserted Document, p. 307 Christian Høgel https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105128 ‘If It Looks Like a Letter, Reads Like a Letter, and Talks Like a Letter’: The Case of Nikephoros Gregoras’ Letter Collection, p. 317 Divna Manolova https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105129 La Lettre et ses adresses, p. 335 Sylvie Lefèvre https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105130 Part VI: The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries and The Diffusion of Epistolary Rhetoric Ars Dictaminis: Victim of Ars Notarie?, p. 359 Ronald Witt https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105131 Indagine su un disguido epistolare: l’Epistola a Cangrande fra Verona e Padova, p. 369 Thomas Ricklin https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105132 Essential Issues Concerning the Epistle to Cangrande, p. 381 Alberto Casadei https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105133 Dalle lettere cancelleresche ai dictamina: processi di finzionalizzazione e tradizione testuale, p. 393 Fulvio Delle Donne https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105134 From Letters to Dictamina and Back: Recycling Texts and Textual Collections in Late Medieval Europe (Thirteenth-Fourteenth Centuries), p. 407 Benoît Grévin https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105135 Brown Ink, Red Blood: The Plotting of the Sicilian Vespers, p. 421 Julia Bolton Holloway https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105136 Part VII: Late Medieval Court Letters Tra resoconto della quotidianità e progetto di futuro: la lettera come strumento pedagogico nella corte sforzesca della seconda metà del Quattrocento, p. 431 Monica Ferrari, Federico Piseri https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105137 Christine de Pizan in Correspondence: The Epistolary Exchange Waxes Poetic with Eustache Deschamps, p. 445 Maria A. Soleti https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105138 Memorial de Agravios: Letters of Grievances as Documents in Fifteenth-Century Castilian Historiography, p. 459 Sacramento Roselló-Martínez https://doi.org/10.1484/M.USML-EB.5.105139