Rewriting Saints and Ancestors: Memory and Forgetting in France: 500-1200 by Constance Brittain Bouchard
Cristina Politano
Reviewed by: Rewriting Saints and Ancestors: Memory Forgetting in France: 500-1200 by Constance Brittain Bouchard Cristina Politano Bouchard, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2015) 384 pp. The production “creative memory” across seven centuries France is the topic Ancestors, Bouchard’s wide-ranging study on power written word to construct an ideal past service present. study’s stated aim participate elaborate conversation among medieval memory scholars, including Walter Goffart, Patrick Geary, Mary Carruthers. book, divided into twelve chapters, structured reverse-chronological order, beginning with High Medieval cartularies ending sixth-century Gaul. considers a diverse range primary sources, from twelfth-century monastic records, ninth-century chronicles forgeries, sixth- seventh-century martyrologies. best parts this book are discussions cartularies; chapters 1-4 devoted charters cartularies, light that they cast Merovingian Carolingian records. revisits her expertise order demonstrate how writing was concentrated toward pragmatic, political goals: forgeries at Saint Denis allowed monks lay authoritative claim their lands; chroniclers used make houses older more prestigious than sources might support; organized records around property holdings expected revenues, creating cohesive, if doctored, for successors. Throughout, demonstrates effort control thus effect present played out disputes between bishops abbots over access founding saints bishops, whom both groups laid claims, looked legitimation. reach eras are, comparison, less thorough insightful. Chapter 5 concentrates Le Mans Forgeries Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals attempt as products “not reactionaries but innovators” (66). maintain value historical documents not controversial, while churchmen vested them intent deceive will create imaginary pasts unconvincing. Still, these clear way fruitful avenues role heroes models [End Page 265] authority France. Chapters 6, 7, 8, example, treat creative scribes, particularly it deployed offer canonical version ascent authority. Here, brings nuance argument she parses opposing terms title, Forgetting. In Carolingians Franks, Einhard his chronicle had only remember Merovingians Non-Franks, also deliberately forget aspects culture paint incompetent irrelevant weaklings. 9–12 turn Era prove its roots Late Antique monasticism. It theorizes eight-century documentary silences, gaps aristocratic family histories, deliberate acts reconceptualize choosing ancestors selectively, effectively “forgetting” undesirables. articulation what perhaps most compelling claim, memories smoothed differences centuries, forging seamless continuity earliest Christianity era we refer Antique. This conceptualize past, static portrait distant predecessors, regularly reworked updated reality continued live While sustained strong scholarship, punctuated incisive observations, evidently thoroughly researched, crux intervention studies resides overly-broad concept memory,” inquiry malleability history, whose details doctored—or “remembered” “forgotten”—to meet changing needs Thus, serves...
Comitatus-a Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies