Eadmer’s Historia Novorum in Anglia and John of Worcester’s Chronicon ex chronicis: Transforming Biographical Narrative into Annual Records
Russian State University for Humanities
For citation: Matyushina, Inna G. Eadmer’s Historia Novorum in Anglia and John of Worcester’s Chronicon ex chronicis: Transforming Biographical Narrative into Annual Records // Graphosphaera. 2024. Vol. 4. № 2. P. 70–123. URL: http://writing.igh.ru/index.php?id=2024-4-2-70-123
DOI: 10.32608/2782-5272-2024-4-2-70-123
Abstract: Eadmer’s Historia Novorum in Anglia served as one of the sources for John of Worcester’s Chronicon ex chronicis, however their systematic comparison has not yet attracted the attention of researchers. The article is devoted to the comparative study of the thematic, compositional and stylistic characteristics of the annals of John of Worcester’s chronicle and those episodes of Eadmer’s history on which they are based. The article highlights the differences in approaching history in Eadmer’s Historia Novorum and John of Worcester’s Chronicon ex chronicis: the individual selective biographical method of Eadmer, who based his history on his own observations, impressions and experiences, on the one hand, and the annalistic approach and desire for composing a universal history of John of Worcester, who relied on the works of Bede the Venerable, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Marianus Scotus, Eadmer’s Historia Novorum, and other sources. The article focuses on determining the functions in which John of Worcester uses Eadmer’s history. The latter does not take the form of calendar annals, but is transformed into annual records in the former (i. e. John of Worcesters’s Chronicle), both in the main text (for the years 1102–1121) and in the marginalia (until mid–1101). The analysis of the records of John of Worcester, based on Eadmer’s Historia Novorum, sheds light on the process of working on the Chronicon ex chronicis and the reasons for the choice of Eadmer’s Historia as one of its sources, the role of the letters and documents quoted in them, the aims of their authors, the relationship with other historiographic texts, in particular, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Historia Ecclesiastica by Orderic Vitalis..
Key words: Eadmer, Historia Novorum in Anglia, John of Worcester, Chronicon ex chronicis, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Orderic Vitalis, Historia Ecclesiastica, St Anselm of Canterbury, William II Rufus, Henry I Beauclerc
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