History and Memory in the Carolingian World Review

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(More customer reviews)This work discusses how the Carolingians used history both to establish for their culture a "sense of place" as well as to establish a record, both for current and future readers, of their actions.
McKitterick discusses, in considerable depth, how Carolingian society concerned itself with history. She goes into some depth detailing how ancient works were copied and widely disseminated, helping to give the Carolingians an established place in the world from a historical perspective. Aspects which are covered include what ancient texts were widely copied, where they were copied, and which works made their way into most well-stocked libraries, as well as how this reflects the desire of Carolingians to establish for themselves a place, historically speaking, in the world.
She also discusses the historical works written during the Carolingian period and how those written under royal authority were, not necessarily falsified, but slanted to present the Royal family in as favorable of a light as possible. Again, aspects which are covered include a comparison of past events as viewed through different contemporary works, which events appear to have been altered or perhaps even invented, as in the case of the request (or non-request as McKitterick argues) by Pope Zacharius for the Carolingian Mayor of the Palace to become ruler of the Franks in name as well as in practice. By and large she believes that these histories should be viewed through a more critical lense than many historians have previously; that we must look at these works not as an account of what actually happened, but of what the Carolingians wanted people to believe happened.
Because this is more of a discussion type of work, presenting information, than one designed to prove or disprove a thesis, I won't go into a lot of depth regarding the content. Suffice it to say that, as always, McKitterick approaches her topic with thoroughness and enthusiasm. She provides a great deal of information regarding historical texts, their authorship, and what the dissemination of various works meant in terms of the Carolingians trying to establish a history.
There are items I disagree with, such as some aspects of her discussion of the Royal Frankish Annals and Paul the Deacon, particularly her belief that the omission in Paul's History of the Lombards of anything following the death of Liutprand was by design rather than through his failure to finish it before his death, however in a discussion type work this is of little importance.
There are several sources which are discussed in quite a bit of detail. It would be helpful for any reader to be familiar with Carolingian source material but in particular, having knowledge of the Liber Historiae Francorum, the Royal Frankish Annals, the Liber Pontificalis and Paul's History of the Lombards will be very useful as she spends quite a bit of time with these. Familiarity with Fredegar's Chronicle and Continuations, Nithard, Einhard and Notkar will be useful but not as critical.
This is a very good work with a lot of detail. At times the writing becomes heavy and you can get bogged down in the minutiae of details. There were also several arguments she presented which seem to me to be tenuous at best. Nevertheless, the sheer volume of information presented here makes this a very worthwhile book. The reader will leave with a much better sense of how important history was to the Carolingians, as well as the value they placed in how they were perceived by current and future generations.

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This study reveals the remarkable quantity of varied forms and new types of history written in the Frankish realms of Western Europe during the eighth and ninth centuries. The Franks also preserved the classical and Judaeo-Christian histories from earlier centuries. Their books reflect a highly sophisticated and many-layered understanding of the past as well as a very creative use of history. Rosamond McKitterick illuminates the extraordinarily influential role of these history texts in the formation of political ideologies and senses of identity within Europe.

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