Logo
The
Medieval Chronicle Society
is an international and interdisciplinary organization founded to facilitate the work of scholars interested in medieval
annals
and
chronicles
, or more generally medieval
historiography
.
[1]
[2]
It was founded in 1999 and in February 2011 had 380 members.
Aims and history
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Annals and chronicles were the main genres of historical writing in the
Middle Ages
. Consequently, they have always been of great importance to
historians
. The extent to which they are also of interest to students of
medieval literature
or of
historical linguistics
was only fully realised in the latter part of the 20th century. Since many chronicles are illustrated, they are also a fruitful object of study for
art historians
. It was the desire for a forum in which these disciplines could operate together that led to the foundation of the society.
The history of the society began with a series of triennial conferences initially in
Utrecht
, but later moving from place to place. These early conferences were hosted by Erik Kooper (English studies, Utrecht). It was at the second of these conferences, in 1999, that the society was formally founded.
The society maintains a website financed by the
University of Liverpool
, and publishes a regular newsletter with information on recent publications in the chronicles field.
The Society's logo, depicting two interlocked dragons, was inspired by a unique series of fifteenth-century Utrecht manuscripts, all containing one or two dragons as part of their historiated initials. These two particular dragons were adopted for the logo because they aptly represented the twin disciplines of history and literature, and the city where the Society was established in 1999.
Journal:
The Medieval Chronicle
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The Medieval Chronicle
Volumes of proceedings of the first three conferences were published by Rodopi.
[3]
When the society was founded, this triennial publication was transformed into a yearbook, now the peer-reviewed journal
The Medieval Chronicle
.
[4]
It is edited by Erik Kooper and (since volume 8) Sjoerd Levelt.
The journal is trilingual, with articles in English, French and German. As well as the proceedings of the society's conferences, and also of the Cambridge Chronicle Symposium, the journal includes research submitted independently of the conferences. A number of text editions of chronicles have also been published here.
Conferences
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Conferences to date:
- 1996 Utrecht (
Driebergen
)
- 1999 Utrecht (Driebergen)
[5]
- 2002 Utrecht (
Doorn
)
- 2005
Reading
- 2008
Belfast
- 2011
Pecs
[6]
- 2014
Liverpool
- 2017
Lisbon
- 2021
Pozna?
[7]
- 2023
Nancy
- 2026
Munich
(in planning)
Projects
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]
A number of interdisciplinary projects have been inspired by the society, including
Repertorium Chronicarum
an on-line database of Latin chronicle manuscripts maintained by Dan Embree on the website of Mississippi State university.
[8]
Cover of the
EMC
A major project of the society was the
Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle
published in Leiden by
Brill
, edited by Graeme Dunphy.
[9]
The
EMC
contains around 2500 usually quite short articles on individual authors or on anonymous works. A majority of these are from Western Christendom, but there are also entries on Slavic, Byzantine, Syriac, Islamic and Jewish chronicles. These give information on the date, language, form and manuscript tradition, and discuss issues which have been highlighted in recent scholarship. There are also about 60 longer "thematic" articles on particular aspects of chronicles. The two-volume paper edition appeared in 2010 and runs to around 1830 pages, with about 60 black-and-white full-page illustrations. About 450 scholars collaborated in writing it. An electronic edition with additional articles appeared in 2012, co-edited by
Cristian Bratu
; updates with significant expansions appeared in 2016 and 2021.
See also
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References
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]
- ^
Albrecht Classen
,
Handbook of Medieval Studies
, 2010, p.1719.
- ^
For press reports on the Society see for example
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagzeitung
, 22 May 2011, p.63.
- ^
The Medieval Chronicle
volumes 1?3,
Rodopi
, 1999?2004.
- ^
The Medieval Chronicle
volumes 4? ,
Rodopi
, 2006? , ISSN 1567-2336.
- ^
Report on the second Driebergen conference,
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung
4 August 1999.
- ^
Report on the Pecs conference on Hungarian television
- ^
Conference postponed from 2020 and held by video conference because of the
COVID-19
pandemic.
- ^
Online
here
- ^
Graeme Dunphy.
Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle
. Leiden: Brill. 2009.
ISBN
90-04-18464-3
. See page viii for the link to the Chronicle Society.
Reviews:
The Medieval Review
Archived
2012-10-03 at the
Wayback Machine
August 2010;
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung
3 August 2011;
Aetas
20 (2011), 208-11;
IASL-Online
;
Modern Language Review
107 (2012), 1226-28;
Francia-Recensio
, 2012;
Revue des Etudes Sud-Est Europeennes / Journal of South-East European Studies
, 50 (2012), 365-366;
H-Soz-u-Kult
, 2012;
Mediaevistik
, 24 (2012), 381-383;
Das Mittelalter
, 17 (2012), 153-154;
Historische Zeitschrift
, 296 (2013), 174-175;
sehepunkte
, 13 (2013), Nr. 6.
External links
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]