Description
Building upon, but also moving beyond, previous scholarship that has focused on Richer's political allegiances and his views of kingship, this study by Justin Lake provides the most comprehensive synthesis of the History, examining Richer's use and abuse of his sources, his relationship to Gerbert, and the motives that led him to write. Not only are Richer's principal written sources all extant, but so is his autograph manuscript, giving readers an unrivalled window into the working methods of a tenth-century historian.
Lake situates Richer within the broader scholastic culture of the late tenth-century Latin West and explores the ways in which classical rhetoric, newly revived as a focus of instruction at Rheims by Gerbert, affected the way in which Richer wrote. In particular, he analyses his use of the classical rhetorical doctrine of plausible narrative (narratio probabilis) in reworking his source material, his composition of speeches and dramatic scenes, and the way in which he used his history as a means of self-fashioning and self-memorialisation.
About the Author
Justin Lake is assistant professor of classics at Texas A&M University, USA.
Book Information
ISBN 9780813221250
Author Justin Lake
Format Hardback
Page Count 336
Imprint The Catholic University of America Press
Publisher The Catholic University of America Press
Weight(grams) 605g