“…not as history, but…”: The Cistercian Abbot Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167), A Writer of History in Many Genres

• Autor(a) principal: Freeman, Elizabeth
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.4000/medievalista.6974
• topic: Aelred of Rievaulx; Géneros literários; Historiografia medieval; Historiadores – Inglaterra – História – até 1500; Crítica Literária – Europa Medieval; Aelred of Rievaulx; Genre; Middle Ages Historiography; Historians – England – History – to 1500; Literary Criticism – Medieval Europe

What is a historical text, and what are the differences between such a text and other written genres? This question has occupied modern scholars of medieval Europe, medieval European authors themselves, and many others. Prompted by recent scholarship into the benefits, or otherwise, of trying to isolate distinct genres within what one scholar has referred to as “the whole mass of medieval historiography”, this article examines the so-called “historical” texts composed by the medieval English Cistercian abbot Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167). None of these seven texts fits into the classic genre of the history, and yet the article argues that all are indeed historiographical texts. Aelred wrote all these works while he was abbot of Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire, and the article suggests that Aelred’s experiences and responsibilities as abbot gave him both the skills to combine many literary genres – vita, genealogy, lament, relatio, translatio, exemplum, sermon, letter – when writing about the past as well as the desire to combine such genres so as to provide his readers with models of hope, and occasionally stern advice, from the past to use in the future. Bibliographical references Sources Manuscript sources London, British Library, Cotton Ms. Vitellius F III. York, York Minster, Archives and Manuscripts, Ms. XVI/I/8. Printed sources AELRED OF RIEVAULX – Aelred of Rievaulx, The Historical Works. Trans. Jane Patricia Freeland. Ed. Marsha L. Dutton. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2005. AELRED OF RIEVAULX – Aelred of Rievaulx: The Lives of the Northern Saints. Trans. Jane Patricia Freeland. Ed. Marsha L. Dutton. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2006. 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