1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910797111803321

Autore

Kempshall M. S.

Titolo

Rhetoric and the writing of history, 400-1500 / / Matthew Kempshall

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Manchester, England ; ; New York, New York : , : Manchester University Press, , 2011

©2011

ISBN

1-84779-897-7

1-84779-898-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (638 p.)

Collana

Historical Approaches

Disciplina

907.204

Soggetti

Historiography - Europe - History - To 1500

Rhetoric, Medieval

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1 History and historiography; 2 Rhetoric and history; 3 Invention and narrative; 4 Verisimilitude and truth; 5 Historiography and history; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; Y; Z

Sommario/riassunto

This book provides an analytical overview of the vast range of historiography which was produced in western Europe over a thousand-year period between c.400 and c.1500. Concentrating on the general principles of classical rhetoric central to the language of this writing, alongside the more familiar traditions of ancient history, biblical exegesis and patristic theology, this survey introduces the conceptual sophistication and semantic rigour with which medieval authors could approach their narratives of past and present events, and the diversity of ends to which this history could then be put. By providing a close reading of some of the historians who put these linguistic principles and strategies into practice (from Augustine and Orosius through Otto of Freising and William of Malmesbury to Machiavelli and Guicciardini), it traces and questions some of the key methodological changes that characterise the function and purpose of the western historiographical tradition in this formative period of its



development.