Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World 1066-1272

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries texts about the recent and more distant past were produced in remarkable numbers in the lands controlled by the kings of England. This may be seen in part as a response to changing social and political circumstances in the wake of the Norman conquest of England in 166. The names of many of the twelfth and thirteenth-century historians are well known and they include Orderic Vitalis William of Malmesbury John ofWorcester Henry of Huntingdon Gerald of Wales and Matthew Paris. Yet the manuscripts in which these works survive are also evidence for the involvement of many other people in the production of history as patrons scribes and artists. Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World focuses onhistory books of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to examine what they reveal about the creation circulation and reception of history in this period. In particular this research concentrates on illuminated manuscripts. These volumes represent an additional investment of time labour and resources and combinations of text and imagery shed light on engagements with the past as manuscripts were copied at specific times and places. Imagery could be used to reproduce the features of oldersources but it was also used to call attention to particular elements of a text and to impose frameworks onto the past. As a result Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World has the potential to change the way in which we see the medieval past and its historians.