Book contents
- Medieval Historical Writing
- Medieval Historical Writing
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Abbreviations
- General Introduction
- Part I Time
- Part II Place
- Part III Practice
- Part IV Genre
- Chapter 22 Chronicle and Romance
- Chapter 23 Forgery as Historiography
- Chapter 24 Hagiography
- Chapter 25 Writing in the Tragic Mode
- Chapter 26 Crisis and Nation in Fourteenth-Century English Chronicles
- Chapter 27 Polemical History and the Wars of the Roses
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 23 - Forgery as Historiography
from Part IV - Genre
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2019
- Medieval Historical Writing
- Medieval Historical Writing
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Abbreviations
- General Introduction
- Part I Time
- Part II Place
- Part III Practice
- Part IV Genre
- Chapter 22 Chronicle and Romance
- Chapter 23 Forgery as Historiography
- Chapter 24 Hagiography
- Chapter 25 Writing in the Tragic Mode
- Chapter 26 Crisis and Nation in Fourteenth-Century English Chronicles
- Chapter 27 Polemical History and the Wars of the Roses
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter contends that forgery should be considered a form of historical writing. It presents evidence to show that, in the Middle Ages, forgeries not only frequently constituted significant parts of archives and other resources for the writing of history, but that forgeries themselves were often the products of historical research on the part of their authors. If forgeries are considered one end of a spectrum of historical writing (rather than the binary opposite of the true historical document) then a nuanced understanding of the relationships between forgeries and genres such as hagiography and the medieval chronicle becomes possible. After discussion of these relationships, the chapter concludes with an examination of the criticism of forgeries during the Middle Ages. Forgeries were often denounced; yet they could also survive denunciation, not because of a lack of critical sense on the part of medieval audiences, but because of the importance of their function as historical writing.
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- Medieval Historical WritingBritain and Ireland, 500–1500, pp. 404 - 419Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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