Hagiography, Historiography, and Identity in Sixth-Century Gaul: Rethinking Gregory of Tours

Tamar Rotman

Published by Amsterdam University Press 2021

Hagiography, Historiography, and Identity in Sixth-Century Gaul

Rethinking Gregory of Tours

Tamar Rotman

Volume 11 in the series Social worlds of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages

https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048551996

Overview
Contents

About this book

Gregory of Tours, the sixth-century Merovingian bishop, composed extensive historiographical and hagiographical corpora during the twenty years of his episcopacy in Tours. These works serve as important sources for the cultural, social, political and religious history of Merovingian Gaul. This book focuses on Gregory’s hagiographical collections, especially the Glory of the Martyrs, Glory of the Confessors, and Life of the Fathers, which contain accounts of saints and their miracles from across the Mediterranean world. It analyses these accounts from literary and historical perspectives, examining them through the lens of relations between the Merovingians and their Mediterranean counterparts, and contextualizing them within the identity crisis that followed the disintegration of the Roman world. This approach leads to groundbreaking conclusions about Gregory’s hagiographies, which this study argues were designed as an "ecclesiastical history" (of the Merovingian Church) that enabled him to craft a specific Gallo-Christian identity for his audience.

Author / Editor information

Rotman Tamar :

Tamar Rotman specializes in late antique and early medieval history. Her research focuses on the role of hagiography and the cults of saints in the identity discourse of the early Middle Ages, giving special attention to the transmission of knowledge and cultural practices in the Mediterranean sphere. She is a Fulbright and a Rothschild scholar and a visiting scholar at Columbia University.

Reviews

"Rotman’s study performs a vital service in demonstrating that Gregory’s second great literary project was no less deliberate and profound than the Historiae. For this reason, and for its many insights into the connections between Merovingian Francia and the wider Mediterranean, it is necessary reading for all scholars of Gregory and his milieu."
- Gregory Halfond, Speculum, vol 98, no 3, July 2023

"[...] this is a readable and rather enjoyable book which does indeed succeed in getting us to think about Gregory afresh."
- Paul Fouracre, The Medieval Review, June 2022

"[...] there is much to commend in Rotman’s innovations and nuanced reassessments; they should help instruct how scholars may better approach the corpus of the bishop of Tours henceforth."
- Allen E. Jones, Journal of Early Christian Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3

''...Rotman’s book opens the door to further developments in scholarship on Gregory and the role of hagiography in historical study''.
-Erica Buchberger, Church History Journal , June 2023

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Social Worlds of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	2
Table of contents Publicly Available Download PDF	5
List of Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
1. Gregory of Tours Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
2. ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’: Eastern Saints in Merovingian Gaul Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
3. The Miraculous History of Gregory of Tours Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
4. ‘By Romans They Refer To…’ (Romanos Enim Vocitant): History, Hagiography, and Identity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 196
Keywords: Hagiography; Identity; Merovingians; Ecclesiastical History; Cults of Saints; Early Middle Ages

eBook

Published: December 1, 2021
ISBN: 9789048551996