, Brepols, 2022 Hardback, 469 pages, Size:156 x 234 mm, Illustrations:12 b/w, 1 col., 2 tables b/w., Language(s):English, Latin. ISBN 9782503595528.
Summary This is a novel, interdisciplinary study of the Mongol military campaign in Eastern Europe (1241-1242) ? the North, as thirteenth-century Europeans saw the region ? in the works of contemporary English chronicler, Matthew Paris of St Albans Monastery. Tracing the journey of his sources, the volume explores thirteenth-century information networks against the backdrop of the struggle between Emperor Frederick II and Pope Innocent IV. Parallel to the history of information, the subject of the study is the Chronica majora and its afterlife, Matthew's chronicle world where the sometimes fictitious (and often very real) episodes of the Mongol story unfold. Tracing major landmarks in the meta-history of the Chronica majora, the author wishes to emancipate Matthew Paris as a historian ? one in the series of a multitude of others who continue to write and rewrite the history of the Mongol invasion across centuries of historiography. The volume is a handy companion both to scholars of English historiography and those who want to read critically the oft-cited primary sources of the history of the Mongol military operations in Europe. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations, Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. Inside the Book Mise-en-ab me Within and Without The North by the Northwest Chapter 2. Outside the Book The Book in the Scriptorium The Scriptorium in England England in the European Networks Chapter 3. Fright: Mongols in the North and East (1237-1240) 1237: Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, and Armenians 1238: Northbound to Hungaria major 1239: Dacia, Gothia, Frisia 1240: False Alarm and Irruption Chapter 4. Fight: Mongols in the Middle (1241) Holy War on the Mongols The First 1241 Cluster The Second 1241 Cluster Chapter 5. Flight: Rivaling Stories of Retreat (1243-1248) 1243: The Tartar Khan's Englishman 1244: Frederick's Triumph 1244: The Man from Russia 1245-1248: Endgame Chapter 6. Letters from the Afflicted Lands in the Additamenta Chapter 7. The Afterlife of Matthew's Mongol Story Chronicles and their Afterlife Back to the Future: Modern historiography Vice prologi Appendix 1: List of Manuscripts Manuscripts containing the Chronica majora and its fragments / continuations Manuscripts containing Matthew Paris's Flores historiarum, and its fragments / continuations Flores manuscripts listed in medieval catalogues Notes on transcription Further appendices Bibliography Index