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Presidential Address: Aspects of the European Tradition of Historical Writing: 4. The Sense of the Past

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

In the first three of these papers I have examined three aspects of the European historical tradition—aspects which I may briefly characterize as classical, early scientific, and prophetic. The models for all these modes were derived from the ancient world, and all three have played an important part in the development of western attitudes to history. Yet no one who looks dispassionately at the works produced by these three modes of studying history will think that they are the main sources of our modern ways of thinking about and writing history. So we must now ask whether it is possible to identify any central tradition in historical study leading to the practice and assumptions of most historians today.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1973

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References

1 William, of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum (ed. Stubbs, W., Rolls Series, 1887), i, p. 278Google Scholar.

2 William, of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum (ed. Hamilton, N. E. S. A., Rolls Series, 1870), p. 202Google Scholar.

3 The monastic reaction in Germany has been intensively studied in recent years, especially in the persons of Rupert of Deutz and Gerhoh of Reichersberg. For the former, see especially the remarkable article of Grundmann, H., ‘Der Brand von Deutz 1128 in der Darstellung Abt Ruperts von Deutz’, Deutsches Archiv, xxii (1966), pp. 385471Google Scholar; also R. Haacke, ‘Die Überlieferung der Schriften Ruperts v. Deutz’, ibid., xvi (1960), pp. 397–436, and Silvestre, H., ‘La lettre d'Anselme de Laon à Héribrand de St-Laurent’, Recherches de Théologie ancienne et médiévale, xxvii (1961), pp. 526Google Scholar.

4 Gesta Regum, ii, p. 304.

5 Hemingi Chartularium Ecclesiae Wigorniensis (ed. Hearne, T., Oxford, 1723), ii, p. 391Google Scholar. For the composition of the cartulary see Ker, N. R., ‘Hemming's Cartulary’, Studies in Medieval History presented to F. M. Powicke (Oxford, 1948), pp. 4975Google Scholar.

6 The main part of the manuscript was probably written between 1120 and 1122, with corrections and additions to 1130. The chronicle of Marianus Scotus on which is was based was brought to England by Robert, bishop of Hereford 1079–1095, and no doubt introduced to Worcester by Wulfstan. Unfortunately no manuscript takes us back to the early stages of compilation at Worcester before the death of Florence, the original compiler, in 1118; but the corrections and additions vividly illustrate the continuing tradition of historical work after Florence's death.

7 For the objects associated with the journey of StCuthbert's, body see Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia (ed. Arnold, T., Rolls Series, 1882), i, pp. 39, 57, 64, 66, 67, 74–75, 79–80Google Scholar; and for Athelstan's gifts, i, pp. 75, 211. For the Durham MSS mentioned above see Mynors, R. A. B., Durham Cathedral Manuscripts (Oxford, 1939), nos 5, 13, 15, 16Google Scholar.

8 Eadmer, , Historia Novorum, ed. Rule, M. (Rolls Series, 1884), p, 1Google Scholar. For historical studies and their background at Canterbury, see Southern, R. W., St. Anselm and his Biographer (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 229336Google Scholar.

9 See below, p. 254, no. 15.

10 The essential text is British Museum, Cotton MS. Claudius C ix, fi. 105–203, badly edited by Stevenson, J., Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, 2 vols. (Rolls Series, 1858)Google Scholar, and first given its due importance by Stenton, F. M., The Early History of the Abbey of Abingdon (Reading, 1913)Google Scholar.

11 The most important writer at Evesham was Prior Dominic, on whom see Jennings, J. C., ‘The Writings of Prior Dominic of Evesham’, English Historical Review, lxxvii (1962), pp. 298304CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and The Origins of the “Elements Series” of the Miracles of the Virgin’, Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies, vi (1968), pp. 8493Google Scholar; also the texts in Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham (ed. Macray, W. D., Rolls Series, 1863), pp. 1100Google Scholar.

12 The main manuscripts are St John's College, Oxford, MS. 17 with British Museum Cotton MS. Nero C vii from Thorney, written (with additions) in the period from 1085 to 1125 (see Ker, N. R., British Museum Quarterly, xii (1938), p. 131Google Scholar); and Cotton, B.M.Tiberius C i, ff. 242Google Scholar with Harleian 3667 from Peterborough, written in 1121–22. For the Easter Tables in the Thorney MS. with their uniquely long series of annals from 528 to 1536, see Hart, C., ‘The Ramsey Computus’, English Historical Review, lxxxv (1970), pp. 2944CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 The works of this most expert of all post-Conquest students of Anglo-Saxon can now be studied in a facsimile edition with a full analysis and introduction, by Sawyer, Peter, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile (1957), viiGoogle Scholar (Textus Roffensis, Pt. i), and xi (1962) (Textus Roffensis, Pt. ii).

14 For a recent survey of his life and works, see Farmer, H. in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, xiii (1962), pp. 3954CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 The contaminated text is printed in Hearne, T., Adami de Domerham Historia de rebus Glastoniensibus (Oxford, 1727), pp. 1122Google Scholar. For the original text see Robinson, J. Armitage, Somerset Historical Essays (Oxford, for the British Academy, 1921), pp. 125Google Scholar, and his later study, Two Glastonbury Legends: King Arthur and Joseph of Arimathea (Cambridge, 1926)Google Scholar.

16 Gesta Pontificum, p. 2.

17 Most of William's descriptions of places throughout England occur in his Gesta Pontificum, and it seems likely that he did most of his travelling in preparation for this work between the completion of the Gesta Regum in about 1120–1 and the Gesta Pontificum in 1125.

18 Memorials of St Dunstan (ed. Stubbs, W., Rolls Series, 1874), pp. 287–88, 317Google Scholar.

19 The best accounts of his career are Read, Conyers, William Lambarde and Local Government (Ithaca, N.Y., 1962)Google Scholar, and Dunkel, Wilbur, William Lambarde, Elizabethan Jurist, 1536–1601 (New Brunswick, 1956)Google Scholar. Flower, Robin, ‘Laurence Nowell and the Discovery of England in Tudor Times’, Proceedings of the British Academy, xxi (1935), pp. 4773Google Scholar, has a valuable account of the relations between Lambarde and Nowell, based on the Nowell transcripts (which belonged to Lambarde) in British Museum, Additional MSS. 43703–10, but he exaggerates the importance of Nowell in Lambarde's development. Lambarde is scarcely noticed in Fussner, F. S., The Historical Revolution: English Historical Writing and Thought, 1580–1640 (London, 1962)Google Scholar, where his contemporaries are discussed at length.

20 For Lambarde's career in Parliament as member for Aldborough (Yorks) in 1563 and 1566, see Neale, J. E., Elizabeth I and her Parliaments, 1550–1581 (1953)Google Scholar. The main evidence for the identification of William Lambarde with the Mr Lambert, who made a speech in Parliament on the succession in 1566 is a small treatise on Parliament (in Harleian Miscellany, v (1810), pp. 258–67), which gives an account of the speech of 1566 made by ‘this writer, W. L.’ The treatise and (more especially) the collection of documents of which it forms part clearly reflect William Lambarde's manner of composition. The title ‘Some certaine notes of the Order, Proceedings, Punishments, and Priviledges of the Lower house of Parliament Gathered by W. Lambert’, generally given to the treatise, really refers to the whole collection in British Museum Add. MS. 5123, in which the treatise is only one item.

21 The dates are provided by the family diary which Lambarde started, printed in Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, ii (1876), pp. 99101Google Scholar.

22 The work was not printed until 1576, when Thomas Wotton (the father of Sir Henry) published it with a dedication to the ‘Gentlemen of Kent’. Lambarde had sent it to Wotton on 31 January 1571 with a letter, which is printed in the second edition of 1596. A draft of the letter to Wotton with Lambarde's numerous corrections for the second edition is in the Bodleian copy of the Perambulation (40° Rawl. 263). Another copy with a n autograph letter from Lambarde to Sir Henry Sydney, dated 1 June 1576, explaining the circumstances of the composition and publication of the work, is also in the Bodleian (4° Rawl. 587). It is from this letter that I have taken (with slight abbreviation and modernization of spelling) the extract quoted above. Lambarde, of course, had an estate in Kent before his marriage, but there is no evidence that he ever lived on it. After 1570 he divided his time between the Kentish family-estates of his wives and Lincoln's Inn.

23 The original draft of 1579 is British Museum Add. MS. 41137. The title page has Lambarde's signature (in Anglo-Saxon characters) with the date August 1579 followed by notes of the revisions to 1594. For a full description of the manuscript see Putnam, B. H., ‘The earliest form of Lambard's ‘Eirenarcha’ and a Kent Wage Assessment of 1563’, English Historical Review, xli (1926), pp. 260–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For Lambarde's work as a J.P., see Gleason, J. H., The Justices of Peace in England 1558–1604. (Oxford, 1969)Google Scholar.

24 As with most of his works, Lambarde continued to revise and to produce enlarged editions (1587, 1594, 1599) until the end of his life.

25 For his conclusions on the development of these courts, see Archeion (1635). PP. 21, 27.

26 The manuscript of the work which Lambarde sent to Sir Robert Cecil in 1591, with the dedicatory letter in his own hand, is in the Bodleian, Carte MS. 174. The work was not printed until 1635. There is a modern edition by C. H. Mcllwain an d P. L. Ward (Cambridge, Mass., 1957).

27 See above, p. 257, n. 20.

28 Reports of Causes in Chancery Collected by Sir George Cary one of the Masters of the Chancery in Anno 1601 out of the labours of Master William Lambert (printed 1650). There is an important study of the collection of material from which these ‘Reports’ were drawn, by Ward, P. L., ‘William Lambarde's Collections on Chancery’, Harvard Library Bulletin, vii (1953), pp. 271–98Google Scholar. For Lambarde's work as a Master in Chancery, see Jones, W. J., The Elizabethan Court of Chancery (Oxford, 1967), pp. 103–17Google Scholar.

29 Bodleian Library MS. Rawlinson B 471, ff. 1–13. This MS. also contains a text and translation of Walter of Henley, an analysis of the members and officials of the Court of Chancery, and extracts from Bracton, etc., on the ‘writing and making of Deeds or Muniments in Law’.

30 Bodleian MS. Rawlinson B 198. The other MSS mentioned in this paragraph are British Museum, Cotton MSS Vespasian A v and Julius C ix, and Add. MS. 43705. The Easter Table is in Bodleian MS. Hatton 41.

31 The notes for this work were printed by Fletcher Gyles in 1730. The last addition which can be dated was made in 1577 (p. 410).

32 See the memoirs of Lambarde, William Esq. in Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica (1790), i, p. 512Google Scholar.

33 Perambulation of Kent (1596), pp. 526–27. The drafts for this passage, which show Lambarde's anxiety to give Camden his full due, are in the Bodleian copy (40° Rawl. 587), p. 378.