Books by Courtney Booker
The annals have been recently re-edited by Roland Zingg, Die St. Galler Annalistik (Ostfildern: J... more The annals have been recently re-edited by Roland Zingg, Die St. Galler Annalistik (Ostfildern: Jan Thorbecke, 2019). The section White used in his article is found on p. 197 of the Saint-Gallen manuscript (which is paginated).
Violence in Early Capetian v. Early Valois France: Same Behaviour, Different Ideas of Order? Warr... more Violence in Early Capetian v. Early Valois France: Same Behaviour, Different Ideas of Order? Warren Brown Anti-Corruption Measures in the Legislation of Thirteenth-Century Hungary Cosmin Popa-Gorjanu Memories, Texts, and Identities Invoking Gregory on the Caelian in Medieval Rome: A Study of an Inscription at SS.
Papers by Courtney Booker
In a classic article published in 1985, Janet Nelson examined in detail the Historiae of Nithard,... more In a classic article published in 1985, Janet Nelson examined in detail the Historiae of Nithard, a lay warrior, historian, and grandson of Charlemagne. She argued that, after completing the work's first three books, Nithard moved from being a supporter to a critic of his lord and kinsman Charles the Bald on account of Charles's alienation of his property. As a complement to Nelson's observations, and following a suggestive remark by Paul Dutton, I re-visit the structure of Nithard's narrative to evince aspects of his complex writing process and two broad shifts in his mood and purpose that he represented in terms of Pauline and Boethian notions of sorrow.
Between 1535 and 1598, France was wracked with a seemingly never-ending series of vicious battles... more Between 1535 and 1598, France was wracked with a seemingly never-ending series of vicious battles and skirmishes, plots and treacheries, between Roman Catholic and newly Protestant or 'Huguenot' factions. A central part of the problem was the power wielded by two rival aristocratic families of opposing faiths, the houses of Guise (Roman Catholic) and Condé (Calvinist Protestant), which continually sought to influence the monarchy towards their religious beliefs. The Valois kings Francis I (d. 1547) and Henry II (d. 1559) were hostile to the Protestants, but Catherine de Medici, the Italian, Roman Catholic queen regent, tried to negotiate with this rapidly growing, powerful religious minority. In 1561, she and the French Parlement passed the July Edict, thereby recognizing Roman Catholicism as the state religion but forbidding persecution of French citizens on the basis of creed. Unfortunately, hatred, religious zealotry, and the rush of events would overtake these efforts at reconciliation. Civil war erupted on three different occasions between 1562 and 1570. In another attempt to cement peace between the two religious parties, Catherine planned to marry her daughter Margaret to the Protestant prince Henry of Navarre (the future King Henry IV) in Paris in August 1572. Numerous Protestants gathered in the midst of a hostile Roman Catholic Parisian populace in order to witness the ceremony. Within this tense environment, an assassination attempt was made on Gaspard de Coligny, a leading Protestant figure, which quickly led to Catholic fear of reprisals. Paranoid and assuming the worst, the Catholics took pre-emptive action and hunted and killed Huguenots in the city for five straight days, slaughtering men, women, and children and ransacking their homes. Inspired and emboldened by these developments, Catholics undertook similar massacres in other French towns in the weeks following-attacks that would collectively come to be known as the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre. In the wake of the carnage, Huguenots converted to Catholicism, fled to Protestant countries, or gathered in a small number of cities where they formed a safe majority. These seemingly endless 'Wars of Religion' would carry on for nearly three more decades before finally coming to a close in 1598 with the Edict of Nantes, which offered Huguenots toleration and certain rights and privileges. In 1573, outraged by the shocking St Bartholomew's Day Massacre of the previous year, the learned jurist François Hotman (1524-1590), himself a newly radicalized Huguenot, published his inflammatory treatise on the constitutional history of France, Francogallia. 4 Wounded deeply from witnessing more than a decade of civil war consume his country, and observing that many stood by unconcerned while others fanned the flames with 'the bellows of their speeches and libels' , Hotman asserted that it was a patriotic service for one, however low 4 On the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, see Jouanna, The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre; Diefendorf, The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre. On Hotman, see Kelley, François Hotman, and for his radicalization, pp. 227-38. For a critical edition of the text of Francogallia, see Hotman, Francogallia, ed. by Giesey, trans. by Salmon. The work was originally published in Geneva in 1573.
I wish to thank Mayke de Jong and Patrick Geary for their queries and suggestions. 1 Jerome, Ep. ... more I wish to thank Mayke de Jong and Patrick Geary for their queries and suggestions. 1 Jerome, Ep. 43.2 (ad Marcellam), ed. by Hilberg, p. 320, 'Cum enim ad imaginem et similitudinem dei conditi sumus, ex uitio nostro personas nobis plurimas superinducimus. Et quomodo in theatralibus scaenis unus atque idem histrio nunc Herculem robustus ostentat, nunc mollis in Uenerem frangitur, nunc tremulus in Cybelem, ita et nos, qui, si mundi non essemus, odiremur a mundo, tot habemus personarum similitudines, quot peccata'. Trans. modified slightly from Jerome, Select Letters, trans. by Wright, p. 175. See also the even more striking passage by Jerome on the playing of personae in his commentary on Psalm 81, Jerome, Tractatus in Psalmos, 81, 2-4, ed. by Morin, pp. 84-85. On the reception of this latter passage in Carolingian Europe, see Gillis, Heresy and Dissent in the Carolingian Empire, pp. 72-73. On Jerome and self-fashioning, Vessey, 'Jerome and the Jeromanesque', pp. 226-27.
Using as a case study the historical representation of Charlemagne's son Emperor Louis the Pious ... more Using as a case study the historical representation of Charlemagne's son Emperor Louis the Pious (r. 814-840) and his enemies, this article demonstrates that the pervasive interest in drama during the nineteenth century often informed the writing of historical narrative, which bent its 'scientific' claims to accord with dramatic conventions. Central to drama was the exploration of distinct traits of the human condition -apparently timeless and universal motives, interests, and passions -that made it seem a generic form perfectly suited to the historian's craft. Such melodramatic, 'spectacular' history has left a tenacious legacy, and it is one with which historians continue to struggle in their post-historicist attempts to narrate in an honest way the lives of people from the pre-modern past.
“By Any Other Name? Charlemagne, Nomenclature, and Performativity,” in Rolf Grosse, Michel Sot, eds., Charlemagne: Les temps, les espaces, les hommes. Construction et déconstruction d’un règne (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018), 409–26.
By employing the notion of hypocrisy and its association with theatrical acting, this article mak... more By employing the notion of hypocrisy and its association with theatrical acting, this article makes the case for a re-examination of the Carolingian understanding and use of the artefacts of ancient drama. It illuminates how, within a culture lacking formal theatre yet highly sensitive to performance and selffashioning, ceremony and comportment, early medieval authors and exegetes drew upon such pagan remnants (despite, or perhaps due to, their pejorative connotations) to conceptualize and frame the problems of duplicity, dissimulation, and hidden sinproblems that assumed a special urgency within the Carolingian 'penitential state'.
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Books by Courtney Booker
Papers by Courtney Booker
Hildemar of Corbie's Commentary on the Rule of Benedict (ca. 845CE) is a major source for the history of monasticism, but it has long been accessible only in two obscure nineteenth-century editions of its Latin text. The goal of the Hildemar Project is to make the entire commentary more accessible for research and teaching purposes. The first step is to provide a fully searchable version of the Latin text along with an English translation. This translation is a collaborative effort of more than fifty scholars, including specialists in monasticism, Latin, manuscripts studies, and Carolingian history.
Currently a slightly revised version of the Latin text from Rupert Mittermüller’s edition [Regensburg, 1880] is available on the site. The translation of all seventy-three chapters – one for each chapter of Benedict’s Rule – is now complete.
The website also provides a complete list of the manuscripts of Hildemar’s Commentary (with links to manuscript catalogues and manuscripts available online) and a complete bibliography of scholarship on Hildemar and his work.
The next step in the project will be to improve the Latin text presented on the website by providing links to the different versions of Hildemar’s work. Users will be able to compare the (problematic) nineteenth-century edition with the original manuscripts. A long-term goal of the Hildemar Project is to provide a new edition of Hildemar’s Commentary that meets the standards of a critical edition but also capitalizes on the greater flexibility and customization available in a digital environment.
The Hildemar Project is a collaborative project that profits from the expertise of as many scholars as possible and is tailored to the needs and interests of its users. Any form of feedback, suggestions for improvement, identification of sources, or commentary on the Latin text are welcome. Please either use the Forum or contact us directly.