A Different History. Rodulf Glaber (ca. 980–1047), the Transformations of the 11th Century and Historical Writing as an Interpretation of the Present.

01/11/2025 to 31/10/2028

The project explores alternative forms of historiography, thereby contributing to current public and academic discussions on the uses and functions of history. It re-evaluates a key source for the history of the 11th century, the Historiarum libri quinque of the Burgundian monk Rodulf Glaber (c. 980-1047). These “Five Books” provide the outstanding opportunity to trace the writing process of a High Medieval historiographical work in multiple stages (between c. 1020–1050), as the author’s manuscript and partial autograph has been preserved (Paris, BnF, lat. 10912). With this starting point, the project aims to gain a contemporary perspective on a period that has been characterized as a situation of transformation by historians. Rodulf’s work has traditionally formed a core witness for an abrupt periodical rupture around the year 1000, the so-called “Feudal Revolution”. Over the past decades, however, this rupture has been reinterpreted as a very prolonged process of change throughout the 11th century. In this new debate, however, Rodulf’s work has played little role. The project aims to reintegrate Rodulf Glaber into the reframed academic debate and to use his work as an instance where contemporary relevant questions were negotiated.