The Written World: Past and Place in the Work of Orderic Vitalis

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments Monks, Orderic Vitalis said, need only two things to survive: wood and water. Historians need three: money, books, and friends. The first was provided by a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education, which supported four years of my graduate study, including two years of work on the dissertation that became this book. The University of California, Berkeley, also provided financial support through the Fletcher Jones Fellowship and the Dean’s Normative Time Fellowship. The books, medieval and modern, needed for this study came from libraries around the world. The Département des Manuscrits (division occidentale) at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, graciously allowed me access to Orderic Vitalis’s autograph manuscript of his Historia Ecclesiastica as well as many other treasures. Thanks are also due to the staffs of the Bibliothèque de la ville in Rouen, of the Mediathèque de la communauté urbaine d’Alençon, and of the British Library, all of whom were consistently helpful and understanding. Catherine Hilliard, the librarian at St John’s College , Oxford, kindly gave me permission to use images from one of that library’s manuscripts and helped to provide me with photographs . Back in the United States, staff members at the many excellent libraries of the University of California, Berkeley, provided me with a wealth of assistance, as did those at the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and at the John M. Olin Library at Washington University in St. Louis. The Robbins Collection in the Law Library of the School of Law at ix the University of California, Berkeley, gave me a quiet and congenial place to work as well as access to some rare reference materials. From my California days I must also thank Geoffrey Koziol, my graduate advisor, and Susanna Elm, Steven Justice, Jennifer Miller, R. I. Moore, Maureen Miller, and the participants in the California Medieval History Seminar at the Huntington Library in May 2004, where I presented a version of chapter 1 of this study. From St. Louis, I want to thank Joe Loewenstein and everyone involved in the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis, where I spent two lovely years teaching as an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow. I still can’t believe how much I learned. Charity Urbanski has read my work, given me reliable counsel, and was my companion through Normandy; I couldn’t have done it all without her (especially since I can’t drive a stick shift . . .). David Spafford, Ruth Jewett-Warner (who gave me an invaluable gift at a particularly opportune time), Dan Warner, Rebecca Moyle, Vi∂ar Pálsson, Mike Carver , and Mark Pegg all provided suggestions, hospitality, and support. With Jocelin of Brakelond, the late Robert Brentano taught me how to look for the world in a single text. He died before this study was anything more than a vague idea—my work, and the world, are the poorer for his absence. Thanks also to Barbara Hanrahan at the University of Notre Dame Press for her enthusiasm and support, and Matthew Dowd for his careful attention. Orderic reminds his readers that “the state of the world is driven by change.” My family has cheered me on through many changes over the years, and I owe them more than I can say. My sister Rachel Hingst always reminds me that I have choices, and that the world is wider and more varied by far than medieval geographers could ever have imagined . My parents, Warren and Susan Hingst, have supported me through some unconventional choices, and have never doubted that I could do this, all the more so in those many moments when I did doubt. So this book is dedicated to my father and my mother, with love. x Acknowledgments ...