The Medieval Chronicle VIII eds. by Erik Kooper and Sjoerd Levelt (review)

With this collection, editors, Erik Kooper and Sjoerd Levelt, have delivered thirteen nuanced articles on a variety of topics related to medieval chronicles. While the themes and subject matter vary greatly, all of the contributions include concepts and ideas readily transferrable to anyone utilising medieval sources in their research.

Although technically the volume is unstructured, each chapter focuses on one of three themes: intent, awareness, or debate. Julia Marvin opens the volume with an in-depth discussion of the English Brut cycle of texts, suggesting that the authors intentionally incorporated Latin into their otherwise vernacular products. The intentionality of the authors also informs Kooper's analysis of the ways Robert of Gloucester uses place-holders in his Chronicle, and Lisa Ruch's discussion of the narrative purpose of ghost stories in William of Newburgh's chronicle. Meanwhile, Christian Bratu's essay focuses more specifically on the intentional ways by which authors establish their credentials.

The collection's sole German-language contributor, Dániel Bagi, begins the discourse on awareness with his discussion of the genealogical fictions present in Hungarian, Bohemian, and Polish dynastic historiography. Nicholas Coureas's study of three Greek-language chroniclers and their perspectives on the conquest of Cyprus during the Third Crusade parallels closely the ideas present in Mihkel Mäesalu's examination of Henry of Livonia's chronicle. Both authors analyse the specific perspectives their chroniclers adopt and how they were influenced by their individual sources. In contrast, Isabel de Barros Dias and Isabelle Guyot-Bachy both focus on technical matters, the former on adapting different genres into chronicles, the latter on using redactions of a French chronicle to discuss the politics of their owners.

Finally, two debates are introduced in this volume that will doubtless prompt further discussion: R. W. Burgess and Michael Kulikowski debate the appropriateness of using the term 'annals', while Adreien Quéret-Podesta scrutinises the supposed Saint-Gilles-du-Gard provenance of the Gallus anonymous. A final essay on the development of the participial proposition in Middle French by Anders Bengtsson rounds out this collection.

Each contribution concludes with detailed endnotes and a bibliography, and many are also accompanied by illustrations and figures. Overall, this excellent volume will be a welcome addition to any medieval historian's library.