Authoring the Past

In Authoring the Past Jaume Aurell examines the five most significant sources of medieval Catalan historiography in order to investigate their historical and literary impacts on medieval written culture. These five sources—the Gesta comitum Barchinonensium (1180-84), the Llibre dels fets (1244-76) of James I, the Crònica de Bernat Desclot (1283-88), the Crònica de Ramon Muntaner (1325-28), and the Llibre de Pere el Cerimoniós (1375-83)—are well known to specialists of Catalan studies, but have remained of secondary interest to medievalists in general. Aurell's work serves to rectify this situation by examining these sources within their historical context and by exploring their relationship with the European narrative and literary production of the twelfth through fourteenth centuries. The author sets out to distinguish "historical from fictional texts, not because I believe that they are different... but rather because their authors' distinct purposes—to narrate the reality of the past in the historical, and to recreate imaginative stories in the fictional—shape the context" (3). The process of creation and purpose to be found in these Catalan narratives as described by Aurell demonstrates the close connection between historical and literary discourses within the Catalan tradition, disputing with scholars who have demanded that the medieval Catalan chronicles belong in one category or the other exclusively.

Aurell begins by providing an introduction to each source in his first five chapters, discussing their historical context, summarizing their perspective on events, and most importantly introducing their purpose and significance as they inform Aurell's general argument linking the creation of these five chronicles to the changing needs of the rulers of the Crown of Aragon. After introducing his sources, Aurell turns to a thematic inquiry in chapters six through ten, considering first the significance of choice and change in genre and format before exploring the meaning of autobiography as a Catalan contribution to medieval historical writing. Next comes a consideration of the authorial voice as represented by first person accounts, by "objective" observers writing in the third person, by group authors and by learned individuals. Aurell then examines the ever present issue of narrative truth in medieval chronicles by arguing that the connection between history and "fiction" in the works of Catalan historiography served in place of literary output from the Crown of Aragon, especially in the Catalan language through the fourteenth century. Finally, the book examines the transition in these works to what he calls "political realism" offered up as the entry of Catalan historical writing into the cultural production of the early Renaissance.

Aurell winds his way through these five works chronologically. He begins with the twelfth-century Gesta comitum Barchinonensium composed in Latin by the monks of Ripoll at the direction of Alfonse the Chaste (r. 1162-96), the first ruler of the combined territories of Aragon and Catalonia. While the group of authors involved with the Gesta drew on traditional historical sources—the annals and documents of Ripoll—they combined these with folklore and myth in a new narrative format: a biographical genealogy which provided the story of the dynasty, legitimizing the authority of the new "count-kings." Even though written in Latin, the Gesta set the stage for the Catalan chronicles which followed. The latter drew on the stories of the Gesta often in altered versions reflecting how the dynastic interests of later rulers changed with the expansion of their political power and territorial claims.

The Catalan-language Llibre dels fets of James the Conqueror (r. 1213-76), often called an autobiography, presents the deeds of James in his own voice. Compiled during the king's reign, and clearly incorporating his own memories of events, the Llibre is a historical adventure with the chivalric actions of the king and the royal court at its center. While the Gesta before it had organized stories of the past to justify the twelfth-century union of Aragon and Catalonia, James and his scribes created a narrative of lived...