Note: I have provided a link to ITER, the on-line search engine for
articles on medieval studies (click here)
PART I: Hints on Choosing Topics for History 511B
I. The Problem of Finding Primary Sources in Translation
Medieval people wrote in Latin (and sometimes in Old French, Old English,
Old High German, etc.). As most of you probably do not read Latin, we are
immediately faced with the problem of finding acceptable primary sources.
Clearly, you will have to find sources that have been translated into English.
The necessity of finding sources in translation immediately shapes the
kinds of topics that are possible for your papers: historians don't tend
to translate financial records, or minor works of theology, because these
would not tend to sell well as translations. Usually what is available
in translation are almost all of the important narrative works (chronicles,
annals, biographies, etc.) and literary works, but only a representative
handful of administrative, financial, and/or legal documents. This
means that if you really wanted to study the estate management practices
of Lord Hee-Haw of Ruritania, you will most likely find that most of the
nitty-gritty documents concerning his estates have NOT been translated.
On the other hand, if you are interested in the way the knightly class
of a particular region thought about violence (or love, or honor, etc),
you will very likely find that such a paper is do-able by locating a long-ish
narrative source and supplementing it with the occasional representative
legal source.
II. Some Non-Narrative Sources that may prove interesting
1. Domesday Book
A. One exception to the above rule is the remarkable
Domesday Book, which was compiled by William the Conqueror's men in 1086
(twenty years after the Norman Conquest). This enormous source is
extremely rich in comprehensible data; were you interested in comparing
power, wealth, or something similar for the English aristocracy of the
late 11th century, you would find that Domesday is an extremely useful
place to begin.
B. Potential Topics using Domesday Book
-compiling a list of estates for a particular aristocrat, mapping them,
and summing up their value
-taking one or more counties and looking at the ways in which the conquering
aristocracy divvied up their new lands.
Who got most? Why? Can we correlate amount of estates/wealth with political
importance?
-examining ethnicity - did any Anglo-Saxons retain their lands in 1086?
Where? Why? Were all of the conquerors
Norman?
-comparing lay estates to ecclesiastical estates - by wealth, location,
size, etc.
-looking for evidence of disputes in the Domesday accounts
C. For certain English counties we have follow up
surveys to Domesday Book. Here it would be possible to see how a family's
estates grew or shrank over time, or to see how the composition of the
county aristocracy changed over time. See Professor Barton for more
information (A second survey of Lincolnshire, for instance, was completed
in the 1110s).
2. The Pipe Rolls (another exception, albeit slightly more challenging
than Domesday)
A. For those interested in more quantitative analysis,
the Pipe Rolls present a unique opportunity. These are the record
of the English Exchequer (or royal accounting office), which kept track
of general taxes and specific fines owed to the king. Begun in 1130, and
extant continuously from the 1150s, these present a wealth of data ripe
for a social historical analysis.
B. It is true that they remain untranslated, but
because they are extremely formulaic I could teach anyone enough Latin
to read 90% of a Pipe Roll in about 30 minutes. [Most entries follow the
formula "Richard de Barton owes 15 pound 4 shillings for the king's love"
or something like that]
C. Another hurdle here is the fact that the Pipe
Rolls are not to be found in Jackson Library; they are available at UNC-Chapel
Hill and by inter-library loan.
D. In using the Pipe Rolls, you could follow an
individual across time, to see if his standing near the king varied (did
he pay more or less tax? Why?), or you could look at entries for a whole
region, etc., etc.
3. Legal Sources
Legal sources can be a good way to proceed . Even if they sound boring,
keep in mind that it is in such sources that we find prescriptive rulings
("it is wrong to murder someone", or, "it is ok to murder someone provided
you pay wergeld") which can then be tested with more narrative sources.
You might, for instance, decide to contrast the vision of violence found
in Orderic Vitalis (d. 1140) with the Law Codes produced by the rulers
of England and Normandy at that time (the Leges Henrici Primi, for instance).
Especially for England it is possible to trace changes in legal and
social thought over time; you could compare how English treatment of murder
progressed between 1066 and 1266, for instance.
III. How to Choose a Major Primary Source
1. Select a Source, then look for a topic within that source
One of the best ways to come up with a research topic is to select
a major primary source, read it, and then come up with a topic based on
your reading. For instance, you read some of the famous chronicle
of Orderic Vitalis and decide that Orderic's descriptions of siege warfare
might make an interesting topic; or, you might wonder about Orderic's interpretation
of violence ... or marriage ... or love ... or almost any other kind of
topic. Such a paper would be titled something like "Violence in Orderic
Vitalis' Ecclesiastical History", and you would in essence be examining
a broad theme in the context of a specific work. Were you truly ambitious,
you could even contrast two or more genres: "Contrasting Views of Violence
in Orderic Vitalis and Chretien de Troyes' Yvain" (here you would be contrasting
a chronicle with a work of fiction).
With this method you will generally have only one primary source (or a couple), and will end up using a lot of secondary sources to add background and/or contrast to your argument. In the case of siege warfare in Orderic Vitalis, you'd read what modern historians have said about medieval siege warfare and then apply this to Orderic - does the evidence from Orderic support the standard opinion? Or does Orderic offer something new? Likewise, what have general secondary sources to say about violence in medieval society? Does your reading of Orderic bear this out?
I have come up with a list of primary sources that might prove useful.
2. Choose a region and time period and then look for primary
sources that fit those criteria
You might be interested in England after the Norman Conquest (1066-1154),
or France between 1180 and 1250. You could then assemble a bibliography
of many different sorts of primary sources produced in that region during
that time period.
This is a notably more difficult approach, given the problems of translation. As the attached list makes clear, only for England is there anything close to a complete set of translated sources. For 12th-century Normandy, for instance, you will find that there are only a few sources in English, while there are a ton still untranslated.
3. Choose a theme or topic and then find sources that help support
that theme
In a way this is the opposite of method 1 (choosing a source and then
looking for a theme), and it requires a lot more legwork and a lot more
sifting of sources. Here the problem can be that you'll have to skim
a ton of sources to find the few nuggets of information pertaining to your
topic. For instance, you are interested in marriage in the 12th century:
you might read some Orderic Vitalis, some canon laws, some court cases,
etc.; all of these are good sources. Yet none of them are solely
about marriage in the twelfth century, so you'll have to do a lot of digging
through a lot of books to come up with your evidence.
If you adopt this method, you may find it advisable to start with secondary sources on your subject and follow their footnotes to the primary sources they have used. This will help in locating which primary sources pertain to your topic. The problem is that you may simply be repeating what your secondary sources have said.
IV. Types of Research Papers
1. Studies of the life of a single (non-royal) aristocrat
A. This is often an appealing idea for students. Unfortunately, for
almost no medieval aristocrat do we possess sufficient evidence in translation
for such a study. There are a few exceptions, but only a few. Many
students would love to study Eleanor of Aquitaine. Yet, I am sad to report,
there are almost no primary sources available in translation that deal
with her life. William Marshal is one partial exception, yet even
in his case the major literary source remains unpublished.
B. One way of getting around this general problem might be to use Domesday book and other late 11th century narrative sources to build up a picture of a particular Anglo-Norman aristocrat and his/her wealth.
2. Studying Kings
A. On the one hand, this is far easier than studying a non-royal person.
Sources abound, since medieval writers often wrote about their leaders.
Moreover, it is often possible to attribute particular legal texts to particular
kings, making it easier to flesh out that ruler's personality, policy,
etc.
B. Yet on the other hand, for precisely this reason kings are well-studied. Should you wish to write on a royal figure, you will need to come up with a particular, relatively-narrow angle from which to base your analysis. Hence "William the Conqueror" is far too big a topic, "William the Conqueror's military tactics" is slightly better, while, "An evaluation of William the Conqueror as military leader given the evidence of the Battle of Hastings" is better yet.
C. There will be a massive amount of secondary scholarship for any medieval king. Use it to discover what has been done and what might still need to be done.
3. Studying women
A. Again it is extremely difficult to find sufficient information on
individual aristocratic women to merit a full research project. There are
exceptions, chief among them queens (Queen Emma had an encomium written
about her; Queen Edith-Matilda commissioned several works of literature
and piety; Blanche of Castile reigned as regent for her young son, Louis
IX, etc.). There might also be a few noble women who appear with
enough regularity in narrative sources to merit a research paper; I might
be persuaded to let you write on Mabel of Belleme, for instance (in Orderic
Vitalis).
B. A potentially more profitable angle would be to study a group of women (Norman noblewomen in Orderic Vitalis; the role of Women in Letter-writing to religious figures; women and marriage practice as seen in church courts, etc.)
4. Studying Concepts
A. A very profitable approach given language restrictions. In this
approach, you study a concept as it appears in a particular source, set
of sources, or region. Above I've already mentioned some possibilities,
but here is a fuller list:
violence
marriage practice
the role of women
siege warfare
manliness
love
honor
piety and/or religiosity
lordship - as relations between aristocrats
lordship - as relationships between an aristocrat and peasants
justice
peace ... or war (as concepts)
Hostages
Attitudes towards death
money and commerce
B. As I've stated above, I feel that your best bet here is to choose a source (with my aid) and study "Peace and War in the Mind of William of Malmesbury" or "Honor as a knightly Virtue in the writing of William of Jumieges", etc. A slightly more difficult, but also viable approach would be to examine your concept as it appears in two genres (a chronicle and an epic, for instance).
5. Studying an Event
A. This is also a popular choice with students. Here we could be talking
about a battle (of Hastings, of Bouvines, of the Standard, etc.,
etc.), or a famous trial (of Thomas Becket), or a crusade, etc.
B. Keep in mind, however, the problem of finding sources in translation. No one has translated the interesting episode involving Juhel of Mayenne and his serf, Warin (OK, I have), precisely because it is perceived as obscure. An event has to have been seen as really important for there to be enough evidence in translation. And, if it truly IS significant, chances are there has been much written on it. Take the Battle of Hastings .... a very famous event, with lots of primary evidence ... yet with lots of stuff written by recent historians. Were you to write on this you'd have to come up with some angle that hasn't been covered, or an angle that you think has been given insufficient space by the current literature.
6. Barton's Bottom Line
A. As you can tell, I am urging you in the direction of picking a text
and analyzing a concept as it is found in that text. I could be persuaded
that a study of a single person or a single event is feasible, but you
will have to be a go-getter and demonstrate to me that you can find sufficient
evidence.
B. I'm also heavily favoring the sources of Anglo-Norman and Angevin
England, mostly because so many of them have been translated and are therefore
available for use by students. Don't get me wrong - I'd be thrilled
if you wished to study France, Germany, Italy, etc., but you'll have to
dig a bit harder to find sources that you can read.
Some On-line resources
Internet Medieval Sourcebook: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html
The Labyrinth: http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth
The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies (ORB): http://orb.rhodes.edu/
Euro-Docs: http://library.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/
On-Line Medieval and Classical Library: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/
For more links, check out http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/medweb/
Students at UNCG also have the ability to use ITER,
an on-line bibliography for articles on medieval history.
You may access it from two spots on the Jackson Library's Web-page.
1. The History 511B resource
page: (click
here)
2. The Reference Department's
list of on-line resources (click
here, then scroll down to the I listings for ITER)