Rhetorical and Narrative Studies on the Historiae of Richer of Saint-Remi
Author | : Justin Carl Lake |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 718 |
Release | : 2008 |
ISBN-10 | : OCLC:263316202 |
ISBN-13 | : |
Rating | : 4/5 (02 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: The Historiae of Richer of Saint-Remi should not be read as an attempt to influence political opinion in and around Rheims. Instead, we should understand it primarily as a literary work intended to promote Richer's status within the scholarly community at Rheims, to curry favor with his dedicatee, Gerbert of Aurillac, and to secure a place for the author in written memory. Richer's intention was not to produce a polemical work in favor of either Carolingian or Capetian dynastic claims, but to produce a work of rhetorical historiography in the classical mold. His self-consciously rhetorical style distances Richer from prior Rheims historiography and testifies to the revival of interest in classical rhetoric in the cathedral schools of the late tenth century.