>perhaps you could explain why, unlike some of the Italian towns like
Genoa or Piacenza, Chartres failed to find a local chronicler in the
late twelfth or early thirteenth century?
Mmmm.
At once a deceptively simple and profound question, as you no doubt fully
realize.
And, in any event, one which I am hardly qualified to answer.
Christopher,
You are, undoubtedly, too humility-challenged in this respect, I am
sure. The answer is, indeed, difficult, but several factors are
relevant. As Chedeville points out, although the city of Chartres
gave its name to the county, it was really in a marginal position of
political importance (which lay further east, I believe), and in
fact, Chartres was not even incorporated as a city until near the end
of the 13th century, when the county had come into the hands
of the crown. Before that, the count and bishop played their powers
off against one another, acceding to the crown when things got hot.
In the end, the crown got the county and in its wisdom put it
under the power of Charles of Valois, who was so skint that he would
have done anything to raise a little ready cash. It was under
these circumstances that Chartres obtained a civic charter. And
despite what little, to my mind, has been done on Chartres as a
pilgrimage centre, it would appear that it was on the wane. I am
more than a bit sceptical of Chedeville's claim that the pilgrimage
was largely quite local; his argument appears to hinge on a
statistical analysis of pilgrims' medals (a total of something
like 2), but there does not appear to be a lot of documentary
evidence for pilgrimage at Chartres, outside of the miracle
collections sponsored by the chapter. Another factor that puzzles me
more than somewhat is the fate of the cathedral school. Even if the
12th-century School of Chartres has been debunked, and even
de-debunked, it disappears virtually without a trace in the 13th
century. When the University of Paris closed down for two years in
1229, its masters are known to have gone to Angers, Orleans, Reims,
even England, but there is no mention of Chartres at all. What
happened to this once great (or even not-so-great) school? I'm sure
this just scratches the surface, and that there must be more reasons
why civic identity was not as prominent here as in northern Italian
"city states"; perhaps humanist literary forms have something to do
with it, as well. Perhaps someone else can see further. Where are
those giants, anyway?
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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