medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
i *believe* that Giles Constable has a general discussion of letter
collections in the introduction to his fine edition of the letters of Peter
the Venerable, which might be of help (for access to the previous secondary
literature, at the least).
also, did i see a little volume on letter collections in that recent and
on-going Brepols series on "Sources du Moyen Age" (or something like that)?
or was that just another Senior Moment?
i'm not sure what the organising principle might be in the collection of
either Bishops Fulbert or Ivo of Chartres' letters --there doesn't seem to be
any, as best i can recall.
organising undated letters by date would be (and is) a very, very difficult
thing to do, so ordering by the recipients' rank would be one obvious way to
go.
most medieval cartularies that i've seen are organised that way (at least in
part), with general charters of Kings, Counts, Bulls of Popes, Bishops'
charters being put at the beginning ; followed by the charters from all
sources dealing with individual priories, grouped together by priory, no doubt
because that is the way they would need to be accessed, in case of a dispute
(the main reason for generating and preserving the charters, after all).
i know of no cartularies which survive from medieval manuscripts which order
the charters by date --i think that such an arrangement would make no sense,
to the middlevils.
perhaps the same holds true for letter collections.
best from here,
christopher
> From: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture on behalf of F.
Thomas Luongo
> Some early manuscripts of the letters of Catherine of Siena, completed at
the end of the fourteenth century and beginning of the fifteenth century,
organize her letters ad statum. Letters to ecclesiastics are presented
separated from letters to seculars, and within each larger grouping the
letters are presented according to a hierarchy of recipients: from Popes to
nuns, and from kings to ordinary secular women. (I can give more details if
anyone is interested.) This ordering principle was adopted for the first
large edition of Catherine's letters, by Aldus in 1500, and remained the
standard way of presenting Catherine's letters until the first attempts at a
chronological edition in the mid-19th century.
>
> My question: can anyone give me examples of other medieval letter
collections (of any kind) ordered in this way?
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