Mastering Time and shaping History. Norman historians in medieval and modern times. Cerisy-la-Salle / Avranches. 25-29 september 2019.

Project carried by Stéphane Lecouteux (City of Avranches, CRAHAM) and Fabien Paquet (University of Caen Normandy - CRAHAM).

Ten years after the symposium of Cerisy devoted to Norman medieval historiography and its ancient sources, we propose to bring together the same institutions (International Cultural Center of Cerisy, City of Avranches and University of Caen Normandy [CRAHAM and OUEN]) to enter more generally in the workshop of norman annalists, chroniclers and historians of the medieval and modern times.

The search for proximity and intimacy with the authors aims to better know their working methods and thus to better understand their writings. This approach is the result of recent or ongoing works carried out by mainly French, Italian and English researchers. In addition to new readings of texts, it will also highlight recent discoveries of historical writings so far unpublished.

The perspective of the symposium will be wide: the texts being constantly taken up, copied, rewritten, translated and known by traditions after their writing, to confront them in large eras is indispensable. We will not deal, moreover, with Normandy alone, but with all the places of settlement of Normans (in France, the British Isles and the Mediterranean, but also in Africa and America), of the eleventh to the eighteenth century. Are thus understood under the broad name of "Norman historians" all the authors of Norman origin or active in Normandy which produced texts with historical character. We can compare their works to those of authors outside the Norman worlds but dealing with them.

In this way, this symposium will complete the one organized by Pierre Bauduin and Edoardo d'Angelo to Ariano Irpino in 2016, dedicated to modern and contemporary historiographies of medieval Norman worlds. It will also address the issue of the historian's silence, a theme that has already been the subject of two days of studies organized by Catherine Jacquemard and Corinne Jouanno at the University of Caen Normandy in 2015 and in 2016.

As part of this conference, which will be held mainly at the International Cultural Center of Cerisy-la-Salle, an exhibition of manuscripts containing works of Norman historians, from different places of conservation in Europe, will be presented in Avranches (in the treasure room from the Scriptorial, from July to September 2019, as well as to the heritage library, during the days of the conference): a session will be held on site and communications will be held in the council hall of the Avranches town hall.

This conference will finally be the opportunity to start a project of publishing (or reprint) paper and/or digital collection of Norman narrative sources. If the realization of a Norman version of a Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France seems today as complex as outdated, we wish to launch, at first, a project of edition and confrontation of the set of Norman annalistic sources.

 Download the poster (PDF file)

Scientific Committee

- Edoardo D'ANGELO, Professor, Universita degli studi Suor Orsola Benincasa (Naples)
- Marie-Agnès LUCAS AVENEL, Associate Professor, University of Caen Normandy / Craham
- Pierre BAUDUIN, Professor, University of Caen Normandy / Craham
- Alexis GRÉLOIS, Associate Professor, University of Rouen Normandie / Grhis
- Elisabeth VAN HOUTS, Professor, University of Cambridge (Emmanuel College)
- Christophe MANEUVRIER, Associate Professor, University of Caen Normandy / Craham / Ouen
- Laurence MATHEY-MAILLE, Professor, University of Le Havre Normandy / Gric
- Annick PETERS-CUSTOT, Professor, University of Nantes / Crhia