Daniel Mahoney,
Giorgia Vocino
S. 3 - 11
doi:
10.1553/medievalworlds_no15si_2022s3
Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
doi:
10.1553/medievalworlds_no15si_2022s3
Abstract:
This volume offers a comparative approach to collections of biographical texts from the Buddhist, Christian and Islamic worlds in the period 400-1600. It examines how both common and diverse compilation and literary strategies could be employed within and across different regions and religions. Throughout history, remarkable men and women stood out in a way that triggered an often-complex process of retelling their lives and preserving their memory through written narratives, and as a result they could become examples and sources of inspiration and identification for communities. This special issue looks at instances where such stories were preserved and presented within wider collections of biographies, where they could acquire new meanings and significance within an overarching narrative. The volume combines specialist case-studies on specific biographical collections from different regions with a number of co-written comparative essays that draw on and expand upon the conclusions of the individual studies. Within this comparative framework, the writing and compilation strategies of medieval compilers and the reception and audience of biographical collections are discussed at length. The particular potential of biographical collections to allow compilers across different cultures to evoke and promote particular ›visions of community‹ is teased out throughout the special issue.
transcultural comparison, biography, compilation, authorship, seriality, reception, manuscript transmission, community, identity
Published Online:
2022/06/08 09:51:32
Object Identifier:
0xc1aa5572 0x003d7895
Rights:https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/
medieval worlds provides a forum for comparative, interdisciplinary and transcultural studies of the Middle Ages. Its aim is to overcome disciplinary boundaries, regional limits and national research traditions in Medieval Studies, to open up new spaces for discussion, and to help developing global perspectives. We focus on the period from c. 400 to 1500 CE but do not stick to rigid periodization.
medieval worlds is open to submissions of broadly comparative studies and matters of global interest, whether in single articles, companion papers, smaller clusters, or special issues on a subject of global/comparative history. We particularly invite studies of wide-ranging connectivity or comparison between different world regions.
Apart from research articles, medieval worlds publishes ongoing debates and project and conference reports on comparative medieval research.
Medieval Biographical Collections: Perspectives from Buddhist, Christian and Islamic Worlds
Guest editors: Daniel Mahoney, Diarmuid Ó Riain and Giorgia Vocino
Editorial
Walter Pohl and Ingrid Hartl
Introduction
Medieval Biographical Collections in Comparison
Daniel Mahoney and Giorgia Vocino
Introductory Comparative Chapters
Compilation Strategies
Daniel Mahoney and Diarmuid Ó Riain
Writing Strategies
Reinier Langelaar, Giorgia Vocino and Veronika Wieser
Audience and Reception
Rutger Kramer and Graeme Ward
Case Studies
Many Lives, One Story: The Gesta Sanctorum Rotonensium and the Making of Redon
Rutger Kramer
Biography and Hierarchy: The Tibetan Ruling House of Phag-mo-gru and the Singular Volume of the Rlangs (Rlangs-kyi-po-ti-bse-ru)
Reinier Langelaar
Reading Jerome’s De viris illustribus in the Post-Roman World: Cataloguing Community in Gennadius of Marseille and Frechulf of Lisieux
Graeme Ward and Veronika Wieser
Shaping Community through Biographical Collections from South Arabia: A Comparison of Two Ṭabaqāt-works
Johann Heiss
Compiling the Deeds of Salzburg Saints: The 12th-Century De episcopis Salisburgensibus and the Monastery of Admont
Diarmuid Ó Riain
Obituaries in Service of the Rasūlid Sultanate in Yemen at the Turn of the 9th/15th Century
Daniel Mahoney
Creating a Sense of Glorious Destiny. Mastery of Speech in the Libellus de Situ Civitatis Mediolani (Late 10th-Early 11th Centuries)
Giorgia Vocino
Conclusion
Communities and Contexts: Concluding Thoughts on Medieval Biographical Collections
Diarmuid Ó Riain
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