• Walter POHL – Andre GINGRICH (Eds.) - Daniel Mahoney - Diarmuid Ó Riain - Giorgia Vocino (Guest Eds.)

medieval worlds • no. 15 special issue • 2022

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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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medieval worlds • no. 15 special issue • 2022

ISSN 2412-3196
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ISBN 978-3-7001-9277-0
Online Edition



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Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
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Writing Strategies

    Reinier Langelaar, Giorgia Vocino, Veronika Wieser

medieval worlds • no. 15 special issue • 2022, pp. 23-35, 2022/06/08

doi: 10.1553/medievalworlds_no15si_2022s23

doi: 10.1553/medievalworlds_no15si_2022s23


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doi:10.1553/medievalworlds_no15si_2022s23



doi:10.1553/medievalworlds_no15si_2022s23

Abstract

For biographical collections to form a coherent whole, literary choices had to be made and writing strategies applied to the individual segments (lives) of what was conceived as an overarching narrative or a textual ensemble. In this chapter we analyse the genres, models and traditions upon which authors, compilers and editors relied to assert the authority of the text and create a product meeting the expectations, tastes and textual practices of the community within which and for whom the biographical collection was written. We furthermore explore authoriality to establish the ways in which an author’s opinions, social entanglement and participation in scholarly networks contributed to shaping not only the content but also the style of his or her work. The comparative analysis of the written texts studied in this volume shows that authors also made consistent use of strategies of persuasion. These constituted powerful tools to build and convey a sense of trustworthiness encompassing both texts and authors: modesty (topos humilitatis) and self-confidence were, for example, put on show to strengthen the authority of a text, while prophecy provided a means to boost the legitimacy of the institution, the dynasty or the community celebrated by the biographical collection. Tropes and rhetorical devices can be identified in texts written in distant cultural regions – from Carolingian Brittany to the 14th-century Tibetan Plateau – as they allowed authors and compilers to showcase their learning and make sure to arouse and keep their audience’s attention. Focusing on writing strategies thus, surprisingly, reveals an unexpected degree of literary proximity between texts composed across Medieval Eurasia.

Keywords: genres; literary traditions; authoriality; style; strategies of persuasion; tropes

Published Online: 2022/06/08 09:56:51

Object Identifier: 0xc1aa5572 0x003d7899

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Rights: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/