The Normans: Bibliography -- General works

There are two valuable general introductions to medieval history: Laolo Delogu Introduzione allo studio della storia medievale, Bologna, 1994; translated by Matthew Moran An Introduction to Medieval History, Duckworth, (2002) and Olivier Guyotjeannin Les sources de l’histoire medievale, Paris, 1998. Guiseppe Sergi L’Idee de Moyen Age: entre sens commun et pratique historique, Paris, 1998 is valuable on what ‘the Middle Ages’ actually means. Harald Keinschmidt Understanding the Middle Ages: the transformation of ideas and attitudes in the medieval world, Boydell, 2000 looks at the period thematically; a very valuable study.

David Luscombe and Jonathan Riley-Smith (eds.) The New Cambridge Medieval History: volume iv, part 1, Cambridge University Press, 2004, David Luscombe and Jonathan Riley-Smith (eds.) The New Cambridge Medieval History: volume iv, part 2, Cambridge University Press, 2004 are the best general texts on eleventh century and contain much that is relevant to this unit. W. B. Bury, H. M. Gwatkin and J. P. Whitney, (eds.), The Cambridge Medieval History, eight volumes, Cambridge University Press, 1911-38; volume 4, revised edition, edited J. M. Hussey, two parts, Cambridge University Press, 1967 remains useful. William Chester Jordan Europe in the High Middle Ages, Allen Lane, 2001 is a valuable recent study.

Important reference books include: F. L. Cross, (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of the Church, 2^nd ed., Oxford University Press, 1983, E. B. Fryde, D. E. Greenway, S. Porter, and I. Roy, (eds.), Handbook of British Chronology, 3^rd ed., Cambridge University Press, 1996, W. Kibler, and G. A. Zinn, (eds.), Medieval France: An Encyclopaedia, New York and London, 1995, M. Lapidge, J. Blair, S. Keynes and D. Scragg, (eds.), The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, Blackwell, 1999, A. Mackay, and D. Ditchburn, Atlas of Medieval Europe, London and New York, 1997, J. R. Strayer, (ed.), Dictionary of the Middle Ages, fourteen volumes, New York, 1982-8 and A. Vauchez, B. Dobson and M. Lapidge, (eds.), Encyclopaedia of the Middle Ages, two volumes, Cambridge, 2000. Of exception value is C. Gauvard, Alain de Libera and M. Zink (eds.) Dictionnaire du Moyen Age, Paris, 2002.

Dominique Barthelemy L’ordre seigneurial: histoire de la France medievale, Paris, 1996 is the best introduction to the history of France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Marc Bloch Feudal Society, two volumes, London, 1966 is still a classic study though perhaps better read in the original French edition. Bloch was killed in 1944 so his study is based on research largely undertaken in the 1930s and early 1940s. Susan Reynolds Fiefs and Vassals, Oxford University Press, 1995 is the most challenging recent interpretation.

Collections of useful articles

David Abulafia, Italy, Sicily and Mediterranean 1100-1400, Aldershot, 1987 and Commerce and Conquest in the Mediterranean, 1100-1500, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot, 1994 are useful collections of papers though principally after 1100. B. S. Bachrach and R. Abels, (eds.), The Normans and their Adversaries at War: Essays in Memory of Warren C. Hollister, Woodbridge, 2001, G. Garnett and J. Hudson, (eds.), Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy: Essays in honour of Sir James Holt, Cambridge University Press, 1994and D. Bates and A. Curry, (eds.), England and Normandy in the Middle Ages, London, 1994 are especially useful on links between England and Normandy. C. N. L. Brooke Churches and Churchmen in Medieval Europe, Hambleton Press, 2000 and H. E. J. Cowdrey, Popes and Church Reform in the Eleventh Century, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot, 2000 are useful on the Anglo-Norman church in the context of religious change. Helen Cam Law-finders and Law-makers in Medieval England: Collected Studies in Legal and Constitutional History, London, 1962, pages 59-70 is excellent on common law. M. Chibnall Piety, Power and History in Medieval England and Normandy, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot, 2000 contains her most important papers especially on Orderic Vitalis. Warren C. Hollister, Monarchy, Magnates and Institutions in the Anglo-Norman World, Hambleton Press, 1986 contains his most important papers. E. Jamison, Studies on the History of Medieval Sicily and South Italy, three volumes, Aalen, 1987-8 is the distillation of fifty years of study on southern Italy. Graham Loud, Conquerors and Churchmen in Norman Italy, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot, 1999 and Montecassino and Benevento in the Middle Ages, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot, 2000 contains extremely valuable papers on the Normans in southern Italy. P. Wormald, Legal Culture in the Early Medieval West: Law as Text, Image and Experience, Hambleton Press, 1999 is excellent on the development of law throughout Europe.

Medieval Historiography

K. Boyd, (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Historians and Historical Writing, two volumes, London, 1999 is an excellent introduction to historiography. E. Breisach, (ed.), Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern, Chicago, 1983 remains the classic study. D. Hay, Annalists and Historians: Western Historiography from the Eighth to the Eighteenth Centuries, London, 1977 and A. Gransden, Historical Writing in England, vol. 1, c. 550 to c. 1307, London, 1974 are focused more on the medieval period. E. van Houts, (ed.), Medieval Memories: Men, Women, and the Past in Europe, 700-1300, Longman, 2001 and Memory and Gender in Medieval Europe, 900-1200, London, 1999 are invaluable studies of the role memories played in historical writing.

Useful articles include: J. C. Russell, ‘The Writing of History in the Twelfth Century’, in M. A. Fitzsimons, A. G. Pundt, and C. E. Nowell, (eds.), The Development of Historiography, Harrisburg, 1954, pages 38-50; reprinted in J. C. Russell, Twelfth-Century Studies, New York, 1978, pages 1-20; Four papers by R. W. Southern, ‘Aspects of the European Tradition of Historical Writing: 1. The Classical Tradition from Einhard to Geoffrey of Monmouth’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5^th series, volume 20 (1970), pages 173-96, ‘Aspects of the European Tradition of Historical Writing: 2. Hugh of St Victor and the Idea of Historical Development’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5^th series, volume 21 (1971), pages 159-79, ‘Aspects of the European Tradition of Historical Writing: 3. History as Prophecy’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5^th series, volume 22 (1972), pages 159-80 and ‘Aspects of the European Tradition of Historical Writing: 4. The Sense of the Past’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5^th series, volume 23 (1973), pages 243-63. G. M. Spiegel, ‘Political Utility in Medieval Historiography: A Sketch’, History and Theory, volume 22 (1983), pages 43-53; reprinted in her The Past as Text: The Theory and Practice of Medieval Historiography, Baltimore, 1998, pages 83-98.

The Normans: general works

Charles Haskins The Normans in European History, New York, 1915 remains a seminal work on the role played by the Normans in Europe between the tenth and twelfth centuries though increasingly dated. R H C Davis The Normans and their Myth, Thames & Hudson, 1976 is an innovative but contested study of the ways in which the Normans constructed their ‘image’ and is the most provocative general introduction to the history of the Normans, but one which, controversially, all but denies their very existence. A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World, edited by Christopher Harper-Bill and Elisabeth Van Houts, Boydell, 2003 is an excellent summary of recent thinking. E. Albu, The Normans in their Histories: Propaganda, Myth and Subversion, Woodbridge, 2001 and L. Shopkow, History and Community: Norman Historical Writing in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, Washington, DC, 1998 are essential on the historiography of the Normans. Mario d'Onofrio (ed.) Les Normands peuple d'Europe 1030-1200, Paris 1994 is a collection of papers produced for an exhibition in Rome in 1994: excellent illustrations. 

D C Douglas Time and the Hour: Some Collected papers of David C Douglas, Methuen 1977 contains articles on Normandy and England that are directly relevant to the coursework. D C Douglas The Norman Achievement 1050-1100, Methuen, 1969 and The Norman Fate 1100-1154, Methuen, 1976 provide an excellent summary of developments across all areas of Norman activity and their ultimate failure. John Le Patourel, The Norman Empire, Oxford University Press, 1976, reprinted Sandpiper, 1997 is an important if not always convincing study. R. A. Brown, The Normans, Woodbridge, 1984 is a good solid introduction. Trevor Rowley, The Normans, Stroud, 1999 is a straight-forward study. Marjorie Chibnall The Normans, Blackwell, 2000 is a succinct and more recent study that covers the core issues with reference to the latest ideas and interpretations. Elisabeth van Houts (ed.) The Normans in Europe, Manchester University Press, 2000 is an excellent collection of sources covering Normandy, England and Italy. Graham Loud ‘The Gens Normannorum - myth or reality?’, Anglo-Norman Studies 4, 1981, pages 104-116 reprinted in his Conquerors and Churchmen in Norman Italy, Ashgate, 1999, section I is an important study.