Archaeology, Museums & Heritage – Seminar Series | Dr Hélène Sirantoine (USYD)
Dr Hélène Sirantoine | USYD
Cartularies, cartularization, and the boundaries between medieval written genres: some thoughts inspired by the diplomatic codices of Toledo (end 12th-mid 13th century)
Abstract:
The scope of inquiry devoted to cartularies, or collections of title-deeds copied into a codex, has changed profoundly in recent decades. Owing to the renewed approaches induced by the New Diplomatics trend, scholars have begun engaging with the discursive strategies that exceed a cartulary’s legal contents and examining the process of ‘cartularization’ as a whole. In that perspective, renewed attention has been drawn on a variety of materials often compiled within cartularies: narratives, images, lists, etc. This paper contributes to the discussion, taking as a case study the diplomatic codices collectively known as ‘cartularies of Toledo’. The eight cartularies produced for the Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo from the end of the twelfth to the mid-thirteenth century, all of them incorporating a diversity of pieces in addition to charters, diplomas and other bulls, indeed provide an extraordinarily rich corpus. Comparing the distinct rationales and modalities that presided to the incorporation of non-diplomatic materials, and examining resonances between codices, the analysis shows that cartularists did not always give the same status to the non-diplomatic documents they ‘cartularized’, even though they sometimes incorporated the same material into successive cartularies. What is therefore highlighted are the various ways in which producers of cartularies engaged with genre boundaries.
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When
Friday 2nd October
Where
Online on Zoom
Registration
For more information, to sign up to our mailing list or to offer a seminar please contact:
Agata Calabrese agata.calabrese@sydney.edu.au Lorraine Leung lorraine.leung@sydney.edu.au Kieran McGee kmcg2831@uni.sydney.edu.au Simon Wyatt-Spratt simon.wyatt-spratt@sydney.edu.au Sareeta Zaid sareeta.zaid@sydney.edu.au
The Department of Archaeology is part of the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI).