6620-week v-from memory to written record
TRANSCRIPT
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FROM MEMORY TOWRITTEN RECORD:
ENGLAND
1066-1307
M. T. Clanchy
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WHO IS M. T. CLANCHY?
Michael T. Clanchy is a Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the Institute
of Historical Research, University of London, and a Fellow of the British Academy.
He has taught at the University of Glasgow.
His interests are primarily in law and government in the 12th and 13th century.
He is the Patron of the London Medieval Society.
His other books include:
Abelard: A Medieval Life(about Peter Abelard, the master of the Paris schools) England and its Rulers 1066-1272
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William the Conqueror
William II Rufus
Henry I
Stephen
Henry II
KINGS OF ENGLAND
Richard (Lion Hearted)
John
Henry III
Edward I (Longshanks)
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MEMORIES & MYTHS OF
THE NORMAN CONQUEST
Anglo-Saxon Uses of Writing
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Misconception that Normans had greater expertise in writing
Saxons had more interest in recording their history
2,000 Writs & Charters Exist (Probably Most Destroyed by
Normans)
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MEMORIES & MYTHS OF
THE NORMAN CONQUEST
Uses of the Domesday Book
While spending the Christmas of 1085 in Gloucester, William had
deep speech with his counselors and sent men all over England toeach shire to find out what or how much each landholder had in landand livestock, and what it was worth
Exaggerated its useonly 10 references of being used from WilliamI to Henry I (1135).
A mythology surrounding it
Edward I Use of a Sword This is my warrant Old traditions persisted
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Documents at Village Level
Chronology of Charter
Making
Output of Royal Documents
Documents & Bureaucracy
Work of Hubert Walter
THE PROLIFERATION OF
DOCUMENTS
Royal Influence on Records
All This Wax Data???
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Charters
Chirographs
Certificates
Letters
Writs
Memoranda
TYPES OF RECORDS
Financial Accounts
Surveys & Rentals
Legal Records
Year Books
Chronicles
Cartularies
Registers
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THE TECHNOLOGY OF
WRITING
The Scribe & His Materials
Wax, Parchment & Wood
Committing Words to Writing
Layout & Format
Rolls or Books?
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PRESERVATION & USE OF
DOCUMENTS
Documents DO NOT automatically become Records???
Monastic Documents for Posterity Secular Documents for Daily Use
Archives & Libraries
The Royal Archives
Ways of Remembering
Ways of Indexing
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PRESERVATION & USE OF
DOCUMENTS
Archives:
Do not see any real archival development until later in the medieval
period
Mentions transporting documents through traveling trunks.
Early Church Archives:
Alphabetical Index
Cataloguing System(s) to Identify Records
Many Having Limited Public Access Few of the Monastic Orders Encouraged Scholarship
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WHAT READING MEANT???
What is the literate mentality?
Real scribes vs. petty clerk or scribbler
Some confusion to when villagers really started to learn how to
read and write due to the use of symbols (marks) for signatures
Slowness Norman French competing with Latin and English
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LANGUAGES OF RECORD
French was introduced as a spoken language by the Normans.
Old English declined as a written language.
Hebrew was used by the Jewish as a language of record.
Latin was the language of the clergy and the main language for
records (French began to compete with Latin in this aspect though).
English remained the most common spoken language.
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LITERATE MENTALITY
Literate and Illiterate
Hearing and Seeing
Trusting Writing
Practical Literacy
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GROUP QUESTIONS Clanchy talks about the symbolism that the Domesday Book created whenits significance as a working/practical document had vanished. How had thatchanged when the Magna Carta was signed? Did it have the same symbolicsignificance as the Domesday Book? Did the sheer amount of copies that
were produced somehow diminish this symbolic significance? The statement that a layman was unclerkly by definition whereas a literatewas clerkly even if he were a knight is problematic for the author inanswering if laymen were literate. By our modern definition, where laymenliterate? By the medieval definition, where laymen literate? Did the definitionof a laymen change as well over time?
A past student once argued that Thomas argued in her book on ancient
Greece that democracy did not develop because of literacy, but literacydeveloped because of democracy. She then stated that Clanchy proves thesame point in his book. Do you agree? Why or why not? Was the power oforatory in Greece the same as Clanchys reliance on memory in England?