This wide-ranging new monograph explores the various ways in which the heads of monastic houses influenced the production and writing of history books in north-western Europe during the period c.500–1500. Pohl’s aim is to examine the impact of ‘abbatial authority’ on the provision of historical texts (a category which is broadly defined), by considering the impact of abbots who authored histories, who sponsored and provided the resources for the dissemination of histories, and who otherwise allowed access to historical texts through their collection, their contacts, and their personal gifts to monastic communities. The finished book presents a hugely detailed picture on the numerous processes that led to the compilation of history books, and, perhaps more importantly, of monastic book-culture in general.
A brief Introduction outlines Pohl’s understanding of what can be included in the genre of “history” (a nicely wide range, including extended Latin prose narratives, shorter chronicles, poems, biography, and even at one point, the Bayeux Tapestry) and Pohl also summarises the numerous justifications for historical study among medieval monastic audiences. While there is no detailed discussion of Pohl’s principal research questions, these are made reasonably clear by the accompanying chapter outline.
The first chapter, exploring numerous abbots who ‘wrote’ histories (whether by actually copying the text or dictating to scribes) is the best fit for Pohl’s title and description of what the book contains. Pohl notes evidence for over 300 abbots who wrote historical texts, and while this reviewer wanted a table or list of these to aid future researchers, it should be acknowledged that such an addition would have extended what is already quite a lengthy book. Chapter 2 examines abbots’ roles as patrons of histories, resulting in the important recognition of a monastic superior’s crucial role in the inception of monastic writing projects, and in the successes or failures the resulting texts.
Building on the theme of abbatial patronage, the remainder of Pohl’s book functions as a much broader study of monastic book-culture. While examples of history-books do feature, their role is less prominent in this book’s second half, which explores in Chapter 3 the monastic superior’s role in library sponsorship, book collection, and production, and in Chapter 4 examines the physical spaces in which authors (and especially abbots) wrote their works.
Pohl’s conclusions recognise the “fundamental and all-encompassing” role of abbots in historiographical production in western medieval Europe, and downplay the role played by individual authors, towards a more collaborative view of medieval historiography and (rightly) move our debates even further away from “Great Man Theory” in the modern scholarship.
It is clear that Pohl deserves huge credit for the sheer depth of their book, which is littered with case studies and examples. These are naturally slanted towards the author’s longer-term knowledge of authors from Germany and Anglo-Norman world (see for example, extensive discussion of Robert of Toringi in Chapter 1, or William of Malmesbury in Chapter 2) but some examples from further afield are given, and the Pohl makes no claim that their book is in any way comprehensive.
Methodologically, the book is based on the traditional techniques of textual criticism and bibliographic studies. Pohl communicates their clear love for medieval manuscript studies, codicology and palaeography well, drawing the reader along with some fascinating examples (this reviewer particularly enjoyed the numerous manuscript images that show abbots writing, donating, or otherwise presiding over the process of book production). Criticisms are minor. One might be the author’s habit of paraphrasing or picking out only short phrases rather than translating (often quoting only in the original Latin, which can be slightly less accessible, e.g., pp. 225–226, and others). Another might be the general shape of the finished book, which appears to have begun as a study of abbot-historians, but which evolves into a rather important contribution to the study of manuscripts, libraries, and book-provision in medieval monastic communities. A greater emphasis on the latter in their Introduction, might have bolstered the overall unity of the book. However, that this is presented as a criticism is in fact, largely a compliment. Pohl has managed to provide an important new contribution to the study of some of the most important historical sources for the study of the western European Middle Ages, while at the same time presenting a similarly broad-ranging commentary on the libraries, books, and authors without which, our understanding of medieval history would be greatly diminished.
