CulturalMemoryandtheResourcesofthepast

ROMAN HISTORY EAST AND WEST:
The universal chronicle of Freculf of Lisieux
Graeme Ward

The second doctoral project is that of Graeme Ward. The influence of such texts as Eusebius-Jerome’s Chronicon, Eusebius-Rufinus Historia ecclesiastica and the Historia ecclesiastica tripartita of Epiphanius-Cassiodorus is perhaps most obviously to be observed in the universal Chronicles of the Carolingian era as well as those of Byzantium in the ninth century. The primary focus of this doctoral project therefore project will be the work of the ninth-century historian Freculf of Lisieux. The narrative of Freculf’s Universal Chronicle extended into the seventh century. Written in twelve books, the framework of the history from Adam to the birth of Christ and from Christ to the early seventh century is apparently biblical, Christian and conventional, but the particular vision of events in the Roman and Byzantine empires remains to be explored. How does Freculf fit into the epitomizing tradition of late Antiquity; how does the content of his history relate to his insisting on his need to read the biblical exegesis of his Frankish colleague Hraban Maur which will be studied in Utrecht?

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