Summary
The fall of a city captivates the imagination, provokes intense emotional reactions and is often used to draw a line in historical narratives. The global attention and media coverage which the destruction of Mosul, Aleppo, or Palmyra have attracted during the ongoing war in Syria demonstrates the continuing power of the motif. Since antiquity the fall of cities has been lamented in different genres of writing and used to create historiographical thresholds. Prominent examples include biblical cities such as Jericho, Babylon or Jerusalem and ancient cities such as Troy, Carthage or Rome.
This project aims to understand the role these ancient and biblical narratives played in the shaping of medieval political and cultural identities across transalpine Europe, reassessing the underestimated yet crucial role these biblical and ancient narratives played as they migrated into medieval Europe. Despite an increased interest in city laments in recent scholarship these studies remain mostly anchored in their original ancient or mediterranean contexts. The reception of these traditions in Western and Central Europe and most importantly the German lands remains unexplored, despite the fact that for over a thousand years, recourse to fallen cities provided the most inuential foil for narratives of political authority and legitimacy and also to make sense of present political occurrences such as the re-conquest of the city of Acre – the last outpost of the crusaders in the Eastern Mediterranen – to the Mamluks in 1291.
Using the fall of Acre as a medieval starting point I will take a synchronous and daichronous look at medieval texts written between late 11th and the early 14th century to examine 1) which ancient textual traditions of lament were available for medieval writers 2) how were they used to make sense of the present by re-purposing the past and 3) how medieval identities were constructed and contemporary concerns of political and cultural belonging negotiated.
This project aims to understand the role these ancient and biblical narratives played in the shaping of medieval political and cultural identities across transalpine Europe, reassessing the underestimated yet crucial role these biblical and ancient narratives played as they migrated into medieval Europe. Despite an increased interest in city laments in recent scholarship these studies remain mostly anchored in their original ancient or mediterranean contexts. The reception of these traditions in Western and Central Europe and most importantly the German lands remains unexplored, despite the fact that for over a thousand years, recourse to fallen cities provided the most inuential foil for narratives of political authority and legitimacy and also to make sense of present political occurrences such as the re-conquest of the city of Acre – the last outpost of the crusaders in the Eastern Mediterranen – to the Mamluks in 1291.
Using the fall of Acre as a medieval starting point I will take a synchronous and daichronous look at medieval texts written between late 11th and the early 14th century to examine 1) which ancient textual traditions of lament were available for medieval writers 2) how were they used to make sense of the present by re-purposing the past and 3) how medieval identities were constructed and contemporary concerns of political and cultural belonging negotiated.
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More information & hyperlinks
| Web resources: | https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101028770 |
| Start date: | 01-10-2021 |
| End date: | 31-03-2024 |
| Total budget - Public funding: | 203 149,44 Euro - 203 149,00 Euro |
Cordis data
Original description
The fall of a city captivates the imagination, provokes intense emotional reactions and is often used to draw a line in historical narratives. The global attention and media coverage which the destruction of Mosul, Aleppo, or Palmyra have attracted during the ongoing war in Syria demonstrates the continuing power of the motif. Since antiquity the fall of cities has been lamented in different genres of writing and used to create historiographical thresholds. Prominent examples include biblical cities such as Jericho, Babylon or Jerusalem and ancient cities such as Troy, Carthage or Rome.This project aims to understand the role these ancient and biblical narratives played in the shaping of medieval political and cultural identities across transalpine Europe, reassessing the underestimated yet crucial role these biblical and ancient narratives played as they migrated into medieval Europe. Despite an increased interest in city laments in recent scholarship these studies remain mostly anchored in their original ancient or mediterranean contexts. The reception of these traditions in Western and Central Europe and most importantly the German lands remains unexplored, despite the fact that for over a thousand years, recourse to fallen cities provided the most inuential foil for narratives of political authority and legitimacy and also to make sense of present political occurrences such as the re-conquest of the city of Acre – the last outpost of the crusaders in the Eastern Mediterranen – to the Mamluks in 1291.
Using the fall of Acre as a medieval starting point I will take a synchronous and daichronous look at medieval texts written between late 11th and the early 14th century to examine 1) which ancient textual traditions of lament were available for medieval writers 2) how were they used to make sense of the present by re-purposing the past and 3) how medieval identities were constructed and contemporary concerns of political and cultural belonging negotiated.
Status
SIGNEDCall topic
MSCA-IF-2020Update Date
28-04-2024
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