From Narrative to Analysis: “The Great French Monarchy” by Claude de Seyssel as Reflection of Trends in Development of Historical Worldview between Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Age

The work of Claude de Seyssel “The Great French Monarchy” is considered in the context of new data on the development of historical writing in the late Middle Ages and early modern times. It is noted that this treatise is not similar to the traditional historical works of the era of humanism, since in it the ancient idealism in the field of assessing social structures was replaced by explicit realism in the understanding that the basis of social relations was the nobility. Attention is paid to the method and approach that distinguishes this treatise, considering the views on the development of science, formulated by M. Foucault. It is indicated that de Seyssel considered the Renaissance an era of imitation and comparison, and only the time of the scientific revolution of the 17th — 18th centuries as a period of interest in the analysis of the structure of society and power. It is shown that, at the same time, in the work of de Seyssel, written around 1519, we see precisely the method of structural analysis, and not a comparative narrative. The authors conclude that, like the Venetian historian Domenico Morosini, who did not idealize the Venetian Republic, de Seissel did not idealize the French monarchy and viewed it as the power of the noble class in all its aspects.

1. Barnes, T. D. (1998). Ammianus Marcellinus and the representation of historical reality. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 290 p.

2. Bede. (1997). De temporum ratione. Bedae opera didascalia. Turnhout, 2 (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina; 123B). (In Lat.).

3. Bettinelli, G. (1780). Dizionario storico-portatile di tutte le venete patrizie famiglie. Venezia: Presso Giuseppe Bettinelli. 178 p. (In Ital.).

4. Blanchard, J. (2010). Commynes et Seyssel: proximités et divergences à propos de la Monarchie de France. In: Claude de Seyssel, c. 1450—1520: écrire l’histoire, penser le politique en France, àl’aube des temps modernes: issu du colloque «Autour de Claude de Seyssel». Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes. 63—70. (In Franc.).

5. Blockley, R. C. (1975). Ammianus Marcellinus: A study of his historiography and political thought. Collection Latomus, 141. Brussels: Latomus. 210 p.

6. Bourquin, L. (2010). Claude de Seyssel et la noblesse: de l’histoire à l’idéal. In: Claude de Seyssel, c. 1450—1520: écrire l’histoire, penser le politique en France, àl’aube des temps modernes: issu du colloque «Autour de Claude de Seyssel». Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes. 71—84. (In Franc.).

7. Burgess R., Kulikowski, M. (2013). Mosaics of Time : The Latin Chronicle Traditions from the First Century BC to the Sixth Century AD. Turnhout: Brepols. 444 p. ISBN 9782503531403.

8. Cerveli, I. (1974). Machiavelli e la crisi della stato veneziano. Napoli: Guida. 559 p. (In Ital.).

9. Colgrave, B., Mynors, R. (1969). Introduction. In: Bede. Historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 618 p. (In Lat.).

10. Compagni, D. (1980). Chronicle of Florence. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 171 p.

11. Contarini, G., Krom, M. M., Kharkhordin, O. (eds.). (2013). On Magistrates and the structure of the Republic of Venice. St. Petersburg: Publishing House of the European University in St. Petersburg. 221 p. ISBN 978-5-94380-138-9. (In Russ.).

12. Contreni, J. J. (1992). Carolingian learning, masters, and manuscripts. Aldershot: Variorum. 333 p.

13. Contreni, J. J. (2005). Bede’s scientific works in the Carolingian age. In: Béde le Vénerable. Lille: Université de Lille. 247—259. (in Franc.).

14. Contreni, J. J. (2011). Counting, Calendars, and Cosmology: Numeracy in the Early Middle Ages. In: Learning and Culture in Carolingian Europe: Letters, Numbers, Exegesis, and Manuscripts, III. Ashgate: Variorum. 43—83.

15. Cox, V. (2003). Rhetoric and Humanism in Quattrocento Venice. Renaissance Quarterly, 56 (3): 652—694.

16. Cozzi, G. (1970). Domenico Morosini e il «De bene instituta re publica». In: Studi Veneziani. 405—458. (In Ital.).

17. Da Canal, M. (2009). Les estoires de Venise. Archivio del litorale adriatico, 12. Padova: Università di Padova. 174 p. ΙSBN 978-88-8098-267-8. (In Franc.).

18. Dale, S., Lewin, A., Oshetm, D. (2007). Chronicling History: Chroniclers and Historians in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 332 p.

19. Da Varagine J. (2020). Chronicle of Genoa. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 286 p.

20. Deploige, J. (2009). The Narrative Sources from the Medieval Low Countries. Brussels.

21. Englisch, B. (1994). Die Artes Liberales im frühen Mittelalter (5—9 Jahrhundert): Das Quadrivium und der Komputus als Indikatoren für Kontinuität und Erneuerung der exakten Wissenschaften zwischen Antike und Mittelalter. Sudhoffs Archiv, Beiheft, 33. Stuttgart: Steiner. 494 S. (In Germ.).

22. Foucault, M. (1977). Words and things: archeology of the Humanities. Moscow: Progress. 488 p. (In Russ.).

23. Franklin-Brown, M. (2012). Reading the world: encyclopedic writing in the scholastic age. Chicago: University of Chicage Press. 446 p.

24. Goffart, W. (1988). The Narrators of Barbarian History (AD 550—800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 491 p.

25. Grant, R. M., Reumann, J. (ed.). (1972). Eusebius and his Church history. In: Understanding the sacred text: Studies in honor of Morton S. Enslin. Valley Forge, PA. 235—247.

26. Grant, R. M. (1992). Eusebius and imperial propaganda. In: Eusebius, Christianity and Judaism. Leiden: Brill. 658—686.

27. Hankey, A. T. (1957). Domenico di Bandino of Arezzo (1335—1418). Italian Studies, 12: 110—128. (In Ital.).

28. Hankey, A. T. (1960). The Successive Revisions and Surviving Codices of the ‘Fons Memorabilium Universi’ of Domenico di Bandino. Rinascimento, 11: 3—49.

29. Higham, N. J. (1995). An English empire: Bede and the early Anglo-Saxon kings. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 269 p. ISBN 0-7190-4423-5.

30. Kudryavtseva, T. V., Lebedeva, G. E. (ed.). (2008). Athenian democracy in the history and historiography of the Renaissance and Enlightenment. In: Problems of the social history of culture of the Middle Ages and early Modern times. St. Petersburg: A. I. Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University. 137—150. (In Russ.).

31. Kuleshova, E. V., Dvornichenko, A. Y. (ed.). (2018). The significance of historical and socio-political polemics in the treatises of Claude de Seyssel in the context of the development of European historiography of the era of the Italian Wars. In: Mavrodinsky Readings 2018. Materials of the All-Russian Scientific Conference dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the birth of Professor Vladimir Vasilyevich Mavrodin. St. Petersburg: Limited Liability Company “Nestor-History”. 80—82. (In Russ.).

32. Kuleshova, E. V. (2015). Claude de Seissel (1450—1520) and his treatise “The Great French Monarchy” in the works of modern researchers. Problems of social history and culture of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times, 12: 336—350. (In Russ.).

33. Kuleshova, E. V., Starostin, D. N. (2020). Claude de Seissel (1450—1520) on the formation of the image of the ideal French monarchy in the context of Italian wars and rivalry with Italian city-states. Electronic scientific and educational journal “History”, 11 / 10 (96): 22. DOI: 10.18254/S207987840011627-8. (In Russ.).

34. Kuznetsov, B. G. (1979). Ideas and Images of the Renaissance (Science of the XIV — XVI centuries in the light of modern Science). Moscow: Nauka. 280 p. (In Russ.).

35. Mascanzoni, L. (2017). La Romagna e Bologna nella Cronica di Anonymo Romano. In: Atti e Memorie della Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Province di Romagna, n.s., 67: 119—150. (In Ital.).

36. Meier, C. (1997). Organization of Knowledge and Encyclopaedic ordo: Functions and Purposes of a Universal Literary Genre. In: Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts: Proceedings of the Second COMERS Congress, Groningen, 1—4 July 1996. Leiden: Brill. 103—127.

37. Meyer, H. (1993). Das Enzyklopädiekonzept des ’Fons memorabilium universi’ des Domenico Bandini im Verhältnis zur Tradition. Frühmittelalterliche Studien, 27: 220—240. (In Germ.).

38. Morosini, D. (1969). De bene instituta re publica. Milan: A Giuffré. 280 p. (In Lat.).

39. The Morosini Codex, 1. To the Death of Andrea Dandolo (1354). (1999). Padova: Unipress. 151 p. ISBN 88-8098-043-2.

40. Navagiero, A. (1733). Storia della Repubblica Veneziana scritta da Andrea Navagiero. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, XXIII. Milano. (In Ital.).

41. Ranke L. von. (1878). Venedig in sechzehnten Jahrhundert. Zur Venezianische Geschichte. Sämtliche Werke, 42. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner. 3—133. (In Germ.).

42. Repina, L. P. (2011). Historical science at the turn of the XX—XXI centuries: social theories and historiographical practice. Moscow: Krug. 559 p. ISBN 978-5-7396-0203-9. (In Russ.).

43. Savelyeva, I. M., Poletaev, A. V. (2003). Knowledge of the past: Theory and history: in 2 volumes. Moscow: Nauka. 631 p. ISBN 5-02-028557-9. (In Russ.).

44. Seyssel, C. (1519). La grant Monarchie de France. Paris: R. Chauldiere. (In Franc.).

45. Stevens, W. (1979). Introduction. Rabani Mauri Martyrologium: liber de computo. Corpus christianorum. Continuatio mediaevalis, 44. Turnhout: Brepols. (In Lat.).

46. Stevens, W. M. (1979). Compotistica et astronomica in the Fulda school. In: Saints, scholars and heroes: Studies in medieval culture. Collegeville: Hill Monastic Manuscript Library. 27—63.

47. Stevens, W. M. (1993). Computus-Handschriften Walahfrid Strabos. In: Science in Western and Eastern civilization in Carolingian times. Basel: Birkhäuser. 363—81. ISBN 3764328630. (In Germ.).

48. Stevens, W. M., Beaujouan, G., Turner, A. J. (1994). The Oldest Latin Astrolabe. Physis: Rivista Internationale di Storia della Scienza, NS 31: 574—580. (In Ital.).

49. Tafuri, M. (1995). Venice and the Renaissance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 296 p.

50. Temple-Leader, J. (1866). Libro dei nobili veneti ora per la prima volta messo in luce. Firenze: Firenze Murali. 94 p. (In Ital.).

51. Villani, D. (1997). The New Chronicle, or the History of Florence. Moscow: Nauka. 551 p. ISBN 5-02-009090-5. (In Russ.).

52. Villani, G. (1906). Villani’s Chronicle: Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine by Giovanni Villani. 2nd ed. London: Archibald Constable. 461 p.

53. Wallis, F. (1999). Preface. In: Bede: The reckoning of time. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. xxxiv—lxiii. ISBN 0-85323-693-3.

54. Weinstein, O. L. (1964). Western European Medieval historiography. Moscow — Leningrad: Nauka. 483 p. (In Russ.).

55. Wormald, P. (2008). Times of Bede: Studies in Early English Christian Society and its Historian. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. 314 p.

56. Yusim, M. A. (2011). Machiavelli: morality, politics, fortune. Moscow: Canon. 575 p. ISBN 978-5-88373-259-3. (In Russ.).