The Making of Medieval Forgeries : false documents in fifteenth-century England.

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Cloth, 8vo, 26 cm, xiv, 226 pp, 8 colour plates, 24 ills. Contents include: Preface; I Introduction: Forgery and Historiography 1 The 'Problem' of Medieval Forgery; 2 Forgery in England 1066-1500: An Overview; II Forgery in Fifteenth-Century England: Three Case Studies 3 Monastic Forgery: Crowland Abbey; 4 Mythology of the Studium: the University of Cambridge; 5 Forgery Across Borders: John Hardyng; III The Making of a Medieval Forgery 6 The 'Donation of Constantine'; 7 The Humanist Discourse of Forgery; Conclusion: Ars Diplomatica; Bibliography; Index. From the blurb: "The Middle Ages have long been famous for spectacular forgeries, Until recently, however, there has been little detailed consideration of the cultural significance of forged texts. In The Making of Medieval Forgeries, Alfred Hiatt examines for the first time the function of forged documents in late medieval politics and society. This book explores not simply why forgeries were produced, but also the often successful role they played in substantiating personal and institutional histories. In whose interests was it to forge documents? What kinds of narratives were enshrined in forgery? And why did forgery so often escape detection? The Making of Medieval Forgeries argues that medieval forgeries were not simply acts of deception, but attempts to invest historical narratives with the authority of written record. Hiatt examines in detail cases of forgeries produced by and for monasteries, universities, and the English government itself, and finds that forgeries show a sustained and often creative engagement with the past. Hiatt also charts the emergence of new approaches to the criticism of forgery, in the process challenging a number of long-held assumptions about the birth of modern critical thought. A close study of fifteenth-century criticism of the famous 'Donation of Constantine' reveals that the identification of forgeries was no less ideologically motivated than their perpetration. Indeed, medieval forgeries emerge from this study as a fascinating paradox: an illegitimate form of historical writing crucial to the expression of personal, institutional, and national identities, whose repudiation became central to the formation of modern discourses of authenticity and value." Near Fine in Near Fine dustwrapper. N° de ref. del artículo ABE-51129

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