ABSTRACT

The historians of the late tenth and early eleventh century not only masked and documented a process of expansion which thus gives them their special place in the ascent of Latin Europe, they also unfold new forms of self-awareness, new ways of portraying both themselves and social relations. Rodulf Glaber was born about 985, almost certainly of noble parents though he may have been illegitimate. In his great historical work, the Historiarum, Libri Quinque which he wrote between 1026 and 1045, he is much more autobiographical than was Adémar of Chabannes. Rodulf's Histories had of course many themes in common with Adémar's Chronique and this in itself is valuable evidence for what mattered to the cognoscenti of the early eleventh century. The characteristics of the early eleventh-century historiography must be looked for in both its treatment of social relations, and individuality.