Awards

• Winner of 2022 Outstanding Acedemic Title awarded by Choice 2022 (United States)

Overview

While historians know that history is about interpreting primary sources, students tend to think of history as a set of facts. In The Saint and the Count, Leah Shopkow opens up the interpretive world of the historian using the biography of St. Vitalis of Savigny (d. 1122) as a case study. This biography was written around 1174 by Stephen of Fougres and provides a rich stage to demonstrate the kinds of questions historians ask about primary sources and the interpretive and conceptual frameworks they use. What is the nature of medieval sources and what are the interpretive problems they present? How does the positionality of Stephen of Fougres shape his biography of St. Vitalis? How did medieval people respond to stories of miracles? And finally, how does this biography illuminate the problem of violence in medieval society? A translation of the biography is included, so that readers can explore the text on their own.

Full Product Details

Author:   Leah Shopkow
Publisher:   University of Toronto Press
Imprint:   University of Toronto Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 22.60cm
Weight:   0.300kg
ISBN:  

9781487525866

ISBN 10:   1487525869
Pages:   216
Publication Date:   19 April 2021
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable  
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Table of Contents

Preface Abbreviations Introduction: “We Should Not Pass Over in Silence” 1. “In the Province of Bayeux”: St. Vitalis in the Historical and Hagiographic Record 2. “Strive to rise swiftly from the dust”: The Author Stephen of Fougères 3. “Men who built the Holy Church”: Hagiography and Genre 4. “These are not our inventions”: Miracles and Doubt 5. “They tried to kill him”: Hagiography and the Problem of Violence Afterword: “So that my words may not bore the reader” Appendix 1: The Life of St. Vitalis Appendix 2: The Life of St. Firmat Glossary of Terms and Concepts Notes Bibliography Index

Reviews

Leah Shopkow's The Saint and the Count is a tour de force in exploring and clarifying the complexities of medieval sources. This book is an excellent introduction to both medieval history and the medieval historian's craft. Written to be accessible to all audiences and with newly translated sources for readers to examine, The Saint and the Count would be a welcome text for any class on the European Middle Ages or for a course in historical methodology. - Amy Livingstone, Ball State University

Author Information

Leah Shopkow is a professor of history at Indiana University-Bloomington.

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