Early Modern Autobiography: Theories, Genres, Practices (review)

It is a pity that this model is pushed so hard by the author, and is allowed to exclude other possible explanations. It is arguable, for instance, that King Childebert plays so prominent a role in the Vita of St Vigor because his association with Vigor would thus boost the monastery of Cerisy, a newly founded house of the 1030s dedicated to Vigor, where the Vita was composed. It gave Cerisy some status against longer-established rivals, like Jumièges and Mont-St-Michel, which claimed to possess Carolingian royal diplomata. It is arguable also that the territorial concerns with the French Vexin so evident in the Passio of St Nicaise (composed at the abbey of St-Ouen of Rouen) had nothing to do with establishing ducal claims in the region, but more to do with affi rming the archiepiscopal authority of Rouen in a region which was politically outside Normandy. The features Herrick identifi es can be interpreted equally as the product of ecclesial as political concerns, but these are not considered, even to be argued against. This is not to say that Herrick’s theory is not worthwhile, but it is the job of the historian to consider multiple theories, even if it does not make the resulting work easier to read. The quality of Herrick’s work is not in doubt, however. There is, in addition to the text, a learned appendix on the manuscripts and manuscript traditions of the Vitae of Taurin and Vigor, and another on the transmission of the Passio Nicasii. The endnotes are models of erudition. This book could not be bettered as an example of the new school of early medieval hagiographical criticism.