L. Kéry (Hg.), Eloquentia copiosus (James P. Ward)

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Francia-Recensio 2009/2 Mittelalter – Moyen Âge (500–1500)

Lotte Kéry (Hg.), Eloquentia copiosus. Festschrift für Max Kerner zum 65. Geburtstag, unter Mitarbeit von Monika Gussone, Erik Lipperts, Ingo Deloie et al., Aachen (Thouet) 2006, 373 p., ISBN 3-930594-28-5, EUR 16,00.

rezensiert von/compte rendu rédigé par

James P. Ward, Vlaardingen

Max Kerner (1940) has been professor of medieval history at the technical university of Aachen. His publications include books and articles on Charlemagne and Carolingian history, early and high medieval history, John of Salisbury, and early science and technology. The articles in this »Festschrift« for his 65^th birthday are separated into three sections: »Aachen and Charlemagne«, »Fiction and Remembrance«, »Technology and Culture«.

Aachen and Charlemagne: Matthias Becher describes Charlemagne, his family, the background to his coronation, questions of loyalty and the oath to the emperor, and the »program of government« (thus Ganshof) contained in Charlemagne’s Capitulare generale. Klaus Scherberich questions whether Einhard’s Vita Caroli Magni is in imitation of Sueton’s Twelve Caesars, and he concludes that not Sueton but Cicero was more likely to have been the model as author. Mario Kramp analyses paintings and frescos of the artist Januarius Zick (1730–1797), depicting legends and historical events of the Carolingians, their empires, territorial quarrels, and reconciliations. Kramp concludes that they are rare early artworks which show an appreciation of medieval subject matter. Karl R. Kegler compares and contrasts the descriptions of Charlemagne and his times by Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704) and by Voltaire (1694–1778), together with the Protestant and nationalist-inspired »corrections« to Bossuet’s account by Johan Andreas Cramer (1723–1788). Kegler speaks of the fault lines (Verwerfungen) of history, of which Charlemagne’s period was an example for all three authors, and he cautions against viewing and judging those fault lines on the basis of the end results. Werner Tschacher writes with pathos, irony and humour about the wanderings which Charlemagne’s relics underwent between September 1939, when they were moved to safety by National Socialist functionaries, and April 1945 when American soldiers returned them to Aachen. Tschacher’s story of »those damned old bones!« could become the scenario for a Hollywood adventure film. It already contains some lines of dialog (p. 91–92). The last part of his essay is pleasantly ironic: the post-war creation of a modern myth involving Charlemagne, Aachen and Europe, Catholic resistance to National Socialist ideology, Nazi resistance to Communism, Konrad Adenauer, the Cold War, and the creation of the Charlemagne Prize in 1949!

Fiction and Remembrance: The article by Johannes P. Floss is an exegesis of the origin and nature of early Jewish apocalypse from the prophecies of Amos to the visions of Daniel. The latter, written down in the time of Antiochus IV, were essentially the beginning of a new literary genre, which flourishes still. Raban von Haehling adduces a more precise date, and a purpose, for the pseudo-correspondence between Seneca and St Paul. He narrows it down to the period between 17 June 362, the date of emperor Julian’s decree which in essence banned Christian teachings, and the death of Julian on 26 June 363. The forgeries, Von Haehling proposes, had the purpose of counteracting the criticisms of the non-Christian educated classes that the gospels and writings of the Christians were lacking in philosophical content, elegance and literary style. Lotte Kéry analyses society’s need in the early Middle Ages for a functional three-orders system of those who pray, who fight, and who work. The division is described (c. 1025) in the Carmen ad Rotbertum regem by Bishop Adalbero of Laon, against the background of a millennium crisis. Kéry compares and contrasts the ideas it contains with earlier literary tripartite formulations of society’s functional needs. Monika Gussone discusses dreams and visions at the time of the First Crusade as described by Albert of Aachen. She adduces three main reasons behind Albert’s plan: the dreams provided legitimacy to the Crusade from its inception, encouraged the Crusaders during their crisis at Antioch, and justified the perception that Godfrey of Bouillon was God’s chosen leader. Ludwig Falkenstein reconstructs a sequence of lost papal documents marking the bestowal of the pallium on metropolitan archbishops of Reims in the 8^th to the 12^th centuries. An important early source is Flodoard (died 966) and his Historia Remensis ecclesiae. The article by Wolf Steinsieck contains a thought-provoking analysis of the cryptic »Prophecies« of Nostradamus. With Nostradamus’ powerful 16^th century protectors in mind, a reader might reflect on how astrology provided comfort to a more recent head of government and his wife. Matthias Pape traces Bismarck’s »Canossa« remark in the Reichstag at Berlin on 14 May 1872 back to the Austrian Liberal Count Anton Auersperg, who on 20 March 1868, against a background of »Kulturkampf«, »Großdeutschtum« and the multi-national Austro-Hungarian empire, used the term »a printed Canossa« in stating his opposition to the Concord of 1855 between Austria and the Vatican which was then under discussion. The essay by Ludwig Jäger is a review and critique of and a proposed alternative for Jan Assmann’s theory of collective memory and cultural identity.

Technology and Culture: Karl Leo Noethlichs provides a fascinating review of what Herodotus meant by techne, illustrated by many examples from the antique world. Technology was not god-given but was man’s own inventiveness, and subject (then as now) to criticism on the grounds of man’s overweening pride. Dietrich Lohrmann describes unique accounts, dating from 1367–1376, detailing costs for the construction of a well at the Vatican, and the restoration by a group of German specialists of Trajan’s aqueduct providing water to the papal palace. Lohrmann proposes a link to water management in Black Forest silver mining. Horst Kranz translates (into German) and comments on Giovanni Fontana’s descriptions (c. 1420) of rocket propulsion. Whether or not Fontana built any of the devices shown in contemporary illustrations, we know now that, applied to warfare, his ideas were valid. Armin Heinen gives an account of the measurement of time as it developed in Europe. The agents which initiated the changes, using clockwork and its modern electronic successors, were the church, then state and industry, and now the world economy with its electronic »real time«. Martina Hessler, using archival material of an over-coupling German women’s organisation founded in 1915 (the Reichsverband Deutscher Hausfrauenvereine), draws a picture of the introduction of electric household equipment, starting in earnest in the 1920’s and growing in the 1930’s and later. The RDH functioned not just as a mediator between the male dominated culture of the manufacturers and the female dominated culture of the home but also as an innovator by setting up its own test organization and a quality mark or logo for the products which it assessed.

The book closes with a bibliography of Max Kerner’s works and a Tabula amicorum. Intended first and foremost as a tribute to the Jubilar, editors of Festschriften are concerned to reflect the high regards and at the same time to reveal the work of friends and colleagues. But this book contains much that is of interest to the general reader too, in some perhaps unexpected fields. The time scale extends from the Old Testament, Herodotus, Seneca and St Paul, up and on to the 1930’s and ‘40s, which are still within the memory of some. The temptation to pick and choose chapters of particular interest is hard to resist.