Writing History in Times of Political Upheaval: Contexts of Contemporary Historiography in Norman and Staufen Southern Italy (12th century)

对12世纪意大利南部历史的现代历史研究倾向于关注两个主要的政治事件：1130年西西里诺曼王国的建立以及1194年皇帝亨利六世对其的征服。根据大师的叙述，第一次剧变导致了意大利的分裂，北部是公社，南部是雷格诺。在1190/94年征服了后者之后，Mezzogiorno成为了帝国的中心。对当代意大利南部编年史的现代解读很大程度上遵循了这一主叙事，将其解读为诺曼和施陶芬宫廷的宣传或公共史学。该项目旨在通过关注编年史的特定地方背景及其实用功能，与主叙事形成对比。通过识别编年史中反映的社会群体的观点和利益，文本及其scribendi的原因可以在其特定的社会背景下得到更好的理解，从而为意大利南部历史上这两次基本政治动荡的历史提供了新的途径。

Modern historical research on the history of Southern Italy in the Twelfth Century tends to focus on two major political events: the creation of the Norman kingdom of Sicily in 1130 and its conquest by Emperor Henry VI in 1194. According to the master narrative, the first upheaval led to the division of Italy with the communes in the north and the Regno in the south. After the conquest of the latter in 1190/94, the Mezzogiorno became a centre of the empire. Modern interpretations of contemporary Southern Italian chronicles largely follow this master narrative, reading them as propaganda of the Norman and Staufen courts or communal historiography. This project aims to set a counterpoint to the master narrative by focusing on the specific local contexts of the chronicles and their pragmatic function. By identifying the social groups whose perspectives and interests are reflected in the chronicles, the texts and their causae scribendi may be better understood in their specific social contexts, thus enabling a new approach to the history of these two fundamental political upheavals in the history of Southern Italy.