A New Edition of the Histories of Gregory of Tours (2nd book)

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The Histories of Gregory of Tours are among the most important literary testimonies and historical sources for the transition period from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages. The verdict on the Latin literature and language of the first centuries of the Frankish Empire has often been very negative. Krusch and Levison, who published today’s still authoritative critical edition of the Histories in the series Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH) in 1951, also assumed that Gregory’s original text could only have been written in poor Merovingian Latin. This assumption has influenced their evaluation of the manuscripts of Gregory’s Histories and is thus reflected in their reconstructed text, even though many manuscripts offer a much better text. Although this approach of Krusch and Levison has repeatedly been criticised by different scholars, a new edition of the Histories has yet to be prepared. The editors of a new edition have to make a decision regarding the quality and state of Gregory’s Latin that has to be presumed. The analysis of the so-called prose rhythm, i.e. the deliberate rhythmic arrangement of colon and sentence endings for purposes of emphasis and structuring, can serve as suitable indicator of an author’s stylistic abilities and the quality of his language. Preliminary work on selected passages of the Histories of the Mainz research project on Gregory’s Histories, which goes back to 2019, has already shown that the bishop of Tours certainly attached importance to a stylistic and rhythmic arrangement of his text. This provides important evidence in favour of a positive assessment of Gregory’s level of education and supports the demand for a new and appropriate edition. During the requested funding period, a digital critical edition and a faithful translation of the second book of the Histories will be created; they will be published via the digital infrastructure of the MGH. The manuscript transcriptions and collations will be prepared by student assistants in close consultation with the principal investigators; these documents will be published online after the completion of the project. In addition, comprehensive colometric and rhythmic analyses of the text versions displayed in the collations will be carried out and evaluated; the results will be published separately. The edition of the second book will set the course for a long-term project which will not only produce a complete digital edition as well as a print edition of the Histories (published in the series Monumenta Germaniae Historica), but also a historical and archaeological commentary. A cooperation with the institutions responsible for the commentary has already been agreed upon, it will be further mapped out during the funding period.