The Saint and the Count: A Case Study for Reading like a Historian

by Leah Shopkow

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 Fougères 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 Fougères 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487525866
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	04/19/2021
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

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

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

What People are Saying About This

Amy Livingstone

“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.”

Lendol G. Calder

“The Saint and the Count is a book to place in the hands of untrained readers who regard historical primary sources as either transparent accounts of a factual past or dismiss them as biased and unusable fabrications. In other words, undergraduate history students, both beginners and advanced, will benefit from this gem of a book. In a deft and lucid fashion, and with great wit and verve, Leah Shopkow demonstrates how key questions and processes of historical reading can distil knowledge even from unreliable and opaque texts. Caution: side effects when reading this book may include feelings of curiosity and pleasure and the desire to become a medievalist.”

Editorial Reviews

“The Saint and the Count is a book to place in the hands of untrained readers who regard historical primary sources as either transparent accounts of a factual past or dismiss them as biased and unusable fabrications. In other words, undergraduate history students, both beginners and advanced, will benefit from this gem of a book. In a deft and lucid fashion, and with great wit and verve, Leah Shopkow demonstrates how key questions and processes of historical reading can distil knowledge even from unreliable and opaque texts. Caution: side effects when reading this book may include feelings of curiosity and pleasure and the desire to become a medievalist.”—Lendol G. Calder, Augustana College
“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

From the Publisher