The Chronicle of the thirteenth-century Franciscan friar Salimbene de Adam is filled with an abundance of self-referential passages. At almost every step of his narrative we are made extremely aware of Salimbene’s presence, as an author, a compiler of texts and anecdotes, a commentator and as an eye-witness to his age. Due to his ubiquitous ‘I’, Salimbene’s Cronica is often thought to be a subjective, biased and an ahistorical manifestation of traditional medieval universal histories. His supposed inappropriate self-interest has caused modern historians to mark both writer and text as a curiosity which defies any sort of logical definition. This mind-set has served not only to disconnect Salimbene and his Cronica from the historiographical, religious and social influences which pervaded his age, but importantly from the integral context provided by his work as a Franciscan friar. This thesis departs from treating Salimbene’s Cronica as a document to be mined for information about his world, an approach that largely eschews traditional methodologies associated with the study of chronicles. This thesis establishes the terms and boundaries of Salimbene’s authorship and contextualises them thoroughly with the performances associated with his duties as a Franciscan in the spiritual and social world of thirteenth-century Italy. Salimbene was primarily priest and preacher as he so often tells us. Viewing Salimbene’s authorial presence through the lens of his performances as an historian, preacher, confessor and priest reveals that his Franciscan ‘Experience’ informed and shaped noticeable narrative strategies which are associated with his efforts to establish and exercise authority both in his text and the world in which he lived. Rather than being a curious exception, Salimbene’s strong authorial persona was connected intricately to the changes in the social and spiritual milieus that irrevocably impacted upon the writing of history during the thirteenth century.

Jean Froissart’s Chroniques, composed of four Books, relate the first stages of the Anglo-French conflict later known as the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453). This thesis explores Froissart’s textual journey(s) to Gascon lands (south-west of modern-day France) and history/stories. Relying on Gérard Genette’s and Mikhail Bakhtin’s narrative theories, it uses literary and narratological tools to analyse three passages from Book I and III concerned with Gascony: the Earl of Derby’s Gascon campaigns (Chapter 1); the Black Prince’s Gascon campaigns and the principality of Aquitaine (Chapter 2); Froissart’s personal journey to and stay at the court of Gaston Fébus, count of Foix-Béarn (Chapter 3). One aim of the study is to investigate the representation of the region but it also argues that the Gascon passages have wider implications for the Chroniques, Froissart’s work as a whole, and the writing of history in the fourteenth century. At the turn of the twentieth century, Froissart’s ‘history’ was often disparagingly discussed by scholars due to factual inaccuracy and literary embellishments: such a ‘historical narrative’, it was felt, fell short of history and was nothing more than an entertaining story presenting outdated chivalric ideals. Although this approach has been partly revised, some critics still view the Chroniques’ earlier Books as being a narratively straightforward reflection of such a chivalric ideology, lacking critical hindsight on fourteenth-century events and society, and thus presenting paradoxical and irreconcilable tensions with later Books to the extent that they are occasionally deemed to be an entirely different kind of work than their later counterparts. The narrative thread of Froissart’s Gascon (hi)story explored here allows the revision of such views and shows that Froissart’s narrative is far from narratively and ideologically straightforward. This complexity is present as early as the first versions of the Book I, which should be envisaged in parallel, not in opposition, with the ‘later’ Chroniques. Similarly, the various tensions (e.g. fiction/history; ideal/real) underpinning the whole work, manifested in the portrayal of Gascony/the Gascons, are best approached in terms of co-existence, not antagonism. Such a multi-faceted work (a mirror and/or product of the fourteenth century?), à mi-chemin between history and fiction, between conflicting yet co-existing perspectives, is precisely what makes Froissart’s Chroniques valuable to literary critics, philologists, and historians alike.

Diverse Vorüberlegungen resultieren in der Frage, ob nicht ein der Kaiserchronik inhärentes didaktisches Konzept die Sinnvermittlung bewirken soll. Dazu werden die Lehrinhalte der Kaiserchronik betrachtet. Als ein Neueinsatz in der Weise, wie Historie im literarischen volkssprachigen Medium präsentiert wird, kann die in der Caesargeschichte der Kaiserchronik zu bemerkende Doppelung der Handlung gewertet werden. Am Beispiel der Geschichten Konstantins und Karls kann aufgezeigt werden, wie der Dialog die Struktur und Erzählweise des Textes dominiert. Im Hinblick auf die erste Bayrische Fortsetzung der Kaiserchronik, möchte ich von einem progressiven Intertextualitätsverständnis sprechen, das den Quellenbezug nicht überbewertet, sondern sich auf die Einbettung des von einem Prätext entliehenen Kontexts in den neu zu konzipierenden Text konzentriert. In der Continuatio macht sich dieser progressive Intertextualitätsbegriff insofern bemerkbar, als der Prätext nicht unreflektiert übernommen wird, sondern zuerst an ihm und dann mit ihm weitergearbeitet wird. / With regard to the construction of sense in the Chronicle of Emperors, an inherent didactic concept can be detected. New presentation techniques of the literary medium of the 12th century like a hero`s two-fold adventure pathway to maturity allow for more complex views of the well-known Caesar tales. On the other hand, dialogue is still dominant as a rhetorical means as structure and narration of the Charlemagne and the Constantine tales disclose. As a final aspect, the Continuatio, the first Bavarian continuation of the Chronicle of Emperors, is under scrutiny. The progressive concept of intertextuality concentrates on the new text, not entirely ignoring the original text, but rather embedding old context in new surroundings.

The dissertation is devoted to the problems of the perception of Muslims and the threat posed by the Ottoman by the Byzantine and East-European writers of the XV century. According to the materials of historical works analyzed the ratio of the authors to the representatives of the Islamic faith in a severe foreign situation and also domestic religious contradictions. Analysis of the works of Byzantine and Balkan writers allows us to trace the evolution of the views of historians on the matter and to reveal the extent of their bias. According to the Byzantine and East-European sources revealed the attitude of the authors of the XV century to the Turks and denoted points of contact of Christian and Muslim civilizations in the context of military confrontation, also investigated the attitude of the authors to the key events of the Turkish expansion in the XV century - Battle of Varna in 1444 and the capture of Constantinople in 1453. The dissertation also addresses the problem of mutual Christians and Muslims considered in the interpretation of the writers and the question of the possibility of cultural and religious dialogue between the warring parties. / Диссертация посвящена рассмотрению проблемы восприятия мусульман и угрозы со стороны османов византийскими и восточно-европейскими писателями XV века. По материалам их исторических произведений анализируется отношение авторов к представителям исламского вероучения в условиях тяжелой внешнеполитической ситуации и внутренних религиозных противоречий. Анализ сочинений византийских и балканских писателей позволяет проследить эволюцию взглядов историков относительно данного вопроса и выявить степень их тенденциозности. По данным византийских и восточно-европейских источников выявляется отношение авторов XV в. к туркам, обозначаются точки соприкосновения христианской и мусульманской цивилизаций в контексте военного противостояния, а также исследуется отношение авторов к ключевым событиям турецкой экспансии XV в. - битве при Варне 1444 г. и захвату Константинополя в 1453 г. В диссертации также затрагивается проблема взаимовосприятия христиан и мусульман в интерпретации рассматриваемых писателей и ставится вопрос о возможности культурного и религиозного диалога между представителями противоборствующих сторон.