Robert F. Berkhofer III

Robert Berkhofer looks here at three case studies of forgery and its role in the identity-making of three medieval monasteries: St Peter's, Ghent's Saint-Denis, just north of Paris; and Christ Church, Canterbury. He's particularly interested in how and why documentary forgeries intersect with historical writing. Berkhofer isn't necessarily saying anything new here—the broad strokes of many of his arguments have been said in other times and places by people (including himself) working on show more various aspects of cartulary studies and the history of diplomatic—but by bringing these case studies together and looking at forgeries in their own right rather than as a question to be resolved to get to the "real" history, he refocuses attention on a key aspect of how texts were used in the high medieval world. I think this will be referred to a lot by other scholars in the coming years. show less

A worthy, but rather dry, examination of how changes in documentary forms produced by northern French monasteries between the late tenth and twelfth centuries may or may not demonstrate changing conceptions of power and accountability. I'm not sure how much I bought the absoluteness of the distinction which Berkhofer makes between, say, Carolingian and post-Carolingian conceptions of property and patrimony, and at times I felt uneasily as if Berkhofer were giving the thumbs up to increasing show more abbatial/patriarchal power as a positive achievement, but there are some interesting ideas here about how and why literacy is used in the medieval period. show less