History of the Franks

I've just started Gregory of Tours' History of the Franks. I read excerpts from it for my class in Medieval Political Thought and wanted to come back to it when I had more time. It's more interesting to read primary sources to find out what the original authors had to say and so I've pulled out some primary source books on the Middle Ages as well as some Medieval literature from my personal library. I plan to roughly read them in chronological order.

I also plan to blog about what I read. By doing this, it will give me a chance to think and reflect on what I read. A lot of the time, when I am reading for pleasure and especially when something is thrilling, I tend to read "in the moment" and not do any close reading. I think if I blog about what I have just read, it will force me to think more deeply about it and get more out of my reading. It be nice to read the book with someone, but none of my Facebook friends seemed interested. I was hoping that at least one or two people would want to since I thought that they were interested in things medieval, but alas... no potentially fun discussion group for me and a blog will have to suffice.

I finished the Introduction today. From what I've gathered, Gregory of Tours came from a noble Gallo-Roman family which was involved in ecclesiastics. Some of his ancestors were even saints. His father died when he was young and he was turned over by his mother to one of his male clergyman relatives to rear. Under this guidance, received an education as an ecclesiastic and learned grammar and dialectic, two of the seven areas which made up the ideal medieval education. (The other subjects are rhetoric, geometry, astronomy, mathematics and music.) Within these two subjects, he mostly studied the Bible, such as the Gospels and Acts. He was made Bishop of Tours in 572 or 573 and finished writing The History of the Franks in the 590s. He died about three years later. Gregory is described as a modest and deprecating man and a likeable person in general.

His book starts with the beginning of the Bible and continues until he begins to write about contemporary events in Books V to X when he becomes the Bishop of Tours. He is not prone to gross exaggeration, so his narrative can be relied upon, although it is not without pardonable misinformation on his part. In Books I to V when he writes about events before his time, he cites many books, some of which are lost to us today. So, in addition to being a chronicler of the times, he has also unwittingly recorded for posterity the works which we would not otherwise have known of.

During my days as an undergraduate, while taking a really interesting class about John Wycliffe and thinking about biblical imagery in medieval stained glass, it dawned on me that it seems that the medieval people saw themselves as people of The Book. That is, they saw their history as just a continuation of biblical stories/history. If this is true, this would account for the reason why the crusades were as popular as they were and why they were fought as ferociously as they were. Biblical kings also justified and gave power to the idea of contemporary kings.

Tonight was the 2010 Scholarship Dinner for Douglass College. I was there to thank my donors for the two scholarships which helped put me though school for 2010: The Margaret Hastings Memorial Scholarship (which I also received last year) and the Lois Zapolsky Memorial Prize.

It always amazes me that there are so many generous donors who support students that they don't even know. If it wasn't for these thoughtful people, I would been forced to put school off. If I am able to graduate this year (which I hope I will happen), it would be because of the financial help I received from such donors since I am no longer eligible for financial aid and I already have a load of debt which I have put off. C has also been important and supportive to me, by allowing me to attend school full-time without putting pressure on me to return to work. All these people made it possible for me to become the student I am today and have helped me to be the best that I can be. It was awkward at first to meet my donors for the first time. I really don't like to rely on people for help, especially financial help, but it made me realize that in order for me to realize my goal, I will need to rely on the support of many people to help me through. It is a humbling experience. Once I achieve my goal, I plan to do the same for others.

I turned in what I hope is my last project as an undergraduate today at about 12:20 PM to the Art History Department. It was a 10 page essay which I wrote over the course of many months, but didn't really define until last week when it was urgent to work on it. Hopefully Dr. H will like the paper as much as she seemed to like my presentation (which I burned onto CD, as per her request).

I was only sorry that I didn't have time to do more research. There is a whole stack of interesting library books waiting to be read, but I didn't have the time to go through them since Dr. H kept us pretty much busy the entire months with different parts of the assignment to turn in. I am planning to take note of their titles, as well as photocopy the table of contents and indexes since they seem like good books that I might be able to use for future research. I'm also hoping to borrow these books again with my Rutgers alumni library card (I was thrilled to find out that I would still have access to the library!).

For the summer, I'm planning to study for the GRE as well as make an Access database for research. I thought it would be easier to scan and type notes as opposed to writing them down. I will also create a template so that I can print out the notes in a 3x5 format that I can stick onto index cards to file away. It much easier to look through physical note cards than looking at them on the computer. Technology is great in some ways, but it still can't replace the way I do things.