Elisabeth Mégier, Curriculum vitae.

I was born in Vienna, Austria in 1932 and I studied history, art history and German literature at the Universities of Vienna, Austria and of Göttingen, Germany, from 1950 to 1959. In 1955, I earned the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Vienna, with a thesis on medieval historiography (“Die Motivierung des geschichtlichen Handelns bei deutschen Geschichtsschreibern des 10.-12. Jahrhunderts“), directed by Heinrich Fichtenau and Alphons Lhotsky, and in 1959 I obtained the diploma of the “Institut für österreichische Geschichtsforschung“, with a “Diplomarbeit“ on the charters of the emperor Henri VI. From 1957 to 1962, I worked, partly in Paris, for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, section Diplomata (edition of the charters of Frederick Barbarossa and Henry VI). In 1962 I married Jacques Mégier who was working as a physicist in the European Research Center of Ispra, Italy. I spent the academic years 1963/64 and 1964/65 in Poitiers, France, at the “Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale“, where I had obtained a scholarship. This gave me the opportunity to return to the field of medieval historiography, which I had had to abandon when joining the Monumenta Germaniae. The comparative study of the works of two 12th century historians, Orderic Vitalis and Otto of Freising, which I started in Poitiers, was not completed in the form of a book but became material for a series of articles later on.

In 1965 I joined my husband in Italy and for a number of years I was occupied essentially by the raising of our four children, born between 1964 and 1971. I was encouraged to resume my research work by Jacques Le Goff when he came to give a lecture in Milan in 1981, and from 1985 onward I have been able to publish a certain number of articles, and to deliver papers or organize sessions at various congresses and conferences, among others at the Medieval Congresses in Kalamazoo (1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008) and in Leeds (1999, 2000, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010), at the “XIV Settimana internazionale di studi medioevali”, Passo della Mendola (1998), at the “Deutsche Mediaevistentag“ and the “V Congresso internazionale di studi Gioachimiti” (1999), at a conference of the “Hugo von St.Viktor- Institut” (2004), at conferences of the “Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino” at Gargnano sul Garda (2006 and 2009), and at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Innsbruck (2009). I have been greatly aided in this by the contacts and assistance I found at the Università Cattolica in Milan.

In 2000 my husband retired from his work in Italy, and I moved with him to Paris where I have found contacts at the “Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes“ and the “Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales“. For the academic year 2002-2003 I obtained a membership at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. The work on the research project I had presented there, with the title: “The legacy of Rome and the Tyranny of History: images of the Church and of the Jews in Latin Christian Historiography and Exegesis from St. Jerome to Hugh of St. Victor” will be integrated into the new and more comprehensive project I am presenting now.

List of publications:

1.Articles:

- Deux exemples de “prépurgatoire” chez les historiens. A propos de La naissance du Purgatoire de Jacques Le Goff, in: Cahiers de Civilisation médiévale 28 (1985), 45-62. - Tamquam lux post tenebras, oder: Ottos von Freising Weg von der Chronik zu den Gesta Friderici, in: Mediaevistik 3 (1990), 131-267. - Cives Dei und cives mundi als individuelle Personen in der Chronik Ottos von Freising, in: Miscellania Mediaevalia 24 (1996), 513- 529. - Fortuna als Kategorie der Geschichtsdeutung im 12. Jahrhundert am Beispiel Ordericus’ Vitalis und Ottos von Freising, in: Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 32 (1997), 59-70. - L’ordine Cistercense: Novità storica o realtà escatologica? I punti di vista di Ottone di Frisinga e di Orderico Vitale, in: Rivista Cistercense 13 (1996), 281-297. (This article has also been translated into Spanish and republished in “Cistercium” 210 (1998)). - Cotidie operatur. Christus und die Geschichte in der Historia ecclesiastica des Ordericus Vitalis”, in: Revue Mabillon, n.s. 10 (1999), 169-204. - Diuina pagina and the narration of history in Orderic Vitalis’ Historia ecclesiastica, in: Revue Bénédictine 110 (2000), 106-123. - Il tempo dei monaci nella Historia de duabus civitatibus di Ottone di Frisinga: anticipazione dell’età dello Spirito di Gioacchino da Fiore? in: Florensia 13/14 (1999-2000), 281-296. - Ludificatione demonum ac quibusdam abditis naturae seminibus. Les métamorphoses d’hommes en animaux dans la chronique d’Otton de Freising, in: Études médiévales 2/2 (2000), 140-150. - Karl der Grosse, das römische Reich und die Kirche in franko-normannischer Sicht: der Standpunkt Hugos von Fleury, in: Franz-Reiner Erkens ed., Karl der Grosse und das Erbe der Kulturen, Berlin 2001, 221-233. - La Chiesa cristiana, erede della Roma antica o dell’Antica Alleanza? I punti di vista di Ugo di Fleury e di Ottone di Frisinga, in: Roma antica nel Medioevo. Mito, Rappresentazioni, Sopravvivenze nella ‘Respublica christiana’ dei secoli IX-XIII (Atti della XIVa Settimana internazionale di studio, Mendola 1998), Milano 2001, 505-536. - Ecclesiae sacramenta: the spiritual meaning of Old Testament history and the foundation of the Church in Hugh of Fleury’s Historia ecclesiastica, in: Studi Medievali 3a serie 43/2 (2002), 625-649. - Fabulae ou historiae? Mythologie grecque et exégèse typologique dans la chronique d'Otton de Freising, in: Mediaevistik 15 (2002), 15-30. - Otto of Freising’s revendication of Isaiah as the prophet of Constantine’s “exaltation of the Church”, in the context of Christian Latin exegesis, in: Sacris Erudiri 42 (2003), 287-326 - Post-biblical history of the Jews in Latin chronicles: The case of Hugh of Fleury’s Historia ecclesiastica, in: Aevum 80 (2006), 353-376. - Jewish converts in the Early Church and Latin Christian Exegetes of Isaiah, c. 400 to 1150, in: Journal of Ecclesiastical History 59 (2008), 1-28. - Spiritual Exegesis and the Church in Haimo of Auxerre’s Commentary on Isaiah, in: The Multiple Meaning of Scripture. The Role of Exegesis in Early-Christian and Medieval Culture, ed. Ineke Van t’Spijker, Brill, Leyden-Boston 2009 (Commentaria. Sacred Texts and Their Commentaries: Jewish, Christian and Islamic, vol. 2), 155-175. - Christian Historical Fulfillments of Old Testament Prophecies, in Latin Commentaries on the Book of Isaiah (ca. 400 to ca. 1150), in: The Journal of Medieval Latin 17 (2007), 87-100. - Senso storico e senso della storia nei commentari latini al Cantico dei cantici: dai traduttori di Origene a Onorio Augustodunense e Guglielmo di Saint-Thierry, in: Il Cantico dei cantici nel Medioevo (Atti del convegno internazionale dell’Università di Milano e della Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino, Gargnano sul Garda, 22-24 maggio 2006), a cura di Rossana E. Guglielmetti, SISMEL, Edizioni del Galluzzo, Firenze 2009 (Millennio Medievale 76, Atti di convegni 23), 295-336. - Zur Artikulation von Bibel und Geschichte in der Chronica alias Liber de tribus maximis circumstantiis gestorum Hugos von St. Viktor, in: Bibel und Exegese in der Abtei Saint- Victor zu Paris. Form und Funktion eines Grundtextes im europäischen Kontext. Symposion Mainz April 2004, ed. Rainer Berndt (Corpus Victorinum, Instrumenta 3), Münster/Westfalen, Aschendorff Verlag 2009, 335-361. - “Manifest prophecies“ in Latin commentaries on Isaiah, from St. Jerome to the middle of the 12th century, in: Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 25/2 (2008), 155-168.

2. Some of these articles have been republished in:

Christliche Weltgeschichte im 12. Jahrhundert: Themen, Variationen und Kontraste. Untersuchungen zu Hugo von Fleury, Ordericus Vitalis und Otto von Freising (Beihefte zur Mediaevistik hg. von Peter Dinzelbacher 13), Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main u.a., 2010.

Forthcoming: - The Bible in Medieval World Chronicles: Historiography and/or Exegesis? A Study of the Work of Frechulf of Lisieux and Ado of Vienne, with Reference to Hugh of Fleury and Hugh of St.-Victor, in: The Transmission of the Bible in Word, Image, and Song, ed. Mildred Budny and Paul G. Remley, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in association with Research Group on Manuscript Evidence. - L’histoire biblique pré-abrahamique est-elle un sujet pour les historiens? St. Jérôme, St. Augustin et les critères d’historicité dans les historiae de Fréculphe de Lisieux, in: Réception des Pères et de leurs écrits au Moyen Âge. Le devenir de la tradition ecclésiale, Archa Verbi, Yearbook for the Study of Medieval Theology, Subsidia. - Il senso letterale dell’Apocalisse: negazione e affermazione, in alcuni commentari latini del Medioevo monastico, da Beda il Venerabile a Ruperto di Deutz, in L’Apocalisse nel Medio Evo (Atti del convegno internazionale dell’Università di Milano e della Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino, Gargnano sul Garda,18-20 maggio 2009), a cura di Rossana E. Guglielmetti, SISMEL, Edizioni del Galluzzo. - Species und genus: was wird in den Apokalypsenkommentaren der lateinischen Kirche (von Primasius von Hadrumetum bis Rupert von Deutz) aus den exegetischen Kategorien des Tyconius? in Tot sacramenta quot verba. Die Kommentierung der Apokalypse von den Anfängen bis ins 12. Jahrhundert (Symposim Innsbruck, 28. September bis 1. Oktober 2009). - Entries on Hugh of Fleury and Otto of Freising in Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History, II, ed. David Thomas and Barbara Roggema, Brill, Leyden.