Le Codex Stabulensis et la recréation du passé à Stavelot-Malmedy à la fin du Xe s. Une étude de la valorisation de sources diplomatiques dans l’hagiographie abbatiale

Abstract

The rewritings of narrative discourses and the compositions resulting from the transmission of archivalia in monastic milieus during the central Middle Ages bear witness to the recurrent manipulation of local pasts. Abbatial vitae dating from the tenth century preeminently allow studying those interrelated phenomena, given that their elaboration often closely followed a reorganisation of archives and intensively relied on documents emanating from archive muniments. The analysis of the exploitation of archivalia in typologically divergent narratives and codices reveals the social perception and valorisation of a documentary heritage in the religious, legal, administrative and memorial spheres. In this article, I attempt to explain the dialogue between archival management, transmission of charters and narrative recreation of a sacred past, by means of a case study of the editing process of the second vita of saint Remaclus, written by Heriger of Lobbes, between 972 and 980, for the double abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy.