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Winner of Van Courtland Elliott Prize
This year's Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize,
for a first article in the field of medieval studies judged
by the selection committee to be of outstanding quality, is
awarded to Anne Latowsky for her essay "Foreign Embassies
and Roman Universality in Einhard's Life of Charlemagne,"
which appeared in Florilegium 22 (2005), 25-57.
Ranging from the traditions of Roman imperial
biography to the recent renewal of interest in the analysis
of Charlemagne's life and legacy, Anne Latowsky convincingly
explains a problem that has long vexed Carolingian historians:
Einhard's assertion that H?r?n al-Rash?d, the caliph or "king"
of the Persians, gave Charlemagne control "over the sacred
and salvific place," the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. She
demonstrates that the claims to power made by Einhard on Charlemagne's
behalf, particularly in the famous sixteenth chapter of the
Life, are neither fanciful nor confused but a carefully plotted
exercise in virtual imperialism, bringing East and West, Islam
and Christianity into symbolic alliance under Charlemagne's
aegis. Her close reading of the passage and her deep contextualization
of its various elements reveal Einhard at his creative best,
at work among a range of sources that reach well beyond the
model of Suetonius. In her hands, the resulting passage is
revealed to be "a meticulously constructed biographical episode
rich in the rhetoric of Roman panegyric, where the presentation
of diplomatic exchanges with various rulers constitutes a
refashioning of the Frankish historiographical materials to
conform to a classical and late antique encomiastic topos
that symbolized the restoration of Roman universality." Her
own work is "meticulously constructed" as well; thoroughly
researched and tightly argued, it stands out as memorably
as H?r?n al-Rash?d's elephant, Abul Abbas, must have done
when it arrived at Charlemagne's court.
Respectfully submitted,
FREDERICK M. BIGGS
THOMAS E. A. DALE
CAROL SYMES, Chair
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