Autobiographie und Memorialkultur

In the High Middle Ages, the literary genre of autobiography undergoes an impressive renaissance (Abaelard, Guibert of Nogent, Hermannus quondamIudaeus, Gerald of Wales and others). Among the hitherto little-noticed representatives of this genre is the Burgundian teacher Jean d’Argilly (Johannes deArgilleo / Divionensis / Burgundus), regular canon of Saint-Étienne at Dijon. His Libellus lamentationis, written in 1152, contains a psychologically elaborated double biography in which Jean not only talks about the passion of his recently deceased half-brother Aimeri, but also presents his own curriculum vitae, which is characterized by multiple changes of place (Dijon, Saint-Mihiel, Verdun, Reims, Besançon). The rhetorically sophisticated text offers an unusually detailed (auto‑)biography, while at the same time illustrating in an exemplary manner the medieval culture of dying, comforting, and remembering. In this article, the Libellus lamentationis and some accompanying letters arecritically edited and evaluated for the first time.