Rhetorical And Narrative Studies On The Historiae Of Richer Of Saint Remi

The Historiae of Richer of Saint-Remi should not be read as an attempt to influence political opinion in and around Rheims. Instead, we should understand it primarily as a literary work intended to promote Richer's status within the scholarly community at Rheims, to curry favor with his dedicatee, Gerbert of Aurillac, and to secure a place for the author in written memory. Richer's intention was not to produce a polemical work in favor of either Carolingian or Capetian dynastic claims, but to produce a work of rhetorical historiography in the classical mold. His self-consciously rhetorical style distances Richer from prior Rheims historiography and testifies to the revival of interest in classical rhetoric in the cathedral schools of the late tenth century.