Download PDF | Thomas Curtis Van Cleve, The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen: Immutator Mundi, Oxford University Press, 1972.
652 Pages
PREFACE
The book was designed to explore as fully as possible the ap- propriateness of the phrase immutator mundi, or ‘transformer of the world’, as applied by contemporaries to Frederick II of Hohenstaufen; to establish the relationship of his many-sided achievements to those of his Normanand Hohenstaufen antecedents; to describe the circle of associates who participated in his manifold activities; and, finally, to seek the origin and to trace the course of the unremitting hostility of contemporary popes to him and to his concept of empire.
Although conceived as a scholarly project many years ago and intended as the culmination of studies first materializing in my Markward of Anweiler and the Sicilian Regency (Princeton, N.J., 1937), the work has been repeatedly interrupted by my overseas service in Africa and Europe during World War II, and further delayed, after the war, by special work for the War Department and while writing my “The Fifth Crusade’ and ‘The Crusade of Frederick II’, which appeared in vol. ii of the History of the Crusades, edited by Setton, Wolff, and Hazard (Philadelphia, Pa., 1962).
Because of the numerous and varied activities of Frederick II, I have felt that in the interest of clarity a topical organization of some parts of the book would be desirable. This is especially true where his literary, artistic, scientific, and fiscal interests are concerned. It has often occurred to me while reading various studies of Frederick II that a common fault has been the want of topical analyses of such interests and activities, a fault which has often resulted in vagueness and confusion.
Absolute consistency in the spelling of proper names has not always been desirable. Generally, the name Petrus has been rendered as Peter, as for example, Peter Capoccio. To avoid complications both French and Italian proper names such as Jean de Brienne are rendered as John of Brienne, John of Ibelin, Ezzelino of Romano, Roffrido of Benevento, etc. The names of some literary personages are retained in the form in which they are universally used: Piero della Vigna, Pietro da Eboli, Aimeric de Péguilhan, Rambaut de Vaqueiras, etc.
Although constantly tempted to shift the emphasis from the more immediate consideration of Frederick II to the papal-imperial conflict in its broadest sense, I have limited myself to the conflict as it manifested itself in Frederick’s relations with the various popes as individuals. Whatever may have been Frederick’s innermost convictions concerning the doctrines of the Popes and the extreme canonists respecting the supreme authority of the Pope, he affected to ignore them, directing his attacks, instead, at the Popes as individuals.
Notwithstanding the earlier treatment of the regency of Innocent III in my Markward of Anweiler and the Sicilian Regency, I have felt that a rapid sketch of that unhappy era is essential to the understanding of the problems which later claimed the attention of Frederick II upon his succession to the kingship and after his elevation as Emperor. It is not enough merely to dismiss the conflicts, intrigues, hostilities, and alliances as hopelessly confused or as of little relevance to the future of Frederick II. It is in the effort to interpret them that one finds the explanation of Frederick’s Sicilian policies as King and Emperor.
Another digression from the main theme has seemed to be desirable because of the close interrelationship between the Norman-Sicilian era and that of Frederick II. It becomes increasingly apparent as one analyses the political, the administrative, the economic, and the cultural features of Frederick’s reign, that they were deeply rooted in and nourished by the precedents of his Norman predecessors. Although devoting a separate chapter to the ‘Norman Cultural Heritage of the Sicilian Court of Frederick II’, I have dealt with the political, judicial, economic, and administrative systems, not in separate chapters, but in their appropriate places in relation to the systems of Frederick II.
It has been my constant effort to examine critically and to employ judiciously all available contemporary chronicles, letters, official documents, polemical writings, and all other pertinent materials which either directly or indirectly bear upon the subject. If to some readers there may appear to be a plethora of citations, this must be attributed to my confirmed conviction that by no other means can a biographer prevent the introduction of extraneous materials and misleading interpretations. In short, I have tried to keep constantly before me the rule of Frederick II himself in the writing of his De Arte Venandi cum Avibus: ‘to present things that are as they are’. This rule, so essential to the scientist, has all too often been ignored by the biographer, either wittingly or unwittingly, because of religious or other dogmatic convictions or preoccupations. In the recognition of this, I have dealt wrth all personalities, whether lay or sacerdotal, with the same objectivity when their activities were solely temporal. The book is in no wise concerned with the spiritual motivation of the priesthood. This approach presents special difficulties to the medievalist, who is confronted always by the far-reaching influences and traditions of the Church, by its half-temporal, half-spiritual attributes, and by the greatly accentuated temporal claims of the Popes and the extreme canonists between the pontificate of Innocent III and that of Boniface VIII.
While the sources employed in the preparation of the original draft of the book were obtained during several extended visits to Germany, France, Switzerland, Northern Italy, and Sicily, during the final stages of the preparation of the manuscript and throughout the process of verification and revision the facilities of Widener Library of Harvard University have been made available to me repeatedly. After my retirement from Bowdoin College and while I was living in Washington the Library of Congress afforded a limited, though useful, opportunity for further verification and for keeping abreast of recent publications. Also, while I was living in the South during the winter months many courtesies were extended to me by the libraries of the University of North Carolina and of Duke University.
As to the employment of secondary sources, due attention has been given to all full-scale biographies, monographs, essays, and all other pertinent materials. Anyone undertaking a study of Frederick I] must immediately recognize the invaluable contributions of the late Professors Ernst Kantorowicz, Karl Hampe, and Charles Homer Haskins, to say nothing of the pioneer works of Raumer, Héfler, Winkelmann, Schirrmacher, Huillard-Bréholles, and others. To Haskins, above all, one is especially indebted for his exhaustive researches into the scientific and cultural development of the eras of the Norman Sicilians and Frederick II. More recently also, the works of F. Baethgen, especially with reference to the minority of Frederick II, and C. A. Willemsen, on the architecture, sculpture, and lyric poetry of the Frederican era, have provided new and fresh orientations. Especially in his Trumphtor zu Capua, Professor Willemsen has most nearly sensed the intended significance of the sculptural ornaments of that splendid structure.
I wish also to express my obligation to my former colleague, the late Professor Charles H. Livingston, Longfellow Professor of Romance Languages of Bowdoin College, whose excellent private collection of works of Old French and Provencal was made available to me and proved to be of the greatest usefulness. I am indebted also to my Bowdoin colleagues, Professor Fritz Carl Augustus Koelln, George Taylor Files Professor of Modern Languages, who very graciously read several of the early chapters of the manuscript and edited my translations of two of the Spriiche of Walther von der Vogelweide, and to Professor Ernst Christian Helmreich of the department of history for useful suggestions.
For the several plates from the manuscript of Pietro da Eboli, Liber ad Honorem Augusti (MSS. del Cod. di Berna 120), I am indebted to the Chief Librarian and other officials of the Burgerbibliothek, Berne. I am especially grateful to the Curator of the Medieval Section of the Statens Historika Museum, Stockholm, for arranging for the photographing of the reliquary constructed at the order of Frederick II for the skull of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia, and to Professor C. A. Willemsen of the University of Bonn who very kindly permitted me to make use of several photographs previously appearing in his books describing the Capuan portal and towers.
Finally, I am indebted to the generous policy of the Presidents and Trustees of Bowdoin College, which, over a long period of years, has afforded me the opportunity to do essential research in the libraries of Europe and to visit the places intimately associated with the life and activities of Frederick II. More recently also, the interest of President James Stacy Coles and of his successor, President Roger Howell, Jr., has made possible the publication of this book.
Other Acknowledgements
To the Cambridge University Press (London and New York) for permission to quote a passage from F. W. Maitland’s translation of Otto Gierke, Political Theories of the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1900), and from S. C. Aston, Prerol, Troubadour of Auvergne (Cambridge, 1953).
To J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., Publishers, for permission to quote several passages from Dante’s De Monarchia, the Divine Comedy, and De Vulgarit Eloquentia (all of the Temple Classics edition).
To Basil Blackwell, Publisher, Oxford, for permission to quote from G. Barraclough, Medieval Germany (2 vols., Oxford, 1938).
THOMAS C. VAN CLEVE Bowdoin College
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