"This richly documented collection of essays, commissioned from a distinguished group of historians, deals with a wide range of issues in the medieval and modern historiography of the early middle ages. Authors who receive extensive treatment are Cassiodorus, Gregory of Tours, Jonas of Orleans, Fredegar, Lupus of Ferrieres, Claudius of Turin, Benjamin of Tudela, and the brothers du Tillet; anonymous sources include the Royal Frankish Annals, the Tale of Rigrannus of Le Mans, and the Plan of St. Gall. Among the subjects treated at length are war, ethnicity, divine descent, gender, aristocratic power, Charlemagne, and Carolingian monasticism."--BOOK JACKET.