Military unity serves to spread literature, transform history

By Communications staff, Washington State University
 
A depiction of Philippe de Mezieres meeting Richard II of England.
 
 
 
Alliances that spurred 14th-century Europe into a disastrous last crusade also afforded an artistic network whereby, for example, England’s Chaucer was influenced by Italy’s Petrarch.
 

That’s the premise of recent research by Michael Hanly, WSU English professor, who recently was awarded two fellowships to complete his book, “Poets of Peace, Poets of War.”

In response to the threat of Muslim armies in the east, European intellectuals of the day set aside their differences to form the Order of the Passion. This society advanced unity between England and France to pave the way for a multinational crusade to recover Jerusalem from the Muslims.

But, Hanly argues, the order was more than a political and military organization; it also served as a network of literary exchange.

“This was the place where English and French poets first encountered the Italian literary texts that would serve as their exemplars,” Hanly said. The alliances helped spread westward the themes and texts of Italian humanism.

Agents of change


The Battle of Nicopolis, the last crusade, was a
military disaster for the West.
Among the historical figures his research and book will examine are Philippe de Mezieres and Oton de Grandson. Mezieres founded the Order of the Passion and was zealous to reclaim Jerusalem for Christianity. He also was a friend of influential writers, including Italy’s most renowned poet, Petrarch.
 

Grandson, a leader in the order, was a French knight who became important in the court of England. He was a poet and a friend of England’s most famous medieval poet, Geoffrey Chaucer.

“Grandson would have had the resources and opportunity to bring Italian manuscripts into England in Chaucer’s time,” Hanly said.

A central figure in Hanly’s research, Chaucer was influenced by the writings of Italians such as Petrarch, Boccacio and Dante. Those texts, Hanly said, transformed the latter part of Chaucer’s career and subsequently the history of European literature.

Sabbatical next year

“I want to trace the connection between all of these people and provide enough documentary evidence to make this case,” Hanly said. “No one has ever put all these people together.”

Hanly has drafted six of his book’s proposed eight chapters. Funding from the fellowships will support a sabbatical next year to complete his research in France and finish his book.

Hanly joined WSU in 1991. He received a Fulbright research grant and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship that funded a yearlong stay in Paris in 1993-1994. His work was funded by another Fulbright research grant three years later. He is widely published, including two previous books.

His recent fellowships are from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and the American Philosophical Society (APS).