Robert Bartlett

Robert Bartlett on History in Flames

Robert Bartlett, Professor Emeritus in the University of St Andrews School of History, illuminates the fragility of historical documents in History in Flames: The Destruction and Survival of Medieval Manuscripts.

To what extent does our knowledge of the past rely upon written sources? And what happens when these sources are destroyed? Focusing on the manuscripts of the Middle Ages, History in Flames explores cases in which large volumes of written material were destroyed during a single day. This destruction didn't occur by accident of fire or flood but by human forces such as arson, shelling and bombing.

This book examines the political and military events that preceded the moment of destruction, from the Franco-Prussian War and the Irish Civil War to the complexities of World War II; it analyses the material lost and how it came to be where it was. At the same time, it discusses the heroic efforts made by scholars and archivists to preserve these manuscripts, even partially. History in Flames reminds us that historical knowledge rests on material remains, and that these remains are vulnerable.

Robert Bartlett, CBE, FBA, is Professor Emeritus at the University of St Andrews. His books include The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 950-1350, which won the Wolfson Literary Prize for History. He has written and presented three television series for the BBC, "Inside the Medieval Mind" (2008), 'The Normans' (2010), and 'The Plantagenets' (2014).