- Translatio imperii
Translatio imperii, Latin for "transfer of rule", is a concept invented in the
Middle Ages for describinghistory as a "linear " development: a succession of "transfers of power" from one supreme ruler (emperor ) to the next.Definition
Not surprisingly, each medieval author described the "translatio imperii" as a succession leaving the supreme power in the hands of the monarch ruling the region of the author's provenance:
*Otto of Freising (living in German region): Rome →Byzantium →Franks →Longobards → Germans (=Holy Roman Empire );
*Chrétien de Troyes (living in medieval France): Greece → Rome → France [De Troyes, Chrétien. "Cligès ". Circa 1176.]
*Richard de Bury (England, 14th century): "Athens" (Greece) → Rome → "Paris" (France) →England Medieval and Renaissance authors often linked this transfer of power by genealogically attaching a ruling family to an ancient Greek or Trojan hero; this schema was modeled on
Virgil 's use ofAeneas (a Trojan hero) as mythic founder of the city ofRome in his "Aeneid ". Continuing with this tradition, the twelfth-century anglo-Norman authorsGeoffrey of Monmouth (in his "Historia Regum Britanniae ") andWace (in his "Brut") linked the founding of Britain to the arrival ofBrutus of Troy , son of Aeneas. In a similar way, the French Renaissance authorJean Lemaire de Belges (in his "Les Illustrations de Gaule et Singularités de Troie") linked the founding of CelticGaul to the arrival of the Trojan "Francus " (i.e.Astyanax ), the son ofHector ; and of Celtic Germany to the arrival of "Bavo", the cousin ofPriam ; in this way he established an illustrious genealogy for Pepin andCharlemagne (the legend of "Francus" would also serve as the basis forRonsard 's epic poem, "La Franciade").References
ee also
*
translatio studii - ( _la. transfer of learning) - the geographic movement of learning
*New Rome
*Third Rome
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