Speech is Silver, but Silence is Golden. Creative Selection and Constructed Oblivion in the Work of Gregory of Tours

Abstract

It is a common misconception that the foremost task of historians is to collect records. On the contrary, the main endeavour is to omit and select from the overwhelm-ing abundance of past material in order to find – invenire – the pertinent detail from specific enquiries and subjects of interest. As early as the classic lectures in rhetoric, such as Cicero ’ s De Inventione or the simultaneous and anonymously authored Ars rhetorica ad Herennium , the methods for the discovery of arguments are described as inventio. ¹ However, often the convincing point about historical works is that not all the discovered facts were conveyed and most of them were left out. It can be said of all historical periods that reliable historiography comes to the fore by working out the contours and developments, by condensing mere episodes and contributing to the creation of meaning as well as conveying insights. Subsequent generations of scholars have focused their analyses of earlier historical documents on this con-struct; they called for deconstruction to expose the presumed statements of facts and implications. It was important to correct erroneous finds and inventions ( inven-tiones ), and to trace a clear picture of the facts. Since the narrative turn , however, ‘ narrated ’ history has gained intrinsic significance. The multiplicity of voices replaces exclusive interpretations of the world and history. Therefore, the prevailing trend for the analysis of historiography is to place less emphasis on verifiability and plausibil-ity, while paying greater attention to writing techniques and media-oriented forms of knowledge transfer, where false recollection and phantoms of remembrance are also taken into account.²