Manuscripts Found in the Attic

This chapter discusses the discovery, in the modernizing of libraries and archives around 1800, of many medieval texts and literary remains. It traces how these discoveries triggered an interest in the medieval period and the rise of historicism: the cultivation of the past and the desire to turn it, and the nation’s ancient roots, into an inspiring contemporary presence. The impact of medievalism and historicism on the culture of nationalism, mainly in literature and in literary history, is surveyed across the nineteenth century. Paradoxically, the scholarly expertise of the philologists was a Europe-wide field, but their commitment was in most cases to their own countries, for which they claimed and appropriated literary heirlooms. The relations between philologists were sometimes collaborative, sometimes competitive, and competition often took the form of international rivalry.