Learning experiences, emulating affects and crafting historicity: Franz Ganshof on Bruges, 1906, 19091

 1. The present paper is based on a section of my doctoral dissertation Topograhy of a Method. François Louis Ganshof and the Writing of History. Florence: European University Institute, 2008. The material presented here has profited greatly from critical readings by Janet Coleman, Carola Dietze, Niklas Olsen, Freya Sierhuis, Jo Tollebeek and two anonymous referees. I wish to thank all of them most cordially for their efforts.

Abstract

Contributing to the history of the craft of historicisation, the present study explores connections between historical writing and historical experience. These connections are analysed through two youthful documents of historical writing by the Belgian medievalist François Louis Ganshof (1895–1980), dating from his schoolboy days. The brief texts in question yield a unique perspective on the processes of learning and emulation that constituted young Ganshof's practical knowledge of historicisation. This knowledge pertained for example to his use of references to historical objects and works of art, the discursive means of which he disposed for describing actions and events, or, indeed, the affects and passions he inscribed into his juvenile elaborations. Specific modes of deploying history in bourgeois Bruges at the beginning of the twentieth century – modes on which scholarly practices of historical writing had already made their imprint – are shown to have been foundational for this intricate, local and particular constellation. Ganshof's later, ostentatiously dispassionate practice of historical writing was durably informed by his early learning experiences and the affectivity they had forged. The linkage between writing and historical experience was intimate and indissoluble.

Keywords:

• historiography
• historical culture
• historical experience
• history of emotions
• Belgium ca. 1900
• François Louis Ganshof

Notes

 1. The present paper is based on a section of my doctoral dissertation Topograhy of a Method. François Louis Ganshof and the Writing of History. Florence: European University Institute, 2008. The material presented here has profited greatly from critical readings by Janet Coleman, Carola Dietze, Niklas Olsen, Freya Sierhuis, Jo Tollebeek and two anonymous referees. I wish to thank all of them most cordially for their efforts.

 2. For the notion of ‘historical time’, there exists a wide–ranging body of literature; see in particular Koselleck, Zeitschichten and Pomian, L'ordre du temps, here especially 323–47.

 3. This point has been put forward forcefully by Hartog, Régimes d'historicité.

 4. As I have also argued elsewhere, in: “History takes time and writing takes time, too.”

 5. For Ganshof, see “Ganshof, François Louis” (Raoul Van Caenegem). In Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek. Brussels: Paleis der Academiën, 1964ff. Vol. 12, 263–73; “François Louis Ganshof” (Adriaan Verhulst). In Nouvelle Biographie Nationale. Brussels: Académie, 1988ff. Vol. 5, 171–74; both entries provide further references. More recent efforts – in English – are: “Ganshof, F.-L.” (James F. Murray). In Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, ed. Kelly Boyd, 434. Vol. I. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999; Heirbaut and Masferrer, “François Louis Ganshof.” Moreover, a number of memory pieces have been published in recent years: van Caenegem, “Professor Ganshof herdacht”; id., “F.L. Ganshof: persoonlijke herinneringen”; and Lyon, “François Louis Ganshof: Medieval Historian and Friend.”

 6. Ganshof, Bruges (unpublished manuscript, henceforth Bruges [1906]); id., Bruges. Histoire, description, architecture, s.l.: private print, 1909 (also in manuscript); both texts in Nalatenschap Françcois Louis Ganshof, Bibliotheek Universiteit Gent, HS III 86 [henceforth NL Ganshof], doos 1.

 7. This tradition is classically expressed in the form of methodology in Langlois and Seignobos, Introduction aux etudes historiques [1898].

 8. As most compellingly described in Daston and Galison, Objectivity.

 9. Ankersmit, “Can we experience the past?” provides the most concise formulation of this point, which is developed in detail in id., Sublime Historical Experience. For a highly useful overview of alternative ways of conceptualising ‘historical experience’, see Jay, Songs of Experience, esp. 216–60.

10. Once at the beginning, Bruges [1906], 1, and once in the middle, 8, as is clear from the differences in the handwritings.

11. Ganshof, La Flandre sous les premiers comtes, 10: “le premier maître qui l'ait initié à l'histoire de son peuple.”

12. Bruges [1906], 3: ‘Je vous dis ceci pour vous donner une idée du luxe et de la splendeur de Bruges.’

13. Referring presumably to the foundation of the seaport Zeebrugge and the construction of a new inland port in Brugge linked to Zeebrugge through the Boudewijnkanaal; the works, begun in 1895–1896, were concluded in 1907.

14. Referring presumably to the foundation of the seaport Zeebrugge and the construction of a new inland port in Brugge linked to Zeebrugge through the Boudewijnkanaal; the works, begun in 1895–1896, were concluded in 1907, 10: ‘Hélas, cette splendeur s'est éteinte.—Le nouveau canal peut la réveiller[.] J'y crois. Dans quelques années vous verrez Bruges un Anvers d'aujourd'hui. De nombreux navires peupleront ces [sic] bassins. Mesdames, Messieurs, je finis par m'écriant pour notre Bruges aimée Prospérité, art et liberté’ (here and elsewhere: Ganshof's emphases unless stated otherwise).

15. Thus .ibid., 10: ‘Hélas, cette splendeur s'est éteinte.—Le nouveau canal peut la réveiller[.] J'y crois. Dans quelques années vous verrez Bruges un Anvers d'aujourd'hui. De nombreux navires peupleront ces [sic] bassins. Mesdames, Messieurs, je finis par m'écriant pour notre Bruges aimée Prospérité, art et liberté’ (here and elsewhere: Ganshof's emphases unless stated otherwise), 7: Ganshof misspelled the word ‘bourgoeis [sic]’; apparently he was not very familiar with it.

16. Thus Ibid., 7: Ganshof misspelled the word ‘bourgoeis [sic]’; apparently he was not very familiar with it, 8: ‘En 1830 enfin Bruges se révolta contre les Hollandais. Ceux ci [sic] firent feu puis la nuit évacuèrent la ville.’

17. Ibid., 8: ‘En 1830 enfin Bruges se révolta contre les Hollandais. Ceux ci [sic] firent feu puis la nuit évacuèrent la ville.’, 6: ‘de chaque défaite ils se relevaient avec dans le cœur l'amour de cette liberté qui fut toujours leur passion.—D'ailleurs ils ne suportaient [sic] pas plus la domination exessive [sic] de leurs contes [sic] que la domination étrangère. Voici deux faits qui le prouvent.’

18. Ibid., 6: ‘de chaque défaite ils se relevaient avec dans le cœur l'amour de cette liberté qui fut toujours leur passion.—D'ailleurs ils ne suportaient [sic] pas plus la domination exessive [sic] de leurs contes [sic] que la domination étrangère. Voici deux faits qui le prouvent.’, 3: ‘Même après la prise de la ville, prise injuste par la France de 1298 le roi de France Philippe le Bel menant sa femme, l'orgueilleuse Jeanne de Navare [sic] voir Bruges la reine s'écria: “Je croyais être seule reine ici et j'en vois par centaines[.”]’

19. Weale, Bruges et ses environs, 4. For Weale, see van Biervliet, Leven en Werk van W.H. James Weale; Haskell, History and its Images, 452–62.

20. Warnkoenig, Histoire constitutionnelle et administrative, 82; the German original, not quoted by Ganshof, was part of the Flandrische Rechts- und Staatsgeschichte.

21. De Flou, Promenades dans Bruges, 14. For De Flou (1853–1928) see the entry by André Demedts and Fernand Bonneure. In Nieuwe Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging. Tielt: Lannoo 1998, Vol. 1, 1161.

22. Thus Ganshof, Bruges [1906], 4.

23. Arthur Ganshof to Paul Fredericq 27-08-1912, Briefwisseling Paul Fredericq, Bibliotheek Universiteit Gent, HS III 77, vol. 39: ‘Mijn schoonvader … had zich voorgenomen U zijn kleinzoon Franz, die zijn vrijgezinde, Vlaamsch en orangistgezinde gedachten geheelemal deelt, bij de eerste gelegenheid voor te stellen….’ Fredericq refers to Van der Meersch in his diary as an ‘old friend’, thus for instance in Dagboek Fredericq, Bibliotheek Universiteit Gent, HS 3704, deel IV, 99r, 09-10-1913, and deel X, 13v, 14-03-1919.

24. For Sabbe – whose son Maurits and grandson Victor were also active in the movement – see the article by Ludo Valcke in Nieuwe Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging. Vol. 3: 2685f.

25. See the manuscript for the talk at Bruges, November 26, 1939, envelope “Belgique au XVe siècle,” NL Ganshof, doos 159.

26. For the uses of the battle by Belgian and Flemish nationalisms, see Tollebeek, “Le culte de la bataille des Eperons d'or.”

27. For the uses of the battle by Belgian and Flemish nationalisms, see Tollebeek, “Le culte de la bataille des Eperons d'or.”, 6f.: ‘des magistrats indignes créatures de Maximillien [sic] abusaient du pouvoir et vendaient la justice.’

28. Ibid., 6f.: ‘des magistrats indignes créatures de Maximillien [sic] abusaient du pouvoir et vendaient la justice.’, 10.

29. Ibid., 6f.: ‘des magistrats indignes créatures de Maximillien [sic] abusaient du pouvoir et vendaient la justice.’, 8.

30. See the discussion in Haskell, History and its Images, 445–68; also the essays in Ridderbos et al., eds, Early Netherlandish Paintings.

31. Ganshof, Bruges [1909], 14.

32. One might be tempted, at this point, to draw a connection to the regime of historical knowledge known as ‘antiquarianism’. Yet to my mind this would be a somewhat rash move; the early modern tradition of antiquarianism – see as a classical survey Momigliano, “Ancient History” – ought not easily be equated with late nineteenth-century amateur interest in history. The latter defined itself, whether willingly or not, through its relation to an academic form of historical scholarship which had starkly transformed over the course of the century. Subsequently, ‘antiquarianism’ became a derogatory term – thus notoriously in the usage of Nietzsche – which further reduces its analytic value. Hence, I prefer refraining from deploying it in the present investigation.

33. Ganshof, Bruges [1906], 2. In passing, one might note that Ganshof contested the appropriateness of Charles's agnomen ‘the Good’; Charles had been assassinated by merchants from Bruges, and it is quite possible that Ganshof was unwilling to blame merchants for anything. The murder is one of the main subjects of Galbert of Bruges's history, hence a core piece of Flemish medieval history writing, critically edited by Pirenne, that surfaced again and again in Ganshof's career.

34. Barthes's effet de réel is rather conceived as an overall phenomenon of ‘realistic’ writing, to which ‘referentiality’ merely contributes. See Barthes, “L'effet de réel.”

35. Quite an imperfect procedure, inasmuch as many works of fiction play precisely with this type of effect. Yet, this type of play would not function if it were not borrowed from the rhetoric of historical writing.

36. Borrowing this formula from Daston, ed., Things that Talk.

37. The school records are preserved in file “Etudes moyennes, documents divers,” NL Ganshof, doos 1.

38. See François, ed., Een eeuw Gentse historische school.

39. For Van Renterghem (1874–1924) see Tollebeek, Writing the Inquisition, 27f., n. 53.

40. Among the works in the bibliography, there are several more or less art historical guidebooks; as well as De Flou and Weale, Ganshof mentions , L'art des façades à Bruges; id., Bruges en un jour (many editions; Ganshof actually refers to a publication “Bruges en trois jours” that I have not been able to locate; there was an English version, Bruges in Two Days. Perhaps Ganshof meant the one added to the other). Furthermore, he cited Verkest, Guide illustré du touriste à Bruges (many editions).

41. Ganshof, Bruges [1909], 6. The formula “Bruges – port de mer” occurred also in one of the books that the brochure (possibly) cited, Gilliodts-Van Severen's Bruges port de mer. Gilliodts, an archivist of the city of Bruges, here provided a study of sixteenth-century attempts to build a canal rather resembling the project of around 1900. However, he was also the author of Bruges ancienne et moderne. Ganshof only cites the author and a short title, in this case: Bruges – impossible to determine to which book he refers.

42. Ganshof, Bruges [1909], 6: ‘grâce au creusement d'un canal reliant Bruges directement à la mer, on espère que le commerce visitera à nouveau le port de Bruges.’

43. Thus in the case of the Hôtel de Ville with its façade ‘mal restaurée vers 1850’ (Ganshof, Bruges [1909], 7). He also found that buildings of the nineteenth century replacing older structures ‘attested to the lack of taste on the part of their constructors’ (‘attestent le manque de gout de leurs constructeurs’, ibid., 5).

44. This relates to the instructive discussion in Bentley, “Past and ‘Presence’.” I stop short of pushing the issue into the ontological domain that Bentley favours, however, limiting the discussion to the realm of rhetoric and text.

45. Ganshof, Bruges [1909], 5: ‘conduisit à la bataille de Courtrai, dite des “Eperons d'or”, où périt la fleur de la chevalerie du Lys; ce fut le triomphe des Flamands sur les Français, des métiers sur les seigneurs, de l'infanterie sur la cavalerie.’

46. Ganshof, Bruges [1909], 5: ‘conduisit à la bataille de Courtrai, dite des “Eperons d'or”, où périt la fleur de la chevalerie du Lys; ce fut le triomphe des Flamands sur les Français, des métiers sur les seigneurs, de l'infanterie sur la cavalerie.’, 4: ‘Le comte Arnould sanctionna l'érection d'un chapître à l'église de St-Donat et soumit à sa juridiction la chapelle de St-Christophe.//C'est à la même époque que fut construit le beffroi et que furent organisées les bases de l'administration de la commune. C'est alors aussi que l'église de Notre-Dame cessa d'être chapelle.//En 1127 pour la première fois le roi de France intervient dans les dissensions intestines de la Flandre, après l'assassinat de Charles de Danemark, surnommé le Bon.//’ [Double slash marks paragraph].

47. This manner of representation is often called ‘annals style’ or brought into relationship with a structural concept of ‘chronicle’, as e.g. in White, Metahistory, 5–7. Those all too structuralist conceptualisations draw on complex forms of historical writing, such as medieval annals or chronicles, in an inaccurate fashion. Neither are annals or chronicles models of a primitive or natural structure of historical writing, nor is young Ganshof's text the expression of such alleged formal principles. On the contrary, the type of list structure Ganshof's 1906 paper displays had to be learned and was deployed for specific, culturally given genres and purposes. As in the case of annals or chronicles, there were special criteria for selecting contents, actually providing the unity ‘annals style’ supposedly lacks. Hence I refrain from deploying this or similar categories.

48. Ganshof, Bruges [1909], 5: ‘Dès lors guerres, traités, révolutions passèrent sur Bruges, la ruinant en son commerce, mais conservant son cachet artistique.’

49. Ganshof, Bruges [1909], 5: ‘Dès lors guerres, traités, révolutions passèrent sur Bruges, la ruinant en son commerce, mais conservant son cachet artistique.’, 5: ‘Jusque vers 1820 Bruges avait conservé plus que toute autre ville l'aspect du moyen-âge.’ Probably, Ganshof here refers to Weale's Bruges et ses environs which probably served as the structural guideline for his own short text.

50. Ganshof, Bruges [1909], 6: ‘une rénovation artistique se produit. De nombreuses maisons ont été restaurées et construites en style local…’.

51. Julius Sabbe for instance had founded two journals on the agenda of which the preservation of Bruges's architectural identity figured prominently (De Halletoren 1873–1881 and De Brugsche Beiaard 1885ff.). In the founding of the first of these, Auguste Van der Meersch had participated, according to Ludo Valcke, “Julius Sabbe.”

52. Verkest, Nouveau Guide illustré de Bruges.

53. Verkest, Nouveau Guide, 4: ‘Pas le charme d'une ville morte: Bruges ne l'est pas, ne l'a jamais été; mais le charme d'une ville où le passé se perpétue dans le présent.’ The reference to the ville morte aims at Georges Rodenbach's famous novel Bruges-la-morte, from 1892, popularising the image of Bruges as a city of morbid and melancholic appeal in light of its decay since the Middle Ages.

54. This amounts to suggesting that the relationship to the other, so strongly highlighted for instance by de Certeau, L'écriture de l'histoire, is perhaps less absolute and foundational for modern historical writing than is often claimed.

55. Ganshof to Schramm 26-12-1965, Nachlass Percy Ernst Schramm, Staatsarchiv Hamburg, collection Familie Schramm, 622–1, L230, volume 4, folder “Ganshof”: ‘Die Karte, die Sie mir aus Südamerika geschrieben haben, interessierte mich ausserordentlich. Die Überreste einer grossen Vergangenheit, ganz von der unserigen getrennt und vollständig untergegangen haben doch etwas erdrückendes [sic] für uns, neben dem intellektuellen Interesse u. der künstlerischen Anziehungskraft mit denen wir reagieren. Das empfinde ich wenn ich Bilder jener Kulturen sehe; Sie haben aber jetzt die direkte Erfahrung u. das Wort “unheimlich” das ich auf Ihrer Karte lass [sic], gibt mir den Eindruck das [sic] Sie etwas ähnliches [sic] empfanden. [Syntax sic]’.

56. Ganshof to Schramm 26-12-1965, Nachlass Percy Ernst Schramm, Staatsarchiv Hamburg, collection Familie Schramm, 622–1, L230, volume 4, folder “Ganshof”: ‘Die Karte, die Sie mir aus Südamerika geschrieben haben, interessierte mich ausserordentlich. Die Überreste einer grossen Vergangenheit, ganz von der unserigen getrennt und vollständig untergegangen haben doch etwas erdrückendes [sic] für uns, neben dem intellektuellen Interesse u. der künstlerischen Anziehungskraft mit denen wir reagieren. Das empfinde ich wenn ich Bilder jener Kulturen sehe; Sie haben aber jetzt die direkte Erfahrung u. das Wort unheimlich’ das ich auf Ihrer Karte lass [sic], gibt mir den Eindruck das [sic] Sie etwas ähnliches [sic] empfanden. [Syntax sic].: ‘wahrscheinlich die Agnes Sorel, die Geliebte Karls VII’.

57. There is an abundant literature on the theme of the ‘rupture’ of modernity with its past, which has been discussed from numerous points of view. For instance, the theme is central in Koselleck's classical “Historia magistra vitae”, as well as in Hartog, Régimes.

58. Several booklets with dated lecture notes can be found in NL Ganshof, dozen 4–5, 22–3.

59. For Hulin see the entries by Jacques Lavalleye. In Biographie Nationale Belge 32: col. 310–12 and Guido Provoost and Koen Pallinckx. In Nieuwe Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging. Vol. 2, 1479.

60. For which not Weale but the organisers of the exhibition and the lenders of the paintings had been responsible. See Haskell, History and its Images, 461.

61. The catalogues from the auction of Ganshof's library after his death are preserved in ULB, collection of correspondences by Bryce Lyon, envelope “Professor Ganshof – Miscellanea …”.

62. Ganshof to Bryce and Mary Lyon, April 9, 1966, Archives, Université Libre de Bruxelles, correspondences donated by Bryce Lyon, envelope “Cartes postales etc. received from Prof. Ganshof, his wife, and other members of the Ganshof family.”

63. Ganshof, De Nederlanden in de XVe eeuw (manuscript), NL Ganshof, doos 159, envelope “Belgique au XVe siècle …”, 5: ‘Een moeilijk te begrijpen personaliteit die nog op ons, een echte aantrekkingskracht uitoefent. Een vorst met een koele blik en met een lip die op zinnelijkheid wijst.’

64. See Kempers, “De verleiding van het beeld”; Haskell, History and its Images, 468–95; Tollebeek, “De Middeleeuwen dromen”; Krul, “In the Mirror of Van Eyck”; for the theoretical context in Huizinga's work also Strupp, Johan Huizinga. Geschichtswissenschaft als Kulturgeschichte, 45–52, 67–74; for the term ‘sensation’ and the relation to ‘historical experience’, Ankersmit, Sublime Historical Experience, 109–39. Ganshof and Huizinga entertained polite relations, but did not enter into an actual exchange of opinions. Ganshof never reviewed books by his Leiden colleague. His focus on early and high medieval history made it easy to avoid debate or disagreement.

65. Johan Huizinga, Autumn of the Middle Ages, 182; some lines earlier, Huizinga mentions the tradition according to which the panel shows Agnes Sorel. This passage may well have been Ganshof's source.

66. Fromentin, Les Maîtres d'Autrefois. In deliberate violation of chronology, the Flemish artists from the fifteenth century were treated last; the bulk of the book concerned Rubens and Rembrandt.

67. Fierens Gevaert. Psychologie d'une ville. Fierens Gevaert (1870–1926), journalist and self-taught art historian, became the curator of the Royal Museum of Fine Art in Brussels in 1904 and taught at Liège and Brussels; see Leo Van Puyvelde. “Hippolyte Fierens Gevaert.” In Liber Memorialis. L'Université de Liège de 1867 à 1935. Notices biographiques, ed. Léon Halkin. Vol. 1. Liège: Rectorat de l'Université, 1936., 458–60.

68. Next to Weale' s guidebook-like Bruges et ses environs, Ganshof listed his catalogue: Exposition des primitifs flamands as well as his study Hans Memlinc [1865], and one that Ganshof refers to as Le Beffroi, which I have not identified. Ganshof also lists Friedländer, “Die Brügger Leihausstellung von 1902.” Surprisingly, the related works by Hulin de Loo are absent from his bibliography in 1909. Instead, there is another standard work on painting, Max Rooses's grand survey De Schilderkunst van 1400 tot 1800 from 1908; because of its novelty, Ganshof had presumably not (yet) studied it thoroughly in 1909. Rooses, the conservator of the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, was another prominent liberal Flemish nationalist involved with Willemsfonds activities.

69. Ganshof, Bruges [1909], 17f.: ‘C'est ici qu'il faut démontrer que le mouvement de 1302 fut un mouvement démocratique et non un mouvement d'attachement aux Dampierre.// En effet, en 1297, le comte eut beau faire appel à la fidélité de ses sujets, il ne lui fut pas répondu. Les métiers se souvenaient des exécutions de la “groote moerlamije”. Cela n'est point la conduite d'un peuple attaché à des princes populaires.// L'on peut me dire: “En 1302 le peuple marcha contre les Français, ennemis de Guy”. C'est vrai, mais leurs intérêts étaient les mêmes.// Le motif en est que le prince avait fait en 1281 tellement de mal aux corporations que celles-ci se vengèrent en ne secourant point leur souverain.// Examinons maintenant pourquoi ce mouvement a éclaté. C'est bien simple. Le peuple voulut avoir sa part dans la direction des affaires. Si les bourgeois l'avaient laissé entrer dans le corps échevinal, il est fort probable que le mouvement de 1302 n'aurait pas eu lieu.// C'est à cette époque que les oligarques se nommèrent “leliaerts” et les démocrates “klauwaerdts”.// Nous poursuivons les événements.’

70. Pirenne, Histoire de la Belgique I, 373–435.

71. Ganshof's youthful fascination with the works of his future teacher was intense and durable; on March 7, 1911 he summarised a public lecture Pirenne had given in Bruges, in a newspaper article for the Journal de Bruges (the clipping is preserved in NL Ganshof, doos 150, folder “Très ancien article de moi sur Pirenne”).

72. Following Davidson, Essays on Actions and Events. The term ‘event’ is ambiguous. I do not use it in terms of the salient, meaningful, extraordinary, emphatic happening that changes the course of history and disrupts longstanding structures; for such a conception see for instance Sewell, “Historical Events as Transformations of Structures.” This understanding of the term is not an ontological one but aims at the ways in which social groups interpret events.

73. For instance, Ganshof, Bruges [1909] stated that the Flemish count and his entourage where held prisoners at the Louvre (17), that the ‘workers’ (‘ouvriers’, i.e. artisans) had fought against the bourgeois and the arriving French governor at the ‘Grand'Place’ of Bruges (18), and that the ‘Matines Brugeoises’ had set out from the gate of Sainte-Croix (19).

74. For instance, Ganshof, Bruges [1909] stated that the Flemish count and his entourage where held prisoners at the Louvre (17), that the ‘workers’ (‘ouvriers’, i.e. artisans) had fought against the bourgeois and the arriving French governor at the ‘Grand'Place’ of Bruges (18), and that the ‘Matines Brugeoises’ had set out from the gate of Sainte-Croix (19), 19: ‘Le roi de France d'une part et la ville de Bruges d'autre part, ayant recruté une armée, marchèrent l'un contre l'autre. La première était commandée par Robert d'Artois et la seconde par Guillaume de Juliers. Les Français subirent un grand désastre dans les plaines de Groeninghe. Toute la fleur de la chevalerie du lys fut détruite. Robert fut tué.’