“Nemo sine crimine vivit, and mine is to love Antiquities”: the pleasure of historiography.

The quotation is from a letter by Charles Bertram, antiquarian, grammarian, and forger. In describing his interest in history, especially the Middle Ages, he repeatedly uses emotional terms, including ‘love’ and ‘pleasure.’ Clearly, to Bertram, the study of history is first and foremost a pleasure, and one which he finds it difficult to do without. This paper investigates the pleasure taken in knowledge of the Middle Ages, as expressed in Bertram’s letters, and argues that it is, in his case, inextricably linked with a desire to belong.