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For academic searchers and people curious about the History of Brittany and Western France.

(voir le site) Besides a search engine, the website contains an index of the authors, with active link and the number of their articles, an index of universities and archives, chronology from the Antiquity to the XXIth century and an index of places (active links).

From the website:

— The Annals of Brittany (Annales de Bretagne), created in 1886, became Annals of Brittany and the Western Countries (Annales de Bretagne et des Pays de l'Ouest) in 1974. Published jointly by seven universities of the Western part of France, they report the dynamism of the historic research in the universities of Angers, Brest, Lorient, Le Mans, Nantes, Rennes-II and Tours.

Issues in full text

On-line from 2001 till 2011.

But certain issues and articles are in restricted access with summaries.

See for example the contents of the last on-line number. One can purchase on-line the electronic versions through the Cairn gate.

Example of restricted access

Presence and representations of Domnonée and Cornouaille on both sides of the Channel, according to the Life of saints and medieval genealogical lists, by Bernard Merdrignac.

Full text available through subscription / paying access on the Cairn gate. The complete text in free access will be available at this address in January 2014. (voir le site)

Article Outline taken as an example

First mentions of the Domnonia;

– "On the borders of Cornwall": Landévennec;

– Riwal, "chief of the Bretons on both sides of the sea"?

– Nomnia, the enigmatic land of King Catov?

– Aeneas, the "Breton" and "tortuous path of legends";

– Gereint, the Gerontii and the origins of Brittany;

– A "legend in double entry" from Catovius to saint Cadoc.

Abstract in English [and in French] on-line

The names of Dumnonia and Cornubia are found on both sides of the Channel. In Great Britain, these names, attested as early as the 6th-7th Centuries have remained in use until our days (Devon, Cornwall). In Brittany, the name of Domnonia, which fell into disuse during the 11th Century, appears in Vita la Samsonis (7th-8th Century?), where it seems to suggest there was a double kingdom. But no mention is made of Cornubia before Carolingian times. The Vita longior Winwaloei, written at Landévennec during the 9th Century, is the first text to note a bipartition between Domnonia and Cornubia. However, the passages of this Vita devoted to the British origin of Winwaloe's parents alter the name of the British Domnonia. These deformations may possibly come from genealogical lists, which the hagiographer seems to allude to. By collating the text of the 9th Century with the later genealogies and Vitae which refer openly to such sources, one is brought to wonder whether the site chosen by the holy founder of Landévennec does not tell us more about the political situation of Brittany during the Dark Ages than what the author of the Carolingian Vita kept.

Maryvonne Cadiou

• La pseudo histoire de Bretagne du journal Ouest-France par Philippe Argouarch le 23/08/2022
• Pour chercheurs et curieux : les Annales de Bretagne de 2001 à 2011 sont en ligne par Maryvonne Cadiou le 19/02/2012
• Joël Cornette et son histoire de Bretagne et des Bretons par Ronan Le Flecher le 18/01/2006