| Historia Langobardorum | |
|---|---|
| History of the Lombards Historia gentis Langobardorum |
|
| Author(s) | Paul the Deacon |
| Language | Latin |
| Date | 787-796[1] |
| Provenance | Monte Cassino[2][3] |
| Manuscript(s) | 115 extant manuscripts |
| Principal manuscript(s) | Codex Sangallensis 635 |
| First printed edition | 1514 |
| Genre | Ethnic history |
| Subject | History of the Lombard people |
The Historia Langobardorum (History of the Lombards) is the chief work by Paul the Deacon, written in the late 8th century.
This incomplete history in six books was written after 787 and at any rate no later than 796, maybe at Montecassino. It covers the story of the Lombards from their mythical origins to the death of King Liutprand in 743, and contains much information about the Byzantine empire, the Franks, and others. The story is told from the point of view of a Lombard patriot and is especially valuable for the relations between the Franks and the Lombards. Paul used the document called the Origo gentis Langobardorum, the Liber pontificalis, the lost history of Secundus of Trent, and the lost annals of Benevento; he made a free use of Bede, Gregory of Tours and Isidore of Seville.
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According to a study made by Laura Pani in 2000 there are 115 surviving copies of Paul's work. A popular work in the Middle Ages, as indicated by the number of copies and their dissemination throughout Western Europe, more than twenty of these manuscripts precede the 11th century while another eighty or more were copied later.[4] The relations between these manuscripts were studied in 1876 by Georg Waitz, who identified 11 different families of the Historia Langobardorum.[5]
The most ancient of these is the Palimpsest of Assisi, written in the uncial script towards the end of the 8th century, almost immediately after Paul's work had been completed. The palimpsest is far from complete as it contains only parts of the II and V book. The earliest complete manuscript of Paul's history is the F1 Codex Sangallensis 635, made sometime between the 8th and the 10th century.[6] According to Georg Waitz, this is due to its age the most reliable of the Historias codices, a view which has been opposed by Antonio Zanella and Dante Bianchi, both not believing that the F1 reflects correctly Paul's original.[7]
It was largely used by subsequent writers, was often continued, and was first printed in Paris in 1514. Among the editions of the Latin the best is that edited by Ludwig Konrad Bethmann and Georg Waitz, in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores rerum langobardicarum et Italicarum (Hanover, 1878).
It has been translated into English, German, French, Spanish, Swedish, Italian and Aragonese, the English translation being by W.D. Foulke (Philadelphia, 1906), the German by O. Abel and R. Jacobi (Leipzig, 1878), the Spanish by P. Herrera (Cádiz, 2006) and the Swedish by Helge Weimarck (Stockholm, 1971). The English translation is available as: History of the Lombards / Paul the Deacon ; translated by William Dudley Foulke ; edited by Edward Peters. Philadelphia, Pa. : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. ISBN 0812210794
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.