Bernard Itier (1163–1225) was a French

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monk, librarian, copyist and chronicler at the abbey of Saint Martial in

Limoges Limoges ( , , ; , locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated o ...

.Daniel Power (2014), Review of ''The Chronicle and Historical Notes of Bernard Itier'', in ''The Journal of Ecclesiastical History'' 65(3): 662–663. Nicholas Vincent (2014), Review of ''The Chronicle and Historical Notes of Bernard Itier'', in ''History: The Journal of the Historical Association'' 99(334): 130–131. Bernard was the sub-librarian (''subarmarius'') of the abbey from 1195 and then chief librarian (''armarius'') from 1204 until his death. He added numerous historical notes in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

to the margins of over thirty manuscripts. The most important is the long series of notes in the margins of the manuscript BnF Latin 1338. Some modern editors have gathered all his notes together and published them in chronological order, but the marginalia of Latin 1338 can also be regarded as forming a chronicle on their own. Most of Bernard's notes and his chronicle exist as

autographs An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Intern ...

, but a few are known only from copies. This latter class includes his additions to the chronicle of Geoffrey of Vigeois. Bernard's chronicle is mainly interested in Saint Martial's and in local affairs, but his interest in the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

covers a wide swathe from Spain to Byzantium to Egypt and the Holy Land. He has little to say about the

Capetian–Plantagenet rivalry The First Hundred Years' War (; 1159–1259) was a series of conflicts and disputes during the High Middle Ages in which the House of Capet, rulers of the Kingdom of France, fought the House of Plantagenet (also known as the House of Anjou ...

, despite being an important source for the last campaign of King

Richard I of England Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199), known as Richard the Lionheart or Richard Cœur de Lion () because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior, was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ru ...

. His note on Richard's death is an addition to Geoffrey's chronicle. In another note, he lists fourteen castles belonging to the

viscount of Limoges Between Limoges, Brive and Périgueux, the viscounts of Limoges (), also called viscounts of Ségur created a small principality, whose last heir was Henry IV. Ségur was the main home of these viscounts, in the heart of their domain. The vis ...

that were besieged by Richard's forces in 1199.

John Gillingham John Bennett Gillingham (born 3 August 1940) is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. On 19 July 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. Gillingham is renowned as an expert on ...

, ''Richard I'' (Yale University Press, 1999), .

Editions

*''The Chronicle and Historical Notes of Bernard Itier''. Edited and translated by Andrew W. Lewis. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2012.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Itier, Bernard 1163 births 1225 deaths French Benedictines French chroniclers French male writers 13th-century writers in Latin 13th-century French historians