The ''Breve chronicon Northmannicum'' or ''Little Norman Chronicle'' is a short, anonymous

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 ...

chronicle A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...

of the

Norman conquest of southern Italy The Norman conquest of southern Italy lasted from 999 to 1194, involving many battles and independent conquerors. In 1130, the territories in southern Italy united as the Kingdom of Sicily, which included the island of Sicily, the southern thi ...

, probably written in

Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...

in the early twelfth-century. It covers the years from the first Norman "invasion" of Apulia in 1041 to the death of

Robert Guiscard Robert Guiscard ( , ; – 17 July 1085), also referred to as Robert de Hauteville, was a Normans, Norman adventurer remembered for his Norman conquest of southern Italy, conquest of southern Italy and Sicily in the 11th century. Robert was born ...

in 1085. Though once treated as an important source, its reliability and authenticity have been called into question by André Jacob, who showed that it is probably an eighteenth-century forgery by Pietro Polidori. According to John France, who seems unaware of Jacob's argument, it was based mainly on an

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...

and was subsequently used as a source for both the '' Chronicon Amalfitanum'' and

Romuald Guarna Romuald Guarna (between 1110 and 1120 – 1 April 1181/2) was the Archbishop of Salerno (as Romuald II) from 1153 to his death. He is remembered primarily for his ''Chronicon sive Annales'', an important historical record of his time. Li ...

. The first edition of the ''Chronicon'' was published by

Ludovico Antonio Muratori Lodovico Antonio Muratori (21 October 1672 – 23 January 1750), commonly referred to in Latin as Muratorius, was an Italian Catholic priest, notable as historian and a leading scholar of his age, and for his discovery of the Muratorian fragmen ...

in the fifth volume of his ''Rerum italicarum scriptores'' (1724) under the long title ''Breve chronicon Northmannicum de rebus in Iapygia et Apulia gestis contra Graecos''. The text he used was preserved in a twelfth- or thirteenth-century codex borrowed from Pietro Polidori, as well as a copy of ''c''.1530, both now lost. Only one authentic copy remains, though a forgery of G. Guerrieri also exists. In 1971 a new edition was published by Errico Cuozzo in the ''Bollettino dell'Istituto storico italiano per il Medioevo''.Errico Cuozzo, "Il Breve Chronicon Northmannicum", ''Bollettino dell'Istituto storico italiano per il Medioevo'', 83 (1971), pp.131–232.

Notes

{{Authority control Italian chronicles Catepanate of Italy 12th century in Italy 12th-century books in Latin Norman conquest of southern Italy