The ''Chronicon Novaliciense'' (or ''Chronicle of Novalesa'') is a monastic chronicle which was written in the mid-eleventh century in the valley of Susa. The ''Chronicle of Novalesa'' was written, c.1050, by an anonymous monk at the monastery of San Pietro in Novalesa. The ''Chronicon'' was written in the form of a

rotulus A ''rotulus'' (plural ''rotuli'') or ''rotula'' (pl. ''rotulae'') is often referred to as a "vertical roll," is a long and narrow strip of writing material, historically papyrus or parchment, that is wound around a wooden axle or rod. Rotuli are ...

(or scroll) rather than a

codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

. The original, and sole extant copy, of the scroll is preserved in Turin (Archivio di Stato, Nuova collezione, "museo"). The scroll consists of twenty-eight pieces of parchment sewn together, of which fragments are now missing. The work is divided into five sections, plus an appendix; of which sections four and five are incomplete. The ''Chronicon'' relates the story of monastery of Novalesa from its foundation, by the patrician Abbo in 726, up to the mid-eleventh century. Its main purpose was to emphasise the connection between the revived eleventh-century community at Novalesa and the earlier community of monks, who had been forced to abandon the monastery in 906 by incursions into the western Alps by

Saracens upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Pe ...

(Muslims from

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the Mus ...

). When the monks finally returned to Novalesa, in the early eleventh century, they found that their monastery had lost its formerly important status in the region. The anonymous author of the ''Chronicon'' blamed Arduin Glaber of Turin for this. The ''Chronicon'' accuses Arduin Glaber of taking advantage of the monks’ absence to usurp their lands in the valley of Susa. The text draws on both oral sources and written ones. In addition to charters (legal documents, recording grants of rights and/or authority), the anonymous author made use of narrative sources including Paul the Deacon's ''

Historia Langobardorum The ''History of the Lombards'' or the ''History of the Langobards'' ( la, Historia Langobardorum) 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 n ...

'', the ''

Liber Pontificalis The ''Liber Pontificalis'' (Latin for 'pontifical book' or ''Book of the Popes'') is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the ''Liber Pontificalis'' stopped with Pope Adrian II (86 ...

'', and the Latin heroic epic

Waltharius ''Waltharius'' is a Latin epic poem founded on German popular tradition relating the exploits of the Visigothic hero Walter of Aquitaine. While its subject matter is taken from early medieval Germanic legend, the epic stands firmly in the Lati ...

.Morreale, 'Chronicon'.

Notes

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References

*G.C. Alessio, ed. and (Italian) trans., ''Cronaca di Novalesa'' (Turin 1982). *P.J. Geary, ''Phantoms of Remembrance. Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium'' (Princeton, 1994). *C. Wickham, ‘Lawyer’s Time: history and memory in tenth- and eleventh- century Italy,’ in idem, ''Land and Power: Studies in Italian and European Social History 400–1200'' (London, 1994), pp. 275-294. *G. Sergi, ''L’Aristocrazia della preghiera. Politica e scelte religiose nel medioevo italiano'' (Rome, 1994). *L. Morreale, ‘Chronicon Novaliciense,’ in G. Dunphy, ed., ''Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle'' (Brill Online, 2016), accessible online at

(paywall)

External links

*Book III of ''Chronicon Novaliciense'' (in Latin). ('' wikisource:la:Chronicon Novaliciense, Chronicon Novaliciense'' at

Wikisource Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually ...

) *Full text of ''Chronicon Novaliciense'' (in Latin), accessible in th
Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Italian chronicles 11th-century Italian historians Medieval Latin histories