The ''History of the Lombards'' or the ''History of the Langobards'' () is the chief work by

Paul the Deacon Paul the Deacon ( 720s 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as ''Paulus Diaconus'', ''Warnefridus'', ''Barnefridus'', or ''Winfridus'', and sometimes suffixed ''Cassinensis'' (''i.e.'' "of Monte Cassino"), was a Benedictine monk, sc ...

, 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 The Abbey of Monte Cassino (today usually spelled Montecassino) is a Catholic, Benedictine monastery on a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, in the Latin Valley. Located on the site of the ancient Roman town of Casinum, it is the first house ...

. The history covers the story of the

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

from their mythical origins to the death of King Liutprand in 743, and contains much information about the

Eastern Roman empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

, the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

, and others. The story is told from the point of view of a Lombard patriot and is especially valuable for its treatment of the relations between the Franks and the Lombards. As his primary sources, Paul used the document called the '' Origo gentis Langobardorum'', the ''

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

'', the lost history of Secundus of Trent, and the lost annals of

Benevento Benevento ( ; , ; ) is a city and (municipality) of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the Sabato (r ...

; he also made free use of works by

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (born ; 30 November – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours during the Merovingian period and is known as the "father of French history". He was a prelate in the Merovingian kingdom, encom ...

, and

Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville (; 4 April 636) was a Spania, Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian and Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seville, archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of the 19th-century historian Charles Forbes René de Montal ...

Editions

According to a study made by Laura Pani in 2000, there are 115 surviving

codices The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...

of Paul's history. A popular work in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, as indicated by the number of copies and their dissemination throughout Western Europe, more than twenty of these manuscripts predate the 11th century while another eighty or more were copied later.McKitterick 2004, p
77-78
The relations between these manuscripts were studied by Georg Waitz, who in 1876 identified 11 different families of the ''Historia Langobardorum''. The oldest manuscript is the

Palimpsest In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off in preparation for reuse in the form of another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid ski ...

Assisi Assisi (, also ; ; from ; Central Italian: ''Ascesi'') is a town and comune of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Prope ...

, written in the

uncial script Uncial is a majuscule script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. Uncial letters were used to write Greek and Latin, as well as Gothic, and are the current style for ...

towards the end of the 8th century, almost immediately after Paul's work was completed. This palimpsest is, however, far from complete, as it contains only parts of books II and V of Paul's history. The earliest complete manuscript is the ''Codex Sangallensis 635'' written sometime between the 8th and the 10th centuries and designated by Waitz as F1. According to Waitz, F1's age makes it the most reliable of the ''Historias codices, a view which has been challenged by Antonio Zanella and Dante Bianchi, both of whom hold that the F1 does not correctly reflect Paul's original.Zanella 2007, pp. 105–106 Paul's account was largely accepted by subsequent writers, was often continued, and was first printed in Paris in 1514. Among the printed editions of the Latin text, the most authoritative is that edited by Ludwig Konrad Bethmann and Georg Waitz and published in the ''

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The (Latin for "Historical Monuments of Germany"), frequently abbreviated MGH, is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of parts of Northwestern, Central and Souther ...

. Scriptores rerum langobardicarum et Italicarum'' (Hanover, 1878).

Translations

It has been translated into English, German, French, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, Italian, Aragonese, Czech, Slovenian and Croatian, the English translation being by W.D. Foulke (Philadelphia, 1906), the German by O. Abel and R. Jacobi (Leipzig, 1878), the Polish by Ignacy Lewandowski (1995, Warsaw), Henryk Pietruszczak, (2002,

Zgorzelec Zgorzelec (, , , , Lower Sorbian: ''Zgórjelc'') is a town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in southwestern Poland, with 30,374 inhabitants (2019). It is the seat of Zgorzelec County and of Gmina Zgorzelec (although it is not part of the territory ...

), the Spanish by P. Herrera (

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

, 2006), and the Swedish by Helge Weimarck (Stockholm, 1971). Several versions of the English translation are available (see below in the section

Further reading Further or furthur, alternatively farther, may refer to: * ''Furthur'' (bus), the Merry Pranksters' psychedelic bus *Further (band), a 1990s American indie rock band *Furthur (band) Furthur was an American rock band founded in 2009 by former G ...

Into Italian

* L. Domenichi, ''Paulo Diacono della Chiesa d'Aquileia della Origine e Fatti de' Re Longobardi'' (Venice, 1548) * A. Viviani, ''Dell'origine e de' fatti de' Longobardi'', 2 vols. (Udine, 1826‑28) * G. S. Uberti, ''De' fatti de' Longobardi'' (Cividale, 1899), reprinted in the ''Biblioteca Popolare Sonzogno'' (Milan, 1915) * M. Felisatti, ''Storia dei Longobardi'' (Milan, 1967) * F. Roncoroni, ''Storia dei Longobardi'' (Milan, 1971) * E. Bartolini, ''Historia Langobardorum'' with Latin text and translation by A. Giacomini (Udine, n.d.) * A. Zanella, ''Storia dei Longobardi'' (Milan, 1991) * L. Capo (ed.), ''Storia dei Longobardi'' (Milan, 1992)

Notes

References

* *
Bibliography
in «Geschichtsquellen des deutschen Mittelalters» («Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages») repertory. Attribution: *

External links

*

(in Latin)

(in Latin) * ttps://www.librideipatriarchi.it/en/books/paul-the-deacon-historia-langobardorum-1096/ Historia Langobardorum overview and full reproduction of the codex: Cividale del Friuli, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, XXVIII. {{Authority control 8th-century history books Carolingian historical texts in Latin Sources on Germanic paganism History of Central Europe 8th-century books in Latin Medieval historical texts in Latin