Landolfus Sagax or Landolfo Sagace (''sagax'' meaning "expert" or "scholar") was a Langobard historian who wrote a ''Historia Romana'' in the Beneventan Duchy (last quarter of the tenth century or beginning of the eleventh). When his ''Historia'' was first published by Pierre Pithou in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

in 1569, due to its varied content and sources, Pithou gave it the title ''Historia Miscella''. The manuscript from the Palatine Library at Heidelberg (''Pal. lat.'' 909) preserved in the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library (, ), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City, and is the city-state's national library. It was formally established in 1475, alth ...

is written in

Beneventan script The Beneventan script was a medieval script that originated in the Duchy of Benevento in southern Italy. In the past it has also been called ''Langobarda'', ''Longobarda'', ''Longobardisca'' (signifying its origins in the territories ruled by t ...

and shows evidence of having been committed to parchment under the supervision of Landulf himself. The ''Historia'', an expansion and extension of

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 ...

's eighth-century ''Historia Romana'', contains a list of

Byzantine emperors The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

until the then-living

Basil II Basil II Porphyrogenitus (; 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer (, ), was the senior Byzantine emperor from 976 to 1025. He and his brother Constantine VIII were crowned before their father Romanos II died in 963, but t ...

and

Constantine VIII Constantine VIII (;Also called Porphyrogenitus (), although the epithet is almost exclusively used for Constantine VII. 960 – 11/12 November 1028) was ''de jure'' Byzantine emperor from 962 until his death. He was the younger son of Empe ...

(d. 1028) and another of empresses from

Fausta Flavia Maxima Fausta ''Augusta'' (died 326 AD) was a Roman empress. She was the daughter of Maximian and wife of Constantine the Great, who had her executed and excluded from all official accounts for unknown reasons. Historians Zosimus and ...

to the wife of Michael IV. There are exhortations to a ''princeps'', perhaps implying that it was written at court, but which court is disputed. Some scholars, like Traube, have favoured

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

and others, like Amedeo Crivellucci,Crivellucci, ''Landolfi Sagacis Historia Romana'' (Rome) 1912.

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 ...

, where a

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

was then reigning. Surviving manuscripts are littered with marginal notes, many of Landulf's authorship.

Notes

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sagax, Landolfus 11th-century Lombard people Italian chroniclers 11th-century Italian historians Place of birth unknown Place of death unknown 11th-century writers in Latin