Quilichinus Of Spoleto

Quilichinus of Spoleto () was an Italian judge, poet and supporter of Emperor Frederick II. His major work is the Latin poem ''Alexandreis'' (or ''Historia Alexandri Magni'') in elegiac distichs. It is based on the ''J''³ recension of the Latin ''Alexander Romance'', a collection of legends about Alexander the Great. To this base, he added a prologue and a dialogue between the poet and God. It is divided into four books of unequal length. The ''Alexandreis'' survives in about twenty manuscripts, the four earliest from the 14th century.

The final sixteen verses of the ''Alexandreis'', which have the heading ''De dictatore huius historie'' ('on the writer of this history') are the only source on the life of Quilichinus. He calls himself a judge by profession and born of Spoletan stock. Some manuscripts contain the additional claim that he was born in Recanati. He completed the work in 1236 but edited the following year, completing it after Frederick II's victory in the battle of Cortenuova on 27 November 1237. Since he hews closely to the ''J''³ version of the ''Romance'' and manuscripts of that recension are only known from a century later, the date of his work is the ''terminus ante quem'' (latest possible date) for the production of ''J''³ recension.

In the final lines of the ''Alexandreis'', Quilichinus claims to have also written a ''preconia principis'', an elegy of Frederick. The poem ''Cesar, Auguste, multum mirabilis'' has sometimes been identified as that elegy, since it is found in one manuscript alongside the ''Alexandreis''. The modern consensus, however, is that the ''Cesar, Auguste'' was written by Terrisio di Atina.For the modern view, see and . For the older view, see . Likewise erroneous are the attributions to Quilichinus of the poem ''De providentia divina'' and of the ''ars dictaminis'' entitled ''Pomerium rethorice'' by Quichilino da Spello. Quilichinus' elegy appears to be lost.

The ''Alexandreis'' is an unpolished work, although Quilichinus occasionally adapted phrases from Boethius. Its division into four books was meant to emphasis Alexander's several royal titles, which paralleled those of Frederick II, who was king of Germany, Italy and Sicily as well as emperor. In the early 14th century, it was translated into Italian verse by Domenico Scolari. Later that century, a German verse translation appeared, the ''Wernigerode Alexander''.

Quilichinus is the first author to apply the name "Tartars" to the Mongols when describing the peoples enclosed behind the Caspian Gates by Alexander.

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External links

Quilichinus de Spoleto
at ARLIMA

13th-century poets from the Holy Roman Empire
13th-century Italian poets
Medieval Latin-language poets
People from Spoleto
People from Recanati
Alexander the Great in legend