Romuald Guarna (between 1110 and 1120 – 1 April 1181/2) was the

Archbishop of Salerno The Archdiocese of Salerno-Campagna-Acerno () is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Campania, southern Italy, created in 1986. The historic Archdiocese of Salerno was in existence from the tenth century, having been elevated from a ...

(as Romuald II) from 1153 to his death. He is remembered primarily for his ''Chronicon sive Annales'', an important historical record of his time.

Life

Romuald was a native of Salerno, born into the old Lombard nobility. He studied as a youth in the

Schola Medica Salernitana The Schola Medica Salernitana () was a medieval medical school, the first and most important of its kind. Situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea in the Mezzogiorno, south Italian city of Salerno, it was founded in the 9th century and rose to prominence in ...

, where he studied not only medicine (in which he taught

Gilles de Corbeil Gilles de Corbeil (Latin: ''Egidius de Corbolio'' or ''Egidius Corboliensis''; also ''Aegidius'') was a French royal physician, teacher, and poet. He was born in approximately 1140 in Corbeil and died in the first quarter of the 13th century. He ...

), but history, law, and theology. Romuald was raised to the Salernitan archbishopric after the death of

William of Ravenna William is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is ...

. Romuald was a diplomat for the kings

William I William I may refer to: Kings * William the Conqueror (–1087), also known as William I, King of England * William I of Sicily (died 1166) * William I of Scotland (died 1214), known as William the Lion * William I of the Netherlands and Luxembour ...

and William II. He negotiated the

Treaty of Benevento The Treaty of Benevento or Concordat of Benevento (18 June 1156) was an important treaty between the papacy of Adrian IV and the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. After years of turbulent relations, the popes finally settled down to a peace with the Haute ...

of 1156 and signed the

Treaty of Venice The Treaty or Peace of Venice, 1177, was a peace treaty between the papacy and its allies, the north Italian city-states of the Lombard League, and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily also took part in negotiations and ...

in 1177. Though he took part in the conspiracy against the

Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...

Maio of Bari Maio of Bari () (died 10 November 1160) was the third of the great admirals of Sicily and the most important man in the Norman kingdom of Sicily during the reign of William I (1154–66). Lord Norwich calls him "one of the most influential st ...

, he never fell out of favour and even performed the coronation of William II. Despite this, he exaggerates his own importance in his chronicle, which characteristically begins at creation and extends till 1178. In 1160-1161, Romuald defended the city from the enraged William I, who was avenging the assassination of Maio. With the help of Salernitans at court and their connections to the king's intimates, the city was spared. In 1167, as the highest-ranking prelate in the realm, he crowned William II as king in the

Cathedral of Palermo Palermo Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palermo, located in Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. As an architectural complex, it is characterized by the pr ...

. In 1179, Romuald intervened in a council condemning the

Albigensians Catharism ( ; from the , "the pure ones") was a Christian quasi-dualist and pseudo-Gnostic movement which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. Denounced as a her ...

. He was succeeded by

Nicholas of Ajello Nicholas of AjelloHe was not a native of Ajello (Calabria), but Salerno. His elder brother, Richard, received the county of Ajello from King Tancred and the name has been applied to the entire family. (; died 10 February 1221) was the second son ...

Chronicon sive Annales

Romuald's work at a chronicle known as ''Chronicon'' was obviously connected with his studies at the Schola Salernitanae where his family had been involved over generations. It was part of a universal history and editions of the 19th century usually started with one paragraph before the last part called "Historia Normannorum, pars Sicula" (about the Norman kingdom of Sicily). According to Massino Oldoni the preceding compilation already existed, when Romuald was a child, the earlier Norman history also does not use the third person like the portion ascribed to him.Oldoni (

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Editions

* * * * *A partial English translation of his chronicle is given as an appendix in Graham A. Loud and Thomas Weidermann's translation of Hugo Falcundus' ''The History of the Tyrants of Sicily''. eISBN 9781526112620

Notes

References

*Alio, Jacqueline. ''Margaret, Queen of Sicily''. New York: Trinacria, 2017, pp. 387-398 (translation of excerpts from Romuald's chronicle). *Matthew, D. J. A. "The Chronicle of Romuald of Salerno". ''The Writing of History in the Middle Ages: Essays presented to Richard William Southern''.

R. H. C. Davis Ralph Henry Carless Davis (7 October 1918 – 12 March 1991) was a British historian and educator specialising in the European Middle Ages. Davis was born and died in Oxford. He was a leading exponent of strict documentary analysis and interpre ...

and

J. M. Wallace-Hadrill John Michael Wallace-Hadrill (29 September 1916 – 3 November 1985) was a British academic and one of the foremost historians of the early Merovingian period. He held the Chichele Chair in Modern History at the University of Oxford between 1 ...

, edd. Oxford: 1981. * Norwich, John Julius. ''The Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194''. London: Longman, 1970.

External links

Romuald Guarna (biographical notes)
*
''Romoaldi II. archiepiscopi Salernitani Annales a. 893-1178''
(in Latin) {{DEFAULTSORT:Romuald II, Archbishop of Salerno 12th-century births 1180s deaths People from Salerno 12th-century Italian historians Italian chroniclers 12th-century Lombard people 12th-century Italian clergy 12th-century Italian Roman Catholic archbishops Archbishops of Salerno Physicians of the Schola Medica Salernitana 12th-century Italian writers 12th-century Italian physicians 12th-century writers in Latin