The ''Annales Beneventani'' ("Beneventan Annals"), also called the ''Breve chronicon monasterii Sanctae Sophiae Beneventi'' ("Brief Chronicle of the Monastery of Santa Sofia of Benevento") or ''Chronicon Sanctae Sophiae'' for short, is a series of

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

annals Annals ( la, annāles, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction between ann ...

from the monastery of Santa Sofia in Benevento, southern Italy. The annal entries were originally annotations written in the margins of Paschal tables, a practice that probably dates to the foundation of the monastery in the second half of the eighth century. The annotations were gathered together and copied into manuscripts in the early twelfth century. Three such manuscripts exist, each copied at Santa Sofia and each presenting a different redaction of the annals.Jakub Kujawinski
"Annales Beneventani"
in R. G. Dunphy, ed., ''Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle'' (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010), 55–56. The ''Annales'' is of interest primarily because its entries are roughly contemporaneous with the events they describe.Uta-Renate Blumenthal, ''The Early Councils of Pope Paschal II, 1100–1110'' (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1978), p. 8, n. 4. Version A.1 in manuscript Vatican, BAV, vat. lat. 4928, fol. 1^r–8^v, copied between 1113 and 1118, covers the years 787–1113. Version A.2 in manuscript Vatican BAV, vat. lat. 4939, fol. 1^r–15^r, copied in 1119, has entries added for the years before 787 all the way back to the birth of Jesus; it also has entries for the years down to 1128. It is found in the same manuscript as the monastery's

cartulary A cartulary or chartulary (; Latin: ''cartularium'' or ''chartularium''), also called ''pancarta'' or ''codex diplomaticus'', is a medieval manuscript volume or roll (''rotulus'') containing transcriptions of original documents relating to the fo ...

, a collection of

canon law Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...

and a list of the Princes of Benevento. Version A.3 in manuscript Naples, BN, VI E 43, fol. 17r–18^v, copied between 1107 and 1118, has entries for the years from 1096 to 1130. It is the only version in which the annals are marginal annotations to a Paschal table, which would have been the form of the original manuscript(s) from which all three surviving redactions are derived. A fourth redaction once accepted as genuine has been identified as an eighteenth-century forgery. Ottorino Bertolini made the first critical edition based on all three texts in 1923. The ''Annales'' have a distinctly Beneventan and south Italian perspective. The succession of

Byzantine emperors This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as ...

is recorded into the ninth century, while the neither the Carolingian nor the

Ottonian The Ottonian dynasty (german: Ottonen) was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman Emperors named Otto, especially its first Emperor Otto I. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after the ...

emperors are recognised as such, being referred to only as "kings". The succession of Princes of Benevento is recorded down to the end the principality around 1050, when the city came under papal rule. Thereafter, the ''Annales'' record the succession of

popes The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

. The entries are more detailed from the tenth century onwards, but few are about the monastery itself.

References

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Editions

;Synoptic edition * Bertolini, Ottorino. "Annales Beneventani Monasterii Sanctae Sophiae". ''Bollettino dell'Istituto storico Italiano e Archivio Muratoriano'', 42 (1923), pp. 1–163. ;Forged redaction * Pertz, Georg H. "Annales Beneventani". ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'', Scriptores 3 (1839)
pp. 173–85
Italian chronicles